Special Needs and the ESL Culture Essay Example for Free

Special Needs and the ESL Culture Essay Special education students are unique because teachers have to do more to teach them than regular students. They already have issues that impair their learning, so it is important that teachers work to individualize instruction as much as possible. This will help ensure the most success. Students who are from another culture, those who do not speak English as their first language, pose additional obstacles for the teacher. First, the teacher has to figure out what part of the student’s delay is caused by limited English proficiency, and what part is caused by the actual disability. This can be time-consuming and difficult, especially if language development is part of their disability. This will affect the way the teacher presents the material. Visual instruction would be most beneficial since there is no language barrier. Second, the teacher has to learn how much English is spoken at home. If the parents speak fluently, then they can take part in helping the student. If the parents are learning themselves, the teacher will have to adapt homework so that they will be able to assist their child. Collaboration is the key for students, parents, and teachers to feel they are doing the most and getting the best results for special needs, ESL students (Collaboration, para 3). If another language is spoken at home, it will take the student even longer to catch up. The teacher could send home material to help parents talk to their child. Students who come from other cultures also may not be prepared for the schedule of a typical school day here in the U. S. A full day of school might be too taxing at the beginning, so the teacher would have to have many breaks built in to the daily activities. It is important that teachers pay attention to the student’s needs since they may not be able to communicate them. Students will also not know what to expect when they are first learning the routine of school here. Picture schedules could be vital in ensuring the student’s feel the safety of a daily routine. The native cultural traditions will also affect how teachers teach in this environment. Some students may be absent for religious holidays when school is in session. Some students may talk about upcoming holidays that we do not have. Teachers should be thoughtful and try to include as many of the customs and traditions as they can. A Cinco de Mayo party may be just the activity to make the student feel welcome and wanted. A final way that ESL students affect the class is their interactions with the other students. The ESL student may try to talk with another student, but because of the language barrier, the student may not be able to understand. The teacher needs to be available to let the student know they did a good job in initiating conversation, and then try to translate so the other student remains engaged. There are so many different factors that make up a special needs class. The delays in development can be ever further hindered if the student is not fluent in English. While there are more obstacles if students do not speak English as their native language, there are also opportunities. The teacher can help ensure the students feel at home here, and that the other students learn to appreciate their culture as well. Works Cited â€Å"Collaboration in Schools Serving Students with Limited English Proficiency and Other Special Needs. † Web. 11 May 2009. http://www. apples4theteacher. com/resources/modules. php? op= modloadname=Newsfile=articlesid=48mode=threadorder=0thold=0.

The circumstances of the incident

The circumstances of the incident The circumstances of the incident The incident took place on Ward X during an early shift. During this shift, there were 30 patients on the ward, in four six bedded bays and six side rooms. During the early shift, Mrs J was seen on the ward round and was discharged by the medical team. Mrs J had had a laparascopic cholecystectomy five days previously, but had developed pneumonia in the postoperative period and therefore had been on the ward much longer than had been anticipated. Mrs J was a 58 year old semi-retired librarian with a history of hypertension treated with antihypertensive medication. During this morning shift, the staff nurse, Nurse M, looking after all the patients in Mrs Js bay, was asked to discharge Mrs J by the medical team, and Mrs J was very relieved, and called her daughter and son in law to pick her up ‘after lunch. Mrs J needed medications to take away (TTAs), and needed her discharge paperwork completing, and her community nurse needed to be informed to attend her at home the following day. Nurse M had two other patients to discharge that day, and had to provide care for three other patients, two of whom had had surgery the previous day. Nurse M carried out the medication round in her bay at 8 am and at 2pm. At four pm Mrs Js daughter approached me to ask why her mother had not been discharged yet. She was considerably distressed, as her mothers stay in hospital had been much longer than anticipated. The perceived delay in her discharge had upset the patient and her family. Nurse M stated that she had started the discharge but been too busy to complete it during her shift. She therefore handed over the discharge to the afternoon shift nurse, Nurse F. Mrs J was discharged at 6pm. The next day, her daughter telephoned the ward to complain that Mrs J was discharged without her anti-hypertensive medication. The actions taken As the ward manager, I spoke to the patients daughter and apologised for the discharge taking so long, and for the failure to provide essential medication to take home. I spoke to Mrs J and to the community nurse, Nurse P, in order to ascertain whether there had been any adverse effects on the patients condition. Mrs Js daughter had visited the GP the following morning and obtained a replacement prescription, and so Mrs J missed only one dose, and one delayed dose of her antihypertensive medication. No adverse impact had been identified. Following this incident, I reviewed the case notes of Mrs J, and all the patients in B Bay on Ward X, to ensure that there had been no other oversights or omissions. I reviewed the discharge documentation for the second patient discharged that day, Miss T, and found that all was in order. A review of the discharge notes for Mrs J showed that the TTA prescription had not included the antihypertensive medication. The staff involved Nurse M, a Band 5 nurse with 3 years experience. Nurse F, a Band 5 nurse who joined the ward 3 months previously. The ward manager, a Band 7 nurse. Nursing Assistant L, a trained HCA with eight years experience on this ward. The patients involved Mrs J, a patient recovery from healthcare associated pneumonia after a laparascopic cholecystecomy. Five other patients in B Bay on Ward X: Mrs T, Miss S, Mrs L, and Ms K. Other important aspects and considerations that you consider necessary The ward was full that day, and there was one member of staff missing for part of the morning shift, due to sickness. The omission in the medication order can be localised to the Senior House Officer who signed the TTA request, but Nurse M should also have identified that the medication was missing, either at the time of completing the form. Nurse F should have identified the omission when she checked the medication with the patient at the time of discharge. Both nurses were questioned and given a verbal reprimand. B) Essay As a ward manager, observing the behaviours of staff working together within a ward team, I have often noticed that the discharges which are ordered at the time of the ward round early in the morning are often not completed until the evening, even when the discharge is relatively uncomplicated. I have also noticed that this reflects other aspects of care, where staff do not seem to be working particularly quickly or efficiently. In this situation, the behaviours of staff seemed to indicate on first analysis that staff were overworked and that this omission occurred because of pressure on staff. However, this author also identified other issues which were contributing to the situation. The first was that I noticed how staff had fallen into particular behavioural patterns during the early shift, which meant that they often left discharges to be completed by the afternoon staff. It seemed that certain staff tended to fall into this pattern, and to fall into particular routines in which they slowed down at certain times during the shift. I noted as well that there were a particular sub group of nursing staff that behaved like this, and that there was a divide between some staff and those who supported them, such as the HCAs. For example, Nurse M and HCA L did not seem to work well together, and I noted that Nurse M had addressed this by simply not delegating too much to the HCA. This situation seems to indicate that not only is good management and leadership needed in order to address what seems to be an issue of staff behaviours, but also good leadership in relation to team working, warranting an analysis and examination of team working. It became apparent that as the ward manager I would need to use the position of team leader to destabilise the ingrained patterns of work behaviour and break up old alliances which might be impeding effective teamworking. The conclusion reached was that this was not simply a case of finding fault with Nurse M and Nurse F, but deconstructing the circumstances that had led to this mistake. The fault in this situation is diffused amongst all of those involved. This included a potential that it was my own leadership at fault in this situation, requiring me to bear some of the responsibility for this occurrence. Leadership within nursing requires a complex set of skills and attributes, and the ability to manifest a strong nursing leadership role. However, it is challenging because of the nature of the work, which can change rapidly at any point in time, and the nature of staff relationships and behaviours, which can involve complex interactions and inter-dependencies. Fostering effective teamworking in this situation, and leading a team towards better ways of working, is likely to be very challenging even when circumstances are good, but in a position where the team is one staff member short, it could be argued that this makes it all the more challenging. A manager needs to understand the whole theory and practice of teamworking within organisational contexts, and also understand how they can, in their own leadership role, support effective team working and improve care standards, whilst at the same time supporting staff dealing with a heavy and complex workload. All nurses must manage themselves and their own workloads, and must develop self-awareness of their own traits, strengths and developmental needs. This author has spent some time reflecting on their own capabilities, and has identified their own strengths, such as the ability to carry out routine tasks swiftly, and to prioritise care and workloads for better patient care and more efficient management of tasks and demands. Another personal strength is the ability to take a wider view and to consider a range of factors affecting workload, and team working, including skill mix and different personalities and how well staff work together. The academic field of organisational studies has long been concerned with leadership, theoretically and practically. It is a multifaceted concept and has been considered from a variety of perspectives, including an applied perspective with specific reference to nursing. There tends to be a polarisation of theoretical perspectives, in which some believe that some people are destined to be leaders because of pre-existing or innate abilities or proclivities, traits which make them ‘natural leaders; and some theorists posit that leadership is comprised of a set of skills and applied knowledge that can be acquired and used by anyone trained in them (Day, 2000, p 5810.) Thus some would argue that the people possessing ‘natural leadership skills and abilities would be the best leaders, while others continue to assert that there is no difference and that a person given the right training and development could be a good leader (Green, 2003, p 27). There is merit in both perspectiv es, in that a natural leader who has had training could be argued to be potentially better than one who has no predisposition to leadership, and that there may be some people who are not suited to leadership roles who should not aspire to be leaders. However, suggesting that leadership is something which can be learned is a much more egalitarian viewpoint, which could be positive, but could result in people being placed in positions of ‘official leadership against their own preference, when their true strengths lie elsewhere. In relation to the situation described in the report in part A, this author would argue that not only did the team require more directive leadership at this time, but that such leadership should be visible, tangible, and strong enough to ‘lead the team towards more collaborative and supportive working practice (Bishop, 2009). The literature shows that clear lines of command are important, but clear, strong leadership is more than simply exercising control over people, it is a more bilateral approach which engages leader and team in managing work in such a way that it improves patient care (Clegg, 2000, p 31). However, Grint (2005, p 1467) also shows that in order for leaders to be effective, they must be able to motivate others to follow them and to go in the direction they have indicated. Thus leadership is more than simply guiding people, it is about engaging with them and making them ‘want to follow the lead. Thus it is possible to see that authority does not locate an individual as a leader on its own; the ‘followers must accept and support that leader as well (Grint, 2005 p 1467). In this case, however, the leadership activities must be very much directed at leading a diverse team of disparate individuals with a range of personalities, skills, and experience, as well as differing roles and responsibilities. Breakdowns in interprofessional working and communication are common within healthcare settings (Sutcliffe et al, 2004, p 196). However, organisational theories argue that there are typical types of roles that individuals assume within teams, and the seminal theory here is Belbins (1993 p 57) team roles theory. This theory is useful because it allows the leader to ‘manage individual team members and motivate the team more effectively through understanding their team roles (Belbin, 1993 p 57; Johansen, 2003, online). Anything which enhances team working is likely to improve communication, enhance team and individual worker efficiency and effectiveness, and improve nurses satisfaction with their working lives, contributing to better practice standards ( Amos et al, 2005 p 10; Clegg, 2000 p 31; Dimeglio, 2005 p 110), and this author would also argue that exploring how to manage a team more effectively would help them to contribute to their own professional development (Bandura, 1994 p 71). Thus, an effective leader could look at the eight defined roles which are said to occur within organisational or workplace teams, some of which may be fulfilled or enacted by more than one person at a time, just as one person may enact more than one role at once (Belbin, 1993 p 57-59). Effective teams ideally demonstrate that members enact all the roles defined (Johansen, 2003, 0nline). Belbin (1993 p 57-59) describes these as: the calm, confident chairman, objective but unemotional, generally infallible; the impatient shaper, coercive, unafraid of confrontation, directive and apt to destabilise the status quo; the problem-solving plant, an imaginative highly intellectual and creative individualist who may not be a good team player; the informativ e and enthusiastic resource investigator, good at communicating, who can find their motivation flagging; the analytical and evaluative monitor evaluator, who can be perceptive but cynical; the reliable company worker, who plods along and reaches goals but can display a degree of rigidity and inflexibility; the mediating team worker who tends to be both a communication hub and coordinator, using effective social skills to propel the team along; and the conscientious and deadline-conscious completer-finisher (Johansen, 2003, online). This author would argue, however, that the team leader could occupy one or more of these roles, but if they have a manager, may not be viewed by others to be a member of the team, per se, and so not included in the ‘inventory of team members. Thus there may be a flaw in this theory, because there is no specification of how a manager would necessarily fit in to this team. Team leadership in this context, however, is complicated by the nature of healthcare practice in which teams are comprised of multiple professionals and occupational groups (Cockburn, 2004 p 66), and thus a nurse manager of a ward has to be able to be a leader across different professions and disciplines and may need to display different leadership behaviours in order to achieve this (Murphy, 2005, p 128). One way in which a ward manager might lead in this manner is through quality management activities (Sale, 2005), and the use and promotion of evidence for practice, a process which requires multiprofessional input (McLaren et al, 2002 p 444). But in this case, the issues which have proved most challenging relate to the ways in which team members manage their workloads, and perhaps also the ways in which different professionals within the team communicate with each other. The manager must lead the team towards a new way of functioning effectively, by ensuring all members are functioning appropriately and fulfilling their different roles (Amos et al, 2005 p 10). This author would argue that within the greater quality agenda, the common goals of quality assurance should act as a common driving force for better teamworking (Martin, 2003). In this instance, the ward manager will be working to encourage better multidisciplinary team (McFadzean, 1998), but this does not mean that they have the authority to discipline some members of the team, such as the medical staff, and here, historical divides between the professions may impede the process of team building (Hartley, 2002, p 178). In this situation, Nurse M and Nurse F should both have felt able to ask for assistance if they were busy, and should have checked the TTA prescription, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the SHO who wrote the prescription. Legally, however, all are accountable. But the ward manager, as team leader, would lead by example by accepting the shared accountability of this omission (Sheldon and Parker, 1997, p 8). Thus the nurses should be supported to accept this shared responsibility, but at the same time should be supported to examine their practice and see where it could be improved, such as looking at how they could improve delegation skills so that basic tasks are more effectively delegated and advanced nursing responsibilities are better met (Curtis and Nichol, 2004, p 26), and how they can improve interprofessional communication (Kenny, 2002). This author would argue that nurses in the ward setting are all required to develop leadership skills, as an extension of their professional role, and this equates to the concept of distributed leadership (Harris and Spillane, 2008, p 31), and within this model, leaders are developed, supported and empowered, at every point on the scale of organisational hierarchy. Therefore, in this situation, the ward manager would need to understand who acts as what within the team roles inventory (Belbin, 1993), and also support leadership skills to emerge amongst staff at every level. The HCA described in this scenario, for example, exerts significant influence, and these leadership attributes could be harnessed to improve team working, rather than destabilise the hierarchy. The role of the manager as team leader in this scenario is clearly also to provide feedback and evaluation to the team, and to explore the consequences of these circumstances in a way that should prevent it from occurring again (London et al, 1999, p 5). Providing feedback in an empowering manner can improve performance within the team (London et al, 1999, p 5), and therefore, evidence from available research would suggest that effective leadership would achieve this through multiple approaches. Research suggests that optimal team performance and quality of care requires good leadership (Beech, 2002 p 35; Green, 2003 p 27). This seems to require what Murphy (2005 p 128), describes as charismatic, transformational leadership, in which â€Å"charismatic transformational leaders espouse intellectual stimulation and individual consideration to empower staff and enhance patient care. Nurse managers that develop and foster transformational leadership can surmount oppressive traditions and confidently navigate a complex and rapidly changing health care environment.† However, leaders such as this will continue to struggle with the hierarchies and inherited culture and traditions of the professions (Murphy 2005 p 128). But it is through such activities that proactive nurse leaders mould the future of nursing itself, and contribute significantly to the quality agenda (Shirey, 2006, p 256). Thus the leader in this scenario needs to re-educate the team, and act as a role model fo r the team to develop their own leadership capabilities (Cummings et al, 2008, p 240). It would appear that in this situation, the risk involved was avoided by luck rather than judgement, and it is imperative that the ward manager addresses the behaviours and habits which have led to the omission concerned. However, it would not be enough to simply discipline those concerned, because multiple factors have affected this occurrence, and the staff involved will have to continue to deal with these factors in the daily working lives. Therefore, leadership will lead, guide and empower staff to be able to better address their work roles whilst managing the competing demands on their time and attention, through better self management, better communication, better team working, and with clear, motivational guidance from a true leader.

The Pros and Cons of Technology Essay examples -- Term Papers Research

The Pros and Cons of Technology As far back as I can remember my family and I have taken advantage of technology. The types of technology have changed over the years, along with our usage and dependence on it. Technology is a fundamental part of our lifestyle, including both work and play. What is interesting is that we also have many friends who use very little technology in their day-to-day living. This drastic difference makes one wonder how necessary the technology really is, and whether or not our dependence on it is healthy in the long run. It is really easy to just get caught up in using technology without thinking about the pros and cons. I was born in the 80’s, so technology as, I know it, was beginning to take aim at the mainstream United States and the world. I grew up in an era of change, whether or not this change is good is yet to be determined. When I talk about technology I am making reference to computers, automation, and most â€Å"new age† technology. My first exposure to computers was at my dad’s lab at the University of Michigan Dearborn. The computer was ancient by today’s standards, but at the time it was a marvel of technological triumph. When I was five we bought a home personal computer (pc) for my mother to write papers and utilize the Internet. I became increasingly fascinated with the possibilities the computer brought be and I was hooked. In school we had little Apple 2Es that only worked when they wanted to but we still used them every day. My mother had a large influence on my relationship with technology. First of all, she felt strongly enough to ban video games and most television shows the first ten years of my life. I started to test educational software for children when I was five because my... ...r, not batteries, because we were out in the woods for weeks on end. I settled on a small solar panel that could accommodate the digital device. The problem was that it didn’t work reliably, so just the use of the camera alone ate up my time that could have been better spent. Progress? I think not. Now, as I bash technology for some of its downfalls, I am still reminded about its benefits for medicine, and transportation. Isn’t that kind of progress beneficial for our civilization? Again the answer is, well, yes and no. Sure, we can get from point A to point B faster, but we pollute the environment and rely heavily on nonrenewable resources, which we can’t afford in the long run. I foresee my generation having to confront this. I see myself using new technologies, but, like Gomez-Pena, continuing to maintain balance, and staying grounded in a less â€Å"virtual† world.

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Nick Carraway, Detached or Dishonest? :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Great Gatsby Nick - Detached or Dishonest? The Great Gatsby is a difficult book to interpret, particularly because of the style in which it is written. Not only must the reader differentiate between the separate views of Nick as the narrator and Nick as the character, but he or she must also take into consideration at what time period, relative to this story, are these views being expressed. After all, Nick the narrator is presently evaluating the manner in which his character behaved the year before, as well as allowing his character to voice his opinion, as his opinion had been during that time frame. We learn to trust Nick as a narrator, because all the pieces of information he gives to us, received through symbolism, imagery, or personal reflection, lead us to make significant decisions regarding the other characters of the novel. His character, on the other hand, cannot be looked upon in the same manner; it can be seen as dishonest and hypocritical, yet it is these negative characteristics that humanize him, allowing rea ders to relate to him as a person. What Nick thinks as the narrator is not always the same as what his character portrays. In just the third paragraph of this book, we learn that Nick is "inclined to reserve all judgments (Page 5)," but that his tolerance, "has a limit (Page 6)." True, his opinions might not be expressed in words, but it is important to realize that those opinions still exist. The narrator's role is to make us aware of Nick's "judgments," for his character neglects to respond to such feelings. Various techniques allow us to draw our own conclusions, the most interesting one being symbolism. The "foul dust" mentioned throughout the novel serves to corrupt everything it encounters. It is this foul dust that represents the lives of Daisy, Tom, and Jordan. After all, they are all immoral characters. A word such as dust successfully gives off a negative ambiance, but for Nick to go the step further and declare such dust to be "foul" truly represents his disapproval of their actions. Thus, without proclaimi ng his opinion in the form of words, Nick presents it openly through symbolism for us to see. However, even though we know that Nick as the narrator, reflecting back on that summer, did not see the three to be honorable people, he still spent a great deal of time with them.

Social Darwinism in American Politics Essay -- Social Darwinism Essays

Introduction Social Darwinism is a quasi-philosophical, quasi-religious, quasi-sociological view that came from the mind of Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher in the 19th century. It did not achieve wide acceptance in England or Europe, but flourished in this country, as is true of many ideologies, religions, and philosophies. A good summary of Social Darwinism is by Johnson: In these years, when Darwin's Origin of Species, popularized by Herbert Spencer as "the survival of the fittest, " and applied to races as well as species in a vulgarized form, Social Darwinism, the coming Christian triumph was presented as an Anglo-Saxon Protestant one. Social Darwinism is by no means dead, for vestiges of it can be found in the present. What Is "Darwinism?" Charles Darwin was an English biologist who, along with a few others, developed a biological concept that has been vulgarized and attacked from the moment his major work, The Origin of Species, was published in 1859. An accurate and brief picture of his contribution to biology is probably his own: Evolution is transmission with adaptation. Darwin saw in his epochal trip aboard the ship The Beagle in the 1830s what many others had seen but did not draw the proper conclusions. In the Galapagos Islands, off South America, Darwin noted that very large tortoises differed slightly from one island to the next. He noted also that finches also differed from one geographical location to the next. Some had shorter beaks, useful for cracking seeds. Some had long, sharp beaks, useful for prying insects out of their hiding places. Some had long tail feathers, others short ones. Darwin took copious notes, captured insects and animals and selected plants. These he preserved in jars and took them back to England where he thought about the implications of what he had seen. for almost three decades. What occurred to him was a simple notion: animals, plants, insects, fishes, etc., which were obviously related differed slightly and these differences seemed to be tied in with their ability to survive. Differences, which he called "adaptations," were often related to geographical factors. He also saw something similar in fossils: certainly some fish, sea shells, etc., that died and were covered up by sand, gradually turned to stone, and were caught forever in fossil form. There seemed to b... ...le for a "net" that would not allow any individual to lapse into abject poverty, homelessness on a wide scale, hunger or destitution. However, in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan was elected on a platform which declared that New Deal policies were responsible for poverty, crime, and all other social problems. Government, Reagan kept on repeating, was not any part of a solution to the problem. Government was the problem. Therefore, a good many policies based upon the "net" concept were weakened or simply eliminated. It is not accurate to say that 19th century Social Darwinism, "Reaganomics," New Deal philosophy or its manifestation in the economic policies of President Clinton is now dominant. A fair assessment is that all of these ideologies can be found within our society--as public policy and as belief structure. The ability of conflicting, incompatible social philosophies to live side by side, even within the same person, (cite) explains why there is so much unresolved conflict, why it is difficult for a given bit of social policy to achieve permanence. why, as many have pointed out, there is considerable poverty in the wealthiest society in the world.

Caribbean culture Essay

Creolisation is a top element of the Caribbean culture. It is a word derived from the word Creole; it however is not meant to just describe the Creole culture. It is a broad anthropological term used to describe the coming together of different cultural traits especially of the West Indies to form a new trait. This occurs when two or more languages are combined to give one unique language. In essence, Creolisation refers to the blending of diverse cultures to give one unique culture. The adaptability of Creolisation by the Caribbean culture in this age of globalization is a good thing for the Caribbean economy but may be injurious to the culture of the Caribbean peoples. Because the people of the caribbeans will be speaking a common, creolized language it will be relatively easy for the member states of the Caribbean region to communicate with each other. Creolisation of their cultures will enhance further understanding among the creolized states of the Caribbean. ( Ancelet et al, 2001) Nearly all the states of the Caribbean have â€Å"creolized† cultures. From the Jamaicans, the Cajuns, the Bahamas, British Guyana etc. Their various cultures have been creolized. They all speak the language of their colonial masters in the pidgin form and have adopted certain cultures form their colonial masters. Like the drinking of processed liquor, smoking of cigarettes etc. These imperialist cultures have made several African countries’ economies to suffer. Country like Nigeria which used to eat the type of the imperial master’s food, his wine and wear his clothes spent fortunes of its country earnings to fund the importation of these items. This led to a plunge in the fortunes of this country. The Caribbean however are people that are very proud of their heritage. They designed their own music form (e. g. reggae) have their own drinks- which are largely influenced by the culture of their forefathers. Their food has however been creolized as it is influenced by imperialist cultures. Though it is still very much part of their own creation. In creolising, care must be taken not to change an existing culture completely. This fear is as captured by Appiah as thus: â€Å"Nevertheless, contemporary multiculturalists are right in thinking that a decent education will teach children about the various social identities around them. First, because each child has to negotiate the creation of his or her own individual identity, using these collective identities as one (but only one) of the resources; second, so that all can be prepared to deal with one another respectfully in a common civic life. Much of current multicultural education seems to me to have these reasonable aims: let us call this weak version â€Å"liberal multiculturalism† (1997). † From Appiah’s documentation, creolisation has been viewed from these perspectives: a. creolisation as the major social and cultural fact about Caribbean life (what matters will of course be the social process but it may prove illuminating to proceed via linguistics) and b. Arnold’s accounts of i. Western culture as an amalgam of Hellenism and Hebraism, and ii. the English race as an amalgam of Celtic, German and Norman â€Å"bloods†. Considering the errors that are often linked with cultural talk, the creole context, and an Arnoldian perspective on the West or simply on England, both reveal that a culture lives, changes, innovates, is in a process of continuous evolution. Where alternatives are to hand, this often means selection, not simply preserving and reproducing. It is not therefore a complete or necessarily coherent bundle to which we may add Gellner’s point about the multiplicity of nearly all cultures: the official first eleven has a fall-back for other occasions, scriptural Islam versus the dervishes. The Creole context makes it plain that there is nothing genetic in operation. More importantly, that context gives no one reason to think a culture will continue in the same old way. As noted already, we find proper examples in Trinidad or now in St Lucia. Alleyne was sad to see that a form of Twi-Asante is â€Å"dying† (Alleyne, 1988) in Jamaica. There is reason for the Caribbean to regret that they no longer speak like Chaucer, or Arnold. One may regret death, but that does not entail that one would endorse immortality — we must move to a view that puts life and death in their place and accepts both. Or to return to less exalted matters, it may be pleasant to discover†retention† but it is not what makes or breaks a culture. â€Å"Transculturation† (Bolland, 2001) can be endorsed with out it. without it. Economic integration will automatically come in with the achievement of cultural integration. This will provide for a bigger, more cohesive, stronger and unity front for which the Caribbean states can push for economic and political relevance in the world order. It is good to note however that there is a significant level of creoliastion in the Caribbean. They all speak an almost similar language; pidgin English, have similar music etc. however a lot can still be done in the creolisation of the in the Caribbean. Major impediments to a successful creolisation in the Caribbean are the influence of colonialists. Different states of the Caribbean had different colonialists who set then in captivity, freed them and are now coming back in the name of neo-imperialism. The different states of the Caribbean speak the languages of their colonialists-maybe in the pidgin form. A perfect example of creolisation is with the Cajun language, which is a mixture of French and English and also African languages. Language is in general evaluatively neutral. As Macaulay pointed out long ago, there is no intrinsic basis in the language to prefer Latin to Chinook as a component of elite education. If one thinks of culture by reference to conventions like language, there is scarcely any scope for evaluatively ranking exemplars, but if one focuses on the way culture operates as â€Å"an engineering program for producing persons† (Nerlich, 1989) then there is no more reason not to discriminate among them than there is not to distinguish a saint or an ordinary decent person from the likes of Pinochet or Burmese generals. â€Å"Moral† equality among persons is no bar to moral discriminations. Of course creolisation doesn’t provide us with a recipe. There is still much difference of opinion on what has actually happened in the case of prototypical creoles and pidgins. But one lesson I would wish to draw from recent debates is that what is salient for ordinary usage (once upon a time, foreign-born, now whatever it is) or for some theoretical perspective (e. g. , origin in a colonial slave plantation) does not uniquely characterise the outcomes of contact situations. There are a host of types of language contact bringing with them a host of outcomes, perhaps depending on particular social or historical configurations. Mufwene has enunciated his idealised and apparently deterministic version of this idea in relation to creoles, immigrant workers’ varieties, etc. by saying that â€Å"in all these cases of language contact we still deal with the same equation for restructuring; only the value of some variables keep changing† (Mufwene, 1997). Taking this in conjunction with the fact he has particularly stressed, that the categories we rely on have been taken from the contingencies of the social reality, not from theory, we find that what structurally or in some other respect are very similar situations become classified differently. The terminology remains affected by the connotations attached to terms by metropolitan non-specialist users. So, speaking of American or Australian English, Mufwene remarks â€Å"there are other good socio-historical reasons why these varieties have not been called creoles: they developed in settings in which descendants of non-Europeans have been in the minority; and they have not been disowned by Europeans and descendants thereof† (Mufwene, 1997). References 1. Appiah, K. A. (1997). The Multiculturalist Misunderstanding, New York Review of Books, October 9, 2006 2. E. P. Brandon, (2001). Creolisation, syncretism, and multiculturalism

Jasper Jones Essay

Bullying is a huge problem in schools, communities, and homes. Bullying doesn’t just happen at a certain age, but it happens at any age. Bullying happens all over the world and is a huge problem that’s happening around the world. After The Vietnam War the Australians hated the Vietnamese. † It took 521 Australian lives and left many soldiers with permanent disabilities† (the Vietnam war). The Australians lost the most people ever in this war. After that war any Vietnamese person would have gotten bullied. bullying causes suicide. Because it makes you feel bad about yourself.It makes you feel like you are incapable and/or undeserving of being loved and standing up for yourself.When a bully does something to embarrass you everyone sees it and that makes you feel like a failure.It makes you feel inadequate.It doesn’t cause just depression.It makes you hate yourself and others and maybe even the world for tolerating such behavior. If you thought that the effects of bullying disappear as soon as your child gets out of school, you are horribly mistaken. Social bullying like circulation of rumors and gossiping could prove to be more harmful than bruises or black eyes suffered in a school fight. The psychological effects of this social type of bullying extend long beyond the school days and linger into early adulthood. This leads to depression and anxiety even when the victim has attained adulthood. Recent studies reveal that there is a connection between â€Å"relational victimization† in adolescence and depression and anxiety in early adulthood. Instead of going physical, like threatening a child with physical violence, social bullying tries to undermine a child’s social standing and relationships by making them pariahs, keeping them out of social activities or spreading rumors that can hurt.