Employability and Personal Development Assignment

Employability and Personal Development - Assignment Example Innovative advances, multi-training programs, profoundly unique business situations and human outlook have caused huge changes in the activity advertise throughout the most recent couple of decades. With regards to the current day work market, present day and conventional profession makes more prominent contrasts, for example, ladies by and large will in general pick customary vocation openings than the other, in spite of the fact that they also grasp current occupations in more noteworthy numbers. Present day vocation traverses different employments like gifted exchanging, administrations, expert and specialized profession and so forth. Present day occupations appear to be more testing and preferable paying open doors over the conventional professions. Specialized or proficient vocations require higher capabilities and specific aptitudes though conventional professions are normal sound system composed occupations that don't require such capabilities and abilities. Present day employments are more paying than customary ones because of that conventional occupations are anything but difficult to perform and are requiring less abilities and capabilities. As there are significant contrasts among present day and conventional professions in regard to the aptitudes, capabilities, information and experience required for each, matter of intrigue and occupation fulfillment likewise become critical components. For instance, individuals appear to appreciate more fulfillment from gifted exchanging or specialized occupations because of that it is more paying and more honorable employments than the customary ones. In nowadays, current employments are favored by ladies and this pattern has been expanding immensely in numerous nations. It isn't unordinary to see females in numerous gifted exchanging, specialized and proficient professions like nursing, overseeing, sportscaster and so forth. The vocation being picked must be one that gives fulfillment with the goal that it may not be a weight for the duration of one’s life. I believe current profession to be drawn nearer and I feel that cutting edge vocations are difficulties. There can be numerous conventional activity looking for steps to be followed like gathering

Gifted Hands Essay -- essays research papers

Skilled Hands is a persuasive novel based around the life of Ben Carson, from his tough childhood in downtown Detroit to his situation as chief of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital at age 33. The epic frontal areas Carson’s battle to challenge all chances - supported by his iron will, enormous confidence, regard, resignation and an unequivocal commitment to God. Carson showed incredible assurance and devotion since early on. He flourished to be in front of his examinations and went the additional mile for the prosperity of his training. After I began pulling ahead in school, the longing to be more intelligent became more grounded and more grounded. Carson concentrated more on being as well as could be expected be as opposed to being top of the class. The longing to be more astute is a splendid quality basic for a scholastically ...

Understanding Accounting Capitalizing vs. Expensing

Understanding Accounting Capitalizing vs. Expensing Business owners need to make many big accounting decisions and what the company does with costs is among the biggest of these decisions. When companies spend money, they are often able to either account to the costs as an expense or to capitalise the costs. The decision will have an impact on the company’s balance sheet.This guide will look at what capitalizing vs. expensing is all about, and delve deeper into the situations when companies should capitalise and when to expense. This guide will also look at the effect it has on the financial statements and the limitations of either method. Finally, you’ll also learn about the inappropriate use of the system and how to ensure your business’ accounting tactics are within the legal framework. © Shutterstock.com | Rawpixel.comIn this article, we will first describe 1) the definition of capitalizing vs. expensing, and discuss then 2) when to use capitalizing, 3) when to use expensing, 4) avoiding inappropriate capitalizing and expensing, and 5) a conclusion.THE DEFINITION OF CAPITALIZING VS EXPENSINGCapitalizing and expensing are crucial accounting terms to know. In brief, it refers to how a cost is treated on the entity’s financial statements. This means businesses have two options when adding a cost to their financial statement. They can either expense it or capitalise it.If the entity chooses to expense the cost, it is added on the income statement and subtracted from the business’ revenue to determine the profit.On the other hand, when a business capitalises a cost, it is going to count towards capital expenditures. This means it will be accounted for on the entity’s balance sheet as an asset. In this case, the income statement will only feature the appropriate d epreciation of the asset.There are currently only guidelines to help businesses decide which costs could be capitalised and which could be expensed. No mandatory rules exist, although there are some legal loopholes to be aware of. Therefore, each company has some leeway into deciding what it wants to capitalise and to expense.As we’ll discuss later in the guide, this lack of a set of lists has both advantages and disadvantages to a business. Capitalizing vs. expensing provides companies with opportunities to influence the company’s profits, directly influencing over the income statement.There have been some instances where companies have used capitalizing vs. expensing against the common accounting procedures. While this might influence the short-term profits of the company, it can also do damage to the company’s finances. Certain practices might also be outright illegal.While there is no mandatory guide, many countries have produced certain accounting guidelines for companies to use. For example, in the US, the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) must be followed by publicly trading companies.An example of capitalizing vs expensingBefore we look at the available options in more detail, here’s a quick example of capitalizing vs. expensing in action. The example will give you an idea how the decision can impact a company’s financial statements.Company A has recognised $4,000 in revenue and $3,000 in expenses during a financial year. The company has also incurred $500 in repair and maintenance costs for its tools, but it hasn’t yet decided whether to capitalise or expense this amount.In case the company decides to expense the $500, it will be added to the company’s total expenses. This will mean the company’s income will decrease for the year by $500. Expensing the cost will also mean total assets and the shareholder’s equity will be lower.On the other hand, the company could also capitalise the $500. This means it won’t be recogn ised as an expense in that financial year, increasing the net income by $500. However, the $500 will be recognised in the statement in the following few years as depreciation expense. This means it will lower the future net income of the company.As you can see, companies often have to weigh in on the pros and cons of capitalizing vs. expensing. The next section will look at these situations in more detail and give you an idea as to when cost should be capitalised and when expensed.You can watch the below YouTube video for another example of capitalizing vs. expensing: Dividing assets into twoWhen it comes to deciding whether a cost should be capitalised or expensed, companies often use a simple method of dividing assets into two categories. These are:Assets that produce future benefitsAssets that do not produce any future benefitsCertain costs to the company will only provide a one time value for the company and therefore belong to the second group. These are typically expensed cost s because the business won’t enjoy future benefits through them.On the other hand, assets that provide future benefits can often be capitalised and thus the expenses spread across financial statements. Examples of these kinds of assets will be dealt with more detail in the next section.A simple example could be an insurance policy payment. A company could buy a fixed period policy for two years and pay the cost upfront at once. Since the insurance will benefit the company in the future as well, it could capitalise the costs.WHEN TO USE CAPITALIZINGAs mentioned above, companies can typically capitalise costs only when the resource acquired will provide future benefits. This means resources that are beneficial for the business for more than one operating cycle.Therefore, the expenses from acquiring these resources are recorded as assets in the company’s balance sheet. The costs will then show on the balance sheet in the coming financial years through amortisation or depreciation.E xamples of these resources could be anything from machinery to a business property.Companies should also consider capitalizing costs when they add significantly to the value of an existing resource. If the company upgrades part of the tools, property or equipment it uses, in a manner that directly increases the value of the asset, it could be capitalised.In many instance, fixed assets are typically capitalised, as they continue to provide benefits for the company for a longer period.Companies can also deal with intangible assets. These are non-monetary resources, which have no physical substance yet still provide the company a benefit. These could be items such as research and development costs or patents and copyrights.Intangible assets that can be capitalised often include:Full acquisition costs of obtaining a patent or copyright from another entity.Full acquisition costs of obtaining a brand or a trademark from another entity.Software development costs with economic feasibility b eyond one operating cycle.How will capitalisation affect assets?The decision to capitalise the costs will naturally have an impact on the company’s financial statements. Here are some of the main areas involved with asset capitalisation and how they can change the company’s financial statements.Net income â€" Capitalizing costs will smoothen the variability of the company’s reported income, as the cost will be divided between statements. In pure profitability terms, the company will enjoy higher profitability at the start.Stockholders’ equity â€" The effect will be minimal on the long-term, but at the start, stockholder’s equity will be higher.Cash flow from operations â€"If the company capitalises its costs, the impact will be only on cash flow from investment.Reported assets â€" The total assets of the company will increase when costs are capitalised.Financial ratios â€" The profitability ratio will be higher at the onset of capitalizing costs. Furthermore, operation-eff iciency ratio will decrease and the equity turnover will be higher at the start.Limitations of capitalizingWhile the rule of thumb for capitalizing is whether the asset has long-term benefit or value increase for the company, there are certain limitations to this rule. For example, in the field of research development (RD), the costs often cannot be capitalised, even though the assets technically will provide long-term value for the company.The main reason most countries don’t allow the capitalizing of RD costs is to do with the uncertainty of the benefits. Calculating whether the investment’s future benefits will be difficult and therefore, it is easier to expense the costs.Nonetheless, you want to check with your local accountant, as different countries might have different ways to analyse RD costs.You also need to keep in mind that capitalizing an asset can overinflate the assets shown on the company’s balance sheet. This can have some influence on your financial statement .Finally, it is crucial to remember inventory costs cannot be capitalised. Even if you are going to hold on to the inventory long-term and won’t be selling it during the next business cycle, you cannot capitalise the expenses.WHEN TO USE EXPENSINGIn its essence, expensing is performed whenever you purchase an asset. But the above section showed the limits to this rule. Typically only costs, which have no long-term benefit or which don’t directly increase the value of the asset substantially, are expensed.The above also showed that deciding whether to capitalise or to expense isn’t always so straightforward. There are certain costs which might seem like a good idea to capitalise, but are actually better for the finances when they are expensed.Many accounting practices recommend using the de minimus rule. This means that items, which could potentially be capitalised, are expensed only if they don’t significantly distort the bottom line in the balance sheet. This means the expe nses in question don’t represent a large part of your total expenses and therefore, wouldn’t drag your income artificially low.While there are no official rules to what this percentage is, many experts suggest using a figure below 0.1% of gross expenses for the financial year or 2% of the total depreciation and amortization expenses.In addition, RD expenses are nearly always expensed for accounting purposes. In terms of repair costs, maintenance-type repairs are considered an expense, since they only restore the item’s value to normal and don’t increase its lifespan above normal.How will expensing affect assets?As with capitalizing, the decision to expense assets will have an impact on the company’s financial accounts. The following are some of the key effects of expensing costs:Net income â€" Expensing costs will have an immediate impact on the company’s income, as increased expenses will naturally drag down the income of the business. Companies that actively use expens ing in their accounting tend to have higher variability in reported income. Expensing costs can boost profitability in the long-term.Stockholders’ equity â€" The effect on stockholder’s equity will be relatively limited. Nevertheless, expensing companies tend to experience a lower equity at the start.Cash flow from operations â€" Expensing can drop the tax bill for the company in the short-term, although the impact will be evened out over the years. Nonetheless, a decision to expense the costs will be reported in cash flow from operations.Reported assets â€" The company’s total assets will be smaller.Financial ratios â€" The decision to expense will result in higher operation-efficiency ratios.Limitations of expensingThere are certain special limitations to expensing, especially when it comes to starting up a business. In many instances, immediate costs can be capitalised even if they don’t necessarily fall under the capitalizing rules during the first financial year of the company.You should also keep in mind that while RD costs are typically considered an expense, certain legal fees involved in acquiring these, as well as patents, could be capitalised.In addition, you need to be careful when expensing costs dealing with repairs or upgrades. If the value of the item significantly improves or the lifespan of the item expands, the costs might be better off capitalised.Finally, expensing will bring down the income of the business and therefore, you want to be careful to ensure your short-term finances are able to adjust to this.AVOIDING INAPPROPRIATE CAPITALIZING AND EXPENSINGSince the above are just guidelines, companies can find themselves in trouble with capitalizing vs. expensing decisions. Due to the nature of shifting the company’s balance sheet around, some companies fall guilty of using too aggressive accounting tactics.The problem is mainly down to aggressive capitalizing. Since capitalizing can increase assets and boost income, companies ofte n choose to capitalise instead of expensing. On the other hand, companies might occasionally try to bring down income by expensing, as this could lower the company’s tax burden.How can you tell if your business is aggressively capitalizing expenses? The most obvious signs of aggressive accounting practices include:Sudden improvement in the company’s profit margin, especially a deep increase in specific assets.New asset line items on the company’s balance sheet, which do not seem to make sense and items which, are rapidly increasing.Sharply declining cash flow from operations.Unexpected rise in CAPEX, which does not represent current market conditions.Furthermore, you should also be wary of overcapitalizing your costs. Even if you are able to capitalise parts of your research costs, full capitalisation will often cause red flags for the taxman.In order to avoid inappropriate capitalizing and expensing, the following tips are essential to keep in mind:Learn about the guidelines â€" Check information on capitalizing vs. expensing from sources such as GAAP.Keep a close eye on changes in accounting policy.Make sure you understand the different capitalisation policies within your specific industry. You can often learn a lot by studying other company balance sheets.Decide your de minimus rule â€" You can set an appropriate level with your accountant and check whether a cost falls under the rule before you count it as an expense.Have a written capitalisation policy â€" Overall, accountants often recommend creating a written capitalisation policy for the business. This can be helpful in situations where you are uncertain over a specific cost, as well as help you defend your business strategy in case the tax authorities ask questions over your policy decisions.When developing your accounting policy, consider things such as your business size, the level of revenue and expenses your business generates and its compliance needs in terms of taxes.Tax authorities scruti nise company’s decisions to capitalise vs. expense carefully and you need to be able to properly justify your accounting decisions. While the above method can be used to tweak your company’s financial statement, you don’t want to be overly aggressive with your accounting tactics.CONCLUSIONCapitalizing vs. expensing is an important aspect of business’ financial decision-making. Costs can have a big impact on your business finances and it is important to learn to take advantage of both capitalizing and expensing. The above should have given you a deeper insight into the appropriate use of these methods.The accounting treatment of expenses can be the difference between a profitable income statement and one that highlights a loss. The decision to opt for either can be difficult. But in general, capitalizing vs. expensing can provide your business with opportunities to keep the financial future of the company on the right track.

The Legacy Of The Civil War - 1422 Words

The devastating years of the Civil War finally came to an end. African Americans becoming enslaved and having freedom was a huge development during reconstruction. Freedom had important changes in African American lives, education and religious practices. Due to Abraham Lincoln emancipation of slavery, freedom became a reality for many slaves. The republicans had a great impact on the reconstruction of the Civil War by creating Freedmen’s Bureau, passing the fourteen and fifteenth amendment and granting protection for freedman by passing many laws. President Lincoln was a republican. He passed the thirteen amendment abolishing slavery which passed in congress. He signed the law Freedmen’s Bureau which gave ex-slaves the right to economic†¦show more content†¦Therefore President Lincoln’s law of Freedmen’s Bureau gave hands to the slaves to come together with family. However Freedmen’s Bureau also established 4,300 schools. This gave the blacks the right to learn. Parents were always working so it was very hard for them to attend school to learn. Therefore they worked very hard at keeping their children in school. Since their parents were so busy working children came home from school and passed down their knowledge to educate their family. On the other hand some parents had the strength to work and walk long distances to get some education. There also was many other reasons why blacks had a strong desire to learn, they wanted to be able to read the bible, read contracts that they had to sign, contact with relatives far away, and even participate in politics. According to the photograph of Freedmen’s Bureau school in North Carolina late 1860’s, organizations sent black and white northern women to educate. Also students range from all ages. The demand for education was awesome but the desire to get married was also important in African American lives. Bureau opened up the path of legalizing marriage and providing actual documents. They also for the first time let couples live together. According to a document called Wedding Day, the year 1866, a Freedman’s Bureau minister brings together a black solider and his bride and legalizes their marriage. African Americans were very pleased and had ceremonies to get

Violence of Decolonization Essay - 726 Words

Violence of Decolonization Frantz Fanon argues the decolonization must always be a violent phenomenon because resisting a colonizing power using only politics will not work. Europeans justified colonization by treating it as gods work. They believed that god wanted then to occupy all lands and spread the word of god to savages of darker skin color. Fanon joined the Algerian Nationalist Movement when the Algeria was being colonized be the French. Many examples of violence written of in The Wretched of the Earth were taken from the struggle for independence in Algeria. Also the writing is sympathetic towards colonized natives. Fanon claims decolonization causes violent actions from both settlers and natives and creates intolerant†¦show more content†¦Because politics seemed to be a dead end process, the natives felt that fighting was their only way to regain independence. Native revolts would rarely change anything politically; it gave individuals a temporary feeling that they were not inferior to their oppressors by causing disorder (Fanon 94). When the settlers dominance became imminent, Natives tended to struggle violently with themselves. The anger that possessed for their oppressors was vented through crime and battles with other native tribes. Fanon says that is was an excuse to ignore their oppressors, accept colonization of their land, and to allow history to move on (Fanon 54). European settlers had the idea that by some divine right, all land was created for them and the control of the mother country. The land that that did not occupy would not prosper without their influence and would go back to the middle ages (Fanon 51). The burden of Gods good work entailed white men to impose his European religion, medicines, and civilized practices onto natives that they believed to be evil because of the plague and disease they carried. The natives were called savages or other primitive nicknames because of their underdeveloped technology and weaponry compared to the settlers (Fanon 41). Settlers consider natives aggression as evil acts against god. Natives see the settlers as the bringers of violence.Show MoreRelatedDecolonization: An Evolution in Imperialist Relationships1651 Words   |  7 PagesDecolonization is a process where in the ideal understanding of the term would be ending the exploitive relationship between the colonized and the colonizers with the intention of being s self-sufficient of the newly independent state. 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In the words of Fanon, in the reading The Wretched of the Earth, â€Å"National liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the na ­tion to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event.† (Fanon, 1). Frantz Fanon was one of many authors who supported decolonization struggles occurring afterRead MoreThe Psychoanalysts of Violence Essay1208 Words   |  5 Pagestheories on violence. The implication of both theories is represented in the film that has captured the understanding of both insightful phenomena. Fanon’s views on violence are it unifies individuals into forming a complex unit organism that works together, rinses, in addition it is presented as an effective and productive mean that support the process of decolonization. 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The Knowledge Taught in Vain Free Essays

string(90) " better part of twenty years, she would either think you are dumb, laugh at you, or both\." If you were to ask a teenager today if he or she would rather study or watch television, what do you think the answer would be? From what I have seen in myself when I was a teenager and in almost everyone that I meet, nobody would rather study. Today’s fast food culture has sucked the beauty out of individual thought and the acquirement of knowledge. Schools give an insufficient amount of knowledge on a variety of different topics and sub-topics without any encouragement of critical thought and analysis on the knowledge. We will write a custom essay sample on The Knowledge Taught in Vain or any similar topic only for you Order Now Indeed, if schools required children to do so as a part of their education then the politicians, people of elite status, and teachers would be shown that the way they have been doing things, and they way they are doing things, is wrong. Some people who do actually think about things and disagree are rare not only because it’s hard to find interest in something public education has made arbitrary but because doing so results in being a social outcast. Some still disagree anyway. It is not allowed in the classrooms so they drop out of schools, die their hair black, get body piercings, become pessimists, and become stereotyped as trash to express their rebellion against being trained to think in a way that does nothing but confuse thought itself. The simple fact is that if young people were encouraged to change our current situation instead of being cast out and beaten down, these same tattooed drug addict losers would be Nobel Prize winners. Its not these rebels that are causing environmental problems, sucking up all the available resources at the expense of people living in poverty, and sending American jobs across the Mexican border for the sake of a greasy buck. It is not the individualist envisionary artists we call elements of a demoralized young generation that are over taxing the people to build machinery for wars that, most of time, are none of our damn business. It is not the gun carrying gangsters that are engaging in the politics of deception and manipulation to lie to the majority of â€Å"honest† people in this country and take their money to fulfill their bloodthirsty wallets at the cost of peoples lives. These proprietary social outcasts are defense mechanisms that result from the disgusting maginalization of the current system. Where does it all begin? In the public schools are the roots of the problem. What helps it? The media with its advertisement propaganda waters those roots. There are many problems in our society that spring from one thing: the miseducation of our children. There are many problems in the education of our children that spring from one thing: students are being taught what to think instead of how to think. The core of our education of children should not be the amount of material covered but the encouragement of thinking about the material which should be presented with a high degree of honesty with emphasis on awareness and responsibility. On many occasions in public school I can remember inquiring on the importance of material only to be laughed at by the class. In eleventh grade English, designed for vocational students, we read â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† by Harper Lee. We read during class and each Friday had tests on the material without any discussion of our purpose for learning it. One day when I questioned why we needed to learn it and the class laughed at me. The teacher told me that it was just part of the curriculum required by the state. I can remember that adding to the anger and frustration of my already rebellious attitude. The rebellion that I felt at the time was against everything that I was being taught. I at the time, like most people, had grown repulsed by learning since the knowledge had been distributed in a way that made it seem like it was a waste of my time. There were seven class periods a day. Each class was less than an hour long and there was little time to go over the things of real importance. When things of real importance were â€Å"taught,† I had six other classes crowding in trying to choke any desire that might have been there to investigate the matters further. Consequently, books and knowledge brought to mind nothing but the meaningless boredom of the manner in which they were presented in school. Whether in school or out, reading books sucked. When that last bell rang it always sparked the conditioned thought of myself hanging out with friends, watching television, listening to music, smoking pot, and doing anything but being productive. Being productive seemed like something that old people do because they need to survive, not because it is something that they loved to do, and its perquisite implied hours of monotonous dedication to memorizing conceptual relics from a former epoch that have no relevant applicability to my modern life. Watching television consumed most of my out of school time since that was mostly what people in my surroundings talked about. Why was it important? It provided for my parents a relief from doing work that they do not enjoy all day. It provided for me and my fellow students an automatic identity and purpose since school had degraded the idea of constructing one from history, science, literature, and philosophy to meaningless syllables that invoked sleep. If a public school student were to actually pay attention in school and manage to get an A, lets say, in history class, that person might be able to tell you that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. That person might be able to tell you that the Declaration of Independence says we are all created equal, but if you told him the truth that Jefferson had slaves and that he cheated on his wife with a slave for the better part of twenty years, she would either think you are dumb, laugh at you, or both. You read "The Knowledge Taught in Vain" in category "Papers" When I was riding the bus to school in the twelfth grade, I saw that a girl with a calculus textbook. I tried to talk to her about it and told her that Kempler, one of the fathers of calculus, developed the subject for the study of astronomical bodies. She was an honors student, smart enough to be in calculus, but she did not believe that what I was saying was true. â€Å"Calculus has nothing to do with astronomy! † she said. All I could think was how boring this subject was because its history and meaning had been negated. It made me angry that the teacher never described exactly what happened in history or how much depth and beauty is in mathematics just because â€Å"it’s not a part of the curriculum. † Most people think of mathematics and reading books as boring. This is a direct result of people being showed things like geometrical shapes, the battle of Gettysburg, and the periodic table of elements without indicating their significance at the time that these things were discovered or occurred, or their significance in modern day life. When most people think of school they see one subject, instead of a vast array of topics and interests, and they think of that subject as dreadful, boring, and a waste of time. For instance, Mike Rose wrote about the public education experience in his book â€Å"I Just Wanna Be Average†: The particulars will vary, but in essence this is what a number of students go through, especially those in the so-called remedial classes. They open their textbooks and see once again the familiar and impenetrable formulas and diagrams and terms that have stumped them for years. There is no excitement here. No excitement. Regardless of what the teacher says, this is not a new challenge. There is, rather embarrassment and frustration and, not suprisingly, some anger in being reminded once again of long-standing inadequacies. No wonder so many students finally attribute their difficulties to something inborn, organic: â€Å"That part of my brain just doesn’t work. † Given the troubling histories many of these students have, it’s miraculous that any of them can lift the shroud of hopelessness sufficiently to make deliverance from these classes possible. This situation is not just applicable to this particular case, but is a good generalization of the majority of people who experience public schools first hand. Put simply, the government designs a curriculum. In that curriculum it is set up for students to cover a certain amount of material; however, I cannot remember one class in public school where we finished a text book. It appears like the government sets unreachable curricular goals because there is no desire for them to invoke critical thought in the minds of the students. They know that if a student were taught to think about too much, the things that are wrong in our government, socioculture, and environmental ecology would be criticized. That would mean a major change in the way that we are doing things, and all those who are taking advantage of the system for their own greed would be brought to light. Many people would lose their status, power, control, and luxuries. So, while people are trained, in a sense, to see education and knowledge acquirement as monotonous and boring, they are being prevented from being able to do anything about the wrongs in our world. To aid in this suppression, â€Å"the powers that be† also use television to inform, and misinform, the masses of the problems and solutions. As a result, people are being spoon-fed what to think without having to think, because thinking is something that is not of primary importance whatsoever, for the reasons above. The few people who do are such a small amount that it is hard to convince the masses who are being â€Å"zombified† that that is in fact what is happening to them. There are a few wonderful exceptions. Some public school teachers deviate from the curriculum because their passion over-rides their fear of not accomplishing their job requirements. For instance, Jonathan Kozol wrote about a teacher in the city of Chicago in his essay â€Å"Corla Hawkins†. She did her best to teach her kids how to think about what they learned, how to teach each other what they learned, and how what they learned applies to their life. The thirty children in her fifth and sixth grade class were seated in groups of six or five called â€Å"departments†. Each department was composed of six desks pushed together to created a table. One of the groups did math, another something they describe as â€Å"mathematics art†Ã¢â‚¬â€œpainting composites of geometric shapes–and the other is studying â€Å"careers,† which on this particular morning in the essay were writing about successful business leaders who began their lives in poverty. Then, they all switched groups while one stayed behind to teach the rest the ropes of that department. This teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, was showing them how to communicate intrapersonally and interpersonally information that would be of use to them. The essay made it clear she cared more about the way her children thought and less what her children thought. â€Å"This is the point of it,† she says. â€Å"I am teaching them three things. Number one: self-motivation. Number two: self-esteem. Number three: you help your sister and brother. I tell them they’re responsible for one another. I give no grades in the first marking period because I do not want them to be too competitive. Second marking period, I team them two-and-two. You get the same grade as your partner. Fourth marking period, I tell them ‘Every fish swims on its own. But I wait a while for that. The most important thing for me is that they teach each other†¦ † (178) This is an awesome example of teaching the kids how to think. Sadly, though, these kids are most likely being suppressed outside of school. Although education is something they probably look forward to every day, the society around them does not place much importance on educ ation at all. In a textbook, â€Å"Invitation to Psychology†, I read the work of psychological researchers Harold Sevenson, Chuanshen Chen, and Shin-Ying Lee. They compared children from 20 schools in Chicago and 11 schools in Beijing. The study, ironically, was on fifth graders, as in the class stated above and eleventh graders who were compared ten years earlier. Their results can show us much on the cultivation of intellect. On computations and word problems, the lowest scoring Beijing schools did better than the highest scoring Chicago schools! Only 4 percent of the Chinese children had scores as low as the average American child. Interestingly, the Chinese had worse facilities and larger classes! The Chinese parents were also poorer and less educated than the American parents! In this case, the government propagates to its society the importance of education because it benefits them. Since it is a Communist society, people who are more productive and intelligent benefit the high ranking political parties. Because of this, Chinese students are expected to devote themselves to their studies, but American students are expected to be â€Å"well-rounded†Ã¢â‚¬â€œto have after school jobs (74 percent of them did, compared to only 21 percent of the Chinese), to have dates and an active social life (85 percent to 37 percent), and to have time for sports and other activities. Contrary to the stereotype of the stressed and overworked Asian student, it is American students who are most likely to report that school is a source of stress and academic anxiety. Asians actually had the lowest incidents of stress, depression, insomnia, aggression, and physical symptoms. American students do not value education as much as Asian students do. They are also more complacent about mediocre work. When asked what they would wish for if a wizard could give them anything they wanted, more than sixty percent of the Chinese fifth-graders named something that related to their education. Can you guess what the American children wanted? A majority said money or possessions. (216) It is not an absurd notion to think that the US government and the economical superpowers of this country propagate materialism, simply because it fills their pockets continuously. The solution to many of our world’s social and economic problems would surface rather quickly if we changed our curriculum to promote critical individual thought. Right now the current system may not be intended to fill the pockets of the wealthy and the polititions, but that is sure what it does. Rather than keep filling their pockets with money, lets fill our global, national, and communal problems with solutions. The best way to do this, clearly, is to stop over feeding our children’s minds with the water of knowledge and to start planting there more seeds of thought. A very prolific man, Neale Donald Walsch, makes a great suggestion of how to do this in â€Å"Conversations with God†: I am talking about focusing your children’s attention as much on understanding the core concepts and the theoretical structures around which their value system may be constructed as you now do on dates and facts and statistics. In your society you have created a system in which little Johnnie has learned how to read before getting out of pre-school, but still hasn’t learned how to stop biting his brother. And Susie has perfected her multiplication tables, using flash cards and rote memory, in ever earlier and earlier grades, but has not learned that there is nothing shameful or embarrassing about her body. Right now your schools exist primarily to provide answers. It would be far more beneficial if their primary function was to ask questions. What does it mean to be honest, or responsible, or â€Å"fair†? What are the implications? For that matter, what does it mean that 2+2=4? What are the implications? A highly evolved society would encourage all children to discover and create those answers for themselves. Present Data should not be the basis of Present Truth. Data from a prior time or experience should always and only be the basis for new questions. Always the treasure should be in the question, not in the answer. And always the questions are the same. With regard to this past data which we have shown you, do you agree, or do you disagree? What do you think? Always, this is the key question. Always this is the focus. What do you think? What do you think? (127-128) Through out life I have been fortunate to know very intelligent, charismatic, â€Å"thoughtful† people. The best of them all combine to form the ideal role model. The actualization of their thoughts, each with a distinctive power, wonder, grace, is nothing less than an amazing vision of beauty that cannot be described on paper, only felt in observing. The public school system, if anything, has attacked my comprehension of and capability of contributing to this beauty. The struggle that I call my past could have been a plethora of aesthetics if I had been shown the ways of the thinker instead of the ways of a zombie. Anyone who has felt a personal feeling of deep contemplation would agree that its goodness could not be replaced or taken away by anything external or material. Those people are the ones who evolve the current system. Instead of these people loving themselves through their students, they will love their students through wisdom. How to cite The Knowledge Taught in Vain, Papers

Matsu the Samurai Essay Example

Matsu the Samurai Essay The Samurai’s Garden Stephen was sent from China to Japan to recover from tuberculosis. He goes and stays in the small town of Tarumi with his family’s servant Matsu. During his stay with Matsu, Stephen discovers that there is more to Matsu than meets the eyes. Throughout the story, Stephen begins to see Matsu showing characteristics of a Samurai. One of the first characteristics we see in Matsu is his loyalty to Stephen’s family. Matsu’s parents had served Stephen’s grandfather in that house before him, and even after his parents had passed away, instead of moving away like his sister Fumiko did, he stayed and took care of the house and Stephen’s grandfather. In a sense, Matsu is the bodyguard and watcher of the house and family, just like how a samurai is to his lord. Throughout the story Matsu seems to be a much respected man to everyone in Tarumi. Stephen even told Matsu that â€Å"You have a strong face. A face someone doesn’t forget. Like a samurai† (30). Matsu and Stephen are perfect examples, in it that Matsu is the samurai who must watch over his wealthier master which happens to be Stephen, who indeed is wealthy. Although Matsu is only a servant, Stephen shows great respect for him. Matsu’s silence also brings out the samurai in him. His silence occurs in many parts of the book. At first, Stephen assumed that Matsu just didn’t like to engage in conversations, but Sachi explains how his silence is powerful when she told Stephen that â€Å"with Matsu, everything is in what he does not say† (59). We will write a custom essay sample on Matsu the Samurai specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Matsu the Samurai specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Matsu the Samurai specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer His strength in silence guided him through his childhood to the present day. Because Matsu wasn’t the best looking guy when he was younger, he kept to himself and always stayed back at the house to help out his parents. I guess you can say he was born to become and samurai, unlike his sisters. Even when his younger sister Tomoko took her life, Matsu showed no emotions. He knew what she planned on doing the night that she did it, and he kept quiet. Another event that shows how his actions speak louder than words is during Kenzo’s burial. At the Kenzo’s burial, â€Å"Matsu was silent throughout the entire procession, simply bowing his head to those who showed their sympathy at the loss of his good friend† (109). His silence showed how strong he was holding up. Furthermore, other than his messages through silence, Matsu also shows great inner strength within these two events. Much like how a samurai who never grieves over a comrade’s death, Matsu’s inner strength allowed him to remain calm and prevent an emotional breakdown first after seeing the suicide of his sister, and seeing the death of his best friend Kenzo. When Sachi came down to visit after the storm, she told Stephen that â€Å"Matsu once told me the bridge represented a samurai’s difficult path from this world to the afterlife. When you reach the top of the bridge, you can see your way to paradise† (58). I believe that Matsu has reached the top of this bridge already and saw his way to paradise. While this bridge represents a link between this world and the afterlife, Matsu acted similarly. The people of Yamaguchi are considered dead to those in the city. Matsu acts as the link between the two, delivering to the people of Yamaguchi. On a side note, a person who acts as a link between this world and the next is called a shaman. Matsu once said that the people of Yamaguchi are basically dead to their family, and the only one who knew of their existence until Stephen was introduced to them was Matsu. In their early stages of development, Matsu served as a shaman who helped out the â€Å"dead† people of Yamaguchi. He brought building equipment from the city up to Yamaguchi, and helped them build houses. Furthermore, Matsu has shown great bravery throughout the novel. One specific example of his bravery was shown when they were on their way to visit Sachi in Yamaguchi and they saw that one of the villagers house was on fire. Like a true samurai, Matsu ran to help put out the fire without even considering his own safety first. Like Sachi said, â€Å"bravery is when you step in to help when you have nothing to lose. Matsu-san and you, Stephen san are the brave ones† (123). In addition, Matsu is very a nonjudgmental guy. He never jumps to conclusion about a person and never judge a person by the way they look, or what has happened in their past. Instead he acts as a samurai does what he believes is right and sticks to it. For example, Matsu never judged any of the lepers in Yamaguchi for how they looked, and got to know all of them very well. The way Matsu is portrayed in the novel, sometimes he almost seems like a middle aged man instead of a man in his seventies. But because he is at such an age, we can say that he is a man with much wisdom and experience. Samurai’s grow through each battle and with each battle, win or lose, come strength and wisdom. Every day is a battle for Matsu, and with it he has gained from it. With his wisdom he always knows what to say or do when there is a situation in front of him. For example, after Keiko had told Stephen that they can no longer see each other, Matsu passes down his wisdom to Stephen when he told Stephen â€Å" get quote from book† (). Matsu, the man with undying bravery and wisdom, gentle and loving is the samurai in The Samurai’s Garden. But his garden didn’t stop in just his backyard, no; his garden was also all of Yamaguchi. And as most great samurais, the last thing Matsu does is leaves behind his legacy within Stephen.