Middle schools Essay Example for Free

Middle schools Essay There are some types of conditioning that are employed in middle schools and high school settings. Take for example when the teachers enter the classroom, students are â€Å"conditioned† to react in certain ways. Thus, this depends on what they are used to and how teachers will treat such type of behaviors. The initial reaction of the students is referred to as the ‘baseline behavior’ (Honolulu Zoo Organization, 2009). Before any type of conditioning is applied, this behavior should be observed and recorded. In a classical conditioning, there is a large dependence on the association of a stimulus to a response and has involuntary reactions (Comparison of Classical and Operant Conditioning, 2009). In a classroom setting, classical conditioning can also be applied. Say, students love their music class and that they love to sing. Thus, before each music class, the teacher would play a song. Thus, when the students hear the music, they may start to sing or hum to the tune of the music. This increases their awareness that music class will be next. Then, shaping is applied where a series of actions are equated to a series of reactions. This defines the difference between the baseline and terminal behavior. For an operant conditioning, the most notable feature is the ‘reinforcement’ and that the reactions are voluntary (Comparison of Classical and Operant Conditioning, 2009). Say when one teacher enters the classroom, the students to stand up and greet by applause. This may be construed by the teacher as the good behavior and, thus, the teacher may give a reward for each student when the students stand and applaud. Say, the reward is a candy bar, which now serves as the positive reinforcement. Consequently, without the â€Å"stand and applaud response,† the candy bar is withheld and students are forced to stand, thus a negative reinforcement. When this is done in an every â€Å"stand and applaud reaction† response basis, thus, continuous reinforcement is applied. Within the shaping, reinforcements may vary. The reinforcement may be done in random, meaning candy bar is not given every time the stand and applaud reaction is done by student, which is called variable reinforcement. If in case the teacher gives more candy bars for a louder applause, then this is now referred to as the selective reinforcement with the aim of increasing performance. Another schedule of reinforcement is the bonus wherein the students may receive more candy bars than the usual as a surprise. The terminal behavior is the behavior after the ‘shaping’ is applied. In this example, the students’ action of standing and applauding every time the same teacher enters the classroom is the terminal behavior after the shaping including the reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is if students fail to stand and applaud or if they just sit instead of stand, the candy bar is then withheld, thus, the students will go back to the stand and applaud response for the candy bar. Negative reinforcement then pushes that the students do something for their benefit. Punishment, on the other hand, is when the students stand and applaud and then they are all sent to the principal’s office, which weakens the ‘enthusiasm’ for stand and applause behavior. Then, if the candy bar is removed after the ‘stand and applaud reaction’, thus, the reaction is no longer encouraged and this is then called the extinction. Reward is a very powerful tool for students and the proper use of it should be understood before it is utilized by the members of the academe. In the same manner, rewards can make or break students’ habits and behavior. This could be dangerous since there is a tendency of students lacking the initiative to work without the reward. This may keep students from doing their best since there is no visible gain for better performance in school. On the other hand, this may also be very helpful in stirring movements for students towards positive actions and better performance. This may be an extra boost on their determination to achieve more in their activities. Reference: Comparison of Classical and Operant Conditioning. (2009). The McGraw-Hill Companies. Retrieved March 26, 2009 from http://www. dushkin. com/connectext/psy/ch06/compare. mhtml Honolulu Zoo Organization. (2009). Operant Conditioning Terms. Retrieved March 26, 2009 from http://www. honoluluzoo. org/enrichment_operant_cond_terms. htm

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Essay example -- Biographies Presidents Papers

John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy 35th president of the United States, the youngest person ever to be elected president. He was also the first Roman Catholic president and the first president to be born in the 20th century. Kennedy was assassinated before he completed his third year as president. Therefore his achievements were limited. Nevertheless, his influence was worldwide, and his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis may have prevented war. Young people especially liked him. No other president was so popular. He brought to the presidency an awareness of the cultural and historical traditions of the United States. Because Kennedy expressed the values of 20th-century America, his presidency was important beyond its political achievements. John Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the second of nine children. Kennedy announced his candidacy early in 1960. By the time the Democratic National Convention opened in July, he had won seven primary victories. His most important had been in West Virginia, where he proved that a Roman Catholic could win in a predominantly Protestant state. When the convention opened, it appeared that Kennedy’s only serious challenge for the nomination would come from the Senate majority leader, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. However, Johnson was strong only among Southern delegates. Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot and then persuaded Johnson to become his running mate. Two weeks later the Republicans nominated Vice President Richard Nixon for president and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who was ambassador to the United Nations and whom Kennedy had defeated for the Senate in 1952, for vice president. In the fast-paced campaign th... ...approached an underpass, two shots were fired in rapid succession. One bullet passed through the president’s neck and struck Governor Connally in the back. The other bullet struck the president in the head. Kennedy fell forward, and his car sped to Parkland Hospital. At 1:00 PM, he was pronounced dead. He had never regained consciousness. Less than two hours after the shooting, aboard the presidential plane at the Dallas airport, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States. That afternoon, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was employed in the warehouse, was arrested in a Dallas movie theater and charged with the murder. On November 24 the body of President Kennedy was carried on a horse-drawn carriage from the White House to the Rotunda of the Capitol. Hundreds of thousands of people filed past the coffin of the slain president.

Morris Lurie’s ‘Pride and Joy’ Essay

Write about how one character from Morris Lurie’s ‘Pride and Joy’ is presented and how this character develops key concerns in the story. Billy in Morris Lurie’s ‘Pride and Joy’ is initially presented as a 16 year old boy who literally lives his life in the footsteps of his abusive, irresponsible, bohemian father, Ned Mathews. By the end of the story Billy’s character has undergone a transformation to become his own person; he has broken away from his father. This short story is told in first person narrative by an anonymous narrator. This narrator is a tourist on an island in the â€Å"Great Barrier Reef† who tells his account of his encounter with millionaire Ned Mathews and his son, Billy. Through his characterization of Billy, Morris Lurie conveys themes of self realization, responsibility, judgment, and parenting. This essay will show how Billy’s characterization develops Morris Lurie’s themes. Wealth, ownership, control and his desire for his father’s approval shows how Lurie, through his characterization of Billy conveys his theme of lifestyle choices. Ever since Billy and his father come to the island they act like they own everything and everyone on it. When they go to eat breakfast in the morning, Billy deals with the â€Å"very pretty† waitress like she is a prostitute, â€Å"‘What’s ya name, honey? he said ‘Why?’ said the girl. ‘I always like to know the names of the girls I sleep with.† Lurie’s use of a colloquial language and inappropriate language such as ‘honey’ and ‘sleep with’ during Billy’s dialogue with a waitress show his desire to control a situation and to please his father; â€Å"‘Easy, son’ said Mathews, but his face was beaming with pride. Billy’s self-confident and commanding swagger, â€Å"He [Billy] walked with an exaggerated swagger† is an example of a movement which Lurie associates with Billy to show yet another aspect of his desire to dominate over everyone else in the restaurant. By exploring Billy’s inappropriate choice of lifestyle in great detail, Lurie expresses his theme, which is to take care when choosing your lifestyle. Billy’s desire to please his father and to control is reiterated by the motif of alcohol. Billy is too young to be drinking as much alcohol as he does, yet he does and he does it to please his father and to control by demonstrating that he is able to drink as much as his father. This is shown in the quotation, â€Å"His son [Billy] matched him drink for drink.† Lurie’s use of the narrator’s voice is very significant here because the narrator is presented to readers as very moral and sensible, so when the narrator talks about a boy drinking as much as a man we worry. This concern is further addressed by the narrative voice in the line, â€Å"I watched the boy. How long could he last? I thought. How long could he keep it up?† and also when he thinks, â€Å"Don’t tell me Billy is outdrinking him. I thought. His own son. His own pride and joy.† The pace is significantly sped up during these two quotations by the shorter more choppy sentenc es. This serves two purposes, first it makes the passage stand out from the rest of the paragraph and second it permits the narrator to clearly state his point. The repetition of â€Å"I though† in both quotations creates an effective link of the two quotations. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the meaning of the two quotes are linked and that the narrator is wondering if Ned Mathew’s own ‘ride and joy’, his son Billy is already better at living the life of a spoiled, rude man than Ned Mathews. This is ironic because Billy is just a boy, so of course the narrator wonders â€Å"How long can he keep it up?† Another example is, â€Å"‘When are we going to have some real drinking, Dad?’†¦ ‘I thought you told me we was gonna have some real fun.'† Billy’s arrogance and the awkwardness of having an adolescent talking about drinking with his father really shines through here. He is almost criticizing his father because he has not had any â€Å"real drinking†. Lurie employs dialogue and colloquial diction such as â€Å"we was† to make the conversation sound even more out of place. Lurie’s selection of alcohol as a motif in the story is important because alcohol has negative connotations and is illegal for adolescents to buy. By associating Billy with alcohol Lurie is implying that the life he is living where alcohol is a daily part of his routine is not suiting. Through Billy, Lurie evokes a theme of self realization which results in Billy’s character development. The first time there is evidence of this change in character is when Billy meets â€Å"the Princess† and eventually when he â€Å"started to cry† after him and his father got into a fight over his father’s abuse of â€Å"the Princess†. The most blatant example of this change however comes from Billy’s request for â€Å"tea† as opposed to the routine â€Å"coffee and beer†, â€Å"‘Not for me,’ said Billy, in a voice I had never heard him use before. A young boy’s voice. ‘Can I have’†¦. ‘a cup of tea?'† In this quotation Lurie utilizes related diction such as â€Å"Can† which has connotations of manners and kindness. Even the narrator recognizes Billy’s character development because he states that Billy spoke in a â€Å"young boy’s voice† which is a voice he had not spoken in before. The narrator is referring to Billy’s transgression from a boy who acts like an indecorous adult to a boy who acts like a â€Å"young boy†. There is also more subtle evidence of Billy’s character development in the text. The adjectives and adverbs change to correspond with the two different aspects of Billy’s character. In the first part of the text adjective and adverbs such as â€Å"bleary† and â€Å"cocky then in the second part of the short story Lurie uses a new selection of adjectives and adverbs such as, â€Å"neat†, â€Å"polite† and â€Å"young†. Lurie’s ability to reveal Billy through three different viewpoints: his father’s, the narrators and Billy’s own view of himself gives different perspectives to his character which helps position the readers to the themes of the short story. The overwhelming amount of dialogue in this text between Billy and his father Ned Mathews shows Billy and his father’s view that everything revolves around them. They are the only voice, which is heard in the story through dialogue despite the fact that there are roughly 80 other people on the island. The movements and actions of Billy convey part of his character. Billy’s actions are often direct or closely linked to the actions of his father. This shows the way that Billy looks up to the actions of his father, and how his father will abuse that respect throughout the story. Directly after his father tells the bartender to get â€Å"off his fat behind† and give a bit of service Billy says, â€Å"Yeah, shake it up there.† This quotation creates a nice image of the typical clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ where a father says something and then his son repeats it. Except Billy is mimicking a very offensive and inappropriate thing that his father just said. This shows the reader how Ned Mathews is a inconsiderate role model and a poor parent. Through Billy’s actions Lurie also shows that Billy is not prepared to live the lifestyle of his father. â€Å"The boy I noticed had to take a breath half way down.† This quotations refers to the fact that Billy cannot drink all of the beer in one â€Å"gulp† when his father can as proof that his father’s life is not necessarily appropriate for him. This concern of Billy not being suited for his father’s life is restated by the narrator when he wonders, â€Å"How long can he last?† Through Billy, Lurie is able to express his themes and concerns in an interesting and realistic manner. The themes and concerns developed in ‘Pride and Joy’ may appear to be very simple and obvious but that by no means makes them less important. Themes such as self realization, responsibility, judgment, and parenting are very significant in everyone’s lives.

Congressional Acts that Helps Uplift African Americans

The Search For Throughout history, there has been a struggle for equality and justice. The oppression that African Americans have received throughout the generational period in which they first arrived in America has continued to be a raging war. Article I, Section 8 of the American Constitution enabled Congress to have certain rights and authorities over the laws. In the evaluation of the 1700s, 1800s, 1950s, and 1990s, the prolific effects can be seen through specific Congressional Acts. Between 1775 and 1783, the American Revolutionary war was won and America was able to declare their freedom from the British rule. Although, freedom was given to whites, the same could not be said for black people within the society. In examining the†¦show more content†¦Thus giving states and public agencies the ability to be discriminate against the black community, and extending another form of dehumanization which can be seen as spilled over from the 1700s. A long awaited a historical NAACP court case was won in 1954 after the Supreme Court made a ground making decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education verdict. A lawsuit was brought against the Board of Education which denied back student the ability to attend schools with whites. This court case overturned the previous decision of Plessy v. Ferguerson of 1896, and helped to defeat the notion that America could be â€Å"separate but equal†. As a result segregation was banned and deemed as illegal, providing African Americans with the ability to be provided the same educational advantages as their white counter part. Yet the laws remained restricted pertaining to public entities such as restaurants. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation within the schools was illegal; the laws pertaining to Jim Crow remained in the 1960s. A Congressional Act passed in regards to the Voting Rights of 1965, which â€Å"encouraged African-American voter registration† (A. Leon Higginbotham). The right for black people to vote gave the possibility for black Americans to have a voice. Following the Congressional Act many African Americans decided to vote, yet were met with intimidationan, and â€Å" punishing candidatesShow MoreRelatedPolice Brutality And Corruption, War, And Peace1640 Words   |  7 Pagesquestion will clearly address the variations of police practices over the past 5 years in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, due to the recent incidents regarding police brutality and corruption. Using Chapter 12 Politics, Power, War, and Peace, will help show the relationships between politics in law enforcement and police officers, which deals with a lot of power and peace. Chapter 1 2 Politics, Power, War, and Peace, Section Cultural Controls in Maintaining Order states â€Å"Every culture has variousRead MoreIs Rosa Parks a True Hero2506 Words   |  11 Pagesordered Parks and three blacks seated next to her to move. Parks refused and was arrested. This act of individual resistance, especially in a time where there was lynching for blacks who stepped out of line was rare, especially for a woman. Although it seems insignificant, Parks’ resistance on Dec. 1, 1955 changed the course of history and led to her other major accomplishments, eventually making her an American Hero.2 Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycottRead MoreSegregation and Discrimination in the United States Military During World War Two10166 Words   |  41 Pagesgroups iv. Lack of upward mobility into upper ranks v. Restriction to certain jobs 2. World War Two Minorities c. African Americans vi. Inclusion 1. The Draft and quotas 2. 369th Hell Fighters 3. Tuskegee Airman vii. Port Chicago Disaster d. Native Americans viii. Code talkers 4. Invaluable resource 5. Creation and use 6. Top secret until middle 1968