Public Health and Health Care Essay

Public health is one the of the science that improves and protects the health care of the communities and families through promotions of healthy lifestyles, research for injury and disease prevention and detection and control of infectious diseases. Public health professionals try and prevent issues from happening or recurring through implementing educational programs recommending policies, manage services and conducting research. Such as contrast to clinical professionals doctors, and nurses, who will focus primarily on treating people after they become injured or ill. Public health also works to limit health care disparities. A greater part of public health is promoting health care equity, accessibility and quality (International Health Conference, 1946). How CDC Contributes to Public Health The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the nation’s disease prevention and wellness promotion agency, protecting individual’s safety and health, giving credible information to enhance health care decisions, and improving health care through strong organization. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) work includes wide range health care threats, including infectious chronic diseases, birth defects, injuries, water safety food, environmental hazards, safety and occupational health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also administers funding for local health departments and state, community based companies and academic institutions for a wide array of public health programs and research. Daily Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experts work both behind the scenes and on the frontlines to improve individual’s daily lives and respond to health care emergencies. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is h eadquartered in Atlanta and has just about 14,000,  full-time, part-time and contract employees located all through the U.S. and in 54 countries (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Specific Ways CDC Influence/ Roles of CDC Agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contribute with its partner around the world to detect and investigate health care problems, monitor health, conduct research to enhance prevention, develop and advocate sound public health policies, and provide leadership and training. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) develops a system design recognizing information and sources that best tackle a surveillance goal, be familiar with who will have rights to use information, by what technique and under what circumstances; also improving analysis or action by improving the surveillance system communication with other information systems Using data group recognizing possible bias linked with another collection technique cultural approach in the direction of technology or telephone use, recognizing suitable use of structured data compared with free text, more useful, data standards and language and suggest technologies such as global radio-frequency and positioning systems i dentification to maintain faster, higher-quality data and easier, access in the field. Information management and collation recognize ways to share data across different computing technology proposal linking new information with data from legacy systems; and be familiar with and remedying information quality issues as making certain information security and privacy. â€Å"Analysis recognize suitable statistical and image applications, put together algorithms to prepare users to aberrations within health care events also leveraging high routine computational resources for large data sets or difficult analyses† (Dixon, Gamache, & Grannis, 2013). Understanding the value of evaluate information from one surveillance plan with other information time, place, person, or condition for new viewpoint and merge data of other quality to give a background for explanation and foundation. Diffusion suggest suitable let somebody see information users and the best technique to reach the proposed audience, smooth the progress of data finding; and recognize benefits for information providers (Lundstrom, Pugliese, Bartley, Cox, & Guither, 2002). Application to public health programs assessing the utility of having surveillance data directly flow into information systems that support public health interventions and information elements or standards that facilitate this linkage of surveillance to action and improving access to and use of information produced by a surveillance system for workers in the field and health-care providers (Dixon, Gamache, & Grannis, 2013).

High school Essay

* â€Å"Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. â€Å"Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy. † (â€Å"Why Is Literacy Important? † UNESCO, 2010) * â€Å"The notion of basic literacy is used for the initial learning of reading and writing which adults who have never been to school need to go through. The term functional literacy is kept for the level of reading and writing which adults are thought to need in modern complex society. Use of the term underlines the idea that although people may have basic levels of literacy, they need a different level to operate in their day-to-day lives. † (David Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language, 2nd ed. WileyBlackwell, 2006) * â€Å"To acquire literacy is more than to psychologically and mechanically dominate reading and writing techniques. It is to dominate those techniques in terms of consciousness; to understand what one reads and to write what one understands: it is to communicate graphically. Acquiring literacy does not involve memorizing sentences, words or syllables–lifeless objects unconnected to an existential universe–but rather an attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one’s context. † (Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness. Sheed & Ward, 1974) * â€Å"There is hardly an oral culture or a predominantly oral culture left in  the world today that is not somehow aware of the vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy. † (Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Methuen, 1982) * â€Å"We expect the contradictory and the impossible. . . . We expect to be inspired by mediocre appeals for ‘excellence,’ to be made literate by illiterate appeals for literacy. † (Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 1961) * Women and Literacy â€Å"In the history of women, there is probably no matter, apart from contraception, more important than literacy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, access to power required knowledge of the world. This could not be gained without reading and writing, skills that were granted to men long before they were to women. Deprived of them, women were condemned to stay home with the livestock, or, if they were lucky, with the servants. (Alternatively, they may have been the servants. ) Compared with men, they led mediocre lives. In thinking about wisdom, it helps to read about wisdom–about Solomon or Socrates or whomever. Likewise, goodness and happiness and love. To decide whether you have them, or want to make the sacrifices necessary to get them, it is useful to read about them. Without such introspection, women seemed stupid; therefore, they were considered unfit for education; therefore, they weren’t given an education; therefore they seemed stupid. † (Joan Acocella, â€Å"Turning the Page. † Review of The Woman Reader by Belinda Jack [Yale University Press, 2012]. The New Yorker, October 15, 2012) * From the website of California Literacy, Inc. â€Å"The literacy rate in the US has many educators in search of answers about this problem that has plagued our country for decades. Instead of decreasing, the numbers of literacy has steadily increased over the years. This raises a lot of questions about our education system, how it is ran, and why there is such a problem with illiterate people in our country. † (quoted by The New Yorker, Nov. 22, 2010) Pronunciation: LIT-er-eh-see Language * Six Common Myths About Language * Key Dates in the History of the English Language * Introduction to Etymology: Word Histories Elsewhere on the Web * The National Institute for Literacy (US) * The Literacy Project * National Literacy Trust (UK) Resources for Writers * Reference Works for Writers and Editors * Grammar and Usage Advice Sites * Sites for Correcting Common Sentence Errors Related Articles * orality – definition and examples of orality * illiteracy – definition and examples of illiteracy * aliteracy – definition and examples of aliteracy * Adult Education – What Is Adult Education * Writing Degree – Do I Need a Writing Degree Richard Nordquist Grammar & Composition Guide * Sign up for My Newsletter * Headlines * Forum Advertisement. Related Searches achieving gender equality paulo freire education curbing population growth critical consciousness paulo freire personal empowerment Explore Grammar & Composition Must Reads * What Is Grammar? * Euphemisms for Death * Commonly Confused Words * 400 Essay Topics * Introductions to 30 Figures of Speech Most Popular * What Is a Metaphor? * Writing Topics: Argument * Top 20 Figures of Speech * 400 Writing Topics * metaphor See More About: * english language By Category * Writing Tips * Business Writing * Correcting Errors * English Grammar * Punctuation & Mechanics. * Composing Sentences * Words * Composing Paragraphs * Composing Essays * Rhetoric and Style * Exercises and Quizzes * Readings and Resources * Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary Grammar & Composition 1. About. com 2. Education 3. Grammar & Composition 4. Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary 5. Icon – Lower Case 6. literacy – definition and examples of literacy * Advertise on About. com * Our Story * News & Events * SiteMap * All Topics * Reprints * Help * Write for About * Careers at About * User Agreement * Ethics Policy * Patent Info. * Privacy Policy * Your Ad Choices  ©2013 About. com. All rights reserved. The Greatest Literacy Challenges Facing Contemporary High School Teachers: Implications for Secondary Teacher Preparation Mary B. Campbell Saint Xavier University Margaret M. Kmiecik Saint Xavier University Secondary teachers face significant challenges in their efforts to increase the literacy levels of adolescents. Encouraging teachers to speak out about these challenges and to recommend initiatives that may improve literacy practices for adolescents is vital for future reform efforts. This study examines the questions: â€Å"What are the greatest literacy challenges facing high school content area teachers? † and â€Å"What will help to diminish these challenges? † The data collection questionnaire was distributed to teachers in eight high schools throughout the greater Chicago area. A discussion of the findings suggests compelling directions for secondary teachers and teacher educators. 2 Reading Horizons, 2004, 4, (1) WHILE SEVERAL REFORMS in higher education teacher preparation have made a difference in more teachers being highly prepared and qualified (Smylie, Bay, & Tozer, 1999), preparing teachers to meet the literacy demands of secondary students still remains inadequate. Improving literacy learning in our nation’s high schools needs serious elevation as an educational priority at all levels. The 2002 NAEP (National Association for Educational Progress) Report indicates that 36 percent of students in grade 12 performed at a proficient level, indicating that only a little over one-third of our nation’s high school seniors can understand challenging material (Feller, 2003). This was a decline in performance from 1998 when the NAEP reported the percentage of seniors who performed at the proficient level as 40 percent (U. S. Department of Education, 1999). Additionally the 1998 report states that no more than 6 percent of the adolescents performed at the advanced level which demonstrates students’ ability to analyze and extend the meaning of the materials they read. The NAEP data further show more than one-third of the students did not demonstrate competence at a basic level of literacy. The International Reading Association has taken a substantial leadership role in elevating attention to middle school and secondary literacy issues by establishing the Commission on Adolescent Literacy in 1997 (Rycik & Irvin, 2001). The work of this Commission resulted in the published document, Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement (Moore, Bean, Birdyshaw, & Rycik, 1999), which recommends principles for teachers to consider when supporting the literacy growth of secondary students. Still much more comprehensive work needs to be done as challenges still persist and â€Å"teachers, administrators, and staff developers have asked for more examples of practices that might renew and revitalize their efforts for middle and high school students† (Rycik & Irvin, 2001, p.4). Teaching has greatly increased in range and complexity over the last decade. Teachers now find themselves in highly pressured environments (Pincas, 2002). Faced with the reality of overcrowded classrooms, high stakes testing, and standards-based environments, using instructional practices that move students to higher levels of thinking through more â€Å"authentic† forms of learning are lost. Additional factors Secondary Teaclher Literacy Clhallenges 3  that compound the situation are high student mobility, absenteeism, minimal student engagement, misbehavior, missing homework, cultural and linguistic diversity, special needs, and increasing numbers of students from poverty and single parent households (Alvermann, Hinchman, Moore, Phelps, & Waff, 1998). Regardless of the number or degree of challenges, teachers still remain accountable for fostering literacy growth among all students. Efforts to improve literacy learning for secondary students must take seriously the realities and challenges persistent in today’s high schools. Reform theorists who suggest â€Å"improvement can be made through a series of workshops, enhanced technology, sanctions and the like,† (Smylie, Bay, & Tozer, 1999, p. 59) are naive at best. A new paradigm requires comprehensive and systemic change. It also requires a serious re-orientation towards broad organizational, political, and economic presuppositions on which definition and acquisition of change must be based. Moreover, it involves a commitment to putting teachers at the forefront of the reform process. Valencia and Wixson (2000) argue that it is time for the voices of teachers to be heard. Without empowered professional voices, we lose the potential for constructing serious reform. Emerging Directions If students are to achieve high literacy standards, evidence strongly suggests that what teachers know and can do is one of the more important factors influencing student achievement. (Darling-Hammond, 1999, p. 228). Research also makes it clear that â€Å"if teachers are to negotiate the demands of new standards and new students, they must have access to a deeper base of knowledge and expertise than most teacher preparation programs now provide† (Darling-Hammond, 1999, p.229). While several studies have looked at reform in teacher preparation programs, Schwartz (1996) concluded that reform changes in teacher preparation have resulted in â€Å"little more than adjusting on the margins† (p. 3). Particularly troubling, in secondary teacher preparation, is the limited attention given to the challenges existing in schools in which future teachers must help students to achieve literacy, and the problems 4 Reading Horizons, 2004, 4, (1) of schooling in a broader social context. Moreover, in many states, secondary teacher preparation programs include a requirement of a content area reading course, whereas in other states there is no equivalent requirement. This has remained literally unchanged for years, even as secondary students continue to struggle with reading and writing throughout the high school curriculum. The wide-spread standards movement has made some impact in requiring newly certified teachers to demonstrate competency on specific literacy knowledge and performance indicators. However, the depth of what is needed to teach content area literacy in secondary schools requires more than one course, and/or a few standards. Connecting Two Distinct Communities Education can no longer be seen as an exclusive function, and the traditional structures cannot remain isolated from social change. Faculties in colleges and universities and the practicing teachers in secondary schools have no choice but to adjust to new paradigms. While it is now more common to find partnerships and institutional collaborations between university faculty and secondary teachers, many of these need redefinition. In many partnerships, â€Å"practicing teachers have related there has not been a high level of reciprocity, as the universities are too dominant† (Campbell, 2002, p. 22). Each entity must put into the equation improvement strategies that are meaningful to their respective organizations; that is, they need to identify areas where they truly need help from one another. Then institutionally and programmatically, they need to find ways to work together to make those intended improvements a reality (Howey & Zimpher, 1999, p. 299). High school teachers and teacher educators alike are looking to move beyond  yet another â€Å"good idea† to realize reconceptualization and transformation for secondary literacy education. This means engaging high school teachers in the process of secondary teacher preparation, determining what factors pose the greatest challenges to literacy development and using this knowledge as a cornerstone for improving Secondary Teaclher Literacy Clhallenges literacy practices in schools. Failure to confront these challenges effectively will undoubtedly compromise the ability of teachers to serve as effective agents of change. Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify the problems secondary teachers face that impede literacy learning in the classrooms and to yield information that may inform the preparation of future secondary teachers. Two broad questions emerged to guide this study: o What are the greatest literacy challenges facing high school content area teachers? e What will help to diminish these challenges for current and/or future high school teachers? The Study ParticipatingS chools and Teachers The schools that participated in this study included eight high schools, seven public and one private. The researchers purposely selected the schools to ensure ethnic diversity as well as urban and suburban representation. Six of the high schools represented grades 10-12 and two included grades 9-12. The school principals granted permission to graduate students enrolled in a Masters Degree Program in Reading to place the High School Literacy Survey in the school mailboxes of the teachers. A total of 450 questionnaires, including a cover letter and a stamped return envelope, were distributed to 9-12 teachers. Two hunared and two questionnaires were returned, realizing a return rate of 45 percent. There were no follow-up attempts to obtain a higher return rate. Most respondents (71 percent) had advanced degrees beyond the B. A. or B. S. : among these were 68 percent with a M. A. and 3 percent with a Ph. D. Teachers from 18 different subject area fields responded to the survey. English (18 percent), mathematics (16 percent), and science (15 percent) teachers comprised the majority of participants. The remaining teachers represented the following subjects; art (3 percent), 5. 6 ReadingHorizons, 2004, 45, (1) business (4 percent), technology (4 percent), driver’s education (1 percent), foreign language (6 percent), history (7 percent), library (1 percent), music (1 percent), physical education (3 percent), reading (1 percent), radio/television (1 percent), social studies (8 percent), special education (3 percent), theology (3 percent), and vocational education (4 percent). Teachers with more than 10 years of experience accounted for 63 percent of the sample, while 37 percent had 10 years or less. Teachers working in suburban areas surrounding the greater Chicago area comprised the majority (67 percent) of the sample population, with the remaining 33 percent coming from urban schools. Forty-four percent described their schools as predominately diverse (> 50 percent), 32 percent considerably diverse (30-50 percent minority), 17 percent somewhat diverse (10-30 percent minority) and 7 percent primarily white (less than 10 percent minority). The Questionnaire We collected the data from a survey instrument, High School. Literacy Survey, designed and constructed by us. The questionnaire requested two types of information: * objective, relating to educational degrees, content field of study, years of teaching experience, diversity of school population * subjective, relating to opinions and values in teaching and learning The subjective portion of the survey was comprised of two broad questions. The first question asked teachers to identify 5 of the 20 factors that posed the greatest challenges in helping their students to attain literacy in their subject field. Respondents wrote the numeral 1 next to the statement representing their greatest challenge, the numeral 2 next to the statement representing their next greatest challenge, and so forth through the numeral 5. (See Appendix) The twenty statements, defined as challenges, were derived from the literature on content area reading. An extensive review of the literature Secondary Teaclher Literacy Clhallenges 7 resulted in identifying twenty challenges, however, these may not represent all possible factors and they may not represent factors that teachers would have included if they were to construct the questionnaire. A space was provided for teachers entitled â€Å"other† for their convenience in identifying additional factors that pose as challenges. Since no specific theory was identified to serve as a foundation for the selection of factors, they represent an eclectic representation. Additionally, the factors were not defined on the questionnaire, indicating that a singular definition cannot be assumed and that the factors may represent multiple meanings in the field. The second question invited the teachers to respond openly to the question, â€Å"What do you believe will help to diminish these challenges for current and/or future high school teachers? † Findings Percentages were used to report the data on the high school teachers’ perceptions about the factors that challenge them most in helping their students to achieve literacy in their subject area. Table 1. Percentage Responses of Factors that Represent the Greatest Literacy Challenges Factors Percent 1 2 3 4 5 Total Assessment of student learning 2 1 1 2 2 8 Classroom environment 1 2 – 1 2 6 Classsize 4 4 6 8 5 27 Cultural and language diversity – 1 – 1 – 2 among students Curriculum – 1 2_ 1A _3 7. 8 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1) Factors Percent 1 2 3 4 5 Total Helping students to construct. meaning from text Helping students interpret graphics in text Helping students to learn and use critical thinking skills Helping students to locate and organize information Helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary Homework issues Integrating technology for teaching and learning Selecting materials for teaching and learning Organizing and managing the classroom for learning State/district/school standards for students Struggling readers Student motivation/interest/attitudes 3 6 6 7 7 1 1 – 3 2 16 8 12 11 12 1 5 5 4 3 8 3 6 11 12 5 8 10 6 7 1 5 2 1 3 – – 1 – 4 1 2 – 2 3 1 1 1 1 2 9 9 8 8 8. 33 17 17 8 7 1 5 5 5 3 19 29 7 59 18 40 36 12 5 8 6 42 82 Students with special needs Secondary Teacher Literacy Chiallenges Factors Percent 1 2 3 4 5 Total Students who lack study skills 11 13 13 13 7 57 Writing skills of students 2 8 5 7 8 30 (A ranking scale, with 1 meaning â€Å"greatest challenge,† 2 â€Å"next greatest challenge,† and so forth) The top five challenges as reported in Table 1 were: * student motivation, interests, and attitudes (33 percent) o helping students to learn and use critical thinking skills (16 percent) o students who lack study skills (11 percent) o struggling readers (9 percent). o helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary (8 percent). The least perceived challenges were cultural and language diversity among students (2 percent) and selecting materials for teaching and learning (5 percent). Examining the data of the largest responding groups of content area teachers, English, mathematics, and science, yielded similar findings. All three of these groups identified the same top two challenges as did the total group. The English, mathematics, and science teachers’ third, fourth and fifth rankings were: * English > (3) homework issues > (4) students who lack study skills. > (5) writing skills of students o Mathematics > (3) students who lack study skills 9 iO Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1) > (4) homework issues > (5) helping students to locate and organize information e Science: > (3) students who lack study skills > (4) helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary > (5) helping students to construct meaning from text The teachers were also asked to respond to the following openended question, â€Å"What do you believe will help to diminish these challenges for current and/or future high school teachers? † Seventyseven percent of the teachers wrote responses to this question. The resppnses were grouped by similar topics from which themes emerged. Table 2 reports the percentages of the most frequently occurring responses to the open-ended question. Table 2. Themes and Percentages of Responses for Confronting the Greatest Challenges Most Frequent Responses by Theme Percent Better basic skills instruction in elementary schools 64 More parent responsibility and support 58 Mandatory inclusion of critical 39 thinking questions on all assessments Study skills classes for incoming students 33 I Iimprove teacher preparation/more methods for 28 secondary teachers. Greater respect and support from society 20 Practical/useful staff development 11 Secondary TeachterLiteracy Challenges ‘ 11 Most Frequent Responses by Theme Percent Teacher task forces making policy decisions 9 instead of politicians and administrators Complete restructuring of the current traditional 7 education model A center at each high school for struggling readers The most common responses cited by the majority of teachers to confront the greatest challenges (Table 2) were better basic skills instruction in elementary schools (64 percent) and more parent responsibility and support (58 percent). Sample responses given by less than 50 percent of the teachers were mandatory inclusion of critical thinking questions on all assessments (39 percent), study skills classes for incoming students (33 percent), and improvement of teacher preparation with more methods for secondary teachers (28 percent). Discussion The results of this study provide insight for the continuing efforts to improve the literacy levels of secondary students. They are, however, neither exclusive nor exhaustive. They are offered with no claim for the universality or total generalizability, but they are offered as a common ground for thinking. Student Motivation andA ttitudes High school teachers identified student motivation to read, write, and do other literacy-related activities as their greatest challenge. The teachers’ written comments on questionnaires indicated that much of the class-assigned reading is often boring and not relevant to the student’s own interests and experiences. They also stated that the students who will not read are as much at a disadvantage as those who cannot. Student 12 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1) motivation was ranked the greatest challenge of all for the participating teachers. The dilemma of identifying and implementing strategies to motivate adolescents is not new to literacy practice. The data from this study confirm what the research (Alexander & Filler, 1976; Au & Asam, 1996; Benware & Deci, 1984; Collins-Block, 1992; Guthrie & Alao, 1997; Schraw, Brunning, & Svoboda, 1995) has documented over time: that student motivation, interests, and attitudes are indeed authentic challenges. Teaching adolescents to become active, motivated, and selfregulated learners is a continuing issue in secondary schools. It is during the adolescent years when reading motivation and attitudes appear to worsen, especially for poor readers (McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). Serious attempts to advance literacy skills require interventions that address motivation and attitudes as much as interventions that assure cognitive changes in the learners (Verhoevan & Snow, 2001). This generally does not happen. Motivational constructs are usually not given significant vigilance in relation to student cognition and thinking, and at best, are given only passing and superficial attention. A further problem is that standard reading texts and uniform curricula make life somewhat easier for teachers and administrators, but they make it very difficult for students to get involved with the material at the level that is right for them, and therefore to find intrinsic rewards in learning. In the classroom, the teacher is the key element in motivating students to learn. The responsibility is great and the ramifications even greater, yet many responding high school teachers stated they were not adequately prepared in their teacher preparation programs with the knowledge, skills, and instructional strategies to ignite the spirit of their students. These teachers indicated they want more ideas, support, and freedom within the school curriculum to take the lead, and more ways to experience first-hand, in-field, motivational issues in their teacher preparation programs. Critical Thinking Skills. Teaching critical thinking skills was the second greatest challenge for teachers. Large numbers of teachers indicated they feel underSecondary Teachter Literacy Clhallenges 13 prepared in pedagogical methods to help studenis conceptualize problems and solutions. Assisting adolescents to become proficient with these skills is a prodigious challenge for secondary teachers. The capacity for abstraction, for discovering patterns and meanings, generalizing, evaluating, and theorizing is the very essence of critical thinking and exploration. For most students in the United States and throughout the world, formal education entails just the opposite kind of learning. Rather than construct meaning for themselves, meanings are imposed upon them. Frequently, students often accumulate a large number of facts along the way, yet these facts are not central to their education; they will live their adult lives in a world in which most facts learned years before (even including some historical ones) will have changed or have been reinterpreted. Whatever data they need will be available to them at the touch of a computer key. If students are to learn critical thinking skills, teachers must teach them and engage their students in genuine problem solving discussion. Generally these skills are best, and likely only taught and assessed, through extended discourse. This is difficult to do in crowded classes where it is near to impossible to carry out extended discussions. The commitment to teaching these skills in all content areas means gaining support from the public. It also means that teachers must gain the knowledge and skills to do so through teacher preparation programs and inservice education, taking into account the real-life situations and parameters in today’s classrooms. Study Skills Students who lack study skills ranked as the third greatest challenge to teachers. The importance of study skills has been documented over time in the professional literature (Flood & Lapp, 1995). What is known is that many people of all ages have difficulty reading and learning, largely because they are not using appropriate techniques or good learning habits. Often, the adolescents who are dropping out of schools are doing so because they believe they carnot learn. For the majority of these students, they lack suitable reading and study techniques, which 14 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45(1) impede their growth in learning and contribute to their negative beliefs about themselves and school. Although most secondary teachers have a thorough understanding qf their subject, many responding teachers in this study indicated they lack the knowledge of instructional/study strategies by which to help students internalize the concepts. Research shows that with an organized system of study, students can increase their comprehension of subject matter up to 50 percent (Annis, 1983). As nations seek to assist adolescents in gaining higher levels of literacy, the knowledge and skills that teachers need to teach their students effective study habits and strategies may likely become central to the curriculum in secondary teacher preparation programs and in the curriculum of secondary schools. Struggling Readers Struggling readers ranked as the fourth greatest challenge to the high school teachers. Teachers responded that these students can be found â€Å"hiding out† in content classrooms. They frequently are passive and disengaged. , Many have found coping strategies to help (them get by, but they do not significantly improve their literacy skills or their knowledge in the content areas. I Although comprehension of text material is difficult and sometimes impossible for struggling readers, there are research-based strategies that have proven to be successful when used with struggling readers. One such strategy is instructional scaffolding, an effective strategy that gives students a better chance to be successful than if left on their own (Vacca, 2002). Pedagogy, which includes instructional techniques for diverse learners, is glossed over in many teacher preparation programs for secondary teachers. However, it is as important in the preparation of high school teachers as is cognitive knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 2000). If high school teachers are to make substantial contributions to all adolescents, it will require more knowledge of relevant instructional methodologies. Darling-Hammond (2000) found that teacher subject-matter knowledge was related to student achievement only up to a certain point. Secondary Teacher Literacy Challenges 15 Marzano (2003) asserts that the importance of the relationship between pedagogical knowledge and student achievement has been consistently reported in the research literature. Furthermore, in a study conducted by Ferguson and Womack (1993), they found that the number of courses teachers took in instructional techniques accounted for four times the variance in teacher performance and student achievement than did subject-matter knowledge. Teachers stated that more information about how to assist the struggling readers in their classrooms is sorely needed in preservice teacher education programs. Additionally they need to know that the strategies and support to assist these learners are realistic for today’s classrooms. Key Concepts and Vocabulary Helping students to understand concepts and vocabulary ranked as the fifth greatest challenge. Every subject area has its own vocabulary and modes of argument, and its language is the common denominator for learning subject matter knowledge. Vacca and Vacca (2002) agree: they state, â€Å"Vocabulary must be taught well enough to remove potential barriers to students’ understanding of texts as well as to promote a longterm acquisition of the language of a content area† (p. 160-161). Teachers want more knowledge about ways to teach vocabulary and concepts to adolescents, strategies that will provide adolescents with a deeper and richer entry into the content area of study, and strategies that will work in the classrooms of today. Intriguing Findings It is a noteworthy finding that the cultural and language diversity among students in the classrooms was not identified among the greatest challenges. The majority of teachers in this study were from diverse schools, and yet only two percent ranked this to be a challenge. Equally notable was the fact that state, district, and school standards, writing skills, and integrating technology were not identified among the greatest challenges. 16 Reading Horizons, 2004, 45, (1). Of all the findings, the most revealing was that provided by the driver’s education teachers: whereas every other content-area group of teachers, albeit art, music, business, foreign language, etc. , ranked student motivation as the greatest challenge, they did not. This is not surprising as it supports the findings of this study as well as long standing research in the field, as cited in Marzano, 2003. The hypothesis being that when motivated, students strive to learn.

Epistemology †Sense Essay

The issue of knowledge is definitely an essential part in philosophy. It forces us to question whether we are certain of the things we think we know, and whether we can justify the things we know are actually true. This theory or study of knowledge can be referred to as epistemology. All these views on knowledge can vary depending on how we view the world itself. We are able to perceive the world through the application of our senses, however, our senses alone can be very deceiving. We can never really be definite of what we know just by looking at the world the way it is. We are able to make opinions and assumptions about what we see, smell, taste, and hear, but can never really be absolute. In order to claim knowledge, it requires certainty that something is true. If we were to claim knowledge without certainty, we would be disregarding Descartes’ conception of knowledge and certainty. Descartes clarifies doubt as the contrast to certainty. As certainty increases, doubt decreases; conversely, as doubt increases certainty decreases. The world would not be as challenging as it is if we could just accept anything as knowledge. We would be able to simply opinionate, assume, and estimate whatever we would like and claim that all is true. However, as good as it sounds, it is not practical. It is as what it sounds to be like a make believe world. Basically, if we based knowledge off of ideas we are not certain of and just accepted them as true, we would never be able to continue on to the next levels of knowledge. Somewhere along the lines of this uncertain knowledge, we would find that things do not correlate, or make sense. We would find ourselves questioning the reason for things and only finding out that our knowledge is inaccurate. All in all, fictitious knowledge is not beneficial in the long run without certainty.

Questions - Program Evaluation Method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Questions - Program Evaluation Method - Essay Example (Julian, 1997) 1. Objectives, activities, outcome measures of the logic model maybe unclear or missing. This is because logic models contain lists of each of the elements of a logic model without specifying which item on one list is related to which item on another list. This can easily lead to confusion regarding the relationship among elements or result in accidental omission of an item on a list of elements. 2. Too much (or too little) information maybe provided on the logic model. The logic model should include only the primary elements related to program/project design and operation. As a general rule, it should provide the "big picture" of the program/project and avoid providing very specific details related to how, for example, interventions will occur, or a list of all the agencies that will serve to improve collaboration efforts. 3. Objectives maybe confused with activities. The project evaluator must make surethat items listed as objectives are in fact objectives rather than activities. Anything related to program implementation or a task that is being carried out in order to accomplish something is an activity rather than an objective. For example, hire 10 staff members is an activity that is being carried out in order to accomplish an objective such as improve response time for incoming phone calls. Even though it leaves out information, a good model represents those aspects of an initiative that, in the view of the stakeholders, are most important for understanding how the effort works. The developers will go through several drafts before producing at a version that the stakeholders agree accurately reflects their story. If the information will become overly complex, it will be possible to create a family of related models, or nested models, each capturing a different level of detail. One model could sketch out the broad

Community development nursing Written assignment Essay

Community development nursing Written assignment - Essay Example To determine the role of the community nurses, the ecological factors that foster the substance abuse problems in this age group were determined, again through the review of literature. The current approach can be based on preventive approach designed through knowledge about these factors, many of which individual, familial, and social may be effectively controlled through social modifications. Awareness about this problem would thus be most important. From the community nursing point of view, due to the scope of exposure and interaction with the individuals within the community may help deliver care to those who are affected and prevent the risk factors that may prove to serve the purpose of achieving control on this problem. Worldwide, the recent reports from mental health care and primary care facilities indicate the significant importance of community health and public health policies in care for substance abuse and mental health disorders. Despite government initiatives, it is unfortunate that research in this area is limited since there is a paucity of literature on substance abuse services or related mental health intervention approaches provided in the community care settings (Druss, et al. 2006). More pertinent may be the fact that with the changing scenarios of this problem, how the services can be adjusted or evolved over time. Therefore the question arises how the community practitioner delivers the care necessary for people with substance abuse with the dynamic care needs of these clients, or it is impossible to deliver care in the community, specially by the community nurses for this problem The Problem and its Magnitude In Hong Kong a survey conducted during the 2008-09 school year revealed increasing prevalence and problem of youth substance abuse. In comparison to the survey conducted 4 years earlier, this survey revealed an 1% point increase in prevalence of substance abuse among school students, which currently is 4.3% of the school students. It is more prevalent in the adolescent age groups, and the magnitude of the problem can be conceived from the epidemiologic data that among 12 year old school students, 4.6% declared that they had abused substances or drugs. When compared to the same data 4 years ago, which was 2.4%, there is a clear trend of lowering of the age of substance abuse. These data should be interpreted with caution since in many such cases, these surveys fail to reveal the actual prevalence due to fear of admitting abuse. Although these surveys can offer scientific data, it is important to understand the trend that may facilitate services that can combat youth drug problems, whi ch has become very serious in Hong Kong. The "2008-09 Survey of Drug Use among Students" documents also reveals some very important information that are useful from the community nursing perspectives. This clearly states that the drivers of the decision to abuse substances among the youth reside in the community. The first is availability and the second is the hidden nature of the youth substance a

PH 91 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PH 91 - Assignment Example To treat this STI one of the best methods is to apply topical steroid ointments. A third STI that an individual can experience is the sexually transferred gastrointestinal disease especially in the genetalian and the symptom of this infection may include irritation of the region called colonic mucosa and the treatment of this STI is similar to the treatment of genital herpes. A fourth STI is Kaposi sarcoma and the symptom of this disease is the development of cuts on the skin that do not pose a threat to life. They are treated with radiation method of treatment. Developing any STI will make me feel depressed and I will feel that my life is under the danger of death. In order to secure oneself from STIs I would take precautionary measures such as contraceptives including condoms. There are various causes that can result in male experiencing sexual issues. These causes include both physical issues as well as psychological issues. The physical caused that may result in dysfunction includes diabetes as well as drug abuse and the psychological causes may include stressful life due to work and personal life issues. In order to treat male sexual issues can be treated through drugs and these drugs are used to treat the physical issues that are causing sexual problems. The physical causes of sexual issues experienced by the female includes diabetes, discrepancies of the hormones, substance abuse such as excessive and addictive alcohol drinking behavior and women may even experience these issues as a result of stress in the work and personal lives. To treat these issues those physical issues should be treated with the help of medicine that are causing these issues. Furthermore, providing females with education regarding their anatomy can help them overcome stress. The work of the sex therapist includes the identification as well as the analysis of the sexual issues

Professional organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Professional organization - Essay Example ACN will be in equipping me with the necessary information that will enhance my capacity to advance my nursing education, research, and eventually my career. Importantly, participating in AACN’s activities will be essential in developing my capacity in providing quality care to my patients in an effective and efficient manner that promoted safety. AACN invites new members to participate in its program that matches new deans with mentors who have expertise in the field. Through participating in this program, my experienced mentor will help me achieve the objectives of learning the approaches to become conversant with my roles as a nurse leader and build my leadership skills in the nursing field. Besides, participating in these programs will be instrumental in capacity building of my leadership skills in finance. The Doctor of Nursing Program (DNP) is the future in nursing education and research. In this case, this program will move the advanced nursing practice from its current master’s level to the doctorate level. In line with this, I want to expand my practice in nursing and enroll in this program. In effect, AACN has been on the forefront in building capacity and developing this program in nursing. Hence, my membership with this organization will be of the essence since it has already established the necessary framework to guide its members to join DNP programs while its database will provide literature for nursing

What role does equality play in socialist ideology Essay - 1

What role does equality play in socialist ideology - Essay Example Under this ideology, social and economic surplus achieved through socialist philosophy is allocated to labourers in the working class equitably and where political and corporate systems become decentralised. Thus, under this practical definition of socialism, equality not only plays a powerful role in socialist doctrine, it is the foundational imperative of the ideology. Equality, both socially and economically, underpins the foundation of socialist thought. Under most socialist models, the philosophy is an evolution from attempts to block or otherwise emerge from capitalist ideology which, during the 19th Century, began to dominate many international economies experiencing economic growth born of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism, by design, applauds the emergence of the profit-seeking corporation in which capital assets, including industrial machinery and factories, are controlled by either private citizens or private businesses (Degen 2008). Gains on capital assets and paid labour are then allowed to accrue to serve the utility of private ownership supported by various pricing mechanisms as the foundation of allocation of capital goods (products and services) which is unequal depending on economic resources of the consuming public. Socialist ideology, on the other hand, especially with the more revolutionary Marxist school of thought, considers capitalism to be extravagant and utterly inefficient as allocation of capital goods produced is disproportionate to satisfying the needs of a broader society and labourers are deemed to be exploited to ensure surplus of production is available for private owners. Socialists reject disparate allocation of produced and natural resources and prefer social ownership of capital assets to maximise the utility of majority society (Degen 2008). This is akin to a form of act utilitarianism in which maximising majority utility, even when requiring some self-sacrifice, are mandates (Hooker 2001; Kagan 1991). Thus,

Adolescence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Adolescence - Essay Example dards in the very process, adolescents show higher-order reasoning about the self and its qualities, with peer relations taking precedence away from familial relations in terms of assessing personal competence. They, more often than children use social comparative mechanics while evaluating themselves Several areas of the brain undergo transformative realignment during the transition to adolescence. Among the notable structural changes in the brain during this period include a decrease in gray matter in the prefrontal regions of the brain. These anatomical changes referred to in the medical field as synaptic pruning, kicks off the elimination of unused connections between neurons; a process believably underpins the improvements in basic cognitive abilities and logical reasoning. Another important change in the brain during adolescence is the increased dopaminergic activity in pathways that connect the limbic system. Basically, the dopamine receptors become densely distributed within the prefrontal cortex; regions where emotions are processed and rewards and punishments experienced. Dopamine plays a critical role in the judgment of experiences, thus the explanation for sensation-seeking through experimentation. Finally, there is the increase of white matter in the very same prefrontal cortex of the brain during adolescence via a process known as myelination; the process through which nerve fibers become sheathed in myelin for more efficient neural connectivity within the region. This is an important adjustment for higher-order cognitive functions such as weighing of risks, advanced planning among other complicated decisions. To begin with, children basically interact/play with friends within the vicinity of their environment and/those chosen to them by those around them, mostly their parents. To be specific, such friends are usually close relatives or those from the neighbouring families. Such fiends are generally playmates, with no strings for long-term

Why is the Kashmir dispute the oldest unresolved international Essay

Why is the Kashmir dispute the oldest unresolved international conflict in the world today - Essay Example factors including, social, cultural, religious and political have played a vital role in the process to exist Kashmir dispute as an unresolved problem. In the shadow of political crisis, there are some antisocial activities such as terrorism, fanaticism and jihad (holy war) in Kashmir region. Cases related with the violation of human rights have an integral role in the discussion, why Kashmir dispute became the oldest and unresolved international issue in the world? The people in Kashmir demands self governance and many people believe that both India and Pakistan should a positive decision in this self governance which may be a significant step in reducing the conflict. Anyhow, the conflict between the world’s newest atomic powers resulted severe security problems in Indian subcontinent. Kashmir dispute has a rich historical background and it is not only a political issue between India and Pakistan but a last long crisis having various phases. Before the time of Indian independence, the state of Jammu Kashmir was a ruled by Hari Singh, a Hindu ruler and who tried to maintain his states as independent. Because of the presence of majority Muslim people some Pakistani leaders have argued that Kashmir region belonged to Pakistan. In 1947 Pakistan sent some tribal infiltrator to catch Kashmir and the Maharaja pleaded military aid for Indian army. Maharaja had ignored the opposition of the native people and he signed the agreement of the Instrument of Accession with Indian Government. Historical studies exposes that it is this event that resulted for the so called turmoil of the people who settled in Jammu and Kashmir. While turning over the pages of history, it is quite observable that for many years the people of this region were seeking for their cultural identity. The boundary problem between India and Pakistan paved the way for the unending crisis and it had affected not only the formation of the foreign policies of India and Pakistan but also various factor

Character analysis Essay Example for Free

Character analysis Essay Priestley describes him in the opening stage directions as a rather portentous man, full of his own self-importance. In the play, he is certainly very concerned with his social position he twice mentions that he was Lord Mayor as a way of impressing Gerald (pp.8, 11), and mentions the knighthood to him, even though it is far from definite. He is solely worried about how his familys reputation will suffer at the inquest when he hears of Mrs Birlings part in the girls death (p. 45), and he is more concerned about how to coverup Erics thefts (p.54) than about how to put them right. He tries to use first Geralds family name (p.13) and then his friendship with the Chief Constable (p.16) as ways of bullying the Inspector; he obviously believes that others are as easily impressed by social connections as he is. (We know he is easily impressed because of his evident pride at Geralds family background; he obviously believes he has made a good match for Sheila.) His key characteristic is his complacency. He is well-off (as the opening stage directions suggest), and he believes he always will be: that were in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity (p.6). This success, however, has been at the expense of others he threw the girl out of her job for asking for a modest rise, and intends in the future to work with Crofts Limited for lower costs and higher prices (p.4), exploiting his power as a capitalist to profit at the expense of others. Birling does not believe he has a responsibility to society, only to his family: a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own (p.10). He is not upset, unlike Eric, at hearing the details of the girls death (p.12), which shows him to be a little heartless. He is suspiciously defensive when he thinks the Inspector is accusing him of causing it, and like Mrs Birling is relieved when he thinks the finger is no longer pointing at him. This is hypocritical because, as the Inspector says, the girls [still] dead, though (p.18). He also has double standards: for he sees nothing strange in wanting to protect Sheila from the unpleasantness of the girls life and death, yet feels no guilt at not having protected the girl herself. Crucially, Priestley undermines this self-important, complacent man, who believes his only responsibility is to his family, right at the start of the play. He is shown as short-sighted and wrong:  Prediction  Reality  Were in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity  The Wall Street Crash (1929) and the Great Depression within a generation  There isnt a chance of war  World war within two years, with a second to follow within the same lifetime  In 1940youll be living in a world thatll have forgotten all these Capital versus Labour agitations  The General Strike (1926) and the continued rise of the Trade Union Movement. The Titanic: unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable  SS Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage  This dramatic irony at his expense encourages us to question how many of his other beliefs are correct; Priestley, as a socialist, is not sympathetic to what this capitalist believes.  He also undermines Birlings relationship with his family, the only institution that Birling believes matters. In Act Two, both his children who learn from the Inspector in a way Birling never does behave badly in front of him (pp.32-33), and his heir Eric is later revealed as both an alcoholic and a thief. After the Inspector has gone, Birling simply wants things to return to the way they were. He cannot understand Sheilas and Erics insistence that there is something to be learnt, and he is relieved and triumphant when he feels that scandal has been avoided and everything is all right. Right up until the end, he claims that theres every excuse for what both your mother and I did it turned out unfortunately, thats all (p.57). Birling is not the cold and narrow-minded person that his wife is; he simply believes in what he says. He is a limited man, who is shown to be wrong about many things in the play; it is the Birlings of the world whom Priestley feared in 1945 would not be willing or able to learn the lessons of the past, and so it is to the younger generation that Priestley hopefully looked instead  Mrs Birling  Priestley describes her in the opening stage directions as a rather cold woman (p.1).  She expects Sheila to make the same sacrifices in marriage that she had to (p.3); she has a clear sense of her duty within the family.

Are many of lufthansas challenges identified Essay Example for Free

Are many of lufthansas challenges identified Essay Are many of lufthansas challenges identified in the case similar to those being experienced by other businesses in todays global economy? By iJazwahid RWC 2: Lufthansa: Taking Mobile Computing to the Skies While Keeping the Mobile Workforce Connected 1 . Are many of Lufthansas challenges identifies in the case similar to those being experienced by other businesses in todays global economy? Explain and provide some examples? While the specifics of each challenge are particular to Lufthansas situation, many are hared by other global organizations. Examples could include: Provide a mobile workforce with equipment that fits their needs while it does not get in the way of accomplishing their objectives (not only technical specifications, but also upgrades and updates, stability, etc) Distribute training and other non-directly value-adding activities during non-productive periods both to maximize efficiency and reduce downtime Provide adequate support to mobile operations while keeping a tight lid n cost and being able to Justify the investment Redefine processes to accommodate new mobile technologies and needs of a distributed workforce including communication, meeting and decision making practices 2. What other tangible and intangible benefits, beyond those identified by Lufthansa, might a mobile workforce enjoy as a result of deploying mobile technologies. Explain. Examples could include: Increased, all-around, communication, both with the organization and with personal relationships (family, friends, etc). Especially important for a highly mobile workforce such as airline pilots. Remote access to corporate applications, important since increasingly more of the employees interaction is self-managed (payroll systems, expense reports, etc. ) More productive time spent at customer locations and streamlined order taking and processing Ability to timely collect and report data on the competitive environment, both for the own organization and competitors (prices, volume, advertising, etc)

Literary Analysis Of Beowulf English Literature Essay

Literary Analysis Of Beowulf English Literature Essay Ever sense the beginning of time there have been epic stories about heros and courageous leaders who take down evil and bring peace to the people they protect, Beowulf is no different from this. Beowulf is an epic story that relates well to the time that it was introduced by having the stories of the epic battles and the defeats of the treacherous monsters that kept everyone entertained during this era. Not only does Beowulf represent the era well but it also has very interesting characters, themes and symbols that help teach us lessons that are very much so needed in todays society. Beowulf teaches us courage, it shows us characters such as Beowulf himself that are true to his word and self-confident, and it also shows us symbols that give an image of God and the hope that he brings to the people that believe in his word. When Beowulf arrives to the land of the Danes, as soon as they dock and get off of their ship Beowulf shows his courage instantly by taking the lead and explaining to the guards that watched out for raiders and enemy ships approaching who they were and where they were from so that they may advance to the Heorot which he had heard much about. After they get inside Heorot Beowulf truly shows his courage when he tells Hrothgar about all of the triumphs he had when he was younger and how when he heard of their problem with Grendel and how he planned to be a match for him so that he could be the one to bring peace back to Heorot. The news of Grendel, hard to ignore, reached me at home: sailors brought stories of the plight you suffer in this legendary hall, how it lies deserted, empty and useless once the evening light hides itself under heavens dome. [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] Now I mean to be a match for Grendel, settle the outcome in single combat. (410 414 425-426) He also explains how he is nt afraid of death because if he is going to die it will happen whether he wants it to or not and by doing this he gives king Hrothgar peace by knowing that he is courageous enough to take on this challenge and not be afraid by the terror that his people have been facing for the last 12 years. whichever one death fells must deem it a just judgment by God [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] Fate goes ever as fate must. (440-441 455). Not only is Beowulf extremely courageous but he is the mold that heros model themselves after he is noble, true to his word and his unquestionable trust in his skills. When Beowulf gets to Heorot and they begin to feast Unfearth goes up to Beowulf and questions the race that he and Brecca had in the fierce open sea saying that no matter what he had done before that he would not be able to defeat Grendel because many great warriors had come before him and his fate would be no different, however Beowulf has trust in his skills that God has graced him with just as he did when he raced Brecca in the open sea. The truth is this: when the going was heavy in those high waves, I was the strongest swimmer of all (532 534). By Beowulf saying this he is letting Unfearth know that now as well as when he raced Brecca he is the best and will not be beaten. Beowulf then begins to challenge Unfearths skills by saying if he was really as courageous as he has been saying he is then Grendel wouldnt be able to get away with killing all of Hrothgars people and that Beowulf will show Grendel different and that he will show him his skill. He knows he can trample down you Danes to his hearts content, humiliate and murder without fear of reprisal. But he will find me different. I will show him how Geats shape to kill in the heart of battle. (599 603) Beowulf by saying this is showing that he has great confidence in his skill as a warrior and that he do what Unfearth has been unable to do, which is free Heorot of their burden of Grendel. Later in the story Grendel appears in the night to eat the bodies of the soldiers that are in the middle of their slumber inside of Heorot and Beowulf is waiting for him to do as he said he would. After their battle Grendel had been beaten by Beowulf Grendel was driven under the fen-banks, fatally hurt (818-819) by defeating Grendel Beowulf was true to his word and accomplished what he had set out to do The Geat captain had boldly fulfilled his boast to the Danes: he had healed and relieved a huge distress (827 829). Beowulf has many things inside the story that a symbolic of God and how he can deliver us from our demons, or Grendel in this case that constantly torment us and cause us dismay in our everyday lifes. When Beowulf is at the feast when he arrives at Heorot he is sitting at a bench when the helming woman came by to give him a drink with measured words she welcomed the Geat and thanked God for granting her wish that a deliverer she could believe in would arrive to ease their afflictions. (625 628) When she tells him this it gives a kind of Godly presence to Beowulf that he is their savior and he will relieve them of their transgression that is Grendel and his murderous ways. In the beginning of the story it talks about how a leader will come one day that would be set apart from others that had come before to deliver the Danish people from all their problems. It also states that the shield was still alive when it was the mans time to go into the lords keeping. Shield was still thriving when his time came and he crossed over into the Lords keeping. (26 27) This is symbolic of how the shield is Gods word and Gods protection over us how when we have it with us in our lives we will be taken by him when our time comes to spend eternity in his kingdom. Another interesting symbol in the story is Grendel the story often refers to him as God-cursed (711) which is similar to the devil who was banished and cursed for the rest of eternity just as Grendel was as he was always living in torment and all that would ease him is the pain and suffering of others such as when he arrived at Heorot and saw all the men sleeping there. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ his glee was demonic, picturing the mayhem: before morning he would rip life from lib and devour them (730 732) Grendel enjoyed causing misery in the lives of the Danes much like the devil enjoys seeing suffering in our lifes. Beowulf is an amazing story that teaches us courage, it shows us characters such as Beowulf himself that are true to his word and self-confident, and it also shows us symbols that give an image of God and the hope that he brings to the people that believe in his word. Whether its courage or just teaching us to believe and trust in God through any transgressions that we encounter in life Beowulf can teach us many valuable lessons that can help make us better people.

The Irish Troubles: Yeats Poetry Essay -- Writing Writers Literature

The Irish Troubles: Yeat's Poetry William Butler Yeats, born in Dublin, Ireland [June 13, 1865], is considered by many to be one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. The following exposition, grounded on the hypothesis that Yeats’ poetry was resolutely influenced by the political occurrences of that time period, will give biographical information, a recounting of the political upheaval during that period, specific poetry excerpts/critical analysis and validation of hypothesis. William Butler Yeats is one of the many famous names to come from the original Golden Dawn. "His poetry and writings were a display of his passion for mysticism and the Occult Sciences"(www.webus.com/hogd/bioyeats.html). He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1924. Yeats realized early on the oppression and austerity that both he and his fellow countrymen endured. Yeats’ father was a lawyer, who later pursued a career as a painter. In 1867, the family followed him to London, where William spent most of his youth. Upon his return to Dublin, Yeats furthered his studies at the Metropolitan School of Art. "As a writer Yeats made his debut in 1885, when he published his first poems in The Dublin University Review"(www.kifjasto.sci/wbyeats.htm). In 1887 the family returned to Bedford Park and Yeats devoted himself to writing. Later in 1889, Yeats met his undeniable love, Maude Gonne, an Irish Nationalist, who greatly inspired his poetry. However, Maude later married Major John MacBride. "At the start of the Irish Civil War Yeats went to Oxford, but returned then to Dublin, becoming a Senator in the same year. As a politician Yeats defended Protestant interests and took pro-Treaty stance against Republicans. In 1932 Ye... ...likely that anyone reading this article can image "sensible" violence and most of us simply find the lack of civil behavior to be far beyond anything we can understand. It seemed to me that it would be appropriate to try and shed some light on the so-called "troubles" because the situation in Northern Ireland exceeds several lifetimes and yet appears incomprehensible" (//www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/ireland/ireland2.html). To conclude, Ireland has faced years of prejudice, suppression, and tyranny. Yeats, like many other nationalists recognized this and in his own way attempted to address these issues by publicly announcing his contempt for this discrimination, through poetry, but to no avail. As we can see, these troubles continue to challenge the citizens of Ireland. Perhaps, one day this persecution will cease to exist, but for now it is an existing way of life!

Negative Leadership Essay -- Leadership

A few years ago I worked at a company that defined the concept of negative leadership. The firm was a start-up company and had a tremendous opportunity for growth, but the potential of the company depended on how the managerial staff and the administration handled the human resources. The company was providing an innovative service for major companies around the world. The company started off well offering the employees prizes for the best monthly performance and a bonus for extra production. "Anyone can say that they have integrity, but a person's actions are the real indicator of their character. Your character determines who you are. Who you are determines what you see. What you see determines what you do. That's why you can never separate a leader's character from his actions. If a leader's actions and intentions are continually working against each other, then look to his character to find out why." (Maxwell, 1999) Everyone in the industry was excited about the prospects of working for this firm. Unfortunately, things turned sour rather quickly, as the leadership team of...

My Business Idea Essay -- Business and Management Studies

My Business Idea In my coursework I intend to start my own business. I will devise my own business plan which outlines my business proposal and the key aspects, during this I will need to seek good business advice on the necessary steps I will have to make. As I go through the coursework I will show evidence, examples and explain how businesses are set up, what types of businesses there are and their similarities, the kind of targets businesses set for themselves and also the different objectives of different stakeholders. For my business I plan to sell toys and other game products that educate young children under the age of 11. Starting up a business is difficult and risky. Anyone setting up needs to consider: Â · Whether they have the right experience and skills to make the business a success. Â · How they are going to produce and market their product or service. Â · Where they are going to get finance for the business. Â · How they can get help and advice that is available to them from outside the business. Â · What will happen if the business is not a success? Identifying the opportunity Identifying a business opportunity is the first thing a person wanting to set up his or hers own business must do. The business opportunity is most likely to come from what they are already doing in work and the contacts they have. People with no experience are more likely to find it difficult to set up a business and make it a success. This is the reason why most people who set up their own business have already had experience of working in an industry. They then have to find out whether the idea will work. Researching the market ====================== Businesses only survive if they can attract customers and at least make enough money to cover their costs. So it is important to find out whether there are likely to be enough customers. There are two ways of researching the market. * Desk Research – involves finding existing information about the market. For example, a person wanting to set up a beauty salon would look in the Yellow Pages to find the locations of other salons in the area in order to assess the likely competition. * Field Research – involves finding information that is not available in books etc. For instance, questionnaires and surveys are a good way of finding out whether there is a... ...ers in a business disagree, it can be very bad for the business. This is the main reason why businesses in partnerships draw up a Deed of Partnership. This is a legal contract which sets out: * Who are the partners; * How much money or capital each partner has put into the partnership; * How profits should be shared out; * How many votes each partner has in any partnership meeting; * What happens if any of the partners want to withdraw from the business or if new partners are brought in? If there is no deed of partnership, the law states that every partner is equal. Each partner then gets an equal share of the profit and has the same voting power as any other partner. The basic objectives for my business are: - To make the largest possible profit - To grow and expand - To survive (break even) - To provide a service and quality products to ensure the satisfactory of our customers The targets for my business are: - Growth in profits - Growth in sales turnover - Increase in market share - Expansion of the product range - Selling into more areas of the country or the world - To become an even bigger business like a PLC

Brothels and Convents in Renaissance and Measure for Measure Essay

In this investigation I will focus mostly on the regulation of both convents and brothels in the time period of Shakespeare and the early Renaissance. Ruth Mazo Karras’ â€Å"The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England,† focuses exactly on this topic throughout England and other European countries during the Renaissance. In regards to the convents I will be looking closely at an article entitled â€Å"Subjects on the World’s Stage: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,† written by David G. Allen and Robert A. White. The regulations of brothels in the Renaissance were regarded heavily. Karras says that women within these brothels were basically regarded as evil and as sinners yet they remained occupying the position of prostitution solely because of the sexual appetite of men; these brothels were considered â€Å"†¦a necessary evil† (Karras). The first parallel between women of convents and stews I came to find was that of the aspect of being forbidden from society in a sense. Women of convents were completely shut off from the public, no insiders could leave and no outsiders could come in (Allen). The only difference in the secrecy of these two places was the fact that the brothels were attended by men. Karras also states that the women of brothels were not given any rights that regular women had, â€Å"In some places, she was not allowed to reject any customer, indeed could not be raped because she was considered to belong to all men and thus had no right to withhold consent† (Karras). These two aspects of women’s lives in this time period play a major part in the drama Measure for Measure, and especially set up the scene in the opening act of the play. When Claudio sends for his sister, Isabel, to help him get out of jail, in which he was sentenced to death for having premarital (by the eyes of the church) sex with Juliet, Isabel leaves the convent in which she was about to take her vows in order to save her brother. Thus, we have an almost-nun and sinful intercourse immediately in Act 1, both directly related to the idea of convents and brothels and the women within these places. In this case, however, Juliet is not a prostitute but in the eyes of Angelo and the law is regarded as one because of her and Claudio’s unofficial and insufficient marriage.

Bag of Bones EPILOGUE

It snowed for Christmas a polite six inches of powder that made the carollers working the streets of Sanford look like they belonged in It's a Wonderful Life. By the time I came back from checking Kyra for the third time, it was quarter past one on the morning of the twenty-sixth, and the snow had stopped. A late moon, plump but pale, was peeking through the unravelling fluff of clouds. I was Christmasing with Frank again, and we were the last two up. The kids, Ki included, were dead to the world, sleeping off the annual bacchanal of food and presents. Frank was on his third Scotch it had been a three-Scotch story if there ever was one, I guess but I'd barely drunk the top off my first one. I think I might have gotten into the bottle quite heavily if not for Ki. On the days when I have her I usually don't drink so much as a glass of beer. And to have her three days in a row . . . but shit, kemo sabe, if you can't spend Christmas with your kid, what the hell is Christmas for? ‘Are you all right?' Frank asked when I sat down again and took another little token sip from my glass. I grinned at that. Not is she all right but are you all right. Well, nobody ever said Frank was stupid. ‘You should've seen me when the Department of Human Services let me have her for a weekend in October. I must have checked on her a dozen times before I went to bed . . . and then I kept checking. Getting up and peeking in on her, listening to her breathe. I didn't sleep a wink Friday night, caught maybe three hours on Saturday. So this is a big improvement. But if you ever blab any of what I've told you, Frank -if they ever hear about me filling up that bathtub before the storm knocked the gennie out I can kiss my chances of adopting her goodbye. I'll probably have to fill out a form in triplicate before they even let me attend her high-school graduation.' I hadn't meant to tell Frank the bathtub part, but once I started talking, almost everything spilled out. I suppose it had to spill to someone if I was ever to get on with my life. I'd assumed that John Storrow would be the one on the other side of the confessional when the time came, but John didn't want to talk about any of those events except as they bore on our ongoing legal business, which nowadays is all about Kyra Elizabeth Devore. ‘I'll keep my mouth shut, don't worry. How goes the adoption battle?' ‘Slow. I've come to loathe the State of Maine court system, and DHS as well. You take the people who work in those bureaucracies one by one and they're mostly fine, but when you put them together . . . ‘ ‘Bad, huh?' ‘I sometimes feel like a character in Bleak House. That's the one where Dickens says that in court nobody wins but the lawyers. John tells me to be patient and count my blessings, that we're making amazing progress considering that I'm that most untrustworthy of creatures, an unmarried white male of middle age, but Ki's been in two foster-home situations since Mattie died, and ‘ ‘Doesn't she have kin in one of those neighboring towns?' ‘Mattie's aunt. She didn't want anything to do with Ki when Mattie was alive and has even less interest now. Especially since ‘ ‘ since Ki's not going to be rich.' ‘Yeah.' ‘The Whitmore woman was lying about Devore's will.' ‘Absolutely. He left everything to a foundation that's supposed to foster global computer literacy. With due respect to the numbercrunchers of the world, I can't imagine a colder charity.' ‘How is John?' ‘Pretty well mended, but he's never going to get the use of his right arm back entirely. He damned near died of blood-loss.' Frank had led me away from the entwined subjects of Ki and custody quite well for a man deep into his third Scotch, and I was willing enough to go. I could hardly bear to think of her long days and longer nights in those homes where the Department of Human Services stores away children like knickknacks nobody wants. Ki didn't live in those places but only existed in them, pale and listless, like a well-fed rabbit kept in a cage. Each time she saw my car turning in or pulling up she came alive, waving her arms and dancing like Snoopy on his doghouse. Our weekend in October had been wonderful (despite my obsessive need to check her every half hour or so after she was asleep), and the Christmas holiday had been even better. Her emphatic desire to be with me was helping in court more than anything else . . . yet the wheels still turned slowly. Maybe in the spring, Mike, John told me. He was a new John these days, pale and serious. The slightly arrogant eager beaver who had wanted nothing more than to go head to head with Mr. Maxwell ‘Big Bucks' Devore was no longer in evidence. John had learned something about mortality on the twenty-first of July, and something about the world's idiot cruelty, as well. The man who had taught himself to shake with his left hand instead of his right was no longer interested in partying 'til he puked. He was seeing a girl in Philly, the daughter of one of his mother's friends. I had no idea if it was serious or not, Ki's ‘Unca John' is closemouthed about that part of his life, but when a young man is of his own accord seeing the daughter of one of his mother's friends, it usually is. Maybe in the spring: it was his mantra that late fall and early winter. What am I doing wrong? I asked him once this was just after Thanksgiving and another setback. Nothing, he replied. Single-parent adoptions are always slow, and when the putative adopter is a man, it's worse. At that point in the conversation John made an ugly little gesture, poking the index finger of his left hand in and out of his loosely cupped right fist. That's blatant sex discrimination, John. Yeah, but usually it's justified. Blame it on every twisted asshole who ever decided he had a right to take off some little kid's pants, if you want,' blame it on the bureaucracy, if you want,' hell, blame it on cosmic rays if you want. It's a slow process, but you're going to win in the end. You've got a clean record, you've got Kyra saying ‘I want to be with Mike' to every judge and DHS worker she sees, you've got enough money to keep after them no matter how much they squirm and no matter how many forms they throw at you . . . and most of all, buddy, you've got me. I had something else, too what Ki had whispered in my ear as I paused to catch my breath on the steps. I'd never told John about that, and it was one of the few things I didn't tell Frank, either. Mattie says I'm your little guy now, she had whispered. Mattie says you'll take care of me. I was trying to as much as the fucking slowpokes at Human Services would let me but the waiting was hard. Frank picked up the Scotch and tilted it in my direction. I shook my head. Ki had her heart set on snowman-making, and I wanted to be able to face the glare of early sun on fresh snow without a headache. ‘Frank, how much of this do you actually believe?' He poured for himself, then just sat for a time, looking down at the table and thinking. When he raised his head again there was a smile on his face. It was so much like Jo's that it broke my heart. And when he spoke, he juiced his ordinarily faint Boston brogue. ‘Sure and I'm a half-drunk Irishman who just finished listenin to the granddaddy of all ghost stories on Christmas night,' he said. ‘I believe all of it, you silly git.' I laughed and so did he. We did it mostly through the nose, as men are apt to do when up late, maybe in their cups a little, and don't want to wake the house. ‘Come on how much really?' ‘All of it,' he repeated, dropping the brogue. ‘Because Jo believed it. And because of her.' He nodded his head in the direction of the stairs so I'd know which her he meant. ‘She's like no other little girl I've ever seen. She's sweet enough, but there's something in her eyes. At first I thought it was losing her mother the way she did, but that's not it. There's more, isn't there?' ‘Yes,' I said. ‘It's in you, too. It's touched you both.' I thought of the baying thing which Jo had managed to hold back while I poured the lye into that rotted roll of canvas. An Outsider, she had called it. I hadn't gotten a clear look at it, and probably that was good. Probably that was very good. ‘Mike?' Frank looked concerned. ‘You're shivering.' ‘I'm okay,' I said. ‘Really.' ‘What's it like in the house now?' he asked. I was still living in Sara Laughs. I procrastinated until early November, then put the Derry house up for sale. ‘Quiet.' ‘Totally quiet?' I nodded, but that wasn't completely true. On a couple of occasions I had awakened with a sensation Mattie had once mentioned that there was someone in bed with me. But not a dangerous presence. On a couple of occasions I have smelled (or thought I have) Red perfume. And sometimes, even when the air is perfectly still, Bunter's bell will shiver out a few notes. It's as if something lonely wants to say hello. Frank glanced at the clock, then back at me, almost apologetically. ‘I've got a few more questions okay?' ‘If you can't stay up until the wee hours on Boxing Day morning,' I said, ‘I guess you never can. Fire away.' ‘What did you tell the police?' ‘I didn't have to tell them much of anything. Footman talked enough to suit them too much to suit Norris Ridgewick. Footman said that he and Osgood it was Osgood driving the car, Devore's pet broker did the drive-by because Devore had made threats about what would happen to them if they didn't. The State cops also found a copy of a wire-transfer among Devore's effects at Warrington's. Two million dollars to an account in the Grand Caymans. The name scribbled on the copy is Randolph Footman. Randolph is George's middle name. Mr. Footman is now residing in Shawshank State Prison.' ‘What about Rogette?' ‘Well, Whitmore was her mother's maiden name, but I think it's safe to say that Rogette's heart belonged to Daddy. She had leukemia, was diagnosed in 1996. In people her age she was only fifty-seven when she died, by the way it's fatal in two cases out of every three, but she was doing the chemo. Hence the wig.' ‘Why did she try to kill Kyra? I don't understand that. If you broke Sara Tidwell's hold on this earthly plane of ours when you dissolved her bones, the curse should have . . . why are you looking at me that way?' ‘You'd understand if you'd ever met Devore,' I said. ‘This is the man who lit the whole fucking TR on fire as a way of saying goodbye when he headed west to sunny California. I thought of him the second I pulled the wig off, thought they'd swapped identities somehow. Then I thought Oh no, it's her all right, it's Rogette, she's just lost her hair somehow.' ‘And you were right. The chemo.' ‘I was also wrong. I know more about ghosts than I did, Frank. Maybe the most important thing is that what you see first, what you think first . . . that's what's usually true. It was him that day. Devore. He came back at the end. I'm sure of it. At the end it wasn't about Sara, not for him. At the end it wasn't even about Kyra. At the end it was about Scooter Larribee's sled.' Silence between us. For a few moments it was so deep that I could actually hear the house breathing. You can hear that, you know. If you really listen. That's something else I know now. ‘Christ,' he said at last. ‘I don't think Devore came east from California to kill her,' I said. ‘That wasn't the original plan.' ‘Then what was? Get to know his granddaughter? Mend his fences?' ‘God, no. You still don't understand what he was.' ‘Tell me, then.' ‘A human monster. He came back to buy her, but Mattie wouldn't sell. Then, when Sara got hold of him, he began to plan Ki's death. I suspect that Sara never found a more willing tool.' ‘How many did she kill in all?' Frank asked. ‘I don't know for sure. I don't think I want to. Based on Jo's notes and clippings, I'd say that there were perhaps four other . . . directed murders, shall we call them? . . . in the years between 1901 and 1998. All children, all K-names, all closely related to the men who killed her.' ‘My God.' ‘I don't think God had much to do with it . . . but she made them pay, all right.' ‘You're sorry for her, aren't you?' ‘Yes. I would have torn her apart before I let her put so much as a finger on Ki, but of course I am. She was raped and murdered. Her child was drowned while she herself lay dying. My God, aren't you sorry for her?' ‘I suppose I am. Mike, do you know who the other boy was? The crying boy? Was he the one who died of blood-poisoning?' ‘Most of Jo's notes concerned that part of it it's where she got started. Royce Merrill knew the story well. The crying boy was Reg Tidwell, Junior. You have to understand that by September of 1901, when the Red-Tops played their last show in Castle County, almost everyone on the TR knew that Sara and her boy had been murdered, and almost everyone had a good idea of who'd done it. ‘Reg Tidwell spent a lot of that August hounding the County Sheriff, Nehemiah Bannerman. At first it was to find them alive Tidwell wanted a search mounted and then it was to find their bodies, and then it was to find their killers . . . because once he accepted that they were dead, he never doubted that they'd been murdered. ‘Bannerman was sympathetic at first. Everyone seemed sympathetic at first. The Red-Top crowd had been treated wonderfully during their time on the TR that was what infuriated Jared the most and I think you can forgive Son Tidwell for making a crucial mistake.' ‘What mistake was that?' Why, he got the idea that Mars was heaven, I thought. The TR must have seemed like heaven to them, right up until Sara and Kito went for a stroll, the boy carrying his berry-bucket, and never came back. It must have seemed that they'd finally found a place where they could be black people and still be allowed to breathe. ‘Thinking they'd be treated like regular folks when things went wrong, just because they'd been treated that way when things were right. Instead, the TR clubbed together against them. No one who had an idea of what Jared and his prot? ¦g? ¦s had done condoned it, exactly, but when the chips were down . . . ‘ ‘You protect your own, you wash your dirty laundry with the door closed,' Frank murmured, and finished his drink. ‘Yeah. By the time the Red-Tops played the Castle County Fair, their little community down by the lake had begun to break up this is all according to Jo's notes, you understand; there's not a whisper of it in any of the town histories. ‘By Labor Day the active harassment had started so Royce told Jo. It got a little uglier every day a little scarier but Son Tidwell flat didn't want to go, not until he found out what had happened to his sister and nephew. He apparently kept the blood family there in the meadow even after the others had taken off for friendlier locations. ‘Then someone laid the trap. There was a clearing in the woods about a mile east of what's now called Tidwell's Meadow; it had a big birch cross in the middle of it. Jo had a picture of it in her studio. That was where the black community had their services after the doors of the local churches were closed to them. The boy Junior used to go up there a lot to pray or just to sit and meditate. There were plenty of folks in the township who knew his routine. Someone put a leghold trap on the little path through the woods that the boy used. Covered it with leaves and needles.' ‘Jesus,' Frank said. He sounded ill. ‘Probably it wasn't Jared Devore or his logger-boys who set it, either they didn't want any more to do with Sara and Son's people after the murders, they kept right clear of them. It might not even have been a friend of those boys. By then they didn't have that many friends. But that didn't change the fact that those folks down by the lake were getting out of their place, scratching at things better left alone, refusing to take no for an answer. So someone set the trap. I don't think there was any intent to actually kill the boy, but to maim him? Maybe see him with his foot off, condemned to a lifetime crutch? I think they may have gotten that far in their imagining. ‘In any case it worked. The boy stepped in the trap . . . and for quite awhile they didn't find him. The pain must have been excruciating. Then the blood-poisoning. He died. Son gave up. He had other kids to think about, not to mention the people who'd stuck with him. They packed up their clothes and their guitars and left. Jo traced some of them to North Carolina, where many of the descendants still live. And during the fires of 1933, the ones young Max Devore set, the cabins burned flat' ‘I don't understand why the bodies of Sara and her son weren't found,' Frank said. ‘I understand that what you smelled the putrescence wasn't there in any physical sense. But surely at the time . . . if this path you call The Street was so popular . . . ‘ ‘Devore and the others didn't bury them where I found them, not to begin with. They would have started by dragging the bodies deeper into the woods maybe up to where the north wing of Sara Laughs stands now. They covered them with brush and came back that night. Must have been that night; to leave them any longer would have drawn every carnivore in the woods. They took them someplace else and buried them in that roll of canvas. Jo didn't know where, but my guess is Bowie Ridge, where they'd spent most of the summer cutting. Hell, Bowie Ridge is still pretty isolated. They put the bodies somewhere; we might as well say there.' ‘Then how . . . why . . . ‘ ‘Draper Finney wasn't the only one haunted by what they did, Frank they all were. Literally haunted. With the possible exception of Jared Devore, I suppose. He lived another ten years and apparently never missed a meal. But the boys had bad dreams, they drank too much, they fought too much, they argued . . . bristled if anyone so much as mentioned the Red-Tops . . . ‘ ‘Might as well have gone around wearing signs reading KICK US, WE'RE GUILTY,' Frank commented. ‘Yes. It probably didn't help that most of the TR was giving them the silent treatment. Then Finney died in the quarry committed suicide in the quarry, I think and Jared's logger-boys got an idea. Came down with it like a cold. Only it was more like a compulsion. Their idea was that if they dug up the bodies and reburied them where it happened, things'd go back to normal for them.' ‘Did Jared go along with the idea?' ‘According to Jo's notes, by then they never went near him. They reburied the bag of bones without Jared Devore's help where I eventually dug it up. In the late fall or early winter of 1902, I think.' ‘She wanted to be back, didn't she? Sara. Back where she could really work on them.' ‘And on the whole township. Yes. Jo thought so, too. Enough so she didn't want to go back to Sara Laughs once she found some of this stuff out. Especially when she guessed she was pregnant. When we started trying to have a baby and I suggested the name Kia, how that must have scared her! And I never saw.' ‘Sara thought she could use you to kill Kyra if Devore played out before he could get the job done he was old and in bad health, after all. Jo gambled that you'd save her instead. That's what you think, isn't it?' ‘Yes.' ‘And she was right.' ‘I couldn't have done it alone. From the night I dreamed about Sara singing, Jo was with me every step of the way. Sara couldn't make her quit.' ‘No, she wasn't a quitter,' Frank agreed, and wiped at one eye. ‘What do you know about your twice-great-aunt? The one that married Auster?' ‘Bridget Noonan Auster,' I said. ‘Bridey, to her friends. I asked my mother and she swears up and down she knows nothing, that Jo never asked her about Bridey, but I think she might be lying. The young woman was definitely the black sheep of the family I can tell just by the sound of Mom's voice when the name comes up. I have no idea how she met Benton Auster. Let's say he was down in the Prout's Neck part of the world visiting friends and started flirting with her at a clambake. That's as likely as anything else. This was in 1884. She was eighteen, he was twenty-three. They got married, one of those hurry-up jobs. Harry, the one who actually drowned Kito Tidwell, came along six months later.' ‘So he was barely seventeen when it happened,' Frank said. ‘Great God.' ‘And by then his mother had gotten religion. His terror over what she'd think if she ever found out was part of the reason he did what he did. Any other questions, Frank? Because I'm really starting to fade.' For several moments he said nothing I had begun to think he was done when he said, ‘Two others. Do you mind?' ‘I guess it's too late to back out now. What are they?' ‘The Shape you spoke of. The Outsider. That troubles me.' I said nothing. It troubled me, too. ‘Do you think there's a chance it might come back?' ‘It always does,' I said. ‘At the risk of sounding pompous, the Outsider eventually comes back for all of us, doesn't it? Because we're all bags of bones. And the Outsider . . . Frank, the Outsider wants what's in the bag.' He mulled this over, then swallowed the rest of his Scotch at a gulp. ‘You had one other question?' ‘Yes,' he said. ‘Have you started writing again?' I went upstairs a few minutes later, checked Ki, brushed my teeth, checked Ki again, then climbed into bed. From where I lay I was able to look out the window at the pale moon shining on the snow. Have you started writing again? No. Other than a rather lengthy essay on how I spent my summer vacation which I may show to Kyra in some later year, there's been nothing. I know that Harold is nervous, and sooner or later I suppose I'll have to call him and tell him what he already guesses: the machine which ran so sweet for so long has stopped. It isn't broken this memoir came out with nary a gasp or missed heartbeat but the machine has stopped, just the same. There's gas in the tank, the sparkplugs spark and the battery bats, but the wordygurdy stands there quiet in the middle of my head. I've put a tarp over it. It's served me well, you see, and I don't like to think of it getting dusty. Some of it has to do with the way Mattie died. It occurred to me at some point this fall that I had written similar deaths in at least two of my books, and popular fiction is heaped with other examples of the same thing. Have you set up a moral dilemma you don't know how to solve? Is the protagonist sexually attracted to a woman who is much too young for him, shall we say? Need a quick fix? Easiest thing in the world. ‘When the story starts going sour, bring on the man with the gun.' Raymond Chandler said that, or something like it close enough for government work, kemo sabe. Murder is the worst kind of pornography, murder is let me do what I want taken to its final extreme. I believe that even make-believe murders should be taken seriously; maybe that's another idea I got last summer. Perhaps I got it while Mattie was struggling in my arms, gushing blood from her smashed head and dying blind, still crying out for her daughter as she left this earth. To think I might have written such a hellishly convenient death in a book, ever, sickens me. Or maybe I just wish there'd been a little more time. I remember telling Ki it's best not to leave love letters around; what I thought but didn't say was that they can come back to haunt you. I am haunted anyway . . . but I will not willingly haunt myself, and when I closed my book of dreams I did so of my own free will. I think I could have poured lye over those dreams as well, but from that I stayed my hand. I've seen things I never expected to see and felt things I never expected to feel not the least of them what I felt and still feel for the child sleeping down the hall from me. She's my little guy now, I'm her big guy, and that's the important thing. Nothing else seems to matter half so much. Thomas Hardy, who supposedly said that the most brilliantly drawn character in a novel is but a bag of bones, stopped writing novels himself after finishing Jude the Obscure and while he was at the height of his narrative genius. He went on writing poetry for another twenty years, and when someone asked him why he'd quit fiction he said he couldn't understand why he had trucked with it so long in the first place. In retrospect it seemed silly to him, he said. Pointless. I know exactly what he meant. In the time between now and whenever the Outsider remembers me and decides to come back, there must be other things to do, things that mean more than those shadows. I think I could go back to clanking chains behind the Ghost House wall, but I have no interest in doing so. I've lost my taste for spooks. I like to imagine Mattie would think of Bartleby in Melville's story. I've put down my scrivener's pen. These days I prefer not to.