Five reasons for pursuing higher education Essay

There are many reasons or purposes behind pursuing higher education, but these may change depending on each individual student. However many distinct reasons there may be, the majority of them can be grouped into five broad categories. The first of these categories relates to money, the second is the transmission of culture and history, the third has to do with esteem or social class, fourth comes education for the benefit of democracy, and last is entertainment or personal enjoyment. Almost everybody has a â€Å"dream job†, one where they do some kind of interesting work and get paid lots for it. This is one of the reasons why a person would consider going beyond high school, and pursuing higher education; so they can get that â€Å"dream job†. With degrees and Ph.D.s comes money, along with wider opportunities for the future, and less physical work. Of course, the three aforementioned traits do not always apply, but in the majority of cases they do. In learning more about your world, you can absorb some history, and in the process keep your culture alive. Culture and traditions can only survive if they are passed down from generation to generation. By studying history, you can also learn from the mistakes of those who came before you, and ensure that you do not repeat those mistakes. Good examples of this are failed strategies used in war; you would definitely not want to repeat those. Some people go for degrees because they think it earns them power, respect, and esteem. Certain socialites feel that if you do not have a Ph.D., you are not worth anything, not even a bit of their time. The third reason to pursue higher education is to appease swine like this. If you want to become one of the social elite, college is necessary. No matter how hard you try to deny it, the majority of people are dolts. In order to ensure a healthy democracy, you need well educated people to vote on modern issues. It is pretty obvious that if we had a bunch of easily duped idiots voting on important matters, for example the election of a president, liberty all around the world could be threatened. What would happen if a complete moron were to be put in charge of a world superpower?  Perhaps there would be a series of unjust wars, a few signings of acts destroying privacy, some crimes against humanity, and unnecessary bloodshed; all in the name of patriotism and freedom, an obvious lie. It is important that people know their rights, how their government works, and where to draw the line. Most importantly, they need to know the difference between right and wrong in relation to the entire world, not just their little nook. It is possible that some people enjoy education because it expands their minds, they may see it as entertainment. This is reason enough to enroll yourself in classes. If something beneficial to everybody is what you enjoy taking part in, by all means, go ahead and do it. How does Philosophy fit into these five categories? Philosophy, although mostly boring, can be interesting at some times – which leads it to be entertaining. This class could be taken by people who enjoy learning how to better understand the workings of the human mind and/or religion. For theists, Philosophy could reinforce their faith in God, making them feel all good inside, or it could lead them to question their absurd religions, grow a pair, and stop using the church as a crutch – a tie or win situation, respectively. Once they give up their silly beliefs, they could also drop the prejudices that come with them and allow everybody to be treated equally. The less prejudiced people there are voting in this country, the better, this would lead to a stronger government with more freedom for all. In conclusion, there are five purposes for education; money, history, respect, better governments, and entertainment. Philosophy fits snugly into the entertainment and governmental categories.

Good, But Not Good Enough Essay

There are times when we feel we must be perfect in order to please others. No matter if we did the best we could do, if it wasn’t perfect we felt like a failure. We want the approval that comes with perfect ness. Every day we see a new commercial or magazine showing an image of a hunky, greased up muscle man or an anorexic model with tons of make up air brushed on her body and society compares you with that image. We as a people tend to use those false images of beauty as a scale to rate the rest of the population by and if you do not fit in that category you are not beautiful. So we strive to be accepted to be approved by the rest of society. In Janice Mirikitani’s poem â€Å"Suicide Note† a young Asian American college student apologizes to her parents for not being perfect. Perfect in school and perfect in life. Even though the girl worked very hard and did very well it wasn’t good enough in her mind and maybe in her parents’ mind to be worthy of her parents’ love or life itself, and so her only option was death to atone for her sin of imperfectness. The poem begins: How many notes written†¦/ ink smeared like bird prints in snow./ not good enough not pretty enough not smart enough / dear mother and father ./ I apologize/ for disappointing you / I’ve worked hard, / not good enough / harder, perhaps to please you.(373.1-9) Clearly the girl in this poem the girl is apologizing for much more than  grades. She has set unrealistic standards for herself and has a lack of self worth all because she cannot achieve these standards. She cannot change the way she looks, yet she is apologizing for not being â€Å"pretty enough†. She also goes on to talk about how life may have been better for her if she were a son instead of a daughter. She would be worthy of love because she associates strength, confidence, beauty and smarts with being male. â€Å"I would swagger through life / muscled and bold and assured,†(373.17-18). Who do we blame for this young girl’s negative self-image? Is it society’s fault that she values being a male more than her own life or is it her parent’s fault for not making her feel the love that she so desperately needs right now? Obviously she was never appreciated for her work because she’s constantly apologizing for not being â€Å"good enough† throughout the whole note and talks about how failure, disappointment and disapproval drive her closer to committing suicide. Maybe if her parent’s voiced how they felt about her this tragedy could have been prevented. Further into the poem she talks about how she will atone for her sin of imperfectness. â€Å"My sacrifice I will drop / bone by bone, perched / on the ledge of my womanhood,/ fragile as wings†(373-374.31-34). She is toying with the idea of jumping from a ledge knowing that death will be the out come of her actions. Who will be there to stop her since she doesn’t matter? † Not strong enough†(374.35) she utters next. She doesn’t yet have the courage to fly like a baby bird from a nest off of her window ledge. She pictures herself as a sparrow â€Å"sillied and dizzied by the wind†(374.39). The reason she pictures herself as a sparrow because a sparrow is a little bird that is not considered to be a really important creature. Compared to a hawk or an eagle, a sparrow is a peasant bird, or an everyday bird. People have noticed sparrows before, but never pointed them out like they would if they were a hawk or an eagle. They would praise a hawk or an eagle, not a sparrow. Each line in the poem is building the young girl up to that state of mind where only death is the escape. She’s thinking of all the things that have led her up to this point. â€Å"not good enough not strong enough / not smart enough†(374.48-49) Maybe this way someone will finally notice her. She hopes that † they will bury / my bird bones beneath / a sturdy pine†(374.57-59). The pine refers back to the beginning where she pictures herself as a male child. The pine represents what would have happened if she turned out to be a boy. This could also mean, that in the afterlife she wants to be as strong as a pine, hoping that she would be brought back in the afterlife as a boy. The suicide was a way for the college student to be noticed. It was very unfortunate that she had to take her own life just to get attention, and to get appreciation for all the things that she had done and still it wouldn’t be good enough for her parents.

Communication Breakdown

Communication Breakdown Deborah Tannen in her essay â€Å"Sex Lies and Conversation† points out the problems in communication between genders. She focuses on conversational styles and on how a person’s expectations of one’s reaction may cause misunderstanding. She emphasizes the importance of something she calls cross cultural communication. Tannen believes that in order to communicate properly with the opposite sex we must learn their culture and adapt to conversation with them. First, Tannen describes the differences in how children socialize.Most of what we know about communication we learned when we were children. When women are little girls, they have best friends, ones we can share our secrets with. When we get a little older and have a relationship with the opposite sex we expect the same kind of communication. Tannen believes the importance is not necessarily the topic but the feeling that you get from conversation and points out ,â€Å"What is important is not the individual subjects that are disclosed but the sense of closeness, of a life shared, that emerges when people tell their thoughts, feelings and impressions† (51).We must learn to socialize with the opposite sex the same way we do with the same sex. If we could learn to connect and have the â€Å"sense of closeness† with the opposite sex we might be able to communicate successfully. Tannen’s research has shown that men socialize differently as boys and â€Å"Since they don’t assume talk is the cement that binds the relationship, men don’t know what kind of talk women want, and they don’t miss it when it isn’t there†(51). Tannen points out that boys learn to communicate in larger groups, often struggling not to be in the subaltern position of the conversation.Men do not like to listen; they like to feel like they are the superior person in the conversation. (51) Communication starts in childhood and what we have learne d to expect from conversations. Next, Tannen observes how men and women listen to each other and how this can cause misunderstanding between genders . She feels that there is confusion about what women expect and declares, â€Å"When women talk to each other in a close, comfortable setting, they often overlap, finish each other’s sentences and anticipate what the other is about to say† (53).Tannen also talks about listener noise. Women often will say â€Å"mhm† or â€Å"uhuh† and men do not do these things when they talk to each other. Women are looking for that â€Å"listener noise† and if he is silent, she thinks he is ignoring her but on the same token Tannen notes, â€Å"Men who expect silent attention interpret a stream of listener noise as overreaction or impatience† (53). Body language and conversational habits are causing women to feel like they are being ignored and men to feel as if they are being interrupted.When a woman is having a conversation they expect the listener to â€Å"express agreement† and be supportive of the conversation. Men, on the other hand, feel it is their conversational duty to express other positions in the argument. (53) Learning the importance of building a rapport with the person you are talking to may be another way to have successful conversation with the opposite sex. Finally, Tannen believes that learning how the opposite sex communicates is the key. If we can learn what to expect when communicating with someone then we can learn how to respond.Tannen suggests â€Å" A sociolinguistic approach by which male-female conversation is seen as cross- cultural communication allows us to understand the problem and forge solutions without blaming either party†(54). Tannen stresses the importance of telling the other person how you feel about their communication with you and advises,† Women who feel abandoned and deprived when their husbands won’t listen to or re port daily news may be happy to discover their husbands trying to adapt once they understand the place of small talk in women’s relationships† (55).It is really not the male or females fault that we communicate the way we do but it is our fault if we do not speak up and tell them it bothers us. When we are in a relationship with another person we just have to adapt to the way they communicate to make the relationship work. If a woman learns to accept that her husband is not going to communicate with her like her best girlfriend did in her childhood then she can look for other people to hold those types of conversation with. (55) Learning to communicate with the opposite sex involves many different things.Communication is something that is learned in childhood but mostly with the same sex. In order to have a successful relationship with good communication we must understand that men and women have very different body language when communicating and that they do not respo nd the same. Accepting that there is a difference in the communication of genders and learning to adapt is paramount in relationships. Tannen, Deborah. â€Å"Sex, Lies and Conversation. † The Norton Mix. Judy Sieg. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. 45-55. Print.

Rubics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rubics - Essay Example Rubrics have a wider range of applications; so its importance of teaching sector cannot be ignored. The first and foremost fact about the usage of rubric connected to number assessment criteria used. Usual assessment based on single standard gets replaced with multiple measures. For example when a paper is evaluated to give scores, it will be better if various skills and inclusions are scored separately to get a resultant overall valuation. â€Å"Scoring rubrics are especially useful in assessment for learning because they contain qualitative descriptions of performance criteria that work well within the process of formative evaluation† (Tierney & Simon, 2004, para.1). The fragmented analysis helps in developing a better evaluation procedure supporting both sections of people. The person being assessed will have idea about factors and features being considered for giving him his scores while the examiner will have an easier task as he knows what have to be considered for scori ng. The method of rubrics provides a comfortable and additional branched explanation for estimation. Also, a provision for analysis by different persons is posed through this approach of valuation. The same objectives of a single person valued by more than judges create a competitive and efficient assessment result. Another purpose with rubric is to educe decisive criticism prior to final scoring judgment. The numerical scoring given for each criterion will help the examined individual to understand his flaws and benefits. The most noted use of rubric in academics is regarding the curriculum and syllabus objectives. The scoring, for each expected development through a course, given will help in reaching on effectual learning and teaching criticism. The rubric constructed below is used for the evaluation of special education website. A website with scores for all criteria as 3 will be the best

Input and Output Devices Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Input and Output Devices - Research Paper Example It can be called as a text based input device, as it allows the user to enter information in the form of alphabets, numbers and other such familiar characters. In addition to these keys, a keyboard also contains special keys such as enter, space bar, function keys, etc which have a specific function assigned to them intended to make user experience easier (COMPUTER ORGANISATION). The mouse can be referred to as the most commonly used pointing device. Instructions are given to the computer by pointing the mouse pointer to a location on the screen by moving the mouse. Common tasks that can be performed by the mouse include positioning the cursor on the screen, moving an icon, and selecting an object. After the onset of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), the mouse has become an indispensable tool in the computer – human interaction. The joystick is a digital device, comprising of a stick that pivots around its base and moves the graphic cursor on the screen according to the motion of the stick. A button serves as a clickable object on the joystick that can be used to select objects to which the graphic cursor is currently pointing to. Joysticks primarily find use as an input device in video games, training simulators and robotic simulations. A light pen is a light sensitive input device, which functions very much like an ordinary pen. It is used to select objects on the screen directly. These find use in computer graphics, animation, computer drawing and for easy selection of options from a menu. By moving the pen, a corresponding trace or sketch can be recorded on the computer. Handwritten notes can be produced by using this device, which can be recognized using OCR technology and converted into computer text form. An output device is a computer peripheral that receives information to the computer and presents it to the user. Generally the output from the computer is displayed visually. A computer monitor displays

Comparison of Online Course and Traditional Course Essay

Comparison of Online Course and Traditional Course - Essay Example A lot of online schools are opening up and are providing quality education that is well comparable to the one offered by the traditional schools. The concept of online education has emerged with the rise of computers in general and internet in particular. While the concept of traditional courses is as old as the concept of education in the world is, the concept of online education is just as old as the internet itself. This paper draws a comparison and contrast between online courses and the traditional courses. Online courses and traditional courses resemble in the structure of course and differ in many areas including flexibility, medium and interaction between teachers and students. Online courses and traditional courses are similar in the structure of the course. Normally, there are equal number of quizzes, assignments, class tests and end term exams in online courses and the traditional courses. In both types of courses, â€Å"It is usually given to students at a common interva l, such as monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annually† (Edurite, 2012). Internet is a common medium of research in both online and traditional courses. Students are usually required to submit their assignments electronically in the traditional course like online course. These days, both online and traditional courses are offered for all kinds of subjects. ... In an online course, result is also declared similarly, except for the change that the result is released online. Students have a whole network of friends that is just as strong in the online courses as it is in the traditional courses. The only difference is that the friends might not be able to get together on daily basis in the online course like they do in the traditional course, yet the interaction takes place frequently through emails and social media websites. Online courses are much more convenient both for the students as compared to the traditional courses. Students find it very manageable to do a job along with studies when the studies are based on online courses (Best Online Universities, 2012). This is because of the fact that online courses can be scheduled as per the convenience of a student. Online courses basically have no fixed time for college. Unlike traditional course, online course requires maximal use of internet, even for the students’ interaction with the instructors that takes place through email and occasionally on social media websites and live chats. However, traditional course provides this advantage over the online course that students can converse with the teachers face to face. In online course, a student can browse the internet anytime of the day he/she feels like and download the lectures as well as the relevant assignments and also upload the ones which were due. Online courses save the students a lot of money. While the students have to spend a lot of money in arranging the transport for the school for a traditional course on daily basis, buying snacks and regular food items from the college cafeteria, giving treats to the friends, and most importantly, compromising upon the job in order to seek education, all of these

Personal and professional development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Personal and professional development - Essay Example The manufacturing engineer’s job encompasses planning, designing, setting up, modifying and monitoring of manufacturing processes according to Prospects (2011). They also engage in the maintenance of machines and equipment and scheduling of manufacturing operations in some cases. They normally liaises with other members of the organization such as those in the research and development department in ensuring that the company continues to operate as efficiently as possible in the process of producing quality products.. Levels of professional Qualifications for Manufacturing Engineer In order to become a manufacturing engineer in a company, one must get secondary and college or university education with a focus of related subjects such as physics, mathematics, technical drawing and statistics just to mention a few. At college and university levels, the manufacturing engineer will be trained on a wide range of subjects including design and analysis of processes that are applied in manufacturing, metrology, design for manufacturability, Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, and instrumentation and controls engineering among others (Worcester Polytechnic Institute nd). The Engineering Council and its Role The Engineering Council is the United Kingdom’s authority that is charged with the task of registering professional technicians and engineers. The council also performs secondary tasks such as advising students, trained engineers, academic organizations and employers on the procedures and standards for registration. The body also regulates the professions of the engineering technician, incorporated engineer as well as the chartered engineer. Considering that the title â€Å"Engineer’ is legally protected in the UK, it is important for the professional engineer to be awarded a title by the Engineering Council that is otherwise protected. As a professional manufacturing engineer therefore, it is advantageous to voluntarily register with the Engineer ing Council so as to demonstrate high competence - such competence that can only be acquired by training, education and proper experience. These indeed are the basic requirements for one to be registered by the Engineering Council. In order to be registered by the Engineering Council, one has to sit and pass the organization’s examinations at each stage. The manufacturing engineer can sit for the levels 5, 6 and 7 to be registered as an Engineering Technician (EngTech), Incorporated Engineer (IEng) and Chartered Engineer (CEng) respectively. Some of the advantages of being registered by the Engineering Council include higher earning potential, better career prospects international recognition, high self esteem, and recognition of expertise. Engineering Technician (EngTech) The engineering technologist is an engineer who specializes in implementing the existing technologies that exist in the engineering field. In other words, the technologist is more oriented toward the applic ation of engineering fundamentals as opposed to creating new knowledge in the field. They always work with other engineering professionals applying technical skills and engineering principles in their practice. The manufacturing engineering technologist can work in a wide range of industries, not limited to maintenance, manufacturing, processing and assembling companies. The technician is trained widely in