The Role of Parenting in Henry Roths Call it Sleep Essay Example for Free

The Role of Parenting in Henry Roths Call it Sleep Essay In the novel Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth, one of the hardest tasks is to truly understand the character of David Schearl. Written from the perspective of a young child, the reader has to wade through rambling streams of consciousness filled with significant meaning, as well as, well-developed mature thoughts. However, you cannot truly comprehend a character like David unless you fully understand his familial structure and the effects it has on him. Davids parents are important because they prove to be the source of his rejection and confusion with the world around him. By rejecting his parents and their culture David is only left with confusion, guilt, and loneliness. The Schearl household is filled with secrets, blame and denial that shake the basic foundations that a family depends on. Davids home is lacking openness and intimacy, and that forces David to look towards other places, such as religion, for such needs. Upon examining the effects the familys dysfunctions have on David; one can better understand the true nature of his character and his search for a personal identity independent of his parents. Davids relationship to his mother, Genya, is filled with love. However, as David gets older this love is sometimes replaced by shame. David, who formally took comfort in being near his mother, is trying to free himself from only feeling safe in her arms. At the beginning of the novel, David needed his mother to wait in the stairwell while he came up stairs because he was so terrified. While later in the novel, David is proud of himself for walking up the stairs and not being afraid of anything. However, there were times during this period when David wanted his mother waiting, and he felt shame in needing his mother to feel safe. Davids deep connection to his mother is the result of the father, Albert, rejecting both. Albert is not a good father figure, in the sense that, he doesnt fulfill any of Genya or Davids emotional needs. This absence of a strong husband/ father figure creates the tight and awkward bond between Genya and David. Alberts absence in Genyas life creates a huge emotional gap and for comfort she latches onto David. Another factor playing into the deep connection between David and Genya is the alienation both feel in America, a strange land, where neither feels as though they belong. Genyas inability to assimilate to the American immigrant lifestyle has left her sheltered and alone in an apartment all day. Having no peers or equals to spend here time with, Genya is constantly babying David to ensure that he will not turn elsewhere for his needs. As a child David thrives on this close relationship because he hates the ugly outside world. David seeks shelter in his mothers arms from people like Yussie and his sister, Annie, who wants to play bad. David, however, has more interaction with the outside world and finds his adventures there comforting as he grows older. Davids escape to the roof and the journey he took when he got lost replaced his need to find comfort in his mothers arms. The distance between David and his mother grew when she divulged her great secret to Aunt Bertha. The two women spoke half in Yiddish and half in Polish creating a huge gap not only in David s understanding but also in his connection with his mother. His mothers Polish and Davids increasing English vocabulary prevent them from sharing a common language in which they feel comfortable expressing themselves. David who used to feel at home in his mothers world inside the apartment finds himself growing up and rejecting Genyas inability to grow and change. Genyas world is becoming unfamiliar to David, whose experiences in the modern world are foreign to Genya. Davids rejection of his mothers world and her inability to understand his world force David to look for fulfillment and acceptance outside the home, in school, religion and with street kids like Leo.

Lessons In Life Essay Example for Free

Lessons In Life Essay When comparing Mother To Son with Mending Wall the message given is that with hard work, either manual or emotional life gives rewards. In Mother To Son the mother wants to pass her knowledge of life to him, that nothing is free and with hard work you will receive the feeling of accomplishments. The mother speaks of her hardships in life, but even with those she has always had hope. Even during the darkest times in her life she never gave up. What greater gift can a mother pass on to her child? The gifts than come from the heart are the greatest. She is trying to let him know that even though she has been climbing all her life she will not give up. Even though the story of Mending Wall focusing on the hard labor that comes once a year to neighbors repairing a common wall between their properties they also share good times together. Good fences make good neighbors. (page 1881) The neighbors speak of hunters that have passed during the year. Their walk of the wall gives each neighbor a time to share and reflect on the past years events with each other. Both stories differ in their style, Mother To Son gives a hidden approach to life. She is trying to give him subtle hits of what the road of life offers. Mending Wall gives a direct approach, its a conversation between neighbors that happens once a year, once it happens they go back to the way they were. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. His first published poem was also one of his most famous, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, and it appeared in Brownies Book. Later, his poems, short plays, essays and short stories appeared in the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and in Opportunity Magazine and other  publications.( http://www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html) Robert Lee Frost was one of Americas leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. An essentially pastoral poet often associated with rural New England, Frost wrote poems whose philosophical dimensions transcend any region. Although his verse forms are traditionalhe often said, in a dig at archrival Carl Sandburg, that he would as soon play tennis without a net as write free versehe was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and experimental, regional and universal. (http://www.robertfrost.org/indexgood.html) Works Cited Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2003 http://www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html http://www.robertfrost.org/indexgood.html

The role of teaching assistants

The role of teaching assistants This essay will discuss the different roles of teaching assistants in primary schools, through first hand observation and also by way of other resources such as government guidelines and journal articles. Teaching assistants (TAs) were originally given the title of non-teaching assistants, however, the non was dropped when it became clear that teaching assistant provided valuable input into the everyday workings of the classroom. TAs were introduced in an attempt to reduce the workload of teachers which would in turn raise the standards of the classroom in which the work (DfES, 2000). Between 1999-2001 the government injected considerable funds into Local Education Authorities to enable them to employ and train around 20,000 new teaching assistants (Ofsted, 2002). The DfES (2003) states that teaching assistants are providing effective and valuable support in a wide range of settings and envisages an enhanced role for teaching assistants to free teachers from non related tasks. My observations seem to mirror the governments guidelines and proposals for utilizing TAs to reduce the workload of teachers. From my observations of teaching assistants in the classroom, I have found that they have many roles and responsibilities. I have also observed that different teaching assistants have different roles. For example: the main TA for the class has duties varying from gathering resources and taking photographs, to playground duties and helping small groups of children stay on task in the classroom. This particular TA also has the responsibility of teaching small groups of children for Rocket Reading. In rocket reading, children gather from different classes and are grouped by ability rather than age. The TA has the responsibility of teaching the key sounds and words for their level. There is also a floating teaching assistant who moves between classes, as and when she is needed. This TA appears to mainly focus on tasks which do not involve the children such as photocopying resources and making up the display boards. However there is research that suggests, if not used effectively, that TAs could possibly have a detrimental effect (albeit inadvertently) on the educational and social wellbeing of some pupils, particularly those who have special educational needs. Children with special educational needs often have a TA who works almost exclusively with them. There is research which suggests that excessive proximity of teaching assistants could lead to things such as behavioural problems and social isolation as the child becomes to dependant on the TA (Giangreco Doyle, 2007). I have observed rare occasions when the teaching assistant has had responsibility for the whole class. However, this is only for very short amounts of time and usually during transition times for example, between the end of lunchtime play and the start of the afternoon session. I have not seen any evidence that the TAs are expected to do any whole class teaching. In the absence of the class teacher, a supply teacher is used rather than giving the responsibility to the teaching assistants. This may be due to the lack of adequate training of the TAs or the preference of the head teacher, unfortunately I have not, as yet had the opportunity to find out this information. However, the Secretary of State has suggested that the role of teaching assistants could be expanded to include supervising classes undertaking work set by the class teacher, administering tests and covering teacher absence (Ofsted, 2002). Cajkler Suschitzky ( 2007) suggest that TAs should be quite deeply invloved in the everday workings of the classroom. This should include knowing about the curriculum, schemes of work, policy and lesson planning. However, from my observations, the TAs do not have any input into what is taught or how but just follow instructions given by the teacher. These are usually things such as keeping children on task rather than giving any indepth help on the lesson being covered. The TAs often have to refer back to the teacher when asked a question by a child. The TAs do seem to be expected to know the curriculum in any depth, schemes of work or policy. These things do not appear to be relevant to the tasks which are expected of them. The only task in which i have seen the TAs using and needing any indepth knowledge is in the rocket reading exercises. Some of the TAs in the school have had training in this area and therefore have the extra knowledge which is used to the advantage of the rest of the teaching staff and also benefits the children as they can be taught in much smaller groups. Many reports and studies show that the use of teaching assistants in the classroom benefit the teacher as well as the children. However, a report by the Institute of Education suggests that less progress is made by children who have the support of a TA than those of a similar age and ability who do not receive the same level of assistance. The report claims that the more support they recieve the fewer gains they make. The findings are based on two main problems that are interlinked. It is claimed that teaching assistants are often assigned to the children in most need of educational help. However, this means that the child has less time with a qualified teacher , therefore reducing the amount of actual teaching they receive (Times, 2008). From my observations i would somewhat agree with these findings. One child in the class has recently oined the class after arriving from Poland.he receives extremly little support, guidence or teaching fom the class teacher.his day is spent either with a non speaking TA or working independently. However he is lucky enough to have another six year old in the class who is also Polish but speaks very good english who translates for him. In conclusion, i feel that that TAs are an extremely important part of the dailybrunning of the classroom. The main roles in which they are involved in allows the teacher to concentrate on actually teaching the class rather than concentrating on what could be seen as less important tasks. However, i feel that TAs need to be trained in all aspects of the roles which they are expected to undertake. Cajkler, W., Suschitzky, W. (2007). Teamwork in the primary classroom. In J. Moyles (Ed.), Beginning Teaching Beginning Learning in Primary Education (pp. 181-191). Maidenhead: Open University Press. DfES. (2003). Raising standards and tackling workload: a national agreement. London: DfES. DfES. (2000, October). Working with Teaching Assistants. Retrieved March 8, 2010, from www.tda.gov.uk: http://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/w/working_with_tas.pdf Giangreco, M. F., Doyle, M. B. (2007). Teaching assistants in inclusive schools. In L.Florian, The Sage Handbook of Special Education (pp. 429-439). London: Sage. Ofsted. (2002, April 16). Ofsted. Retrieved March 8, 2010, from Ofsted: https://ofsted3.openanswers.com/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Education/Leadership/Management/Teaching-assistants-in-primary-schools-an-evaluation-of-the-quality-and-impact-of-their-work/(language)/eng-GB Times, T. (2008). Pupils using teaching assistants make less progress. Retrieved march 8, 2010, from Teaching Times: http://www.teachingtimes.com/articles/teaching-assistants-less-progress.htm

Charles Dickens :: essays research papers fc

Charles Dickens   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Growing up in the Victorian period, Christmas didn’t have too much of an influence on society, particularly in England, where Dickens’ grew up. This could be why one might possibly find it odd that this man is known so well for his interest in Christmas, and his many stories that reflect that interest. Charles Dickens’ has forever changed the lives of people everywhere by the characters he portrays in his stories. From the innocent Tiny Tim, to the humbug Ebenezar Scrooge, to the mysterious ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future†¦Dickens’ has a way to look and write about Christmas from the point of view many could not even imagine. He even brought the tradition of feisting on turkey and ham on Christmas Day into our daily December 25 ritual, now how can one not cherish the man for that. â€Å"Money had always been a worry for Dickens when he was growing up, for he was born into a struggling lower-middle class family. His father went to debtor’s jail when Dickens was only twelve years old. Not able to go to school anymore because of his father’s financial problems, Dickens was forced to get a job. This obviously caused him to have a lack of appropriate education, so Dickens began to develop on interest into books. He was later sent back to school when his dad got out of jail, but when his parents could again no longer afford to pay for their son’s education, he found work in a law office, then as a newspaper reporter. It was here that Dickens’ taught himself shorthand,† (www.ucsc.edu/dickens/DEA/ACC/dickens.bio.html, Dickens’ Life and The Carol). This began the writing of the many Dickens’ classics we enjoy to this very day. One particular book being, A Christmas Carol, a well-known holiday classic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Dickens’ childhood poverty lead to his compassion for the lower class, especially the children. Even in his writings, he portrayed then with sympathy as well as compassion,† (Hromatko, 5). â€Å"A Christmas Carol greatly reflected the life of Dickens’, for just like the Crachit family, he was poor living in a four-room house. The six Crachit children correspond to the six Dickens’ children at that time,† (www.ucsc.edu/dickens/DEA/ACC/dickens.bio.html, Dickens’ Life and The Carol). â€Å"One may also recall a quite mean and miserly man who went by the name of Ebenezar Scrooge; he represents Victorian England at the time Dickens’ wrote the story.

Lyrical Analysis of The End :: essays papers

Lyrical Analysis of The End The night they recorded "The End" would always remain a significant moment for Jim Morrison. After everyone finally went home for the night he couldn't stop thinking about. He climbed an eight-foot-high wooden gate, somehow got back into the studio. He was breathing hard as he took off his shoes and jeans and shirt. Naked he grabbed a large sand ashtray and threw it. Then he pulled a fire extinguisher from a wall and sprayed the foam all over. He hosed the whole place down, especially in the area where the band was. Jim Morrison knew he would get no rest that night until he quenched the fire he had lit in the studio. He was drunk but he knew enough about himself to know it was the only way he would get any peace. What he may not have known is that the real fire he started that night was on the inside, where it could never be put out. "The End" tells of the impending end of a love affair quite possibly by murder. Its an eleven minute psychosexual epic done entirely in one chord (E). The song is an incredible achievement in music, there's nothing that can even come close to what was done with "The End", in terms of the rhythmic and melodic variation backing a complex story line. It builds to an effect of mood rather than a sequence of events. Morrison's masterpiece was almost pure poetry, which probably remains the single most astounding track the doors ever recorded. Jim Morrison uses words as much for their emotive effect as their meaning. The song suggests rather than states a mind filled with fears of sex, violence and death. Its the imagery more than the meaning of the words themselves that gets the message across. The imagery is terrifying-"the snake is long" and he's "old and his skin is cold." A symbol of evil if combined with images of sex and death. After a "Roman wilderness of pain" we take on an even more treacherous journey. The journey to paradise where all things are possible can be accomplished by giving your final destination to the driver of the "blue bus". The promise of wisdom for those who are willing to go to the "ancient lake." But the wisdom is sad, hopeless forbidden knowledge-the knowledge of evil.

Teaching in America Essay -- Education Educating Essays

Teaching in America ABSTRACT: The term "teaching" is usually used in the Academy without a clear sense of what is meant, resulting in imprecise and ineffective teaching. The standard lines-that teaching is a matter of applying approved methods, that teaching is mostly a matter of teaching skills-as-means to some career or whatever-are reflective of failure in the Academy, measured in its "defect rate" of around 30 percent. The definition of teaching I sketch-skills adopted from a theoretical foundation, in turn based on a critique-is well founded in the scholarly tradition. Such a definition is, however, challenging to an Academy at the end of an ancien rà ©gime. It has been apparent for a couple decades that something is wrong with the way we teach in this country. Most of the attention is focused on "the grades", but higher education is no longer exempt from criticism. The most alarming reports are quite consistent: Between 27 percent and 35 percent of students entering the college and university system do not complete the program they enter. (1) That so many students should be admitted, then lost along the way, is an unacceptable "defect rate". General Interest There is a vast literary corpus on the subject of what is wrong with the teaching system. It ranges from alarming reports in the popular press to practical and anecdotal accounts, to what passes for scholarly reportage of research backed by significant public and private grants. The popular press is, per def., popular; it favors the tangible ("readin', writin' 'n' 'rithmetic"). Scholarly reportage is contradictory, e. g.: One report, in a teachers'-union publication, tells us that two-year-college students entering upper-division study are more likel... ...er published a very insightful essay on the irrelevance of current economic theory and the economists who produce it. The picture is complex, but the gist of it is, modern school-economics is so caught up in fanciful application of ever-more-recondite skills, that all sense of the larger world supposedly being modeled is lost. It turns out that Keynes and his successors were the last of that ilk to have their feet firmly planted in reality - as well as being generally better applied-mathematicians. As I read this essay, it seemed to me much the same could be said for the exponents of quantitative political science, quantitative sociology and so on: These folks owned their fields in the 1970s and 1980s; today they are little heard from, and what they present as "science" - as, e. g., in The Bell Curve of a couple years back - is rightly laughed at as sheer silliness.

Pantawid Pamilya Report

PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM (Conditional Cash Transfer in the Philippines) HISTORY Pantawid Program started in 2008 is one of the responses of the Philippine Government to the challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The program works to attain 5 out of the 8 MDGs namely: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal healthThis version of the government of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) was patterned after the successful poverty reduction and social development measures of some Latin and Caribbean countries: |Country |Name of Program |Year Started | |Brazil |Bolsa Familia |1995 | |Mexico |Progresa/Oportunidades |1997 | |Colombia |Familias en Accion |2000 | |Honduras |Programa de Asignacion Familiar |2000 | |Nicaragua |Red de Protection Social |2000 | |Jamaica |Program for Advancement through Health and E ducation |2001 | |Chile |Chile Solidario |2002 | Poverty in the Philippines affects 27. 9 million Filipinos. This translates to 4. 7 million families that are poverty-stricken. 30% of the total population is unable to meet their basic food and non-food requirements and they do not avail of the basic health services. 1. 9 million families are unable to get the food needed for nutritional health and well-being of their members, especially young children. With these data, the Philippine government came up with its own version of the conditional cash transfer program. OBJECTIVES Short Term Objective †¢ Social Assistance gt; Provide assistance to the poor to alleviate their immediate needs. Long Term Objective †¢ Social Development >Break the intergenerational cycle of poverty through investment in human capital i. e. , education, health and nutrition. BENEFICIARIES/TARGET POPULATION Eligible beneficiaries include the following: 1. Residents of the poorest municipalities based on 2003 Small Area Estimates (SAE) of NSCB; 2. Households whose economic condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold. 3. Households that have children 0-14 years old and/or have a pregnant woman at the time of assessment; 4. Households that agree to meet conditions specified in the program. REGION |NO. OF PROVINCES |NO. OF CITIES/ |NO. OF HOUSEHOLDS | | | |MUNICIPALITIES | | |REGION I |4 |35 |35,330 | |REGION II |4 |23 |25,574 | |REGION III |7 |41 |31,183 |REGION IV-A |5 |70 |105,981 | |REGION IV-B |5 |61 |141,266 | |REGION V |6 |93 |262,291 | |REGION VI |7 |86 |187,813 | |REGION VII |4 |61 |145,349 | |REGION VIII |5 |95 |179,692 | |REGION IX |3 |67 |209,593 | |REGION X |5 |82 |214,060 | |REGION XI |4 |34 |130,521 | |REGION XII |4 |34 |163,149 | |CARAGA |5 |70 |148,520 | |ARMM |5 |99 |258,738 | |CAR |6 |42 |26,274 | |NCR |0 |17 |73,727 | |TOTAL |79 |1,010 |2,339,060 | **as of 3rd quarter of 2011(set 1-4) PROGRAM STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES The program provides con ditional cash grants to beneficiaries, through Landbank cash card, to wit: ? Health and Nutrition ? P6,000 per year or P500 per month per household ? Education ? P3,000 per year or P300 per month per child for 10 months a year, to a maximum of 3 children per household Program Conditionalities (Co-responsibility of the Household) HEALTH AND NUTRITION †¢ Pregnant Household Member ? Visit their local health center to avail of pre- and post-natal care. Avail of appropriate delivery services by a skilled health professional. ? Avail at least one post-natal care within 6 weeks after childbirth. †¢ Children 0-5 Years Old ? Visit the health center to avail immunization. ? Have monthly weight monitoring and nutrition counseling for children aged 0-2 years old. ? Have quarterly weight monitoring for 25 to 73 weeks old. ? Have management of childhood diseases for sick children. †¢ Children 6-14 Years Old ? Must receive deworming pills twice a year. EDUCATION †¢ Children 3-5 years old ? enrolled in day care or pre-school program and maintain a class attendance rate of at least 85% per month. †¢ Children 6-14 years old enrolled in elementary and secondary school and maintain a class attendance rate of at least 85% per month. ISSUES AND CONCERNS Dole-out ? No, it is a social contract between the beneficiary and the government and it is a development program that invests in human capital. It is a conditional payment and the beneficiaries must meet specific conditions before they can get the cash assistance. It encourages them to invest in the future, their own, and those of their children. Inclusion Error ? Ineligible households were asked to voluntarily waive from the program. This includes households who have a regular income like teachers and other professionals.