Nutrition classes in Texas middle schools Essay

Nutrition classes in Texas middle schools - Essay Example The youth of Texas, aged 9th through 12th grades, reported only 17% were eating the recommended number of fruits and vegetables daily, with about 45% actually meeting the physical activity requirements for people in that age group. They also reported more than 38% drank at least one non-diet soda per day. (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh, &Merchant, 2005) The burden of obesity has cost private Texas businesses more than $3.3 billion and the state Medicare/Medicaid system more than $ 5 billion annually. (Castellon, 2008) The U.S. Surgeon General’s office report that more than 70% of overweight children go on to become overweight adults. Efforts aimed at reducing obesity should be initiated during early childhood with positive role modeling of healthy relationships with food and exercise. The focus should be more on healthy lifestyles as opposed to dieting solutions once the weight has accumulated. (Castellon, 2008) It is projected that by the year 2025, only 14% of adult Texans will be of normal weight, resulting in over $15 billion being spent annually for obesity related health issues. Texas has already begun to invest in nutrition and wellness education by spending $20 million in support for school physical education, fitness, and nutrition programs for middle-schoolers, in 6th – 8th grades. ... (Castellon, 2008) According to an independent study published by the American Journal of Public Health in 2008, the declining results may be attributable to the implementation of the Texas Public School Nutritional Policy, which took effect in 2003. The study collected three years worth of lunch menus and student choices, combined with health evaluations of Texas school children in more than six hundred participating schools across Texas. The Nutritional Policy aimed at instituting change by reducing availability of non-nutrient items, providing milk, fruits and vegetables, as well as healthy entree items on the menus. The entrees featured foods higher in protein, fiber, vitamins A and C, and Calcium. This study supports that school lunch choices had the potential to impact the problem of obesity showing short term reductions in obesity for participants, with further research being required. (Cullen, 2008) The International Journal of Obesity reported an increase in early onset child hood obesity with more prevalence in Mexican Americans and African Americans than in non-Hispanic White participants. The fat patterning in these groups was also more noticeably truncal, located around the middle region of the body; this pattern is more closely associated with Type II Diabetes, hyperinsulinemia, and cardiovascular risk factors. (Park, Menard, Schoolfield, 2001) (Guzman, 2011) In taking a closer look at the ethnic patterns of obesity, several factors appear to be involved. First of all, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics were found to be less likely to engage in physical activities. This was attributed to less availability of safe areas to perform physical activities. Secondly, this group was also found to be more satisfied with

Performance Management Activities

Performance Management Activities PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on performance of the organization, a department, processes to build a product or service, employees, etc. Information in this topic will give you some sense of the overall activities involved in performance management. Then you might enhance your understanding by reviewing closely related library topics referenced from the sidebar. IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMANCE MANGEMENT SYSTEM Setting up a good performance management system doesnt happen overnight or by accident. You need to consider its design and carefully plan how it will work before managers begin using it to evaluate employees. Benefits Managing employee or system performance facilitates the effective delivery of strategic and operational goals. There is a clear and immediate correlation between using performance management programs or software and improved business and organizational results. A performance management system should provide employees with these four basic benefits: A clear understanding of job expectations Regular feedback about performance Advice and steps for improving performance Rewards for good performance 4 Key Benefits of Performance Management system 1. PM focuses on results, rather than behaviors and activities A common misconception among supervisors is that behaviors and activities are the same as results. Thus, an employee may appear extremely busy, but not be contributing at all toward the goals of the organization. An example is the employee who manually reviews completion of every form and procedure, rather than supporting automation of the review. The supervisor may conclude the employee is very committed to the organization and works very hard, thus, deserving a very high performance rating. 2. Aligns organizational activities and processes to the goals of the organization PM identifies organizational goals, results needed to achieve those goals, measures of effectiveness or efficiency (outcomes) toward the goals, and means (drivers) to achieve the goals. This chain of measurements is examined to ensure alignment with overall results of the organization. 3. Cultivates a system-wide, long-term view of the organization. Richard A. Swanson, inPerformance Improvement Theory and Practice(Advances in Developing Human Resources, 1, 1999), explains an effective performance improvement process must follow a systems-based approach while looking at outcomes and drivers. Otherwise, the effort produces a flawed picture. For example, laying off people will likely produce short-term profits. However, the organization may eventually experience reduced productivity, resulting in long-term profit loss. 4. Produces meaningful measurements These measurements have a wide variety of useful applications. They are useful in benchmarking, or setting standards for comparison with best practices in other organizations. They provide consistent basis for comparison during internal change efforts. They indicate results during improvement efforts, such as employee training, management development, quality programs, etc. They help ensure equitable and fair treatment to employees based on performance PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM A Performance Management System enables a business to sustain profitability and performance by linking the employees pay to competency and contribution. It provides opportunities for concerted personal development and career growth. It brings all the employees under a single strategic umbrella. Most importantly, it gives supervisors and subordinates an equal opportunity to express themselves under structured conditions. Managing this process effectively isnt easy. It calls for a high level of co-ordination, channeled information flow, and timely review. Whether employees are at a single place, or spread across multiple locations, the use of technology can help simplify the complete process for more effective information management. Customize Performance Management to Fit Global Cultures Experts say companies often impose an American style of performance management on employees based in other countries, even when such a system conflicts with local cultural norms. A better approach, they say, is to adapt the system to fit the culture. U.S. firms pick up their existing performance management program philosophy, intent, forms, everything and try to force-fit them into non-U.S. cultures, forgetting that the nature of the employer/employee relationship varies widely from place to place, But this is a mistake. What works in Dallas might not work so well in Dalian or Dubrovnik. In some cultures you simply cannot transpose culturally offensive management styles. The 360-degree approach is a good example of this. It requires a fundamentally egalitarian mindset and value system in order to be effective. Its a rather Western concept to evaluate performance management scientifically and with a process that is valid and reliable and rational company. The management and assessment of performance has always been done [around the world], but its been done more intuitively and organically, and not in a rational, organized process. In the West that people will say things clearly, that are problems, and thats not the case in many other cultures around the world. However, because the American business model is accepted and admired, many companies outside the United States will simply accept the American way of doing business rather than expecting to have practices adapted to fit their culture, said A good performance appraisal process is an integral part of the performance management system and it works seamlessly with the other components. This article takes a holistic approach to performance management and gives an overview of the components. A performance management system has the following components and interfaces: goal-setting, regular reviews, annual appraisal, development process and linkages to other systems. Goal-setting This process is the foundation for a good performance management system. It brings in the clarity required to deliver the required results. The organizations expectations are set in the form of â€Å"key result areas† (KRAs), along with strong indicators of the required standards (also termed â€Å"measures of performance†). The benefits of giving clear directions are many. It helps increase productivity by enabling people to focus on the requirement; it minimizes frustration and enables employee satisfaction. Regular reviews Reviews are a critical component of the system. Reviews give timely feedback to the individual. It is important to schedule formal reviews during the course of the year. These can be half-yearly or quarterly depending on the need. Structured mid-term reviews enable the organisation to take stock of the performance during the given period. It gives the individual an opportunity to discuss his/her achievements during the given period and to look at areas of improvement. In a dynamic environment, it is important to keep abreast of market situations. Reviews can be utilised to make midcourse correction in the KRAs. It is possible that the macro environment has changed and that some of the objectives have to be reviewed. For example, certain sectors in the economy may be doing extremely well and the organisation may see a need to review sales numbers based on these indicators. Reviews need to be structured on a regular basis to ensure that there are no surprises in the annual appraisal. Regular and structured reviews are a critical component of the performance management system and this is essential to ensure that the performance management system is not the same as the annual performance appraisal. As a part of this sub-system, we have processes such as coaching, mentoring, performance improvement plans, etc. Annual appraisal A typical appraisal system could be designed on one of the following Confidential report: The report is written by the supervisor and is, typically, not shown to the individual. Decisions, such as promotions and changes in compensation are made, based on this report. Report by supervisor that is shown/given to the individual and discussed. Self-appraisal by the individual, value-added comments by the supervisor and a discussion: In this system, the individual writes a self-appraisal vis-à  -vis KRAs set at the start of the year. The manager adds his or her comments. Organisations follow one of the following methods of ratings-(a) rating given by the manager or (b) the individual and the manager give ratings and the organisation has a mechanism to deal with differences between the two. There is an opportunity for the individual and the manager to discuss the contents of the appraisal. People working in the software industry or in a project environment may raise a question about the relevance of the annual appraisal. Then there are also professionals who work with different project teams during the course of the year. In this case we could have reviews signed-off at the end of each project. These could be collated at the end of the year to look at overall performance and linkages to other systems. Development plan This pertains to the training and development sub-system. A part of the development plan stems out of the annual appraisal. This is the result of the areas of improvement that emerge from the appraisal and competencies required for new roles, if relevant. A good training and development process will also take the necessary inputs from the organisations business plan. This is required if the organisation is investing into new business or entering new markets. Linkage to rewards system Linkages to processes such as compensation, rewards, progression and successionplanning-the performance appraisal system, in many organisations, has a link to the rewards system. Individuals judge the performance management system and the culture of the organisation based on the message sent by the rewards system. If the rewards system recognises individual contribution and ignores contributions made to team objectives, the people in the organisation start focusing on individual tasks. Therefore, linkage to many of these systems need to be contemplated upon, articulated to the people and implemented with consistency. MEANING OF PERFORMANCE APPARISAL Performance appraisal system has been defined in many ways. The simplest way to Understand the meaning of performance appraisal is as follows: â€Å"A regular and continuous evaluation of the quality, quantity and style of the Performance along with the assessment of the factors influencing the Performance and behavior of an individual is called as performance Appraisal.† Performance appraisal also means an appraisal of the growth potential of an Employee, with a view to providing information to the organization leading to positive Action and enabling feed-back to the individual aimed at his performance Improvement, personal growth and job-satisfaction. In short, we can say that Performance appraisal is expected to result in an assessment of: Growth potential of the employees; Corresponding training needs for the employees; Capabilities for their placement in higher posts, Conduct and discipline of the employees; and The need of the organization to evolve a control mechanism OBJECTIVES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL The main objective of the system of performance appraisal is to reward those who are Working efficiently and honestly in the organization. At the same time, it also aims at eliminating those who are inefficient and unfit to carry out their responsibilities. It has to be done almost continuously, so that no injustice is done to a deserving individual. It is, therefore, necessary to clearly define the organizational objectives, targets and priorities. It is further necessary to define clearly the rote and responsibilities of the persons involved in the functioning of the organisation. Performance appraisal also aims at helping the management in carrying out their tasks more effectively. A sound system of performance appraisal results in framing: A sound selection ?policy. An effective promotion and placement policy; An improved system of career and manpower planning; A realistic training programme; A good reward and punishment system; and An effective system of control and discipline in the organization. These elements are essential for any modern management system. No country can neglect them for long. We can thus say that the main objectives of performance appraisal are as follows: To carry out a fair and impartial assessment of the quality, quantity and stvle 01 the work performance of the individuals working in the organisation. To assess the extent of the various factors which influence the performance of the individuals. To reward the capable and efficient employees. To provide opportunity for improvement of their potentialities to those who are less capable and efficient. To make optimum utilisation of the available human resources for the fulfilment of the organisational goals. To help management in evolving and framing sound policies and programmes relating to selection, placement, promotion, training, discipline, control and man Global Trends in Performance Appraisal Program The performance appraisal process has become the heart of the human resource management systemin the organizations. Performance appraisal defines and measures the performance of the employees and the organization as a whole. It is a tool for accessing the performance of the organization. The important issues and points concerning performance appraisal in the present world are: The focus of theperformance appraisalsis turning towards career development relying on the dialogues and discussions with the superiors. Performance measuring, rating and review systems have become more detailed, structured and person specific than before. Performance related pay is being incorporated in the strategies used by the organizations. Trend towards a360-degree feedbacksystem The problems in the implementation of the performance appraisal processes are being anticipated and efforts are being made to overcome them. In India, the performance appraisal processes are faced with a lot of obstacles, the most prominent being the lack of quantifiable indicators of the performance. GLOBAL TRENDS The emergence of following concepts and the following trends related toappraisal can be seen in the global scenario: 360 Degree Appraisal 360 degree feedback, also known as ‘multi-rater feedback, is the most comprehensive appraisal where the feedback about the employees performance comes from all the sources that come in contact with the employee on his job. Organisations are increasingly using feedback from various sources such as peer input, customer feedback, and input from superiors. Different forms with different formats are being used to obtain the information regarding the employee performance. Team Performance Appraisal According to a wall street journal headline, â€Å"Teams have become commonplace in U.S. Companies†. Most of theperformance appraisal techniquesare formulated with individuals in mind i.e. to measure and rate the performance of the individual employee. Therefore, with the number of teams increasing in the organizations, it becomes difficult to measure and appraise the performance of the team. The question is how to separate the performance of the team from theperformance of the employees. A solution to this problem that is being adopted by the companies is to measure both the individual and the team performance. Sometimes, team based objectives are also included in the individual performance plans. Rank and Yank Strategy Also known as theâ€Å"Up or out policy†, the rank and yank strategy refers to the performance appraisal model in which best-to-worst ranking methods are used to identify and separate the poor performers from the good performers. Then the action plans and the improvement opportunities of the poor performers are discussed and they are given to improve their performance in a given time period, after which the appropriate HR decisions are taken. Some of the organisations following this strategy are Ford, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Global Variations In the United States it is common for each employees performance over the previous six months or year to be documented and followed by a one-on-one meeting between the employee and their supervisor, at which time the employee will receive their rating and discuss expectations for the next rating cycle. In some cases employees are expected to complete a self-appraisal, which might be factored into their review, while in other cases feedback from peers and customers might be included as part of a 360-degree assessment of an individuals performance. Though far from perfect, and often dreaded, the American performance appraisal process suits the American culture, which is regarded as highly individualistic and egalitarian. For example, in the Unites States the performance rating is often used to determine pay. The basic belief in the acceptability, the rightness, the virtue of pay for performance. â€Å"Those who contribute the most should get the greatest rewards.† In the U.S. employees tend to rate themselves and others very highly, such as a 4 or a 5 on a 5-point scale-using an â€Å"everyone gets a prize†. In many European cultures the highest rating might be a 3, and in Asian cultures they wouldnt rate themselves. A pay-for-performance system is inappropriate in cultures that focus on interpersonal relations and collectivism. In Japan compensation is not based on performance. In fact, its hard to identify the individual performance, because the focus is the team. â€Å"If an individual were identified as performing so well that they got compensation in return for it, it would be anathema to the groups collaborative ethos.† In some countries, such as Korea and Germany, use performance management processes that closely parallel those used in the United States. The same is true for France, though he noted that there is less of a connection between performance and pay in that nation. However, the Japanese and American processes have â€Å"diverged significantly† over the years. The Japanese system is frequently, and even intentionally and openly, used as a means of discriminating against ‘undesirable employees, a practice that is prohibited under U.S. civil rights laws. And although the performance appraisal process involves filling out the appraisal form and discussing it with the employee, In Japan the appraisal process often involves only the completion of the form without the discussion between boss and subordinate of the results of assessment. Those who work in the U.S. often put a great deal of value on the information that comes from 360- degree feedback, according to. But in a country like India-which tends to be more collective than individualistic and which embraces a high-power distance, or inequality of power, there is less value placed on the opinions of others and it would be seen as inappropriate culturally to ask employees to fill out a questionnaire on their boss. Similarly it would be difficult to implement a system that includes self-appraisal in cultures that are defined as collaborative, consultative and consensus oriented. People simply dont speak in the capital I and are very uncomfortable doing so. â€Å"In a culture like China or Japan, asking a person to speak about themselves in a way that is honest and direct and that will be appraised by their superiors is a waste of time.† And in some cultures, a face-to-face performance meeting never takes place. In severely hierarchical cultures where the boss is expected to just tell you what they think, there may not be a direct conversation. â€Å"They may communicate through a mediator to help save face.† Filipino managers engage in a practice called â€Å"smooth interpersonal relations.† If a boss has a problem with one of his subordinates, he wont talk directly to the subordinate about it, hell instead tell his wife because he knows his wifes cousins hairdresser is related to the problem employee. In other cultures, managers and employees go out for a drink periodically and chat informally about problems at work. The end result is that the manager knows and has a good sense of the performance of the individual, but if you ask them to assess the employee on a scale of one to 10 they cant do so. â€Å"There is a dependent relationship in Asian cultures. Employees depend on leaders to help them solve work-related problems. â€Å"Thats at odds with Western cultures where staff members solve things on their own.† In some cultures the relationship between the manager and subordinate is so close and ongoing that its sort of like a parent/child relationship. Managers know how employees are performing and give them feedback on a regular basis. A Look at India The business culture in India varies depending on whether it is a family-held business, an Indian company or a Western or American multinational organization, and that affects the nature of the performance management process, according to Nirmala Menon of Interweave Consulting Pvt. Ltd., a diversity consulting firm in Bangalore, India. â€Å"As most Indians are socialized to be hierarchy oriented, this often tends to spill over into the workplace,† Menon told SHRM Online. â€Å"In family-owned or the more traditionally-run organizations, the boss or manager often takes the position of the father in the family.† Organizations rely heavily on informal feedback from the senior person, which might be given indirectly and which is absorbed by the one for whom it is meant and others, Menon added. Menon says this means that the employees career growth is the bosss responsibility. â€Å"The expectation then is that â€Å"Father knows best† and what is conveyed is accepted even if they are in disagreement,† she said. â€Å"Evaluations are therefore often influenced in such situations by the deference shown to the boss and the level of loyalty exhibited; compliance more important than performance.† But Menon said that modern Indian organizations and multinational corporations, particularly IT and telecommunications firms, generally adapt to the global value systems of their companies. As a result, evaluations tend to be more structured and include face-to-face meetings, she said, followed by a written document signed by employee and manager and which typically incorporates input from peers and customers to substantiate the rating. â€Å"While indirect feedback also exists in these organizations, given the heightened awareness of a fair and professional environment, there is more acceptance and expectation of a documented communication, keeping in mind the objectives for the period under review,† Menon added. Annual Performance Appraisal and Evaluation in Indonesia Early in the 20th century, the biggest job as a managers is to teach a newly hired employee to fail intelligently to experiment over and over again and to keep on trying and failing until learns what will work. As we begin 2004, many companies are struggling with the issue of employee appraisal and evaluation. While generally adopted in most western-based business cultures, such employee review and appraisal in Indonesia can be fraught with misunderstandings as to purpose and methodology, be filled with accusations of impartiality, and be slowed by hesitation to formally criticize a subordinate. This issue comes up in easily 95 percent of my cross-cultural training programs. American companies normally wish to establish some sort of review procedure but once they begin addressing how to actually institute the process and decide what direct benefits they wish to see, they often become bogged down. The threshold question then is whether a foreign company should even try to implement such a system. There are several cultural barriers to such a system here. Among them is the difficulty with direct communication with employees and also the ‘saving up of problem areas until a later time. Direct communication is difficult for most Indonesians. Indonesians generally adopt an indirect approach to problem solving to avoid the possibility of confrontation and the disruption of office harmony. The preservation of such office harmony being a prime Indonesian business value, of course, and one often having priority over work performance. Also in Indonesia an erring employee or other problem situation is addressed as soon as possible, albeit in an indirect and non-blame pointing way, and then forgotten. To bring the subject up again at some review several months later is going to be considered inappropriate. For these two reasons, individual performance appraisals tend to have the following pattern: An employee comes in to the meeting with some misunderstandings or perhaps anxiety about what will be discussed and how it will affect their career. The supervisor can go over the ‘good qualities of the employee without difficulty. However, when the supervisor begins discussing areas that ‘may need improvement there is normally an attitude change on the part of the employee with him or her becoming either defensive or submissive. In other words, the employee may either disagree with the supervisors assessment or else may ask something like â€Å"Why are you doing this to me? I thought that we had a good working relationship. I did not realize that I was letting you down so badly. Do you want me to resign?† The supervisor then is in the position once again of explaining the purpose and objective of the assessment process. In general, annual performance evaluations and reviews tend to be disruptive to the Indonesian office. In my opinion, companies should focus on immediate feedback and reprimand, if needed, and not use the annual approach. Another difficulty is the cultural reluctance for some Indonesian managers to formally and in writing criticize their own subordinates. I often hear the example of the expatriate manager who has had one of his direct reports complain often about the performance of his own subordinates. However, when it comes time for the annual review, the direct report submits an outstanding report on that same subordinate. The decision to have annual performance evaluations and reviews may not be up to the Indonesian subsidiary of a multi-national company. Home office may dictate such a policy and the local companys only choice is how to implement. There seem to be three basic approaches to this situation. First is to just go through the motions, telling your employees that ‘this is a Western thing. It will not affect your salary or career, which basically voids the process. Second, you can use the information to provide training and education of the employees turning the evaluation process into a kind of reward system. Third and most difficult, is the attempt to fully implement and effectively use this Western evaluation tool. It can and has been successfully implemented by a number of American companies operating in Indonesia, but it does need the directed will of the top management along with allocated resources and training to be successful. At the very least, there must be a significant training period to help your employees understand what the process is and, more importantly, how it will affect them. Year one should involve a formal introduction to the process with written, quantifiable criteria for the evaluation. Year two should include mock appraisals that do not have any effect on the career of the employee. Year three could see the first recorded appraisals. Once the process is institutionalized, new employees will be told by their colleagues about this strange and foreign system and what to expect. It then becomes part of your ‘third corporate culture. Any attempts to speed up the process are often seen as arbitrary and unfair. Further, you should definitely expect such accusations of being arbitrary and unfair if you take the next step after the evaluation process and tie the appraisal into bonuses or salary increases. Such performance-based bonuses or salary increases are pretty much in direct opposition to the Indonesian business values of the group working together and maintaining office harmony. Traditionally, the ideal Indonesian employee is one who is loyal to the boss for a long time. In other words, loyalty and seniority are the prime attributes, and by loyalty, I mean personal allegiance to the boss, not to the corporate entity. Pointing out a specific employee and emphasizing the fact that he is superior to and a better employee than those he or she works with on a daily basis is going to be disruptive to the office and embarrassing to the individual. For instance, if you have an annual office party or awards dinner for your staff and you say something like: â€Å"Now here is Budi who outperformed everyone else in our office and we are giving him a new TV.† The polite clapping of his co-workers is going to be overshadowed by thoughts of ‘traitor and plots for revenge against the award winner. If you bring up another employee and say ‘Now here is Bambang who has worked for our company for 10 years and we are giving him a new TV, Bambang will bask in the limelight and his co-workers will no doubt truly admire his accomplishment. The difference being that Bambang was rewarded for seniority, while Budi was rewarded for violating basic Indonesian business values. One should not expect the same confidentiality of salary information in Indonesia that one might expect in the home country. We joke that on the day performance bonuses are given, the employees exchange pay stubs in the canteen. Even if the situation is not that extreme, you can be sure that most people in your office know what each other has received, and those employees with more seniority may soon be in your office asking for a bigger bonus or larger salary increase. You may then once again be explaining the companys policy on performance appraisals and evaluation but this time be met with defensive and even hostile disagreement as to whom was the better worker. Allegations that the companys criteria for awarding bonuses or salary increases is unfair and arbitrary and lacks understanding of the situation in Indonesia may be made. Employees have certainly used the conflict resolution strategy of ‘appeal to authority to resolve these disagreements going to the country manager complaining that their supervisor is acting improperly. There have also been cases of employees going to Indonesian government departments like Manpower or Immigration complaining about their expatriate supervisor. With the current priorities in these departments, such complains have resulted in the early repatriation of expatriate supervisors. The process of annual performance appraisal and evaluation of Indonesian employees is not one that foreign companies should enter into lightly. The implementation of this very Western-based management tool should be well thought out and supported by top management. Alternatives exist that may be better suited to your companys long-term success in Indonesia. Encouraging employee performance and addressing areas of weakness remain a good m

The Presidency of Bill Clinton :: William Jefferson Clinton Essays

The Clinton Presidency William Jefferson Clinton?s eight-year term as president of the United States of America was one of the most corrupt, and possibly the most damaging ever. There is evidence connecting him to hundreds of deaths, injuries, and explosions. He, along with his administration, made a number of ?Faustian bargains and policy blunders? (Timperlake) that allowed a malicious, rancorous government to gain more power in Washington. He acted dangerously and impulsively, and befriended all of the wrong people, including Chinese arms dealers, spies, pimps, and gangsters, among others. Clinton also compromised U.S. safety on more than one occasion. He is a cold, racist, corrupt man who has proven many times over that he does not care about the people, only in using them and obtaining money. In the following pages, one will see facts proving all of this. One could begin with the issue of genocide. In 1994, between half a million and a million members of the Tutsi tribe were slaughtered by Hutu tribal militias. Even though this massacre was widely covered by the news, the United States did nothing to help stop the killing. President Clinton offered an explanation to survivors in Kilagi for this. He said that he ?did not fully appreciate the depth and the speed with which [the survivors] were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror.? (Kelly) This explanation was not quite true. The U.S. government watched the killings in Rwanda closely. Clinton was completely familiar with the genocide; he knew what was going on as hundreds of thousands were being murdered. And yet, he still did nothing to stop it. He is also quoted as saying that he only ?did not act quickly enough to stop it after the killing began.? (Kelly) Actually, he personally denied urgent requests from the U.N. to send a small force of non-U.S. troops into Rwanda. Then on May 24, 1994, with the estimate number of the dead at 400,000 and rising, Clinton said, ?We cannot solve every such outburst of civil strife or militant nationalism simply by sending in our forces.? (Kelly). One may ask, if he considers a million corpses a ?civil strife?, does he really care about the world and the human race at all? Then, one may look at what happened with Mena, and the two teenage boys, Don

Information Technology’s Effect on Society

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Information Technology’s Effect on Society * Tanya Cavaleri * English Compostion II * EN 130. 1. 1 Sitting at the park on a nice beautiful day, you’re reading your friends post on Facebook from your IPhone. At home getting ready to type up a research paper and you realize you still need one last piece of information where do you go? Google and conduct a search. Your teenager just came to you crying because she was accused of sending pictures via text to her boyfriend and now it’s all over Twitter and Facebook that she is a slut.Information technology’s effect on society comes with good and bad effects on people everywhere every day. We have come so far since internet has gone public in early 1990’s (Howe, 2012), but at what cost to our society? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary (2011) information technology is the technology involving the development, maintenance, and use of computer systems, software, and network s for the processing and distribution of data. The use of computers and other devices have allowed us to use social medias like Facebook to find and stay in contact with our family and friends.The World Wide Web has all the information we may need at our finger tips. No more waiting on snail mail to deliver mail when we can send an email and have it delivered instantly to the recipient. Information technology is even enabled us to be able to work from home more efficiently. With the click of our mouse or the swipe of our finger we’re able to send off packages and track the delivers without ever changing out of our pajamas. Paying bills and managing budgets having never been easier.But at what cost is all this information technology bringing? Our society is so desensitized that we don’t seem to care what all this â€Å"awesome† technology is doing to our world. For example our teenagers are faced with both bullying at school and online. Having to face their peers daily and fear the rumors that could spread over one remark or wrong picture on Facebook, Twitter or text message is difficult for many of them. So is social media a good thing? Maybe, but it needs to be monitored more.Google (â€Å"Google,† 2012) the word Hacker and there is about 246,000,000 results. Like â€Å"how to become a hacker† or â€Å"how hackers work†. Information technology can open society up to be very vulnerable. Like leaving the back door unlocked for anyone to walk through if we’re not careful. Siciliano (2012) writes according to the Javelin Strategy & Research, in 2011 identity fraud increased by 13 percent. More than 11. 6 million adults became a victim of identity fraud in the United States.Online banking, bill pay, shopping online are all conveniences we have grown accustomed to over the last 18 years but we need to protect our private information. Sometime information technology can fall in the wrong hands and cause havoc for thou sands of people. Just one of many examples is in 2006 the U. S. government warned that a database containing sensitive information about veterans and their families had been stolen, after an employee violated policy and brought the data home (Lemos, 2006).So yes information technology is a much needed asset in today society. Providing helpful guided searches, helping to connect with family that are thousands of miles away, paying bills quickly and sending messages lighting fast. But in the wrong hands in can be more destructive then a hurricane, leaving heartache and pain with every stroke of the finger. Davidson, J. (n. d. ). Ezinearticles. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles. com/? Online-Banking—History-Still-in-the-Making? &a

Gender segregated schools Essay

The Benefits and Disadvantages of Single-Sex Education Schools in early 17th century America were fist modeled after English learning institutions after Puritans immigrated over to the English colonies. Originally only rich white males were allowed to attend school to learn how to read and write. In many cases, most parents placed their boys into the nine month long curriculum to keep them out of mischief. For the other three months of the year, students would be released from school during the summer months to lend a hand on their familys arms to help cultivate the land and raise animals. During the summer months, wealthy white girls attended these same schools often taught by a female instructor to learn to read and write. Of the girls who could attend the schools, many were kept at home to be taught the essentials for their future such as cooking, sewing, and the caretaking of babies and toddlers (A Short History). Fast forward one hundred years and the first coeducational schools can be found appearing in the American colonies, primarily the New England area. In these schools the major focus was to teach children how to read, specifically for religious purposes. The likely cause of the integration of boys and girls in schools is thought to be stemmed from â€Å"growing numbers of female church numbers and the practical requirements of finding enough children to support schools in sparsely populated regions† making schools more practical to spread religion (A Short History). After the revolutionary war, American citizens saw that women’s education was important and was needed to promote good citizens and great leaders in society. With this state of mind, many private schools opened their doors to coeducation and allowed both boys and girls to attend school together. Until the late 1840’s, only rich white boys and girls were allowed to attend schools because there was no government funded schools. That changed when reformers Horance Mann and Henry Barnard succeeded with their efforts to promote a free public school system. This finally allowed all white children to attend schools together for free. The only exception to gender-integrated schools where catholic families who â€Å"objected the practice of coeducation on moral and religious grounds†¦ and that males and females had profoundly different purposes to fulfill† (A Short History). Because of this many catholic schools remained segregated y gender. In the early 1900’s many schools created classes specifically to prepare boys and girls for their future. Girls were taught â€Å"home economics and traditionally feminine labor skills, such as secretarial work and or garment-making† while boys were educated in industrial arts, bookkeeping, and commercial geography (A Short History). These classes were introduced for the importance of the growing labor market of the time period. In todays society, some parents are faced with placing their children in gender- segregated schools or in public schools to better benefit their children. The problem brains of the two genders learn different subjects at different ages. So, with this, boys or girls have an advantage over each other. The same happens when puberty becomes a factor in adolescence as well as in high school with distractions. On the other side, there are also benefits to public schools such as socialization with the opposite sex and better preparation for the real world. Then there are gender segregated schools that better accommodate teaching methods and times for specific sexes as well as better grades, less competition, and fewer distractions. Again there re bad sides to this too, such as less socializing and less competition to prepare someone for their future Job. With all of these factors, any parent faced with a decision like this will have a hard time figuring out what type of education their child should receive. One of the major arguments people make supporting gender-segregated schools is the fact that boys and girl’s brains differ in many different aspects. Whether it is an emotional difference or the structure of the brain, one gender will do better in class than the other. In 2007, a team of neuroscientists from the National Institute of Mental Health conducted a study on subjects ranging in age from three to twenty- seven years old both male and female. Their results showed that the occipital lobe of the brain where visual processing is mostly associated with is developed much more rapidly in six to ten year old girls, as opposed to the male brain where this lobe does the majority of its development after fourteen years of age (Novotney). Another major brain difference between the girls and boys is that a girl’s corpus callosum is twenty- five percent larger than a boys, making girls better at multitasking. A girl’s prefrontal ortex also develops earlier and larger than that of a boy, making girls better at abstract thinking and thought analysis as well as making better choices between right and wrong (McBride). Meanwhile, the cerebral cortex where mechanical and spatial thinking is conducted is used much more in boys. This results in boys having an easier time learning with movement and pictures as opposed to girls. With these different developed sections of the brain, girls gain an upper hand in classrooms over boys by ways of better listening, sensory memory, and especially reading and writing. However, boys gain an upper hand over girls in math as Leonard Sax a Ph. D. in psychology and author of Why Gender Matters explains: [the] fact that many middle-school boys seem to learn algebra better when you start with numbers, whereas many same-age girls seem to be more engaged if you start with a word problem. For example, if you are teaching equations in multiple variables, the typical 7th-grade boy will do better if you begin by asking â€Å"If x + 2y = 60, and 2x + y = 90, how do we solve for x and y? † But the typical 7th-grade girl will be more engaged if you begin by asking â€Å"If a sweater and two blouses cost $60, and two sweaters and a louse cost $90, how much does each blouse and each sweater cost? (Sax 15). By splitting boys and girls in school, a teacher can adjust a test to where the two genders of students both benefit from word or equation only math problems. According to Lisa Damour, Co-director of the Center for Research on Girls at Laurel school, a girls day school claims that â€Å"the benefit of single-sex schools†¦ is that they offer the dynamic of having only one sex in the classroom at a time, creating girls class that would not work as effectively in a boys class and vice versa (Novotney). That way boys and girls are taught the same subject at different times in a better gender specified manner. Many studies have statistically shown support towards gender-segregated schools as being better for students in both education and even personality. A study was conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studying schools in Seoul South Korea that randomly assigned students to either attend a coed or gender-segregated school. In these schools, all students were from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The results of this study found that girls in gender- egregated schools were more likely to attend college after graduation as compared to girls at coeducational schools; the same appeared in boys of both types of schools. Both boys and girls in these gender-segregated schools made higher test scores than coed schools in the same city. In another study conducted by Betta Hannover and her colleague Ursula Kessels found that American girls in girl only schools were more comfortable with physics. The National Foundation for Educational Research in England also supports that boys and girls do better on test scores and overall grades as compared to coed students regardless of background factors. The study also backs up the Hannover and Kessels study by finding that â€Å"girls at single-sex schools were more likely to take non-traditional courses – courses which run against gender stereotypes† (Single-Sex). Student grades at single-sex schools could be better than expected by both boys and girls because boys and girls in the single sex schools are more comfortable enrolling in contradicting gender-stereotypical classes, like girls interested in computer science, and boys in art. These classes could seem a bit more difficult for some students bringing their overall grade down a bit even if it is in egard to students in different nations or here in America. Researcher for the Australian Council for Educational Research Cornelius Riordan found that most boys and girls who attend single-sex catholic schools were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, yet these students obtained better grades than coed students (Single- Sex). This backs the study done by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, that socioeconomic background does not play a major role on a student’s grades as thought by many people who oppose single-sex schools. Riordan also found that students in these catholic schools view learning in a more positive manner which ould be another reason as to why students in single-sex schools do much better than coed students. In another study conducted in Jamaica by Marlene Hamilton â€Å"found that students attending single-sex schools out preformed students in coed schools in almost every subject tested† which confirmed the research done in Australia, South Korea, England, and America (Single-Sex). With many studies on students all over the world being consistent, it proves that single-sex schools are better for a student’s education. Not only do single-sex schools benefit a student’s education, but their overall focus and character as well. At Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Seattle, principle Benjamin Wright led the movement of the schools traditional coed classroom setting to single-sex classrooms. Before this transition he would address over thirty misbehaving children a day, eighty percent of which were boys. In regard to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the single-sex classrooms, there were on average one or two students sent to the office for misbehavior a day. The boys reading average rose to sixty-six percent while their writing average also went up to fifty-three percent (Single-Sex). All of this was done under the same teachers for boys and girls. At an inner-city high school in Montr ©al who underwent the same type of transition also saw positive results. The number of students skipping class dropped by thirteen percent to Just seven percent. Fifteen percent more of students passed their final exams as opposed to before where sixty- five passed. Finally, the rate of students continuing their education in college doubled what it used to be before the switch. With these consistent positive results, many schools will turn to the idea of following these footsteps and transition to single-sex schools or classrooms to benefit all students in their education and haracter. Although segregating students by gender has its positive results, it also has negative results in students psychologically and socially. New York Times writer Tamar Lewin stresses â€Å"the strongest argument against single-sex education†¦ is that it reduces boys’ and girls’ opportunities to work together, and reinforces sex stereotypes† (Lewinl). By splitting the two genders apart, students will not know how to properly work together or even communicate with one another. According to the American Psychological Association, â€Å"school is preparation for the adult life and how oys and girls learn to interact will dictate relationships formed in the workplace† (Saunders). As students are separated by gender, they miss vital chances to work with one another and build important social skills. By segregating students, they are missing out on learning those very skills needed outside of school such as an engineering firm where thoughts from multiple engineers take place. A female engineer who spent her entire school life including college in single-sex classes may feel a bit more uncomfortable speaking out her ideas to the male engineers. Not only oes this affect people in the work place, it affects their personal relationships as well, for example, a male trying to meet women to date, becomes much more difficult. If he has spent little or no time communicating with the opposite sex, he may feel shy or awkward. Elizabeth Danish explains: Part of the idea of going to school is to prepare your child for ‘real life’ when they leave. There is no doubt that the real world’ is mixed gender rather than single sex and so that means that the best way to do this would be to emulate that in school. Further, learning to talk to members of he opposite sex is a very important skill and one that can leave you at a significant disadvantage if you’ve never had a chance to practice. By experimenting with relationships now when things are less serious, your child will be better at managing and finding them when they leave (Danish). She also believes that in coed schools students become more understanding of each other and are more open minded of new conditions. Danish then suggests that building a feminine side to men could help them better understand girls and reduce the changes of sexism in schools. The problem with some single-sex schools is that he ideas of men are better than girls or in some cases women are better than men begins to circulate and lowers the self-confidence and self-esteem of some students. Another problem facing single-sex classrooms is lack of trained teachers to What could be done to better benefit students in single-sex schools is to have the two genders attend the same school in different buildings. With this, students could be integrated during lunch hours and for elementary schools even recess. This way the two genders can socialize with one another and not be completely segregated throughout all twelve years of school. This socialization can help prepare boys and girls for life outside and after high school in both work life and relationships with one another. In regards to single-sex classrooms, studies show how boys are encouraged or more engaged in learning subjects can be implemented in teaching methods for specifically boys and vice versa for girls. With this, teachers can know what method of teaching works better so they can use it only for boys and only for girls. The numbers of single-sex schools have been on the rise in the past fifteen years and will continue to go up because they are proving to better benefit student’s education and personality. However, many advocates believe that the psychological and sociological downsides to this form of education are harmful to students and outweigh the positives.