Effects Of Block Scheduling :: essays research papers

How Block Scheduling Effects In recent years many educators have voiced their concern about as losing our edge in the global marketplace as well as an apparent decline in American students' achievements. This has become a recurring belief for many teachers, parents, and school districts throughout the United States. As a result, many states have begun to increase the amount of units necessary to fulfill graduation requirements in hope to enhance education and make American students more globally competitive. As many districts have found, it is not feasible to add more subjects to the already demanding 6-or 7-period days. The problem in doing so is that there was little time for electives. At the same time they began to find that adding classes only took away time from other parts of the curriculum already established. While some districts fumbled with the idea of adding classes and minimizing losses in other areas, a large number of schools, more specifically 25-40 percent of U.S. high schools adopted block scheduling (American Federation of Teachers, 1999). It is apparent the block scheduling craze is thought to be a fix all solution to the problem, at least for those districts and individuals looking for anything to help increase the status quo. In a nutshell, block scheduling is the practice of breaking up school time into blocks or units of classroom time. More recently we have seen this practice redefined to stand for a restructuring movement for longer classroom periods. Typically average class periods ranged from 45-50 minutes long. Block scheduling has taken this traditional style of time management and have increases class periods anywhere from two to four times longer. As one might be amazed at the novelty of more time in the classroom, it is vital to understand that number of class periods are correspondingly decreased, thus the overall length of time is virtually the same. The majority of information gathered and the studies reviewed tend to overwhelmingly represent the results derived from the two we are describing. Hence from this point forward the term "block scheduling", as used in this paper shall consider the first two categories one and the same. It has been taken into consideration and concurred that there are many variations of block scheduling, however all research, testimonials, cases, and opinions taken into consideration are of the specific type of block scheduling mentioned above. It has also been taken into consideration that there may be many uncontrollable variables that directly and indirectly skew the results of some of the studies.

Gender Stereotypes in Military Essay

In the non traditional occupations, also called non domestic jobs, women in the work place including its attitude about women’s roles are being studied by some professionals. Gender stereotypes are prone into this kind of scenarios. In the military communities for example, there is still a widely held gender stereotypes. Men and women in the military are being approached and treated differently. Military communities in the past were often integrated with men. Women’s participation in the military and in war throughout history has been limited due to those common gender stereotypes. Women can not be good soldiers allegedly because they are innately weak physically and emotionally. Generally men were believed to possess a higher level of motivation, initiative and leadership qualities necessary for effective military performance. Whereas women, primarily considering their physiological aspects, possess more feminine attributes that hinders them to achieve an excellent military performance. But given that the â€Å"physical barriers to military participation have been gradually eroded due to the advent of highly technological weaponry and the improve fitness of women but the emotional barriers remain strong† (DeGroot 24). It is believed that women are genetically programmed for the softer and caring roles and therefore can not apply aggressive impulses necessary for effective soldiering to defend military interests in future conflicts. To recruit women therefore considering this belief means giving into the risks to lose future wars. This perceived reality hinders the military setting to recruit more women for an aggressive physical war. Many points of arguments have put forward by those against the idea of putting women into hand to hand combat. One of the obvious concerns regarding women in combat is the given fact that women do not possess as much physical strength as their male counterparts. The female body structure is not as adept and enduring at handling high g-forces activities needed for actual combats. â€Å"Female soldiers who are, on average, shorter and smaller than men, with 45-50% less upper body strength and 25-30% less aerobic capacity, which is essential for endurance† (Willens 1996). Psychologically, mixed gender accommodations in a small space can be very intimidating and can provoke sexual anxieties towards men which might affect their focus in combats. Moreover there is a greater possibility for acts of rape, sexual harassment and molestation. Romantic relationships between men and women is somehow inevitable especially that war is a depressing situation. This can disrupt a unit’s fighting capability. Many women might be forced to get pregnant as well in order to escape combat duties. Moreover pregnancy may intimidate military readiness that will greatly affect the military combats. Placing women in combat may also mean putting the fighting unit into risks. Female are truly exposed to the risk of capture, psychological and sexual abuses. The opposing parties may use women to intimidate their enemies through using them as prisoners. Meanwhile another interesting argument to keep women out of combat is the fact that female might disrupt the military cohesive unit and might undermine the soldiers’ sense of esprit de corps. The effectiveness of the military hinges on a cohesion — every member must completely trust and respect one another. Many argue men would not be able to trust women to be capable of accomplishing the physical demands of combat, which could lead to serious problems.. A standard must be maintained to make every member feel as if he/she is part of one single unit, not separated by gender (Willens 1996). These gender differences and given the reality of war, the opposing parties who want to keep women out of combat believe that it is safe to put men in actual combats because they guarantee a greater percentage of military effectiveness. In the military, each party needs to have the most capable military power. In United States during World War 1 â€Å"with the creation of U. S. Army Nurse Corps in 1901 and the U. S. Army Nurse Corps in 1908, women were relied on primarily to provide nursing care† Worell 772). Nursing the wounded soldiers was the most visible role played by women during early wars until World War 1. Marriage, pregnancy and motherhood however could be main legitimate basis for voluntary discharge. The â€Å"Army Nurse Corps in 1901 expressly prohibited nurses from marrying and being mothers† because these will hinder their social and governmental service and responsibilities (Worell 774). In World War II however â€Å"historians documented the more informal participation of women in active combat, in artillery units, as disguised enlisted men, in militia units, and in frontier warfare during the early years of U. S. history and as spies and scouts during Civil War† (Worell 776). The start of World War II apparently expanded non nursing roles of women provided their identity will not be boldly exposed so not to create public misinterpretations. War setting has been redefined however in the beginning of 1950s. Women were openly admit for military service. There is an apparent changing nature and role in the modern military. Military now not only participates in physical combats. Their role has changed â€Å"with peacemaking and disaster relief becoming the most common reason for deployment† (DeGroot 25). In this reason, military integrated a wider women’s participation these past years. Women’s gentle nature, their ability to control aggression and their conciliatory attitude are now perceived positively in the military setting. Women’s nature can make a significant contribution for peacemaking. Women are often integrated into combat support roles and services depending on their capabilities. The discrepancy between the stereotypic attributes of female apparently has variety of emotional effects on the experiences of women in the military. In terms of performance evaluation, people readily give a lower standards and expectations to women. They readily recognize and accept the fact that women has weaker physical and emotional attributes. Therefore as a result, they integrate women’s role into the domestic and traditional jobs inside the military. Work Cited Page: DeGroot, Gerard J. A Few Good Women: Gender Stereotypes, the Military and Peacemaking. Olsson, Louise. Tryggestad, Torunn. Women and International peacemaking. Great Britain: Routledge 2001 Willens, Jake. â€Å"Women in the Military†. CDI Center for Defense Information (1972). August 1996. Retrieved on 25, June 2009 from http://www. cdi. org/issues/women/combat. html Worell, Judith. Encyclopedia of women and gender: sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender. Elsevier, 2001

The San Antonio Art Museum - 1135 Words

The exhibition that I viewed at the San Antonio Art Museum was called â€Å"28 Chinese†. This exhibit was based on the artwork of 28 contemporary Chinese artists. Throughout the exhibit, it was discussing the fall of communism, poverty, the essence of time, resistance, rebellion and the conservation of history. Some of the artwork I saw were created by Zhu Jinshi, Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Huan, and Shang Yixin, just to name a few. The exhibit was on two floors of the museum. When I first entered the exhibit, it led me to a big white room with art being displayed on all walls. The first room was based on the Coca Cola project in which there was a tall case of Coca Cola bottles being displayed right when you walk in. To the right was a clear box that held burnt down Coca Cola bottles. These items being displayed made me want to read about the project since it was a familiar company that most people know. Some of the other rooms were structured differently. Some had sculptures, audio v isuals, interactive pieces and others had modified furniture but every piece of art had a description next to it which told who the artist was as well as the meaning of the art itself. The materials used for some of the art works included wood, bamboo, and rice paper. The second floor to the exhibit is mostly abstract art work. The overall theme of this was to express their preservation of Chinese culture being good and bad aspects through art. In order for each piece of artwork to convey their purpose,Show MoreRelatedThe San Antonio Museum Of Art1457 Words   |  6 PagesBefore going to the San Antonio Museum of Art I searched their website to get an idea of the paintings displayed. One stood out to me online however, it wasn’t until I saw it in person the magnitude of the true beauty of the painting. 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