Should Prisoners Be allowed To Vote Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Should Prisoners Be allowed To Vote - Essay Example However, the ban is still not lifted in the country despite growing pressure from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to allow the prisoners to vote. This research paper presents evidence based discussion to illustrate the reality of the claim that â€Å"the UK prisoners should be allowed to vote because first, breaking a law does not deter a person’s right to vote and second, such a blanket ban is an infringement on ECHR.† ECHR works to preserve and promote human rights. This law was formed so that the suffering parties would be able to seek justice or plead for enforcement of rights. Now, the European Court has protested against the UK’s blanket ban on voting right of prisoners labelling it an unlawful action. But, the UK president, David Cameron, strongly opposed everything ECHR had to say on the subject. It is recently claimed by ECHR that â€Å"UK ban on prisoners voting ‘breaches their human rights† (Withnall 2014). This decision of the European judges is not respected in the UK because it is strictly believed by the parliament that prisoners should not be given right to vote. Previously, ECHR has released similar statements opposing the role played by the UK on prisoners’ voting rights. For example, a ruling passed by ECHR in 2005 based on a claim made by a convicted felon, John Hirst, said that all prisoners should be allowed to vote in the UK and no compensation shou ld be made to them by the government. In contrast to this, the UK parliament’s stand on the subject is that the powers of ECHR should be restricted because they have regularly become a hurdle in the imposition of ban on prisoners’ voting rights. It is claimed that the final decision must be made by the UK, not by the Europe (Press Association 2013). But, that condition should only be respected if it does not violate human rights. As the ban does in deed violate human rights, so the UK should not be given the freedom to prevent its prisoners from

How To Write A Well Done Research Paper English Language Essay

How To Write A Well Done Research Paper English Language Essay Before getting down to a new activity, its always helpful to find out what you are dealing with. Actually, there are several types of writings called a research paper which differ greatly from one another: an academic paper this one is written by professors and scientists, contains results of their own research or some kind of review in the chosen field of knowledge; a thesis (a dissertation) a paper, written by the postgraduate student who has continued scientific work and presents the results of his findings to take an advanced degree; a term paper the one, written by the high school, college, or university students over the term (usually a semester) and handed in somewhere at the end. This paper serves as an evidence of a students ability to apply practically the theoretical knowledge he/she got during the term (or some longer period of studying) and influences greatly the grade. To be more precise, it makes up much of the course thats why its worth being done properly, isnt it? So, you are to write a research paper of this third type. To tell the truth, its quite a consuming activity; I mean, there are several items which will be for sure consumed by your research paper: time: You put off this paper for the last night before the deadline? Youd better spend these ten hours in a more effective way for anyway youll not succeed in writing a proper research paper. Then, what for all the fuss and brouhaha? To be serious, you should be ready to spend several weeks in order to write a good research paper: the two most time-consuming parts are gathering/studying the sources and the writing proper. Be careful to pay equal attention to each part of the process! Carried away by scanning the sources, you may run out of time and lack it for writing your own paper or do it not in the best possible way. In such a case, youll just waste your time when working with sources. And efforts as well, which is discussed below. efforts: I dont want to disappoint you but there is no possibility to write a proper research paper like Slam bang and its done!. It demands much efforts, both physical and mental: the first to search for appropriate sources, take notes, make correctly bibliography cards, finally, to type several pages which youll call research paper; the second to select a topic, to develop a thesis statement, to analyze the information youve collected from the sources, to choose your own point of view, and to present it in a proper way. On the other hand, I dont want to scare you by enumerating all the activities which are to be accomplished. Aimed at the common goal, they come into connection; therefore, if everything is done properly, the process flows smoothly from one stage to another. For instance, when gathering your sources, you are to keep in mind a topic and probably some possible variants of a thesis statement of your research paper when reading and analyzing the sources, you are for sure to concentrate on making notes, bibliography cards and at the same time you are to choose a way to develop your thesis statement when writing different parts of the paper you are to watch the interconnection between them and make sure you present your ideas in a logical order. paper: Joking apart! Be ready to have enough sheets of paper or better even cardboard cards to take notes and collect bibliography information while working with sources. Probably, youll need several editions of your research paper to perfect your argumentation skills and organize it in the best possible way. sources: It was already mentioned above that you should gather quite a number of sources and make a close study of them before writing a research paper. Be attentive, as opposed to an essay where you were supposed to use your personal experience, that of your friends, or some anecdotes in a research paper you are to deal with academic sources, publications of scientists and researchers. Make sure the sources you use are credible enough to refer to them! To sum up all the mentioned above, a well-done research paper is a several-pages long paper accomplished by the end of the term where student presents the results of his/her review of a scientific literature, its analysis, and skills in using it when arguing his/her own point of view. In the long run, you should produce a logical, consistent, and coherent text, based on the independent and critical analysis of some sources and their interpretation aimed at supporting your way of treating the problem. To do it properly, you are to follow seven steps and keep in mind some additional demands. Algorithm of writing a research paper Actually, after youve become familiar with a general idea of a research paper and some of its peculiarities, you are more or less aware of the procedure of its writing. Now lets reorganize these ideas and write them down in a strict concession to get a kind of algorithm: Selecting the topic. Working with sources. Gathering sources. Taking notes. Making bibliography cards. Developing a thesis statement. Outlining the paper. Making the first draft of the paper. Works cited. Making the final draft, technical specification. These are the main steps to follow while writing a research paper; in addition, you should keep in mind some important ideas which are helpful to improve your paper: Tips concerning an effective title. How to write an abstract? What for do we need paraphrasing? What is a summary? Be careful to avoid plagiarism! Now lets take a good look at each of these steps to clarify some particular moments which may help you when applying this guide. Selecting the topic In case you dont have to stick to the topic given by the instructor, you are to choose it yourself. Here are several tips to make a right choice: First of all, think of the subject you are interested in. Preferably, it should be something you are already familiar with, so that you wont spend much time on studying the simplest notions in this sphere, but there should still leave some mystery for you to urge you forward while working with sources and then while writing your own paper. Secondly, think out several (two or three) problems concerning the chosen subject. Make a kind of a preliminary research: look for information available on each of the problems and compare the number of sources. It goes without saying that the more sources you have the better research paper you may write. If you can hardly find academic publications treating the chosen problem, youd better not develop it in your research paper. Finally, be attentive to select a topic complex enough to be researches from a variety of sources and narrow enough to be covered in several pages. You may also think over the working thesis statement which youll take into consideration when gathering and scanning the sources. Still, dont stick to it! Be flexible enough to change the aspect or the angle of the chosen topic; moreover, such transformations may take place on the second stage, while working with sources. Working with sources Gathering Sources The best place to look for credible sources is a library. Here you may consult a librarian to get all the possible books, articles, and other types of publications concerning the problem you are interested in. Make copies of all the materials you find to be useful for your research and dont forget to write down bibliographic information. Otherwise youll have to spend time on looking for these very sources or youll not be able to refer to them in your paper. If you are using online sources, make sure they are serious enough to be referred to in a research paper. Take notice of the website where youve found the information, make sure it contains an author. Here bibliographic information is also needed: web address and the date you accessed it. Taking notes This activity spares your time on rereading and looking hundreds of times through all the materials you have to find some particular idea which seems to be up to the moment just now. What you have to do is to prepare a number of note cards where youll write down the most important information from different sources. If a quotation, it should be copied attentively and enclosed in quotation marks; if some interesting or valuable information, it may be rewritten briefly, in your own words, or taken as an abstract. When dealing with bibliographic information, two options are possible: You may put it on the back side of the note card if there is one card with information from this source. If one source requires several note cards, youd better make separate bibliography cards, enumerate them, and put the number of this source on all the corresponding note cards. Making bibliography cards for a book: authors name, bibliographical title (underlined), publisher, place of publishing, date, Dewey decimal, library; for an article in a magazine: authors name, bibliographical title (in quotes), title of magazine, volume and number, inclusive pages, library; for the online sources: web address, the date you accessed it. Developing a thesis statement Now its high time to turn back to your working thesis statement you were thinking over when choosing a topic and keeping in mind when working with the sources. Doesnt it need any improvements? Two main tasks of the thesis statement are: to define the focus and the direction of you research paper; to sound convincing enough to awake the readers interest in the problem. For instance, possible thesis statement may sound like this: Original influence of Jack Kerouacs novel On the Road upon the formation of the Beat Movement: personal experience, lively description, romanticized adventures. Outlining the paper Outline is a skeleton of your research paper: to make it, you should look carefully through all the notes you have and organize the information in the logical way. If properly done, the outline reflects the structure of the paper; therefore, there remains only to fill it up with more detailed information, such as quotations, examples, illustrations of the main ideas etc. You can use the outline to see how the ideas correspond to each other, how to organize them more effectively, whether each statement is really an independent idea worth being supported by more specified information. When making an outline, you should keep in mind the general structure of the research paper: introduction containing thesis statement, body paragraphs based on the topic sentence, conclusion characterized by the concluding sentence. Each part should be reflected in the outline, indicated by the Roman numerals. Then you place important ideas which make the basis of your research paper: in the majority of cases, these are thesis statement, topic sentences, conclusive sentence. These statements are indicated by capital letters. Finally, you note down some secondary ideas which make part of mentioned above statements and enumerate them with the help of the Arabic numerals. In the long run, youll have a following scheme: Introduction A. B. Topic sentence A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. Topic sentence A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. Topic sentence A. B. Conclusion Making the first draft of the paper Now relying on your outline, you can make the first draft of the paper. In fact, it is called the first since there will be the second (and in most cases the final) draft; therefore, here you may pay more attention to content and structure without being too critical against punctuation. When dealing with the first draft, your task is to develop all the ideas which are presented in form of statements and show the whole sequence of thoughts with the help of which you come to your conclusion. Try to be as logical and persuasive as possible. Avoid unfounded statements and conclusions: youve studied a great number of sources to support your ideas. Supply the skeleton with the necessary comments, explanations, and quotations. Develop topic sentences of each body paragraph so that they take the shape of well-organized paragraphs with a proper content. Add internal (inside the paragraphs) and external (between the paragraphs) transitions. Make sure to put references to all the quotations and borrowed ideas. In-text references are done in parenthesis where you indicate last name of the author and the number of the page, like this: (Guterson 91). If the name of the author was mentioned with the citation, you are to put only the number of the page: (91). Rewritten text without references is called plagiarism! Feel free to remove all the unnecessary sentences which dont contribute to your argumentation or repeat what was already said. Excess of words is no better than lack of words. They should be just enough to present the idea and build a strong argumentation, no waffling or chewing over. Here Id like to devote several remarks to the first part of a research paper called INTRODUCTION. The very word points out the task accomplished by this part: introducing the problem treated in the research by briefing the reader on the subject in general, on the objectives of this very paper, and on the ways to gain them. This task may be accomplished in three steps: establishing a territory (you are to share with reader information concerning the recent researches in the chosen field of knowledge, present the subject, and underline its importance). establishing a niche (in the majority of cases, two possibilities are available: either to claim that you follow the tradition in investigating this very aspect or reveal a research gap, lack of researches concerning the chosen problem so that you are going to fill it in by this paper). occupy the niche (this step is devoted to your work: the angle you choose to treat the problem, the methods you are going to apply when analyzing the facts, the way you approach statistical information, the results which follow your research. Brief information about the structure of your research paper will be also up to the point). Dont worry if you find out that you cant cope with this part just after making an outline. Many students have the same problem and actually, its easy to understand: introduction is aimed at presenting the paper which is not written yet. Of course, you have already decided on the subject, the problem of your research, youve formulated the thesis statement, you may have some ideas concerning methodology but still its difficult to foresee all the aspects needed for an introduction. Thats why feel free to put it aside till the whole paper is written.

Jimi Hendrix :: essays research papers

Jimi Hendrix, the greatest guitarist in rock history, revolutionized the sound of rock. In 1967, the Jimi Hendrix Experience rocked the nation with their first album, Are You Experienced?. Hendrix's life was cut short by the tragedy of drugs in 1970, when he was only twenty seven years old. In these three years the sound of rock changed greatly, and Hendrix’s guitar playing was a major influence. Jimi was born in Seattle, Washington on November 27, 1942. As a young boy, whenever the chance came, Jimi would try to play along with his R & B records. However, music was not his life long dream. At first, the army was. In the late 1950’s, Hendrix enlisted in the 101st Airborne Division. After sustaining a back injury during a jump, he received a medical discharge. After his army career came to an abrupt end, he decided to go into the music field. By this time he had become an accomplished guitarist, and was soon to become known as the greatest guitarist ever (Stambler, pg. 290). However, he did not start out at the top. Jimi started out playing as part of the back-up for small time R & B groups. It did not take long before his work was in demand with some of the best known artists in the field, such as B.B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson, Littler Richard, Wilson Pickett, and King Curtis (Clifford, pg. 181). Using the name Jimmy James, he toured with a bunch of R & B shows, including six months as a member of James Brown’s Famous Flames (Stambler, pg. 290). At the Cafe Wha! in New York, in 1966, Hendrix decided to try singing. Jimi lucked out when a man by the name of Charles â€Å"Chas† Chandler from Eric Burdon's Animals heard him at the club and thought he was sensational. When Chas heard him again later that year, he talked Jimi into moving to England where he would really get the chance to start his career (Stambler, pg. 290). Along with Chas, Hendrix auditioned some musicians to complete the new Hendrix group. They choose Mitch Mitchell, a fantastic drummer, and Noel Redding, one of England's best guitar and bass players (Stambler, pg. 290). In 1966, at the Olympia in Paris, the Experience debuted. One year later, the Experience was breaking attendance records right and left at European clubs. When the Monkees toured England in 1967,

Curriculum Theory Essay

Historical accounts of public education reaching back into the nineteenth century reveal successive waves of polarization of view points, limited approaches to curriculum development, and recurring upsurges of dissatisfaction with school offerings. Curriculum development activities in the past show a seeming lack of rigorous, systematic thinking about curriculum development and give insight into the attic thinking about curriculum development and give insight into the need for an adequate theory of curriculum development. Without an inclusive theory of curriculum theory, child-centered, society-centered, subject-centered, and other approaches of limited dimensions will continue to compete with each other as exclusive routes to curriculum planning. Evidence of a long succession of limited approaches to curriculum development may be found in historical literature. In the colonial era, free public schooling had not yet been conceived. The prevailing concept at that time, borrowed from European schools, was that education was for the elite-a view that haunted public education in one way or another for generations. Traditional Theory The American Revolution added new power to the emerging spirit of democracy and focused new attention on schools and education. The colonial view that formal schooling was only for the upper classes came into question, and public schooling was introduced in this country. Its expressed purpose is in the poster evolutionary period were to inculcate moral standards by transmitting the traditional culture — a job previously. American culture out of the diverse cultures brought here by immigrants from many countries. Although educators viewed the Dewey (1916) concept as desirable, they disagreed on how to carry it out in practice. To some it meant a school without structure or predetermined objectives and content. Harold Rugg viewed such superficial interpretations with alarm in 1926 and urged educators to realize that curriculum-making is a complex, highly specialized task that must be the cooperative endeavor of many minds. Despite its varied interpretations, the Dewey (1916) concept brought an upsurge of curriculum development in the 1920s and 1930s that moved away from traditional classicism and toward emphasis on the needs of the individual and of society. Dewey (1916) finds that, when pupils are a â€Å"traditional† class rather than a social group, the teacher acts largely from the outside and not as a director of processes of exchange in which all have a share. In Dewey’s (1916) view, when education is based on experience and educative experience is seen to be a social process, the situation changes radically. Planning, in their view, is the structuring of a living situation with a wide range of educative alternatives. The transactions that take place within this structure cannot be planned in the traditional manner. They are more in the nature of â€Å"planned accidents† . . . . The curriculum is the cultural environment which has been selected as a set of possibilities for learning transactions (Dewey, 1916) When a range of educational alternatives is available, the principle of choice becomes an essential consideration in planning for freedom. The preceding discussion gives numerous examples of needs assessment procedures that encompass far broader concepts of needs than the traditional expert-determined or producer-determined needs or the narrow definition of needs that arises from comparison of student achievement scores with national norms on standardized tests. The examples given here include psychological needs as well as educational needs and describe ongoing procedures in various parts of the country in which individuals and groups directly concerned with a curriculum development process are also involved in identifying the needs that curriculum and instruction should meet. Structure of Disciplines Theory The work of Jerome Bruner (1960) and others emphasized the â€Å"structure of the disciplines† as a basis for curriculum design. Burner called attention to the general usefulness of structure within a discipline as an organizing principle, but he did not set forth a comprehensive curriculum development theory. Hilda Taba ( 1962) noted that the either/or practice still prevailed and that, while in the 1930s the cry was for attention to the child, in the 1950s the battle was to reintroduce disciplined content, with the problem of balance still unresolved. James Macdonald (1971) observed that the â€Å"curriculum reform movement† of the 1950s and 1960s was in no real sense a movement, because its separate parts were never really related or coordinated. Rather, it was a historical accident — a combination of Sputnik, McCarthyism, interested professors, federal money, and the ambitions of commercial publishers. Structure identifies order or sequence or notes that order is immaterial. Structure for an individual may develop from his or her interests and motivations, when a range of alternatives is available. Jerome Bruner’s widely publicized statement in The Process of Education (1960) that anything worth teaching can be taught in some intellectually honest way at any level has conveyed the impression to a wide audience that there is some definite pattern of construction or organization of the subject matter of the separate disciplines that should be known by curriculum-makers and used in sequencing information to impart it to children in an efficient and effective way. This point of view influenced the curriculum â€Å"reforms† of the 1960s, which did not in actuality reform curriculum. John Dewey (1916) would probably not have advocated a rigid or set structure as an intellectually honest way to introduce children to life and experience. Knowledge, of course, must be integrated to be meaningful, and curriculum structure can be constructed not only within the separate disciples but also across disciplines or interdisciplinary areas of social, cultural, or personal interest. As a system of ideas and beliefs, it includes aspects of the cognitive world isolated by disciplines and/or subjects in terms of facts, information, generalizations, principles, laws, and the like. . . . Cultural systems are substantive aspects of social and personality systems and evolve in a constant interaction shaped and influenced by the dynamics of structures and actions in . . . culture, society, and personality (Macdonald 1971). George Counts (1952) maintained that the responsibilities of the school included curriculum development directed toward constructive modification and development of the nation’s economy, social structure, cultural institutions, and outlook on the world. Curriculum development should lead toward creating as well as transmitting culture, meeting and maintaining democratic social relationships, and increasing individual self-realization, Counts asserted. The scope of available culture is almost limitless. It involves societal conditions, knowledge from the academic disciplines, professional knowledge about learning and educative processes, philosophical and value bases, futures research, realities in the classroom, pluralistic ethnic backgrounds of the participants, and their needs and desires. Behavioral Theory A dominant influence on curriculum development since the early1950s has been the Tyler rationale, set forth in Ralph Tyler Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1950). Tyler’s frequently credited with providing impetus for the behavioral objectives movement of recent years. Its advocate proposition is that instructional goals be stated in behavioral terms, with built-in criteria for measurement of outcomes. Selections are then made from alternative activities expected to help the student attain the desired behavioral objectives. Scope and sequence decisions follow, and evaluation is carried out. Various interpretations of this approach have led to highly technical procedures to develop a preplanned program of behavioral objectives closely tied to subsequent measures of achievement. Behavioral and other models adapted from Tyler seem to over- emphasize educational need and underestimate psychological need. Although Tyler was cognizant of the latter and referred to two types of need, he gave psychological need no more than a nod of recognition (Tyler, 1950): The inclusion of psychological need in curriculum development is advocated by those who fear that overemphasis on behavioral objectives, academic achievement, and grading may develop negativism among students toward school learning. Academic objectives retain their importance, but these planners also stress the importance of psychological processes, human relations, positive mental health, and student involvement in setting goals, selecting options, learning how to work toward goals, and developing persistence in spite of occasional failures. Arthur Combs (1972), taking a strong position, outlines the hazards of accountability programs that focus almost exclusively on test scores of detailed behavioral objectives. A truly comprehensive approach to accountability, he says, must consider at least five major problems related to curriculum and instruction: 1. Basic skills. Specific, atomistic behavioral objectives can be applied successfully only to simple skills and problems for which they are appropriate and must be constantly updated. The information explosion and rapidity of change make â€Å"right† behaviors rapidly obsolete. 2. Intelligence and holistic behavior. Accountability must contribute maximally to intelligent behavior and problem-solving action directed toward fulfillment of the individual’s and society’s needs. 3. The nature of learning and the causes of behavior. Attention should be concentrated on the causes of behavior rather than on behavior itself. Personal meanings are the causes of behavior, and these are formed through two aspects of learning: the provision of new information or experience, and the discovery by the learner of its personal meaning for him. 4. Humanistic goals of education. Developing humane qualities, self-actualization of the individual, good citizenship, learning to care for others, and working together are all aspects of humanism for which schools must be accountable. â€Å"We can live with a bad reader,† says Combs, â€Å"but a bigot is a danger to everyone,† (Combs, 1972) 5. Professional accountability. Teachers can and should be held accountable for professional behavior: being informed in subject matter, being concerned about the welfare of students, being knowledgeable about their behavior, and understanding human behavior in general. Professional educators may be held professionally responsible for the purposes they seek to carry out and the methods they use. Constructivist Theory Outside the fortress of elitism’ in secondary education, political, social, and educational leaders began to awaken to the broader responsibilities of the schools and to look to the public schools for constructive approaches to the public’s needs and problems. Mark Chesler, a frequent observer and consultant in disrupted schools, gained some insights into procedures that seem to hold promise for constructive change. In â€Å"School Crisis and Change† ( 1970), he asserts that when school officials sought only superficial techniques for reestablishing the status quo, stress and turmoil were more likely to continue. When collaborative decision-making procedures were instituted among students, community people, school executives, and faculty, meaningful and positive curriculum improvements began to takes place. A statewide assessment of the Michigan plan, conducted by Ernest House, Wendell Rivers, and Daniel Stufflebeam (1974), reflected general support of the accountability process in principle but was highly critical of the implementation of the plan in Michigan. The evaluators pointed out that attention had been limited mainly to reading and arithmetic at two grade levels, that no constructive purpose had been gained by ranking schools on norm-referenced tests, and that the promise of providing needs assessment in relation to the full scope of goals had not been pursued. It is obvious that curriculum development must be a responsive process, constantly extending, expanding, and revising the curriculum. This requires continuous planning of learning outcomes that will help individuals draw effectively on growing realms of knowledge, develop new skills in a rapidly changing world, and develop insights into and constructive approaches to unresolved problems. The process of curriculum development must continue to be responsive to needs and problems and to generate alternative means for reaching desirable ends George Counts (1952) maintained that the responsibilities of the school included curriculum development directed toward constructive modification and development of the nation’s economy, social structure, cultural institutions, and outlook on the world. Curriculum development should lead toward creating as well as transmitting culture, meeting and maintaining democratic social relationships, and increasing individual self-realization, Counts asserted. Research studies have found that very young as well as older students formed important and serious work groups to discuss, plan, and carry out activities in cooperation with adults. In the cases reported, the schools provided constructive learning situations in which children were involved in forging their own roles, working out relationships, and assuming responsibility for self-evaluation. In these situations the teacher acted as guide and resource rather than a not- to-be-questioned authority, critic, and judge. A systems approach is an analytic rather than an erratic approach. It requires planning and action to be accomplished in a manner that allows participants to revise the plans, as action and experience proceed, and incorporate constructive improvements. A systems approach requires initiative and commitment. Curriculum-planners using a systems approach must be ready to document and make public exactly what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how the curriculum is being developed. The participants and consumers must evaluate the curriculum development effort so that it can be continually improved. Experiential Theory Active critics and reformers on the contemporary scene can be classified roughly into three categories. One includes those who focus on individual freedom in learning. They are sometimes termed the â€Å"romantics† or â€Å"radicals,† and they advocate free schools or the elimination of schools as they now exist. The free school movement can be traced to the publication of A. S. Neill’s Summerhill in 1960 and became manifested in various types of â€Å"free schools,† emphasizing experiential learning that places the highest priority on the â€Å"self† of the individual. Advocates of de schooling see hope in a network of opportunities for incidental education through which each child can discover itself and pursue his or her particular interests in special ways. In Kohlberg’s (1972) studies the main experiential determinants or causal factors in moral development seem to be the amount and variety of the child’s social experience and the opportunities he or she has had to assume a number of roles and to take other perspectives into account. Being able to put oneself in another’s place is a source of principles; for example, when parents sought their children’s views and elicited comparisons of views in dialogues, the children reached more advanced stages of moral development. Roger Pillet (1971) asserts that researchers have perpetuated a separation of experiential theory and practice. He lists as shortcomings (1) the locus of the leadership function in curriculum development that is external to the teachers, administrators, parents, and students who are expected to become users; (2) the negation of reality that occurs when new programs are designed on paper without regard to the knowledge and experience of the learners and educators who are expected to become the users; and (3) the use of abstract language that reduces the possibility of communication among those involved in various aspects of curriculum development. References Bruner Jerome S. The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. Chesler Mark A. â€Å"School Crisis and Change†. In Student Unrest: Threat or Promise? edited by Richard L. Hart and J. Galen Saylor, pp. 100-21. Washington, D. C. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 1970. Combs Arthur W. Educational Accountability. Beyond Behavioral Objectives, Washington, D. C. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1972. Counts George S. Education and American Civilization. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College University, 1952. Dewey John. Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1916. pp. 17 House Ernest R. ; Rivers Wendell; and Stufflebeam Daniel L. â€Å"An Assessment of the Michigan Accountability System†. Phi Delta Kappan 55 (June 1974): 663-69. Kohlberg Lawrence. â€Å"Moral Education in the Schools: A Developmental View†. In Curriculum and the Cultural Revolution, edited by David E. Purpel and Maurice Belanger, pp. 455-78, Berkeley: McCutchan, 1972. Macdonald James B. â€Å"Curriculum Development in Relation to Social and Intellectual Systems†, In The Curriculum: Retrospect and Prospect, part I, pp. 97-98. Seventieth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. Pillet Roger A. â€Å"Boundaries of a Curriculum Network†, In Elements of Curriculum Development, pp. 7-11, Monograph supplement of Curriculum Theory Network. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1971. Taba Hilda. Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice. New York: Harcorut, Brace and World, 1962. Tyler Ralph W. Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. pp. 7-8

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Analysis Essay

Joseph Stalin strategically came into power in communist Russia in the 1930’s. Within just a few years, he turned Russia from a communist state into a totalitarian dictatorship. Few people chose to speak out against Stalin, but those who did were put into Siberian work camps or gulags. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was one of the few that chose to speak out against Stalin and his totalitarian regime. He used his years in the work camps to illustrate a vivid portrayal of what camp life was like in his book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. The novel is a criticism against Stalin’s communism, and is a commentary on why a communistic system will never work. Three of the biggest ways the novel critiques communism are: by attempting to dehumanize Russian society, displaying forms of unjust punishment, and arguing the importance of faith. Solzhenitsyn propagates the radical idea that communism doesn’t work. Communism is the idea that everyone in society receives equal shares of the benefits resulting from labor. It teaches the poor to rise up and attain financial and social status equal to that of the middle-class. In order for everyone to be on the same level, wealth is redistributed so the members of the upper class are brought down to the same financial and social level as the middle class (Coffin 660-665). In theory, communism is presented as to be a utopia where everyone has adequate food and shelter but in the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, it is clear communism in practice is very different from communism in ideology. The communism Solzhenitsyn presents in this novel actually tries to take away any form of human dignity. The story takes place in a Russian prison camp after World War II. The protagonist is a man named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, but referred to as Shukhov for most of the novel . The author refers to Ivan as Shukhov to emphasize the how the camp sets him at a cold, official distance. â€Å"Ivan† is Shukhov’s first name and Denisovich is his patronymic, a name that is derived from one’s father’s name. In Russian society, addressing someone by his or her first name and patronymic is cordial but respectful. The early Soviet Communist regime tried to eradicate this form of address because the respect it entails suggested class differences among people, something communism seeks to destroy. On the other hand, addressing someone by his or her last name has an official meaning. The Soviet manner of addressing people as â€Å"Comrade† followed by their last name was an attempt to replace the old way of addressing someone with a new one better adapted to a class-free nation. â€Å"Even in the camp they were polite to people and addressed them by their full name† (Solzhenitsyn 26). The prison camp workers always addressed each other with the same degree of respect in order to preserve each other’s dignity. The labor camp in which Ivan is imprisoned is designed to oppress and dehumanize its prisoners. The living conditions are simply unbearable. The mattresses do not have sheets, prisoners share tiny portions of bread and porridge per meal, and the guards force the prisoners to undress in sub zero temperatures for body searches. The camp replaces the prisoner’s names with letter and number to erase all hints of individuality, â€Å"S 854†¦three days penalty work,† says the new warden to, Ivan as punishment for not getting up on time (Solzhenitsyn 7-8). The camp gives everyone numbers and makes them all dress identically take away their identities, â€Å"from the outside, everyone in the squad looked the same- their black coats were identical-but within the squad there were great distinctions† (Solzhenitsyn 15). However, Denisovich does not accept the camps attempts to dehumanize him. He shows maintaining human dignity does not have to be achieved through violent rebellion but rather, through developing a system of personal rules. For example, at meal time, no matter the conditions, he always removes his cap before eating, â€Å"then he removed his hat from his clean-shaven head- however cold it might be, he could never bring himself to eat with his hat on† (Solzhenitsyn 16). From his childhood, this practice gives Ivan a sense that he is behaving in a civilized manner. No matter how famished he becomes, he never stoops to Fetyukov’s level, begging for scraps. He scorns Fetyukov’s behavior, which he believes is inhuman. Ivan may be treated like an animal by the Soviet camp system, but he subtly fights back and refuses to submit. In one instance, Shukhov is tempted to ask a fellow prisoner for a cigarette which the other man has already half smoked but, â€Å"but he would never lower himself†¦ he would never look at a man’s mouth† (Solzhenitsyn 27). Ivan never allows the labor camp to get the best of him but gets punished for things one in his control on top of being imprisoned. Another criticism of communism throughout the novel is the description of unjust punishment upon the prisoners. In the beginning of the novel, Shukhov does not get up on time because he is sick and is then threatened with three days in the hole. Similarly, Buynovsky receives ten days in the hole for trying to bundle up against the cold with a flannel vest. Neither Shukhov’s illness nor Buynovsky’s attempt to stay warm harm anyone, but the camp treats both as strict violations of the law, worthy of severe punishment. Such harsh punishment for such petty offenses is absurd. These men are already locked into arduous prison sentences, heaping on unfair and illogical punishment upon them is just a brutal exercise of power by the guards. Through this unjust treatment one thing that help the prisoners survive was having faith in something whether it is a strict moral code or faith in god. One of the main goals of communism was to eradicate religion from society. According to the founders of communism religion hinders societal progress; it was Marx who said â€Å"religion is the opium of people.† Solzhenitsyn implies it is much easier to get through hardships with faith in something rather than without. During a march, Shukhov thinks of Alyosha, the devout Baptist, he wonders, â€Å"What had he to be happy about? His cheeks were sunken, he lived strictly on his rations, and he earned nothing. He spent all his Sundays with the other Baptists. They shed the hardships of camp like water† (Solzhenitsyn 38). Shukhov is making the point when you believe in something, like religion, it is much easier to keep a positive attitude and survive a terrible situation. Although Ivan does not mention religion for most of the novel, his final conversation with Alyoshka, reveals faith can be a means of survival in the oppressive camp system. Ivan adheres to a strict set of rules, like always taking off his hat before eating or trying to waste as little as possible. Alyoshka, has faith in god and the human spirit â€Å"for my part I am not ready merely to be bound but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus† (Solzhenitsyn 163), this comment really affects Shukhov to a point where he begins to reflect on his own philosophy. Shukhov’s s sense of inner peace in the novel’s last paragraph, which resembles Alyoshka’s sense of inner peace throughout the novel, demonstrates that religious faith offers strength in the face of difficulty. Having any type of faith can carry someone through hardship, religious faith is simply one type of such a faith. Though the labor camps were filled with suffering and misery, the men continued to exhibit acts of humanity in their day to day lives. The only way these men could have survived this inhuman treatment was by subtly fighting the system in their own personal way. Solzhenitsyn uses three simple yet powerful ideas: the dehumanization of the human society, displays of unjust punishment, and the importance of having faith in no matter how awful the situation is, to speak out against Stalin and the terrible consequences of Russian communism. Works Cited Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. Western Civilizations: Their History & Culture. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2008. Print. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. New York: Dutton, 1963. Print.