Women, Health, and the Environment Essay Example for Free

Women, Health, and the Environment Essay -These three words together speak to a web of issues and concerns that challenges us to think outside the proverbial box and silos that keep us narrowly focused and divided. We must think and act from a holistic perspective if we are ever to reverse the environmental degradation and social inequalities on the planet and create environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially equitable gender-sensitive societies. A discussion of women’s health and the environment must also include issues of poverty, hunger, food, security, racism, water, sanitation, agriculture, trade, energy, species extinction, biodiversity and climate change. Our agenda for women’s health and environment must also address access and right to live with dignity, sustainable livelihoods, shelter, education for girls, political power and decision making, sexuality, and freedom from violence, conflict and war. Today many feminists believe we are in a third wave of feminism, one that challenges the idea if dualism itself while recognizing diversity, particularity, and embodiment. By theorizing from the notion of embodiment, recent iterations of feminism are beginning to reweave the specific duality between culture and nature, an especially important endeavor in these environmentally disturbing times. These feminisms, rather than working from established and usually abstract foundational theories, begin from the situated perspectives of different women. Beyond this general congruence, however, there are several different foci in the feminisms seen as third wave today. One of the most intractable problems facing environmentalists is how to address global environmental issues given the very different, often conflicting, ways that nature is valued within and across cultures. In many parts of the world, nature is valued as an exploitable resource that when used efficiently can raise standards of living, improve the quality of life, or increase the wealth of a select few. In other places, people believe that economic development efforts must be sustainable; promoting natural balance and improving living standards are values that can be achieved simultaneously. For many people, the value of global justice suggests that rich nations must do more to protect the global environment in order to allow for the legitimate improvement of the quality of life of the poor. To make things more complicated, there are additional values beyond the value of nature, and the value of justice. Ecofeminism, in the United States, originated during the second wave of feminism as women in the peace movement began to perceive the interrelationships of militarism, sexism, racism, classism and environmental damage. The theorizing of how this environmental damage was related to women’s oppression and the oppression of other people, together with theorizing form the perspectives of the women involved, including women in the so-called developing world, became evident during the time period seen as the emergence of third-wave feminism. Consider basic issue-women’s everyday living environments and women’s access to water and sanitation. Millions of poor women in urban and rural areas around the world do not have access to safe and affordable water or toilets. Unsafe water causes health problems such as diarrhea, schistosomiasis, trachoma, hepatitis, malaria and poisoning. The care of sick family members is usually the responsibility of women and takes time away from their income generating initiatives. To ill health, add the loss and suffering from the death of an estimated three million children a year from contaminated water-related diseases. In the rural area of Garla Mare, Romania, the majority of the water sources-the wells are contaminated with nitrates, chemicals, heavy metals and bacteria. Amongst other things, high nitrate levels in drinking water are linked to â€Å"blue baby disease† or acute infantile methaemoglobinaemia. Women in Romania along with Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) are working together to document sources of contaminated water, develop strategies to â€Å"clean† water with local authorities and run educational campaigns demonstrating the links between polluted water and ill-health (Merchant, 1980. Due to deforestration, the loss of vegetation, and the lack of toilets, rural women have to rise earlier and walk further to attend to their daily needs. In urban areas, slums often lack hygienic and secure toilets for women. Women and girls in many countries have been sexually and physically assaulted in the night when attempting to use the â€Å"outside,† or toilets that are too far from their homes. Women in the US are also organizing to question poor water quality as water supplies in many US cities and towns are contaminated with industrial and agricultural chemicals. Access to safe and affordable sanitation services is critical for women’s and girl’s dignity, health, and safety. Human-made chemicals and metals that are persistent, biomagnifying and endocrine disrupting such as atrazine, 2, 4-D, and lindane, have been used extensively in agriculture, industry, and the home and garden. Some of these chemicals are also called POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants). They are the subjected of the United Nations Stockholm Convention for the protection of human health and the environment. These same chemicals are readily found in household sprays and cleaners, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and in our food. Chemicals enter into natural systems and are having devastating impacts on wildlife. For example, there is evidence that some alligators, Western gulls, and Rainbow trout are developing rudimentary sexual organs, Western and Herring gulls are exhibiting mating behavior of both genders, frogs are being born with missing limbs and eyes, and Beluga whales are dying from immune suppression and cancer. Human beings are at the top of the food chain and health impacts similar to those on wildlife are being documented around the world. Widely documented are the health impacts on agricultural and horticultural workers, many of whom are poor women and children with limited options for other livelihoods. Lead, dioxins, DDT and PCB’s are found in women’s breast milk, from indigenous women in the Aral Sea region of Central Asia. Human exposure to these chemicals is linked to endocrine disruption, learning impairment and hyperactivity in children, as well as cleft lip and palate, spina bifida and limb anomalies. Environmental contamination has resulted in women in the North and in greater numbers in the South facing increased risks of fertility problems, spontaneous abortion and miscarriage, reproductive system abnormalities, immune system disorders and cancer. Breast cancer has become major women’s disease, transcending class, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation and geographical location. The complexity of women’s sexual and reproductive health issues and illnesses underlines the need for women’s right to decision making and control of their sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, and their right to relevant services through the public health care system. While women are often dismissed from discussions on energy, it is a central issue concerning women’s quality of life. Poor women who use wood fuel and charcoal to cook indoors are exposed to poor air quality and an increased risk of severe respiratory problems. While nuclear proponents advertise nuclear energy as â€Å"clean† energy, they deliberately ignore the impacts of radiation and nuclear waste and the work of many women who have researched and critiqued the dangers of nuclear energy and weapons. Seventeen years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, medical research shows that 70% of pregnant women in the Ukraine have extra-genital and obstetrics disorders including anemia, late toxicosis, cardiovascular disorders and urogenital diseases (Merchant, 1980). Increases in the frequency and severity of floods and drought have been linked to changing global climate regimes. A recent study on the impact of floods on women and girls in Cambodia highlights a number of issues. These include an increase in food insecurity and loss of crops; fear of losing children to the floods; risk of drowning because women and girls are not taught to swim; disaster-related debt and the corresponding increase in workloads of women as men migrate to cities; and the resulting stress and fear of HIV and sexually transmitted infections brought back from men engaging with other partners in the cities. While the study did not document an increase in wife assault during the disaster period or after, it did identify that the fear of assault is a constant factor enmeshed in women’s daily life and an ever present threat that colours women’s actions and involvement in decision making. The lack of political will and commitment from many national governments and major international bodies, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have degraded natural environments and subjected women citizens to increasing poverty by a loss of livelihoods and a reduction in accessibility to health, education, and other basic services. Extensive research and documentation has demonstrated the negative economic and social impacts of programs like the structural adjustment programmes o the IMF on African women. Another approach advocated by feminists such as Shulamith Firestone is the liberation of women through reproductive technology. This approach includes a spectrum of possibilities that would give women the right to choose when and if they wish to bear and raise children: male and female contraceptive devices, voluntary vasectomies and tubal ligations, amniocentesis and genetic counseling an, ultimately, test-tube reproduction and cloning. Science and technology are here viewed as potentially liberating and progressive, yet these approaches also raise a host of difficult ethical questions about the nature of control over life itself. For example, amniocentesis allows the woman to know the sex of her unborn child and thus to decide whether or not to abort the fetus. If through contraceptive and genetic technology families decide to have one or two children and to make the first child a male, then an increase in the proportion of males in society could result. If the psychological approach to the woman-nature question is valid, and if trust children tend to be more highly motivated, aggressive, and domineering than second children, then the outcome could be an increase in dominating males, with negative implications for women and nature. For many women who have become aware of environmental hazards and nuclear technologies through environmentalism and have become conscious of sexism through feminism, the appropriate technology movement presents an appealing alternative. Here the hands on skills necessary for personal survival and control over one’s own life are revered, and low-environmental-impact technologies are the movement’s hallmarks. Women involved in the appropriate technology movement, however, find great satisfaction in building bridges, solar collectors, greenhouses, and doing home repairs themselves, without resorting to high-cost contractors. Carpentry and plumbing skills taught to groups of women by other women rather than male â€Å"experts† are popular forms of education. The social economic analysis of the woman-nature question accepts many of the insights of the foregoing feminists but is critical of the idea of universal sex oppression and of the dichotomies â€Å"public-private† and â€Å"self-other† as explanatory categories. Rather than postulating a separate sex/gender system as the framework of analysis, this approach examines the historical context of male and female gender roles in different systems of economic production. The simultaneous emergence of the womens and environmental movements over the past two decades raises additional questions about the relationships between feminism and ecology. The structures and functions of the natural world and of human society interact through a language common to both. Ethics in the form of description, symbol, religion, and myth help to mediate between humans and their world. Choices are implied in the words used to describe nature: choices of ways in which to view the world and ethical choices that influence human behavior toward it. Ecology and feminism have interacting languages that imply certain common policy goals. These linkages might be described as follows: 1. All parts of a system have equal value. Ecology assigns equal importance to all organic and inorganic components in the structure of an ecosystem. Healthy air, water, and soil-the abiotic components of the system-are essential as the entire diverse range of biotic parts-plants, animals, and bacteria and fungi. Without each element in the structure, the system as a whole cannot function properly. Remove an element, reduce the number of individuals or species, and erratic oscillations may appear in the larger system. Similarly, feminism asserts the equality of men and women. Intellectual differences are human differences rather than gender-or race-specific. The lower position of women stems from culture rather than nature. Thus policy goals should be directed toward achieving educational, economic, and political equity for all. Ecologists and feminists alike will therefore assign value to all parts of the human-nature system and take care to examine the long and short range consequences of decisions affecting an individual, group, or species. In cases of ethical conflict, each case must be discussed from the perspective of the interconnectedness of all parts and the good of the whole. 2. The earth is a home. The Earth is a habitat for living organisms; houses are habitats for groups of humans. Each ecological niche is a position in a community, a hole in the energy continuum through which materials and energy enters and leaves. Ecology is the study of the Earths household. Human houses whether sod houses, igloos, or bungalows, are structures in an environment. Most are places wherein life is sustained-shelters where food is prepared, clothes are repaired, and human beings cared for. For ecologists and feminists the Earths house and the human house are habitats to be cherished. Energy flows in and out; molecules and atoms enter and leave. Some chemicals and forms of energy are life-sustaining; others are life-defeating. Those that lead to sickness on the planet or in the home cannot be tolerated. Radioactive wastes or potential radioactive hazards are present in some peoples environments. Hazardous chemicals permeate some backyards and basements. Microwaves, nitrite preservatives, and cleaning chemicals have invaded the kitchen. The home, where in fact women and children spend much of their time, is no longer a haven. The soil; over which the house is built or the rocks used in its construction may emit radon, potentially a source of lung cancer. The walls, furniture, floor coverings, and insulation may contain urea formaldehyde, a nasal, throat, and eye irritant. Leaky gas stoves and furnaces can produce nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, resulting in nausea, headaches, and respiratory illnesses. An underground garage in an apartment building can be an additional source of indoor carbon monoxide. The homes faucets may be piping in carcinogenic drinking water, formed by the action of chlorine on organic compounds in reservoir supplies. Disinfectants sprayed where people eat or children play may contain phenols, aerosols, or ammonium chlorides that can produce toxic effects on the lungs, liver, and kidneys, or act as nervous system depressants. Over cleaners may contain caustic alkalis. The bathroom and bedroom any feature cosmetics and shampoos that can produce headaches, eye-make up contaminated by bacteria and fungi, deodorants laced with hexachlorophene and hair dyes containing aromatic amines that have been linked to cancer. The kitchen may have microwave oven and the living room a color television emitting low-level radiation when in use. The refrigerator may be stocked with food containing nitrite preservatives, food dyes, and saccharin-filled ‘low-cal’ drinks suspected as potential carcinogens. In the cupboards pewter pitchers or dishes containing lead glazes can slowly contribute to lead poisoning, especially when in contact with acidic foods. The indoor atmosphere may be filled with cigarette, cigar, or tobacco smoke, containing particles that remain in the air and accumulate even in the lungs of non-smokers. For ecologists and feminists alike, the goal must be the reversal of these life-defeating intrusions and the restoration of healthy indoor and outdoor environments. 3. Process is primary. The first law of thermodynamics, which also the first law of ecology, asserts the conservation of energy in an ecosystem as energy is changed and exchanged in its continual flow through the interconnected parts. The total amount of energy entering and leaving the Earth is the same. The science of ecology studies the energy flow through the system of living and non-living parts on the Earth. All components are parts of a steady-state process of growth and development, death, and decay. The world is active and dynamic; its natural processes are cyclical, balanced by cybernetic, stabilizing, feedback mechanisms. The stress on dynamic processes in nature has implications for change and process in human societies. The exchange and flow of information through the human community is the basis for decision making. Open discussion of all alternatives in which ecologists and technologists, lawyers and workers, women and men participate as equals is an appropriate goal for both environmentalists and feminists. Each individual has experience and knowledge that is of value to the human-nature community. 4. There is no free lunch. â€Å"No free lunch† is the essence of the laws of thermodynamics. To produce organized matter, energy in the form of work is needed. But each step up the ladder of organized life, each material object produced, each commodity manufactured increases entropy in its surroundings, and hence increases the reservoir of energy unavailable for work. Although underpaid environmentalists are said to accept free lunches, nature cannot continue to provide free goods and services for profit-hungry humans, because the ultimate costs are too great. Thus, whenever and wherever possible, that which is taken from nature must be given back through the recycling of goods and the sharing of services. For feminists, reciprocity and cooperation rather than free lunches and household services are a desirable goal. Housewives frequently spend much of their waking time struggling t undo the effects of the second law of thermodynamics. Continually trying to create order out of disorder is energy consumptive and spiritually costly. Thus the dualism of separate public and private spheres should be severed and male and female roles in both the household and the workplace merged. Cooperation between men and women in each specific context-childrearing, day-care centers, household work, productive work, sexual relations, etc. -rather than separate gender roles could create emotional rewards. Men and women would engage together in the production of commodities that are costly to nature. Technologies appropriate to the task, technologies having a low impact on the environment, would be chosen whenever possible. Resistance to a feminist-environmental coalition comes form both movements. Environmental coalition comes from both movements. Environmentalists react negatively to the intrusion of feminist’s issues that seem to them to muddy and complicate an already difficult struggle. At anti-nuclear rallies and solar technology conferences, the presence of lesbian feminists challenging male control of technology may seem particularly galling. Increasingly, in countries of the South and North, many governments are failing to defend and enhance women’s hard earned rights to live free of violence from either family members or the State, and to have right and access to health services, as well as specific programmes to address gender concerns as in the case of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. For poor rural women, government supported privatization of common property resources such as forests, wetlands, fallow fields, pasturelands, etc. make it nearly impossible to maintain precarious levels of substinence living; thus, further marginalizing those women who rely on common property resources for food, fodder and raw materials. Moreover, many of these groups establish ritual behaviors that maintain steady-state equilibrium between population and resources. Here nature and culture are not separated dichotomies in which nature is devalued and culture elevated. The nonhuman world is alive, sensitive, intelligent, and on a par with the human portion. In some cultures animals are members of separate societies governed by special spirits; particular rocks and trees are sacred; and the Earth is a living nurturing mother. Women and men perform different tasks and have different roles, but each is essential to the survival of the group as a whole and neither is devalued. The society is geared to the production of use values as the material basis for sustaining life. Like postcolonial and generational/youth cultures, feminism’s growing interest in ecofeminism has been evident in the last several years. Some ecofeminists, however, posit that, as a term, â€Å"ecofeminism† informally appeared, here and there, worldwide, in the 1970’s, usually as a response to so-called development activities. The Chipko Movement, the movement that began when village women of Himalayan India organized in the 1970’s to protect their forests, as described by their country woman, Vandana Shiva, and noted above, is most often specifically cited as the beginning of ecofeminism. In the West, an ecofeminist focus in activism emerged during the second wave of the women’s movement and was predicated on seeing the relations between militarism, sexism, racism, classism, and environmental damage. By the middle 190’s, many women, committed to direct action against militarism, started naming themselves ecofeminists to depict the interdependencies of their political concerns. As ecofeminism evolved, it took up additional issues such as toxic waste, deforestation, military and nuclear weapons policies, reproductive rights and technologies, animal liberation, and domestic and international agricultural development, in its efforts to reweave the nature/culture dualism. Ecofeminism is distinct, however, in its insistence that nonhuman nature is a feminist concern. Ecofeminist theory utilizes principles from both ecology and feminism to inform its political organizing and its efforts to create equitable and environmentally sound lifestyles. From ecology, it learns to value the interdependence and diversity of all life forms; from feminism, it against the insights of a social analysis of women’s oppression that intersects with other oppressions such s racism, colonialism, classism, and heterosexism. Ecofeminism, in its use of ecology as a model for human behavior, suggests that we act out of recognition of our interdependency with others, all others: human and nonhuman. Ecofeminist politics embrace heterogenous strategies and solutions. Ecofeminists do share a broad vision of a society beyond militarism, hierarchy, and the destruction of nature, but like feminism itself, they often have different analyses and strategies for achieving them. In many ways, an ecofeminist style of politics the notion of â€Å"local resistance† against power relations. Ecofeminists understand power as â€Å"multiplicity of force relations† that are not centered, but are diverse and are constantly being reproduced. While ecofeminsm emphasizes local activism, it also maintains the importance of a global perspective. In ecofeminism, where everything is seen as interconnected and/or interdependent, there is a serious regard for women whose cultures and geographic locations are being foisted croded as a result of so-called development projects that are being foisted on the third world. Ecofeminists challenge the relationship between economic growth and exploitation of the natural environment, and as noted above, ecofeminist anthologies contain work by and about women resisting ill-conceived development projects in the third world, in addition to those in the West. The relation of ecofeminism theory to political activism is ideally informative and generative, not perspective. The activism that is undertaken is a result of the individuals who are involved reflecting on an actual problematic situation or issue. Because of ecofeminism recognizes that sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, speciesism, and naturalism are mutually reinforcing systems of oppression, the work o end any oppression is valuable. Using ecology as a model for understanding these interdependencies and the value of diversity enables ecofeminists to include many kinds of political action. Ecofeminist theory, in turn is expanded by focusing on the actual activities, as articulated by the embodied voices of the participants. Social justice cannot be achieved apart from the well-being of the Earth. Human life is dependent on the Earth; our fates are intertwined. Ecofemism is spiritual, too, emphasizing that the Earth is sacred unto itself. And a strong recognition of the necessity of sustainability-a need to learn the many ways we can walk the fine line between using the Earth as resource while respecting the Earth’s need. One of the main endeavors of ecofeminism, in its efforts to reweave the nature/culture duality, is to understand the ideology that perpetuates the domination of women, other humans, and nonhuman nature. There are many approaches taken by ecofeminists who are engaged in analyzing how the subjugation of women, other suppressed people and nature are interconnected. Karen Warren (2000), writing 10 years after the Diamond and Orenstein anthology, in her work Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters, discerns 10 directions ecofeminists take to theorize these interconnected subjugations. Warren terms these various approaches: historical and causal, conceptual, empirical, socioeconomic, linguistic, symbolic and literary, spiritual and religious, epistemological, ethical, and political. Feminist who take the historical and causal approach to explain the interconnected subjugations of women, other suppressed people, and nature, suggests that the ubiquitous ness of androcentrism with its accompanying phenomenon, the patriarchal domination of women and nature, is the source of environmental degradation. Riane Eisler and Carolyn Merchant are examples of feminists who present varying accounts of this approach. They explain how and approximately when societies that previously had been living essentially in concord with nature and with each other became subjugated by patriarchal domination. Societies, in these accounts, then become disharmonious in their relationships. A second approach some ecofeminists take to understand the ideology that perpetuates domination is an analysis of conceptual frameworks that have functioned historically to perpetuate and justify the dominations of interconnected subjugations. Conceptual frameworks function as socially constructed lenses through which one perceives reality. These conceptual works can be oppressive because of the part plated by rationalism in the domination of women and nonhuman nature illustrates. Rationalism explains how structures of domination are based â€Å"in hierarchically organized value dualism and an exaggerated focus on reason and rationality divorced form the realm of the body, nature, and the physical† (Warren 2004, p. 24). Warren, she, makes similar conceptual connections. She locates these connections in an oppressive patriarchal conceptual connection. She locates these connections in an oppressive patriarchal conceptual framework, mediated by what she calls â€Å"a logic domination. † This â€Å"logic† provides the moral premise for domination/subordination relationships based on socially constructed dualistic notions of superiority/inferiority. Empirical interconnections are made by ecofeminists who use verifiable evidence to document the tie-in among dominations. Using this kind of data, they are able to illustrate, for example, that subordinate groups suffer disproportionately form industrial environmental pollutants. Coinciding with postcolonial feminism, some ecofeminists using the empirical interconnections approach, furnish data to show how women’s inability to provide adequate sustenance for themselves and their families is caused by first-world development policies such as those destroying subsistence agriculture and/or the productivity of the land. Nature like women’s bodies and labor is colonized by the inter-workings of capitalism and patriarchy in first-world development. Some ecofeminists, who follow the concept formation that is strongly influenced by language, make linguistic interconnections to explain subjugation. They maintain that language is pivotal in maintaining mutually reinforcing sexist, racist, and naturist views of women, people of color, and nonhuman nature. They call our attention to the considerable extent that Euro-American language contains illustrations of sexist-naturist language depicting women, animals, and nonhuman nature as having less value than men. Related to this approach is the ecofeminist animal welfare â€Å"analysis that the oppression of nonhuman animals, is based on a variety of women-animal connections: for example, sexist-naturalist language, images of women and animals as consumable objects, pornographic representations of women as meat, male perpetuated violence against women and nonhuman animals,† (Warren 2000, p. 126). Another method-that of making symbolic and literary interconnections-is seen in a new genre of literary analysis: ecofeminist literary criticism. This genre has emerged as a way to appraise literature according to criteria of ecological and feminist values. Ecofeminists using this approach, maintain that the literary canon needs to be reconsidered to include a de-homocentric approach. Ecofeminist theologians work to make spiritual and religious interconnections to explain subjugation. They discern most ancient religious myths basic to Judeo-Christian and Western traditions as ones justifying a social structure that exalts ruling-class men while denigrating others, including nonhuman nature. What many of these ecofeminist theologians subsequently have to consider is whether these religions can be reformed or if new religions, myths, and spiritual practices are needed. Some Ecofeminist working with spiritual and religious interconnections, see women’s spirituality as political. They believe â€Å"the preservation of the Earth will require profound shift in consciousness, a recovery of a more ancient and traditional view that reveres the profound connection of all beings in the web of life and a rethinking of the relation of both humanity and divinity in nature (Warren 2000, p. 32). The notion of â€Å"the Goddess† is also invoked by many spiritual ecofeminists to express the veneration both nonhuman nature and the human body merit. Warren further notes that knowledge and knowledge creation is studied by ecofeminists who work to make epistemological interconnections. Like postcolonial feminism, they challenge the Western view that knowledge is objective. Warren is also discusses the ethical interconnection approach made by ecofeminist philosophers who hold that a feminist ethical analysis and response is needed to show how subjugation of women, other â€Å"others† and nonhuman nature is interlinked. â€Å"Minimally, the goal of ecofeminist environmental ethics is to develop theories and practices concerning humans and the natural environment that are not male-biased and that provide a guide to action in the prefiminist present,† (Warren 20007, p. 37). Making political interconnections is integral to ecofeminism, which has always been a grassroots political movement, motivated by pressing pragmatic concerns (Warren 2000, p. 35). In addition to women’s activism to sustain their families and communities, the relationship of environmental and women’s health to science and development projects, animal rights, and peace activism are examples of issues that

Motivation to Learn: Teacher-Student Relationship

Motivation to Learn: Teacher-Student Relationship It is a generally accepted truth that the future lies in the hands of the next generation and that the success of the next generation is based largely on education. Increasing numbers of reports and articles in the media have been published over the last several years showing that education of the next generation in the U.S. is lacking. The long-standing super power stands to lose its status on the global playing field, threatening the way America has come to see itself and its role in the world. These trends have caused panic and politicians have claimed a rededication of their efforts in this arena because that is what the nation is crying for. However, while the belief that U.S. students are falling behind the world academically is wide-spread, and fact that this is an undesirable circumstance to be in is unanimous, no single concrete solution has emerged. The leading approach is currently raising standards as can be measured according to standardized tests. The idea is that without a quantifiable measure of progress schools cannot know whether they are improving and that by seeing how they are doing in comparison to other schools, they will be motivated to make even greater strides. It has been suggested that an emphasis on student motivation may be far more valuable than an emphasis on which specific facts theyve memorized from American history or which functions they can calculate in mathematics. While it may be somewhat counterintuitive to argue that education is best improved by focusing on something beside the material the students are expected to learn, many studies have shown that this very well might be the case. This is, in brief, due to the fact that motivated students learn more, learn better, and learn themselves. That is to say, the tradeoff is more than worth it: To dedicate some percentage of a teachers time and efforts to motivating students will translate at the end of the day to those students having learned a lot more than if that same time and effort was invested in conventional transfer of knowledge methods, or far worse, test preparation. Accordingly, many researchers have conducted a considerable number of studies on students academic motivation and students goal orientation, particularly those who concentrate on the dynamics of motivation within classroom settings, have started to emphasize the potential role of relational variables ( e.g., Davis, 2003; Pianta, 1999) and teacher behaviors (e.g., Skinner Belmont, 1993) in students academic engagement. In the last forty years, researches (e.g., Pintrich, 2001, Skinner, 1995, Stipek, 1988) have studied student motivation and, have found a great deal about: What moves students to learn and the quantity and quality of the effort they invest?, What choices students make?, What makes them persist in the face of hardship?, How student motivation is affected by their relationships with significant adults?, How motivation develops?, and How the school environment affects it?. Accordingly, educators, parents, and students have paid substantial attention to the importance of motivation in school because of significant contributions to students academic learning, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and school readiness. Motivation to learn is a competence acquired through general experience however, it is mostly stimulated through modeling, communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by significant others (Brophy, 1987). Infants and young children appear to be mobilized by curiosity, driven by an intense need to explore, interact with, and discover their environment. In the classroom settings, the content covered and the social context can vary continuously. Therefore, children are frequently involved in unfamiliar learning environment. This can create ambiguity for some students; however can crate challenge for other students. Accordingly, students try to make sense of novel learning situations by referring to their motivational beliefs (Brophy, 1987). Motivational belief refers to the opinions, judgments, and values that students hold about objects, events, and learning process (Brophy, 1987). Motivational belief also refers to the students opinions of the efficacy or ef fectiveness of learning and teaching process. For example, childrens beliefs about their academic experiences have important implications for their school adjustment and academic achievement ( Mueller Dweck, 1998; Wigfield Eccles, 2002). Accordingly, expectancies and values are directly determined by other achievement related beliefs (e.g., achievement goals, self-schemata, beliefs about science (Wigfield, 1994). Similarly, motivational beliefs act as a frame of reference that guides students thinking, feelings, and actions in any subject area. For example, motivational beliefs about mathematics determine which strategies and motivational goals students develop. It is crucial that a students beliefs about a domain may be predominantly optimistic or pessimistic, thus providing a positive or negative context for learning ( Skinner, 1995; Stipek, 1988; Vermeer, Boekaerts, Seegers, 2000). Teacher-child relations play a prominent role in the development of competencies in early school-age years (Pianta, Steinberg, Rollins, 1995; Pianta Walsh, 1996) and transition to middle school (Davis. 2003; Pianta, 1999). Teacher may operate as social agents, and they can affect the students intellectual and sociemotional experiences by creating a classroom setting that stimulates both students motivation and learning. Moreover teacher-student relationships serve as a regulatory function for the development of social, emotional, and academic skills (Davis, 2006). Studies have shown that positive teacher-student relationships can lead to a warm classroom environment that facilitates successful adaptation in school and thereby increase students motivation to learn. On the other hand, conflictual teacher-student relationships are associated with lower achievement and self-esteem as well as ongoing relational conflict with both teachers and peers (Pianta Hamre, 2005; Buyse, Verschuere n, Doumen, Damme, Maes, 2008). Research has further indicated that children with whom teachers report positive relationships are outgoing and socially competent (Pianta, et. all., 1995; Birch Ladd, 1998). Moreover, the teachers believed that high quality relationships between teachers and their students enhanced classroom learning and motivation by building a safe and supportive classroom context for students to open up and listen to the teachers and take intellectual risks (Pianta, et al., 1995; Birch Ladd, 1998).Similarly, the beliefs teachers hold about teaching and learning, and the nature of expectations have about their students also exert a powerful influence (Stipek, 1988). These findings support the key role of teacher-student relationships on childrens motivation to learn and school adjustment. The various studies examined the influence of family, academic, and personal factors on the students academic failure and poor motivation to learn (e.g., Covington, 1992). Among personal variables most studied are self-concept, unfavorable motivational beliefs, low ability, and personal goal orientation (Ryan Deci, 2000; Stipek, 2002). For example, unfavorable beliefs impede the learning process because they direct the learners attention away from learning activity itself (Stipek, 1998; Ryan, Gheen, Midgley, 1998). Similarly, the students themselves attribute to poor performance to low ability and to luck (Stipek, 2002) and an improvement in performance to motivation (task-goal orientation), to self-regulating behaviors, and to competence as a function of task characteristics ( Stipek, 2002). Most students believe their ability and effort are the main reasons for school achievement. By the same token, if asked whether they would prefer to be called smart or hard-working, they will choose smart almost every time. Why? Because they believe that hard-working students risk being considered either excessively ambitious or of limited ability, both of which they would find embarrassing. The following literature review covers the significance of young childrens motivation to learn, the effects of the quality of teacher-student relationships on their motivation to learn, the implications of poorly motivated young students on their social and academic life. Firstly, two relevant theoretical frameworks are introduced: self-determination and expectancy and value theory. These theories provide the basis of the rationale for the present study and frame the possible bridging point from the problem to where the attempted solutions until this point failed, and what is worth trying next. Theoretical Considerations Further understanding of the topics of motivation and learning is facilitated through the lenses of various theoretical frameworks. These frameworks shed insight on the bigger picture of motivation and learning and are helpful guides in developing practical new approaches to the classroom. Three major relevant theories are discussed below: self-determination and value-expectancy for achievement motivation As children continue their social, emotional, and physical development during school years, they broaden their familial and extra-familial relationships (Marvin Stewart, 1990). Participation in family-child, teacher-child, and peer-child systems supports the development of play, social interaction, and conflict resolution skills for those children (Lynch Cicchetti, 1992; Pianta, 1999). Self-System and Self-Determination Theories Self-determination theorists (e.g., Ryan, Connell, Deci) claim that children start to value the behaviors for which they and significant others (i.e., teachers, families) in their social environments are reinforced. When these values are accepted as their own (internalization), students begin to choose to engage in activities that are consistent with their own feelings (Deci Ryan, 2001).Similarly, according to self-determination theory, children learn from their parents and other significant adults that achievement behaviors and motivation to learn are valued in the society. Some children internalize these values and behaviors as their own and begin to behave in ways that are consistent with them (Connell, 1990). Accordingly, Connell (1990) posits that the need for relatedness, the need for competence, and the need for autonomy are the most important psychological needs in the framework of self-system processes. The self-system theory of engagement assumes that human beings have bas ic psychological needs and can be motivated to engage in activities passionately and voluntarily when those needs are met (Connell Wellborn, 1991). In addition, in the self- system process, the self evaluates the degree to which psychological needs are met and this evaluation may affect relationships with others (Connell, 1990 ;). Self-determination theory shares this perspective (Davis, 2001; Deci Ryan, 1985) and has also contributed to the construct definition of relatedness by proposing that individuals innate needs (e.g., the need for competence, the need for relatedness, and the need for autonomy) must be fulfilled to achieve self-regulation, motivation, and personal well-being. Deci and Ryan (1985) defined the need for relatedness as feelings of security or belongingness in the social environment that motivate individuals to follow norms and rules. Moreover, all three needs are interrelated. For example, relatedness provides the security that is necessary for student initiat ive, independence, and autonomy in completing tasks that promote competence. Competence enables students to feel confident, accepted, and related to those around them. The healthy fulfillment of these basic needs provides a social environment that regulates the amount of acceptance and success (Urdan Schoenfelder, 2006; Deci Ryan, 2002). The teacher-student relationship is a very important and a powerful motivator for the development of the need for competence and autonomy within this social environment, because school as a complex and unique system asks students to accomplish various intellectual and social tasks. For example, a growing body of studies showed that students, who believed that they are competent academically, are more likely to be interested in academic and school tasks ( Stipek Daniels,1991; Skaalvik Rankin, 1995). Similarly, for teachers, supporting childrens basic psychological needs and provide a healthy classroom environment also promote more positive teacher-student relationships. Within this type of environment, students report grea ter levels of competence, autonomy, and positive relatedness (Connell Wellborn, 1991; Standage, Duda, Ntoumanis, 2005; Urdan Schoenfelder, 2006; Deci Ryan, 2002). Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation Another important alternative and complementary theoretical view of students motivation to learn in educational settings is expectancy-value theory (Atkinson, 1957; Eccles, Adler, Goff, Kaczala, Meece, Midgley, 1983). Eccles and her colleagues (1983) studies values in the context of an expanded expectancy- value theory. This model is consisted of two components: a psychological component which focuses on cognitive factors such as expectations for success and the values placed on successful attainment, and a socialization component which explains individual differences that occur within the variables of the psychological component (Eccles et al., 1983). A major premise of this model involves the influence of parental socialization on childrens motivation ( Eccles et al., 1983; Wigfield, 1994). Like Atkinson (1957), they posited that people choose to engage in tasks that they value and in which they expect to be successful. However, Eccles et al. (1983) conceptualized and defined valu es more broadly than Atkinson (1957). Similarly, they proposed that there are three kinds of values (e.g., attainment value, utility value, intrinsic value) relevant to achievement ( Jacobs Eccles, 2000; Wigfield Eccles, 1992). Attainment value refers to the relevance of an activity to a persons actual or ideal self-concept, and it is determined by how tasks satisfy peoples needs (Eccles et al., 1983). Accordingly, attainment value is the most closely related to internalized motivation in self-determination theory. Utility value is related to the usefulness of a task as a means to accomplish goals that may not be linked to the task itself. Intrinsic value is defined as the immediate enjoyment people get from doing a task. In other words, as a task has intrinsic value , people engage in for its own sake, rather than for some other purpose (Wigfield Eccles, 1992). Furthermore, Eccles et al. (1983) pointed out that values need to be considered in the context of costs such as that hu miliation if failure occurs. Motivation for Academic Achievement If testing is not the way to get students to learn, what is? It has been proposed that the single factor with the greatest impact on whether a student learns is his or her motivation. As mentioned above, motivation is considered one of, if not the, most important factors influencing students learning. Qin Xiaoqing (2002) found that the presence of absence of motivation is in large part what determines success or failure in second language learning. This is because motivated students use learning strategies more frequently, have a stronger will to learn and so set more and higher goals for themselves, and they are more persistent in learning. Qin (2003) found that learning motivation influences the learners autonomous learning ability, and determines the learners confidence in overcoming learning difficulty. These theories on motivation demonstrate that motivation, as one of the crucial factors determining the success in language learning, attracts much attention of the researchers (L i Pan, 2009). What is motivation? While different theorists define motivation differently, motivation is commonly thought of as an inner state of need or desire that activates an individual to do something to satisfy them. In other words, motivation is the force that accounts for the arousal, selection, direction, and continuation of behavior (Li Pan, 2009). Williams and Burden (2000) proposed the definition of motivation as a state of cognitive and emotional arousal that leads to a conscious decision to act, and which causes the exertion of intellectual and physical effort towards reaching a previously set goal. In day to day language, motivation is why we do what we do. Therefore, it is clear why so much education research is focused on motivating students: If motivation is why we do what we do, only a motivated student will learn. It is increasingly accepted in the literature that motivation is more important to a childs education than any other single factor including the teachers skill/exper ience, classroom resources, etc. What role does motivation play in achievement? It has been argued that motivation is not only the key ingredient for outstanding work, but also in extraordinary achievement. The claim is that creative genius grows out of the ability to sustain intense commitment for very long periods in the face of obstacles-in other words, motivation (Runco, Nemiro, Walberg, 1998). However, on the other hand is the widespread believe that accomplishment, and especially outstanding accomplishment, is about innate talent. People who believe this somehow ignore the fact that Mozart, Darwin, Michal Jordan, and Tiger Woods practiced feverishly and single-mindedly for years, and instead believe that they were simply born with a talent that if one is not born with cannot not be achieved regardless of how motivation or any other factor controllable (Dwek, 2002). Proponents of the first belief however, that motivation and not talent is the core ingredient for success, have developed various ways to bring that motivation to the classroom towards students academic achievement. One major school of thought is called progressive education. This approach is centered on the importance of the genuine interest of the students (Simmons Page, 2010). A students interest or motivation can stem from innumerable factors and vary depending on the student, of course. Researchers in the field have categorized stuent motivations into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. A student who is intrinsically motivated commits him or herself to a task for its own sake, that is, for the enjoyment of it, the learning it allows, and for a feeling of accomplishment. A student who is extrinsically motivated comits to a task in order to receive a reward from a source external to him or herself such as from the teacher (Macabudbud, Alba, Jestony, Dadis,Diaz, Realiza, Ven tura, 2009).Understanding these different motivations is important when translating the theoretical ideas of the importance of motivating students into practical ways to do so. The Implications of Young Childrens Motivation to Learn Many young children begin school with a thirst for learning. Similarly, Goldberg (1994) pointed out that young children enthusiastically seek novel and challenging school tasks and therefore, motivation is key to successful school adjustment. Motivation can be defined as the process that helps instigate goal directed activity, and enables that activity to be maintained (Pintrich Schunk, 1996). Positive motivational patterns are crucial for learning in early childhood as they are for later learning (Carlton Winsler, 1998). Intrinsic motivation refers to the desire to participate in a task only for the pleasure derived from a task itself, whereas extrinsic motivation refers to the desire to participate in a task for the sake of a desirable outcome such as teacher praise or a reward (Pintrich Schunk, 1996). Gottfried (1985) hypothesized that academic intrinsic motivation is positively and significantly related to school achievement. Gottfried (1985) found that children, who are more intrinsically motivated, are more successful learners than those with more extrinsically motivated. Accordingly, inhibiting the development of intrinsic motivation in early childhood education and schools have been criticized (Broophy, 1998). It is noteworthy to first understand how motivation relates to education and how motivation affects the childrens social and academic competence. Similarly, Fortier (1995) examined the effects of autonomous academic motivation on perceived academic self-competence and perceived academic self-determination. He showed that perceived academic competence and perceived academic self-determination positively influenced autonomous academic motivation, which in turn had a positive impact on school and the development of intrinsic motivation. Moreover, Boggiano, Shields, Barrett, Thompson, Simons, and Katz (1992) found that motivational orientation is significantly related to childrens standardized achievement scores. Specifically, young students with a n intrinsic motivational orientation got higher reading and math achievement scores than their classroom mates with extrinsic motivational orientation (Boggiano, et al., 1992). Together, this indicates that intrinsic motivational orientation contributes to a range of achievement-related behaviors and cognitions. School readiness as a multidimensional concept includes childrens approaches to learning (i.e., emergent literacy and math skills) (Kagan Neuman, 1997). Moreover, school readiness is a significant indication of a childs ability to be successful in school settings. In previous research with older children (e.g., Stipek, 1998; Ryan Connell, 1989; Harter, 1992), motivation has showed as an important factor for learning, academic success, and social development. Similarly, Carlton (1999) showed that childrens motivation to learn is an important predictor of school readiness and the development of social skills. Another important alternative and complementary theoretical view of students motivation to learn in educational settings is achievement goal theory (Miserandino, 1998). Achievement goal theory provided insights in order to examine students motivation and achievement-related outcomes (Ames, 1992 ; Walters, 2004). Achievement goals can be defined as the purposes and reasons for a persons pursuit in achievement situation. Different purposes and reasons lead to different emotional, cognitive, and affective patterns (Dweck Leggett, 1988 ; Urdan Midgley, 2003). There have been considerable amount of researches (e.g., Elliot McGregor, 2001; Elliot Thrash, 2001) that showed the effects of achievement goals on students motivation to learn. For example, Kaplan, Gheen, and Midgley (2002) examined the relationship between classroom goal structure and student disruptive behavior. They (2002) found that student perceptions of a mastery goal structure were related to lower incidence of behavior al problems and disruptive behaviors whereas student perceptions of a performance approach goal structure were related to higher incidence of behavioral problems and disruptive behaviors. Ames (1992) pointed out that mastery orientation is associated with depth engagement with the task and greater perseverance in the face of failure or barriers and thereby, mastery orientation increases the individuals intrinsic motivation, then in turn, motivation to learn. Previous researches examining childrens expectancy-related beliefs about different achievement tasks showed that childrens expectancy-related beliefs play a central role in their achievement motivation and contribute to their behavior and learning (Eccles et al., 1983; Meece Courtney, 1992). For example, young children who have positive ability beliefs and approach achievement tasks with a high expectancy of success, consistently show high levels of persistence and performance on achievement tasks (Eccles et al., 1983). Similarly, childrens expectancies and values themselves are most directly affected by childrens achievement goals, their self-schemata, and their task-specific beliefs. Values also influence students intentions and decisions about the course enrollment (Meece Courtney, 1992). Furthermore, values affect the perception of self-competence and self-esteem (Eccles et al.,1983). Accordingly, Dweck and Elliott (1983) posited that how learning and performance goals are dete rmined by childrens subjective values. For instance, the kind of achievement situation the child is in influence the childs subjective values. The child, who believes he or she is competent at a certain task, believes that achievement of similar tasks in the future is possible and easy and so competence belief and expectancy for success are directly related (Eccles et al., 1983; Wigfield Eccles, 1992). For examples, achievement values in school tasks (i.e., mathematic) can influence self-perceptions of competence (Covington, 1992). Previous research also suggested that early achievement and socialization experiences and cultural norms can influence how elementary and high-school students understand, interpret, and approach achievement (Eccles et al. 1983 ; Meece, Parsons, Kaczala, Goff, Futterman, 1982). Similarly, studies of junior and senior high school students demonstrated that the subjective task values adolescents attach to school subjects are related to their course plans, activity choices ( Eccles, Adler, Meece, 1984; Meece, Wigfleld, Eccles, 1990). For example, in their study of junior high school students, Meece and colleagues (1990) found that the importance students attached to mathematics predicted their intentions to continue taking mathematics. Eccles and Harold (1991) examined adolescents self-perceptions of ability, subjective task values, and activity choices in sports. They reported that adolescents self-reports of free time involvement in sports was significantly related to their subjective task values of sports. However, there is paucity of investigation of effects of motivation to learn on young childrens learning. Accordingly, focusing on young school childrens expectations and values using the expectancy-value model and the effects of may contribute to our understanding about childrens development of motivational values and expectancy and in early school years. A number of researchers (e.g., Stipek Mac Iver, 1989; Wigfield, Eccles, Mac Iver, Reuman, Midgley, 1991) also showed that young childrens beliefs about their ability and expectancies for success are overly optimistic and are not realistic. Young children perceive themselves as competent and they nearly always think that they will be successful on the upcoming tasks. However, as children progress through elementary school, their ability beliefs and expectancies for success may demonstrate a substantial change, and their beliefs about their ability and expectancies become more accurate and realistic (Stipek, 1984; Wigfleld Eccles, 1992). Although there can be age related differences in childrens motivational belief, perceived academic self-competence, perceived academic self-determination, the quality of teacher-student relationships, classroom achievement goal structure also play a significant role in young students motivation to learn and their motivational belief ( Eccles et al., 1983; Pianta, 1999; Stipek, 2002). Therefore, it is very crucial to further investigate and demonstrate the effects of aforementioned factors in young children motivation to learn, and in turn, how young childrens motivation to learn influence the development of social and academic competence. Teacher-Student Relationship and Young Childrens Motivation to Learn It is widely recognized that when children enter school or transient to next level, they encounter a variety of new challenges. These include creating positive relationships with peer groups and adults in the school environment as well as learning to meet the demands of a wide range of cognitive, social, and academic tasks (Pianta et al., 1995; Birch Ladd, 1997; Baker, 2006). Teacher-child relationships play a prominent role in the development of competencies in the preschool and early school years (Hamre Pianta, 2001; Pianta Walsh, 1996). Teacher may operate as social agents, and they can affect the students intellectual and sociemotional experiences by creating a classroom setting that stimulates both students motivation and learning. Moreover teacher-student relationships serve as a regulatory function for the development of social, emotional, and academic skills (Davis, 2006). Similarly, young children who enjoy taking positive supports from teachers and having warm and close relationships with them appear to demonstrate social and academic competence at school (Pianta, 1999). A growing body of research examined the effects of the quality of teacher-student dyadic interaction on students academic motivation (e.g., Davis Ashley, 2003; Pianta, 1999). In fact, the degree to which children develop social and academic competencies in their school lives is a good indicator of successful school adaptation and positive teacher as well as peer relationship (Birch Ladd, 1997; Pianta, et. all., 1995). For example, Davis and Ashley (2003) reported that positive teacher-student interaction enhanced classroom learning and students motivation by building a safe and supportive context for students to motivate for learning and take intellectual risks. In addition, teachers believed that students tended to work hard if they liked their teachers and had caring relations with their teachers. Therefore, teachers in Daviss and Ashleys study (David Ashley, 2003) preferred to invest the time and effort for the development of supportive relations with their students. In additio n, those positive and caring relations helped the teachers to be creative in their instruction. Accordingly, Davis (2006) found that middle school students and teachers, who perceived their relations as a supportive and positive, reported enhanced motivation, more facilitative classroom settings, and higher grades. Similarly, Birch and Ladd (1997) found that supportive teacher-student relationship plays an important role in developing school adjustment competencies including attention, motivation, problem-solving, and self esteem. Together, when teachers provided more autonomy and the instruction addressed students personal interest and personal relevance, they were more emotionally and behaviorally engaged in school works and they had more supportive relationships with their teachers. Similarly, those students, who reported higher levels of autonomy provided by their teacher, showed more adaptive patterns of learning (David Ashley, 2003; Stipek, 2002). Accordingly, previous researches (e.g., Patrick, Hicks, Ryan, 1997; Patrick, Ryan, Kaplan, 2007; Ryan Patrick, 2001) have indicated that there is a significant relationship between students adaptive motivation for academics and a number of social factors within the classroom. These include teacher-student relationship, teacher support ( Midgley, Feldlaufer, Ecles, 1988), and teacher practices that foster respect among students ( Ryan Patrick, 2001; Patrick, Ryan, Kaplan, 2007). Similarly, Patrick, Anderman, Ryan, Edelin, and Midgley (2001) examined how teacher-student interaction influences both students classrooms goal-orientation structure. They found that teachers apparent support and enthusiasm toward students progress and their confidence in students ability to learn were accompanied by teachers recognition practices and their teaching styles. Their relationships with students were characterized by supporting students academic engagement and giving warm praise. Teachers en couraged their students to focus on task and informational feedback. In mastery-approach classroom, all teachers perceived learning as active process in which classroom involvement, positive interactions, understanding (not memorization), student engagement are key requirements of student academic achievement and motivation. On the oth

Pricing Websites For Sale :: Sell Websites Buy Websites

Pricing Websites For Sale Reprinted with permission of VotanWeb.com As a market leader in existing website sales, VontanWeb receives many questions about valuing websites. It always amazes me how some website owners come up with the value of a website being sold. No wonder many websites never sell. In many instances no consideration is given to the total picture. Will the available cash flow of the website be able to pay the debt of a loan to purchase the website? Will the website as priced be attractive to financing sources? I have seen many â€Å"professional website valuations† where the price just doesn’t make sense – and sellers wonder why buyers are not standing in line to purchase their website. Market Approach There is a solution that is grounded in the fundamentals of economics, and time tested in the marketplace, where the influences of supply and demand ultimately determine where a website belongs on the price scale. One economist explains this market approach by comparing a business to a machine which has the purpose of making money: The more money it makes, the more it is worth. This is why there is greater demand for very small and profitable websites with few hard assets, than there is for large, popular and high maintenance websites that generate a huge cash flow, but can’t make a living for its owner. Adjusted Net Income The first category of information needed is called adjusted net income, and is the total amount of cash produced by the â€Å"money machine.† Of course, this figure includes the website profits and the owner’s salary. It’s important to remember that the adjusted net income should also include all of the many cash-related benefits which are enjoyed by the website owners. Those benefits may include the use of a car owned by the website, the website-paid premiums for health, life and auto insurance, website paid memberships to country clubs and spas, travel and entertainment expenses that are actually vacation and taking the wife out to eat expenses. Don’t forget expenses for high speed internet and cable TV that are needed for the website but also provide entertainment for the whole family. There are many, many other hidden personal expenditures in any typical website business, subscriptions to magazines, gifts for your wife and girlfriend and similar †Å"business expense† categories. Interest expense should also be added to adjusted net income, along with accounting entries—such as depreciation and amortization—that can divert money to the owner’s pocket so that it never appears on the bottom line of the P & L.

White Fang :: White Fang Essays

White Fang The book White Fang by Jack London starts off when two men named Henry and Bill, are traveling through the snowy, below-zero weather to deliver the corpse of Lord Alfred to Fort McGurry. It is the time of famine and Henry and Bill are low on food and only have three rounds of ammunition left. One morning when they have woken up they find out that they only have two dogs of six left. The four that were missing had been eaten by the wolves. Bill decided to stay up the next night to try to kill the wolves, with whatever ammo he had left. When the night came so did the wolves. Bill chased the wolf pack, and killed three of the wolves. He tried to kill a fourth with his bare hands but it was to swift, and killed him in defence. Henry realizing what had happening lit a fire in a circle around him. Another group of people in the area saw the fire and came over and rescued Henry. After the famine ends the wolf pack splits up. The she-wolf and three male wolves travel together until one of the males named "One Eye" killed the other males in a battle for the she-wolf. One Eye and the she-wolf find a lair where the she-wolf can lie down to give birth to her cubs. Another famine comes upon the land when the cubs are still young and all of them die except for a small gray cub. The gray wolf was the strongest of his pack. His first lesson in life was the lesson of the wilderness, "Eat or be eaten, kill or be killed." The cub and it's mother leave One Eye and travel into an Indian village. The she-wolf is instantly recognized by an Indian named Gray Beaver. She answers to the name of "Kiche," and the little wolf is named White Fang. In the Indian village White Fang learns how to protect himself from other dogs. When White Fang's mother was taken from him he tried to follow hr but was beaten by Gray Beaver. The next day Gray Beaver went to sell furs at the nearest fort, and took White Fang with him.

Hamlet :: essays research papers

Hamlet   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the themes I found in the play Hamlet, was the way Hamlet seemed to hold back on getting revenge for his father’s murder once he know who did it. After his father’s death and the hasty remarriage of his mother to his uncle, Hamlet started to spiral into a suicidal frame of mind. It is in this state that he meets the mysterious figure of his father’s ghost where he is told that it was his uncle, Claudius responsible for his death. Hamlet pledges to revenge his murder by Claudius who, the ghost also informs Hamlet, had already committed adultery with his queen during his lifetime. â€Å"Although Hamlet accepts the ghost’s word while he is with him, seeds of doubt about the ghost’s authenticity have been sown from the very beginning of the play and continue to torment Hamlet up until the end of the play† (Heilman p.45). Hamlet is not shore if this is really his farther or a devil in disguise. Hamlet Swears revenge will be quick for his father’s murderer. For the two months since Hamlet has seen the ghost, Hamlet has been unable to commit his vowed revenge; unable to explain to himself either his long delay or his depression and insanity. Maybe he’s scared of taking revenge on Claudius, he may think by taking revenge he endangers his own soul. â€Å"No matter how right a man might think his motives are, if Claudius is innocent; the act of revenge would inevitably make Hamlet as evil as the accused in the eyes of God† (Becker p.32). â€Å"Hamlet decides to test Claudius’ guilt and the authenticity of the ghost; he will stage a performance of a play, which will reproduce Claudius’ crime and observe his reaction to it†(Durband p.304). This plan was successful because Claudius broke down during the performance. Hamlet now knows Claudius is the murderer, and the ghost was actual his father. Hamlet has a perfect opportunity to achieve his revenge when he accidentally comes upon the guilt-ridden Claudius alone in prayer. Again he rationalizes himself into delay, this time on the grounds that his revenge would not be horrible enough as Claudius penitence might save his soul from hell. Although Hamlet dies at the end, he was able to avenge his father’s death. Because Laertes confessed that the king was to blame for hamlets mothers death as well as for the poison on the sword, Hamlet was able to achieve his revenge in terms that exonerated his soul from danger.

Last Sacrifice Chapter Twenty-two

â€Å"YOU'RE AWFULLY HAPPY.' I blinked and found Sonya staring at me. The CR-V and smooth stretch of I-75 hummed around us, the outside revealing little except Midwestern plains and trees. Sonya didn't seem quite as creepy crazy as she had back at school or even at her house. Mostly, she still just seemed scattered and confused, which was to be expected. I hesitated before answering but finally decided there was no reason to hold back. â€Å"Lissa passed her second monarch test.' â€Å"Of course she did,' said Victor. He was staring out the window away from me. The tone of his voice suggested I'd just wasted his time by saying something that was a given. â€Å"Is she okay?' asked Dimitri. â€Å"Injured?' Once, that would have sparked jealousy in me. Now, it was just a sign of our shared concern for Lissa. â€Å"She's fine,' I said, wondering if that was entirely true. She wasn't physically injured, but after what she'd seen †¦ well, that had to leave scars of a different type. The back door had been quite a surprise too. When she'd seen a small crowd by the first door, she'd thought it meant only a few people were up that late to see the candidates. Nope. Turned out everyone was just waiting out back to see the victors. True to her promise, Lissa hadn't let it faze her. She walked out with her head held high, smiling at her onlookers and fans as though she already owned the crown. I was growing sleepy but Lissa's triumph kept me smiling for a long time. There's something tiring about an endless, unknown stretch of highway. Victor had closed his eyes and was leaning against the glass. I couldn't see Sydney when I twisted around to check on her, meaning she also had decided on a nap or was just lying down. I yawned, wondering if I dared risk sleeping. Dimitri had urged me to when we left Sonya's house, knowing that I could use more than the couple hours Sydney had given me. I tipped my head against the seat and closed my eyes, falling instantly asleep. The blackness of that sleep gave way to the feel of a spirit dream, and my heart leapt with both panic and joy. After living through Lissa's test, spirit dreams suddenly had a sinister feel. At the same time, this might be a chance to see Adrian. And †¦ it was. Only we appeared somewhere entirely unexpected: Sonya's garden. I stared in wonder at the clear blue sky and the brilliant flowers, nearly overlooking Adrian in the process. He wore a dark green cashmere sweater that made him blend in. To me, he was more gorgeous than any of the garden's other wonders. â€Å"Adrian!' I ran to him, and he lifted me easily, spinning me around. When he placed me back on my feet, he studied the garden and nodded in approval. â€Å"I should let you pick the place more often. You have good taste. Of course, since you're dating me, we already knew that.' â€Å"What do you mean, â€Å"pick the place?† I asked, lacing my hands behind his neck. He shrugged. â€Å"When I reached out and sensed you were sleeping, I summoned the dream but didn't feel like thinking up a place. So I left it to your subconscious.' Irritably, he plucked at the cashmere. â€Å"I'm not dressed for the occasion, though.' The sweater shimmered, soon replaced by a light gray T-shirt with an abstract design on the front. â€Å"Better?' â€Å"Much.' He grinned and kissed the top of my forehead. â€Å"I've missed you, little dhampir. You can spy on Lissa and us all the time, but the best I get are these dreams, and honestly, I can't figure out what schedule you're on.' I realized that with my â€Å"spying,' I knew more about what had just happened at Court than he did. â€Å"Lissa took her second test,' I told him. Yup. His expression verified it. He hadn't known about the test, probably because he'd been sleeping. â€Å"When?' â€Å"Just now. It was a tough one, but she passed.' â€Å"Much to her delight, no doubt. Still †¦ that keeps buying us time to clear you and get you home. Not sure I'd want to come home if I were you, though.' He looked around the garden again. â€Å"West Virginia's a lot better than I thought.' I laughed. â€Å"It's not West Virginia–which isn't that bad, by the way. It's Sonya Karp's– ‘ I froze, unable to believe what I'd nearly said. I'd been so happy to see him, so at ease †¦ I'd let myself screw up. Adrian's face grew very, very serious. â€Å"Did you say Sonya Karp?' Several options played out in my head. Lying was the easiest. I could claim this was some place I'd been a long time ago, like maybe she'd taken us on a field trip to her house. That was pretty flimsy, though. Plus, I was guessing the look on my face screamed guilt. I'd been caught. A pretty lie wouldn't fool Adrian. â€Å"Yes,' I said finally. â€Å"Rose. Sonya Karp's a Strigoi.' â€Å"Not anymore.' Adrian sighed. â€Å"I knew you staying out of trouble was too good to be true. What happened?' â€Å"Um, Robert Doru restored her.' â€Å"Robert.' Adrian's lip curled in disdain. The two spirit users hadn't gotten along well. â€Å"And just because I feel like we're marching into full-fledged Crazy Territory–which means something, coming from me–I'm going to take a guess that Victor Dashkov is also with you.' I nodded, wishing desperately then that someone would wake me up and get me away from Adrian's interrogation. Damn it. How could I have slipped up like this? Adrian released me and walked around in small circles. â€Å"Okay, so. You, Belikov, the Alchemist, Sonya Karp, Victor Dashkov, and Robert Doru are all hanging out in West Virginia together.' â€Å"No,' I said. â€Å"No?' â€Å"We're, uh, not in West Virginia.' â€Å"Rose!' Adrian halted his pacing and strode back over to me. â€Å"Where the hell are you then? Your old man, Lissa–everyone thinks you're safe and sound.' â€Å"I am,' I said haughtily. â€Å"Just not in West Virginia.' â€Å"Then where?' â€Å"I can't †¦ I can't tell you.' I hated saying those words to him and seeing the look they elicited. â€Å"Part of it's for safety. Part of it's because †¦ well, um, I don't actually know.' He caught hold of my hands. â€Å"You can't do this. You can't run off on some crazy whim this time. Don't you get it? They'll kill you if they find you.' â€Å"It's not a crazy whim! We're doing something important. Something that's going to help all of us.' â€Å"Something you can't tell me,' he guessed. â€Å"It's better if you're not involved,' I said, squeezing his hands tightly. â€Å"Better if you don't know the details.' â€Å"And in the meantime, I can rest easy knowing you've got an elite team at your back.' â€Å"Adrian, please! Please just trust me. Trust that I've got a good reason,' I begged. He let go of my hands. â€Å"I believe you think you've got a good reason. I just can't imagine one that justifies you risking your life.' â€Å"It's what I do,' I said, surprised at how serious I sounded. â€Å"Some things are worth it.' Pieces of static flickered across my vision, like TV reception going bad. The world started to fade. â€Å"What's going on?' I asked. He scowled. â€Å"Someone or something's waking me up. Probably my mom checking in for the hundredth time.' I reached for him, but he was fading away. â€Å"Adrian! Please don't tell anyone! Anyone.' I don't know if he heard my pleas or not because the dream completely disappeared. I woke up in the car. My immediate reaction was to swear, but I didn't want to give away the idiotic thing I'd done. Glancing over, I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw Sonya watching me intently. â€Å"You were having a spirit dream,' she said. â€Å"How'd you know?' â€Å"Your aura.' I made a face. â€Å"Auras used to be cool, but now they're just starting to get annoying.' She laughed softly, the first time I'd heard her do so since being restored. â€Å"They're very informative if you know how to read them. Were you with Vasilisa?' â€Å"No. My boyfriend. He's a spirit user too.' Her eyes widened in surprise. â€Å"That's who you were with?' â€Å"Yeah. Why? What's wrong?' She frowned, looking puzzled. A few moments later, she glanced up toward the front seat, where Dimitri and Robert sat, and then studied me in a scrutinizing way that sent chills down my spine. â€Å"Nothing,' she said. â€Å"Nothing's wrong.' I had to scoff at that. â€Å"Come on, it sure seemed like–‘ â€Å"There!' Sonya abruptly turned from me, leaned forward, and pointed. â€Å"Take that exit.' We were nearly past â€Å"that exit,' and Dimitri had to do some fancy maneuvering–kind of like in our escape back in Pennsylvania–to make it. The car jerked and lurched, and I heard Sydney yelp behind me. â€Å"A little warning next time would be helpful,' Dimitri noted. Sonya wasn't listening. Her gaze was totally fixated on the road we'd pulled off onto. We came to a red light, where I caught sight of a cheery sign: WELCOME TO ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. The spark of life I'd seen in her moments ago was gone. Sonya had returned to her tense, almost robotic self. Despite Sydney's clever negotiating, Sonya still seemed uncomfortable about this trip. She still felt guilty and traitorous. â€Å"Are we here?' I asked eagerly. â€Å"And how long were we on the road?' I'd hardly noticed the drive. I'd stayed awake for the first part of it, but the rest had been a blur of Lissa and Adrian. â€Å"Six hours,' said Dimitri. â€Å"Go left at that second light,' said Sonya. â€Å"Now right at the corner.' Tension built in the car. Everyone was awake now, and my heart raced as we pushed deeper and deeper into suburbia. Which house? Were we close? Was one of these it? It was a fast drive but seemed to stretch forever. We all let out a collective breath when Sonya suddenly pointed. â€Å"There.' Dimitri pulled into the driveway of a cute brick house with a perfectly trimmed lawn. â€Å"Do you know if your relatives still live here?' I asked Sonya. She said nothing, and I realized we were back to promise territory. Lockdown mode. So much for progress. â€Å"I guess there's only one way to find out,' I said, unbuckling my seatbelt. â€Å"Same plan?' Earlier, Dimitri and I had discussed who would go and who would stay behind if Sonya got us to the right place. Leaving the brothers behind was a no-brainer. The question had been who would guard them, and we'd decided Dimitri would while Sydney and I went with Sonya to meet her relatives–who were undoubtedly in for a shocking visit. â€Å"Same plan,' agreed Dimitri. â€Å"You go to the house. You look less threatening.' â€Å"Hey!' He smiled. â€Å"I said â€Å"look.† But his reasoning made sense. Even at ease, there was something powerful and intimidating about Dimitri. Three women going up to the door would freak these people out less–especially if it turned out Sonya's relatives had moved. Hell, for all I knew, she'd purposely led us to the wrong house. â€Å"Be careful,' Dimitri said, as we got out of the car. â€Å"You too,' I replied. That got me another smile, one a little warmer and deeper. The feelings that stirred in me flitted away as Sonya, Sydney, and I walked up the sidewalk. My chest tightened. This was it. Or was it? Were we about to reach the conclusion of our journey? Had we really found the last Dragomir, against all odds? Or had I been played from the beginning? I wasn't the only one who was nervous. I could feel Sydney and Sonya crackling with tension too. We reached the front step. I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. Several seconds later, a man answered–and he was Moroi. A promising sign. He looked at each of our faces, no doubt wondering what a Moroi, a dhampir, and a human were doing at his door. It sounded like the start of a bad joke. â€Å"Can I help you?' he asked. I was suddenly at a loss. Our plan had covered the big stuff: find Eric's mistress and love child. What we'd say once we actually got there wasn't so clear. I waited for one of my companions to speak up now, but there was no need. The Moroi man's head suddenly whipped to my side as he did a double take. â€Å"Sonya?' he gasped. â€Å"Is that you?' Then, I heard a young female voice behind him call, â€Å"Hey, who's here?' Someone squeezed in beside him, someone tall and slim–someone I knew. My breath caught as I stared at waves of unruly light brown hair and light green eyes–eyes that should have tipped me off a long time ago. I couldn't speak. â€Å"Rose,' exclaimed Jill Mastrano. â€Å"What are you doing here?'

Luxury Brand Marketing Essay

While the word ‘luxury’ is used in daily lives to refer to certain lifestyle, the underlying construct’s definition is consumer and situation specific. If you earn less than 15000 a month, a pair of reebok shoes would be a really big luxury item for you. On the other hand, if you are going to a party with some big-wigs a $100,000 car may not be a luxury. The word luxury originates from the Latin term â€Å"luxus† signifying, â€Å"soft or extravagant living, indulgence, sumptuousness or opulence† The meaning of luxury is extremely subjective and multidimensional in nature. It depends on dimension such as high price, high quality, uniqueness, exclusivity etc. What is a luxury product? In economic terms, luxury products are those who can consistently command and justify a higher price than products with comparable functions and similar quality. In marketing term, luxury products are those who can deliver emotional benefits which is hard to match by comparable products. The luxury sector targets its products and services at consumers on the top-end of the wealth spectrum. These self-selected elite are more or less price insensitive and choose to spend their time and money on objects that are plainly opulence rather than necessities. For these reasons, luxury and prestige brands have for centuries commanded an unwavering and often illogical customer loyalty. Luxury and prestige brands such as Rolex, Louis Vuitton and Cartier represent the highest form of craftsmanship and command a staunch consumer loyalty that is not affected by trends. These brands create and set the seasonal trends and are also capable to pulling all of their consumers with them wherever they go. Premium brands are those brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger that aspire to be luxury and prestige brands but their marketing mix strategies are more attuned to a mass market, albeit a luxury mass market. They are also termed as mass-premium brands or mass-luxury brands. Fashion brands on the other hand are those that address the masses. Strategies for Luxury Marketing There are conventional foundations for ensuring success of a brand and they are listed below in brief : 1. The brand must be â€Å"expansive†. Which means it should be full of innovation opportunities for the marketer and in terms of satisfying the divergent needs of the luxury consumer 2. The brand must tell a story It is this story, of either heritage or performance or other aspects that goes on to build the aura of a brand over time. The story always accentuates the identity of the brand. 3. The brand must be relevant to the consumers’ needs Depending upon the mindset of the luxury class, it is imperative for a brand to satisfy those needs, whether they be for recognition or functional use etc. 4. The brand must align with consumers’ values A brand that does not concur with the basic values of a consumer’s society has a small chance of succeeding because luxury items are forms of expression or identification for a luxury consumer. This makes it difficult for the consumer to adopt the brand in such cases. 5. The brand must perform Irrespective of which category the brand belongs to, a performance assurance is a must for the brand if it wishes to be in the evoked set of luxury consumers, considering the price being paid for luxury. LUXURY brand marketing CONCEPTS: Socialite as a Conductor In 2006, when Christian Dior chose Chawla as its spokesperson, everyone was shocked – some secretly jealous. Chawla’s association: to be the face of the brand, be seen in Dior in the right circles, host events attended by the right people and generally hobnob with the circle that she already moves in. The money details are not clear – people in the circuit and in the luxury industry say its part financial, part goodies. But it might be working. Chawla says, â€Å"Dior has done incredibly well with a consistent rise in sales. It is the most visible brand in India with the highest recall value in terms of marketing strategies implemented. † â€Å"Socialites being signed up for a fashion brand is not new, at least not in the West,† says former fashion editor and luxury specialist Sujata Assomull-Sippy. She mentions Armani’s 19-year-old association with British semi-royal and socialite Lady Helen Taylor that started when he designed her wedding gown in 1992. The association ended in 2009. Taylor, who was also the face for Bulgari, gave a sigh of relief and was glad to give up â€Å"her uniform†. Six years hence, Chawla is nowhere close to hanging up her Dior couture. The ‘Mohan for Gucci’ buzz has engendered new aspirations in the circuit that goes beyond the ‘hostess’ or the grander-sounding luxury consultant tags. â€Å"The socialite is becoming more important in a luxury brand’s marketing strategy as she pulls in the ‘right kind of crowd,† says Priya Sachdev, creative director for TSG International Marketing that has brought brands like YSL, Diane von Furstenberg to India. Nichevertising Brand consultant and strategist Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults loftily terms it â€Å"nichevertise vs massvertise†. According to him the luxury brands are not for mass consumption and shouldn’t be mass advertised. The social circuit gives them a fresh channel to reach out to their target audience without any noise. â€Å"The socialite model of marketing targets the guest lists minus the hard sell,† he says. Personal voice- distinct style Every luxury brand needs to develop a marketing strategy that not only helps them achieve their marketing goals, but is also in line with their brand. For example, while it makes sense for Christopher Bailey from Burberry to update the Burberry Facebook page with short videos he makes or music he supports, the same type of strategy might not work for someone like Bentley or Rolex. Bijoor says that for luxury brands, sell is a four-letter word – and not just literally and that’s why they aim at buy. â€Å"Luxury brands like to be bought, not sold,† he says. â€Å"Sell is a top-down strategy which involves an element of ‘shout’ – you asking consumers to consider you. Buy, instead, is a pull-oriented strategy. Luxury brands love pull not push,† he explains. This is ideal for the socialite marketing where the conversation with the brand is more visual and not aural.