Learning Versus Teaching The Home-Schooling Movement free essay sample

A thorough and in-depth study into home-schooling as a viable alternative to Americas public education system. An extensive study of home-schooling, evaluating this form of education with a positive outlook based on a large body of evidence including standardized test scores, collegiate performance and expert opinions. The paper explores education theories and the history of public education in America. The author of the paper offers conclusive and thought-provoking arguments in favor of home-schooling. For years, reform within the public, mandatory educational system was viewed by most as the only option for improving education. Now, we have seen the advent of the home schooling movement, a response to educational reform involving complete renunciation of the public school system, and home schooling has received increasing media coverage. Yet the idea of teaching children at home is not a new one. Shaw and others saw the advantages of home schooling over a century ago. We will write a custom essay sample on Learning Versus Teaching: The Home-Schooling Movement or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page My schooling [] prevented me from being educated to such an extent, he wrote, which infuriates me to think of all I might have learned at home by myself (quoted by Libertarian). In his time, the idea of keeping a child at home, instead of sending them to school, was entertained by only a few radical thinkers, but it is now a viable option for American families, legal in all fifty states (Callaway 6). Given this newfound freedom, we should explore the possibility that home schooling is a superior approach to learning, with better long-term results, than public education just as the intellectual elite of Shaws day suggested.

How to Become President of the United States

How to Become President of the United States With the primary election coming to an end, only two candidates (if you’re not counting the independent candidates) will remain. While that seems simple enough, the path to becoming the President of the United States can be rather confusing and difficult to understand. After all, our system involves us voting for who we want as our leader, but we technically vote for representatives who then vote for the person we want as our leader, in which the representatives don’t always abide by the wishes of the voter. Make sense? No? Yeah, it’s pretty  convoluted but to make things easier to digest, we’ve compiled a very short and basic infographic on what it takes to become the President of the United States.

Families Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Families - Essay Example Whereas fifty years ago divorce was rare, and homosexuality invisible, nowadays these features are common in society. If individuals want to create their own type of family according to their own values and ideals, then there is an opportunity to explore this in new ways. There is conflict between restrictive but stable traditional models, and freer but potentially less stable modern alternatives. Immigrant families have the benefit of at least two cultural heritages, and this enriches their life experience. It can also cause tensions when adapting to new contexts and sometimes clashes with expectations of the culture of origin. Often children feel caught between the old and the new, and it takes generations for families to be fully at ease in both cultures. Another advantage of immigrant families is that people often have the opportunity to speak more than one language. This has useful career implications but above all it enables people to see the world more openly and be accepting of differences without judging one or the other. White American families who only speak English are at a disadvantage because they are tempted to hold narrow views, and find it harder to think in concepts outside their own ethnic group norms. Latinos, African Americans, Asians and other minority groups in America can suffer prejudice and misunderstanding which adds stress to their lives. Families who find themselves victims of racism will stick together more closely, but there are disadvantages in accessing full citizenship benefits if resentment builds up inside the family and opportunities are blocked in society outside the family. This can be a vicious circle which is hard to break. Similar scenarios can develop within gay and lesbian families. Multi-generational families are the norm in some societies, notably African and Asian

The Representation of Mosquitoes Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Representation of Mosquitoes - Assignment Example Consequently, a select species of mosquitoes survive the effects of the pesticide. Certain mosquitoes are likely to survive the effects of pesticide due to a selective advantage. This selective advantage results in a greater resistance to the genes of certain mosquitoes. As a result, they are able to survive the effects of a pesticide spray as other mosquitoes die. The mosquitoes that are able to survive the effects of the pesticide possess a genetic resistance to the pesticide. As the mosquitoes achieve maturity, they reproduce and transfer the genetic resistance to the subsequent generation. In the process, the new generation acquires an increase in the number of alleles that develop further resistance to the pesticide within the population. A systematic and continuous application of the selective pressure against the pesticide results in a mutual resistance against the pesticide within the mosquito population. Examples of organisms that became extinct before the adaptive radiation are the prehistoric non- avian dinosaurs that were replaced by mammals during the end period of Cretacious. Adaptive radiation refers to a fast evolutionary radiation fuelled by natural selection that is synonymous with an addition of the ecological and morphological diversity of one rapidly changing lineage. It occurs right after extinction since the phenotypes of a new species adapt in conformance to the environment. Consequently, new traits that are beneficial are increasingly evident. The sun acts as a source of energy that is transferred to the producers such as plants. However, the energy is lost through heat. As a result, 10% of the energy from the producers is transferred to primary consumers such as deer, zebras, and other herbivores. As energy is transferred across the trophic levels through consumption, there is a consistent loss of approximately 10%.

Business Intelligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business Intelligence - Essay Example Howard Dresner, a Research Fellow at Gartner Group in 1989, established the term "Business Intelligence", to describe a set of concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using fact-based support systems. In "Business Intelligence: The Savvy Manager's Guide" David Loshin describes the basic architectural components of a business intelligence environment, ranging from traditional topics such as business process modeling, data modeling, and more modern topics such as business rule systems, data profiling, information compliance and data quality, data warehousing, and data mining. David Loshin has described Business Intelligence on the basis of Data Models, Data Standards. He has also extensively appreciated the use of XML as a framework that is gaining in popularity for developing data standards. While XML is not used to prescribe a standard; it is used to define standards for the exchange of information through conforming documents. Data values in an XML document are surrounded by tags (labels), that identify where the data content begins and ends. "To leverage business intelligence, business users need to understand the value of business intelligence and how it can help them. One of the more popular tables: promoting BI to increase adoption. It was simple, soft selling - business intelligence is value added and not obviously essential to many users. It requires a more proactive, promotional approach. Business intelligence also demands promotion because it is still relatively new as a technical innovation so few business users know all the myriad ways BI can be leveraged. To effectively promote business intelligence, you first need to apply some marketing concepts to your BI deployment. Fail to do this first and at best you will have zero impact and at worst come across as a glorified technocrat trying to justify your existence." Promoting Your Business Intelligence Initiative, Cindi Howson, 8th October 2008. http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/8656. As any marketing guru would confirm, the success of any business depends on marketing. Marketing as a concept has to keep in mind various factors and has to be managed in a planned and strategic manner. In "Promoting Your Business Intelligence Initiative", , 8th October 2008, accessed on 3rd Nov,2008, http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/8656. Cindi Howson, states the following: "Marketing is about focusing on what customers need so providers can build better products they'll actually use. It's the strategy that goes into the BI application before you begin touting it as your company's killer app." In common terms, business intelligence can be described as the sum total of factors, which help take major decisions in any business. These factors include customers, competitors, business partners, economic environment and internal operations. Customers are the key to any business' success. The entrepreneur must make it a point to keep the customer's preferences in mind while designing a product. Again, geographical and cultural factors need to be given due importance while designing a product for a certain market. Business intelligence can be used to align businesses and products according to customers' preferences. Business Intelligence is used to collect data from customers within the marketplace. Customer surveys and polls are tools to gauge

Relationship Between Obesity and Socioeconomic Demographics

Relationship Between Obesity and Socioeconomic Demographics Chapter Five: Discussion The prevalence as well as the severity of obesity in adolescents is increasing at an alarming rate, making it one of the most serious health problems affecting this age group. In this study, a total of 161 adolescents (15.6%) were overweight and 224 ones(21.6%) were obese. A study conducted by National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2000) showed thatapproximately 30% of adolescents were at risk for overweight and 14% were severely overweight or obese (Troiano and Flegal, 1999). In this study, the prevalence of overfat was 9.1% and obesity was 21.8%. A study conducted by Lee ea al. (2006) showed thatthe prevalence of total 555 adolescentboys were overfat (20.4%) and 8.3% were obese. In our study, prevalence of obese adolescents, according to both BMI and total fat, was higher than overweight;this could be attributed to high rate of fast food consumption among adolescents 72%. Fraser et al. (2012) conducted a study in the United Kingdom and observed anassociation between obese adolescents and fat food consumption. The prevalence of waist circumferences≠¥90th percentile in this study was 9.4%. This is consistent with Spain’s result, prevalence of waist circumferences≠¥90th percentile among adolescents was 11.6% (Schr à ¶der et al., 2014). Association between anthropometric measurements and socio-demographic characteristics: In our study, the BMI was significantly related to family income (p=0.004). About 25.7% of obese adolescents had families whose income was >800 JD after adjusting variables effects of results including age, smoking and physical activity. Shafaghiet al. (2014) studied the relationship between BMI and family income, 22.4% of obese adolescents were from families whose income was high. Total fat was significantly associated with adolescents age (p= 0.027). Adolescents aged ≠¥12 and ≠¤14 years old were more predictable to have high fat percentage (25.6%) than adolescents aged ≠¥ 15 and ≠¤17 years (18.9%).This finding was consistent with Northstoneet al. (2014). In our study, total fat was related to family income significantly (p=0.022). Kubiket al. (2003) conducted a study of 844 students; the study showed that students with high family income tended to consume sweetened beverages and high-fat snacks. Region affected significantly total fat among adolescents (p=0.049). The prevalence of obese adolescents were higher in middle area than north and south areas; that could be attributed to high fast food intake in middle area (48.2%) comparing to north and south areas (35.3% and 16.6%respectively). Limited data to explain relation between body fat content with father’s and mother’s education. Trunk fat was significantly associated with adolescents age (p= 0.027). Adolescents aged ≠¥12 and ≠¤14 years old were more predictable to have high trunk fat (15.4%) than adolescents aged ≠¥ 15 and ≠¤17 years (10.8%). Fox et al. (2000) reported thatadolescents aged 11- 13 years were associated with high trunk fat using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Association between blood pressure and socio-demographic characteristics: Blood pressure was significantly related to adolescents’ age (p0.01).This relation showed that 35.7% of adolescents aged ≠¥ 15 and ≠¤17 years had stage 2 HT compared to only 20.3% among adolescents aged ≠¥12 and ≠¤14 years old had stage 2 HT. Mouraet al. (2004) concluded a study on 898 adolescents,prevalence of elevated blood pressure in students aged ≠¥ 15 and ≠¤17 years was more than students aged ≠¥12 and ≠¤14 years. Effect of food categories on the prevalence of blood pressure among adolescents: Fruit and vegetables consumption were significantly related to blood pressure (p=0.008 and p=0.033 respectively). This finding was consistent with the findings of studies (Whelton et al., 1997, Whelton et al., 2005, Appel et al., 2006, Witham et al., 2009). Apple et al. (2006) studied the contents offruit and vegetables from vitamins, minerals and fibers. Fruits and vegetablesalso contained potassium;their increase in potassium intake was associated with significantly reduction in blood pressure. The increase in potassium intake had same lowering effect on blood pressure as decrease in sodium intake. Potassium had a major role in balancing out the negative effects of sodium. Wheltonet al. (1997) recommended potassium for prevention and treatment of hypertension. Increasing serum levels of vitamins A, C, E (Appel et al., 2006)and D (Witham et al., 2009)were associated with lowering blood pressure. Meta-analysis suggested that increasing the dietary fiber intake had a lowering effect o n blood pressure (Whelton et al., 2005).According to this study, chocolate was significantly related to blood pressure (p=0.013). Studies explained chocolate’s role to lower blood pressure (Fisher and Hollenberg, 2006, Karim et al., 2000, Taubert et al., 2007). Chocolate contained cocoa that include polyphenols specially flavanols. Strong effects of flavnols on blood pressure as a vasodilator were applied by increasing the formation of endothelial nitric oxide. Families’ health status effect on adolescent’s blood pressure: Father’s and mother’s health status was significantly associated with blood pressure in adolescent (p=0.002, p=0.022 respectively). Many studies (Din-Dzietham et al., 2007, Dasgupta et al., 2006, Martin et al., 2004) confirmed that family history of hypertension and cardiovascular disease were risk factors for elevated blood pressure among adolescents. Family history of obesity including fathers’ and siblings’ obesity was significant with adolescents’blood pressure (p=0.004 and p=0.048respectively).Falkner.(2010) reported a positive relation between blood pressure among adolescents and family history of obesity. Association between blood pressure and anthropometric measurements: Alton. (2005) considered hypertension one of obesity risk factors. Lu et al. (2013) conducted a study in China, and found out that the risk of elevated blood pressure prevalence was 1.5 folds in overweight children and was 2.2 folds in obese children. High BMI increased the risk of insulin resistance. Endothelial dysfunction and inflammation led to elevated blood pressure mediated bythe increase sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity (Tsioufis et al., 2011, Poirier et al., 2006). Our findings confirmed previous findings of high odds of stage 1 systolic hypertension among overweight adolescents 1.8 folds and 2.7 folds in obese adolescents, adjusting for confounding variables -age, smoking status and physical activity. Our result observed that adolescents with waist circumferences ≠¥90th percentile proportionally related to increase in blood pressure.Lu et al. (2013) reported a high significant association (p Increase in total body fat in our study was significant with increase in blood pressure proportionally. Pre-HTN, stage 1 HTN and stage 2 HTN were significant (p=0.009,p=0.004 and pet al. (2002)used DEXA and skinfolds to estimate total body fat and it’s relation asa predictor for blood pressure among adolescentboys unlike girls. Landsberg et al. (2013) explained that pathophysiology of fat accumulation in abdominal region led to an increase in blood pressure by increases in insulin secretion, (SNS) activity, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system activity, angiotensinogen from intra-abdominal adipocytes, aldosterone production and renal sodium reabsorption. Our findings confirmed previous findings of high odds of stage1 systolic hypertension among adolescents with trunk fat ≠¥90th percentile had 4 times higher odds of having stage 1 systolic hypertension (CI 2.2, 7.1) and 5.5 higher odds of having stage 2 systolic hypertension (CI 3.4, 9.1). An association between adolescents visceral fat with blood pressure was observed among boys contrary girls (Pausova et al., 2012).Matsuzawa et al.(1995) explained increase that the in visceral fat to induce high level of free fatty acid excretion in liver via portal circulation after lipogenesis and lipolysis activity, gluconeogenesis, lipid synthesis and insulin resistance were response actions causedby excusive free fatty acid to induce hypertension and eventually atherosclerosis.Our results confirmed previous findings of high odds of stage 2 systolic hypertension among adolescents with visceral fat ≠¥90th percentile by 7.2 folds. Conclusion: The prevalence of total, truncal and visceral fat in our study were high. Excessfat,especially visceral fat significantly increased the risk for systolic blood pressure individually in older adolescents. The physiological relation between obesity and hypertension could not be attributed to a single factor. Factors that minimized the activity of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, sympathetic nervous system and renal sodium excretion had to be controlled, primarily the factors caused by excess fat. This finding based on measures of fat distribution and blood pressure in adolescent boys is important to help tracks cardiovascular risks from adolescence to adulthood. Strength of the Study This research has been conducted for the first time in Jordan to explain the prevalence and relationship between adolescents’ blood pressure and fat distribution. The study depends on data collected from a large sample that is representative to Jordan as a whole. Limitation of the Study An addition of a 24-hour recall form with this study combined with study’s FFQ could be more precise to estimate dietary and lifestyle habits among adolescents. Recommendations: Serious policies and actions for the sake of prevention, control weight and body fat specially as risks for elevated blood pressure, should be taken to apply an appropriate intervention on affected adolescents. Raise the schools’ role is for mass public enlightenment and health education on the threats of some nutritional behavior and lifestyle.

What Christmas Means To Me :: essays research papers

Christmas to me is a celebration, which includes spending time with my family, decorating the entire house, inside and out, and shopping, for the people I love. Doing this with the people I love is what means the most to me. Spending Christmas with my family is very important to me. We usually gather and celebrate at my parent’s house, in East Tennessee. My husband, our three children, and myself travel from California. My two sisters, their husbands, and children come from a nearby town, for our celebration. We spend the day baking cookies, making fudge and preparing a big Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings. The children love to see each other. They spend the day playing games and sharing their new gifts and toys that Santa Claus brought for each of them. They get so eager to decorate, that it is hard to restrain them.Decorating for Christmas is so much fun. My father always draws a new background scenery, for the Nativity scene, that he displays, every year. He, my brother-in-laws and my husband start with the decorations for the outside of the house and the front yard. Every year, my parents add a little more to the outside decorations. My mom, sisters, our children and myself decorate the inside of the house. My mom has so many indoor decorations that they can not all possibly be displayed. We try to change the decorations, which we put out every year. The men finish up just about the same time as, we women and then it is time to decorate the tree together. The children love this the most. The tree is always real, and is usually six to seven feet tall. Most of the ornaments have been collected over the years and are very old. They have become real family treasures. We all have a favorite one that we each put on the tree. All the children put their First Christmas ornament on the tree, that I brought, as a gift.I am not usually a shopper, but during the Christmas season, I actually enjoy shopping. I rarely go into department stores, but during the Christmas season, I love to shop. The stores are so beautifully decorated and very festive. I can easily get carried away, with spending so much money. I must admit the thought of spending too much money hardly comes to mind.