Saturday, October 5, 2019
Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 10
Assignment Example Each of the puffy curved arms is 14 inches from outside seam to inside and the seat is 22 inches between the arms with the back extending up 29 inches. So it is large and a little squat looking with the total width including the seat and the two arms being 48 inches, making it wider than it is tall, even considering that part of each arm is curved, meaning that it truly only 45 inches measured across the seat from the outside of one arm to the outside of the other. The other three inches is puffiness of the arms. These chairs barely came through the apartment door with two people turning them on an odd angle and pushing them through while turning the frame. The chairs are light tan covered in microfiber that resembles fine Italian suede. The seat is divided into squares and overstuffed as is the whole chair. Everything is rounded. There are no square corners of sharpness of any kind on tis chair until you look at the little flat metal feet. The feet actually do not look large enough to keep the chair upright. The covering is clean mostly, except on its rounded corners. There are tiny little needle-like punctures on the bottom of one side of each chair where a tiny chocolate point Siamese loved it. And a slight tear in the fabric gotten during moving on the left side back corner, right on the 1â⬠by 4â⬠wooden framing piece, has been super glued together and is almost invisible. The wood underneath is a solid cut piece of light colored medium soft wood. There is a ofoam covering over the wood even on the back, and steel strips on the wood corners under the foam The wood across the back is a solid piece or well fitted matched p lanks, probably about à ¼ ââ¬Ë thickness from the sound it gives to a knock. The texture of the fabric covering looks like fine suede and feels like a babyââ¬â¢s bottom. It has little tiny wrinkles in it like skin and a subtle pattern that also looks like skin. Each of the arms has ample storage under the top,
Friday, October 4, 2019
Cultural diversity in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Cultural diversity in America - Essay Example Culture influences basically in the way of behavior, way of living, and way of speech. It is a habit formation that takes place when one grows in a particular society and the innate quality to learn from his surrounding in order to cope up with his environment is the unique part of character inherent in human being which develops while growing in the community. Culture has substantial influence in groups and individual each human is the product of the culture where he lives that even has an unconscious influence on each human it has become human identification. Most of the society has their own culture and are proud of its culture, and when two or more cultures come in contact together there arises a diversity in that culture. United State is highly enriched with cultural diversities as people from all over the world settled here leading to cultural differences. Most of Americans face cultural differences in their life. Globalization brought the world together and with the development of global economic system and the rise of international cooperation and business community has helped to bring people from all over the world with different cultures into face-to-face contact. It has been a providing shelter for every one, hence people from all over the world are migrating to America, and America is a nation with diverse cultures and has always taken pride in their diversity. Culture has always attracted anthropologists, educators, historians, and sociologists to explore various aspects of culture and its implications in their field. The dive rsity of culture also brought conflicts between various cultural groups and caused various social problems. Cultural diversity in America has been a matter of debate and people from different cultures face problems in schools, colleges, universities, institutions, government and business circle What constitutes race and ethnic character of human is the out ward physical and
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Logistics and Project Planning Essay Example for Free
Logistics and Project Planning Essay The mission of elc was to provide consumers with access to the Internet at the lowest cost. Despite the excellent support and recognition from the public, elc was experiencing adversity of keeping their business profitable after the Internet Investment bubble burst. The original concept of owning many of the large stand-alone cafes with 250-500 PC terminals at each cafe was not working well. elc undertook a dramatic restructuring of the company by downsizing the cafes. Many of the large, original stand-alone elc stores will be run by franchisees. These franchised stores will become smaller stores which have 20 to 30 PCs terminals at each cafe and with no staff required except for regular maintenance. Less involvement with store operations allows elc to concentrate on activities of their core competence and outsource all the non-core activities. Their core competence was to continue building their ââ¬Ëeasyââ¬â¢ brand and applying the yield management model to the Internet cafe business. Their business goal was to open 4 new franchises per week over the next 3 years. In order to achieve the goal of growing their franchised Internet cafes business, an efficient, flexible and cost-effective logistics system is what they need for the provision of equipment to the franchisee. Since logistics is one of the non-core activities that is perceived as a bottleneck for scalability, the present logistics system of elc will be reviewed and findings of whether to outsource the logistics system will be presented to the management team. Background of easyGroup Stelios Haji-loannou, the founder of easyGroup, is the renowned Greek entrepreneur who utilized his family money to launch a serial of ventures. His first venture, Stelmar Tankers was found in 1992. The company very soon went into the public sector and was listed on New York Stock Exchange. In 1995, he found easyJet. easyJet was a no-frills, low cost airline company and later grew to become the largest no-frill airline in Europe and was listed on the London stock exchange in 2000. Building on the success of easyJet and to extend the ââ¬Ëeasyââ¬â¢ brand further, he formed the holding company easyGroup in 1998. easyInternetcafe was his first venture under the umbrella of the easyGroup. Other companies in the group included easyJet, easyCar, easyCinema, easy. com, easyMoney and easyValue, easyBus, easyPizza, easyCruise, and easyDorm. Low price and no-frill is the key elements of the ââ¬Ëeasyââ¬â¢ brand. Yield Management Model Stelios is an enthusiast of Yield Management Model and he applies the model to his business. According to Wikipedia, yield management is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservations). Stelios believes that lowering the price will increase the demands of the customers significantly. By locating all the large internet cafes in high traffic areas, elc aimed to capture the maximum revenue by providing internet services with a variety of price points at different points in time (peak hours or off peak hours). The price for Internet access varies based on demand, raising the price in dollar per hour in mid-afternoon, when stores are nearly full. That gives bargain hunters an incentive to visit in the non-peak hours, when price is dropping. The model is well suited for business with high fixed cost and perishable supply. The large numbers of computer equipments inside the Internet cafes are capital intensive for elc. The empty seats inside the cafe in a certain time period cannot generate any revenue and thus can be said to have perished. elc uses one of their capital proprietary products, CVM, to monitor how seats are occupied and react accordingly, for example by adjusting the price to offer discounts when it appears that large amount of seats are remaining empty. However, this model is not working for elc as it does for airline and hotel industries. The customersââ¬â¢ willingness to pay for using the internet access at theses internet cafe is impulsive and their demands are not easy to predict. The yield management model works well for airlines and hotels mainly because their customers usually plan ahead of time on their journey. Therefore, airlines and hotels are more likely to predict their customer demands and adjust the prices accordingly. They still have time to attract customers by offering last minute deals. But for internet cafes, customers do not make reservation for their usage of Internet in advance. Customer demands are thus very hard to predict. Even though the CVM can adjust the pricing based on the vacancy of the cafe, it is difficult to attract enough customers in a short period of time to fill up the empty usage of the internet access. Since Internet was still a new technology at that time, Internet access was not yet considered to be an essential product. Customers were likely to learn when to visit the cafes so that they can pay less compared to other time period.
Project Monitoring And Control Information Technology Essay
Project Monitoring And Control Information Technology Essay Project monitoring is the observation and supervision for those in the management team to detect and react appropriately to deviation and changes to a project plan. By monitoring the progress, the management teams are able to determine how far the project has proceeded and whether it has met the completion expectation or re-forecast the expectations originally set out in projects plan. One way to succeed in monitoring projects while maintain a positive progress of the project is the need to do a report detailing their observation. However, this report needs to be done in a frequency (continuously, regularly, logically, etc.) so that the management hierarchy can exercise their control without stepping on the responsibilities of other levels.1 Other than report, monitoring project can also be done through meetings with clients and parties involved in the project (contractor, supplier, etc.) at a regular basis to keep track of the progress. Monitoring alone, however, will not be effective in managing a project without control. With the combine effect of monitoring and control of a project, managing team will be able to move towards its final decision where corrective actions and decision will be made to pull the project back onto its original objective.1 Monitoring and control helps to make sure the projects position with respect to the nine functions of project management: Scope, cost, time, quality, risk, communications, procurements, human resources and integration. In short, if the project is off course, then control in the form of corrective action must be applied if possible corrective action can take the form of re-planning, reprogramming, or reallocating resources or changing the way project is managed and organized. Impact of Project Monitoring and Control: Project monitoring and control is a crucial system that is used widely by organizations. Monitoring and controls of a project with the nine functions scope, cost, time, quality, risk, communications, procurements, human resources and integration allows the management team to note the progress of the project whether they are in the original objectives. An organization operating without a project monitoring and control system is considered a risk that will eventually lead to its failure. In term of cost, if there are no proper monitoring and control, the company will be paying more for a resource compared to one that is carefully monitored and controlled because without control, the team might be paying more, when comparing prices from different contractors and make sure the prices are within project budget. Naturally without monitoring and control, time will be an aspect that cannot be avoided. Without monitoring and control, work may be repeated because of a fault or delay in the process, such as delayed in delivery by a contractor or a source that didnt pass quality control. Therefore they will consume more time to accomplish. Lack of Motivation. Motivation is defined as a pull and push forces, which result in unpredicted behavior of human directed towards their goals.2In the aviation industry, motivation is used to ensure employees have the intensity and direction of which is geared towards flight safety.à Aviation is a huge industry that involves huge number of employees of different department that have work for a different goal to each other but it will ultimately involves the safety of its passengers and pilots. Employees such as pilot, flight crew, engineer and technicians would have done the similar tasks repetitively and could claim they have enough experience to complete their task without fail yet under different circumstances; human factor will still play a role in maintaining the quality of the performance of all employees. The working environment plays a major role in effecting employee performance. 3In a working environment having a hot working environment will de-motivate employees performance. However, pilot faces a more serious environment factors as they need to take into account of flying in an aircraft loaded with technological environment. Be it the design of the equipment and flight control, displays/interface characteristics and task factors a pilot need to be very focus and well-motivated in order to maintain the quality of their performance in such a harsh environment. The condition of an employee is a common problem that almost all organizations face. This factor involves mental condition of the employee, which negatively affects performance of the task, such as mental fatigue, pernicious attitude. This is perhaps the most important factor because personal issues cannot be governed by their employers.à Impact of lack of Motivation. Employees are an organizations needs to function. An organization whose employees have not been motivated is vulnerable to both company and personal challenges because its employees are not pushing themselves further to maintain the stability which ultimately means they are underperforming. Therefore, lack of motivation equates to less work being accomplished. It does not however, mean there is no productivity coming from the employees; it can be said that they the productivity are transfer to aspects not related to their work. Simple things like internet surfing while at work and taking longer break time for lunch will cost the organization time and money. Low employee motivation due to unpleasant working environment can also impact how existing and potential clients/partners view on working with such an organization.3When employees are lacking motivation due to unpleasant working environment for instance a salary cut or no incentives. The consequences of such action would normally cause what we know as going on strike. When that happen, the organizations reputation to their clients/partners will plunge downward and the forces clients/partners to reconsider signing any contract with such an organization. This organization will suffer greatly in terms of the quality of work being produced and slowed production rate. Project Monitoring and Control, and Motivation Case: 4 On 3rd Oct 2006, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) announce the delay in the production of Airbus A380 Aircraft which will push back the delivery of this aircraft by 2 years. An estimated loss of à ¢Ã¢â¬Å¡Ã ¬2.8 billion in pre-tax earnings between 2006 and 2010 has been revealed. In June 2006, Airbus acknowledges that they had underestimated the amount of work to be done to finish up the installation of the electrical harnesses into the forward and rear sections of the fuselage. The reason of this long delay was contributed by the complexity of the aircrafts electrical wiring system. The root cause was the fact that a new 3D digital mock-up, which facilitates the design of the electrical harnesses installation was implemented late as well as the people working on the aircraft was still in their learning curve, the problem arises when the internal wiring of the aircraft in the fuselage section which has been changed and reconfigure several times during its produc tion. The thousands of cables embedded inside the fuselage were wrongly configured and delivered. This case can been describe by 2 project failure factors: Project Monitoring and Control: The management team was at fault for this reason. During the installation process, there was no frequent inspection on the wiring configuration and only after installing thousands of wire then they realize the problem theyll be facing. If the management team had set up an inspection team to do a more frequent inspection on the installation the problem could have resolved earlier and minimizing losses. If monitoring and control has been properly managed, the risk of such an incident would have been minimized. Motivation: Human factor is ultimately related to motivation and one of the main problems with the wiring problem rise from those who are installing them in the aircraft be it the technician and engineer. In another report, it was explained by the chief executive Christian Streiff Beyond the complexity of the cable installation, the root cause of the problem is the fact that the 3D digital mock-up, which facilitates the design of the electrical harnesses installation, was implemented late and that the people working on it were in their learning curve. He stated clearly that the people working on it were in their learning curve. Knowing that they were in their learning curve, the people should be more aware that they are not experience in this new installation process and should be more aware that they need more supervision and review on this installation process. If worker are motivated enough, they wouldve seek the necessary assistance to advise them appropriately so that they will be able to c ontinue without any problem. Project Monitoring and Control Strategy: Earned Value Management System An established project management principles and techniques such as Earn Value Analysis (EVA) can be used to monitor and control a project.5 Earned value analysis is a method that measure performance that uses work in progress to forecast what will happen to the project in the future. In short, it is an early warning program/project management and suitable for project monitoring and control. Earned value analysiss aim is to use cost to determine a projects progress. Three quantities form the basis for the cost performance measurement using earned value management. They are Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) or Planned Value (PA), Budgeted Cost of Work Performed(BCWP) or Earned Value (EV) and Actual Cost of work Performed(ACWP) or Actual Cost(AC). From these three bases, managers can determine the projects budget as well as make a determination of schedule and cost performance and provide an estimated cost of the project at its completion. By cross referencing each of this data to a work breakdown structure, a network diagram, it can indicate how the project should be carried out and thus giving a sense of control to project leader. Cost performance index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) give an early warning to project leader using data from the 3 bases. Cost performance for instance is the ratio of cost of work performed (BCWP) to actual cost (ACWP). A CPI ration of 1.00 implies that the actual cost is within the estimated cost. Greater than 1.0 indicates work is accomplishes with less cost than what was expected. CPI below 1.0 indicates the project is currently over budget and require project leader to take control of the situation. Motivation Strategy: Motivation is a powerful tool that can help project members to perform better and produce higher quality of work, so project management team need to make a concerted effort at planning, establishing and maintaining a motivated team through recognition and rewards. There are 2 motivational theories which can be used to effective run a project team. Maslows Hierarchy: Motivational theories such as Maslows hierarchy, it explained that human beings are motived by unsatisfied needs, and that lower factors needs to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.6 According to Maslow, these deficiencies needs are explained: Physiological Motivation: Provide ample breaks for lunch andà recuperation and payà salaries that allow workers toà buy lifes essentials. Safety Needs: Provide a working environment which is safe, relative job security, and freedom from threats. Social Needs:à Generate a feeling of acceptance, belonging, and community by reinforcing team dynamics. Esteem Motivators: Recognize achievements, assign important projects, and provide status to make employees feel valued and appreciated. Self-Actualization:à Offer challenging and meaningful work assignments which enable innovation, creativity, and progress according to long-term goals.7 When this deficiency is satisfied, only then can a person act unselfishly and they will be able to act independently and take responsibility of their actions. With such a team member, any organization will be able to run a project with high confidence and expect a higher quality of work produced. The Herzbergs Motivation-Hygiene Theory: Herzbergs motivation-hygiene theory , also known as a Two factor theory, explain that the factors that lead to job dissatisfaction are completely separate from the factors that motivate employees and they are known as the hygiene factors and motivating factors.7 Herzberg finding explain that by adding hygiene factors, it may decrease job dissatisfaction but it will not motivate employees. Employees are motivated only when they feel a sense of job satisfaction is in place. We can assume that with motivation factors in present, satisfied employees can generally be more productive. The picture below states what motivation and hygiene factors are. Figure 1. Monitor/Hygiene factors. Source: http://www.pmroadtrip.com/files/PMRoadTrip_V4Ch09.pdf Both Maslows Hierarchy and Herzbergs Motivation-Hygiene theory can be used in the same project team. Having the Maslows hierarchy theory, we are actually adding the 2 factors which are mention in Herzbergs Motivation-Hygiene Theory. In short, by combining the two theories, we increase the chances of having a motivated project team. By using this system, we can avoid having a demotivated team that can increase the chance of project failure due to human factor such as the one described in the case study above, costing both time and money to an organization. Through such a system, future organization can source a team of motivated members capable of increasing the quality of work done, at the same time allowing organization to have an increased profit gain with less time wastage which cost more to operate. When problem do rise, these team will be able to discuss and solve problem more quickly and effectively.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
The Social Impact of Slavery on the Caribbean Society Essay -- Caribbe
The Social Impact of Slavery on the Caribbean Society In order for us to understand the Caribbean, we must acknowledge the tremendous social impact slavery placed upon the islands. We must not only consider the practice of slavery dating back to the indigenous peoples, but from what the introduction of the African slave trade did to the islands economically as well as culturally. In this paper let me reflect on slavery in the Caribbean not from an economical standpoint but, from the racial or what Knight calls ââ¬Ëcomplextional mutationsââ¬â¢ its social impact on society. Let us discuss historian Benitez-Rojoââ¬â¢s approach to the Caribbean, he tends to reject a single cultural definition of the Caribbean, believing that all the islands have a differing cultural structure referring to its original colonizer. However, he subliminally states in his book The Repeating Island that all the islands hold more in common than the plantation system. He says ..."the multiplication of the Plantation-each case a different one-brought to the Caribbean was such that the Caribbean peoples themselves, in referring to the ethnological process that derived from the extraordinary collision of the races and cultures, produced, speak of syncretism, acculturation, transculturation, assimilation, deculturation, indigenization, creolization, cultural mestizaje, cultural cimarronaje, cultural miscegenation, cultural resistance etc." This idea falls in line with Knight; Knight introduces the Spanish to the history of the Caribbean, as the Caribbean being their conquest. The Spanish, in the name of Christianity, under Queen Isabella and King Ferninad attempt to colonize the Caribbean. They force assimilation trying to re-create the social and political pattern... ...tresses the Jamaicanââ¬â¢s separation from the outside world. Yet, he a Jamaican man is in a field of his own within his culture. He tends to separate himself from the African, African-American, all that seems to be ââ¬Ëbarbarianââ¬â¢, and ââ¬Ëignorantââ¬â¢. He separates himself from what he has been ââ¬Ëeducatedââ¬â¢ or rather ââ¬Ëmis-educatedââ¬â¢ about. His own History. He separates himself unknowingly, for he is a black colonized person living within certain parameters that tend to cloud his judgement. This is the legacy left to us by the institution of slavery in the Caribbean. Bibilography Benitez-Rojo, Antonio: "The Repeating Island" Duke University Press Knight, Franklin W., : "The Caribbean The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism" Oxford University Press Cliff, Michelle: "Abeng" Plume Books Beckles and Shepherd: "Caribbean Slave Society ad Economy" The New Press, New York
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Child Abuse and Neglect :: Violence Against Children
à à à à à There have been various studies based on childhood sexual abuse and relationships in adulthood. There have been studies that had shown that multiple maltreatment and loss experiences in childhood interfered with the formation of secure attachments that created adult problems in self and social functioning. Childhood maltreatment showed there was poor adult self-functioning in the form of higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem. Self blame in response to childhood sexual abuse and maltreatment in adult relationships also predicted poorer adult self and social functioning for individuals with childhood sexual abuse. à à à à à A study by Gerard McCarthy and Alan Taylor have shown that abusive childhood experiences are linked to difficulties in establishing supportive cohabiting relationships during adulthood. Their study aims to identify specific psychological factors mediating links between child abuse and adverse adult psychological functioning. Participants who had experienced child abuse were more likely to experience difficulties in adult love relationships, but self-esteem and relationship attributions were not found to be linked to child abuse. à à à à à The most common effect of childhood sexual abuse during adulthood for women is rage. A study by Susan G. Painter and Carol C. Howell studied womenââ¬â¢s sexuality after childhood sexual abuse. Researchers in this particular study interviewed women who expressed raged through their sexuality. Results indicated that rage and maladaptive behaviors are learned in childhood and carry over to adult relationships. Although anger is common in the abused female, it is frequently pushed into unconscious at the time of the abuse. When the abused becomes aware of her anger, it has become rage. Women who were sexually abused as children grow up repressing anger; as a result they may enter adulthood totally unaware of the rage that lies within them. Researchers (Draucker, 1996; Maltz, 1991) reported that childhood sexual abuse may cause negative attitudes about touch and sex that result in troublesome reactions to adult sex. à à à à à Many incest survivors had struggle with their abuse unaided, and that number of those who are in prisons, mental institutions, or working in prostitution have been influenced by a history of sexual abuse. Those who have been most affected by such abuse may be unable to verbalize their pain and anger. Child sexual abuse is a violation that affects every aspect of a childââ¬â¢s life. Trusting relationships may be brought into question for a child once sexual boundaries have been violated. The sexually abused child experiences a pervasive anxiety that cannot be relieved by the usual self-comforting behaviors of children.
Defending Liberal Arts Essay
William Butler Yeats is accredited with once saying ââ¬Å"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.â⬠It seems this idiom no longer rings true; todayââ¬â¢s preferred education encompasses the regurgitation of technical jargon in the hopes of finding a job. People now deem Liberal Arts degree worthless; itââ¬â¢s too expensive and impractical in todayââ¬â¢s job market. The sciences and career colleges are where the jobs lie. In the battle over higher education, through his iconoclastic article ââ¬Å"The New Liberal Arts,â⬠Sanford J. Ungar stands as a lone crusader against an onslaught of ââ¬Å"misperceptions.â⬠I for one agree with and applaud his effort, although he could use some additional support in presenting some of his counter arguments. Unger first battles the misperception of the value in a liberal arts degree for first-generation, lower income college students; these degrees are for the elite upper-class. As Ungarââ¬â¢s imagined antagonists put it, ââ¬Å"A liberal arts degree is a luxury that most families can no longer afford. ââ¬ËCareer educationââ¬â¢ is what we now must focus onâ⬠(191). Ungar contends that although skyrocketing tuition makes it increasingly difficult to pay for a college education it is now a more prudent investment than ever before (191). Continuing his crusade against naysayers by suggesting that ââ¬Å"the career education bandwagonâ⬠(191) is not a smart investment, asserting that ââ¬Å"It is far wiser for students to prepare for changeââ¬âand the multiple careers they are likely to haveââ¬âthan to search for a single job track that might one day become a dead end.â⬠(191) Ungar shows the pitfalls of having a narrowly focused education. Moreover, Ungar seems utterly disgusted with the notion that an education in the liberal arts is one for the upper class, the rich and the privileged; those who are not of this stratification are better suited implementing the ideas of the elite, not coming up with ideas of their own (192). He brands these accusations as ââ¬Å"condescendingâ⬠(192) and ââ¬Å"prejudiceâ⬠(193) and rejects the idea that the lower-classââ¬â¢ only duty is to implement the ideas of the upper-class. I believe that Ungar is correct on these assertions; however, Ungarââ¬â¢s argument would be better served if he acquiesced to the fact that a college education, much less one in the liberal arts, is not right for everyone. Higher education is not a one size fits all discipline. There has to be some to fill the factories, work the land, pave the roads and power the service industry. Unger is accurate in saying that the liberal arts should be available to everyone and everyone could benefit from this type of classical education; nonetheless not everyone is suited for such an education. The misperception that the liberal arts are for the elite is one that has been heard before but not nearly as much as the old ââ¬Å"employers do not want to hire people with useless degreesâ⬠line which Unger obliterates with his next argument. Ungar continues his defense of a liberal arts education by refuting the claim that employers no longer hire someone with a ââ¬Å"uselessâ⬠degree, such as French. Showing how not only a specific degree such as a foreign language is one that is wanted by employers but the usefulness of other liberal arts degrees, emphasizing ââ¬Å"A 2009 survey for the Association of American Colleges and Universities actually found that more than three-quarters of our nationââ¬â¢s employers recommend that college-bound students pursue a ââ¬Ëliberal education.ââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬ (192) Ungar deals with this common misconception methodically by first stating ââ¬Å"what people believeâ⬠and then contesting that belief with facts diversified with his own opinions. Although he is correct and he brandishes documented facts to back up his assertions Ungar may have missed the mark by not including actual job numbers. By displaying irrefutable proof that those who have a liberal arts degree are more likely to get a job in any field and by showing those jobs are more lucrative for degree holders than those who are not, Ungar could put the nail in the coffin naysayers. For his next dose of perception breaking, Ungar skirmishes with the following idea: Liberal arts degrees are antiquated, the Sciences and Career colleges are where the smart money is, and the STEM fields are much better suited for todayââ¬â¢s economic reality. Ungar contests this misperception by showing that a degree in liberal arts also includes the sciences. He illustrates that a traditional liberal arts degree includes the sciences: ââ¬Å"the historical basis of a liberal education is in the classical artes liberales, comprising the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music)â⬠(193). Many of Ungarââ¬â¢s points are valid; his handling of this misperception is deft and detailed. However, I feel that Ungar is stretching with his response to this argument. Although a liberal arts degree does offer some glimpses into the STEM disciplines, it is not comparable to a degree in those specialties. A student wishing to become a chemist would not be well served pursuing a degree in History. In showing that these misperceptions are just that, Sanford Ungar single-handedly makes the case for a classical liberal arts education. He does a wonderful job tackling the misperceptions being thrown around today about a college degree in the liberal arts. He takes each one of these common misconceptions and thoroughly disproves each claim skillfully and without hesitation. By doing so he reopens the door to higher education. Perhaps if he and others like him continue to confront the onslaught of misinformation doled out upon the masses we can return to a world where a traditional liberal arts education is once again commended and no longer forsworn. Works Cited Ungar, Sanford. ââ¬Å"The New Liberal Arts.â⬠ââ¬Å"They Say I Sayâ⬠: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: with readings. Eds. Gerald Graff, Kathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Ltd, 2012. 190-196. Print.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)