The Present Moment Is Always Where You Are free essay sample

To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are always. Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments, so much so that we end up anxious, frustrated, depressed, and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone ourgratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing ourselves that someday will be better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that someday never actually arrives. John Lennon once said, Life is whats happening while were busy making other plans. We will write a custom essay sample on The Present Moment Is Always Where You Are or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When were busy making other plans, our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life. Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isnt. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future we wont have enough money, our children will get into trouble, we will get old and die, whatever. To combat fear, the best strategy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present. Mark Twain said, I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. I dont think I can say it any better. Practice keeping your attention on the here and now. Your efforts will pay great dividends.

How to Meet People in College

How to Meet People in College Knowing how to meet people in college can be more challenging than you might have expected. There are tons of students, yes, but it can be hard to make individual connections in the crowds. If youre not sure where to start, consider one of these ten ideas: Join a club. You dont need to know anyone in the club to join; you just need to have a general interest about the clubs activities and mission. Find a club that interests you and head to a meeting even if its the middle of the semester. Join an intramural sports team. Intramurals can be one of the best features of being in school. Youll get some exercise in, learn some great athletic skills, and of course! make some great friends in the process. Volunteer on or off campus. Volunteering can be an easy way to meet people. If you find a volunteer program or group that shares your values, you can make a difference in your community while also making some personal connections with people just like you. Win-win! Attend a religious service on-campus. Religious communities can be like a home away from home. Find a service you like and the relationships will naturally bloom. Get an on-campus job. One of the easiest ways to meet folks is to get an on-campus job that involves interacting with lots of people. Whether its making coffees in a campus coffee shop or delivering mail, working with others is a great way to get to know a lot of people. Get involved with a leadership opportunity. Being shy or an introvert doesnt mean you dont have strong leadership skills. Whether youre running for student government or just volunteering to organize a program for your club, serving in a leadership role can allow you to connect with others. Start a study group. While the main goal of a study group is to focus on academics, theres also an important social side. Find a few people who you think would work well in a study group and see if everyone wants to help each other out. Work for the campus newspaper. Whether your campus produces a daily newspaper or a weekly one, joining the staff can be a great way to meet other people. Youll not only connect with your fellow staff members, but youll also connect with all sorts of other folks doing interviews and research. Work for the campus yearbook. Just like the newspaper, the campus yearbook can be a great way to connect. Youll meet tons of folks while working hard to document all that happ ens during your time in school. Start your own club or organization! it may sound silly or even intimidating at first, but starting your own club or organization can be a great way to meet other people. And even if only a few folks show up for your first meeting, thats still a victory. Youll have found a few people you share something in common with and who, ideally, you can get to know a little better.

Analysis of the Public and Private Sports Industry

Analysis of the Public and Private Sports Industry Public, private and voluntary sectors in the sports industry, advantages and disadvantages of the leisure centre being in the public sector, how the local leisure centre can meet the aim of getting more local clubs to use its facilities. Introduction â€Å"Since the opportunity to participate in sport or recreation requires facilities, the central task of organisations, and associated individuals, is to provide a service which focuses on people and which satisfies that need.† [1] The sports industry has changed beyond all recognition since the beginning of the 1990’s in each of the public, private and voluntary sectors. The impetus has come from top level government policy with the creation of the UK Sports Council and the formation of the chief sporting bodies such as Sport England offering both funding and structure to the previously ad hoc nature of leisure and recreation in modern Britain. Moreover, the lure of professional sport has also irrevocably changed in tan dem with the structural changes in amateur sport with the result that there is, at the dawn of the twenty first century, more people are taking an active part in sport, which has further increased the pressure on local services such as leisure centres. There are though vast differences between the way that the public and private sector sports providers are run and funded as shall now become apparent. The Private Sector With regards to the sports industry, the private sector refers to those leisure services that are funded by private capital and open only to private membership. This can mean anything from specialist professional sports clubs to health and fitness clubs to local sports teams that have been established and sponsored by local and national businesses alike. The advantages of this kind of sporting industry are predominantly economic with the funding of private sports clubs historically far outstripping the economic resources available to equivalent public sector sports se rvices. Certainly in the 1970’s and 1980’s, private sector sports industries were far more popular and productive than their public sector counterparts mirrored in the elevated sporting achievements of private school sporting institutions as opposed to the relative failings of the same public (comprehensive) school sports bodies. There are, however, inherent disadvantages to sports and leisure services that rely exclusively on the private sector for funding. First and foremost, there are no guarantees that the source of that funding will remain constant for any fixed length of time. Benefactors are subject to the ups and downs of the free market economy, which can result in sharp reductions – as well as rises – in the level of funding provided. In addition, any leisure service that is inexorably tied to the private sector also inevitably suffers from the lack of community spirit that can only be adequately garnered through association with the local publi c authorities. Thus, while the advantages to sports services in the private sector appear on the surface to be all encompassing, the reality is that the lack of stability that characterises all facets of the private sector economy hampers the sustained growth and popularity.

Value-added Model (VAM) of Teaching Evaluations and Its Implications Research Paper

Value-added Model (VAM) of Teaching Evaluations and Its Implications - Research Paper Example In not more than a decade, there has been a heated debate about the best value-added model of teaching. However, as much as this debate is vital in the effort to offer quality education, less people have an idea of what it entails. The key players in this discussion are people working in the education sector and who in one way or another tend to benefit or lose from value-added teacher evaluation (Early, Imig & Michelli, 2010). With these deliberations, it would be necessary first to understand what value-added model of teaching evaluations entails. The context of value- added model in teaching evaluations The most and obvious meaning of value-added model of teaching is a method of teacher evaluation that gives an account of teacher’s contribution in terms of evaluating current school year test performances of students to performances of the same students in the previous year (Raudenbush, 2004). This also includes comparison of performances of other students in the same level. Value added model also tends to evaluate each teacher’s performance in comparison with performances of other teachers. Nevertheless, this model has not come without criticism. Opponents of this model argue that the use of tests to measure teachers contribution is not scientific and has not been proved by and scientific study (Raudenbush, 2004). Additionally, they argue that some students results and performances are beyond teacher’s reach since some of the factors that determine students performance include behaviors of the students, and, which they claim most of these behaviors are acquired outside tutoring (Cater, 2004). However, it is paramount to focus on issues other than generalizing notions. For example, it is of considerable importance to articulate on possible likelihood of using VAM. Studies have indicated that use of this model will create accountability to teachers and administrators (Schwab, 1991). They tend to shape their behaviors, and work hard to prod ucing top scores in their subjects. The overall intention of this model is to encourage teachers work extra harder by incorporating different teaching strategies to improve achievement of both the students and the school (Nolan & Hoover, 2010). Value added results may also be helpful to teachers in terms of self improvement and setting target (Lissitz, 2005). It has also been argued that results obtained from value- added can be used at school level to improve on different subjects and group of students depending on the level of weakness or strength (Ballou, Sanders & Wright, 2004). With results of value- added from different schools, an evaluation can be done to come up with the best teaching strategy to be adopted in order to streamline all schools performance. It has also been argued that value-added results can help create projections of the level of school performance, which can be used to determine required resources, decision making and planning (Xiaoxia, Darling-Hammond, Hae rtel, & Ewart, 2010). In the context of accountability, value-added model is argued to act as an awakening call for schools in order for them to improve on weak areas to avoid sanctions (Lissitz, 2005). The model also ensures that schools that perform well are rewarded in order to keep the fire burning. The tax money paid to run the school is required to be utilized accordingly. Therefore, schools that incorporate value-added

QUO VADIS ANTHROPOLOGISTS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

QUO VADIS ANTHROPOLOGISTS - Essay Example In this regard, anthropology, ethnology and ethnography are fairly new as academic professions because these disciplines came out of the encounter of Western colonizers in the age of exploration and empire with non-Western colonized peoples in Asia, Pacific, Africa and in the Middle East regions. Anthropological research and field studies not surprisingly take the Western view of the world in trying to make sense out of a sheer diversity of native cultures. Anthropology now must take a stand to stay relevant by seeking remedies to social inequities. Discussion Broadly speaking, anthropology and ethnography had three distinct phases which are salvaging of what is left of native cultures before these are lost forever, the romantic notions of doing some extensive fieldwork by living among the natives and lastly, both the anti- and post-colonial mentality of later generations of anthropologists. Again, almost always, anthropologists had been in most instances apologists (pun intended), f or colonialism and imperialism by using an ideology of Manifest Destiny. It is only now that anthropology is trying to make amends, by being proactive instead of reactive, as it had shown in the past, merely recording what has been but not taking action for preserving local societies and cultures with a stronger form of advocacy, afraid of politicizing the profession. On hindsight, it can hardly do otherwise. Anthropologists cannot be mere observers forever; people continue to suffer under newer forms of colonialism. American anthropology largely came about as a result of the settlement of the wild west when much of America was considered as frontier territory, up for grabs by the white settlers in a fantastic land grab from the native American Indians through a justification of using the Manifest Destiny ideology to assuage the guilty conscience of the new settlers. It was an unrelenting kind of campaign to drive out locals from their native lands, which finally came to a head when Ishi is thought to be the last of his kind. In a way, anthropology had failed him because although most of the anthropologists knew he was the last of his tribe, they did not make any concerted effort to revive his tribal culture when the Yahi language is somewhat related to other native dialects and they could have encouraged him to get married, produce some offspring and perpetuate his tribe. It is a sad commentary anthropology was not able to save Ishi or his tribe; he went the way of the dodo (a flightless bird), an extinct species. Anthropologists could have saved him from the fate of the dodo, but instead, they were so happy to have found a supposedly fine specimen of a real wild Indian they proceeded to study him and his myths, language, and other cultural aspects of his soon-to-be extinct tribe, collecting additional artifacts for a museum (Riffe & Roberts 1995). The effort to drive out the native American Indians was relentless and ruthless, resulting in massacres because of an uneven fight using bows and arrows versus rifles and cannons. It is a culmination that resulted in the few remaining survivors forced to transfer into reservations. The discipline of anthropology did not try to mitigate this brutal aspect of the war of pacification but instead was just content to collect some samples and specimens to be displayed in the museums. A white anthropologist would surely have a hard time doing some fieldwork by living among the Indians as the natives were mostly hostile, like that back in Kenya (Evans-Pritchard 1976:252). The same pattern continues today in which some people and races

The Top-Down Theory Of Policy Implementation Essay Example for Free

The Top-Down Theory Of Policy Implementation Essay There are three well-defined theories on the implementation of policies.   One of these is the top-down school of thought, led by Van Meter and Van Horn (1975), Nakamura and Smallwood (1980) and Mazmanian and Sabatier (1983), which describes the act of putting policies into action as a hierarchical operation of a centrally-defined policy plan.   Unlike the bottom-up theory of policy implementation (Hjern and Hull, 1982) which is motivated by daily problem-solving tactics, the top-down theory focuses on the capacity of the decision makers to generate clear and definite policy goals and management strategies during policy implementation. The theory is based on the premise that a motion has been formulated by a decision-making body or central council.   The tenet of this theory is that there is a direct correlation between a policy and an actual outcome, and in turn, take no consideration of the effect of implementers on the actual delivery of the policy.   This rigid approach perceives the theory in a simple straightforward formula wherein the policy is the input itself and the implementation as the actual output.    In addition, the employment of a chain of command in the top-down theory creates an impression that this school of thought is a â€Å"governing elite phenomenon.†Ã‚   Thus, the idea of implementation actually means that bureaucratic measures are to be launched to guarantee that the policies will be perfectly carried out.   Such setting will require a reliable amount of resources, since the theory acts on a command-level basis.   Several agencies will be necessary for the monitoring and implementation of policies, making sure that the goals per level are accomplished to the exact detail and expectation. There are a number of variables that influence policy implementation using the top-down approach—1) the policy objectives should be clear and consistent, 2) the program is based on a legitimate causal theory, 3) the implementing personnel or officials are committed to the objectives of the program, and 4) the implementation program is properly configured. The theory seems to be strong and reliable, but knowing the principle behind the top-down theory, this will entail a huge network of personnel that will individually work out their assignments at their respective control level.   The precise functioning of such hierarchical structure is therefore very difficult to actually execute unless the program heads or leaders are extremely driven to see the ultimate results of their policy implementation. Another shortcoming of the top-down theory involves the characteristic that the policy goals can not be changed.   This setting requires that a policy and its goals can only be modified after a consensus is reached by the governing body.   However, before a consensus is achieved, several evaluations and reassessments are necessary, in order to convince the majority of the governing body that a change is necessary and justifiable.   Therefore, a successful strategy for policy implementation should involve a meticulous, cautious and rigorous program design that will withstand problems relating to the implementation of a policy through a sequence of authority. References Hjern, B. and Hull, C. (1982). Implementation Research as Empirical Constitutionalism. Eur. J. Polit. Res.   10(2):105-116. Mazmanian, D. and Sabatier, P. (1983):   Implementation and Public Policy. Glenview: Scott. Nakamura, R. and Smallwood, F (1980): The Politics of Policy Implementation. New York: St.Martin’s Press. Van Meter, D., and Van Horn, C. (1975):   The Policy Implementation Process. A Conceptual Framework. Administration and Society   6:445-488.

Schizophrenia :: essays research papers

Schizophrenia is a class of disorders characterized by fundamental disturbances in thought processes, emotion, or behavior. It is also known as a "split mind"; the person is in a world that has nothing to do with everyday experiences. One to one and a half percent of the U.S. population will be diagnosed with it sometime over the course of their lives. Schizophrenia has a pattern of unique and predictable symptoms. There are two main types of symptoms: positive and negative symptoms. The positive symptoms are delusions or hallucinations; negative symptoms are deficits in behavior or an inability to express emotion. But what exactly are these symptoms and are they easy to detect? The more obvious types of symptoms are the positive. One characteristic that is often experienced is delusions, which are known as thoughts with meanings that are unrealistic. For example, people with this disorder tend to believe that they are someone else in disguise such as Elvis or Jesus. Another type of delusion is the delusion of grandeur, which is when an individual believes that they are more important than they actually are. A less common but very real type of delusion is a delusion of persecution, which is when an individual is convinced that others are plotting against him. But even more severe is perceptions known as hallucinations. Hallucinations are perceptions that can not possibly be real because there is nothing external to support them; however, to the person affected, they can be heard, seen, or even felt. Some individuals may see objects change shape or size, which is not very unusual for someone with schizophrenia. On some occasions, individuals claim to hear voices in their heads, telling them to do or say certain things. These voices appear to be so real, that in some instances individuals where known to have committed suicide because that's what the voice told them to do. Less obvious than the positive symptoms but equally serious are the negative symptoms. It is very common for a person to show flat affect, which means they show little or no emotional reaction. If someone shows a person with this disorder an extremely funny movie or a very sad picture, they are unlikely to even smile or shed a tear. People with schizophrenia also refuse to participate in basic everyday activities. They may refuse to eat or wash themselves. Some other symptoms that are less common are disorganized speech and catatonia.