Historical Recount: Marco Polo and His Voyage to China Essay

In 13th and 14th centuries, many people believed that Marco polo and his family have been one of the first Europeans to visit China with a famous book The Travels of Marco Polo that had been written by a writer called Rustichello. The most appealing thing about Marco Polo is that Marco and his father were not explores. Marco Polo was born in 1254 in Venice, Italy. He grew into a wealthy merchant family and had an education, which would have prepared him for a career in business. Marco learned basic literacy skills, arithmetic, book- keeping, and the basic theology of the Latin Church. He also had an intimate knowledge of French and Italian. In 1260, Marco Polo’s father and uncle, Nicolo and Maffeo Polo traded regularly with Orient. They had spent a lot of time in Constantinople, Crimea and around the Balkans. When Marco was six years old, his father and uncle set out on their trip to Far East. In 1265, they arrived at the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor who ruled over two thirds of Asia and asked them to bring 100 European priests to his court. In 1269, Nicolo and Maffeo polo returned to Venice, and they had known that Marco’s mother had died while they were on their journey. In 1271, Marco Polo joined his father and uncle’s another journey east. They passed through Armenia, Persia, Afghanistan and along the Silk Road to China. After three years, the Polos reached China. In this time, Marco’ father introduced him to Kublai Khan and certainly, the King was thoroughly engrossed in Marco’s knowledge and his behavior. So that, Marco family had got important positions at the king’s court. The Polos stayed in Kublai Khan’ court for 17 years. They had much of gold and jewels but they always worried about returning Venice. Marco Polo feared that if Kublai Khan died, he would not get his property out of the country because Kublai Khan was in late seventies. Finally, in 1292 Kublai Khan allowed Polos to come home on one condition that they accompanied Princess Kokachin whose Kublai Khanâ€⠄¢s daughter and her wedding party to Persia. After two years, the Polos arrived in Persia before continuing their journey home. In 1295, Marco Polo arrived Venice where was currently at war with Genoa. Marco was commander of a Venetian galley in the war against Genoa. After that, his ship was destroyed, so Marco was taken as a prisoner of war by the Genoese. For one year in prison, he met a writer called Rustichello of Pisa; Marco related clearly to him stories of Marco’s travels and experiences in China,  which then became a book The Travel of Marco Polo. In the summer of 1299, Marco Polo was released from prison in Genoa and returned home in Venice where he had been keeping doing business. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer and together they have three daughters. Marco Polo lived in Venice until he died of old age in 1324 at 70 of age. Although Marco Polo and his family were not the first Europeans to reach China by land, some of information in his book is a geographical reference in Asia, and it becomes useful experiences with many explorers for centuries later. The book also includes understanding about the Silk Road and Far East’s culture.

Presocratic Philosophy Essay

Introduction As early Greek civilization grew more complex (c. 500 b. c. e. ), mythology and religion began to develop into philosophy (and later into science). As part of this development, a new kind of thinker emerged known as a sophos, from the Greek word for â€Å"wise. † These â€Å"wise men,† and they were almost exclusively men, asked increasingly sophisticated questions about all sorts of things, especially natural processes and the origins and essence of life. Although mythology and religion continued to play important roles in the lives of people for centuries to come, these first philosophers were noted for their attempts to use reason and observation to figure out how the world works. Instead of living a â€Å"normal life,† the sophos devoted himself to asking questions that so-called normal people thought had already been answered (by religion and mythology) or were unanswerable (and thus a waste of time). In respect to public perceptions, it didn’t help that the sophos lived and spoke in ways that were interpreted as showing disregard and possibly disrespect for conventional values, and that set him or (infrequently) her apart from â€Å"regular folks† living â€Å"normal† lives. It is hardly surprising, then, that one of the earliest popular images of philosophers is the stereotype of an odd, â€Å"absent-minded,† starry-eyed dreamer and asker of silly questions. The very first Western thinkers identified as philosophers were initially concerned with questions about the nature of nature (physis) and of the â€Å"world order† (kosmos). Presocratic Rational Discourse The earliest Western philosophers are referred to as the Presocratics because they appeared prior to Socrates, the first major figure in the Western philosophical tradition. Some of the Presocratic philosophers are described as proto-scientists because they initiated the transformation of mythology into rational inquiry about nature and the cosmos. A very general characterization of the development of Presocratic philosophy is helpful for placing subsequent philosophical issues and disagreements in context. Of  most interest for our purposes is the Presocratic philosophers’ struggle to offer rational, â€Å"objective† arguments and explanations for their views. These concerns played a major role in the origins and historical development of Western philosophy. The first philosophers’ intense interest in explanations shaped the development of reason by triggering questions of logical consistency and standards of knowledge that went beyond the sorts of evidence that a craftsman could offer to back up his claims to expertise. The Presocratic Philosophers Thales Thales (c. 624–545 b. c. e.), traditionally said to be the first Western philosopher, seems to have believed that water is in some way central to our understanding of things. This concept was probably based upon a belief that the earth floated on water, and that all things originate with water. Current opinion holds that Thales believed that whatever is real is in some significant sense ‘‘alive. ’’ According to Aristotle, Thales ‘‘thought that all things are full of gods,’’ and as evidence of such powers even in apparently inanimate nature he points to the remarkable properties of what was referred to as the ‘‘Magnesian stone’’. Although Aristotle’s statement is too slight to serve as a sure foundation for judgment, it seems more likely that Thales was arguing for the broader presence of life forces in the world than most people imagined, rather than that the real in its totality is alive. Anaximander Thales’ younger contemporary from Miletus, Anaximander, born toward the end of the seventh century B. C. E. , found the explanatory principle of things in what he called ‘‘the apeiron,’’ a word that might be translated as ‘‘the indefinite,’’ ‘‘the boundless,’’ or both. This opens up the possibility that the apeiron is both immeasurably large in its temporal and physical extent and also qualitatively indefinite in that it is without measurable inner boundaries. The apeiron is further described, according to Aristotle, as being ‘‘without beginning,’’ ‘‘surrounding all things,’’ ‘‘steering all things,’’ ‘‘divine,’’ ‘‘immortal,’’ and ‘‘indestructible. ’’ Some have inferred that Anaximander’s barely concealed purpose was Western philosophy’s first attempt at demythologization. Equally striking is Anaximander’s description of the universe as a closed, concentric system, the outer spheres of which, by their everlasting motion, account for the stability of our earth, a drum-shaped body held everlastingly in a state of equipoise at the center. Whatever the inadequacy in certain details (the stars are placed nearer to the earth than the moon), with Anaximander the science of cosmological speculation took a giant step forward. As far as life on earth is concerned, Anaximander offered another striking hypothesis. The first living things, according to him, were ‘‘born in moisture, enclosed in thorny barks’’ (like sea urchins), and ‘‘as their age increased, they came forth onto the drier part’’ (as phrased by Aetius [first to second century C. E. ]). Pythagoras Although we know that Pythagoras was a historical figure, it is difficult to determine exactly what Pythagoras himself taught. He wrote nothing, and the ideas of other members of the community were attributed to him as a sign of respect and as a way of lending weight to the ideas. Plato and Aristotle rarely assign ideas to Pythagoras himself, although Pythagorean ideas seem to have influenced Plato’s philosophy. Pythagoreans asserted that number is the first principle of all things. They were the first systematic developers of mathematics in the West and discovered that natural events could be described in mathematical terms, especially as ratios. To the Pythagoreans, the â€Å"principle of number† accounted for everything. Number was a real thing. Somehow, numbers existed in space, not just as mental constructs. According to Pythagorean doctrine, the entire universe is an ordered whole consisting of harmonies of contrasting elements. The Greek for â€Å"ordered whole† is cosmos. The Pythagoreans were the first philosophers to use the term cosmos to refer to the universe in this way. The â€Å"celestial music of the spheres† is the hauntingly beautiful phrase the Pythagoreans coined to describe the sound of the heavens as they rotate according to cosmic number and harmony. Xenophanes A fourth Ionian philosopher, Xenophanes of Colophon, born around 580 B. C. E. ,is the first we know of to overtly attack the anthropomorphism of popular religious belief, in a series of brilliant reductio ad absurdum arguments. His own view has been understood, ever since Aristotle, as pantheistic. Xenophanes was also the first philosopher we know of to ask what degree of knowledge is attainable. In B34 we read: ‘‘the clear and certain truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things. ’’ Several ancient critics took this to be an indication of Xenophanes’ total scepticism. On this basis of moderate empiricism and scepticism, Xenophanes offered a number of opinions of varying plausibility about the natural world, one of which—a strong, evolutionary interpretation of the discovery on various islands of fossils of marine animals—is enough to constitute a major claim to fame in natural philosophy and ranks with his other significant steps in epistemology (the theory of knowledge dealing with what we know, how we know it, and how reliable our knowledge is), logic (the study of rational inquiry and argumentation), and natural theology (the attempt to understand God from natural knowledge). Heraclitus One of the most important and enigmatic of the Presocratics, Heraclitus (fl . 500 b. c. e. , d. 510–480 b. c. e. ), said that ignorance is bound to result when we try to understand the cosmos when we do not even comprehend the basic structure of the human psyche (soul) and its relationship to the Logos. The complex Greek word logos is intriguing. It could and at times did mean all of the following: â€Å"intelligence,† â€Å"speech,† â€Å"discourse,† â€Å"thought,† â€Å"reason,† â€Å"word,† â€Å"meaning,† â€Å"study of,† â€Å"the record of,† â€Å"the science of,† â€Å"the fundamental principles of,† â€Å"the basic principles and procedures of a particular discipline,† â€Å"those features of a thing that make it intelligible to us,† and â€Å"the rationale for a thing. † The Heraclitean capital L Logos is like God, only without the anthropomorphizing (humanizing) of the earlier philosophers and poets who attributed human qualities to the gods. According to Heraclitus’s impersonal view of God, the Logos is a process, not an entity. As such, the Logos is unconcerned with individuals and human affairs, in much the same way that gravity affects us but is unconcerned with us. More radically yet, Heraclitus asserted that even though things appear to remain the same, â€Å"Change alone is unchanging. † Traditionally, it has been held that Heraclitus went so far as to claim that everything is always changing all the time. But whether he really meant that everything is always changing, or that individual things are held together by energy (change), remains unclear. Anaximenes Anaximander’s younger contemporary, Anaximenes, who lived during the sixth century B. C. E. appears to revert to a prior and less sophisticated vision in claiming that the earth, far from being a drum-shaped body held in equipoise at the center, is flat and ‘‘rides on,’’ supported by air. The same might be said of his contention that the basic, ‘‘divine’’ principle of things was not some indefinite entity but something very much part of our experience; namely, air. Anaximenes’ view would also no doubt have seemed to be corroborated by the fact that the universe, commonly understood as a living thing and hence needing a soul to vivify it, possessed in air that very ‘‘breath’’ that for most Greeks constituted the essence of such a soul. Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (fift h century b. c. e. ) radically transformed the early philosophers’ interest in cosmology, the study of the universe as a rationally ordered system (cosmos), into ontology, the study of being. By common agreement he was the giant among the pre-Socratics. According to Parmenides, none of his predecessors adequately accounted for the process by which the one basic stuff of the cosmos changes into the many individual things we experience every day. In his search for a solution to the problem of â€Å"the one and the many,† Parmenides turned to a reasoned analysis of the process of change itself. According to Parmenides, all sensations occur in the realm of appearance. This means that reality cannot be apprehended by the senses. Change and variety (the many) are only appearances; they are not real. If this is true, then our most commonly held beliefs about reality are mere opinions. The senses cannot recognize â€Å"what is,† much less can they discover—observe—it, ever. In other words, whatever we see, touch, taste, hear, or smell is not real, does not exist. Perhaps most unsettling of all, Parmenides â€Å"solved† the problem of the appearance of change by concluding—in direct opposition to Heraclitus’s insistence that everything is always changing—that the very concept of change is self-contradictory. What we think of as change is merely an illusion. The logic runs as follows: â€Å"Change† equals transformation into something else. When a thing becomes â€Å"something else,† it becomes what it is not. But since it is impossible for â€Å"nothing† (what is not) to exist, there is no â€Å"nothing† into which the old thing can disappear. (There is no â€Å"no place† for the thing to go into. ) Therefore, change cannot occur. Empedocles posited, against Parmenides, change and plurality as features of reality, but affirmed the eternality of anything that is real; the sphere-like nature of the real when looked at as a totality and the fact that the real is a plenum, containing no ‘‘nothingness’’ or ‘‘emptiness’’. Anaxagoras likewise posited change, plurality, and divisibility as features of reality, yet also affirmed the eternality of the real (understood by him as an eternally existent ‘‘mixture’’ of the ‘‘seeds’’ of the things currently constituting the world, rather than the eternal combinings and recombinings, according to certain ratios of admixture, of four eternally existent ‘‘roots’’ or elemental masses). Leucippus Leucippus of Miletus (c. fi ft h century b. c. e. ) and Democritus of Abdera (c. 460–370 b.c. e. ) argued that reality consists entirely of empty space and ultimately simple entities that combine to form objects. T is materialistic view is known as atomism. Leucippus is credited with being the originator of atomism and Democritus with developing it. Rather than reject Parmenides’ assertion that change is an illusion, Leucippus argued that reality consists of many discrete â€Å"ones,† or beings. Zeno Zeno, who was born early in the fifth century B. C. E. , was a friend and pupil of Parmenides. In his famous paradoxes he attempted to show by a series of reductio ad absurdum arguments, of which the best known is perhaps that of Achilles and the tortoise, the self-contradictory consequences of maintaining that there is a real plurality of things or that motion or place are real. The prima facie brilliance of many of the arguments continues to impress people, though it soon becomes clear that the paradoxes turn largely on the failure or unwillingness of Zeno, like so many Pythagoreans of the day, to distinguish between the concepts of physical and geometrical space. Zeno’s way of constructing the problem makes it seem that his primary object is to defame pluralists by attacking the logical possibility of explaining how there can be motion in the world. Gorgias Gorgias has achieved fame for the stress he laid upon the art of persuasion (‘‘rhetoric’’), although whether he wrote the baffling On What Is Not as a serious piece of persuasive reasoning or as some sort of spoof of the Eleatic philosophy of Parmenides and others remains disputed. Its basic, and remarkable, claim is prima facie, that nothing in fact is (exists /is the case [esti] or is knowable or conceivable. Any exiguous plausibility that the arguments supporting this claim possess turns on our overlooking Gorgias’s failure, witting or unwitting, to distinguish carefully between knowing and thinking, along with his various uses of the verb ‘‘to be. ’’ If the failure was witting, the document can be seen as a skillful device for the spotting of fallacies as part of training in rhetoric and basic reasoning. If it was unwitting, Gorgias still emerges as what he was claimed to be—a deft rhetorical wordsmith on any topic proposed to him. Protagoras Perhaps the greatest of the Sophists was Protagoras of Abdera (481– 411 b. c. e. ). Protagoras was an archetypal Sophist: an active traveler and first-rate observer of other cultures who noted that although there are a variety of customs and beliefs, each culture believes unquestioningly that its own ways are right—and roundly condemns (or at least criticizes) views that differ from its own. Based on his observations and travels, Protagoras concluded that morals are nothing more than the social traditions, or mores, of a society or group. The details of Protagoras’s beliefs remain disputed. When he said, for example, that ‘‘anthropos [humanity] is a/the measure for all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not,’’ it is unclear whether he is talking about one person or the sum total of persons; about ‘‘a’’ measure or ‘‘the’’ measure (there is no definite article in Greek); or about existence or states of affairs or both. The Platonic reading in the Theaetetus, which takes ‘‘anthropos’’ as generic and ‘‘measure’’ as exclusive, led to the assertion that the logical consequence was total (and absurd) relativism. ______________________________ References: The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. Richard H. Popkin. Columbia University Press. 1999. Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy. 7th ed. Douglas J. Soccio. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 2010.

1419 Work Related Learning

The Every Child Matters (2003) green paper also identified five outcomes that are most important to children and young people: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being. These five outcomes are universal ambitions for every child and young person, whatever their background or circumstances. Following wide consultation with children’s services, parents, children and young people, the Government published Every Child Matters: the Next Steps in November 2004, and passed the Children Act (2004), providing the basis for developing more effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and families. The recently formed DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) echo’s the points made in ECM (2004) and seeks to ensure that all children and young people stay healthy and safe, secure an excellent education and the highest possible standards of achievement, enjoy their childhood, make a positive contribution to society and the economy, have lives full of opportunity, free from the effects of poverty. These outcomes are mutually reinforcing. For example, children and young people learn and thrive when they are healthy, safe and engaged. The DCSF also aim to raise educational standards so that more children and young people reach expected levels, lifting more children out of poverty and re-engaging disaffected young people. This is particularly applicable to my practice as the socio-economic circumstances of most of my students disadvantage them. Most of my students live in Camborne, Pool, Redruth and Hayle. These are widely recognized as deprived areas regarding economic opportunities, high number of single parent households, low employment prospects, and the majority of employment being minimum waged, relatively insecure, part time, seasonal or flexi time. (SDRC 2004). This relates back to ECM (2003) in that this seems to be applied in context of the geographic and demographic circumstances of children and young people. For example, a student from a poor single parent household in a deprived area with high crime rates who participates in underage smoking and drinking may be majority behaviour or the ‘norm’ in certain subcultures in Camborne, Redruth, Pool and Hayle but would attract more attention and concern in a more affluent area where this was not the ‘norm’. 2 We Could be Left Behind In every decade children are maturing physically earlier than before resulting in a constant shortening of childhood in a biological and social sense. This has a converse repercussive effect involving the constant lengthening of childhood in an educational sense. Cunningham 2006) This is reflected in the proposals in the DfE (Johnson 2007) report Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16 are highlighting the need to continue study for 14-19 year olds and by 2015 the school leaving age will be increased to 18 years of age. The reasons the government have given for such policies being implemented are illustrated by the secretary of education; Johnson (2007:3) when he said ‘ the undeniable truth is that if a young person continues their education post 16 they are more likely to achieve valuable qualifications, earn more and lead happier, healthier lives’. A seeming contradiction to Johnsons (2007) policy of staying in education longer and its benefits have been researched by Walker and Zhu (2003:145) who asserted that ‘there is no evidence that raising the minimum school leaving age made people who have not intended to leave at the minimum age raise their educational standard. This is consistent with the view that education raises productivity and not with the view that productive people get more educated’ Johnsons (2007) statement seems concerned with happiness, health and wealth. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR 1948) has wider reaching concerns. The UDHR (1948) states in Article 26 that ‘education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human right and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among nations, racial or religious groups for the maintenance of peace’. However, Johnson (2007:18) goes on to explain ‘we have a duty to prepare all young people for the labour market’ as ‘the world economy is developing at an ever more rapid pace. If we do not act now we could be left behind’. So its seems that it is not just for the benefit of our children’s wellbeing that Johnson encourages the parents of the youth of today to continue in education and so ‘achieving valuable qualifications, earn more and lead happier healthier lives’ (Johnson 2007:3) but more to do with deeper issues of ‘the world economy’s development and the UKs position of power within it’. In the same report Johnson (2007) quotes research carried out by the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) that reinforces the idea that when individuals achieve higher levels of skill and qualification, businesses and the economy benefit. This is compelling evidence that increasing the educative stock of human capital raises productivity at the macro economic level. In relation to literacy for example, a study by Coulombe Trembley and Marchard (2004) found that if a countries literacy score increases by 1% relative to the inter national average a 2. % relative rise in labour productivity and a 1. 5% rise in GDP per year can be expected. 3 Surf’s up This emphasis on cultural superficiality, fragmentary sensations and disposability offers wide implications and questions; not least ‘what is postmodernism? Postmodernism itself is a much disputed term that has occupied much recent debate about contemporary culture since the early 1980s. In its simplest sense it refers generally to the phase of 20th century Western culture including the products of the age of mass television since the mid 1950s. More often, though, it is applied to a cultural condition prevailing in the advanced capitalist societies since the 1960s, characterized by a ‘superabundance of disconnected images and styles most noticeably in television, advertising, commercial design, and pop video’ (Baudrillard 1998:72) In my practice I notice that these media have a profound impact on defining student’s social standing and identity within their peer group. In my role as a lecturer I observe that the students are encouraged through media and peer pressure to consume. Children’s identities centre prolifically on brand names and icons (mobile phones and hoodies) which help to fulfil their aspirations to obtain products which make statements about who they are. The latest fashions all contribute to the identity of the youth of today where a distinct subculture and language exist involving Xboxes, ipods, beebo, Bluetooth, myspace, chavs, hoodies, emos, skaters and goths. I ensure that I participate and involve such subcultural language within my practice when explaining tasks, demonstrating skills or providing metaphorical illustrations. Whatever postmodernism is and however the term evades definition, what the intellectual highbrows have been lecturing on postmodernism are soon to become extinct by their own doing. The postmodernist wave of consumer students have climbed the ladder and are nipping at the heels of the old school who created them like Doctor Frankenstein who is dispatched by his creation. This wave of postmodernist students could also be seen as in a vast ocean of modernity where far from the shore one can see the formation of a wave. As the wave builds in popularity it slowly approaches the shore, the crest breaks; postmodernity is born. As we stand and watch, it slips beneath itself, down into the ocean, and there in time it becomes ‘the modern’, dissolved and replaced by yet another breaking new wave. Paradoxically the new wave will emerge in a significantly disposable, shifting, fragmentary postmodern society with expectations of structured, quantifiable, standardised educative processes. One of the latest waves to begin its postmodernist journey towards the shore before slipping back into modernism and the norm is the Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF) announcement in January 2008 by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) who have â€Å"allowed commercial companies the ability to award nationally accredited qualifications to employees, for the first time Network Rail, Flybe and McDonald’s all achieve the standards set by QCA for awarding accredited qualifications, enabling them to assess, track and recognise work-place learning† (QCA 2008) McQualifications This links to Ritzers (2000) notion of the McDonaldisation of education, where education is based on the premise of efficiency, calculability, and predictability and is partially governed by non-human technology. This perspective is rooted in both Fordian principles of mass production, mechanisation and assembly lines (Ling 1991) and Weberian (1968) principles regarding the growth of formal rational systems with its emphasis on the rules and regulations of large social structures. Ritzer (2000:2) applies this process of McDonaldisation not only to ‘restaurants but also to work, health care, travel, leisure, dieting, politics, the family, and virtually every aspect of society’; including, of course, education. This could be illustrated with the OFSTED standardisation of observations and grading, league tables, units of competence, knowledge requirements etcetera. For example, Young (1961) asserts that in a meritocracy, all citizens have the opportunity to be recognized and advanced in proportion to their abilities and accomplishments. The ideal of meritocracy has become controversial because of its association with the use of tests of intellectual ability, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, to regulate admissions to elite colleges and universities. It could be argued that an individual’s performance on these tests reflects their social class and family environment more than ability. Maybe this is what Chomsky (1989) would label a necessary illusion. One that allows the system to keep on running with the support of its members even if massive disparities and inequalities exist. Supporting a system that does not support you as an individual is a typical hegemonic regime of truth; a discourse that the society accepts and makes function as true (Foucault 1980:131). Excellence in Schools (DFEE 1997) and Meeting the Challenge (DFEE1998) were ntroduced as the Governments educational policies and marked the change from centralised control to educational intervention where direct involvement and partnerships with parents, schools, Local Authorities and businesses recognised them as stakeholders in an attempt to improve standards in schools and to find ‘radical and innovative solutions’ (Blair 1998:1 cited in Meeting the Challenge 1998) to problems of underachievement. Reference List Baudrillard, J. (1998) The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London. S age. Children Act (2004). London. HMSO. Chomsky, N. (1989) Necessary Illusions. London. Pluto Press Climbie Inquiry: Report of an Inquiry by Lord Laming (2003). London. HMSO. Coulombe,S. Trembley, F. and Marchard, S. (2004) Literacy scores, human capital and growth, across 14 OECD countries. OECD. Canada. Cook – Sather, A (2002) ‘Authorising Students perspectives: towards trust, dialogue and change in education’. Educational Researcher, 31, 4, p3 -14. Cunningham, H. (2006) The Invention of Childhood. London. BBC Worldwide Ltd. DCSF (2007). Department for Children, Schools and Families. Accessed online at dfes. gov. uk. DFEE (1997) Excellence in Schools. London. HMSO. DFEE (1998) Meeting the Challenge. London. HMSO. DWP (2006) Equality and Diversity: Age Discrimination in Employment and Vocational Training. London. HMSO. ECM (2004). London. HMSO. Every Child Matters (2004) Change for Children in Schools. Nottingham. DfES. HMSO ECM (2005) Change for Children: common core of skills and knowledge for the childrens workforce. DfES. ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) ‘Consulting Pupils about Teaching and Learning’. Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews Other Writings 1972- 1977. Gordon, C. (ed) New York. Pantheon Books. Illich, I. 1973) Deschooling Society. Great Britain. Penguin. Johnson, A. (2007) Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16. DfE Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential learning as the science of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs. Prentice Hall. Laidlaw, M (1994) The democraticising potential of dialogical focus in an action inquiry. Educational Action Research, 2, 2, p223 â⠂¬â€œ 241 Ling, P (1991) America and the Automobile: Technology, Reform and Social Change, 1893-1923. Technology and Culture, Vol. 32, No. 3 p 627-628 National Institute for Social and Economic Research (2002). Britains relative productivity performance – updates to 1999. NISER Oplatka, I (2004) ‘The characteristics of the school organisation and the constraints on market ideology in education: an institutional view’. Journal of Educational Policy 19, 2, p143 – 161. QCA (2008) News release: Employers gain official awarding body status on line at http://www. qca. org. uk on 29/01/2008 Ritzer,G. (2000) The McDonaldization of Society. London. Pine Forge Press. Rudduck, J and Flutter, J (2000) ‘Pupil participation and pupil perspective: carving a new order of experience. Cambridge Journal of Education, 30, 1, p75 – 89. Schon, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action. London: Temple Smith Social Disadvantage Research Centre (2004) The English Indices of Deprivation 2004 HMSO Tomlinson, M. (2003) Tomlinson Report, The. Accessed online at qca. org. uk on 4. 12. 07. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) General Assembly of the United Nations. Usher, R. Bryant, I and Johnston, R (1998). Adult Education and the Postmodern Challenge. London. Routledge. Walker, I. and Zhu, Y. (2003) Education, earnings and productivity: recent UK evidence. Labour Market Trends. Accessed online at www. statistics. gov. uk-article labour. Market-trends-education mar03pdf on 25. 6. 07 Weber, M. (1968) Economy and Society. Totowa. Bedminster. Whitehead, J and Clough, N. (2004) ‘Pupils, the forgotten partners in education action zones’. Journal of Educational Policy 19, 2, p216 – 226 Young, M. (1961) The Rise of the Meritocracy: An Essay on Education and Equality. Great Britain. Penguin. Bibliography Donovan, G. (2005). Teaching 14-19. Great Britain. David Fulton. Vizard, D. (2004). Behaviour Solutions: teaching 14-16 year olds in colleges of further education. Great Britain. Incentive Plus. 1419 Work Related Learning The Every Child Matters (2003) green paper also identified five outcomes that are most important to children and young people: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being. These five outcomes are universal ambitions for every child and young person, whatever their background or circumstances. Following wide consultation with children’s services, parents, children and young people, the Government published Every Child Matters: the Next Steps in November 2004, and passed the Children Act (2004), providing the basis for developing more effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and families. The recently formed DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) echo’s the points made in ECM (2004) and seeks to ensure that all children and young people stay healthy and safe, secure an excellent education and the highest possible standards of achievement, enjoy their childhood, make a positive contribution to society and the economy, have lives full of opportunity, free from the effects of poverty. These outcomes are mutually reinforcing. For example, children and young people learn and thrive when they are healthy, safe and engaged. The DCSF also aim to raise educational standards so that more children and young people reach expected levels, lifting more children out of poverty and re-engaging disaffected young people. This is particularly applicable to my practice as the socio-economic circumstances of most of my students disadvantage them. Most of my students live in Camborne, Pool, Redruth and Hayle. These are widely recognized as deprived areas regarding economic opportunities, high number of single parent households, low employment prospects, and the majority of employment being minimum waged, relatively insecure, part time, seasonal or flexi time. (SDRC 2004). This relates back to ECM (2003) in that this seems to be applied in context of the geographic and demographic circumstances of children and young people. For example, a student from a poor single parent household in a deprived area with high crime rates who participates in underage smoking and drinking may be majority behaviour or the ‘norm’ in certain subcultures in Camborne, Redruth, Pool and Hayle but would attract more attention and concern in a more affluent area where this was not the ‘norm’. 2 We Could be Left Behind In every decade children are maturing physically earlier than before resulting in a constant shortening of childhood in a biological and social sense. This has a converse repercussive effect involving the constant lengthening of childhood in an educational sense. Cunningham 2006) This is reflected in the proposals in the DfE (Johnson 2007) report Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16 are highlighting the need to continue study for 14-19 year olds and by 2015 the school leaving age will be increased to 18 years of age. The reasons the government have given for such policies being implemented are illustrated by the secretary of education; Johnson (2007:3) when he said ‘ the undeniable truth is that if a young person continues their education post 16 they are more likely to achieve valuable qualifications, earn more and lead happier, healthier lives’. A seeming contradiction to Johnsons (2007) policy of staying in education longer and its benefits have been researched by Walker and Zhu (2003:145) who asserted that ‘there is no evidence that raising the minimum school leaving age made people who have not intended to leave at the minimum age raise their educational standard. This is consistent with the view that education raises productivity and not with the view that productive people get more educated’ Johnsons (2007) statement seems concerned with happiness, health and wealth. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR 1948) has wider reaching concerns. The UDHR (1948) states in Article 26 that ‘education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human right and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among nations, racial or religious groups for the maintenance of peace’. However, Johnson (2007:18) goes on to explain ‘we have a duty to prepare all young people for the labour market’ as ‘the world economy is developing at an ever more rapid pace. If we do not act now we could be left behind’. So its seems that it is not just for the benefit of our children’s wellbeing that Johnson encourages the parents of the youth of today to continue in education and so ‘achieving valuable qualifications, earn more and lead happier healthier lives’ (Johnson 2007:3) but more to do with deeper issues of ‘the world economy’s development and the UKs position of power within it’. In the same report Johnson (2007) quotes research carried out by the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) that reinforces the idea that when individuals achieve higher levels of skill and qualification, businesses and the economy benefit. This is compelling evidence that increasing the educative stock of human capital raises productivity at the macro economic level. In relation to literacy for example, a study by Coulombe Trembley and Marchard (2004) found that if a countries literacy score increases by 1% relative to the inter national average a 2. % relative rise in labour productivity and a 1. 5% rise in GDP per year can be expected. 3 Surf’s up This emphasis on cultural superficiality, fragmentary sensations and disposability offers wide implications and questions; not least ‘what is postmodernism? Postmodernism itself is a much disputed term that has occupied much recent debate about contemporary culture since the early 1980s. In its simplest sense it refers generally to the phase of 20th century Western culture including the products of the age of mass television since the mid 1950s. More often, though, it is applied to a cultural condition prevailing in the advanced capitalist societies since the 1960s, characterized by a ‘superabundance of disconnected images and styles most noticeably in television, advertising, commercial design, and pop video’ (Baudrillard 1998:72) In my practice I notice that these media have a profound impact on defining student’s social standing and identity within their peer group. In my role as a lecturer I observe that the students are encouraged through media and peer pressure to consume. Children’s identities centre prolifically on brand names and icons (mobile phones and hoodies) which help to fulfil their aspirations to obtain products which make statements about who they are. The latest fashions all contribute to the identity of the youth of today where a distinct subculture and language exist involving Xboxes, ipods, beebo, Bluetooth, myspace, chavs, hoodies, emos, skaters and goths. I ensure that I participate and involve such subcultural language within my practice when explaining tasks, demonstrating skills or providing metaphorical illustrations. Whatever postmodernism is and however the term evades definition, what the intellectual highbrows have been lecturing on postmodernism are soon to become extinct by their own doing. The postmodernist wave of consumer students have climbed the ladder and are nipping at the heels of the old school who created them like Doctor Frankenstein who is dispatched by his creation. This wave of postmodernist students could also be seen as in a vast ocean of modernity where far from the shore one can see the formation of a wave. As the wave builds in popularity it slowly approaches the shore, the crest breaks; postmodernity is born. As we stand and watch, it slips beneath itself, down into the ocean, and there in time it becomes ‘the modern’, dissolved and replaced by yet another breaking new wave. Paradoxically the new wave will emerge in a significantly disposable, shifting, fragmentary postmodern society with expectations of structured, quantifiable, standardised educative processes. One of the latest waves to begin its postmodernist journey towards the shore before slipping back into modernism and the norm is the Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF) announcement in January 2008 by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) who have â€Å"allowed commercial companies the ability to award nationally accredited qualifications to employees, for the first time Network Rail, Flybe and McDonald’s all achieve the standards set by QCA for awarding accredited qualifications, enabling them to assess, track and recognise work-place learning† (QCA 2008) McQualifications This links to Ritzers (2000) notion of the McDonaldisation of education, where education is based on the premise of efficiency, calculability, and predictability and is partially governed by non-human technology. This perspective is rooted in both Fordian principles of mass production, mechanisation and assembly lines (Ling 1991) and Weberian (1968) principles regarding the growth of formal rational systems with its emphasis on the rules and regulations of large social structures. Ritzer (2000:2) applies this process of McDonaldisation not only to ‘restaurants but also to work, health care, travel, leisure, dieting, politics, the family, and virtually every aspect of society’; including, of course, education. This could be illustrated with the OFSTED standardisation of observations and grading, league tables, units of competence, knowledge requirements etcetera. For example, Young (1961) asserts that in a meritocracy, all citizens have the opportunity to be recognized and advanced in proportion to their abilities and accomplishments. The ideal of meritocracy has become controversial because of its association with the use of tests of intellectual ability, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, to regulate admissions to elite colleges and universities. It could be argued that an individual’s performance on these tests reflects their social class and family environment more than ability. Maybe this is what Chomsky (1989) would label a necessary illusion. One that allows the system to keep on running with the support of its members even if massive disparities and inequalities exist. Supporting a system that does not support you as an individual is a typical hegemonic regime of truth; a discourse that the society accepts and makes function as true (Foucault 1980:131). Excellence in Schools (DFEE 1997) and Meeting the Challenge (DFEE1998) were ntroduced as the Governments educational policies and marked the change from centralised control to educational intervention where direct involvement and partnerships with parents, schools, Local Authorities and businesses recognised them as stakeholders in an attempt to improve standards in schools and to find ‘radical and innovative solutions’ (Blair 1998:1 cited in Meeting the Challenge 1998) to problems of underachievement. Reference List Baudrillard, J. (1998) The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London. S age. Children Act (2004). London. HMSO. Chomsky, N. (1989) Necessary Illusions. London. Pluto Press Climbie Inquiry: Report of an Inquiry by Lord Laming (2003). London. HMSO. Coulombe,S. Trembley, F. and Marchard, S. (2004) Literacy scores, human capital and growth, across 14 OECD countries. OECD. Canada. Cook – Sather, A (2002) ‘Authorising Students perspectives: towards trust, dialogue and change in education’. Educational Researcher, 31, 4, p3 -14. Cunningham, H. (2006) The Invention of Childhood. London. BBC Worldwide Ltd. DCSF (2007). Department for Children, Schools and Families. Accessed online at dfes. gov. uk. DFEE (1997) Excellence in Schools. London. HMSO. DFEE (1998) Meeting the Challenge. London. HMSO. DWP (2006) Equality and Diversity: Age Discrimination in Employment and Vocational Training. London. HMSO. ECM (2004). London. HMSO. Every Child Matters (2004) Change for Children in Schools. Nottingham. DfES. HMSO ECM (2005) Change for Children: common core of skills and knowledge for the childrens workforce. DfES. ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) ‘Consulting Pupils about Teaching and Learning’. Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews Other Writings 1972- 1977. Gordon, C. (ed) New York. Pantheon Books. Illich, I. 1973) Deschooling Society. Great Britain. Penguin. Johnson, A. (2007) Raising Expectations: staying in education and training post-16. DfE Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential learning as the science of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs. Prentice Hall. Laidlaw, M (1994) The democraticising potential of dialogical focus in an action inquiry. Educational Action Research, 2, 2, p223 â⠂¬â€œ 241 Ling, P (1991) America and the Automobile: Technology, Reform and Social Change, 1893-1923. Technology and Culture, Vol. 32, No. 3 p 627-628 National Institute for Social and Economic Research (2002). Britains relative productivity performance – updates to 1999. NISER Oplatka, I (2004) ‘The characteristics of the school organisation and the constraints on market ideology in education: an institutional view’. Journal of Educational Policy 19, 2, p143 – 161. QCA (2008) News release: Employers gain official awarding body status on line at http://www. qca. org. uk on 29/01/2008 Ritzer,G. (2000) The McDonaldization of Society. London. Pine Forge Press. Rudduck, J and Flutter, J (2000) ‘Pupil participation and pupil perspective: carving a new order of experience. Cambridge Journal of Education, 30, 1, p75 – 89. Schon, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action. London: Temple Smith Social Disadvantage Research Centre (2004) The English Indices of Deprivation 2004 HMSO Tomlinson, M. (2003) Tomlinson Report, The. Accessed online at qca. org. uk on 4. 12. 07. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) General Assembly of the United Nations. Usher, R. Bryant, I and Johnston, R (1998). Adult Education and the Postmodern Challenge. London. Routledge. Walker, I. and Zhu, Y. (2003) Education, earnings and productivity: recent UK evidence. Labour Market Trends. Accessed online at www. statistics. gov. uk-article labour. Market-trends-education mar03pdf on 25. 6. 07 Weber, M. (1968) Economy and Society. Totowa. Bedminster. Whitehead, J and Clough, N. (2004) ‘Pupils, the forgotten partners in education action zones’. Journal of Educational Policy 19, 2, p216 – 226 Young, M. (1961) The Rise of the Meritocracy: An Essay on Education and Equality. Great Britain. Penguin. Bibliography Donovan, G. (2005). Teaching 14-19. Great Britain. David Fulton. Vizard, D. (2004). Behaviour Solutions: teaching 14-16 year olds in colleges of further education. Great Britain. Incentive Plus.

Using Qualitative Technique To Investigate A Problem At Work Assignment

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MENO AND EUTHYPHRO'S DILEMMA - Coursework Example This explains the principal source of the dilemma. The dilemma can be related to how virtue and ethics are defined in Meno’s dialogue. The dialogue lacks a satisfactory definition of virtue and ethics. Meno provides a list of varieties of virtue. Socrates points out a weakness in this, that many people are mistaken about what is good and evil. He asks if it is possible to acquire good things virtuously for them to be truly good (Harriet 133). His questions reveal that he considers a successful definition as one that is unitary. The dilemma arising from the words, â€Å"I love her since she is beautiful, or is it that she is beautiful because of my love for her,† is that beauty is subjective in the first case. I may love her because I think she is beautiful, in the contrary another person may think she is ugly. In the second case, it would mean I lack the knowledge of knowing what is beautiful. In life, we still face Euthyphro’s dilemmas. For instance, what we consider good may not be so for others. In this case, goodness is subjective to our own liking. For instance, do I love my mother because she carried me in her womb for 9 months, or because she carried me in her womb for 9 months, I love my mother? In the first case, it means all persons love their mothers for this reason, which is not true. The second argument is also impractical because there are individuals who were carried for 9 months and they still hate their

Capital Budgetting of Caledonia Products Research Paper

Capital Budgetting of Caledonia Products - Research Paper Example A- Caledonia Products should focus on free cash flows for evaluation of the project investment as compare to accounting profit in capital budgeting decision. Free cash flows provide the real picture of the amount that would be available to company from the project as the results are arrived with incorporating elements of time and risks in evaluation. Accounting profits, on other hand, are more like figures on paper only and due to ignorance of mentioned factors. There is every opportunity that accounting profits of the project shows an investment profitable, but it might be possible that the investment might not yield any returns to the company. Another reason to focus on cash flow results than accounting profits is accounting profits include all expenditure and incomes be it result in cash in-flow or outflow. For instance, depreciation does not actually cause any cash out-flow but it is included in the accounting profits. However, cash flow accounts only consider those that affect t he movement in cash inwards or outwards. So, free cash flows should be used to evaluate any project. Since the report is evaluate new project and take decision to undergo or not, therefore, company should focus on incremental cash flows from the projects. There may be the case when overall company making positive cash flows whereas flow from the said project is otherwise. Incremental cash flows form the project provides marginal benefit firm can reap by taking this investment decisions. Same goes for the total and incremental profits. Incremental profits provide evaluation of benefit particular project will add to the firm’s value in addition to the total profits firm will be making. Therefore incremental profits should be used. B- DEPRECIATION EXPENSE AND FREECASH FLOW Depreciation is a non cash expense and although it is recorded in accounting statements as expense, but it does not actually incur any cash outflows (Gitman, 2003). However, overall project cash flow receives impact from depreciation expense over a period of projects life. Depreciation expense reduces the amount of tax accrued on company which is a cash flow item; therefore, it impacts cash flow positively. C- SUNK COST AND ITS IMPACT ON CASH FLOWS Corporate finance theory suggests that while making investment decisions using capital budgeting techniques no consideration should be given to the sunk cost as this cost has already been incurred (Khan, 1993) whether the project is conducted or not and therefore it has no relevancy to future incremental cash flows that determines the acceptance or rejection of cash flows. Only the concerned element is the after tax incremental cash flows as this is the amount which is available to the shareholder. Hence, evaluation of project using NPV and IRR shall ignore sunk cost item. D- INITIAL OUTLAY OF THE PORJECT Initial outlay of any project refers to amount of investment that will be required to undertake a project or the cost incurred for beginning the project. It includes basic plant and installation cost along with any shipping or transportation cost incurred to take plant to production point. It further includes any change working capital due to this project. Initial cost incurred for this project is: $ $8,100,000.00 which includes: Plant and equipment cost is $7,900,000 the installation and shipping cost is $100,000 increased working capital is $100,000 E- DIFFERENTIAL CASH FLOWS OVER THE PROJECT'S LIFE Differential cash flow refers to incremental after tax