Plan for a A Virtual Community for Teenagers on the Web :: Internet Communities Essays cyberspace

Plan for a A Virtual Community for Teenagers on the Web The Internet, though only considered to be approximately a decade old, has blossomed into an incredible method of communication. However, many of the resources contained on the Internet are hard to find, especially for less-experienced users. A virtual community project would ideally consist of all resources needed for high school juniors and seniors to access at any time and at any location. A perfect online community for teens would consist of many useful resources while allowing for expandability as technology advances. The most important factor of a virtual community would be the obligatory desire to visit and use the site. This could be accomplished by utilizing various techniques. A simple yet appealing interface would have to be employed to build a successful online village. Contests would also draw students from around the world to such a site. Daily winners to trivia or knowledge contests, all with some educational component involved, could win prizes supplied by the site's advertisers. Another important element, the aspect of customization, would also draw students to the site. An abundance of popular Internet sites are progressing toward personalization within the confines of their Web presence. All users to the virtual community would enroll using a short but complete registration form directly linked to the main page of the site. The initial form would consist of such straightforward entries as the user's name, e-mail address, ZIP code, time zone, desired username, and password. By using existing technology, the user would be greeted with a "Hello [name]!" message each time that he or she visited the site. The key to a successful community is accessible information about all of the site's users, but a sensitive issue arises with the mention of personal information. Many students and parents feel uncomfortable releasing information about themselves to a worldwide audience. It is important, therefore, that any particular user does not have to submit personal information to be released to all other users of the site. A strong emphasis would be placed on the importance of releasing enough information so that other users could find those students with similar interests. It is important to note that after completing the initial entry form, all registered users could access all services of the site. After providing personal information, users would be able to create a profile utilizing that information to show such information as interests, location, and current classes.

Is Pornography Good? :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Is Pornography Good?    Pornography is the theory, Rape is the fact. Robin Morgan, editor of the famous feminist magazine Ms., was quoted as saying this thought provoking statement. This really makes one stop and think. How closely related are pornography and rape, or any violent act for that matter? Many surveys and research studies have been done to answer just that. But the findings have been highly debatable. On one hand, you have people who feel that there is no correlation between the two, that pornography is used only for personal enjoyment, and it stops there. Then you have the feminist viewpoint which totally disagrees. Two well known feminists, Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin have their own view and definition on pornography.    à ¾....Pornography is the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women, whether in pictures or in words, that also includes one or more of the following: (i) Women are presented dehumanized as sexual objects, things, or commodities; or (ii) women are presented as sexual objects who enjoy pain or mutilation; or (iii) women are presented as sexual objects who experience sexual pleasure in being raped; or (iv) women are presented as sexual objects tied up or cut up or mutilated or bruised or physically hurt; or (v) women are presented in postures of sexual submission, servility, or display; or (vi) womens body parts - including but not limited to vaginas, breasts, and buttocks- are exhibited ,such that women are reduced to those parts; or (vii) women are presented by whores by nature; or (viii) women are presented being penetrated by objects or animals; or (ix) women are presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that ,makes these conditions sexual. à ¾    Pornography is further defined as including à ¾the use of men, children, and transsexuals in the place of women.à ¾ It is also said somewhat cryptically that à ¾the definition does not include all sexually explicit depictions of the subordination of women. Now that we have a greater understanding at the true meaning of pornography, we should look at the radical feminist view on the harm that pornography can cause. Once again the highly acclaimed feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon says:    à ¾If pornography is an act of male supremacy, its harm is the harm of male supremacy made difficult to see because of its pervasiveness, potency, and success in making the world a pornographic place.

Benifits Of Scientific Knowledge On Health And Behavior :: essays research papers

Today we are relishing the ambrosial taste of the modern scientific technology and applications. Science and technologies are in the part of all human activities, from the houses that we live in, the food we eat, the cars we drive, and to the electronic gadgetry in almost every home that we use to remain informed and entertained. These all evidences show the blessings of scientific knowledge on humans. Before eighteenth century we were plunged in the depths of ignorance and unawareness of scientific knowledge. Without having an adequate scientific knowledge, our ancestors had buried their common senses deep under the mask of ignorant personalities but it was the scientific revolution in nineteenth century that unsheathed it and now we can see that the whole world is globalized due to this scientific revolution. Science has affected human life and culture in many ways and requires numerous books to discuss its impacts on us. So in this essay my goal is only to describe the impacts on health and behavior in comparison with the past and present. Before the revolutionary changes in early nineteenth century, health problems and a large number of fatal diseases gulped the whole community like a malicious dragon. The most common health problem was the numerous fatal diseases and epidemics. There was no cure for the most common diseases so these diseases always acted as a catastrophe. In those days emergence of an epidemic always proved as â€Å"Pandora’s Box† to the whole locality. At that moment average life span was thirty to forty years. Some common disease like Chicken pox, Measles, Typhoid and many different kinds of fevers had killed more than the present American population in last seven centuries through the whole planet. On the other hand if we analyze the ratio of mortality in year 1999 in comparison with the past, we would come to know that these diseases couldn’t affect more than some thousands of human lives. As the most descriptive condition of humans, health is very important factor for us. Wi thout health we can’t survive or by having a bad health we can’t reach the average human life span.After the scientific revolution, the scientific applications have led to the treatment of numerous fatal diseases and health problems and now we are able to increase the average life span to more than seventy years. Now we can treat those fatal epidemics that ruined the every human life in their way of city to city some centuries ago.

Khazars and Judaism

In his essay entitled â€Å"O dvoystvennosti verkhovnoy vlasti u khazarov†, Vasili V. Grigoriev described the Khazar as follows: â€Å"The Khazar people were an unusual phenomenon for Medieval times. Surrounded by savage and nomadic tribes, they had all the advantages of the developed countries: structured government, vast and prosperous trading, and a permanent army.At the time, when great fanatism and deep ignorance contested their dominion over Western Europe, the Khazar state was famous for its justice and tolerance. People persecuted for their faiths flocked into Khazaria from everywhere. As a glistening star it shone brightly on the gloomy horizon of Europe, and faded away without leaving any traces of existence.†This paper introduces to a reader who the Khazar people are and their role in Jewish history.Khazars and JudaismOriginally, the Khazars practiced Shamanism and phallic worship with the sky god Tengri as the focus. Subordinate Gods whom the Khazars worship ped include fertility  goddess  Umay,  Kuara, a thunder god, and  Erlik, the god of deathDue the persecution of Jews under Heraclius, Leo III, Justinian II and Romanos I, Jews fled to Khazaria. The Mazdak revolts also caused Jews from Persia to flee to Khazaria. It was said that Jewish merchants from this age regularly traded in Khazaria. They may have wielded strong econimic relations in Khazaria.Sometime in the 8th century or 9th, the Khazar royalty converted to Judaism and the most of the population followed. The reason for the conversion, as some historians say is that the King cannot anymore endure the nasty forms of sexual excesses of his people. King Bulan abolished shamanism and the worship of phallic objects. He decided against Christianity and Islam and selected Judaism.The King and his nobles were converted immediately by the rabbis from Babylonia. Phallic worship was then forbidden. Kings requested for rabbis to open schools and synagogues in the nation. Judaism has become the religion of Khazaria.The conversion of King Bulan started the new policy that only a Jew can occupy the Khazar throne. The kingdom became a theocracy where the leaders imposed religion as the guide to everyday life. Judaism provided not only religious but also civil laws.   

Argument Essay Essay

As students we all have been challenged to do our best. Throughout our lives we have been labeled with our grades; in high school, the ones with low grades were left alone in misery, while the ones with higher grades were praised as the leaders of this horse race. Then, the question that comes into mind is: is it right to categorize students, does grading contribute to educationa? It is assumed and stated in the philosophy of the current educational system that grading encourages learning and without it students would not study. That is far from being true and also expresses another flaw of our education system. The system is based on fear: the basic motive for students to study is fear of low grades. Furthermore, because the grades are the main criteria for passing courses, students do not study: they just develop methods of cheating. Thus, without learning the subject, they keep passing. Since grades received in exams are more important than learning the subject matter, all students have to do to pass their courses is memorize how a specific problem is solved. Without knowing why such a method is used, students cannot apply their ability to solve the problem to daily life. However, they pass exams without learning why, how or what of the matter. Another disadvantage of grading is that grades of a student are not updated. That means the grades of a student for the first year of school will still be valid in the last year, whether his knowledge about the subject has improved or deteriorated. Considering all the factors that affect a student’s exams and marks, even a small incident may have a great impact in the long run. Apart from these problems, which can be virtually solved by optimizing and improving the grading system, the most important defect of the system cannot be repaired without changing the whole system. The grading system causes inequalities, superior-inferior relations, classifications and even conflicts. It may be maintained that societies of the modern world are structured on these basic principles, but the fact that something exists does not justify it. Moreover, the people grown up in such an education system will not be able to see the other side of the walls, or will be afraid even to take a glimpse. To sum up, grading students is not a good practice and should be abolished. It is clear that education, especially education during childhood, has a great effect on one’s life. And if you bring the children up in conditions of conflict and competition, they will look for conflicts in the future too.

English Language Proficiency Essay

â€Å"English is the craziest language.† This tagline was made famous by the American author, speaker and teacher – Mr. Richard Lederer. His column, â€Å"Looking at Language†, is syndicated in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States. He has written more than 30 books, including Anguished English, Get Thee to a Punnery, Crazy English, A Man of My Words, The Word Circus, The Miracle of Language, The Cunning Linguist, Word Wizard, and Presidential Trivia. Known as a â€Å"verbivore†, a word he coined in the early 1980s, Lederer’s interests include uncovering word origins, pointing out common grammatical errors and fallacies, and exploring palindromes, anagrams, and other forms of recreational wordplay. We all know that English is the universal language and by means of this, we can easily communicate with other nationalities all over the world. Filipinos are known to be good English speakers and to start our training at an early age, schools all over the Philippines managed to have the English Policy. It wouldn’t be only a benefit for the students but for their teachers as well. Based on the past issues of ECHO, QCA already underwent a system in which the faculty club had been given a chance to go for an English training. Even the students actively participated in the said policy that they should speak English or else they will pay their penalty. It’s not about prohibiting us to use our native language but it helps us to become more confident in communicating with people. As an opening for the year 2013, ECHO wanted to know the voice of the students today regarding this matter. Would they still like the English Policy back to nurture their capabilities in this language? Let’s hear some of their opinions. â€Å"Indeed! As a student, I want to help my classmates and schoolmates to develop more about English grammar and communication. In this way we can improve our English skills,† Brian Caacbay of I – Agap A stated. John Karl de Jesus from IV – Abad Santos B said, â€Å"Yes, I still want the English Policy back in QCA because it helps students to develop their competence in the use of the certain language and to encourage positive attitudes towards learning it.† â€Å"For me it’s a yes, because it can help us to improve our grammar. It can also help us to speak more fluently in English,† Reign Mariano of I – Agap A remarked. Most of the students answered positively and this brings a great  opportunity to all of the QCAians. English may be a crazy language but it’s not that hard to learn as long as we are eager to do it for own good sake.

Injustice in the Education System Essay

Educational inequality takes place where the worth of education accessible to pupils is directly related to their class. Unequal allocation of resources to children with different socioeconomic status backgrounds has been linked to lower test scores and low college enrolment rates. However re cent researched proved that as of the moment there are three preeminent educational injustices that infects almost all kinds of education systems, and these are: Educational promotion inequalities (or) Arbitrary tracking systems, racial categorization (gender, geographic, institutional) and Displacement of control (misallocation, disproportion, unresponsive. ) In the U. S. , school quality and availability of resources are determined by the amount of funding that schools receive. The amount of funding schools receive is determined to a large extent by property taxes paid by homeowners; close to half of property taxes go to nearby school districts( Braddock,1990). Property tax dilemma The more affluent a neighborhood, the higher the property taxes, and the higher the funding for that school district is. Although this situation seems favorable, the problem emerges when the equation is reversed. In neighborhoods inhabited by predominantly working and lower class families, properties are less expensive, and so property taxes are much lower than those in affluent neighborhoods. Consequently, funding for the schools districts that working and lower class children are assigned to is also significantly lower than the funding for the school districts that children of affluent families are assigned to. Thus, students in working and lower class schools do not receive the same quality of education and access to resources as do students from affluent families. The reality of the situation is that distribution of resources for schools is based on the socioeconomic status of the parents of the students. As a result, the U. S. educational system significantly aids in widening the gap between the rich and the poor, a gap that has increased, rather than decreased, over the past few decades due to lack of social mobility (Haycock,1987). Wage gaps Wage gaps for paid work-one form of disadvantage and oppression based on gender- though slowly shrinking, persist in the united States and across the globe. Social mobility Social mobility refers to the movement in class status from one generation to another. It is related to the â€Å"rags to riches† notion that anyone, with hard work and determination, has the ability to move upward no matter what background they come from. Contrary to that notion, however, sociologists and economists have concluded that although exceptions are heard of, social mobility has remained stagnant and even decreased over the past thirty years (NEA, 1990). Some of the decrease in social mobility may be explained by the stratified educational system. Since the educational system forces low-income families to place their children into less-than-ideal school systems, those children are typically not presented with the same opportunities and educational motivation as are students from well-off families, resulting in patterns of repeated intergenerational educational choices for parent and child, also known as decreased or stagnant social mobility(Lareau, 2003). Other factors Social immobility expresses itself in lower class children who follow in the same footsteps as their parents, mainly not obtaining higher education. The result of such choices is that the poor remains poor and the rich go to college. Reasons for poor children opting to not pursue college range from a variety of different explanation. Lower class children have not grown up with the same expectations of life because these have not been instilled in them by their parents, or most importantly, by the educational system. The U. S. educational system fails its lower-income students by not providing them with the same access to resources and opportunities as it does to its more affluent students. Furthermore, several studies have shown that programs such as gifted education and tracking (education) further manage to separate those with higher level skills from those with lower level skills, which often happens to be the rich from the poor. In fact, the vast majority of children in gifted student programs happen to be middle-class Caucasian. This is not to say that poor students are not as smart as rich students, but it does imply that they have not received the same opportunities in childhood to develop certain skills. Middle and upper class students grow up with parents who foster their intellectual and educational development by engaging in a child raising approach known as concerted cultivation. This approach values education and learning, and parents engaged in this form of parenting value visits to the museum, extracurricular activities, homework, tutoring, and reading to their children. Furthermore, middle and upper-class parents can afford to place their children in significantly better childcare centers before they enter grade school. As the Carolina Abecedarian Project (below) found, these are essential elements in future educational and life successes. Evidence for the unequal distribution of college students’ socioeconomic status can be seen by examining college enrollment rates and demographics. One study examined the top 146 colleges in America and found that the average student representation on the colleges was the following: 75% of students came from socioeconomic backgrounds consistent with the richest 25% of the population. Less than 5% of students came from the poorest 25% of the population (Leonhardt, & Scott,2005). Zoning as a new injustice PS 194, the Countee Cullen School, is nestled in the heart of Harlem in Community School District Five, one of the poorer districts in New York City. On March 20, it was the scene of a tense hearing. The full school auditorium was fiercely divided into two camps — on the one side, parents of PS 194 students fighting to keep their neighborhood school open, and on the other side, Eva Moskowitz and her supporters demanding that the entire building be turned over to her Harlem Success Academies. Behind that conflict was the New York City Department of Education — and not just because it was the DOE which was planning to replace PS 194 entirely with one of Moskowitz’s schools. There is a long and sordid record of DOE neglect and underfunding of PS 194 — it had one of the largest class sizes in CSD 5 and on average 7 more students per class than Moskowitz’s schools — and of the imposition of a series of ineffectual principals — five over the last five years. Yet despite all that, PS 194 was a school that had met its Annual Yearly Progress Benchmarks under No Child Left Behind and was in good standing with the New York State Education Department until last school year. And still the DOE has decided to close it down based solely on the school’s failing grade on the city’s School Progress Reports. One can not help but wonder if that is a decision being made not on academic merit, but out of a desire to create new space for the schools of a politically powerful former city councilwoman (Gootman, E. & Gebeloff, 2008). On March 17 of this week, parents of students from PS 194, together with parents of students from two other New York City public schools — PS 241 in Harlem and PS 150 in Ocean Hill-Brownsville — joined representatives of the Community Education Councils for those schools, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the UFT in filing suit against the Department of Education over its plans to close all three schools and replace them entirely with charter schools. The law suit charges that by closing these three schools and not replacing them with new district schools, the DOE is illegally eliminating the school attendance zone for the three schools. All zoning changes must, by statute, go through the Community Education Councils for the district. PS 194, PS 241 and PS 150 have a few things in common. First, they serve a significantly poorer student body than the rest of their district and the city as a whole — one of the schools, PS 150, has 97% of its students receiving free lunches. Second, they have significant numbers of English Language Learners in their student population — one of the schools has as many as 1 in 5 students in that category. And lastly, two of the three schools —PS 150 as well as PS 194 — were meeting their Annual Yearly Benchmarks under No Child Left and were in good standing with the State Education Department through 07-08. The third school — PS 241 — went from a ‘B’ on its NYC School Progress Report last year to a ‘D’ this year, meaning that the decision to close it was based on a single year’s drop in test scores. These schools and their neighborhoods need additional supports and resources, not the abolition of the neighborhood school (Walker, 1986). So what can be done to create this open contest? First I say we need to educate teachers on the cultures of the children they will teach, and to break down old stereotypes and biases. Teachers need to believe that all students can learn in order to make a difference; student motivation isn’t the only factor. Tracking needs to be reworked into something that takes advantage of its strengths, such as offering a faster pace for those who can handle it, but doesn’t limit those who fall into lower tracks. Most important is that schools need to mix students of different races and abilities. By mixing races in classrooms, the schools will help educate students about each other’s cultures and reduce racial tension in society, and by mixing students of different abilities lower tracks will keep up with upper tracks. Black students have been held behind for too long, and this is what needs to be done to let them back into the open contest (Epps, 1970). Privileges are preserved Why are students from privileged backgrounds more successful in schooling, and why do these advantages persist over time? WCER researcher Adam Gamoran says economic, cultural, and social differences combine to preserve privilege across generations. Signs of change in economic inequalities affecting schooling are modest. Policymakers increasingly recognize that unequal school financing across school districts is unfair, and some are taking steps to reduce these inequalities. But this trend will do little to reduce the major advantages students from families with more economic resources have over students from families with fewer resources. The most important resources tend to operate at the individual level, so they are unaffected by changes in the redistribution of collective funds for education (Gamoran, 2001). Gamoran says it’s difficult to predict how a rigorous system of testing on a national scale will affect trends in educational equity. In the short term, using a standardized test as the sole criterion for high school graduation would drastically reduce rates of high school completion among Blacks of all social classes. Why? Because among Whites and Blacks of the same social class, Whites tend to have higher test scores. Economically disadvantaged students would also be adversely affected. In the long run, however, assessments incorporating higher standards could further reduce educational inequality between Blacks and Whites if †¢ the tests were used to (a) bring about a more standardized curriculum, (b) foster a greater emphasis on learning opportunities as well as outcomes, and (c) increase incentives for schools to support minority student learning by heightening awareness of, and accountability for, unequal outcomes; and †¢ the tests did not serve as the sole criterion for high school graduation. (Gamoran, 2001). The pressure for testing and accountability is strong. If implemented in such a way as to enhance rather than restrict opportunity, testing may accelerate the trend toward the equalization of educational outcomes across racial groups. (Gamoran, 2001). Bibliography Braddock, J. (1990). â€Å"Tracking: Implications for Student Race-Ethnic Subgroups† Feb 1990, Microfiche ED 325 600 Epps, E. (1970). â€Å"Race, Intelligence, and Learning: Some Consequence of the Misuse of Test Results† Aug 1970, Microfiche ED 048 423 Gamoran, A. (2001). Sociology of Education, Extra Issue (2001), pp. 135–153 Gootman, E. & Gebeloff, R. (2008). Gifted programs are less diverse. New York Times Haycock, K. (1987). â€Å"Promising Practices: Equality, Relevance, and Race† Nov 87, Microfiche ED 294 950 Kenyon, D. A. (2007). The property tax school funding dilemma. Policy Focus Report, The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. http://www. lincolninst. edu/pubs/pubdetail. aspx? pubid=1308 Kuydendall, C. (1989). â€Å"Improving Black Student Achievement by Enhancing Students’ Self Image† 1989, Microfiche ED 325 594 Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. University of California Press: Berkley Leonhardt, D. & Scott, J. (2005). Class matters: Shadowy lines that still divide. New York Times. http://www. nytimes. com/2005/05/15/national/class/OVERVIEW-FINAL. html NEA. (1990). â€Å"Academic Tracking: Report of the NEA Executive Committee/ Subcommittee on Academic Tracking†Microfiche ED 322 642 Sizemore, B. (1987). â€Å"Developing Effective Instructional Programs† Nov 1987, Microfiche ED 294 950 Walker, E. (1986). â€Å"The Impact of Schooling on Minority Adolescents’ Mobility Aspirations† Apr 1986, Microfiche ED 270 535