Post high school through adulthood Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Post high school through adulthood - Article Example Unemployment has a strong impact in individual development since it directly affects one’s means of living. Without a stable job, an individual’s capacity to grow is suppressed because of the limited capacity to endeavor on activities that might strengthen a person’s personal disposition and social interaction. For instance, a jobless student would either drop out from school if there really is no chance of getting work to support tuition fees. Some would also dismiss getting into hobbies or sports activities since these are added costs on leisure. Since unemployment is a worldwide issue for several years now due to the current economic crisis, the bearing of this issue if felt by almost everyone particularly of the working class. Personally, the decreasing unemployment rate affects me in a way that the opportunities for me in getting a stable job in the future after my studies is scarce and therefore a great challenge to deal with. Every year, thousands of new graduates are facing the same problem and worse, there is no guarantee that the number of work available for the whole population will expand and stabilize. Hence, the government must develop policies to strengthen the economy by providing enough jobs for its people and increase trade and investment programs. Gilger, Mark Jr. (August 4, 2012). County employment rate increases in June. The Republican Herald. Retrieved from

Change Management in the Learning Organization Essay Example for Free

Change Management in the Learning Organization Essay In this paper I intend to discuss change management approaches that support the learning organization philosophy. The learning organization is defined as an organization that acquires knowledge and innovates fast enough to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing environment. Learning organizations (1) create a culture that encourages and supports continuous employee learning, critical thinking, and risk taking with new ideas, (2) allow mistakes, and value employee contributions, (3) learn from experience and experiment, and (4) disseminate the new knowledge throughout the organization for incorporation into day-to-day activities. On the other hand we have a process called change management which is defined as minimizing resistance to organizational change through involvement of key players and stakeholders. At my organization these two go hand in hand and it allows for us as a company to experience constant growth and development of our staff. Our employees are more willing to welcome change when we train them in the process. As businesses moves through the 21st century, they are becoming more dependent upon their managers to be change agents. These companies actually seek managers who can bring success to their organizations. Three of the characteristics we look for in our new managers are they must have the ability to stimulate change, excellent planning capabilities, and ethics. Over the years I have spent in management I have learned that success in  becoming a learning organization relies on a commitment to learning on the part of the organizations I have worked for and the willingness of the individuals involved to be receptive to the change process. As a manager, what we usually can change falls into basically three categories; people, structure, or technology. An efficient manager will make alterations in these areas in an attempt to facilitate change. With people the change involves adjusting attitudes, expectations, perceptions, and probably most importantly behavior. Coaching people to adjust in these areas will help employees within the organization to work together more effectively. Changing structure relates to the job design, specialization, hierarchy and any other structural variables. These usually need to be flexible and non-static in order to be adaptable to change. When dealing with technological change we are looking at modifying work processes and methods along with the introduction of new equipment. To me learning organizations support the change process just as much as change management supports the learning organization philosophy. I say that because every change calls for some sort of learning as the more comprehensive the change the more attention we have to place on learning for the individuals involved in the change. By utilizing the learning organizations philosophies companies including the one I work for are able to magnify the potential of its employees which keeps them growing. References www.businessdictionary.com www.morfconsulting.com Learning in action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work/ David A. Garvin

steroid testing :: essays research papers

Steroids   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Picture this. You’re watching your favorite baseball player at the plate and the pitch comes and he absolutely crushes the ball strait out of the park; but the next day there is a big investigation and your favorite player is caught having used an illegal steroid to enhance his play. You hope the news isn’t true but the evidence is over whelming. Your favorite baseball player broke the rules and is a cheater (Brown). This terrible scenario can easily be a future reality if steroid testing doesn’t begin regularly. In baseball the owner is allowed to test for steroids once a season and that’s all that is mandatory (Shaikin). This interests me because some of my favorite athletes in several sports are being accused of cheating the game and I just simply want the truth. Fans over the country agree that there should be more steroid testing, to get rid of the cheaters, but more importantly people believe they need more testing to help save li ves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For instance, many people will be in favor of more steroid testing because they want all the dishonest players out. People want the competition and the level of play fair. Nobody wants to have a league where 90% of the players follow the rules and workout and mold there body bodies by using hard work, and see the other ten percent just simply take a quick injection of some steroid and have there bodies bigger and faster than the rest (Shaikin). Next, and overwhelmingly people want previous records and accomplishments stricken from the record if that person is taking steroids. For example,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   take a player like Sanfrancisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who had 73 home runs in a single season a few years ago and people want him tested for steroids (Brown). It raises a good point. If players have nothing to hide then why not test them. The players seem to have all the control on if they should be testes or not, but people forget that it’s the owners and the league that decide the policies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Still, and most importantly the main reason athletes should be tested is for their safety. For example, if a player uses steroids there a number of side effects. They can get liver cancer, cardiovascular problems, sterility, and testicular atrophy (Miller). In fact, withdrawal from steroids is almost as bad as taking steroids.

Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed 1998 war film Saving Private Ryan tells the story of the search for Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), an American soldier missing in Normandy, France, during the Second World War. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) receives orders to assemble a group of soldiers to find the fourth son of the Ryan family, who have received notification on the same day of the death of three of their sons while in action. The film opens with an aged veteran visiting the American Cemetery in Normandy with his wife, children and grandchildren. He falls to his knees and breaks down in tears at the graveside of a fallen comrade. The film then cuts to a twenty-five minute sequence which has become the focus of much close analysis and critical commentary. The reconstruction of the US landings on Omaha Beach on the 6 June 1944, at the beginning of the Normandy invasion, places the viewer at the centre of the bloody onslaught, as machine-guns fire mercilessly into the bodies of the soldiers as they make they way forward into German defences. Bodies are ripped apart (a soldier holds his exposed intestines), limbs fly in the air (a soldier bends down to pick up his lost arm), bodies catch fire, and the ceaseless unnerving rattle of gun fire, represent a stunningly powerful and vivid experience for the film’s viewers. â€Å"The intense and fearful exhilaration created by a freely and rapidly moving camera is central. The graphic realism of the sequence; with the continuous jerky movement of hand-held cameras, capturing the madness and confusion of the battle; and the painstaking attention to gory detail, with blood and water splashing the camera lens, was to be heralded by many as one of Spielberg’s defining cinematic achievements. Hendrik Hertzberg wrote on the film’s release in ‘The New Yorker’: â€Å"What makes â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† utterly distinctive is the sense that it has no agenda other than to capture the experience of being a combat soldier in the last global war. The vivid depiction of death and injury experienced by Captain Miller, as he succeeds in leading his company of Rangers at Omaha Beach, sets the tone for the remaining two hours of the film, as the viewer follows him in his next mission to find and return James Ryan to his mother. Captain Miller assembles seven men for the task, and the soldiers move into Normandy’s neighbouring Neuville. Private Carpazo (Vin Diesel) is the group’s first victim, when he is shot dead by a German sniper. With tempers fraying and internal mistrust building, the locating of James Frederick Ryan, the wrong soldier, leads to further dissent. However Captain Miller finally discovered Ryan’s whereabouts, in Ramelle, following a chance meeting with one of his friends. On the way to Ryan the soldiers loose their second victim, Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), and Miller’s leadership is again questioned when he prevents a surrendered German being shot by one of his men, named Reiben, (Edward Burns), and sets him free. Captain Miller succeeds in reasserting trust, confidence and comradeship in the group by revealing personal details about his past and origins, including his position as an English teacher. Susan Hayward writes: â€Å"the gore of war is matched by the unheralded heroism of an individual who stands for humanity. † When the group of remaining soldier finally reach Ramelle they find American paratroopers, including Ryan, defending the town from advancing German troops with very few soldiers. When told of their mission, and the death of his brothers, Ryan refuses to stand down, instead courageously heading for the bridge which will need to be held, asking Miller and his men to join him. As the German tanks arrive, Miller reluctantly agrees and takes command of the few soldiers. Heavily outnumbered, malnourished and exhausted, most of Captain Miller’s men are fatally injured. Spielberg again graphically visualises the horror of war as one man is stabbed, another shot in the throat, and another shot down with repeated unrelenting gun fire. Spielberg uses camera distancing and focal points as a means to involve the viewer within the frantic action of this battle sequence. The knowledge that somewhere above snipers prey on the men is constantly drawn upon. Captain Miller himself is eventually shot down and soon dies in the arms of Ryan as backup arrives too late from another American infantry. The town is saved, but only three men, including Ryan, survive. As the film ends the veteran at the graveside of Captain Miller is revealed to be James Ryan. He stands to attention and salutes the American flag, which lies on the grave, acknowledging his comrade’s sacrifice and honour in his own and his country’s name. Saving Private Ryan received much critical acclaim, including eleven Academy Award nominations. Steven Spielberg achieved the Best Director award, Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and film editor Michael Kahn’s contribution to the film’s brutal realism was also acknowledged by the Academy. Produced with an estimated budget of â€Å"$70 000 000† Saving Private Ryan was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures, and distributed by Spielberg’s Production Company DreamWorks, andmade â€Å"$30, 576, 104† on its opening weekend alone. The continued popularity of the film, by audiences and critics, and what has led many to label the film as the best War film ever made, is attributable to the timelessness of the visual effects and memorable scenes (most notably the opening Omaha sequence, and the final battle for the bridge). The historical accuracy and artistic license of the film has been invariably considered in the decade following the release of Saving Private Ryan, but the consensus is that the style and form of the film ensure a powerful and captivating, if harrowing, experience for any viewer. It is a film which places audiences at the centre of the narrative; viewers are â€Å"encouraged to review and consider what they see- and, if point-of-view matters, to contemplate why. † As with his earlier graphic Holocaust film Schindler’s List (1993), Steven Spielberg ambition is to exceed visual entertainment, using reconstructive dramatisation as a means to ‘experience’ the unimaginable in a wholly believable way.

“Good Country people” and “Where are you going, Where have you been?” Essay

There are many similarities between the short stories â€Å"Good Country People† and â€Å"Where are you going, Where have you been?†, most notably their characters. Both stories contain a female protagonist, and a male antagonist, whose confrontations start out relatively normal, and progress to more and more surreal and twisted endings. Their main characters, Hulga and Connie, are shockingly similar, and yet strangely different, one a 15 year old wishing to be older and beautiful, the other a bitter 32 year old, wishing to be younger and ugly. These stories tell the tales of impressionable young women who are tempted by the delights of strange men, only to prove to themselves in the end how naive they really are. In â€Å"Where are you going, Where have you been?†, Connie starts out as most teenage girls seemingly would – she wants to be more daring, to appear older, to experience more of the world. She sneaks away from childish pursuits, to the teenage or adult world, to drink and kiss boys rather than shop for school clothes, to see movies in a steamy car instead of in a theater. She talks of being beautiful as if it were her only good grace – beauty, to her, is the ultimate goal. She wants to be older, and more beautiful, and this is her downfall. Her foolishness, and her naivety is what appeals to Arnold Friend in the first place. Arnold Friend, a stranger, appeals to her early on in the story. He is older, more powerful, and smarter. She is frightened, of course, but intrigued, and it is her yearning for the adult world, and the adult life, that, in the end, causes her downfall. She is suckered in by the convincing conman who uses his words to appeal to her weaknesses. She is tricked into being what Arnold wants her to be by his smooth words and his faà §ade of confidence. She’s toyed with, played for the naà ¯ve fool she is, who is far too young for the world she wants to be a part of. Only at the very end of the story does she begin to realize what she has gotten herself into. She shows her true colors once she is confronted. In â€Å"Good Country People†, Joy is a relatively normal girl with some not-too-normal problems. For one thing, her leg got blown off when she was younger in a bizarre hunting accident. This physical change made her completely self conscious, and essentially ruined her life. She could no  longer be happy being herself, because she sees herself as true ugliness now. Thus, she feels forced to make herself what she thinks she is. She hates beauty now, and changes everything about her to seem ugly. She’s been to college, and yet still acts childish. She’s trying to be young, and ugly. And Manley Pointer notices this quality of her, and takes advantage of her. No matter how ugly she tries to be, he still tries to (or at least pretends to) like her for who she is. Hulga is, regardless of her ugly campaign, extremely flattered, and lets her guard down long enough for Manley to get away with her glasses, her leg, and more importantly, her dignity. She is also played f or a fool based completely on her own insecurities. She too is a victim of a conman who notices that things aren’t always what they seem. Connie and Hulga are very similar, as characters, and yet very different all the same. They both have their insecurities, and they are both easily preyed on by conmen and smooth talkers, but their insecurities are in entirely different realms. They both want what the other has, and due to this, they are constantly trying to be someone else, not themselves, and this is what makes them so easy to attack. They don’t know who they really are, and they think they want to be something else. This naivety is their downfall – they pretend to be something else, join a group they shouldn’t be in, and they are tempted by the men in these groups. But, when the tables turn, and their men aren’t what they appear to be, Connie and Hulga revert completely, from relatively confident phonies to sniveling little girls, helpless and hopeless, in their fake lives. These two women are seemingly innocent, random bystanders picked by older smarter conmen. However, one could easily hold them responsible for their own fates. Not that the victim in a crime is to blame, but, honestly, if you leave your car door open, with the keys inside, and the motor running, while you go inside a store for a few hours, how can you possibly seem shocked when it gets stolen? These two women, whether they believe it or not, are waving hundreds of flags at these conmen – â€Å"Please target me!†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"Take my leg!†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ By openly flaunting their insecurities and by allowing themselves to be charmed to the point of trusting the conmen, they are, if not wholly, then at least partially responsible for their own fates. They reached their  own conclusions, and they got what they deserved. Connie and Hulga are the same person, essentially – a woman with different problems wishes to be something that they are not, and wiser and smoother conmen see this, and take advantage of them. In the end, they are proven to be the phonies that they really are, and are left more vulnerable, and more open, than they were before they tried to infiltrate the world in which they didn’t belong. If there were a shared moral to these stories, and there is most definitely not an obvious one, they’d both be somewhere along the lines of â€Å"Be happy with what you have, because you might not belong anywhere else†, and in the cases of Connie and Hulga, this moral fits perfectly. They are the same person with different circumstances, and they are so easily preyed on by the wiser smoother conman. As these stories blatantly state, be happy with what you have. You might not fit anywhere else, and one day, someone might just call you on your bluff, to disastrous conseque nces.