A Beautiful Mind Characterization and Dialogue

Writing Portfolio The 2001 biopic/drama film ‘A Beautiful Mind’, directed by Ron Howard is a prime example of a text in which visual and verbal techniques are used to develop the personality of a character. An important job for the director of any film is to establish a framework and personality for the protagonist. ‘A Beautiful Mind’ is no different, and visual and verbal techniques are used effectively to develop the personality of John Nash.But because Ron Howard is dealing with a very complex character in the form of a paranoid schizophrenic mathematician, his personality is forever changing and the differing film techniques achieve this. As this film is a biopic/drama drawn into one, the viewer follows Nash’s life over a number of years. Nash faces many tricky dilemmas and the way he deals with these situations are conveyed to the audience, using these film techniques. Nash (who is portrayed by Russell Crowe) changes drastically throughout the te xt, because he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.Director Ron Howard uses the technique of ‘characterisation’ to adapt his personality in different ways. Throughout the text, the viewer is introduced to several ‘imaginary characters’, who are in fact delusional figures created by Nash. The first component of the ‘characterisation’ technique is when director Ron Howard chooses to introduce these characters. Often injected at great times of stress for Nash, the delusion characters normally create further dispute between Nash and his real life companions.An important stage of the text is just after the climax, where Howard chooses to include and remove Nash’s best friend Charles (in the form of the actor). Nash is preparing a bath for his baby son, while wife Alicia is outside tending to the washing outside. But because Nash suffers from schizophrenia, he is delusional and believes his friend Charles is watching the baby. For the viewer, all that is witnessed is the baby lying in the bath, crying it’s lungs out as water seeps over its head. Nash’s personality is developed negatively in this scene. For the viewer, Nash is developed negatively because of these delusions.The delusions put his baby sons life at risk, and also cause a further rift between Nash and his wife Alicia. In earlier scenes, Nash’s friend Charles was in fact present to the viewer in the form of the actor (portrayed by Paul Bettany). The effort to include the actor in these earlier scenes is a bid by the director to create the same realism for Nash, as for the audience. But in later scenes, the removal of Bettany and other cast members changes the viewer’s perspective of this protagonist. As the actor is no longer present, the viewer is forced to side with Alicia in thinking John Nash is delusional.The viewer here, is easily able to pin point the affects that paranoid schizophrenia has on Nash, and other sufferers of th at disorder. Characterisation is important, as in these later scene his personality is changed into a very confused man. The confident, charming and intelligent John Nash of Princeton University is instantly transformed personality due to the including and removing of key characters. These key characters not only include Charles, but also his niece Marcee and Special Forces Operative William Pacher. Dialogue is another technique (this time verbal) which is important in developing the personality of character John Nash.Director Ron Howeard opts to portray Nash as an arrogant and scornful outsider in the opening scenes of the film. During these stages, dialogue is crucial to develop this personality. â€Å"There must be some mathematical formula for how bad that tie is†, Nash statesto a fellow student on his first day at Princeton. While later, he criticises his co-recipient scholarship winner Martin Hansen by announcing â€Å"There isn’t one seminal or innovative ideaà ¢â‚¬  in either of his pre-prints. These quotes are just two extracts of dialogue from the early scenes of the text which develop this arrogant and scornful personality.As the text continues and his problems with schizophrenia are developed, the idea of Nash being an outsider is put in place. Another form of dialogue is important in the closing scenes of the text. Nash’s personality has transformed remarkably from his younger days. In his elder years, he is back teaching at Princeton. Nash is a much more mellow man in these scenes and dialogue is again used as a technique to develop this personality. After being nominated for the Nobel Prize, Nash concludes during his reception speech. â€Å"Perhaps it’s good to have a beautiful mind, but it’s an even greater gift to discover a beautiful heart†.This piece of dialogue is essential in reflecting the more mellow character that Ron Howard chooses to develop. In earlier scens, Nash is arrogant, scornful and p re-occupied to solve an innovative maths formula. Combined with his schizophrenia, this results in Nash being regarded as an outsider. In these times, he is greatly supported by his wife Alicia, as she deals with his mental disorder also. By Nash saying ‘an even greater gift is to have a beautiful heart†, proves that does identify the most important thing in life, which is his family.His eternal love for Alicia and their son, is more important than solving mathematical formulas, and his dialogue re-iterates this changed persona. No longer is Nash a scornful outsider, and his great love for Alicia (in which he again displays) is seen more favourably by the viewers of the text and develops a nicer personality of Nash. All respect to Russell Crowe, who portrays the life of a paranoid schizophrenic fantastically, it’s the crucial visual and verbal techniques implemented by the director that implement this. Nash’s personality is troubled and he is presented as d angerous during the bath scene with his son.By the removal of actors playing the delusional characters in the film, the viewer is truly able to see how disdurbed Nash is because of his illness. While the dialogue is unsed in the opening an clothing scenes to change Nash’s personality from an outsider, to a more open and affectionate man. Nash’s personality in the earlier scenes, is probably related to schizophrenia in general. People who suffer from the illness are often felt alone and compainionless. Ron Howard’s ability to truly reflect the persona of a PSD sufferer is important. In later scenes, Nash is drastically changed and no longer scene as an outsider.This transformed personality is the result of careful and meaningful dialogue in the test. This would relate to Nash being much softer in the closing scenes towards both his wide and the wider society he lives in. This re-iterates the importance of language techniques and how they can be used to show a cha racters position amongst a community. Nash who in the beginning is established as an outsider, becomes a much more balanced man , involved in the Princeton community. Dialogue is just one of these techniques used to develop the character of John Nash effectively.

Holy The Firm by Annie Dillard Essay

​â€Å"Death of a Moth† is a short essay from the author, Annie Dillard, called Holy the Firm, and also one of her most personal essay that she’s ever written. It is about the burning moths, her belief in God, and acceptance of her faith to being a writer. She uses the death of the moths to tell us nature’s cycle of life. Everything is the same, human and animal, life and death. In the end, they will all end up like the moth being burned up by candle light. ​In the essay of Annie Dillard, Death of a Moth, she writes about a woman who lives alone on Northern Puget South in Washington State, with one enormous window, one cat, and one spider(2). She has a flashback about two summers ago when she tried to run away from society to read and write her book, To Mountain. She tries to find herself to becoming a writer. She wants to leave the world behind and enjoy herself alongside animal and nature. She sees a moth landing on her candle light and gets burnt. She, then, describes the moth in such realistic ways which remind the readers about nature’s cycle of life. As she looks at the moth, she falls asleep. ​In the essay, the author has mentioned in her class about â€Å"you must go at your life with a broadax† (10). In theory, a broadax is a weapon or a tool used to chop down trees. At this point, Annie wants to explain to her class if you want to be something or get something in your life, you have to be willing to overcome anything to be able to get what you want. Your life is like a battle. When in battle, you need to equip yourself with a broadax, and be prepared to fight and struggle. In addition, it also shows you are willing to hack down at anything standing in your way. In practice, students also face the same situation. They try their best to overcome obstacles teachers give them to be able to pass their classes. ​In â€Å"Death of a Moth† essay, Annie Dillard tells us about nature’s cycle of life. Everything will have the same ending, being born, living for a certain period of time, and then dying. The same as the moths or ephemera stabs by fire. George has mentioned about significance of butterfly to her moths essay by posting his post on bookcritics.org(5). I would say that butterfly is the most beautiful insect I have even known. To be obtaining this beauty, it also has suffered so many miseries. It has to endured ninety months to a year in a cocoon, then it breaks pupa without any help, and transforms to a beautiful butterfly. The pity is it only lives for 3 days or a month, depending on what type it is. From the butterfly example, effort is what we can’t lack in our life. If we live without any obstacles, we will never learn or become stronger like a butterfly’s ability to break cocoon and fly up high. ​It can be seen that Annie Dillard is focusing more about the nature’s cycle life and also, expressing her effort to being a writer. She uses the moths as an example to describe her idea about nature to the readers, which is accept faith and move on with your life. In my own opinion, I would recommend or love to hear the significance of butterfly in her moth essay than reading about the moth being burned by the candle light. It was not a waste of time to write an essay about a moth, but replacing the moth to a more gracious creature like a butterfl y would better capture the audience.

Project Portfolio Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Project Portfolio Management - Essay Example According to Todd (2003) having a strong program for portfolio management can significantly lower risks and maximize the value of projects. It can strengthen communications between projects teams business leadership, encourage teamwork & responsibility in management of projects, permit efficient scheduling of project resources and eliminate project redundancy. The ultimate result is profitability and maximum value out of projects. It is crucial to follow best practices and key steps of project management. Firstly it is important to have an inventory of projects so as to have all the projects the organization is running in a single database. Second is to identify those projects matching strategic business objectives and then categorize the projects based on their scores. It is also crucial to proactively manage the projects and identify potential hurdles in good time. The article is very useful especially to persons involved in project management. While the author appreciates there one specific approach to portfolio project management, he points pins out aligning projects with strategy and embracing best practices as key success factors. The article also maps important activities that must be implemented while managing projects and therefore the information is very useful to project management teams but also business leaders and students of

Non-Verbal Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Non-Verbal Communication - Essay Example It is a fact that the nonverbal communication presents the truth in entirety and nothing else. Nonverbal communication is pertinent since it is now being studied by people more than the verbal form of communication and it has more meaning and implication than the latter. Thus it is a wholly different field altogether and one that requires strict attention, more so by the speakers and those personalities who have a definitive say within the society’s different undertakings and decisions. Nonverbal communication started to come to the notice of people when they understood that it aids in making the clarity of the verbal communication possible. Thus nonverbal communication is cohesive alongside the verbal form of communication. It gives the people something to ponder upon since the facilitation process of nonverbal communication is strong in line with the verbal communication forms. ... Nonverbal communication could be studied in entirely an opposite manner since the usual manner in which a person might exhibit his verbal form of communication ends up being starkly against what he demonstrates in his nonverbal form. What this means is that a person might experience a bit of problem at the hands of expressing his mind and his tongue would say one thing while his hands and eyes transmit a completely different message. The element of understanding how a person makes use of his nonverbal communication regimes is essential for the audience since it presents to him the amount of truth which comes to the fore as well as deceit and lie that is hidden deep beneath the very same. Also nonverbal communication was deemed as important from the studying and understanding perspective when it started to have an impact within the lives of the people in a very direct way. What this means was the fact that nonverbal communication makes a presenter look different and stand out in his o wn right within the people to whom he is presenting his message. It could also mar his confidence and make him look illogical and irrational at the same time. This happens if he is not prepared to face the battle that comes his way in the form of the communication process. The tension that one goes through whilst delivering a public speech summarizes the fears that a commoner might have on a consistent basis. Nonverbal Communication Elements and Metaphors Moving further ahead with the discussion, the different elements of nonverbal communication include the gestures, emotions, actions, body language, posture, facial expressions, eye contact and so on.

Business Ethics and Virtue Ethics MOD 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Ethics and Virtue Ethics MOD 3 - Essay Example If a person is not courageous, for instance, he will not overcome the difficulties inherent in the practice of any virtue† (Pury & Lopez, 2010). In simple words, it implies doing what one knows he has to do no matter how demanding or complicated it might seem. Courage takes a number of forms. Examples incorporate the courage to stand for what is true, the courage deal with a personal apprehension, the courage to admit disrespect, the courage to tolerate physical or emotional hurt for self-development, the courage to move ahead through disappointment, and many more. Virtue of Honesty The virtue of honesty is defined as the negation to false reality, that is, â€Å"to pretend that facts are other than they are† (Roberts & Woods, 2010). According to Peikoff, honesty consists of taking the procedure of cognition sincerely, creating an active psyche, and looking for knowledge because one wants it to proceed appropriately rather than making an impression on others. Honesty is linked with the value it tries to achieve because such value should symbolize truth, it cannot be faked. From this perspective, virtues are depicted with respect to what is better for individuals: Virtues are not their own incentive or a type of self-anguish, but a â€Å"selfish necessity in the process of achieving values† (Roberts & Woods, 2010). A virtue such as honesty is not only an inclination to do what is truthful, nor is it to be supportively identified as an advantageous or ethically important character’s attribute. It is certainly a character attribute - that is, a disposition that is deep-rooted within its owner. An honest individual's motives as well as preferences, with respect to honest and dishonest behavior, reveal his views regarding honesty and genuineness - but naturally such views manifest themselves with regard to other behaviors and to emotional responses also. Virtue of Justice While speaking of justice as a virtue, one is usually indicating tow ards a quality of individuals, even if considering the justice of individuals as having some indication towards social justice. Plato treats justice as an â€Å"overarching virtue† (Sandel, 2010) of people as well as of societies, signifying that more or less all issues he would consider as ethical appeared under the perception of justice. However, in contemporary practices, justice includes just a part of individual integrity, and one does not readily imagine people as unjust if they lie. Plato knows individual justice on equivalence with â€Å"justice writ large in the state† (Sandel, 2010), however, he considers the state, or democracy, as a form of organism or beehive, and the justice of people is not thought of as mainly involving orthodoxy to just organizations as well as regulations. Instead, the just person is someone whose psyche is directed by a revelation of the Good, someone in whom rationale rules enthusiasm and aspiration through this sort of a vision. Su ch a formation of individual justice is virtue ethical since it connects justice (or behaving in a just manner) to an inner condition of the person instead of the loyalty to social standards or to good outcomes. Plato and Aristotle both were rationalists because they consider human understanding and ethical causes; in addition, what they state

Agency and business organizations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Agency and business organizations - Assignment Example The type of a business organization determines how it is operated and managed. The different types of business ventures have different structures and are differently managed. The laws that govern their operations also have some little differences. Examples of business organizations include: sole proprietorships, franchises, partnerships, limited liability partnership, limited liability companies, joint venture, syndicate, joint stock companies, business trusts, cooperatives and corporations. Sole proprietorship A sole proprieto0rship is a form of business entity that is formed and managed by one person. This business has the advantage of simplicity information, as it does not require long formation procedures. The owner also has the advantage of enjoying all the profits and faster decision making. Moreover, sole proprietorship businesses also have the advantage of tax simplicity and the owner will not be required to make complex tax return to the authorities (Bouchoux, 2007). Despite the advantages, sole proprietorship business also suffers from several drawbacks. First, this form of business entity faces challenges in acquisition of capital for its projects. The major drawback of this business however is the fact that the owner has unlimited liability on the losses and risk of the business. The owner and the business is the same entity and therefore losses and risks of the business are completely borne by the sole owner. In addition, sole proprietors businesses face management problems, as the owner has to work for many hours and sometimes lack the skills required in managing the business (Bouchoux, 2007). ... Partnership businesses have the advantage of easy procedures in formation, combined skills, and efforts, ease of raising more funds from the partners and the moral support from the members in the partnership. The partners can therefore share the risk and losses that might arise from the operation. The various limitation of partnership business include: long procedures in making decisions as all the partners have to be consulted, partners are also individually responsible for the actions of other partners. Moreover, partnership business involves the sharing of profits, unlimited liability on the partners and limited lifespan (Markman & Lesonsky, 2010). The death or disagreements can always result into the dissolution of the business. Limited liability partnership LLP is a form of business organization that has the characteristics of both a partnership and a limited liability company. In LLP, the partners’ liability is limited and the partners are not liable for the action of ot her partners. The partnership will remain liable on its assets and the LLP is considered a different entity. This form of business organization has the advantage of limited liability on the partners and the flexibility in operation just like in the general partnership. LLP the disadvantage of difficulty in the formation and in the filing of returns. This makes the business be complex to manage and operate. The government might also closely monitor the operation of the partnership. Limited liability Company This is a form of business organization in which the owners have limited liability and blends the characteristics of both partnerships and corporate structures. The business is a separate legal entity and the members’ liability is limited to the proportion of the unpaid shares.

Every religion or belief system encourage people to be a moral and Essay

Every religion or belief system encourage people to be a moral and good person, which this result to a good and healthy society. Explain how different religions try to achieve this purpose - Essay Example The religious practices of the family decide one’s concept of right and wrong and inculcate the observance of values such as charity, honesty truth and forgiveness. Religions across the world give importance to these values and hence whichever religion one practices, it has the strength to play a vital role in bringing about peace happiness and harmony in society. Religion has been described as a set of beliefs or moral codes that influence a person’s behavior and beliefs in what is right and wrong. It is considered that religion or the concept of God or a superhuman being or beings, came into existence to counter primitive man’s helplessness against the furies of nature. However, as man evolved and began to reason and to be able to explain the forces of nature and control them to a large extent; the question of where he came from or what his ultimate destination is remained unanswered, and instilled a sense of uncertainty and to some extent fear in man’s mind. This uncertainty and fear are really the beginnings of all religions. Therefore one may assume that religion fulfills man’s psychological need to counter his fears and believe in an agency to which he refers by various names to help him face stress, grief and various anxieties in the crises that he faces during his life. Religion also plays a powerful role i n society. It helps man define what is right and wrong in society. A man’s religion lays down norms of right and wrong that he follows without giving it much thought; his fear of retribution if he does not follow those norms most times compel him to keep on track. Hence society is a safer place due to the forces of religious values. The sacred texts of all religions lay down rules of right and wrong and these rules do not differ much from one religion to another except in the way they are explained or the rituals that are performed in relation to these ethical codes. Compassion, tolerance, love and service, justice,

Arch of Constantine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arch of Constantine - Essay Example ch of Constantine is a beautiful example of a monument which has a tremendous history as well as a magnificent art in terms of sculptures and styles which decorate it. The Arch was created to commemorate the victory of Constantine over Maxentius at the battle of Milvian. The era when it was created places it in the Ancient Roman Corinthian style of art and as per the characteristics of the art of the era, the imagery used and the characters shown on the building are quite detailed (Strong, 1963). Strong (1963) also suggests that the detail level in such works of art is quite high and even though many centuries have taken their toll on the Arch, it is not difficult to imagine how it would look when it was first completed and shown to the public. Of particular interest are the sculptures and the messages which are placed on the arch itself. Dimensionally, the arch is about 20 meters in height and is roughly 25 meters in width. The distance covered by the arch is seven meters. There are three archways of which the middle one is the main archway with a height of 12 meters. The side arches are seven meters and are relatively smaller in width as well as height (Storage and Maish, 2007). It must be noted that as a work of art, the arch has certainly changed over time as things have been added, removed and renovated through history. For example, while there were eight yellow colored fluted Corinthian columns of Numidean marble originally, only seven of those remain today. The eighth original column was taken by Pope Clement VIII in 1597 and that is now in present day Laterano. This is certainly an irony in art since all the original columns are supposed to have been taken from a building of the Flavian era when the arch was first build (Storage and Maish, 2007). This can be seen as a case of vandalism conducted on a monument which was the result of vandalism conducted on other buildings. Therefore, instead of being a pure reflection of the building arts of the era,

The Role of Nurse Practitioners Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Role of Nurse Practitioners - Term Paper Example Education The minimum educational requirements for admission into PA programs are at least two years of undergraduate coursework in the basic and behavioral sciences. PA programs must be accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. On average, an institution consists of 27 months of instructional and clinical content focusing on the care of patients over the lifespan (Ponte & O’Neill, 2013). Over the years â€Å"PA training has evolved into an advanced competency-based and accredited educational program, with the broad core curriculum content resembling that of medical school training† (Atwater et al, 2008, p. ...   involves inpatient and outpatient rotations in various settings including family and internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics, general surgery, psychiatry, and emergency medicine (Atwater et al, 2008, p. 729).Contingent on the program, the PA student has conferred a Master’s, Bachelor’s, Associate’s, or Certificate degree. To attain licensure, all PA students take the same certifying exam administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (Ponte & O’Neill, 2013). NP programs, graduate programs based on the nursing model, are approved by the state board of nursing and are accredited by a national nursing accreditation body such as the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2013; Ponte & O’Neill, 2013). Dependent on the NP program, the average minimum requirement for admission is a baccalaureate degree in nursing or a baccalaureate degree in another fie ld (Ponte & O’Neill, 2013). In either case, to begin the program, a student must first obtain a registered nursing (RN) license in the state the school operates. Additionally, a majority of NP programs require the student to have at least one year of experience as an RN. Programs include two years of classroom instruction and clinical rotations; additionally, students must undergo a minimum of 500 clinical hours to complete requirements (Atwater et al, 2008; Cross, Boukus, Samuel & Yee, 2013).Moreover, unlike the PAs, NPs choose an area of specialization.

Educational Reform Essay Example for Free

Educational Reform Essay The educational institutes today are more focused on academics pay less attention to the physical attributes of the students. Physical educators along with academic teachers play an important part in promoting good health through regular physical activities. The number of obese children is increasing around the world. Research depicts that one in every ten; six years old child in England is obese. It is estimated that by the year 2020, 50% of the children would be obese. (BBC. co, 2004,) Lack of physical activity is said to be a cause for lowers academic achievements as well as overweight obese individuals. The reason being, when the fundamental dietary fitness needs are not met, the students show a decline in academics by giving a poor performance. A study in New York asserted that students’ intelligence academic performance was affected by the slightest of malnutrition signs. Schools play a major role in developing the young minds grooming them for a bright future, it must be kept in mind that physical education too is an imperative aspect of an individual’s life. Along with the P. E. courses the students should be advised about a proper diet intake. Children with poor nutritional habits, especially in the early years usually score low in vocabulary, reading calculation. (Athletics Campus Life, 2007) It is calculated that 40% of American population is inactive only 20% are slightly active. Mostly 50% of individuals drop out of exercise programs without even completing six months. The fact is that habits are developed at an early age. If the students are not facilitated with physical exercise courses at school, they will never form healthy workout habits. The schools these days are struggling to increase the student success rates, the children are over burdened with homework extra classes, leaving no time for extracurricular activities. The Buffalo City School District in New York has decided to incorporate a physical education department starting from the very initial stage; the aim is to achieve better student grades, attendance improved health. The students’ nutrition, active lifestyle accomplishments are all interrelated. If the child is happy healthy, he will perform well in every step he takes. Reducing 240 minutes per week in class time in favor of physical activity resulted in higher math scores. (Action for Healthy Kids, 2004) Students with the highest fitness scores scored the highest in their SAT exam. Being physically active also fortifies the student’s cognitive learning abilities lowers anxiety depression levels. It is derived from extensive research that the intake of oxygen during exercise benefits the neurons increases the mind power. Overweight children are susceptible to develop physical ailments like blood pressure diabetes in later life, not to mention the psychological effects by being teased in school causing a reclusive feeling, low self esteem presently depression. The Cambridge Public Schools, in Massachusetts, discovered that almost 14% of children from the age group 9-13 were overweight due to sedentary routines. These students were being targeted for jokes bullying. In order to facilitate the energy of hyperactive sedentary students, at the same time improving their physical social wellbeing; increased the activity programs at school targeting every student’s individual needs. This act may produce desirable results in the meantime confronting issues like obesity bullying. But focus should be kept on the physical wellbeing of students; therefore it’s a better option to minimize competing activities. Sports recreational competitions are a good way to realize one’s potential but may induce negative feelings in the losing opponent. Every school attempts to reach the highest target of excellence; this goals should set concern for the physical mental growth of the students thus, expanding time for the physical extracurricular activities for the children to indulge in. summer winter breaks can also be utilized for such programs. Participating in such activities help the children to discover their strengths uniqueness creating a feeling of achievement. They realize their interests then design their future goals accordingly. A number of funds are use for the betterment of academic departments in schools. Some steps should be taken for designing the physical education department in order to achieve a positive impact on the confidence, self esteem motivation of all the students. Each student should be dealt separately, so as to meet individual demands improve their over all personality. A policy taken up by the Michigan State Board of Education Policy in September 2003 on Quality Physical Education confirms that well planned physical activities play a pivotal role in the student learning capabilities. They learn to incorporate their skills abilities to the fullest in every field. They started a 150 minutes/week program for the elementary students 225 minutes/week. (Michigan State- Resource Guide) Some of the ideas that can be incorporated for the betterment of students overall capabilities are:†¢ All students should be entitled to join the physical activity groups. Each age group should be handled separately so they can enhance their confidence, identify their personal. The physical education curriculum should be based on a rationally researched content. The proper equipment tools should be provided by the school a professional trainer should be hired to train the students. The individual strengths abilities of students should be catered. Tests should be conducted to find out their endurance levels body strengths then target the problem areas for achieving a healthy active student body. †¢ Athletics are very effective in the over all growth of children.  Basic levels of athletics should be coached to every student advance courses available to those who are interested. †¢ The P. E. group can hold study groups workshops to help the students with their weakness provide them with proper nutritional guides. Several activities can be introduces involving interaction with friends families of the students. For example few schools arrange sport days, running tracks family fitness nights. After school activities can play a major role in inducing physical fitness in the students. The points to keep in mind are that †¢ the activities are convenient for the students †¢ the program contains enough intensity to make it challenging †¢ Variety of programs should be introduced so that the children are keen to partake in them. †¢ The weather conditions should be kept in mind indoor gyms recreational rooms should be set up in case of a rainy day. †¢ The parents teachers should be encouraged to get involved with the students so they can help the children to live up to the best of their abilities.

Aggression In Violent Offenders Psychology Essay

Aggression In Violent Offenders Psychology Essay Anger is considered to be an innate emotion within human beings that is associated with positive and negative qualities. Subjectively, anger can range from mild to severe or from mere irritation to rage (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Anger can positively act to mobilize psychological resources, facilitate perseverance, protect self-esteem, energize corrective behaviors, and communicate negative sentiments. However, anger also holds the negative potential to cause individuals to act out violently and harm themselves or others (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). The concept of anger is considered to be multidimensional in that it involves behavioral, cognitive, physiological, and phenomenological variables (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Anger results from interactions between four dimensions such as behavioral reactions, external events, physiological arousal, and cognitive processes (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). The association between anger and distorted perceptions can result in the inability to make appropriate assessments of behaviors, attitudes, and interactions within social contexts (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Anger that has significant intensity, duration, and frequency is referred to as clinical anger. This form of anger is described as being a precursor to health and social difficulties (Gardner Moore, 2008). These difficulties can occur interpersonally, occupationally, and legally as well as could impact an individuals physical and mental health (Gardner Moore, 2008). While clinical anger does not have a criterion for diagnosis, it does serve as a contributing factor to various mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Furthermore, anger was described as being central to many forms of violence, which makes anger relevant to treating violent offenders (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Concept of Aggression Aggression is defined as behaviors that are intended to harm another person or persons (Casas, 2005). Much research addressing aggression has focused on physical acts of aggression but has since begun to expand upon the definition of aggression (Casas, 2005). Purdy and Seklecki (2006) asserted aggression is typically associated with harmful and violent acts, such as assaults and homicides. According to Beaver (2009) career criminals are more likely to use serious violence and physical aggression compared to other offenders. In addition, various aggressive and violent crimes such as robbery, assault, rape, and murder are almost exclusively confined to habitual offenders (Beaver, 2009). Tew, Dixon, Harkins, and Bennett (2012) described aggression in relation to offenders in terms of verbal and physical aggression. Verbal aggression consisted of raising ones voice, shouting, swearing, being abusive, being argumentative, conveying threats, ranting, having an outburst, initiating a confro ntation, and bullying (Tew et al., 2012). Acts such as hitting, smashing up belongings, throwing belongings, slamming doors, hitting tables, or acts that resulted in restraint are considered to be physical acts of aggression (Tew et al., 2012). Similarly, Casas (2005) described various forms of aggression. Aggression can be classified as physical aggression, indirect aggression, social aggression, or relational aggression (Casas, 2005). Casas (2005) description of physical aggression was consistent with how Tew et al. (2012) described physical aggression. Indirect aggression involves covert and harmful behavior in which a victim is not directly confronted by the perpetrator. Social aggression involves harming another individuals self-esteem, social acceptance, or social status (Casas, 2005). Lastly, relational aggression is defined as harming another in terms of damaging a relationship, feelings of acceptance, or group inclusion (Casas, 2005). In general, social and biological factors contribute to aggression (Casas, 2005). Concept of Stress The concept of stress was discussed in relation to psychological symptoms as having two primary processes including emotion regulation and coping (Watson Sinha, 2008). Fifty-percent of the variance in psychological symptoms can be accounted for via stress and coping (Watson Sinha, 2008). In psychology, the stress process encompasses cognition and emotion in which stress can be assessed in relation to an individual or a group (Valdez, 2006). Therefore, forensic psychologists are interested in how individual or group stress impacts offender populations (Valdez, 2006). Valdez (2006) discussed how stress is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a variable response or reaction that involves emotional, physiological, and behavioral coping responses to the appraised stressor (p. 446). Various coping mechanisms can be employed depending on the nature of a situation. Coping mechanisms can be emotion-focused, problem-focused, or avoidance coping (Valdez, 2006). Stress is considered to be reciprocal in that a stres sor and an individual can have an impact on each other. In this regard, coping responses are dependent upon how the stressor is perceived (Valdez, 2006). In considering the offender population, a stressor could potentially elicit a violent or aggressive response if the individual feels threatened or challenged (Valdez, 2006). Relationship among Anger, Stress, and Aggression According to Howells (2004), there is a link between anger and aggressive behavior. However, this link does not mean all anger will result in violence. In this regard, anger and aggression could potentially result in physical violence and can be useful indicators within correctional environments where the potential for violence exists (Tew et al., 2012). In relation to treatment, understanding the relationship between anger and aggression can assist practitioners reduce the risk of violence through effective protocols, treatments, and intervention strategies (Tew et al., 2012). The relationship between anger, stress, and aggression was illuminated within Komarovskaya, Loper, and Warrens (2007) discussion of impulsivity and personality disorders. The multiple diagnostic criteria of psychiatric disorders included the impulsivity construct. This construct is the inability to resist impulses and results in an individual acting in a harmful manner towards other (Komarovskaya, Loper, Warr en, 2007). Impulsivity relates back to anger and aggression in terms of their definitions incorporating the concept of harming others (Casas, 2005; Komarovskaya, Loper, Warren, 2007; Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Impulsive aggression has various contributing factors including anger. In addition, it is considered to be a reactive or emotionally charged response precipitated by a loss of behavioral control (Komarovskaya, Loper, Warren, 2007). This relates back to stress in terms of potential stressors eliciting violent or aggressive responses (Valdez, 2006). Impulsivity, anger, hostility, and antisocial personality have been identified by various studies as predictors for institutional aggression, violence, and maladjustment (Komarovskaya, Loper, Warren, 2007). Impulsivity demonstrates how anger, aggression, and stress can be concurrently present and how the relationship between the three concepts can facilitate a violent response or reaction (Casas, 2005; Komarovskaya, Loper, Warren, 2007; W right, Day, Howells, 2009). The relationship between the three concepts can also be discussed in terms of treating violent offenders. Practitioners working in various forensic settings need to consider how violent behaviors exhibited by offenders are associated with anger, stress, and aggression (Walden University, n.d.). For instance, if an individual was convicted of an assaultive, abusive, or violent crime the clinician would employ anger and stress management treatment protocols (Walden Univeristy, n.d.). Another example would be the application of mindfulness-based interventions to help alleviate cognitive, affective, and behavioral manifestations of anger within a violent offender (Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). According to Wright, Day, and Howells (2009) study, mindfulness training can be used to reduce pain, anxiety, stress, depressive relapse, and psychosis. The use of cognitive-behavioral anger management therapy is another option available to clinicians for reducing violent behaviors resulting from a nger, aggression, and stress. In a meta-analysis of fifty outcome studies, cognitive-behavioral anger management therapy was found to reduce anger in 75% of the study participants (Beck Fernandez, 1998; Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Knowledge of the concepts of anger, stress, and aggression in relation to violent offenders is essential for practitioners working with forensic populations (Walden University, n.d.). Application of such knowledge will assist a practitioner with selecting an appropriate treatment strategy for the offender. This relates back the differences in how anger, aggression, and stress can manifest in an individual (Beaver, 2009; Casas, 2005; Gardner Moore, 2008; Purdy Seklecki, 2006; Tew et al., 2012; Valdez, 2006; Watson Sinha, 2008; Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). The overlap and concurrency of anger, aggression, and stress, as well as how each concept manifests within an individual should be accounted for by a clinician when selecting a treatment option for an offender (Beaver, 2009; Casas, 2005; Gardner Moore, 2008; Purdy Seklecki, 2006; Tew et al., 2012; Valdez, 2006; Watson Sinha, 2008; Wright, Day, Howells, 2009). Practitioners can apply their collective knowledge about anger, agg ression, and stress in order to maintain the general safety of all involved within a forensic treatment setting. Furthermore, that knowledge can be employed to assist the practitioner with delivering effective treatment to violent offenders (Walden University, n.d.).

The Manitoba Land Question, 1870-1882 Essay examples -- Article Analys

In the article titled â€Å"The Manitoba Land Question, 1870-1882† Sprague argues that the federal government was largely responsible for failing to properly address Metis Land claims. Sprague believes the Canadian government purposefully mismanaged and controlled Metis land organization to further its agenda. He also argues that the Canadian government did not hold up its constitutional obligation as per the Manitoba Act. Lastly Sprague suggests that newly introduced laws opened doors for settlers and made it difficult for the Metis to remain cohesive. As a result Sprague suggests that these factors lead to the loss of Metis land and therefore ultimately contributed to their subsequent exodus from Manitoba. To begin Sprague argues that the Canadian Government disingenuously mismanaged Metis land organization. Sprague states that evidence of this can be seen in the Canadian government not allowing the Lieutenant Governor Adams G. Archibald to make changes to Section 31 and 32 of the Manitoba Act. Archibald proposed the government grant outlined in Section 31 should allocate each person of Aboriginal ancestry an allotment of â€Å"140 acres† (pg.75) of land. Archibald also suggested that the location of these allotments be in close proximity so as to â€Å"not disperse families throughout the province† (Pg. 75). Lastly Archibald proposed a suggestion in carrying out Section 32 which insured that land owned was not jeopardized during the process of confederacy. He recommended that Manitoba be recognized as an independent province such that affairs including land ownership would be dealt with on a provincial level. Therefore as Sprague argues Archibald’s words were not taken into consideration by both the governments of John A. Macdonald and Alexa... ... In conclusion, Sprague believes that a number of factors carried out by the Canadian government ultimately led to the exodus of the Metis from Manitoba. Firstly through the manipulation of Metis land organization, secondly through broken promises made by the Canadian Government, and lastly through newly introduced laws which dispersed the Metis. In class we are currently studying the arrival of Selkirk settlers into Manitoba; this article was interesting as it put topics discussed in class in much more perspective. This article would be best suited towards those in the area of law, history or government as it contains historical evidence. Through this article Sprague has done an excellent job of outlining the historical events that took place during the 1870-1882 periods more articles surrounding this topic should be written to uncover further injustices.

Struggling to Remember :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Struggling to Remember The brain gathers, processes, and stores information in a number of ways. When we perceive something, a set of cells in our brain is activated in a specific sequence. If not fully pursued, the perception fades and the cells return to their original state (1). However if the thought or perception is ‘entertained,’ the cells interact, forming a network of communication and signal transmission. The set of cells becomes a memory engram; a neuronal network representing encoded fragments of past experiences. â€Å"The set of cells with facilitated synapses is now the anatomical correlate to the memory (1).† Recollection of an event or rather activation of an engram can occur via a stimulus to any of the parts of the brain where a neural connection for the memory exists. Once the engram is activated the hippocampus facilitates activity at the synapse, strengthening the relationship between neurons in the network, thus solidifying the memory (1). The chances of rememberin g improve by this process of consolidation. Thus, memories play an integral role in our lives; they are the bits and pieces of our experience. Just as remembering plays a critical role in shaping or lives, so does the process of forgetting. What happens when we forget or lose our memories? Perhaps forgetting is due to poor encoding, an error in the process transforming something a person sees, hears, thinks, or feels into a memory (2). Maybe the absence of proper stimulus prohibits retrieval of information or maybe forgetting serves as a drive to keep us sane, purging the brain of irrelevant data. â€Å"If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill of ass if we remembered nothing (William James, The Principles of Psychology).† Memory plays a central role in mental health and thus its impairment is one of the most distressing psychological dysfunctions. Amnesia or memory loss is an extreme case of forgetting that occurs often as a result of severe brain injury or traumatic experience. The term amnesia is associated with a broad category of memory deficits ranging from Alzheimer’s disease and anterograde and retrograde amnesia to infantile and childhood amnesia and progressive memory loss due to aging (3). However, clinical cases of amnesia tend to fall into two main categories-psychogenic amnesia and organic amnesia. Psychogenic amnesia refers to instances in which memory loss is presumed to have a purely psychological basis. Traumatic events may have altered the patient’s brain but no physical damage is observed.

Effects of Music Essay

Music and Its Effects on Our Emotions: Can Music Really Change Your Mood? Music can control a much larger part of your life than most people would like to believe. Music can affect us in ways in which we’re not even aware of, and for this reason, music is simply amazing. There is a large number of studies behind music. Not even just the typical music you hear on the radio or that you download from the Internet, but any sounds and the way they can affect your mood and reflect your personallity. It has been proven that certain types of music can evoke sadness, while others can give you an excitement. Music is used in millions of places for this reason. Advertisements. Advertisements and movies are based around the audio! Certain types of music are more likely to evoke emotions in people which will in turn make them feel a certain way. Sometimes this is great for producers in the economy because they can use music in their advertisements to help produce more profits, because people will become much more interested in the products that they’re of fering. This works the same in the film industry. The film industry is interested in inflicting some sort of mood on its audience. If a movie is able to inflict an emotion into people, then the movie is looked upon as a much better movie, and therefore is more likely to make more money. Music can really affect more parts of the economy than you would ever even take into consideration. One amazing thing, that I’m sure you’ve never even stopped to think about, is the music in a casino. They tend to play very uplifting music, music that will make you want to stay longer. Theoretically, the longer you stay in a casino, the more money the casino will make from you. The casino wants to keep you in their business for as long as they can. Music is one way the owners can go about this. Another irrelevant yet interesting method they have is to release scents that cause people to become more satisfied with what they’re doing, and will make them in turn be more comfortable in the environment and want to stay longer, making the casino more money in the long run. Pop, lighter rock, and most dance music tends to be a very uplifting type of music. If you’re ever looking for a booster, listen to some of this music! I actually enjoy listening to this music every day before going to take classes, because it lifts my spirit and helps me make it through the day. Downbeat music such as death metal and rap music tends to affect people’s emotions in a much darker form. However, this is all personal preference and you cannot  base all of this on my opinion. Overall, music has a much greater affect on you than you would believe. Experiment. Listen to new music all the time. See what music gives you chills down your spine. See what music you can’t understand and hate. There’s something out there for everyone. The Effects of Music In some way, music affects everyone. Whether it is, a young girl’s favorite song on the radio, a college student’s escape from reality or a form of entertainment to a married couple, music brings everyone together. Music definitely affects the lifestyles of people in many different ways. The diverse styles of music makes people look and act differently. Music has many different levels. To me, levels meaning; the more independent and progressive the music is, the more the fans take it to the extreme. Music creates style. It causes people to talk, act, and dress the way they do. I hope to discover how much music influences people, especially college students. Also, the more fascinated they are the more influences it has to them. I would like to prove, that to some, music is nothing more than the pop song playing on the radio in the car, and to others, it is a major part of their life. It is very interesting to me, to learn the effects music has toward people. Music impacts everyone in some way (positive or negative), but I think it impacts college students the most. I would like to know the reasons people are listening to music they buy and support. Also, the reasons certain groups are more popular than others. I used a couple various methods of research to conduct my research. I wrote up ten surveys with some questions about gender, age, what they buy, do they attend concerts, and do they support local music. I passed these surveys out to completely random students so there was no imbalance of the results. I hope to find out certain things like: are males affected more than females from music; who buys more clothing/ accessories; is local music important to college students. Another form of research was done by making some observations. I observed places that college students live. I observed a few of my friends apartments very closely and also observed a couple other houses that I was  invited to over the past month. By doing this, I hope to generalize what they like and how it influences them. For example, posters of music groups hanging everywhere will indicate a more of an influence than paintings, by say Picasso. Clothing, jewelry, and actual speech from people may also provide some interesting details. While making these observations, I had also done a couple interviews. A couple were formal, sit-down interviews and the others were just conversations that I thought would be helpful to making my research complete. After giving some thought to my results, I decided to add a section about my personal history. Throughout my life music has affected me in many different ways. It has helped me through some very important decisions, such as, how I feel, who I am with, where I am going to go. When I was ten years old, I got my first guitar. It was an acoustic guitar. I loved to play it, but dreaded going to the lessons. My parents forced me because I couldn’t play a single note. After a year or two things started to come together and I could play some songs. Then I decided to purchase an electric guitar. For me, this was the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I played everyday at any time that I could. My favorite group was the Beastie Boys. My friends and I would pretend we were them and put on shows pretending to be them. As I got older, I would purchase any music that I could; cassette tapes, records, videos, posters, anything that dealt with music. Around seventh or eighth grade, I purchased a used drum set. My other friends all played, so we decided to form a band. We would practice in the garage as much as often until my parents said enough, until it became an obsession. We played a couple of parties (nothing big, because this was the eighth grade), but still a major part of my life at the time. One day during practice, I remember my good friend, the lead singer, telling me booked a real gig, in downtown Pittsburgh. We got a set ready and about a month to practice our songs. The place was called the Electric Banana, it was real dive bar. Most people there were friends and family, but still a nice turnout. Since then I haven’t been playing in a band, but still love making music. Most of my friends are really into music too. We swap music  with each other and talk about it all the time. When I switched schools in high school, music really helped me make some friends. Without music my life would be totally different and a lot more boring, so I’m glad it turned out this way. I am very happy with the results that I got from the surveys. There were ten surveys filled out. Of the ten, six were females and four were males. Eight of the ten all liked rap/hip hop music or said rap along with some other forms. The other two liked rock, punk, or emo. No one put classic rock as their choice (which I found to be very interesting, because I like classic rock). There were two other questions I found to be very much related. Everyone that collects music, any form, (CD, cassette tape, or vinyl) has clothing and/or accessories that support music, for instance, posters, T-shirts, and hats. Four out of ten said they regularly attend concerts. I was very pleased to hear that eight of ten support local musicians/bands. I am a music lover, (as you know) so the local scene is very important to me. Here is a graph I constructed from the surveys. Females Males 60% 40% The interviews came out to be very useful also. I talked to a music lover/musician/collector. His name was Neil and he was very cooperative. We talked about the unusual styles of music he liked. He has a very wide range of music in his collection. We talked about some of his favorite artists, some being Pittsburgh based groups. He loves live music and goes to as many shows as possible. He said â€Å"it’s hard to get to places without a car and with classes† He also said â€Å"I just saw The Roots play for my sixth time last week, at a little place in Oakland.† We were talking about how they are definitely one of his favorites, if he had to pick. I asked him why he was so into music. He replied â€Å"It’s a stress reliever. It takes my mind off school, work, and people’s pettiness.† Another interview that I performed was not as formal. This one was with my dad at the dinner table. It was pretty short and to the point. I asked him if he likes music. He said â€Å"No.† I then asked him if he ever listens to it and he said â€Å"No, when I am in the car I listen to the news or talk radio and when I’m home I’m either working or watching TV.† After doing this research, I realized that by doing interviews you can really feel the emotion from the answers compared to reading a survey. I think that interviews did help me make certain things easier to understand on the survey. The Effects of Music on People’s Emotions By Rachel Mattison, eHow Contributor , last updated July 02, 2012 Movie producers and recording artists use music to manipulate the emotions of audiences to feel everything from excitement to sadness during movies and performances. No one can deny that music has either positive or negative effects on the emotions of listeners. However, music therapy or the study of music’s impact on emotions examines how music cause positive changes in listeners and patients for areas including early childhood development, healing and recovery, and overcoming negative emotions. 1. Early Childhood Development * Music plays an important role in early childhood emotional and intellectual development, according to information compiled by Brad Kennedy and Jennifer Durst. Their research confirms that even while in the womb, babies can tell the differences between certain types of music. Also called prenatal stimulation this technique has many positive effects including higher levels of intelligence and creativity, along with the ability to calm down when listening to music. Suggested usages for music in early childhood development include teaching children to analyze songs so they can learn how to express and identify their emotions, though processes, behaviors and situations as a way of developing cognitive and motor skills. Healing and Recovery * The American Music Therapy Organization states music therapy can  allow â€Å"emotional intimacy with families and caregivers, relaxation for the entire family, and meaningful time spent together in a positive, creative way.† Additional studies show that music therapy can cause changes in physiology by releasing brain chemicals including melatonin, norephinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin and prolactin, which help to reduce depression, regulate mood and make patients feel calm and more able to sleep. Doctors have used music therapy to help stroke, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s patients improve. Dr. Suzanne Hasner says head trauma and dementia patients retain music ability because â€Å"deep in our long-term memory is this rehearsed music. It is processed in the emotional part of the brain, the amygdala. Here’s where you remember the music played at your wedding, the music of your first love, that first dance. Such things can still be remembered even in people with progressive diseases. It can be a window, a way to reach them.† * Negative Emotions and Fear Management * Dr. Zbigniew Kucharski, from the Medical Academy of Warsaw, has studied the effects of music when used for fear management in dental patients. He discovered that children who listened to 30 minutes of music preceding and following dental procedures were less likely to experience negative feelings. Another study, â€Å"Quantification of the effects of listening to music as a noninvasive method of pain control,† conducted in 1992 found that relaxing music helped to reduce anxiety and pain in patients undergoing certain medical procedures including painful gynecological procedures and pediatric surgical burn units. How Music Affects Us and Promotes Health Music is one of the few activities that involves using the whole brain. It is intrinsic to all cultures and can have surprising benefits not only for learning language, improving memory and focusing attention, but also for physical coordination and development. Of course, music can be distracting if it’s too loud or too jarring, or if it competes for our attention with what we’re trying to do. But for the most part, exposure to many kinds of music has beneficial effects: 1Music heals Effective therapy for pain Overall, music does have positive effects on pain management. Music can help reduce both the sensation and distress of both chronic pain and postoperative pain. Listening to music can reduce chronic pain from a range of painful conditions, including osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis, by up to 21% and depression by up to 25%, according to a paper in the latest UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing29. Music therapy is increasingly used in hospitals to reduce the need for medication during childbirth, to decrease postoperative pain and complement the use of anesthesia during surgery30. There are several theories about how music positively affects perceived pain: * 1. Music serves as a distractor * 2. Music may give the patient a sense of control * 3. Music causes the body to release endorphins to counteract pain * 4. Slow music relaxes person by slowing their breathing and heartbeat Reducing blood pressure By playing recordings of relaxing music every morning and evening, people with high blood pressure can train themselves to lower their blood pressure – and keep it low31. According to research reported at the American Society of Hypertension meeting in New Orleans, listening to just 30 minutes of classical, Celtic or raga music every day may significantly reduce high blood pressure. Medicine for the heart music is good for your heart. Research shows that it is musical tempo, rather than style. Italian and British researchers32 recruited young men and women, half of whom were trained musicians. The participants slipped on head phones and listened to six styles of music, including rap and classical pieces, with random two-minute pauses. As the participants kicked back and listened, the researchers monitored their breathing, heart rates and blood pressure. The participants had faster heart and breathing rates when they listened to lively music. When the musical slowed, so did their heart and breathing rates. Some results were surprising. During the musical pauses, heart and breathing rates normalized or reached more optimal levels. Whether or not a person liked the style of music did not matter. The tempo, or pace, of the music had the greatest effect on relaxation. Speeds Post-Stroke Recovery A daily portion` of one’s favorite pop melodies, classical music or jazz can speed recovery from debilitating strokes, according to the latest research. When stroke patients in Finland listened to music for a couple of hours each day, verbal memory and attention span improved significantly compared to patients who received no musical stimulation, or who listened only to stories read out loud, the study reports33. Chronic headaches & migraine remedy Music can help migraine34 and chronic headache35 sufferers reduce the intensity, frequency, and duration of the headaches. Music boosts immunity Music can boost the immune function. Scientists explain that a particular type of music can create a positive and profound emotional experience, which leads to secretion of immune-boosting hormones22. This helps contribute to a reduction in the factors responsible for illness. Listening to music or singing can also decrease levels of stress-related hormone cortisol. Higher levels of cortisol can lead to a decreased immune response23-24. 2Effects of music on the brain Music enhances intelligence, learning and IQ The idea that music makes you smarter received considerable attention from scientists and the media. Listening to music or playing an instrument can actually make you learn better. And research confirms this. Music has the power to enhance some kinds of higher brain function: * Reading and literacy skills11-13 * Spatial-temporal reasoning14-15 * Mathematical abilities16-17 – Even children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder benefit in mathematics tests from listening to music beforehand. *Emotional intelligence The Mozart effect Earlier it has been thought that listening to classical music, particularly Mozart, enhances performance on cognitive tests. However, recent findings18 show that listening to any music that is personally enjoyable has positive effects on cognition. Music improves memory performance The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart’s music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activates the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, cause the brain to be more capable of processing information. Listening to music facilitates the recall of information19. Researchers have shown that certain types of music are a great â€Å"keys† for recalling memories. Information learned while listening to a particular song can often be recalled simply by â€Å"playing† the songs mentally. Musical training has even better effect than just listening to classical music. There is clear evidence20, that children who take music lessons develop a better memory compared with children who have no musical training. Note: For learning or memory performance, it’s important that music doesn’t have a vocal component; otherwise you’re more likely to remember the words of the background song than what you’re supposed to be recalling. Music improves concentration and attention Easy listening music or relaxing classics improves the duration and intensity of concentration in all age groups and ability levels. It’s not clear what type of music is better, or what kind of musical structure is necessary to help, but many studies have shown significant effects21. 3Music improves physical performance Music improves athletic performance Choosing music that motivates you will make it easier to start moving, walking, dancing, or any other type of exercise that you enjoy. Music can make exercise feel more like recreation and less like work. Furthermore, music enhances athletic performance6-8! Anyone who has ever gone on a long run with their iPod or taken a particularly energetic spinning class knows that music can make the time pass more quickly. The four central hypotheses explaining music’s facilitation of exercise performance include: * Reduction in the feeling of fatigue * Increase in levels of psychological arousal * Physiological relaxation response * Improvement in motor coordination Music improves body movement and coordination Music reduces muscle tension and improves body movement and coordination25-26. Music may play an important role in developing, maintaining and restoring physical functioning in the rehabilitation of persons with movement disorders. 4Music helps to work more productively Fatigue fighter Listening to upbeat music can be a great way to find some extra energy. Music can effectively eliminate exercise-induced fatigue9 and fatigue symptoms caused by monotonous work10. Keep in mind that listening to too much pop and hard rock music can make you more jittery than energized. Vary what you listen to and find out what type of music is most beneficial for you. You could try classical music one day, pop the next day and jazz the third. Music improves productivity Many people like to listen to music while they work and I am certainly one of them. How about you? Did you know you can perform better at your work with music? Whilst there may be many reasons for wishing to listen to music in the workplace, it really improves your productivity27! According to a report in the journal Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology28, a person’s ability to recognize visual images, including letters and numbers, is faster when either rock or classical music is playing in the background. 5Music calms, relaxes and helps to sleep Relaxing music induces sleep Relaxing classical music is safe, cheap and easy way to beat insomnia1. Many people who suffer from insomnia find that Bach music helps them. Researchers have shown that just 45 minutes of relaxing music before bedtime can make for a restful night2. Relaxing music reduces sympathetic nervous system activity, decreases anxiety, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate and may have positive effects on sleep via muscle relaxation and distraction  from thoughts. Music reduces stress and aids relaxation Listening to slow, quiet classical music, is proven to reduce stress3. Countless studies have shown that music’s relaxing effects can be seen on anyone, including newborns. One of the great benefits of music as a stress reliever is that it can be used while you do your usual deeds so that it really doesn’t take time. How does music reduces stress? * Physical relaxation. Music can promote relaxation of tense muscles, enabling you to easily release some of the tension you carry from a stressful day. * Aids in stress relief activities. Music can help you get â€Å"into the zone† when practicing yoga, self hypnosis or guided imagery, can help you feel energized when exercising and recover after exercising, help dissolve the stress when you’re soaking in the tub. * Reduces negative emotions. Music, especially upbeat tunes, can take your mind off what stresses you, and help you feel more optimistic and positive. This helps release stress and can even help you keep from getting as stressed over life’s little frustrations in the future. Researchers discovered4 that music can decrease the amount of the cortisol, a stress-related hormone produced by the body in response to stress. 6Music improves mood and decreases depression Prescription for the blues Music’s ability to â€Å"heal the soul† is the stuff of legend in every culture. Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Modern research tends to confirm music’s psychotherapeutic benefits5. Bright, cheerful music (e.g. Mozart, Vivaldi, bluegrass, Klezmer, Salsa, reggae) is the most obvious prescription for the blues. The 5 Weirdest Ways Music Can Mess With the Human Brain By: C. Coville, Kathy Benjamin February 11, 2011 1,619,046 views The entire reason music exists is because of its almost magical ability to push your buttons. An upbeat song gets you going, a sad song makes you cry and drink. But the more science studies music’s effect on the human brain, the more bizarre things we discover. For instance †¦ #5. It Changes Your Ability to Perceive Time  old music — the stuff you hear on the line when you call everyone from the bank to your local bail bond agency — didn’t fall into America’s phone lines by accident. It’s designed specifically to reduce the amount of time you think you’re waiting, so that you’re less likely to hang up in anger. Other places that involve waiting, such as doctors’ offices, use a similar trick. Time shrinkage is also the aim of most retail stores, which is why you’ll rarely enter a mall, supermarket or clothing store without hearing some sort of music in the background. How the hell does music do that? To understand why exactly music makes it seem like less time has passed, think of the human brain as a mountain lion that is eating a bag of money. It doesn’t matter what the zookeepers distract it with — food, shiny objects or just shouting and yelling. All that matters is that they give another zookeeper the chance to sneak up and retrieve the money while the lion is busy deciding which one of them to eat. Similarly, when your brain is steadily distracted, you’ll be less likely to notice things around you in detail, and this includes the passage of time. Our brains have limited input capacity, and when something else is using up that capacity, we’re less likely to think things like, â€Å"I’ve been standing in line to get Richard Moll’s autograph for three goddamn hours† or â€Å"Do I really need this Garfield alarm clock?† But it works the opposite way, too. In some situations, listening to music can actually expand perceived time. For example, listening to music while performing tasks that require concentration will usually cause us to overestimate the amount of time that has passed. The theory is that as your mind switches back and forth between perception of the music and concentration on the challenging tasks, it forms separate â€Å"events,† or distinct memories. When your brain thinks about what you’ve been doing for the past hour, you’ll remember more of these events and recall that the hour was quite long. Experiments have found that time also expands when we’re listening to familiar music that we dislike. When we hear the opening chords of a song, our brain remembers the whole thing and immediately skips ahead and plays it mentally. This fake mind-music is  extremely vivid, working on exactly the same parts of the brain as actual music does. So the effect is that you take a few moments to vividly imagine that you’re sitting through five minutes of that damn New Radicals song before you come back to reality only to realize that you still actually have to sit through it. #4. It Taps Into Primal Fear OK, imagine how you would sound for a second if you saw your friend Jason across the street and wanted to get his attention by yelling his name. Now imagine you see your friend Jason across the street, suddenly realize a car is careening down the road about to hit him, and shout his name to warn him.Despite the fact that you are yelling the same thing both times, even in your head you can hear how the two sound different. Human beings have a very good, very nuanced sense of what kind of noise indicates a greeting and what kind of noise indicates you are about to be mauled by a honey badger. And that sense is being used against you in every scary movie you have ever seen. There is a reason that horror films scare the crap out of us, and it’s not just the creepy settings, dramatic buildup and sudden reveal of the bad guy RIGHT BEHIND YOU. It’s the music. How the hell does music do that? There are certain sounds that humans will automatically associate with sudden and painful death because they tap into our evolutionary fear of the screams of other animals (and other human beings). Screams of fear in almost any animal are made up of what scientists have dubbed â€Å"discordant noises.† Any noise that makes you feel very unpleasant falls into this category. We know if we hear other living things making those discordant noises that we have to get the fuck out, because something bad is going to happen. Movie directors know this and make good use of it when deciding on the score for a film. That dramatic buildup and subsequent scary reveal is almost always accompanied by really freaky music or somebody screaming his ass off (or both). But this technique is hardly limited to horror movies. For instance, in his original draft of The Social Network, Andy Sorkin wanted a song called â€Å"Love of the Common People† to play over the opening credits scene. Here’s what that would have looked like: That poppy calypso music makes you feel that everything is dandy. Sure, Mark Zuckerberg has just been dumped,  but it’s all OK! He’s running through the Harvard campus and is about to invent Facebook and become a billionaire. Yay!Listen to that lower-level background music throughout. It sounds like random, angry notes played behind a simple piano tune, and those notes are creating discordant sound. Suddenly you’re apprehensive, feeling like something really bad is about to happen (we’re talking getting sued for $64 million bad). So next time you’re getting a little too freaked out by a movie, remember that muting the television is a far better decision than looking away. #3. It Makes You Stronger It’s no secret that many people prefer to listen to music when they work out. But music doesn’t just make physical activity more pleasant — it actually makes our physical performance measurably better. When listening to music, people are able to hold heavy weights for longer than when they’re standing in silence. They can also complete sprints in smaller amounts of time and are even able to reduce their oxygen intake. How the hell does music do that? Similar to the time-perception effect we referenced above, one element is just plain old distraction. Obviously, if your mind is listening to music, it’s not thinking about how much your legs hurt or how much longer you’ve got to run before the treadmill makes that final beeping noise. But there’s much more to it than that. First, there’s synchronicity. When you match your movements to a steady musical tempo, you spend less time and effort on the inefficient slowing down and speeding up that happens when you’re going by your own rhythm. Music also increases the incidence of â€Å"flow† states — states of meditation-like calm in which everything works right for an athlete and that is strongly linked to enhanced performance. Music can even make you feel less pain. Patients listening to music after surgery need less sedatives, report less pain and have lower blood pressure. As if that’s not impressive enough, doctors have found that specially selected melodic music dramatically reduces stress in patients during unsedated brain surgery. In some cases, music caused patients to relax so much that many of them fell into a deep sleep, while people sliced into their exposed brains with fucking scalpels. And even if you’re lucky enough to be asleep during  surgery, there’s a good chance the doctors working on you are listening to music, since most surgeons believe it improves their performance, too. So the next time you’re about to go under a general anesthetic, consider the fact that the guy with the scalpel might soon be timing his incisions to Whitesnake. #2. It Changes Your Drinking Habits Did you ever wake up in the back of a taxi after a long night of tossing down cognac and prune juice and wonder how your pants got replaced by a thick but clumsily applied coat of colorful body paint? Well, now there’s something to blame it on besides your bad childhood: music. What they play in the bar doesn’t just affect how much you drink, but what you drink. How the hell does music do that? Did you know you can make a person buy more expensive wine just by playing classical music? Experiments prove it. It makes people feel like they’re in a wine commercial or in a movie depicting refined, snooty rich people. OK, that one sort of makes sense — we doubt anyone ever drank Wild Irish Rose while listening to Vivaldi. But in another blind study, different types of music playing in the background caused drinkers to change how they’d described the drinks they already had. Laid-back music led people to rate drinks as â€Å"mellow,† and upbeat music resulted in more people calling their drinks â€Å"refreshing.† Even stranger, in another study researchers placed German and French wines in supermarkets, with small flags next to each display so customers could tell which countries they came from. They then played some unobtrusive international music in the background. When German music was played, the percentage of German sales rose, and vice versa. This wasn’t because customers thought to themselves, Ah! Germany! I will celebrate the Fatherland with some nice wine! Questionnaires showed that customers couldn’t recall what type of music was playing and thought they’d chosen a particular wine simply because they’d felt like it. The people selling you the drinks know all of this stuff — or at least, the successful ones do. We’ve pointed out before that bars and nightclubs often play fast music to increase alcohol-based profit. But other establishments, particularly upscale restaurants, prefer slow, relaxing music, which,  believe it or not, can also make you drink more. The tempo of music is linked to your body’s arousal level, or the â€Å"speed† at which your nervous system operates. Fast music heightens arousal (heh), so patrons will do everything more quickly, including eating and drinking and leaving their infant by the salad bar. Which is good for a restaurant owner if he’s just concerned with getting you out the door so he can serve more (and presumably better) people. On the other hand, slower music means that you eat at a more leisurely pace. Maybe you’ll even stay to chat with your companions after you’re done with your meal. All this time passing means you’re likely to buy more drinks every time the waiter comes around to ask, and at a restaurant that’s charging $70 a bottle, that makes up for any lost table space. Some restaurants go as far as to purchase a personalized selection of songs specially designed by â€Å"sound branding† companies, which select songs based on whatever tempo or atmosphere the restaurant is aiming to achieve. #1. It Makes You a Better Communicator How does a narcissistic ass like John Mayer, who isn’t even that attractive, still have hot women of all ages throwing themselves at him? It’s the guitar, isn’t it?Actually, a trained musician like Mayer would probably be able to talk a woman into his bed without ever even playing a note. It turns out that studying music gives you an advantage when it comes to perceiving the emotions of others, so all those years of being chained to a piano as a child are finally going to work in your favor. People who can play instruments at near-professional level can detect subtle emotional changes and intonations in the vocal tones of others. In other words, they know whether you are actually sad when you say you’re fine, even when most non-musicians would have no idea. Not only that, but the fact that they studied music makes them better able to tune out background noise, so they are even better at paying attention to what you are saying in that crowded restaurant or bar. How the hell does music do that? Research shows that people who have studied music actually have brains wired differently than non-musicians. This rewiring makes them better able to express emotions they are feeling, but it also makes them more able to understand the emotions others express. Music is very emotional, and people  wired to understand those subtle emotional changes can also detect them in the vocal tones of someone talking. The emotion of the music translates to knowing when your boss is secretly mad or your mother is secretly disappointed. The sooner you start learning music, the more pronounced this re-wiring is. Scientists think that teaching children music might help kids with autism better understand vocal cues and encode speech. The fact that this brain re-wiring helps them tune out background noise could also help kids stay focused in noisy classrooms. It is also something that gets better the more you play, so sticking to your piano lessons now could lead to a powerful advantage in your future dating world. Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_19006_the-5-weirdest-ways-music-can-mess-with-human-brain_p2.html#ixzz0MMCXjaIv Music is one of many important parts of our lives because it can be an approach not only to reduce each of our mental tension but also to inspire our feelings in artistic sense. Then, there are only two subtopics to develop into two paragraphs in the body: 1) music is an approach to reduce people’s mental tension 2) music inspires people’s feelings in artistic sense

Personal Learning Paper for Organizational Behavior

Besides listing my biggest take away, I hope to be able to create a development plan that would help me learn and hone these essential soft skills. By writing this paper I would like to achieve fine tuning of certain skills that I already believe I have as well as learn a few new skills that I don’t think I possess right now. Personally, before I leave Great Lakes and go back again into the working world with my guns blazing, learning about these before hand is extremely beneficial. While some of the articles make me more confident about getting into the corporate world, some make me feel that I may not appreciate the learning’s unless there is some circumstantial relation to it. When I first attended the organizational behavior class, I did not know what to expect. I was expecting an analysis on how corporate and organizations work from a very analytical viewpoint. I realized in the first class that there is so much more to organization behavior that I bargained for. I will start with the two most exciting exercises that were given to us during the lecture which revealed traits within me I was completely unaware of. The Big Five Locator: I always believe that my emotional level was somewhere between responsive and reactive but the score indicated that I had a very high negative emotionality. I was always a very emotional person and I believed it to be normal for everyone but after coming here and interacting with around three hundred odd colleagues I realized I was way too emotional. This task helped me know a little more about myself. Managing Perceptions: This exercise revealed the huge difference between what I perceived about myself and what others did. I always found status and high self esteem to be most important to me but others rated my social nature highest. I also realized that I had rated people highest in parts where I would have rated myself highest. This further clarified that people tend to see others the way they are. That session indeed was an eye opener for me. I have had the experience of working and seeing settings where the people and the corporate cultures of the companies were all different. I worked in a private organization whereas my dad is working in central government organization. I have found that there is a great difference in the both the behaviour of people and of their organizations. One simple example is that of the ability of an employee to act independently without direct instructions from his or her boss. In many Government organizations, acting without direct instructions is considered a form of disrespect towards the supervisor, who is generally offended by such behaviour. I now understood why such organizations tend to have low operating efficiency. Its because the employees lose their innate ability to take the initiative. On the other side in private institutions you have freedom to some extent in doing things the way you would prefer to do. The difference in efficiency of both the organizations is very obvious. Every individual, connected or member of some group, is actively seeking opportunities at work to involve in decision-making problems. They are hungry for the chance to share what they know and to learn from the experience. So, organization should provide them a chance to express their opinions, ideas and suggestion for decision-making problem. A meaningful involvement can bring mutual benefit for both parties. But this does not compensate for the flaws that private organizations currently have. After the session on perception I found myself included in the culprit list for stereotyping and greatly influence by ‘Horns Effect’. I can now see many positives that my manager had but I could not see those and was blindfolded by the single negative trait of his. In all the learning that I have received till now in this course I have found that the most important factor in successful businesses lies in how the business is able to exploit its resources to meet the needs of its target markets. Human resources ultimately make possible the full utilization of the other resources, even including that of the most advanced and powerful new technologies. The essence of success at leveraging resources is managing people and their behavior. With the introduction and development of the idea of employee empowerment, organizational behavior is now being determined by the participation of more people throughout the organization rather than just a few senior level managers. One quality that my manger lacked was treating his followers or employees as a ‘Whole Person’ and not an individual. Every person’s personal life is not detached from his working life. As an example, a student who attends the very first class of the college’s day is always anxious for his/her friends are coming today or not. Similarly, mother always thinks about her children, whatever work she may be doing. As a result, its impact falls on his/her concentration that means his or her working life. For this reason, we cannot separate it. So leaders or managers should treat the followers or employee as a whole person as these behaviors are humane. I am only half way through the course but have got so many future ideas that I will implement once I am again exposed to corporate world. I am interested in determining the specific factors that determine the different behaviors of employees and how they work together to form the behavior of the organization, as well as finding ways to modify such behaviors to make for a healthier and properly functioning organization. The incidents in the past, the learning that I got from them and the actual interpretation from those now after this course would definitely help be become a manager equipped with both technical as well as behavioral skills. I can now understand the needs of my employees more efficiently and follow all the necessary steps to fulfill them. â€Å"The Confessions† by Rousseau stated that the least knowledge acquired by humans is knowledge about humans. Knowing yourself and fellow mankind are extremely important in life as well as in management. After the end of the course I hope to be able to contribute to other people, my country, society and life as a whole by realizing self-actualization and self-fulfillment through the study of organizational behavior.

The World of Glassblowing

25, February 2013 The World of Glassblowing Ever imagine what it’s like to play with honey? Now imagine playing and shaping honey when it’s glowing red hot with strange yet interesting instruments and turning it into some beautiful and out of this world. A piece of art that is completely unique and one of a kind. Well this is exactly what it’s like in the world of glassblowing. By trying and experiencing the art class here at SBVC one can truly learn to perfect not only just the skill, but expand your own imagination as well as your creativity.Glassblowing is a dying trade and skill in the art world. Now it’s mainly considered more of a hobby. On a more serious note career-wise it’ll get you far but it will not et you a life of luxury, but it does provide if your living the single life. Family-wise your better off having another full time job because this particular career would only pay enough to cover for the materials, the tools, the furnace, etc that one would use. These costs tend to be particularly high in price which would be the main reason to look for employment else where when it comes to providing for a family.Naturally, most people would think that glassblowing originated from Mexico because a lot of handmade glassware is manufactured and created there. In Mexico glassblowing is actually done outside in the public for all to see this fascinating art. So it’s not surprising that so many people are convinced that this intriguing skill would come from our neighbors down in the South. When in fact glassblowing originated from across the world in Italy, where it’s a tradition to earn a living from. In most Italian families a trade like glassblowing is naturally passed down from one generation to the next.Italy focuses mainly on the handmade arts such as glassblowing, pottery, stain-glasswork, etc and avoids mainstreaming it. Which in conclusion is why most handmade objects that are purchased and shipped fr om Italy is so highly priced. Most likely that piece of art is one of a kind and cannot be replicated. In my own observations at the SBVC Glassblowing class, I was able to witness the delicate procedure it takes to perfect this particular skill. As I sat and observed Stephen, a student here at SBVC’s Glassblowing class, he explains carefully every step that must be taken along with some precautions.Stephen then explains the dangers of this type of artwork and gives some examples of injuries that he and many other students acquired white participating in this class. One example that he used was how one student subconsciously caught an object he knocked over in an attempt to save it from shattering but in return burned both hands because the object was still hot. This student obtained first-degree burns on both hands and thus was not able to participate in the class for two weeks. As Stephen preps and prepares his materials and tools for his project I then proceed to ask him mo re questions.Such as what made him want to pursue this dangerous yet interesting trade. He then set his tools down and simply replied that he wanted a fresh start. Something new and exciting and that when he saw the title of this class he knew right then and there that that was something he wanted to do. Stephen then grabs a blowpipe, expected it and then approached the glory hole with it and began to heat one end of it. As he was heating or warming up the blowpipe I then continued with my interview. My next question that I addressed to Stephen was what did he personally benefit by taking this class and learning this skill. Well.. † Stephen said as he opened the furnace, â€Å" By taking this class and learning this skill I learned how to be patient, which I never was before taking this class. † Stephen then dips the end of the blowpipe in the furnace to gather the red hot glowing liquid and quickly closes the door while maneuvering the blowpipe to keep the glass from f alling to the ground. Stephen then said, â€Å"and I also learned really good hand-eye coordination too as well as working in a high stress environment. After finishing with that reply, Stephen then when to the marver and evened the molten glass on the pipe and quickly sat down at his bench and continued his project by blocking the glass. â€Å"Are there any disadvantages in glassblowing? † I said and Stephen then quickly replied â€Å" Other than getting burns no not really. † After rounding the glass with the block to his liking Stephen then got up and inserted the glass into the glory hole to reheat the glass before blowing and shaping it into a perfect bubble.As Stephen resumes his place at the bench, I quietly watched as he skillfully reshapes the glass and then using one end of the blowpipe gently blows air into the glass, forming a small but perfect orb. As Stephen manipulated his small glass bubble, I then asked him what was the most interesting part of his ne w found skills. As he created the jack line, which formed a neck separating the bubble from the pipe he replied that the most interesting part of Glassblowing was the unlimited amount of ideas that can be made with the glass if one has the imagination and creativity to bring them to life.With that Stephen then quickly moved over to a box with what looked like cotton inside and gently tapped the blowpipe with the back of his jacks (a tool that looks like a very large set of tweezers) and the bubble simply fell from the blow pipe and into the box. Stephen then quickly put the box in the annealed which slowly cools the glass over a period of a few hours (depending on how large the object in question is). Before I was able to ask another question Stephen then said to me in a cool tone that if he had to choose between pursuing Glassblowing as a career or a hobby that he’d rather keep this as a hobby.His reason behind this statement was that it was something that he would continue to do for peace of mind. If he were to pursue this skill as a career that he would love to teach it but that it was unlikely to happen for him. As our interview came to an end, Stephen then took me under his wing and taught me some of the basic yet advance techniques that he uses to create small objects. Such as small teacups. After he gave me a small run thru on how to make a small tea cup with a handle, I was then instructed to try the procedure on my own.I then slowly mimicked Stephen’s every step: I heated the blowpipe and then gather a good size amount of the molten glass on my pipe. Next I then rolled the glass in a quick but steady pace on the marver to even the glass forming a small cylinder. Then I approached the scorching hot glory hole, reheated the glass, sat down at the bench and then proceeded to block the molten glass until it was completely even. I then angled the blowpipe just like Stephen instructed me to do, took a deep breath and blew into the blowpipe.At first it was a bit difficult, but after the first few seconds grew easier. Right when I was getting comfortable with this my bubble suddenly popped! Apparently I blew the glass so much that the glass became thin and popped. Glassblowing not only teaches one how to manipulate the red hot glowing liquid with strange tools, but also teaches one how to express the creativity and imagination of the mind to create mind blowing works of art. What made you want to take this particular class? What have you benefited from taking this class and learning these skills?What would you say are the disadvantages of glassblowing and why? What are the advantages of glassblowing and why? Would you recommend this class or learning these specific skills to anyone? What would you say is the most interesting part of glassblowing? Would you ever continue these skills as a career path or a hobby? Why? When you first started taking this class what was the worst experience you ever had? Did that experience inc lude getting any type of injuries while participating? What was the most extreme injury you’ve ever gotten?Did you ever receive any burns that were third degree burns? How did your parents react when you told them of your new found interest in glassblowing? Did they oppose it or support it? How do you feel about the class fee you had to pay? Do you feel that the class fee is fair or unfair? Recently I’ve heard that most of the art classes are being cut. What are you going to do if the distract cuts the glassblowing program? Will go elsewhere to continue learning and perfecting this art or call quits? Tucker