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In life, people have a unique ability to select the things they want to give attention. This ability enables a person to concentrate on a few things despite the hullabaloo of daily activities that people engage in. The selective mindset that people have influences the way people observe and understand things especially those of interest. In simple terms, people find what they set their mind to or what is in their mental channel. Therefore, it is imperative to learn how to create mental channels.

Education is one way of learning how to make correct mental channels or how to set the mind. Education enables a person to gain the skills of choosing what is and what is not appropriate in life. Through education, we also learn to recognize surroundings in a cognitive manner. The environment of a person always offers much information, which subsequently help in picking areas of interest and dropping what is not necessary. In addition to opening the mind to the surrounding, education provides life concepts used to comprehensively, understand the world. This way, education systems teache people how to choose “the right answer”. People who have gone through school have their mind set to acquiring right answers-hence the “right answer approach”. However, it is disappointing that this approach has negative impacts on the way perceive life.

Life situations are ambiguous and rarely constrained to single correct answers as mathematical problems and educational systems encourage. Life presents different situations, as indicated earlier, and people have the ability to choose what they want to give attention. It is likely so to find different right answers depending on what a person looks for. Unfortunately, education teaches people to one right answer and subsequently gets satisfied because of the answer. This blocks the openness to a myriad of ideas and other right answers that may be available overtime. During the early life in school, kids have a wider perception of life than those students do the upper level of education. A straightforward question posed to kindergarten kids might elicit many answers since they have not learned to select out possibilities. In contrast, those students at the upper level of education have the skill and ability to find the right answer and exclude other options. This, however, construes the ability to choose other answers that are more right. Getting specific in life reduces the power of thinking out of the box creatively.

The approach of looking for one right answer leads to problems in the current society. This is because most people have a single-right-answer mindset and thus have limited flexibility in their acceptance of answer. This situation in common in the education system too, where teachers expect students to give one right answer for questions asked. If a student wanders in his or her answer away from the teacher expectations, likelihood for a wrong mark is high even if the argument may be logical thus failing. This is the danger of thinking with an open mindset. Ironically, life demands diversity and flexibility to survive the competition of limited resources.

Finally, it is crucial to compare one’s ideas to other ideas. This way it is easier to expose the weaknesses of the idea and appreciate the strength of an idea. The ability to compare ideas acts as sharpening tool for effective reasoning, and application of ideas to avoid unforeseen disappointments. Through diversity, if an idea fails, another option takes up position.

In conclusion, the surrounding of a person offers opportunities to explore using diverse mindset. Education gives the knowledge of acquiring information from this surrounding and students ought to adopt diversity and try to find more “right answers” as opposed to one, limiting answer.

Throughout this essay, one will come to find that all five ecological systems are present. Whether it be the microsystem of Ruby and her family, how she was treated among peers at school, or the mesosystem relating to her parents connection with Ruby's teacher at the white school, the exosystem between her father's fears and treatment by whites pushed onto Ruby or her mother, the macrosystem of the all African-American street Ruby lived on or the school she attended before the white school and finally the chronosystem where Ruby and her parent's connected with the NAACP as well as the U.S. Marshals (government), these will all be talked about below.

Ruby Nell Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi. Her parents were sharecroppers, people who rented land and instead of paying with money, they paid with crops. In 1958, Ruby's family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and lived on a heavily populated African-American block. Her mother did various night jobs, while her father was a service station attendant and by the time she was 6, she had many brothers and sisters. Her job was to watch them, and she did a pretty good job. Ruby Bridges' life really didn't include anything off her block, but that was all about to change.

When Ruby was 5 years old, she started kindergarten at Johnson Lockett Elementary School. Ruby's school was all black, and she had many friends. In the spring of 1960, the government decided to force two white schools' to integrate and Johnson Lockett was to test their kindergarteners to see if they could make it in white schools. So, Lucille dressed up Ruby in her Sunday finest and took her uptown, to the school board room and waited to be tested. That summer, several people from NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) came to her house and told Ruby's parents that she had passed to test and was to go to William Frantz Elementary School. It was closer and better than Johnson Lockett. Ruby really didn't understand what was going on, but she was going to.

On November 14th, 1960, Ruby Bridges was ready to go to her new school. William Frantz Elementary School was an all white school, and many people were in an outrage because it was being integrated. In fact, the day school started was pushed back because government officials found a way to slow down the process. On that Sunday before she went, her mother said, "There might be a lot of people outside the school, but you don't need to be afraid. I'll be with you." On that November morning, many federal marshals showed up at her door, saying they were to escort her to her new school. When they got to William Frantz, a huge mob of people were outside the school. The mob was shouting things, and holding unpleasant signs. After Ruby finished her 1st grade school year, she had slowly gotten used to the whole fiasco, and she went through school with the same respect as she had in 1st grade. It did get better, throughout her career; she finished high school and became a flight attendant.

When Ruby got older, she had done many things to help the Civil Rights Movement. She had established a foundation called "The Ruby Bridges Foundation" and its motto is "RACISM is a grown-up disease. Lets STOP using kids to spread it." The foundation exists to encourage people to stop being racist and stop the injustices from happening again. Ruby also showed the world that anyone, even a little six year old, can stand up to racism and don't ever doubt that if you have a big enough passion for something, you can make a difference. Ruby Bridges is an American hero in so many ways. She had showed to the world that African-Americans are just as good as white people. She stood up to racism, non-violently, and she was very brave at six years old

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) was very influenced by the French symbolist movement and he is often regarded as the most important symbolist poet of the twentieth century. Yeats felt 'metaphors are not profound enough to be moving,' so his poems heavily incorporate symbols as a means of expressing abstract and mystical ideas. However, through the use of symbolism Yeats's poems are much more dispersed and fragmented than the work of earlier poets, and therefore may at first appear to be more difficult to understand because there is no direct (one to one) correspondence. Instead symbols become reverberating images that provide a contemplation and rearrangement of material things, where one must complete the meaning by filling in the gaps with different interpretations. 'The symbolists aimed for a poetry of suggestion rather than direct statement, evoking subjective moods through the use of private symbols, while avoiding the description of external reality or the expression of opinion.'

Focusing on the two poems 'Sailing to Byzantium' from The Tower (1928) and 'Byzantium' from The Winding Stair (1933) we can examine the symbols that Yeats uses to express himself and his ideas. Firstly, the images that appear in the titles of these collections are two very important recurring symbols.

The Tower, which is often regarded as Yeats' masterpiece, became a crucial symbol within his work; as he himself states 'I declare this tower is my symbol' (Selected Criticism, 14). In one sense it is a private symbol as it relates directly to him - towards the end of his life he finally withdrew from family, wife and the outside world, retreating into a tower where he spent the remainder of his life existing in a hermit-like fashion. Thus, due to this biographical element, he turns this building and the collection of poems into something that represents an allusive assessment of his life so far. The tower literally becomes an embodiment of his house of fiction, the place in which he works and finds inspiration. It is also a place of peace not only for him but also for others. The symbol of the tower becomes more universal in part five 'The Road at my Door', of the poem 'Meditations in Time of Civil War' where two men on opposing sides arrive at the narrator's door on different occasions. The men, one a member of the IRA, an 'Irregular,' and the other 'A Brown Lieutenant' (6) - an officer in the National Army, are symbols of the long and bitter struggle of Irish politics that stretches behind them. However, standing here beside the tower they are just mere men - they become human again and emerge from the uniform into humanity. The tower therefore becomes a still point at the centre of destruction, where dialogue about the ordinary and real (such as 'cracking jokes' (3) and talking 'of the foul weather' (9) has the possibility to be heard.

The image of the winding stair is also very important and appears repeatedly throughout his work. Yeats emphasised its importance when he stated 'I declare / This winding, gyring, spiring treadmill of a stair is my ancestral stair' (Selected Criticism, 14). This relates to his Irish ancestry, time and his cyclical theory of history. Yeats had his own philosophical theories which he expanded in 'The Vision'. He saw history diagrammatically and believed that the world is done and undone in two thousand years where each era is overthrown by some catastrophic change. Thus:

He symbolised this in the gyres, alternating series of historical change, a gyre being a conical spiral movement, which begins at a point in history (an annunciation, the birth of Christ etc.) and expands to its fullest circle, whereupon in the middle of this circle occurs a point, the next annunciation, and with it the birth of a new age which will be the reverse of all that has gone before.

The winding stair reminds Yeats of a gyre and he believes that his era will come to some catastrophic end due to all the war he has seen.

The stairs could also be seen to wind up from the earth to the sky, and symbolise the eternal vacillation of human thought towards permanence and intellectual beauty. This is often a key concern within most of Yeats's work, his search for immortality and the need to transcend. The tension within most of his poems is the desire to float out of the material world to an infinite and purer space away from the material world. This can be particularly seen within the 'Byzantium' poems. Here, in the title of the collection, the winding stairs symbolises a journey away from earth and towards the spiritual, thus highlighting the issue of body and soul (especially in relation to symbolism). This was a topic of great interest for Yeats, as can be seen in his essay 'The Symbolism of Poetry' where he describes that 'the soul moves among symbols and unfolds in symbols' (Selected Criticism, 51). Therefore, symbolism for Yeats holds a special mysticism and spirituality.

In 'Sailing to Byzantium' Yeats again presents the reader with a symbolic (although imaginary) journey, where the speaker sails away from a place of decay - the natural world of 'Fish, flesh of fowl' (5) to one with the promise of immortality where neither time nor nature can intrude. Byzantium becomes a symbol for this world. However, as no one symbol has one fixed meaning, but instead, can have a variety of associations, 'Byzantium, then, has a multiple symbolic value.'

The city Byzantium (modern Istanbul) 'was a highly sophisticated city, celebrated for beauty in the visual arts and the drama and mystery of its elaborate religious ritual' until its capture by the Turks in 1453. Therefore it stands for all aspects of life, especially a place of culture where one can be immortalised. It could also represent a meeting point, where different cultures and different people can stand in the same place without their differences interfering; this is similar to the tower's significance in 'The Road at my Door'. 'The mummy cloth' (11) in 'Byzantium' perhaps represents 'the Egyptian element in Byzantine art' (Henn, 229). It could also suggest that Byzantium is a symbol of memory as it links it to Egypt's ancient and glorious civilisation and tradition, where the people were extremely concerned with the afterlife and being remembered here on earth after they died.

It has also been suggested that 'Byzantium might well symbolise a new Ireland breaking away from its masters so that it might develop, or rather return to, its own philosophical, religious and artistic destiny' (Henn, 222). This is evident from the fact that he is talking about a civilisation long gone - but one that should be renewed.

Birds are also important symbols in both poems. In 'Sailing to Byzantium' the 'birds in the trees' (2) symbolise the natural whilst the mechanical bird 'of hammered gold' (28) symbolises artifice. Usually artifice is criticised and the natural is praised, but Yeats turns this upside down as the persona views the golden mechanical bird as perfect, and therefore it becomes a monument of 'unageing intellect' (8), which is what Yeats wanted to establish himself as. (This mechanical bird could be a literary reference to Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale'). This element of the poem becomes problematic as it praises art at the expense of life.

Song is also important and symbolises the importance of music to the symbolists. 'They wanted to bring poetry closer to music, believing that sound had mysterious affinities with other senses' (Baldick, 253). In 'Sailing to Byzantium' the birds, the young and the 'dying generations' (3) are all 'at their song' (3) and therefore united. Yeats believed that 'Pattern and rhythm are the road to poem symbolism,' (Selected Criticism, 34) as he stated in 'A Symbolic Artist', so by making poetry more musical it was able to speak to more people. However, the song that is being sung does not necessarily have to be actual music, but in the case of the young, on a symbolic level it could be the passion expressed in their love, as in the 'sensual music' (7) that is connected with youth, creativity and productivity. The persona, however, is anxious about those caught up in sensuous music, because they belong to the natural world where immortality is neglected. Additionally, the bird's song when he is 'set upon a golden bough to sing' (30) could have a alternative meaning: as the song occurs towards the end of the poem, it could be representative of the swan's last dying song (which links to another one of Yeats's most significant symbols, the swan).

Animals feature a great deal throughout the two poems, but each represents something different. The 'mackerel-crowed seas' (4) could be seen to symbolise vitality and youth, thus suggesting the vigour and plenty of nature. Also, the Salmon in particular was a 'symbol of strength in Celtic literature' (Henn, 224). This is juxtaposed with the 'dying animal' (22) that stands for the human body and the way in which it decays - again highlighting Yeats's concern, frustration (and maybe even bitterness) with growing old.

When Yeats talks about the 'Monuments of unageing intellect' (8) he is not just talking about buildings which are often associated with the cold and the formal but also 'the rational quality of intellect' (W.B. Yeats Selected Poems, 77) perhaps suggesting that the monuments might be verse, pictures or any other artistic creation. The buildings may be weatherworn and can change over time but here he suggests that those created out of intellect are beyond time, thus suggesting that these monuments are more magnificent than the works of nature. The 'Marbles of the dancing floor' (36) in 'Byzantium' could also be viewed similarly, although they could stand for coldness; they also stand for durability and art.

The 'gold mosaic' (18) of 'Sailing to Byzantium' is a symbol of eternity, where a moment in history is frozen and preserved through art and 'into the artifice of eternity' (24), (this again reminds us of Keats as its meaning is similar to that of 'Ode to a Grecian Urn'). This symbol aims to remind the reader of the transience of nature and the durability of art. These monuments and works of art that Yeats discusses serve to provide an imagined defence against time. Henn also suggests that the mosaics 'depict the spiritual experience, stabilized by the knowledge and technique of the artist;' (Henn, 229) Yeats considers his search for immortality as a spiritual journey.

The fire in the poems also relates to the spiritual nature of them. 'God's holy fire' (17) in 'Sailing to Byzantium and the 'Flames that no faggot feeds' (26) of 'Byzantium' could represent the flame of eternal life, the fire of Pentecost, inspiration and new life. The imagery of fire suggests that the 'blood-begotten spirits' (28) in 'Byzantium' must be purged of their sin and must be burnt away by the divine flame in order to be fit for eternal life. This ritual is referred to in many religious traditions - but again this ritual is not a literal but a symbolic one. Through death new life grows 'death-in-life and life-in-death' (16). However, it could also be read differently as the 'flames' (26) could be spirits who have already been purged.

Through Yeats's use of symbolism he also invokes mythology. For example, 'Hades' bobbin' (11) in 'Byzantium' suggests the image of the labyrinth and the Minotaur or the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The bobbin could be a spirit who leads the dead down 'the winding path' (12) towards the underworld (this reminds us of the winding stairs and could be symbolic of the unwinding of lived years). 'On a symbolic level, it could mean that our earthly lives should be thought of as wound up as a thread is on a spool and that the purging of the self after death is an unwinding' (W.B. Yeats Selected Poems, 87). Once again this image could allude to the gyre with its spiralling movement.

Some critics have said that Yeats uses obscure private codes of meaning which are too private and therefore cannot be fully interpreted, but this is unlikely as his symbols are open to a myriad of interpretations. Subsequently the reader is able to gain a deeper understanding of what is being expressed because of his poetry's multi-layers. Symbolism in Yeats's poetry provides new meaning with every reading, it is soul-searching, profound, thought-provoking and emotional; as he himself states, 'poetry moves us because of its symbolism' (Selected Criticism, 51). So much more is expressed in what is not said than what is.

Bibliography

PRIMARY SOURCES

Yeats, W. B., Selected poems: lyrical and narrative (London: Macmillan & Co., 1938).

SECONDARY SOURCES

Baldick, Chris, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edn., 2001).

Henn, T. R., The Lonely Tower: Studies in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats (London: Methuen & Co Ltd. 2nd edn., 1966).

Jeffares, A. Norman, W.B. Yeats in the 'Profiles in Literature' series (Routledge, 1971).

Yeats, W. B., W. B. Yeats Selected Criticism, ed. A. Norman Jeffares (London: Macmillan & Co Ltd, 1964).

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Yeats, W. B., W.B. Yeats Selected Poems, ed. Victor Lee & Richard Gill (Oxford: Oxford University press, 4th edn., 2001).

In the period between 1860 and 1890, the government and society of the United States experienced what some historians call “The Second American Revolution” (Foner, Brief 4th ed, p 417). The Civil War and Reconstruction transformed a “union” into a “nation,” shifted an agrarian society toward an industrial society in the North, and reinterpreted the definition of freedom for both white and black men. For a brief period, it seemed possible for blacks to achieve equal status with whites, and though the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments granted them political equality under the law, the ideal of social equality fell short as the nation succumbed to the rush for capital and material goods characteristized by the Gilded Age. The net outcome of Reconstruction, in practice, hardly even afforded the political liberties outlined in the Constitution, these issues failing to capture national attention because most white abolitionists never envisioned civil equality as the end goal. Slavery was predominantly a labor issue rather than a civil rights issue, and in the rapidly growing industrial economy of the Gilded Age, conflicts with the working class quickly eclipsed those of race in the national scene.

Before the Civil War, the North and South held very different points of view regarding slavery. As a slave society, the South’s economy depended on the slave labor in plantations, and even though only one fourth of all white families in the South owned slaves, “most small farmers believed their economic and personal freedom rested on slavery” (Foner, Brief 4th ed, p 316, 317). On the other hand, society in the North gradually aspired toward the ideal of “free labor” because they feared the rigid social order of slave society, a system which left “poor whites with no hope of advancement” (Foner, Brief 4th ed, p 387). In fact, opposition to the spread of slavery represented the key platform of the Republican Party, and the election of its presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln ultimately incited the secession of the Southern states. Congressman W.W. Boyce said this about the Republican Party in a speech days after the election: “It is a party filled with animosity to the South… a party founded upon a principle destructive to our social system. A party that destroys our whole social fabric, which reduces the beautiful South to a howling wilderness. Shall we submit to such a party? In my opinion we should not” (The Sun, 10 Nov 1860).

Thus, the Civil War began over divided ideals on the spread of slavery. However, until 1862 the Union government staunchly opposed general abolition in the South. In February of 1861, the House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution stating that “neither Congress, nor the people, nor governments of the non-slaveholding States have a constitutional right to legislate upon or interfere with slavery in any slaveholding State of the Union” (New York Herald, 14 Oct 1861). The North continued to emphasize their anti-abolitionist position well into 1862, but even before the Emancipation Proclamation, some Northerners foresaw the end of the war as the end of slavery as well. “The most natural way to put an end to a controversy,” writes the New York Times, “is to remove the cause of it, and since the war has resulted from the refusal of the Slavery propagandists to submit to the laws, the obvious and certain cure for the political malady is the abolition of slavery” (New York Times, 29 Jul 1861). By the summer of 1862, the drive for abolition drastically changed the trajectory of the war and forever instilled the ideal of free labor in the United States.

When Lincoln formulated the Emancipation Proclamation, he drafted it on the principle of “military necessity,” understanding the Confederacy’s dependence on slave labor and using the Proclamation to threaten the economy of the Southern states (Memphis Daily Appeal, 25 April 1864). Although Lincoln deliberately excluded Union-controlled areas and provided a deadline for which emancipation would take place, which allowed “the States involved in this rebellion to save themselves and their domestic institutions,” the momentum of this action quickly led to the conclusion that abolition represented the only stable future for the Union (The New York Herald, 27 Sep 1862). Within a year, society widely accepted that “human bondage and human freedom cannot dwell together in peace under the same constitutional Government; that there is in their very nature irreconcilable hate and eternal war” (Chicago Tribune, 11 Sep 1863). Most Northerners still limited the implications of abolition as the destruction of a labor institution, but within the faction of Radical Republicans, some officials expanded the meaning of abolition to include that of social and political rights for African Americans.

Many leaders, however, still opposed the radical sense of abolition following the Civil War, and none more prominent than President Andrew Johnson. A Southerner himself before the war, Johnson abhorred the Southern planter class and endorsed the abolition of slavery only as a means to reduce the power this “damnable aristocracy” (Chicago Tribune, 20 Apr 1865). Though he openly rejected black equality, he expressed that “the necessity for work would bring about an understanding between the two races” for a new system of labor in the South which would be “applicable to both white and black” (The New York Herald, 15 Oct 1865). It remains unsaid what such a system would actually look like in his vision, but in any case, this limited view of Reconstruction ultimately foreshadowed its failure. Only the bare definition of free labor seemed reasonable to citizens of a former slave society, much less social equality between the races.

However, when the Northern Radical Republicans wrested power from President Johnson over Reconstruction, they moved to establish legal equality among whites and blacks at an unprecedented rate in history. Congress passed the 14th, and 15th Amendments guaranteeing the right to vote and equal protection under the law for African Americans, extending the notion of abolition far beyond the question of labor. However, the ideals of Radical Reconstruction quickly lost many of its supporters in the North. As one paper states, “The white masses of the North do not like to see the national government aiding and assisting in the disenfranchisement of their white brethren in the South” (Daily Courier, 29 Jul 1868). Also, the Freedmen’s Bureau, tasked with executing the new rights of freedmen, came under criticism as an organization “basely perverted to partisan uses,” with the majority of whites opposing the attention toward African Americans over white men (Republican Banner, 9 Jul 1868). Despite the achievement of abolition in the Civil War, the ideology of blacks as inferior hardly changed or was even addressed in the struggle for emancipation. Thus, the idea of “guarding the interests of a class of people mentally unable to take care of themselves” seemed “too ridiculous for serious contemplation” at the time of Radical Reconstruction (The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, 28 Sep 1868).

Radical Reconstruction failed because it pursued goals beyond those supported by the majority of white Americans. For Northerners, abolition never entailed equal rights for African Americans, but rather the elimination of a threatening labor institution and disposal of a “relic of barbarism” (New - York Tribune, 10 Nov 1869). Labor, however, shifted drastically in the North following the Civil War as the Second Industrial Revolution rapidly developed and flourished. Miles of railroad track tripled between 1860 and 1880 due to government land grants and subsidies during the Civil War, “opening vast new areas to commercial farming and creating a truly national market for manufactured goods” (Foner, Brief 4th ed, p 478). The labor question thus also shifted drastically, the focus changing from the instillation of free labor in the agrarian South to issues of working class industrial workers in the North. Rights for African Americans sunk down in the national scene as the hype of industrial power and materialism took hold in the Gilded Age. “I am convinced that America will make iron and steel for mankind in the long future,” declared Abram S. Hewitt, “we have the iron, coal, capital, skill, and energy necessary to do it” (Daily American, 20 May 1889).

Despite the shift in attention for labor in the United States, however, the foundation for labor conflict developed in a different form. Though not necessarily debating the institution of labor itself, or explicitly the rights of workers as citizens, the arising topic of labor rights in the Gilded Age took the first steps in consolidating the freedom that Reconstruction failed to achieve for blacks. In the Great Railroad Strike of 1877--“the year of both the end of Reconstruction and also the first national labor walkout”--workers across the country brought industry to a standstill in protest of wage cuts and other exploitation from their employers (Foner, Brief 4th ed, p 501). The workers garnered great support from common people across the country, and even many prominent newspapers sympathized on the side of workers during the strike. The New York Times and The Sun, for example, used validating language such as “the people along the line of the road are thoroughly in sympathy with the strikers,” and phrases like “[the strikers] have complete control” of the railway lines (New York Times, 18 Jul 1877) (The Sun, 20 Jul 1877). They even praised the workers’ courtesy for allowing passenger cars to travel uninhibited. The rising question of labor rights signalled a change in national consciousness toward a broad sense of personal liberty, and America seemed open explore this notion.

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However, the outbreak of violence between workers and officials proved to be the nature of labor conflicts to come. In the aftermath of the railroad strike, in which a confrontation between workers the police resulted in several deaths and the destruction of millions of dollars worth of property, “the federal government constructed armories in major cities” to protect against labor uprisings (Foner, Brief 4th ed, p 502). Newspapers often sided with the interests of capital, and old issues of abolition and civil rights for African Americans fell to the prevailing issues industrial labor conflicts in the North. Before civil rights for African Americans could be accepted by American society, the more limited view of liberty in terms of labor rights would have to be accepted first. Unfortunately, the failure of consolidating racial equality proved an inevitable outcome for American society at the time, which up to the period of Reconstruction hardly ever considered equality among the races and viewed slavery rather as an institution that held no place in the emerging free labor economy. In fact, abolition always represented a labor issue rather than a civil rights issue to the majority of white Americans, and as such, only one logical outcome of Reconstruction could last into the Gilded Age, and that was the consolidation of the free labor ideal.

The quality of life in a family is basic to the welfare of children. The parent-child relationship has a prevalent influence on the physical, psychological, economic and social welfare of children. Most substantial mental health, economic, and social challenges are associated with disturbances in the functioning of a family relationship. Epidemiological studies show that family risk factor including; poor parenting, divorce cases, family conflicts, among others, strongly influence the development of children. This calls for the need to implement Triple-P (Positive Parenting Program) to alleviate such problems.

Triple-P (Positive Parenting Program) refers to a multilevel, preventively focused parenting and family support strategy created by the Mathew Sanders together with his work mates at Queensland University, Australia. The program was aimed to avert severe behavioral, developmental and emotional challenges children are facing by improving the parental knowledge, skills and confidence. This paper seeks to critically examine the evidence that the Triple-P (Positive Parenting Program) is linked to improved parenting and/ or child behavior in school domain.

Parenting and Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Problems.

The effect of parenting on the development and preservation of the emotions and behavior of a child is well established. Baumrind, (1996) conceptualizes parenting as an integration of responsibility and demand where the significance of both warmth and structure for the development of a child was highlighted. Bandura’s work on modeling (1977) influenced the theoretical research on social learning where he demonstrated that children acquire negative behaviors directly through experiencing enforcing impacts, and indirectly through what they observe on their experiences. Bandura’s work was advanced by coercion theory by focusing on the functions of parent-child coercive exchanges in the development and preservation of behavior challenges of children. During these coercive exchanges, the parent together with the child intensifies their aversive behavior until either the parent or child submits. Consequently, the intensified aversive behavior and submission are negatively enforced. As time goes by, these coercive exchanges can become habitual pattern of interactions between children and their parents.

Responsive parenting and positive-child interactions are a protective factor against the development of emotional and behavioral challenges of children and cushion against hardship, even in high-risk families, to enhance prevention of externalizing behaviors and problems associated with academic. Therefore, the intervention of triple-P is an effective way of reducing children’s emotional and behavioral problems.

Parenting and Children’s Classroom Behavior.

Behavior problems of children at home usually extend to the school domain. Children bearing behavior problems have tendency to model harsh as well as hostile interactions in the classroom if they view and encounter harsh and dangerous modes of parenting. Children who undergo parental model characterized by warm and responsive interactions have tendency to display the same pro-social behavior . Furthermore, effective parenting boosts the regulation skills of the children, which are negatively associated with behavior problems.

Parenting programs aiming at enhancing the parent-child relationship, compliance, and reduce behavior problems have resulted to general improvement of child’s behavior in a classroom. For instance, from the findings in a study conducted by McTaggart and Sanders (2003), children who underwent Triple P displayed substantially greater enhancements in teachers’ ratings of frequency and intensity of problem behaviors as compared to were under the otherwise parenting, and these enhancements were preserved at a six-month follow up. Therefore, positive parenting programs are reliable methods of intervention for the reduction of children’s emotional and behavioral problems.

Parenting and Children’s Educational Attainment.

Effective parenting practices are both essential to children’s academic success as well as children’s positive behavioral outcomes. The findings of a longitudinal study show that children whose parents were both strict and supportive displayed a higher academic performance and school engagement as compared to their peers who were under less strict and unsupportive parenting. Furthermore, children who performed very well in school are more likely to have parents who are responsive in different ways such as; setting academic targets for the children, applying the use scaffolding in academic talks, together with encouraging autonomy of children. Contrary to authoritarian parenting, the parent-child conflict can be linked to dismal academic performance for the children.

Parenting may affect the academic performance of children through its strong effect on adherence and self-regulation of children by increasing children’s; cognitive engagement, attentiveness, and inhibitory control all of which are co-related with academic performance. Academic achievement through increased homework completion, a key factor for academic success of children, is also associated with behavioral compliance of children. Therefore, an effective parenting strengthens and advocates the compliance of children as route to successful engagement of children in school.

Parenting programs emphasize on reinforcing parenting skills to enable parents manage behavior problems of children and enhance positive parent– child interactions. These programs are directed by l principles of behavior and work to assist parents executes reliable, predictable, and effective parenting approaches. The efficacy of evidence-based parenting programs as a management of children’s emotional and behavioral problems of children is well established in based on some of the observations made in school domain.

In his essay ‘Avant-garde and Kitsch’, Clement Greenberg claims that avant-garde or modernist art is a tool to prevent the ordinary culture caused by consumerism. Also with in his essay Kitsch gained popularity. The reason of he avant-garde’s arising is to defend aesthetic standards from the negative effects of consumer society over the artistic taste. He keeps avant-garde or art as more superior than kitsch. They are opposite sides according to Greenberg. He thinks that kitsch is much more like an Academic art. This gave a shape to the art and formed some rules to make the art something learnable.

Many forms and ideas in contemporary poetry can be understood by analyzing this essay. For Clement, art includes two types: avant-garde and kitsch. Avant-garde takes the top position as a kind moving our society forward and it can be seen a genuine art. It focuses on the art itself and can make the common or minor, unimportant things a part of the art in artistic way. The avant-garde artists managing to do this, mostly are marginalized in modern world. However, even if kitsch has a characteristic of inauthenticity, modern society is more interested in kitsch. Also, kitsch can’t be behind its time. Art and life is connected with each other and this attracts people to kitsch. However, in other side this quality of kitsch can be seen problematic. Like avant-garde, it is not genuine. Kitsch doesn’t need the effort of readers or viewers while genuine art requires people to work hard and to be educated people to be able to acquire artistic ideas.

The avant-garde is a product of Western bourgeois culture. It can be said that the capitalist and consumer society created avant-garde. It aimed to pursue art for its own sake but at the same time it couldn’t save itself from the money of bourgeois society. The avant-garde is both an academic and intellectual movement. Rather than being depended on history and tradition, it is about future and potential. Content is not significant, only the form of art itself is of importance. The avant-garde artist is not imitating or re-creating the world, but imitating and re-creating the form the art itself. The bacis principle in avant-garde is that instead of art that imitates life, art that imitates art. The avant-garde art requires a wealthy and educated audience.

Kitsch is a product of the industrial revolution which urbanized the masses of Western Europe and America and established universal literacy. According to Greenberg, the kitsch arose to fill a demand for culture coming from the proletariat of industrial countries. It serves to lower class or middle class and that is it is easy to reach by everyone. It can be counted as a synthesis of culture and media. Kitsch is profitable, mechanical and has formulas. While avant-garde needs an educated class, kitsch doesn’t need such an audience to grasp the ideas.

The avant garde imitates the process (and system) of art, and kitsch imitates its effect. Greenberg explains that socialism is the only movement that can support the avant- garde, or new culture. The avant-garde pushes its limits and so is producing new cultural value. Even kitsch is disposed to find new ideas in itself from time to time. While the avant-garde represents high culture, kitsch is the product of mass culture or popular culture and so it serves to common man.

Some writers may look to do different things in terms of the structure of the work and the sequence of the sentences, while others working in poetry would create new forms and new ways of working. One of the key things about being avant-garde in literature is that it is all about breaking the existing rules about writing, and whether these are in poetry or in fictional writing, pushing the boundary and expressing themselves in a different way that doesn't conform to the existing rules is vital. The avant-garde has made writing an art form that is about more than just telling a story, but is actually about the form as much as the content. Although it can be an unique and individual way of expressing opinions and of working out new ideas, the changes in the format can also limit the audience for such work, and make it more difficult for people to access their work. James Joyce experimented with the medium of writing, and actually being successful in doing so, with landmark works such as 'Ulysses' he was a author of avant-garde. As well as Joyce, there are many poets who have also helped to push literature forward, and another of the biggest exponents of the avant-garde within literature is Jack Kerouac. With Allen Ginsberg, he brought many new dimensions to the literature. Their poems reflected unthought and unwritten issues not spoken until that day. If we give an example from world literature the most important example can be Franz Kafka. He chose to narrate the issues through different way of narration as in ‘Metamorphosis’ by using an insect character.

The avant-garde painters tried new forms and things in their paintings like writers or poets. George Braque can be a good example. He is a French and develeops new art style, Cubism. With this new style he brings a new dimension to painting. As avant-garde requires, it needs a certain education or culture to grasp the ideas behind the products. In George Braque’s paintings, a common man can have difficulty in understanding art. George O’Keeffe is another important artist. She is an American artist. She is known as the mother of American modernism. Like many other avant-garde products, her art forces people to understand and needs some culture.

As a conclusion, the avant-garde and kitsch are opposite sides and both have different audiences from each others. We mostly dealt with the avant-garde in this essay since it requires much more interest with its high-class culture. Kitsch is like a product of mass culture so many people find easy to deal with kitsch products. While kitch can’t go beyond the mediocrity, the avant-garde makes a breakthrough in art and literature. This basic difference between these two art forms create the different forms,audiences and cultures to understand them.

Table of contents

1. Political Factors
2. Economic Factors
3. Social Factors
4. Technological Factors
5. Environmental Factors
6. Legal Factors

Fast food is a type of food prepared quickly and served as a takeaway or quick meal usually involving reheating cooked meals. It was first cited in Britain in 1860 with the first fish and chips shops. In the 1950s, drive-through restaurants were first popularized in the United States. Moreover, the National Institute of Health defines fast foods as being highly saturated in salt, sugar, calories and viewed as alternatives to home cooked meals. PESTEL Analysis is a framework used to investigate the macro- environmental factors that have an impact on the performance of organizations (Cadle, Paul & Turner, 2010). The term PESTEL is an acronym standing for Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Environment and legal. In 1967, a Harvard professor Francis Aguilar founder the term PEST which he further could be used independently or in combination with Porter’s Five Forces and SWOT analysis (Arline, 2014). A good understanding of the external factors allows businesses to identify areas of opportunities and threats. This paper aims at assessing the PESTEL factors that have significantly impacted on the fast food industry in the United States and point out probable future opportunities that the industry may capitalize.

The United States is a well-known behemoth in the fast food industry, as it recorded in 2015, a whopping $200 billion worth of revenue from the industry. There exist over 200,000 fast food restaurants where it is estimated that over 50 million Americans have a meal at one of the restaurants daily (Fast Food Industry Analysis 2016 - Cost & Trends, 2016). The fast food brands in America are categorized into burger joints, sandwich shops, pizza places and coffee cafés. Some of these brands include Jack in the Box, Arby’s, Domino’s Pizza, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway and McDonald’s (McConnell & Bhasin, 2012). The industry plays an invaluable role of employing over 4 billion and counting thus assisting in reducing the unemployment rate in the country. In particular, franchise restaurants added in 2015 a total of 200,000 jobs in the industry (Fast Food Industry Analysis 2016 - Cost & Trends, 2016). A PESTEL evaluation of the fast food industry in the United States involves the following;

Political Factors

The political factors refer to what degree does the government of a country intervene in the economy. Other aspects such as political instability or instability in overseas markets, government policy, tax policy, labor laws, foreign trade policy, trade restrictions and environmental laws are also taken into consideration and must be adhered to by the firms. Globally, fast food brands ought to ensure that they have complied with the packaging regulations and hygiene and food quality specifications so as to protect public health.

However, in the United States of America, despite the many published reports on fast food being the cause of childhood obesity, there is little or no government intervention (Fast Food Industry PESTEL Analysis 2016 - Cheshnotes, 2016). However, the European counterparts, who came up with several initiatives to reduce the level of salt I foodstuffs following a report that demonstrated a link between salt intake and heart disease in the UK. Further, in Germany fast food restaurants are required to specify on some nutritional factors for every meal served like levels of calories, sugar, saturated or unsaturated fat and salt levels in response to a food labeling initiative.

The reason for the self-regulating nature of the food industry is attributed to two factors. US political system uses Laissez-Faire economics and the aggressive and concentrated nature of the food industry in the capital. McDonald plays a vital role and together with other fast food restaurants the Trans Fat Content had been foiled from being enacted into being a regulation.

Economic Factors

Economic factors influence how an organization does business and contributes to the amount of profit to be enjoyed. Interest rates, the disposable income of firms and consumers, inflation, exchange rates and economic growth are key concepts that are thoroughly reviewed. The economic recession that occurred was quite disruptive in most industries, as it resulted in profits and consumer demand for goods and services drastically reducing (Kliman, 2012). Many individuals prefer eating out at a fast food restaurant to having a meal at traditional restaurants. However, at the height of the recession crisis in 2008, the demand for McDonald’s products did not increase or decrease compared to the other markets of the same product in Japan and France where the demand increased. However, the fast food industry recognized that this does not make them recession-proof thus in a bid to increase sales, a variety of products at low prices have been introduced to the menus. Also, customer service was remarkably redefined to attract and retain previous and new clientele.

Social Factors

The social-cultural factors reflect the shared attitudes and beliefs of the population. Some of the areas of high concern include health consciousness, age distribution, career attitudes and population growth. In particular, the perception of health and lifestyle has increased due to the intervention of the media. Moreover, the fast food industry has received condemnation for the high number of childhood obesity. McDonald has experienced negative public opinion from its consumers as it contributes significantly to the health issues. In response to this, the super size option In McDonald was faced out and milk, water, fruit smoothies, salads and fruits were added to the menus (Pompper and Higgins, 2007). Also, most fast food companies in an attempt to retain its users and reduced negative public image, the nutritional content of meals are displayed and also, low calories food are served.

Technological Factors

The use of internet has opened ample opportunities in high impact marketing and low-cost products and services for firms and industries. In the fast food industry, social media and online marketing have overwhelmingly supported the corporations and translated into more revenue and fewer expenses. Technology has become indispensable in the fast food industry as innovative ways are developed so as to collect customers’ feedback on the products. Moreover, some of the technological factors affecting Burger King include access to automation technologies that will aid in improving operational efficiency (Kissinger, 2015).

Environmental Factors

The fast food brands were pressured by the US Food and Drug administration into adopting greener approach so as to ensure continued customer loyalty. Presently, McDonald is taking the initiative to encourage other enterprises on recycling and waste management (PESTEL analysis of McDonald's and the food industry, 2016).

Legal Factors

The legal factors consist of issues on product safety, advertising standards, health and safety, product labeling and equal opportunities. The primary areas affected by the law are in nutritive value and food quality. Fast food brands ought to recognize the importance of compliance, sustainability and hygiene so as to ensure the survival of the companies (PESTEL analysis of McDonald's and the food industry, 2016).

Some of the opportunities for growth that can be capitalized over the next five years include involvement in IPOs and private equity for restaurants to increase investments, expansion to foreign markets as food craving is on a high and more capital expenditure with the aim of expansion and remodeling. Also, the industry focuses on mobile ordering apps like Taco Bell and tabletop menus in a bid to make their delivery services fast. The fast food industry remains a lucrative form of business as the individual taste for food is rapidly changing and the temptation to salt and calories filled meals remains a concept too stubborn to eradicate.

Death is often a sensitive subject; after all, most individuals relate death to the loss of someone who was especially important or beloved. In Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night,” a strong message is delivered to those who are near death. Thomas demands them to continue to fight their ailments and not accept that death is upon them. Using symbolism as well as strong language, the message to fight death is conveyed to all different types of dying men, including Thomas’s father, throughout the poem.

Thomas does not waste any time trying to deliver his message and begins the poem by evoking powerful emotions and creating a sense of urgency. Words such as “burn,” “rave,” and “rage” in the first stanza induce feelings of anger and desperation that set the tone of the poem from the very beginning. Thomas does not want his audience to take his message lightly. In the second and third lines, death is referred to as the “close of day” and the “dying of the light”. These phrases are synonymous with the sunset set and relate life to a single day. While a lifetime may be long, a single day is much too short of a length of time. Thomas feels as if life is too short and believes all people should fight for as long as we can to lengthen it.

For the rest of the poem, Thomas uses each stanza to relate to a different group of men and attempts to show a reason why each should fight to postpone their inevitable end. In the second stanza, wise men are addressed. Though they know that death cannot be avoided, they still don’t simply accept it. He states that “because their words have forked no lightning” they resist death. Thomas believes that these wise men are capable of great things, but because life is so short, they make an insignificant impact if any at all. In the third stanza, good men are focused on. Thomas states “Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright / Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,” where he compares life to the sea, good men to waves and good deeds to the dancing waves. Death in this case is when the waves reach the shore and can no longer dance in the ocean. Good men, just like the wise men, had their lives cut too short to accomplish anything worthwhile.

In the fourth stanza, wild men, or rather those who celebrated the world and its beauty, are addressed. Thomas states “And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,” in which he explains how the men miss the day as the sun begins to set, again relating death to a short day. These wild men who were once celebrating the world soon begin to realize that they are dreading the end. In the fifth stanza, grave men are confronted. Thomas states “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight / Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, / Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” where he addresses sick men. Despite the grave men being blind or ill, Thomas still expects them to fight death with whatever strength they have left because he believes there are still reasons to live on. More powerful words such as “blinding,” “blaze,” and “rage” are used to arouse more potent feelings of desperation.

In the last stanza, Thomas addresses his own father, revealing the motive behind the poem. The “sad height” he mentions refers to his father being on the verge of death. Thomas states “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray,” showing his despair and concern for his father. He begs his father to fight, though seeing him fight this battle and in so much pain is both a blessing and a curse. Though, the author states how he would much rather see his father fight instead of giving into death. At the end of the last stanza, Thomas repeats both lines that had been the last lines of each stanza, stating “Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” which, again, shows how desperate he was to have his message reach his father.

Though some people may give into death without a fight because death is inevitable, Thomas emphasizes the importance of extending your life as much as you can throughout the poem. The use of literary devices emphasized the importance of his message being conveyed, so that the audience may take in Thomas’s message and be inspired to live on. Though life may be short and death unavoidable, fighting death can make life longer in any case.

Company G’s market reputation enables its new products to have a positive reception from consumers. Company G’s qualified employees including engineers and designer will allow the company to create unique and quality electronic products. Adequate resources, especially finances, enable the company to finance its production operations among other operations sufficiently (Rodriguez et al., 2017). Two of the company’s strengths that can be applied as competencies include market reputation and qualified employees.

Company G’s limited expansion capital hinders it from opening local subsidiaries and expanding into international markets. The company’s labor and time intensive production processes cause it to incur a lot of overhead expenses that are transferred to the costs of final products (Kotler, 2012). The limited penetration the company experiences in the market hinders it from acquiring new customers.

By opening new stores in different locations, Company G will be able to distribute its new product nationwide. Incorporation of modern technology in the company’s production operations will result in the new product being of a higher quality than other similar products on the market (John and Katherine, 2008). Partnering with other companies will enable Company G to access more finances to fund the production process of the new product.

New industry entrants will reduce Company G’s customer base; hence, sales of the new product will likely not be as high as expected. Competition from online-only companies and stores will cause the demand for Company’s G’s new product to be low since consumers will opt for similar products sold online. Changing trends make it difficult to predict future market patterns; thus, Company G cannot forecast how the new product will fare in the future (John and Katherine, 2008).

The product objective involves Company G manufacturing the right product that will satisfy consumers.

Failure of the Food Distribution System: A Literature Review

This broad overview of the literature regarding food distribution systems worldwide will attempt to do a few things. First off, it will highlight the key issues surrounding the effects of the world food crisis and its history and how it has been a rising problem for quite some time now. Then it will touch on the role of failed food distribution systems worldwide in creating the food crisis see today. Finally the review will finish with a general idea of the solutions that exist today to solve this devastating issue that is plaguing millions worldwide.

The world food crisis is a problem that exists worldwide, especially in developing third world crisis. According to the World Hunger Foundation on November 29th 2014 the world food crisis affects roughly 1 billion worldwide and is a serious issue the world faces. However, this dilemma is not specific to poor nations, as Stephanie Rogus writes for the Journal of International Affairs that even countries such as Australia, which are industrialized and first world, can in some regions suffer from food insecurity and be affected greatly as a result. In many areas around the globe in both rich and poor nations entire populations are forced to walk hundreds of miles to access food relief according to the Canberra Times of Australia on October 27th 2013. All these sources have one underlying similarity, the world food crisis is an issue that many countries, 1st world and 3rd world alike, are suffering from.

The arguments behind why the world food crisis exists vary article by article. Many assume thats its a lack of food production and that by simply growing more food the problem can be solved. However others, like the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association found that it was wasting of the food that already exists and that one third of all food is thrown away instead of used to feed those need it the most. The most common of all the literature surrounding the conditions that fostered this world food crisis happen to be that of the failure of global food distribution systems to adequately and effectively distribute food to those in remote villages who need it them most, this is according to both Bloomberg Magazine and the Angola Press Agency. So then the question arises, if the literature exists to explain why the problem was created, does it also explain how it can be solved?

The answer to this question is yes, for a number of reasons. A whole host of solutions exist to eliminate the above problems highlighted to explain the creation of the food crisis. A few discuss the need to boost agricultural production and as a result feel that biotechnology and genetically modified foods would be the appropriate way to do so according to the Journal of International Affairs in 2014. However, the majority of all the literature on the topic supports the idea of local organic farming to boost food access on a local level so that people in remote villages who are cut off from industrialized food production will have just as much access to food as everybody else which the Scandinavian Center for Soil and Farming found to be the case.

With the literature proving that the world food crisis is an immense world wide issue that is affecting millions it has been shown that it is a global problem. Then with the roots of said problem found through numerous pieces of evidence the conditions that created this food crisis were weeded out. And finally with the conditions being isolated the evidence then obviously explained said conditions could be eliminated to also alleviate the impact of the conditions which is the world food crisis, saving millions of lives. However with the conditions that fostered this crisis and also the solutions both being contested and heavily debated it will some time before a true solution to the real problem will be found and placed into action.