Importance of Employability Skill Provision †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Importance of Employability Skill Provision. Answer: Introduction: The paper enhances the clarity of the readers regarding the models related to the competency skills. The focus of the paper is on the factors, which heavily affects the competency needed for the development of employability skills. The paper also highlights the ways in which the preconceived skills, expertise and knowledge of the employees can be enhanced (Jackson 2014). Collection of data from 1008 business undergraduates validates the fact that employees in the present workplace fail to execute the allocated duties and responsibilities according to the expectations of the industry. For analyzing the results, the technique of multiple regression has been used. The action of testing the competency models can be considered as an evaluation regarding the method, which would prove beneficial in terms of preparing the business undergraduates for carrying out the allocated duties and responsibilities in an efficient and effective manner. In view of this perspective, testing the competency skills of the employees is a wise approach of the managers in terms of assessing the employees capability to adjust within the provided workplace environment (Jackson 2014). This evaluation and assessment is important in terms of estimating its outcome on the stakeholders. This estimation is crucial for making noticeable advances towards initiation of the business activities. Delving deep into the aspect, this assessment nullifies the derived fact that nowadays the business undergraduates fail to expose performance according to the industrial requirements. The article assesses the loopholes in the employability skills exposed by the business graduates. The article unleashes the transfer of employability skills through the proposition of graduate employability model. Empirical analysis is used for measuring the outcomes of the skills exposed by the business graduates. One of the main projections of the article is the vain efforts of the business school personnel in terms of transferring the necessary skills to the business graduates by taking into consideration the outcomes of the tests conducted (Jackson 2013). Models applied in the article have been tested for assessing their effect on the workplace environment and the personnel struggling to prove their employability skills. Theoretical perspective adds value to the process of recruitment and selection used in the workplace. Testing the application of the theories and models can be considered as the attempt of the personnel in terms of assessing the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of the exposed behavior. This assessment justifies their role in terms of adding to the workforce. Consciousness towards organizing this self-assessment is the urge of the personnel towards the application of rational thinking into the execution of the allocated duties and responsibilities. Herein lays the appropriateness of the phrase, where are we going wrong. The question mark can be related with the self-interrogation in terms of the successful execution of the business activities especially recruiting the rightful candidates (Jackson 2013). This article enhances the clarity of the readers regarding the perceptions of the students about the importance of the employability skills. Limitations of the undergraduate programs gain prominence in the article. The article inspires the business graduates to take assurance from buy-in for getting access to the provided skills. Student perceptions are examined, which helps the researcher to deduce the relative importance of skill and demographic details (Jackson 2013). As a matter of specification, mathematical calculations have been used and rated for the ease of the businesspersons. Along with this, the article upholds the perceptions of the stakeholders, which validates the context. Viewing it from other perspective, team-work possesses enough flexibility in terms of making up for the fissures in the employability skills needed by the employees for the execution of the allocated duties and responsibilities. In comparison to the recruited employees, there has been less number of undergraduate programs. This aspect reflects the difficulties of the business graduates in terms of proving the gained employability skills. Assuring the business graduates to take help from buy-in can be considered as an attempt towards making up for the gaps and fissures (Jackson 2013). Consideration of the demographic background is the first step of this initiative. This is because knowing the background from which the business graduates come, helps in providing relevant materials and training to the business graduates. The article reflects the perspective of the students in terms of the preparedness of the business graduates regarding the exposure to the workplace environment. One of the most important facts of the article is the debate of the business critiques regarding the capability of the business graduates to expose proper employability skills. Within this, most of the educational institutions with high school curriculum are included. The article becomes the mouthpiece of the business graduates in terms of reporting the fact that they are not ready for penetrating into the workplace (Tymon 2013). The article undertakes an explorative approach for reflecting the limited alignment between the students and the stakeholders. Consideration of the perspective of the students is the attachment of valuation to their attempts regarding the enhancement of professional development. Inclusion of high schools in this context is apt in terms of exposing the business graduates to the real workplace scenario. Along with this, consideration of the perspectives of government, employers and the personnel of the higher educational institutions seems beneficial regarding their contribution towards adding meaning to the employment of the business graduates (Tymon 2013). Attachment of theoretical context in this direction is perfect in terms of enlivening the specific dynamism of the recruitment and selection process undertaken in the workplace. The article explores the importance of employability skills in the UK labor market. This is done through case study references of the candidates pursuing graduate courses in business and management studies. Rationale offering by the policy makers is the main highlight of the article. The components of this rationale are catering to the needs and requirements of the highly skilled labours (Wilton 2011). One of the main attractions of the article is the upgradation of the standards and quality of the academic and professional opportunities for the candidates belonging to the lower strata of society. The discourse of the article conjoins the rationalistic hypothesis in a simplified manner. In the current competitive ambience of the market, generation of proper employability skills is vital for the companies and organizations in terms of achieving success. Questioning the importance and relevance of the employability skills attaches an interrogative parameter to the recruitment and selection process undertaken by the companies and organizations (Wilton 2011). This interrogation can be correlated with the specified hypothesis, both the positive and the negative ones. Collection of relevant data from the candidates pursuing graduation courses validates the positive hypothesis. This validation reduces the intensity of the negative hypothesis. The synthesis of the positive and the negative hypothesis results in the assumption that traditionalism is an obstacle towards the achievement of success, irrespective of the extent to which the business graduates attempt to enhance their employability skills. Countering this, exercising creative innovation enables the business gradua tes to come up with something, which alters the fate of the company and organization, keeping the traditional aspects intact. The generalization of the previous sentence nullifies the limitations of the threshold of UK (Wilton 2011). References and bibliography Jackson, Denise. "Business graduate employabilitywhere are we going wrong?."Higher Education Research Development32, no. 5 (2013): 776-790. Jackson, Denise. "Student perceptions of the importance of employability skill provision in business undergraduate programs."Journal of Education for Business88, no. 5 (2013): 271-279. Jackson, Denise. "Testing a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills and its implications for stakeholders."Journal of Education and Work27, no. 2 (2014): 220-242. Myers, Michael D.Qualitative research in business and management. Sage, 2013. Sekaran, Uma, and Roger Bougie.Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley Sons, 2016. Soul, Helen, and Tatyana Warrick. "Defining 21st century readiness for all students: What we know and how to get there."Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts9, no. 2 (2015): 178. Tymon, Alex. "The student perspective on employability."Studies in higher education38, no. 6 (2013): 841-856. Wilton, Nick. "Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? The case of business and management graduates."Work, employment and society25, no. 1 (2011): 85-100.

Racial Injustices and the Cost of Civil War The African American Perspective

Introduction The American Civil War continues to engage historians and mainstream commentators alike, as they endeavour to understand the real meaning and essence of slavery, race, and violence that characterize the nation’s history. While much has been written about the specific battles and the officers involved, less is known about the role of African American soldiers who took up arms to free themselves, their families, and their fellow slaves from the entrapment of slavery (Roberts 1455).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Injustices and the Cost of Civil War: The African American Perspective specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Arguably, less is also known about the price the enslaved people had to pay in the achievement of freedom through warfare rather than peacetime processes, and also how racial injustices perpetuated by whites during the Civil War and Reconstruction era inflated the cost paid by people of African ancestry (Schwalm 21). Owing to the fact that academic interest in the Civil War has grown substantially in recent years, it is of immense importance to look into the racial injustices and the cost of Civil War from the African American perspective, with the view to dispelling the commonly held perception by war historians that enslaved people were the beneficiaries of this war, rather than victims. Contextualising the Issue Soon after the eruption of the Civil War, leaders of black communities and well-known white abolitionists in the North insisted that blacks be permitted to enlist in the Union Army and pursue war rather than peacetime processes, with the view to paving the way towards the attainment of emancipation for slaves and enhanced rights for blacks. As the Northern white-dominated soldiers progressed into the antebellum South, hundreds of thousands of slaves escaped to the regions commanded by the Union Army, availing the Union with a prospective pool o f military resources and capability (Lee 429-430). Available literature shows that â€Å"over the course of the war, some 400,000 to 500,000 of the South’s 4 million enslaved people fled their masters to approach the Union army or Union lines† (Schwalm 22). A history scholar asserts that African Americans, most notably Frederick Douglas, requested for consent so that their people could fight from the first days of the Civil War (DeRoche 32). The federal government in general and the War Department in particular were ill-prepared to deal with the surge of black men, women and children who advanced toward Union troops, defences, border cities and other Union-occupied areas of the South, in large part because the initial instructions for the Union army from President Lincoln was to engage in the war while leaving slavery in one piece.Advertising Looking for essay on african american? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is clear from the reviewed war scholarship that white civilians and soldiers alike were astonished by the sheer determination of the enslaved people to achieve their independence and to support a war on slavery, hence allowed many black soldiers to enlist in the war though their justifications for doing so were often profoundly shaped by the racist ideologies of the mid-nineteenth century and a presumption to understand what would best serve the former slaves (Schwalm 22). It is documented that â€Å"the eagerness of African American men (free and enslaved) to fight as soldiers on behalf of the Union cause, and the army’s need for growing number of enlistments, culminated in the enlistment of close to 200,000 African Americans, three-quarters of them just out of slavery† (Schwalm 23). While such types of enlistments reinforced the Union’s dedication to emancipation and offered a promise of citizenship, it can be progressively argued that this newfound â€Å" freedom† would cost tens of thousands of black lives and entrench racial injustices even further, as demonstrated in subsequent sections. Wartime Emancipation and Misconception of Freedom Available war literature demonstrates that wartime emancipation was a direct consequence of two interrelated developments, namely â€Å"the gradual collapse of southern slavery under the worsening conditions created by the Confederate war effort and Union invasion, and [†¦] the destruction of slavery through the actions of enslaved people and the reluctant, haphazard evolution of federal and military policy towards emancipation† (Schwalm 21). Although enslaved people in the South had to come up with innovative ways to endure both developments if they were to achieve and enjoy their freedom, many did not when the war finally came to an end for the simple reason that most of the soldiers favoured emancipation for military justifications but not for racial or social equality (DeRoche 24). For instance, most Maine soldiers supported emancipation for the objectives that it would assist Southern whites financially, save the Union and improve Southern whites’ morality, rather than as a means to initiate racial equality (DeRoche 30). However, as witnessed by the works of Frederick Douglass and other former slaves and abolitionists, emancipation was fuelled by the promise of freedom and hope for social change. It was these tenets that saw Douglass urge African American men to fully support the Civil War, with the view to breaking the bonds of slavery (Moore Neal 4).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Injustices and the Cost of Civil War: The African American Perspective specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Available wartime scholarship demonstrates that â€Å"during the Civil War millions of African Americans gained freedom – some with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the rest with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865† (DeRoche 24). This particular author argues that while African American soldiers played a critical role in bringing freedom, the most instrumental factor in stopping the slavery was the white-dominated Northern armies. Other scholars argue that the Union and its white-dominated armies were not committed to ending slavery; rather, it was the war that increasingly weakened the ‘peculiar’ institution of the enslaved people to a point where they became actively determined to escape its grasp despite the main ills bedevilling them, including illness and malnutrition (Schwalm 22). Overall, however, while it is clear that slavery eventually collapsed under the heavyweight of the ongoing Civil War, scholars have exercised caution in insinuating that African Americans were able to achieve the level of freedom they so much desired. Dissecting the Racial Injustices It is documented in the literature that â€Å"most soldiers viewe d African Americans as peculiar at best, and many considered them inferior† (DeRoche 25). It is evident that attitudes of respect and concern for African Americans were extremely uncommon among the Whites, and only a few soldiers entered the army with unwavering conviction that African Americans were equal human beings. In the battlefront, â€Å"white soldiers appreciated African Americans contribution to the cause as soldiers but were not ready to treat them as equal people† (DeRoche 33). This predisposition perhaps explains why African Americans were denied voting rights immediately after the Civil War even after black soldiers significantly aided the cause of saving the Union. Indeed, available scholarship shows that although African Americans made trustworthy soldiers during the Civil War, they suffered discrimination-oriented setbacks that related to pay, clothing allowances, and weaponry (Moore Neal 4). Available scholarship shows how the Confederates perceived t he engagement of African American soldiers with disdain to such a level that they felt morally and spiritually absolved from any responsibility to treat black troops and their mostly abolitionist white officers as honourable opponents on the war front.Advertising Looking for essay on african american? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Indeed, one particular documentation portrays the racial picture in its right context by claiming that the Confederates were very keen on exterminating rebellious slaves and white abolitionist advocators as a warning to other blacks and also to keep in place a social and economic system grounded on racial subordination (Urwin 210). Racist policies on black soldiers continued on the war front. Compared to white soldiers in predominantly white army regiments, exceedingly few black soldiers in predominantly black regiments had access to â€Å"a full or qualified roster of medical officers, and surgeons attached to black regiments frequently treated their patients harshly and sometimes cruelly† (Schwalm 23). This author further acknowledges that while white nursing professionals could volunteer for service with white regiments, most could not do the same for black soldiers in predominantly black regiments, and the black women who would have willingly cared for their black counter parts were basically constrained to low-status jobs as laundresses and cooks. Black soldiers were more likely to be served by insufficient hospital facilities and were also far more likely to be assigned fatigue duty (Schwalm 23). However, despite all these racial prejudices and other operational setbacks such as lack of training and inadequate arms, black men fought as courageously as white soldiers to guarantee their freedom (Roberts 1457). The issue of racial lynching during and after the Civil War has received widespread attention in the literature. The lynching of African Americans was a travesty which begs to be addressed in the context of racial-related injustices. Recent scholarship on the subject has emphasised that â€Å"the draft riots, which included numerous mob beatings and hangings of African Americans, constitute merely the highest tide of reactionary racial violence in the North during the Civil War and Reconstruction† (Pfeifer 621). It should be recalled tha t racially-motivated violence against African Americans was not a new phenomenon in the 1860s as historical accounts depict how white southerners had jointly killed African Americans during the slavery era, engaging in extra-judicial executions by hanging and lynching at least forty-four black slaves in the South from 1824-1862 (Pfeifer 622). It is reported in the literature that lynching seized the attention of many Americans during and after the Civil War specifically because it was such an extraordinary savage and successful manner of disgrace and mortification directed against African Americans by whites (Brundage 28). Indeed, according to this particular author, the whites took part in the hanging and lynching of African Americans during this era due to their misplaced racial antipathy, patriarchal privilege, economic-oriented apprehensions, and religiously motivated sense of retributive justice that gave them the license to public aggression of almost unrestrained ferociousnes s against blacks. Although the whites would want to buy into the idea that lynching was done to punish lawbreakers or violators of the local custom, the blatant correlation between lynching and race, especially in the American South, removed any doubts about its role in reinforcing indiscriminate racial oppression (Brundage 28). Moving on, it is evident that the Confederacy may have perished at the epitome of the Civil War; however, the determination to maintain the white supremacy did not as witnessed by how the southern conservative whites struggled to gain control over the political and economic order that took shape during the Reconstruction era. In this period spanning over a decade, the conservative whites ejected black southerners from any meaningful participation in political life not only by creating and remorselessly enforcing a system of racial apartheid but also using extensive violence to maintain iron control over the African American labour force (Grimsley 7). Indeed, this author rightly suggests that the conservative whites throttled all momentous efforts by black southerners to carve out for themselves any enclave of economic independence, resulting in the continuation of racially-oriented injustices targeted against the former slaves and African American soldiers. Costs Associated With the Civil War for African Americans History scholars are of the opinion that slavery and racial injustices became much worse during the Civil War than in peacetime, with malnutrition, disease, and heightened violence increasing the suffering among the enslaved (Schwalm 22). As argued by scholars, wartime emancipation became a threat to the existence and survival of former slaves due to the severe conditions in refugee camps, which included lack of shelter, medical care, food, firewood and clothing, injuries related to the complicated escapes from slavery, as well as disease outbreaks such as diarrhoea, dysentery, malaria, cholera, typhoid, measles, mumps, small pox, yellow fever and tuberculosis (Lee 432; Schwalm 22). Indeed, it is reported that â€Å"because of the higher disease rates, black soldiers had frequent encounters with the army’s medical staff, which was overwhelmingly white, and largely shared the view that black humanity was different from and inferior to white counterparts† (Schwalm 24). Many of the former slaves had to pay the ultimate price of death in these contraband refugee camps due to miserable living conditions, sickness, and lack of the commonest necessities of life. Unlike the popular perception that black men experienced the brunt of the civil war, evidential documentation demonstrates that it was women and children who shouldered the difficulties associated with war. Indeed, while fugitive black men were employed as military labourers by the Union army, and hence were sometimes fed and housed despite being exposed to severe conditions and hard labour, the situation was severely wanting for women, ch ildren, the elderly and infirm, who were characteristically excluded from Union lines or removed to separate contraband camps to look for their resources. It is reported in the literature that black refugees suffered very high rates of illness and mortality during the war, with scholars asserting that one-quarter of the black civilian refugees in contraband camps may have perished (Schwalm 23). It is often argued that â€Å"the lack of army preparedness, the inadequate response by local officers who felt that civilian populations should not be their responsibility, and the racist treatment offered by many white officers and soldiers exacerbated the health crisis that the war brought to black refugees† (Schwalm 23). It has also been noted that the wartime casualty by disease was much higher for African American recruits than for white soldiers, with the significant causes of death reported being typhoid, smallpox, measles, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and tuberculosis (Lee 43 4). Indeed, results from a study conducted by this author demonstrate that â€Å"disease was by far the predominant cause of wartime mortality for black men, accounting for 10 of every 11 deaths† (Lee 434). It is reported elsewhere that African American soldiers â€Å"suffered casualties that were 35%-50% greater than that of white soldiers, in spite of the fact that [they] were not permitted to serve in the Army until 18 months after fighting had begun† (Moore Neal 4). An analysis of the triggers of the health crises facing black soldiers revealed that slavery left black men weak and vulnerable to disease and that the poor living conditions experienced by black soldiers were also to blame. Indeed, black recruits were exposed to a multiplicity of poor working conditions that could have contributed to compromising their physical, mental and psychological health, such as lack of adequate and properly trained medical personnel in the black regiments, stationing of black soldiers at particularly unhealthy posts, excessively high fatigue duty, nutritional deficiencies, and unsympathetic treatment from white army commanders (Carson 740; Lee 434). It is also clear that the lynching phenomenon occasioned untold psychological and social costs to African Americans during and after the Civil War. It is documented in the literature that white-dominated lynches men â€Å"sought a form of summary justice that allowed for both popular participation and unlimited violence and humiliation† (Brundage 29). The lynch mobs exploited any available occasion to emphasise the symbolic humiliation of their victims and their race, particularly in light of the fact that they hanged their mostly African American victims on the same trees that had been used in previous lynchings, murdered their victims near black worshiping places, or even forced black communities to witness the killings. An analysis of this method of humiliation directed at African Americans by white s’ shows that it was aimed at conveying a message of degradation and innumerable psychological suffering of victims and their communities. For example, lynch mobs once dealt with a black man accused of murdering a white girl after the Civil War by cutting off his fingers and toes, pulling out his teeth with pliers, repeatedly stabbing him in the mouth using a pointed pole, castrating the black man to collect his testicles as souvenirs, and eventually incinerating him (Brundage 29). Such ritualised humiliation, mockery and morbid humour went a long way not only in disgracing the victims but also in adversely affecting the psychological and social orientations of African Americans as a community (Pfeifer 625). History scholars acknowledge the fact that African Americans continued to be directly affected by the political and economic costs of the Civil War many years later, and it took a second insurgency comprising Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s to effectively end the system (Grimsley 7-8). The former slaves continued to suffer political isolation and economic dependency long after the Civil War due to the deeply-held savagery convictions by many whites that African Americans did not deserve to be treated as equals. A sizeable number of assertive blacks who dared to press for political equality and economic freedom in the decades after the Civil War were killed savagely, at least until the Civil Rights Movement came into being (Urwin 210). Conclusion The present paper assesses the racial injustices and the cost of Civil War from an African American perspective, with the view to dispelling the commonly held viewpoint that enslaved people were the beneficiaries of this war, rather than victims. It has been well documented that the Confederacy and deeply entrenched slavery may have perished at the epitome of the Civil war, but African Americans neither got the freedom they so much desired, nor achieved integration in the country’s leadin g political and economic processes until much later. Cases of blatant racial injustices against black soldiers in the Union Army and blacks in refugee camps are evident of a system that wanted to maintain the status quo even after blacks volunteered in large numbers to join the war and assist to defeat the Confederacy. Most black soldiers lay down their lives for a just cause, but this paper has found that the favour was hardly returned due to racial injustices that continued as the Civil War was being fought and even afterwards during the Reconstruction era. The costs associated with the Civil War were immense for African Americans, as comprehensively discussed in this paper. Malnutrition, disease, heightened violence, mob lynchings, as well as political and economic segregation are some of the issues that blacks had to deal with as they manoeuvred their way around the Civil War. These issues downgraded the perceived â€Å"independence† that blacks had received after the def eat of mainstream slavery to a point whereby it would be prudent to argue that African Americans were victims of the Civil War, rather than beneficiaries. Overall, it is concluded that declaring emancipation as a war act and joining the Civil War to free the blacks from bondage may have been a necessary and perhaps inevitable act for black Americans; however, they ended up paying a high price and were short-changed in the context of attaining authentic freedom. Works Cited Brundage, W. Fitzhugh.†The Ultimate Shame: Lynch-Law in Post-Civil War American South.† Social Alternatives. 25.1 (2006): 28-32. Academic Search Premier. Web. Carson, Scott Alan. â€Å"African-American and White Inequality in the Nineteenth Century American South: A Biological Comparison.† Journal of Population Economics. 22.3 (2009): 739-755. Academic Source Premier. Web. DeRoche, Andrew J. â€Å"Freedom without Equality: Maine Civil War Soldiers Attitudes about Slavery and African Americans.à ¢â‚¬  UCLA Historical Journal. 16.1 (1996): 24-38. America: History and Life. Web. Grimsley, Mark. â€Å"Wars from the American South: The First and Second Reconstructions Considered as Insurgencies.† Civil War History. 58.1 (2012): 6-36. America: History and Life. Web. Lee, Chulhee. â€Å"Socioeconomic Differences in the Health of Black Union Soldiers during the American Civil War.† Social Science History. 33.4 (2009): 427-457. Academic Search Premier. Web. Moore, Alicia L. and La Vonne I. Neal. â€Å"African Americans and the Civil War: Brave Standard Bearers.† Black History Bulletin. 73.2 (2010): 4-7. Academic Search Premier. Web. Pfeifer, Michael. â€Å"The Northern United States and the Genesis of Racial Lynching: The Lynching of African Americans in the Civil War Era.† Journal of American History. 97.3 (2010): 621-635. Academic Search Premier. Web. Roberts, Rita. â€Å"Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era.† Jo urnal of American History. 90.4 (1990): 1455-1457. America: History and Life. Web. Schwalm, Leslie A. â€Å"Surviving Wartime Emancipation: African Americans and the Cost of Civil War.† Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. 39.1 (2011): 21-27. Academic Search Premier. Web. Urwin, Gregory J.W. â€Å"We cannot treat Negros†¦as Prisoners of War: Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in Civil War Arkansas.† Civil War History. 42.3 (1996): 193-210. America: History and Life. Web. This essay on Racial Injustices and the Cost of Civil War: The African American Perspective was written and submitted by user Emilio Mathis to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Pantheon Essays - Domes, Pantheon, Rome, Free Essays

The Pantheon Essays - Domes, Pantheon, Rome, Free Essays The Pantheon Introduction I chose to report on the pantheon because Ive seen pictures and I am also very fascinated by all the Roman monuments. I looked all around the internet and libraries. The Pantheon was very hard to find information about. It was very challenging but I found enough information to complete this report. This famous building stands in the business district of Romemuch as it was built some 18 centuries ago. Amazingly, it has withstood the ravages of both the elements and war permitting a firsthand view of a unique product constructed by Roman hands. Now, it is exposed to acid rain and fumes from passing automobiles and overshadowed by buildings of inferior taste; but, with trust in the future, the Pantheon will survive. Unrecognized, the design of this ancient concrete building reveals unparalleled features not encountered in modern design standards. Recent studies reveal several major cracks in the dome, but it still functions unimpaired. This condition will surely excite the curiosity of our structural engineers. The building was built entirely without steel reinforcing rods to resist tensile cracking, so necessary in concrete members, and for this concrete dome with a long span to last centuries is incredible. Today, no engineer would dare build this structure without steel rods! Modern codes of engineering practice would not permit such mischief. No investor with knowledge of concrete design would provide the funding. Additional constraints when attempting to build a structure as large as the Pantheon will be discussed later, but briefly they include the use of inadequate hand tools and unsafe lifting devices. I believe we can learn from this activity. Workers can build from a plan and can successfully use their proven practices only if construction quality controls are maintained. History tells us that the Pantheon is a Greek word meaning to honor all Gods (particularly the Olympian divinities). It is ironic that our building has existed throughout many wars while being dedicated to all Gods; one can readily perceive this to be a temple for our one God. And, the Church has claimed this holy structure as a resting place for its most famous Popes, so we continue to honor its magnificent divinity. The first incarnation of this ancient temple was built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of the Roman Emperor Augustus, about 27 B.C. Today, above the entrance carved in stone are the words M. AGRIPPA L. F. COS. TERTIUM FECIT which is translated, Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, in his third consulate, made it. Indeed, it is worth mentioning that Agrippa's engineering talents were used in building the famous Pont de Gard aqueduct in France. As with many cities, tragedy in the form of large fires such as those of 60, 64, 79, 100 and 110 A.D. seemed to strike Rome. Originally, many Roman buildings contained travertine (limestone rock) which easily cracked in fires. The first Pantheon was severely damaged and required replacement except for some parts of the lower porch section and foundation. The Pantheon was rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian during the period 118 to 128 A.D. (a time given by Ward-Perkins).2 But the Ward-Perkins's period is disputed by, Lugli who said the building was started sometime after 123 A.D. and was finished by Emperor Pius about 140 A.D.3 However, most of the bricks were made and placed in the Pantheon in 123 A.D., a date that the maker stamped on his bricks. This was discovered in 1892 by the French archaeologist, George Chedanne. It appears the construction of the rotunda walls took a period of 4 to 5 years, and the dome required a like period because of its height and the meager tools the Romans used. This long construction period was fortunate as it gave this pozzolan concrete ample time to cure and gain strength. Was the second temple like the first? Yes, the fundamental principle of the old Roman religion required that the temples be rebuilt without changes in original form. Tradition required that the main entrance face north, and thus the whole building was oriented on the north-south axis of the building. A description of its structural features is separated into the configuration, foundation ring, circular walls, and dome to more clearly define various components. How these pieces are unique in view of today's design requirements will be discussed shortly. Body The Pantheon is one of the great spiritual

Rudyard Kiplings Classic Speech on Values in Life

Rudyard Kiplings Classic Speech on Values in Life Both praised and criticized as a popular writer, Rudyard Kipling was a poet, novelist, short-story writer, and notorious imperialist. He is best known today for his novel Kim (1901) and his childrens stories, collected in The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), and the Just So Stories (1902). Values in Life appears in A Book of Words (1928), a volume of Kiplings collected speeches. The address was originally delivered in the fall of 1907 to the students at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. At the end of his talk Kipling says, I have no message to deliver. Consider whether you agree with that observation. Values in Life by Rudyard Kipling 1 According to the ancient and laudable custom of the schools, I, as one of your wandering scholars returned, have been instructed to speak to you. The only penalty youth must pay for its enviable privileges is that of listening to people known, alas, to be older and alleged to be wiser. On such occasions youth feigns an air of polite interest and reverence, while age tries to look virtuous. Which pretences sit uneasily on both of them. 2 On such occasions very little truth is spoken. I will try not to depart from the convention. I will not tell you how the sins of youth are due very largely to its virtues; how its arrogance is very often the result of its innate shyness; how its brutality is the outcome of its natural virginity of spirit. These things are true, but your preceptors might object to such texts without the proper notes and emendations. But I can try to speak to you more or less truthfully on certain matters to which you may give the attention and belief proper to your years. 3 When, to use a detestable phrase, you go out into the battle of life, you will be confronted by an organized conspiracy which will try to make you believe that the world is governed by the idea of wealth for wealths sake, and that all means which lead to the acquisition of that wealth are, if not laudable, at least expedient. Those of you who have fitly imbibed the spirit of our university- and it was not a materialistic university which trained a scholar to take both the Craven and the Ireland in England- will violently resent that thought, but you will live and eat and move and have your being in a world dominated by that thought. Some of you will probably succumb to the poison of it. 4 Now, I do not ask you not to be carried away by the first rush of the great game of life. That is expecting you to be more than human. But I do ask you, after the first heat of the game, that you draw breath and watch your fellows for a while. Sooner or later, you will see some man to whom the idea of wealth as mere wealth does not appeal, whom the methods of amassing that wealth do not interest, and who will not accept money if you offer it to him at a certain price. 5 At first you will be inclined to laugh at this man, and to think that he is not smart in his ideas. I suggest that you watch him closely, for he will presently demonstrate to you that money dominates everybody except the man who does not want money. You may meet that man on your farm, in your village, or in your legislature. But be sure that, whenever or wherever you meet him, as soon as it comes to a direct issue between you, his little finger will be thicker than your loins. You will go in fear of him; he will not go in fear of you. You will do what he wants; he will not do what you want. You will find that you have no weapon in your armory with which you can attack him, no argument with which you can appeal to him. Whatever you gain, he will gain more. 6 I would like you to study that man. I would like you better to be that man, because from the lower point of view it doesnt pay to be obsessed by the desire of wealth for wealths sake. If more wealth is necessary to you, for purposes not your own, use your left hand to acquire it, but keep your right for your proper work in life. If you employ both arms in that game, you will be in danger of stooping, in danger also of losing your soul. But in spite of everything you may succeed, you may be successful, you may acquire enormous wealth. In which case I warn you that you stand in grave danger of being spoken and written of and pointed out as a smart man. And that is one of the most terrible calamities that can overtake a sane, civilized white man in our Empire today. 7 They say youth is the season of hope, ambition, and uplift- that the last word youth needs is an exhortation to be cheerful. Some of you here know- and I remember- that youth can be a season of great depression, despondencies, doubts, and waverings, the worse because they seem to be peculiar to ourselves and incommunicable to our fellows. There is a certain darkness into which the soul of the young man sometimes descends- a horror of desolation, abandonment, and realized worthlessness, which is one of the most real of the hells in which we are compelled to walk. 8 I know of what I speak. This is due to a variety of causes, the chief of which is the egotism of the human animal itself. But I can tell you for your comfort that the chief cure for it is to interest yourself, to lose yourself in some issue not personal to yourself- in another mans trouble or, preferably, another mans joy. But, if the dark hour does not vanish, as sometimes it doesnt, if the black cloud will not lift, as sometimes it will not, let me tell you again for your comfort that there are many liars in the world, but there are no liars like our own sensations. The despair and the horror mean nothing, because there is for you nothing irremediable, nothing ineffaceable, nothing irrecoverable in anything you may have said or thought or done. If, for any reason, you cannot believe or have not been taught to believe in the infinite mercy of Heaven, which has made us all, and will take care we do not go far astray, at least believe that you are not yet sufficiently important to b e taken too seriously by the Powers above us or beneath us. In other words, take anything and everything seriously except yourselves. 9 I regret that I noticed certain signs of irreverent laughter when I alluded to the word smartness. I have no message to deliver, but, if I had a message to deliver to a University which I love, to the young men who have the future of their country to mould, I would say with all the force at my command, Do not be smart. If I were not a doctor of this University with a deep interest in its discipline, and if I did not hold the strongest views on that reprehensible form of amusement known as rushing, I would say that, whenever and wherever you find one of your dear little playmates showing signs of smartness in his work, his talk, or his play, take him tenderly by the hand- by both hands, by the back of the neck if necessary- and lovingly, playfully, but firmly, lead him to a knowledge of higher and more interesting things. Â   Classic Essays About Values Of Truth, by Francis BaconAn Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification, by Maria EdgeworthSelf-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo EmersonQuality, by John GalsworthyA Liberal Education, by Thomas Henry HuxleyWhat Life Means to Me, by Jack LondonThe Tyranny of Things, by Edward Sandford MartinOn Virtue and Happiness, by John Stuart MillWho Owns the Mountains? by Henry Van Dyke

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Ethnic Minorities Essay Example for Free

Ethnic Minorities Essay We have no choice over what color were born what we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once were here. This shows us that she feels the same way as Cassie does in that she thinks that blacks are treated unfairly, but she thinks that we just have to get on with it. From this and throughout the whole book we can see that Mama is a very caring woman, but she does believe that people should take things as they come and get on with their lives, even if it means having to live with the violence and hatred towards the blacks from the whites. The second incident that I am going to write about is in chapter eight where Mama is fired from her job as a teacher. In this episode, Mama is giving a lesson about slavery when Mr Wallace and Mr Granger walk in and say that they, Been hearing bout your teaching, Mary, so as members of the board we thought wed come by and learn something. When they walk in Mama is teaching a lesson in history. The unlucky thing is that she is teaching the history of slavery. She speaks about how cruel slavery is and how the country profited from the slaves who were paid nothing and still not free. Then Mr Granger sees the books that Mama has pasted over and acknowledges that all the things Mama is teaching are not in the books. Mama says that she cannot teach what is in that book because, All that is in that book is not true. After this remark, Mr Granger tells her that she would be better off not teaching if she cannot teach what is in the book. This storyline probably originates from Mildred Taylor herself because as mentioned earlier, she says she used to hate the history of blacks at school because she felt that it was all completely false. I dont think that Mr Granger and Kaleb Wallace would have been so willing to lose a good teacher such as Mary Logan because of her views if she hadnt been black. It shows what the whites thought of the blacks having their own view on things. It also confirms the suspicion that the Whites always thought that they were right and that was the end of it. Because Mama loses her job, it puts an even bigger stress on the Logan family because they have an even smaller income. Papas reaction to the news of Mamas unemployment is, Well get by Plant some more cotton maybe. But well get by. From this I think it means that he was worried but didnt want Mama to feel bad because he also believed in what she had been teaching. During this episode, even Mamas boss Mr Wellever doesnt stick up for her, because he is too petrified to stand up for what he believes. This shows how much power the whites had over the blacks and also that the blacks rights to stand up for themselves and be able to say what they wanted to were completely dismissed because they knew what the consequences would be if they didnt do as the whites told them too. Teaching in the 1930s was very different to teaching now especially in the southern states of America. It used to be illegal for blacks to go to school and there were many illegal black schools taking place in peoples houses. Two other options were to have home schooling, which was quite hard if your parents were not very intelligent or to have education at your local church. In 1866 it became legal in the northern states for blacks to go to school with whites but in the southern states such as Mississippi, where Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is set there were separate schools for blacks and whites. The black schools were over-crowded and poorly equipped compared to the white school. We see this in the book when the black children at Great Faith are handed down books that were in some cases eleven years old and were given to the white children first. The slave trade was authoritatively abolished in 1807, but the Southern states of America continued to trade the slaves illegally. Effects were so bad that stud farms were set up where the most clever/strong humans were used to produce the model slave. In 1861-85, the American Civil War took place where the Northern States of American battled against the Southern states. The North won and finally put an end to the slavery trade in the Southern states. At this time large numbers of blacks left the South and headed for the North knowing that there was not as much poverty and chaos there. Even so, many blacks were left behind. As we see in Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, slavery was a very big issue. There was a short phase where the blacks and whites tried to make peace with each other but it didnt work and soon the Northern states allowed the south to begin slavery once again. The North didnt help the newly freed slaves to protect their rights and let them have their freedom once again. Before I first began to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry I had no idea how much I would learn about racism. To me that word just meant when people made cruel jokes about blacks, but I didnt realise just how badly the blacks were treated at the beginning of last century and before that. I think that the book is very interesting to read when you have never thought about racism properly before and also very interesting when you already know about these subjects. I think that the incidents I have described definitely describe the persecution of the blacks. After reading Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, I am undeniably thankful that these sorts of acts do not still go on today and I hope that they never will. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mildred Taylor section.