Arguments against Euthanasia The Slippery Slope Ma Essays

Arguments against Euthanasia The Slippery Slope Ma Essays Arguments against Euthanasia The Slippery Slope Many people worry that if voluntary euthanasia were to become legal, it would not be long before involuntary euthanasia would start to happen. This is called the slippery slope argument. In general form it says that if we allow something relatively harmless today, we may start a trend that results in something currently unthinkable becoming accepted. If we change the law and accept voluntary euthanasia, we will not be able to keep it under control. It is impossible to create a regulatory system for euthanasia that will prevent the abuse of it. As a result, Doctors may soon start killing people without bothering with their permission. Health care costs will lead to doctors killing patients to save money or free up beds. The last few months of a patient's life are often the most expensive in terms of medical and other care. Shortening this period through euthanasia could be seen as a way of relieving pressure on scarce medical resources, or family finances. Family or others involved with the sick person may regard them as a burden that they don't wish to carry, and may put pressure (which may be very subtle) on the sick person to ask for euthanasia. Increasing numbers of examples of the abuse or neglect of elderly people by their families makes this an important issue to consider. Some people fear that allowing euthanasia sends the message, "it's better to be dead than sick or disabled".The subtext is that some lives are not worth living. Therefore it downgrades their status as human beings while they are alive. People who are ill and dependent can often feel worthless and an undue burden on those who love and care for them. They may actually be a burden, but those who love them may be happy to bear that burden. Nonetheless, if euthanasia is available, the sick person may pressure themselves into asking for euthanasia.

The Best Way to Use the Real ACT Prep Guide

The Best Way to Use the Real ACT Prep Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Want to prep for the ACT on you own? Chances are you’ve ordered a prep book to help you study. One of the most popular prep books around is The Real ACT Prep Guide. But how can you make sure you get your money’s worth out of the book – and make sure you actually study well enough to improve your ACT composite? Read our guide to using The Real ACT Prep Guide to find out. What’s in The Real ACT Prep Guide? The Prep Guide has two main components: an overview of each section of the ACT (English, Math, Reading, Science, and optional essay) and 5 full-length practice tests. The book is made by the ACT, so the practice tests are the best-quality ones you can get, which is why the book is so popular (at the time of writing, it’s the #1 best-selling ACT Test Guide on Amazon.com). This book can be an excellent resource if you’re trying to improve your ACT score. However, there are ways to use it effectively and less effectively – we’ll show you how. How to Use the Content Overview Section The Real ACT Prep Guide contains a brief overview of each section on the ACT and the content you need to know for each. However, it doesn’t teach you the content. For example, it will say you need to know basic trigonometric identities for the math section and give an example problem, but it won’t explain what those identities are. So if there is a concept you don’t know, The Real ACT Prep Guide won’t help you learn it. Still, we advise you read through the content review so you know what you are being tested on. If you come across content areas you’re fuzzy on – whether that’s plane geometry or grammar rules – you’ll need to find a more specific prep book or source to help you actually learn it. Make a list of content areas (if any) that you’re shaky on as your read through the content review, and seek out other resources (like more specific prep books and websites) to learn them before embarking on the practice tests. You also might check out our free detailed guides on ACT English, ACT Math, ACT Reading, ACT Science, and ACT Writing. How to Use the 5 ACT Practice Tests These five practice tests are the main reason people go for The Real ACT Prep Guide. Since the tests are written by the test-makers themselves, they give you some of the best quality practice for the ACT you can get. However, if you go through the tests without a strategy, or without adequately checking your answers, you’ll waste them. Taking the tests alone will not help you get a higher ACT score. Point improvements can only come if you identify your weaknesses and drill them until they’re gone. By "perfect practice," we don't mean you should already be getting perfect scores on your practice tests. We mean treating the practice tests like real ones, and then taking adequate time to correct them and understand your mistakes. With that in mind, here’s how to make the most of the practice tests. Timing If you tend to run out of time on ACT sections, you can experiment with giving yourself time and a half, time and a quarter, and then strict timing on the practice tests, to build up your speed. (If you ever run out of time on a section, by the way, still answer the rest of the questions after you’re done with the test to maximize your knowledge-building.) In any case, be careful to time yourself strictly for each practice test, even if you’re starting with time-and-a-half. You’ll be the most prepared for the ACT if you’re able to deal with both the pacing and content. Wear a watch when you practice so you can get use to monitoring your time per question. You won’t be able to bring your phone with you to the test, so get used to using a more old-fashioned timer. Read more about ACT timing for more tips on timing (including the approximate time you have for each question). Stamina If you’re worried about getting through the whole test with enough energy and focus, make sure to take at least some of the practice tests in full blocks, as if you were taking the real ACT, with strict timing throughout. This will help you build your stamina so that on test day, you will have just as much energy on the Science section (which comes last) as you do on the English section (which comes first). If you have no problem with getting through long tests, and you have one particular section giving you trouble, you could focus on just that section and drill it. For example, say that you consistently score 32 and higher when you practice English, Reading, and Science, but are struggling to break 28 on the Math section. You may want to do more practice Math sections to make up for the discrepancy. However, keep in mind any time you take a section by itself, you won’t be able to use that practice test for a complete run-through. Don’t break up all five of the practice tests into their sections. Keep at least two for full run-throughs. Checking Answers When checking the answers on your practice tests, don’t just correct your multiple-choice sheet, tally a score, and wait to see improvement. Rushing through the tests won’t help you get any better. If you correct your practice tests like a Scantron, and only tally up right and wrong answers without further analysis, you're wasting your time. First of all, as you move through the test, mark any questions you are unsure about. This way, even if you get them right, you can examine why they were right and what prevented you from being sure. Next, look at what you got wrong. Figure out the skill, concept, or line of reasoning you didn’t have that prevented you from getting it right. For example, did you miss that reading question because you didn’t know the meaning of a word, or because you misunderstood the context of the passage? Also refer to the answer explanations the Real ACT Guide provides, but keep in mind that can be a bit shallow (â€Å"A is wrong because it is. B is right because†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Finally, log your mistakes in a notebook. This way you can begin to notice any patterns or consistent gaps in your knowledge. For example, when correcting the math section and logging your mistakes, you might find you missed three questions because you weren’t able to figure out plane geometry and seven questions because you made silly arithmetic errors (like forgetting a negative sign). By logging your mistakes and their causes, you will have a ready-made study guide to use in between practice tests. You can go right to the heart of your weaknesses and drill them. What To Do In Between Tests Don’t just jump from practice test to practice test without studying in between. That would be like a marathon runner jogging 26 miles every day instead of training in intervals – they would horribly injure themselves and not improve at all. While you likely won’t injure yourself from taking five ACT practice tests in a row (though your hand may cramp up pretty badly), you will lose the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and improve. Using your notebook of mistakes, go back to your other resources – the Real ACT content guide chapters, other prep books, the internet – to learn content you still don’t know and practice specific problems. This is also the time to develop and try new strategies. For example, say you keep running out of time on Science because you read the passages first then go to the questions. You might test out starting with the questions and seeing if that improves your time while maintaining accuracy while working through smaller blocks of practice problems. Only once you’re feeling confident about your progress should you attempt the next practice test. The Study Regimen You Should Follow By following the principles above, you can make the most out of the practice tests in The Real ACT Prep Guide. But you may be asking how often you should take practice tests, and what your study schedule should be like. We suggest, before you start studying, you take a full-length practice test. From your performance, figure out your weaknesses in each section. Find resources to improve your weaknesses, and also read through The Real ACT Prep Guide's content review. Depending on when your ACT test date is, take another practice test after two or three weeks of studying. This way you can give yourself adequate time to study and improve. Carefully analyze the results of your second practice test to see where you still need work. You can repeat this process as many times as you need. As you get closer to the test and you correct more of your weaknesses, you can shorten your time between practice tests. Keep studying until you feel confident you will hit your target score on test day. What Happens If I Run Out of Practice Tests? Unlike the SAT’s Official Guide, which has 10 (!) practice tests, ACT only gives you five in The Real ACT Prep Guide. For many students, this is more than enough. But it’s likely, especially if you’re a high-achieving student, you may run out of practice tests before you feel ready for the ACT – especially if you’re going for a 33 or higher. In that case, check out our links to free ACT practice tests online. These don’t come with answer explanations, so save them for after you’ve done the five Real ACT ones so you’ll be more skillful at identifying your mistakes anyway. What’s Next? What other principles should you be keeping in mind as you study for the ACT? Check out our guide to a perfect 36 by our resident full-scorer. Even if you’re not going for a 36, these study principles show you how to make the most of your time studying for the ACT, including the best way to analyze your mistakes. Want more background on the ACT? Get a guide to ACT timing, as well as what’s on each section (English, Math, Reading, Science). Wondering why you keep running out of time on your practice tests? Get in-depth guides for finishing the Math and Reading sections on time. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

An Achievement Gap Created by the Summer Slide Before Grade 9

An Achievement Gap Created by the Summer Slide Before Grade 9 By the time students in the United States enter grade 12, they will have spent 96 weeks, or the rough equivalent of 2 out 13 required academic years, in time designated as summer vacation. Researchers have been bemoaning the loss of this collective time as they point to the negative consequences of summer vacation up to and including high school..   Negative Impact of Summer Vacation Research A meta-analysis of 138 influences or â€Å"what works in education† was published (2009)  in  Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement  by John Hattie and Greg Yates. Their results are posted on their  Visible Learning  website.   They ranked the effects of completed studies (national and international), and using the data combined from these studies, they developed a rating where any influence greater than .04 was a contribution to student achievement. For their finding on summer vacation,  Ã‚  39 studies  were used  to rank the effect of summer vacation on student achievement. The findings using this data revealed summer vacation as having  a negative effect (  -.09 effect) on education. In other words, summer vacation ranked at the bottom of what works in education, a dismal 134 out of 138 influences.. Many researchers refer to the achievement damage done during these months off as summer learning loss or the â€Å"summer slide†Ã‚  as described on the US Department of Educations blog Homeroom. A similar finding came from  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review†Ã‚  by  H. Cooper, et al. Their work updated the findings of a 1990 study that originally found: Summer learning loss is very real and has important repercussions in the lives of students, especially those with fewer financial resources. There were several key findings outlined in their updated 2004 report: At best, students showed little or no academic growth over the summer. At worst, students lost one to three months of learning.Summer learning loss was somewhat greater in math than reading.Summer learning loss was greatest in math computation and spelling.For disadvantaged students, reading scores were disproportionately affected and the achievement gap between rich and poor widened. This achievement gap between haves and have nots widens with summer learning loss. Socio-Economic Status and Summer Learning Loss Multiple studies have confirmed that  students in low-income households develop an average two month reading gap during the summer. This gap is cumulative, and each summers two month gap contributes to a sizable learning loss, especially in reading, by the time a student reaches grade 9. Research published in the article Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap   by  Karl L. Alexander, et al, charted how a students socio-economic status (SES) plays a role is summer learning loss: We find that cumulative achievement gains over the first nine years of childrens schooling mainly reflect school-year learning, whereas the high SES-low SES achievement gap at 9th grade mainly traces to differential summer learning over the elementary years. In addition, a  white paper commissioned by the Summer Reading Collective determined that  two-thirds of the 9th grade achievement gap in reading could be between students from low-income households and their higher-income peers. Other important findings findings pointed out that access to books was critical to slowing summer learning loss. Neighborhoods in low income areas with public libraries for student access to reading materials had  significantly more gains in reading scores from spring to fall than students from high-income households with access to books as well as those from low-income households without access to books at all. Finally, the Summer Reading Collective noted that socio-economic factors played a critical role in learning experiences (access to reading materials, travel, learning activities) stating: Differences in children’s summer learning experiences during their elementary school years can ultimately impact whether they earn a high school diploma and continue to college. With the considerable amount of research documenting the negative impact of summers off, one may wonder why the American public education system embraced summer vacation. History of Summer Vacation: The Agrarian Myth Dispelled Despite the widely held myth that the educational calendar followed farm calendars, the 178 day school year (national average) became standardized for an entirely different reason.  The adoption of summer vacation was the result of an industrial society that opted to let urban students out of the sweltering cities  during the summer months. Kenneth Gold, a professor of education at the College of Staten Island, debunked the myth of an agrarian school year in his 2002 book  School’s In: The History of Summer Education in American Public Schools.  Ã‚   In the opening chapter,Gold notes that if schools were following a true agrarian school year, students would be more available during the summer months while crops  were growing but unavailable during planting (late spring) and harvesting (early fall).   His research demonstrated  that before the standardized school year,  there were concerns that too much school was bad for the health of students and teachers: â€Å"There was a whole medical theory that [people would get sick] from too much schooling and teaching† (25). Summer vacation was the solution to these medical concerns during the  mid-19th Century.   As  cities expanded rapidly, concerns were raised about the moral and physical dangers that unsupervised summer posed to urban youth. Gold goes into great detail about the  Vacation Schools, urban opportunities that offered a wholesome alternative. The 1/2 day  sessions in these vacation schools were attractive to participants and teachers were allowed to be  creative and more lax, addressing the  fears of [mental] overtaxation (125). By the end of World War I,   these vacation schools had become more in line with a growing academic bureaucracy. Gold notes, ...summer schools adopted a regular academic focus and a credit-bearing function, and they soon bore little resemblance to the vacation programs that preceded them (142). These academic summer schools were geared to allow students to gain extra credits, either to catch up or to accelerate, however, the creativity and innovations of these vacation schools diminished as the funding and staffing were in the hands of the administrative progressives that were overseeing the urban districts   Gold traces the standardization of education noting the growing body of  research on the adverse impact of summer vacation, especially on economically disadvantaged students as a growing concern. His work on how American education served the needs of a  continuously growing â€Å"summer leisure economy† clearly demonstrates  the stark contrast of mid-19th Century’s academic standards with the growing demands of 21st Century academic standards with their emphasis on college and career readiness. Stepping Away from Traditional Summer Vacation Schools K-12, and post-secondary experiences, from community college to graduate universities, are now experimenting  with a burgeoning market of opportunities for online learning. The opportunities bear names such as   Synchronous Distributed Course,  Web-Enhanced Course,  Blended Program, and others; they are all  forms of e-learning.   E-learning is rapidly changing the design of the traditional school year as it can be made available beyond the walls of a classroom at varying times. These new opportunities may make learning available through multiple platforms throughout the year. In addition, experiments with year-round learning are already well into their third decade. Over 2 million students participated (by 2007), and the research (Worthen 1994,   Cooper 2003)  on the effects of year round schools explained in   What Research Says About Year-Round Schooling (compiled by  Tracy A. Huebner) shows a positive impact: Students in year-round schools do as well or slightly better in terms of academic achievement than students in traditional schools;Year-round education may be particularly beneficial for students from low-income families;Students, parents, and teachers who participate in a year-round school tend to have positive attitudes about the experience. On more than one follow-up to these studies, the explanation for the positive impact is simple: The loss of retention of information that occurs during the three-month summer vacation is lessened by the shorter, more frequent vacations that characterize year-round calendars. Unfortunately, for those students without intellectual stimulation, enrichment, or reinforcement-whether they are economically disadvantaged or not- the long span of summer will culminate in an achievement gap.    Conclusion The  artist Michelangelo is reputed to have said, I am still learning (Ancora Imparo)  at the age of 87, and while he never enjoyed the American public school summer vacation, it is unlikely he went for long periods without the intellectual stimulation that made him the man of the Renaissance. Perhaps his quote could inverted as a question if there are chances to change the design of school academic calendars. Educators could ask, Are they still learning during the summer?

Teaching foreign language through drama in education-portfolio entry Essay

Teaching foreign language through drama in education-portfolio entry - Essay Example These aspects present the advantages of using drama when teaching foreign languages (BRÄUER, 2002, p.72). Improvising entails applying imagined situation to develop spontaneous interaction. It is essential when teaching language because it enables students to develop creativity, builds confidence to interact with each other and with the instructor, promotes communication, makes the lesson enjoyable as it allows them to relax and have fun, and improves debate and public speaking skills (BYRAM &FLEMING, 1998, p.57). Role playing is one of the major themes in teaching as the student acts as someone else in the context of drama. Role playing is essential because it creates empathy and understanding as one is able to reflect a given issue from the perspective of others. It develops skills related to coping with conflicts and conflict management through team work. Through role playing, it is easier for students to undertake assignments that need creative and critical thinking such as news reporting (WINSTON, 2011, p.51). This aspect of instructing languages utilizes role play and improvisation to come up with a dramatization that is aimed at a specified audience. When teaching language, play building is useful in enhancing teamwork among students, enables students to develop a sense of belonging especially when there is an inclusive learning process, promotes negotiation skills especially in matters related to consensus building, and can be used in lessons involving presentations (BYRAM &FLEMING,1998,p.77). These arts are vital in developing creativity among language students. Students develop superb literary skills in different arenas of literature. Further, they will have sharp skills in story telling, which is essential in languages such as mastering spoken English. In addition, they are useful in developing comprehension

Healthcare Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Healthcare Administration - Essay Example Also students can protect themselves from expensive medical treatment after emergency situations such as appendectomy by paying a low cost monthly rate. This is called catastrophic insurance and it will provide you all needed treatment. Also Affordable Care Act protects people at age under 65 providing them with tax credit subsidy opportunities. Therefore, all students that cannot cover the medical insurance by themselves can use some options that can help to improve their health after illness. Nowadays receiving the medical insurance in the United States became easier and more effective process. It can help to protect health and life of young adults as they will be sure that they will receive an appropriate treatment when needed. But it is quite important to develop, improve and extend insurance coverage all over the world. (Michael Cahill, 2013) 1. Michael Cahill.(2013). Health Care Reform For The College Student: How The Affordable Care Act Will Affect You. Collegexpress. Online . Retrieved from

Kennedy Administrations Successful Handling of the Cuban Crisis Essay - 7

Kennedy Administrations Successful Handling of the Cuban Crisis - Essay Example The involvement of the USSR forced the USA to contemplate attacking Cuba through air and water strikes, but for legal reasons, decide to blockade further supply of the missiles by the USSR to Cuba. In response, the USSR argued that the blockade amounted to an act of aggression against another country, which would propel a nuclear war. This resulted to a negotiation talk being held between President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev (Kennedy & Schlesinger, 1999). Thus, these are the reasons that indicate that the negotiations by John Kennedy’s administration were successful: The negotiations in Cuban crisis were perceived as successful since they ended up creating a scenario where the USA was the winner. This is because; the USSR removed its missiles from Cuba, while the prestige of the USA military was preserved (Kennedy & Schlesinger, 1999). This occurred because; the world finally saw the USSR back down and withdraw its missiles from Cuba, while the removal of the USA missiles from Turkey was not made a publicly accepted demand, but was rather agreed upon silently between the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the USSR ambassador (Kennedy & Schlesinger, 1999). This served to preserve the image of the military might of the USA. The negotiations reached a deal, where the USA was to stop any attempt to attack Cuba and remove its missiles from Turkey, in return for having the USSR remove its missiles from Cuba (Kennedy & Schlesinger, 1999). This was an act of mutual agreement that established equal treatment of all parties, through having both the USA and the USSR return all offensive weapons to their countries, and thus avoid involving other countries in their contest for supremacy, which would have ended up destroying the whole world through, a nuclear war. The negotiations are also considered successful since they helped the USA to adopt a safer option; that of a blockade, as opposed to the highly championed  military action that would have left the world devastated (Kennedy & Schlesinger, 1999).  

Organozational behavior Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Organozational behavior - Assignment Example The line managers are usually promoted within the organization and usually do not possess any formal education. The immediate responsibilities of front line include day to day management of employees, managing the operational responsibilities, providing technical expertise, monitoring the organizational process, checking the quality of the work (CIPD, 2013). Some of the major responsibilities of the line managers include planning the objectives, prioritizing the work and communicating these work responsibilities to the employees, scheduling the work of the employees and detailing the work of the employees on monthly or weekly basis, managing the financial resources by monitoring the budget (ACAS, 2009). The line managers manage the employees by treating the employees equally and by creating a congenial work atmosphere (ACAS, 2009). They also set well defined performance standards; ensure that the employees meet the objectives and the performance standards and conduct review meetings which help in facilitating communication. The way line managers present themselves has a significant impact on the performance of the employees. Every organization goes through transformational changes which can have positive or negative impacts on the performance of the employees. To survive and be successful an organization needs to embrace the technological, cultural, behavioural changes with open arms. Creative innovation ensures the long term growth and survival of the organization (Rahimi, Damirchi and Seyyedi, 2011). The line managers play a pivotal role in the creation and facilitation of the innovative, cultural and technological environment of the organization (Rahimi, Damirchi and Seyyedi, 2011). Organizational Culture & Line Management Organizational culture is defined as shared values and understandings that guide the actions of those in organizations (Patti, Fok and Hartman, 1999, p.218). Effective organizational culture provides a work environment which helps the empl oyees to align their personal interest with the organizational objectives (ACAS, 2009). Organizational culture is modified by certain management practices through employee selection, rewards, recognition, strategic direction and innovation (Rahimi, Damirchi and Seyyedi, 2011). Although there are various organizational and environmental factors which affect the organizational performance but the management behaviour and organizational culture plays a key role in the in the employee performance. The organizational environment helps in shaping the management behaviour. However, line managers need to behave and apply leadership oriented style of management to help increase employee performance, innovation and behaviour (Rahimi, Damirchi and Seyyedi, 2011). Firstly, line managers and the top level managers need to identify the leadership style required to increase the organizational effectiveness. Secondly, the leadership style adopted by the line managers currently should be modified as per the organizational culture and employee behaviour. The line manager has to keep one thing in mind that employee behaviour, expectation and performance may vary with different national cultures. The difference in the national culture reflects the difference in the organizational structure and management (Lok and Crawford, 2004). For example