Education
Against Stem Cell Research Prohibition
(1484 Words)
Stem cell research has fast become a hugely debatable subject because of the controversies it has evoked, albeit through taking major strides in advancement in the biomedical research field. The potential is vast for stem cells, and it creates the hope that the medical world can not only repair but also regenerate the damaged and impaired bodily tissues of patients to restore their function. The ongoing controversy has arisen from the medical research which involves using cells from human embryos. This leads the debate about stem cells to many aspects of humans on earth. Those arguments are mainly regarding ethical and moral issues. One such branch of stem cell research, which has sparked the debates, concerns therapeutic purposes. This research area is a fascinating field because it can hold possible cures for a wide range of serious medical problems. Within this paper, I will argue on the benefits of stem cell research, and how the benefits may overshadow whether research should be prohibited.
Therapeutic cloning involves the use of cells to mend damaged tissue in the body, such that is found after Parkinson’s disease, a stroke, and spinal injuries. There is support for the effectiveness of therapeutic cloning as shown by work involving the introduction of stem cells into the brain of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, of which about 1 million Americans live with. Parkinson’s disease occurs as a result of a gradual loss of a specific type of nerve cell located in an area of the brain. Although not yet routine clinical procedure, and more information is needed, trials offer the proof-of-principle for the approach that once the cells which have been added to the brain, differentiate to form nerve cells. They can in turn then lead to a recovery of the lost function. Moreover, at this time, there is no real treatment to stop or slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, so stem cell research cannot be ignored. On the other hand, there are various treatments and methods, such as medicines and sometimes surgery which help alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms. Moreover, mice treated for Parkinson’s with embryonic stem cells have died from brain tumors. Some would also argue that there is such a high risk associated with brain surgery. This being said people with the debilitating symptoms of the disease would still feel positive that with the news given by EuroStemCell. They unite more than 90 European stem cell and regenerative medicine research labs. Recent trials with stem cells, major and long-lasting improvements were seen in some patients which alleviated them from their awful disease.
A love of diversity
(583 Words)
There have been noticeable effects on language that have come about due to explorers and the like that journeyed from their motherland many years ago. The journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492 was one that would herald the changing of the times for world languages. Such were these countries, a la, Great Britain with its English language and the colonies, and Spain with its Spanish in South America, that they spread their voice over many continents. This being said, there is still an emphasis that language existed long before the arrival of these powerful empires to far away lands. Languages such Chinese, Hindu and Arabic are still spoken by many millions of people around the world. We also have to recognise that many indigenous people still use their native language. In many respects, any of these rarer languages, relatively speaking, could have spread through the world as much as English and Spanish as we are all homo sapiens and have remained one species.
So, what do languages distinguish? Some of the aspects of many languages that although they evolved generally on their own, there is a general likeness found; for example the use of singular and plural nouns. English, French and Spanish retain in their language the distinction of one or more of something. However, in these languages, there is sometimes not a clear distinction as to what we are talking about, as with ‘I have some flowers’. There could be an array of different types of flowers and no actual number. This is opposed to Chinese which can use the same word for one or more than one. There are also other languages that will distinguish between the flowers being all of one kind or a mixed bunch.
Moreover, looking at world speech, it shows some languages make the clear distinction with a sentence to show that an object can be seen as the speaker speaks or not in eye sight. Visibility is central to their language. One example is of a woman with her arm in a sling, and how would an English speaker refer to this picture. English people could say ‘she has broken her arm’, but there is no certainty. English people can report the evidence and assume. Other languages have to make it clear how they know the information and not let a statement be glossed over.
Furthermore, over the world within languages, related words may take on different meanings. The sentences the ‘The colours are nice’ and the ‘The curtains are red’ have the same structure and relate to the same word types; nouns, verbs and adjectives but they are not the same in meaning. Other languages do not see the same as an English speaker sees, and end up putting the same sentences into other grammatical orders to explain the same sentence such that it may end up as ‘it is nice in colours’. This can also cross over to objects in space and the angle that people see objects in the world. All people look at a picture differently and can only give a subjective view. Also, some languages do not have words like the English ‘inside’ or ‘between’ thus their explanation is different for spatial objects. What’s more, some speakers only see an object from their exact position in the world. English speakers may not need to be so accurate.
To conclude, this essay highlights the diversity of language throughout the world, and the myriad of approaches to explain any situation where language is used.
Protest Songs: A look at ‘Strange Fruit’ and ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’
(659 Words)
The 1920s and 30s in America was a time of racial discrimination for the black people while economically it was a time of the Great Depression. Times were not only hard but also scary with hatred and desperation flowing across the cities and plains of America. Like prisoners in shackles, the unfortunate ones at the bottom rung of life did not have a voice and ways of expressing how they felt inarticulate terms. This is why protest songs grew in prominence as they had a purpose, sentiment, and specific issues while invoking the reader to be shocked and angry. This is notwithstanding that these songs were meant to inspire the reader to acknowledge and change the situation. For this essay I have chosen two protest songs that epitomize the era of discrimination and depression; ‘Strange Fruit’ and ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’ I will highlight their literary merits and social criticism.
Initially, the reader is struck by the titles of these songs. ‘Strange fruit’ asks why fruit that hangs off trees would be so strange. What must the fruit be a metaphor for? Horror upon horror the fruit is the black man lynched; no wonder the fruit looks strange. On the other hand ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’ is plain to see as we recognize someone destitute and begging. In both cases, there are images of victims, and those victims are persecuted in different ways. One is for being non-white, and the other for being a hard-working man, both are innocent citizens who have landed in a bad place where there seems no exit.
Moreover, as the reader reads on the full reality of the themes of these two songs highlighting lynching in all of its brutality and the fall out of the Crash of 1929 are exposed. ‘Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze’ cannot get more real, as the true horror of lynching is laid bare. While ‘the bulging eyes and twisted mouth’ show the gravity of the spectacle as these poor black men hung up for all to see and for no reason at all. The protagonist in the ‘Brother, can you spare me a dime’ is left bearing his soul too, as he is ‘just waiting for bread’ instead of ‘building a dream’, and asking ‘can you spare a dime’ instead of building a railroad. Society has been criticized that has left this man and the black man fighting for their lives, notwithstanding that they could well be an upstanding member of society. The reader asks what have they done wrong to deserve this!
Here now lies the haunting social impact of the songs. The man who ‘made it run’ the railroad that is, and ‘made it run against time’ and who also ‘was building a dream’ with ‘peace and glory ahead’ now invokes a sad legacy that in all that he did and all he was asked to do, he is now discarded for society to forget. Furthermore, as much as is the case for the black man whose hanging body is ‘for the wind to suck’ and ‘for the sun to rot’. In both cases, the reader carries away the thought of life taken away. Nevertheless, for ‘Strange Fruit’ this was the first loud cries against racism. This was the way to move the black man’s story into the white man’s consciousness and Billie Holiday, the singer of Strange Fruit, her most successful song at that time. Contrastingly, Brother can you Spare a Dime still resonates in the modern-day world as the world come out of another economic collapse.
To conclude, these two songs send powerful messages that are meant to get into the readers’ awareness of society and for them to feel abhorred by the situation. The reader is meant to feel sad but on the whole optimistic that times can change so that today those times are a distant memory forever banished to the history books but never forgotten.
The Morality of Competition – Frederick. M. Gordon
Competition, is it good or bad for us? Frederick. M. Gordon’s article pertains to this concept of competition and how it affects us in daily life. The question is answered in the first paragraph as a definite ‘bad’ as many factors hamper us due to competition while competition is still not always bad, or so the article says. In this short review, I will summarise the main points and key words from the article while also writing my application and implementation of the article’s moral ideas.
Competition is everywhere, and the article first highlights this with a married couple; the man is a, just made unemployed, carpenter. The bills need paying and his wife knows she has to help, although she is just the housewife. She decides to become a carpenter herself. The competition has started; she has not only become the breadwinner but also a rival to her husband’s wood skills to which her skills thus surpass by the end of her carpentry course at college. The husband has to only grudgingly accept it, but he does not accept it well, as he becomes a drinker and starts getting angry and eventually moves out.
The reader is asked what they think of the story. Many factors are working for the lady while the man has lost. She has shown talent and determination. She has become the one who may be taking over the role to protect her family. The sad aspect is that she was competing against him. The husband did not take it kindly and felt his superior position was being challenged.
The author then takes us on a moral path to show the opposing views that have arisen. From reading the story you may side with the lady, but as the author mentions the man may well commit suicide. So, who side would you be on then? This man dragged down to the depths where he felt so worthless. This now gets deeper into the moral dilemma of competition.
The question now turns to rivalry and how it affects each person. The example the author gives involves Shakespeare and Marlowe. Shakespeare weary of Marlowe’s writing wrote his own comparable style of writing to challenge his rival. This example shows one can raise his level of competition to exceed the other, but what if he never did that? The article mentions that this may fill anyone with anger.
The morality the author mentions is, is competition won by doing or making the other do worse?
So, here lies the answer, or so the author tries to explain, that research shows that ‘egalitarian cooperation’ is a superior system to ‘competiveness’. Competitiveness is seen in the gap that is created. For example, countries have so much to lose, the loss is huge, so friendly rivalries disappear. The threat to their identity creates a huge state of arousal. The author states that research shows that there should be ‘appropriate competition’ which is a good as cooperation.
Cooperation is highlighted next by the ‘Hawthorne Effect’. It is a simple idea that alleviates competitiveness by rewarding staff, as the article states. It was noticed that once the bosses recognised their workers and rewarded them for their work, the competition was less thought about and more was thought about cooperation. This would then lead to a ‘mutual concern’. The egalitarian reward system gave high morale and group identity. This is how the researchers felt as their findings led to a radical egalitarianism and concluded competition was bad.
The author sums up to state that competition is not on the whole bad. It can change where talent is shown which highlights someone’s weakness. The American system is mentioned as it serves to allow those people who have more skill and competition to succeed and not just in positions of tyranny and power.
Here is the warning and the moral dilemma the author highlights, and it involves socialism as a system that tried to make all people equal. Did it work? But, also has competitiveness stopped corruption, social problems? The author says he thinks that the research completed so far still has not answered these questions.
As a moral exercise that highlights competition and cooperation, we only need to look at schools. In all aspects of a school, they are organised in order for the development of relationships between and among students, staff, and the community. This is where cooperation and collaboration with the students are emphasized over competition. They have to learn values such as fairness, respect, and honesty which are part of everyday lessons in and out of the classroom. Any school is a caring community of learners in which there is a bond connecting the students, the staff, and the school while not forgetting the local community. Social, moral, and emotional learning is emphasized as much as academic learning. Students should be given ample opportunities to practice moral behavior through activities that show cooperation. Hopefully, this essay goes some way to demonstrate these facts.
(828 Words)
Functional Skills (Literacy and Numeracy) in 14-19 (Vocational) Education
(Written 2012)
Teenagers can be ill equipped for challenges in life because they lack skills in English and maths. Young students’ well being and their future prospects are made from them achieving required skills to help them to push forward in their chosen career. As of October 2011 the Functional Skills component, including literacy and numeracy, of vocational courses started to include these vital skills in the new model to take over from the old Key Skills qualification. Equipping students with these vital skills highlighted the Government’s measure for success of five GCSEs for any student which means GCSEs at least at grade A*-C – including Maths and English. Therefore, the provision of functional skills in young students’ vocational subjects is the route to achieving literacy and numeracy; being essential for the Government’s reforms of 14-19 education. Thus, what follows is this written report that will discuss literacy and numeracy which in vocational courses were, as mentioned, called Key Skills and their modern equivalent Functional Skills. The development, difficulties and the future of these skills for students will be discussed showing it to be a pressing problem under debate by past and present governments (and the opposition) with their policies and initiatives. Focus will be put on vocational/technical courses. Mentioned also is a time frame from 2001 to present day. Moreover, I will show that for the future of any student with skills in English and Maths including technical knowledge gained from their vocational course will develop each student to a better future; not only in education but also their career path. Additionally, a key underlying theme throughout this report acknowledges students ‘achieving economic well-being, making a positive contribution and enjoying and achieving’ that encapsulates Every Citizen Matters initiative to show the value of achieving functional skills. I will also take into account my own role in teaching functional skills that stresses the implementation of English language.
To begin with, looking over a period from 2001, the British Government has tried to instil literacy and numeracy into students. In 2001, for the Labour Government’s ‘Skills For Life’ strategy, there was an impetus at improving literacy and numeracy. In 2007 and having had an expenditure of £5 billion results still showed a large demographic with an inability to read or write simple sentences or a basic knowledge of mathematics (House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, 2008, pg. 3). For example, in 2006–07, 51,000 school leavers left without Level 1 Maths and 39,000 without level 1 English (House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, 2008, pg. 5). Targets have now been set for the Government’s World skills in literacy and numeracy for 2020 which were agreed in July, 2007 to make the UK a world leader. The value of acquiring these skills cannot be underestimated. The advancement beyond the basic measure of success in literacy and numeracy skills can be shown to be strategic for students. For example, Alison Wolf reported that advanced level 3 is a valuable qualification and helps in the progression of work while she described the level 2 (minimum measure of 4-5 CSE grade A* to C) as “the staple offer for between a quarter and a third of the post-16 cohort is a diet of low-level vocational qualifications, most of which have little to no labour market value” (Wolf, 2011, pg. 7). From the Wolf Report these are contradictory goals for future students. The major goal of any student is that he or she wants a job after their two years when completing an equivalence of at least 5 GCSE A* – C (Level 2) in their vocational course of choosing. The Wolf Report states that level 1 and 2 vocational awards offers poor or even negative returns (Alison Wolf, 2011, pg. 31). Furthermore, the Wolf Report worryingly recognised that less than 50% of school leaving sixteen year old students failed to achieve English and Maths GCSEs grade A* to C (Alison Wolf, 2011, pg. 8). This is where the need for functional skills is that it is for those who do not possess those GCSEs at grade A* – C. There has to be hope that students have the initiative to get these required (literacy and numeracy) skills and pass their vocational course and subsequently go further in education.
Although having better qualifications, level 3, is imperative and those cohorts do bode supposedly better, it should not be forgotten there is also a need for experience. For example, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers stated that it is much easier to find apprenticeships for those over 18 than under (Wolf, 2011. pg. 78). Moreover, in 2009 6% of employers recruited sixteen-year-olds and 11% of 17 or 18 years old compared to 1958 where a quarter acquired apprenticeships (Wolf, 2011. pg. 78). There is now a lack of work history and experience that students need. As mentioned, qualifications such as level 3 are seen to be more valuable and better in progression terms which mean functional skills have to be administered to bring those skills up that may be lacking through loss of impetus from employers and of full apprenticeships. So, from the Wolf report, there is a recognition that the integration of functional skills embedded into the students’ apprenticeships/vocational education gives them chance to develop and further use (all) their acquired skills in ways that represent meaningful context in the workplace. This, in turn, should help to improve the students in the long run with their chances in their chosen career and show prospective employers that students have more employability. Functional skills in vocational education give learners the opportunity to develop those skills that are lacking or have been ignored before. This predominantly helps build a skilled workforce that fits the needs of business and is better qualified.
Those skills needed for performing in the work arena, which are not there or have not been used, are predominant in my occupation as a teacher trainer. So, to highlight literacy, I noticed the stresses and strains from those on the course I administered; be they recent graduates or mature students, as I delivered English language teacher training to these people. I taught them for 20 hours per week which was broken down into modules. These modules focused on all aspects of second language teaching with lesson planning, teaching techniques, grammar, foreign language and classroom management. The students were from various background and ages. There could be young university graduates to people semi-retiring who wanted to teach English abroad. There was a consensus that was always mentioned in my classes that they never really learnt English at school: such as going into detail with parts of speech, context, inferring, implying, intonation etc. Moreover, during their course, they had to develop their writing and note taking skills so they could reach their goal of completing the work/tasks by the end of the course. However, the biggest challenge was the use of grammar and the realisation that they, as English teachers, actually have to explain this not only for themselves but also to their forthcoming students. On the whole, the problem is that students come on to the course expecting to just meet the course requirements, but they had to show that their performance on the course meets, or on the whole goes beyond, the standards in both assessment components: teaching practice and written assignments. Using these skills hit them hard and frustration was shown. In my position, as the trainer, I came up against a barrier of ignorance to English grammar, language and learning styles that it seemed like I was starting anew with some students. I ended up teaching them from scratch when I should have been teaching them to be teachers. This was exacerbated by me then having to embed these factors into my teaching methods such as communicative language teaching or task-based language teaching that I used. These method-based pedagogies brought critical discourse and discussion to the fore. Students did only see the end product of performing in the classroom before unearthing or learning and realising the fundamentals of English language before the start of the course. This hindered my actual work. Initially, having only been in this job for a short time I had to make inroads into the problem. My employer and I discussed having a grammar/language module before the students started on the course. Unfortunately, they completed this after the twenty hours of classroom study with their eight other written essay modules. I advised him that when I did my TESOL certificate, the school sent me a learner’s pack and within that I had grammar and language assignments; not far reaching exercises, but just as a refresher pack to get me ready for the course which definitely highlighted the skills I would need. My employer gave me good feedback, and it was hoped this could be introduced. Hopefully, our company could prepare them for better for the course and make them aware of an English teacher’s basic knowledge.
The question that now arises is: what is being done to cease this lack of literacy together with numeracy? In respect to this, as a way to not only avoid a (functional) skills shortage but also youth unemployment, back in 2007 the Labour government laid down plans for raising the school leaving age to 18. These plans were that by 2013 students would stay in education or training until they are 17 and come 2015 it will be 18 (Education and Skills Act 2008). The Wolf Report made this recommendation that ‘students who are under 19 and do not have GCSE A*-C in English and/or Maths should be required, as part of their programme, to pursue a course which either leads directly to these qualifications, or which provide significant progress towards future GCSE entry and success’ (Wolf, 2011, pg. 15). For example, this recommendation mirrors one fact that only 15 percent of students carry on with maths beyond compulsory education (Clark, 2012). All these factors work to solidifying the curriculum to achieve Maths and English for 14-19 year olds.
Above all students still need to be better qualified, skillful, employable young adults. For example, the Department of Education data showed ‘58.6 per cent achieved 5 or more GCSEs at grade A* to C or equivalent including English and Mathematics GCSEs or iGCSEs’ in 2011/12 (Department of Education, Oct 2012, pg.1). Additionally, Labour Leader Ed Miliband at the Labour Party Conference talked about his idea of the TechBac for the “forgotten 50%” that do not go to university (Milliband, 2 October 2012). Students would be able to start at 14 with academic and practical courses. On this note, Lord Baker of Dorking moved in front of Labour by introducing his own Technical Baccalaureate. Lord Baker’s Technical Baccalaureate would create not only technical subjects but also practical and vocational which would include functional skills in English and Maths which is an extended project and thinking and employability skills with English and maths at levels 2 and 3. This innovative proposal for a Technical Baccalaureate it was noted still needs working on, but there will be a pilot project and could be offered as early as 2014. This hopes again a new program will change the fortunes of young teens/adults who are technically/vocationally minded where they can be furthered in all their educational and employability skills to progress forward and achieve the desired qualifications and more.
To conclude this view of functional skills (literacy and numeracy) within the 14-19 education sector, this essay has shown that there is a need for young students to achieve not only the basic skills but also progressively higher skills. It was shown how vital education is for young students to have the right training and skills given to them, so they can confidently go through college and pursue a valuable career where functional skills and also every child matters aims can be truly achieved. Then, the government will be able to say that young students are properly equipped for the challenges of life and their career path.
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References
Clark, L (2012) Michael Gove: New ‘real life’ maths curriculum for sixth formers, Mail Online. accessed 1 December 2012, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225584/Michael-Gove-New-real-life-maths-curriculum-sixth-formers.html>
Department of education, (2012) GCSE AND EQUIVALENT RESULTS IN ENGLAND 2011/12 (PROVISIONAL) http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001094/sfr25-2012.pdf
Education and Skills Act 2008. (2008). Education and Skills Act 2008. Norwich, TSO.
House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. (2008). Skills for life: progress in improving adult literacy and numeracy. London, Stationery Office.
Lee, J (2012) Lord Baker leapfrogs government with plans for his own TechBac, TES, accessed 10 November 2012, < http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6309518>.
Miliband, A (2013) BBC News – Labour conference: Ed Miliband speech in full. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19803646. [Accessed 11November 2013].
Wolf, A (2011) Review of Vocational Education: The Wolf Report, Stationery Office.
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