Mandatory Public School Uniforms are a Good Thing Essay -- dress code,

Nowadays, we see many teenagers dress in spaghetti-strap tank tops, low-cut shirts, drop pants, pajamas, and even spandex shorts in school even though there have been policies about dress codes. Teachers, parents, and other adults feel disgruntled about the way they dress. Many students also complain about difficulties in concentrating on schoolwork because of the same reason. Obviously, what students wear to school has become a very distracting issue in the school environment. Therefore, school uniforms should be required in public schools due to many reasons. There have been many forums and discussions about mandatory school uniforms in public schools. They assume that wearing uniforms is a kind of Nazi education tactic; however, school uniforms reduce fashion-envy among students. For example, it is extremely easy to tell who is rich and popular at a public high school. Only popular girls wear Buckle Jeans that cost approximately one hundred dollars per pair. Only popular boys wore Ralph Lauren T-shirts to school. High school students are teenagers who are developing their self-esteem; therefore, it is important to guide students to lead a confident life without caring too much about appearance and materialistic things. In every public school, lots of students try to follow the newest trends and brands by begging their parents to buy them expensive clothes. They also work too hard to earn money for buying clothes, rather than focus on schoolwork. Moreover, the cases in which students steal and commit crimes are increasing like a strong wave. Many students think nowadays that it is more important to put appearance first, not intellect. Students who do well in school are often called nerds and geeks. They are also known ... ...a story about some boys she observed watching a fellow student make a presentation in the school's media center. She noticed the boys were making fun of the other boy's sneakers, which were plain white, in contrast to their more fashionable two-tone shoes. It was the only clothing item that differentiated the student from his classmates, because there is some leeway in the type of shoes students can wear. According to Kathleen C. and Carl A. Cohn’s â€Å"School Improvement Initiatives in Long Beach, California: The Quest for Higher Student Achievement, Behavior, and Dress Standards† in Education magazine, which was published on December 22, 1998, Long Beach Unified School District initiated mandatory uniforms for all K-8 students in the fall of 1994. Within the first year, all incidents of school crime, including assaults and weapons violations, declined by 76 percent.

Individual Asset Allocation Exercise Essay

Group 2 Questions for Individual Asset Allocation Exercise: 1. Allocate your fictional $1,000,000 among the following three asset categories: Asset U.S. Equities U.S. 30-Year Treasury Bonds Cash Total Allocation 45% 35% 20% 100% Justify your allocation based on your outlook for systematic risk in the U.S. economy over the next year. Based on GDP, there is an expected growth in rates for the following quarter, though it may not be a dramatic one. Rates have been fluctuating within about a 1-2% range in the previous quarters following 2010. Investing in stocks would be logical when there is a growth since more business activities will be carried out, thus translating into higher corporate profits. However, a growing GDP may put the economy at risk of inflation. GDP may be growing due to consumer confidence, which too seems to be steadily growing. Consumer confidence shows that consumers are more likely to spend and invest in the economy, which will help to boost it. This is good for stocks since a growing GDP will result in healthy corporate profits and higher stock prices. Consumers may be more able to spend and invest in the economy due to a fall in jobless claims. This means there are more people working so less people are filing for unemployment insurance, thus an improving labor market. Since more people have jobs there is more spending within the economy, which translates into a healthier economy overall. However, too little jobless claims may have a negative impact on the economy in that it may trigger wage inflation, which is bad news for the stock market. Businesses have to set out incentives like paying overtime or higher wages to attract employment, thus spending more in labor costs. The Federal Reserve tends to increase interest rates when wage inflation looks too threatening, which negatively affects both the stock and bond market. Due to the aforementioned market risks in the economy, it seems optimal to invest the largest segment (45%) to US equities. The US seems to be thriving in a growing economy since the financial crisis, which is favorable to the stock market, since a healthy economy leads to an increase in equity prices, which thrives on growing corporate profits. It would then be optimal to allocate 35% to US 30 year treasury bonds, since bonds tend to be less risky than stocks. Bonds have a higher likelihood of receiving a return on the investment than stocks, which have a higher possibility of loss. However, bonds do have a lesser return on investment, thus as much profit won’t be made compared to a stock that’s doing well. However bonds tend to be safer, though at the same time are at a risk of being affected by inflation since the economy often walks a fine line between strong growth and excessive growth in the economy. Finally, 20% should be kept as cash just to make sure that there is cash at hand in case of emergencies. Since there are risks associated with both the bond and stock market alike, as the economy grows and becomes in risk of inflation. Cash will be able to provide flexibility during times when the market is feeling pressured.

Divided Line and Allegory of the Cave - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1349 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/08/12 Category Philosophy Essay Level High school Tags: Allegory Of The Cave Essay Did you like this example? Plato, in The Republic, discusses human nature, the meaning of justice, and the ordering of the perfect city, through a series of dialogues among philosophers. Plato, through the lens of the character Socrates, argues that justice is achieved when everyone in the city is doing the job that is most suited to their unique talents and not disturbing anyone else. In describing the ideal city, Plato argues that the philosophers must rule, as they possess the ultimate level of truth and knowledge, which makes them most suited for the task. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Divided Line and Allegory of the Cave" essay for you Create order To properly convey what philosophers possess and the masses lack, Plato uses the analogy of the divided line which divides all of existence into two realms: the visible and the intelligible. This analogy serves as a framework for his Allegory of the Cave, which is described in Book VII. The Allegory of the Cave powerfully depicts the human experience of knowledge, and the philosophers journey from the realm of the visible to the intelligible. Together, these analogies explain how societys state as prisoners in the cave is caused by the political bodies control of their peoples access to information and education, as well as by the masses close mindedness and unwillingness to pursue knowledge and change their shallow perspectives. At the end of Book VI, in discussing the ultimate good that the philosopher can understand, Socrates tells Glaucon to imagine a line that divides everything into two parts. First there is the world of the visible, that which we perceive with our senses, and the world of the intelligible, which is not seen, but rather understood. Within the world of the visible there are two parts: statues and other representations of living things, and the living things themselves. Likewise, within the world of the intelligible there are two parts: those things understood through math and logic, and those understood through deeper thinking and hypothesizing that reaches the true essence of things. Images and representations are imagined, while actual things are understood through our trust, which comes from our experiences of seeing things. The first level of intellect-math and logic- is attained through thought, while the highest level-deeper understanding of the truths, comes through intellection. This line portrays the full spectrum of levels of knowledge, starting from the lowest and shallowest level of imagination, to the deepest level of intellect. It is only through a comprehension of this spectrum that one can understand the philosophers ascent in the Allegory of the Cave, and truly appreciate why the philosophers must rule. Book VII of The Republic opens with the famous Allegory of the Cave. A group of prisoners have been chained in a cave their entire lives, and can only see the wall of the cave that is directly in front of them. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and all sorts of people, animals, and statues pass in front of the fire, which creates shadows on the wall of the cave. These shadows are all that these prisoners have seen in their lives, and as such, the prisoners believe that the shadows are the only real things in the world. One day, one of the prisoners is freed and soon sees the fire and the statues, as he begins to understand the cause of the shadows. Next, the prisoner leaves the cave and is blinded by the light of the sun, unable to see everything around him. Slowly, as he becomes accustomed to the light, he sees the people, objects, and the sun. He soon realizes that the shadows in the cave are mere reflections of reality, and everything he thought was true and real was a mere shadow o f reality. This powerful allegory represents the ascent of the philosopher from the bottom of the divided line-the world of shadows and imagination-to the highest level of knowledge-the world of intellect and deep understanding. Unlike the philosopher, though, who ascends to the ultimate truth, most of society remains chained in the cave, perceiving only the shadows that they see. It is incumbent upon the philosopher to guide the rest of society to the light beyond the cave, and to fix peoples eyes on the true essences of reality. Thus, the divided line is integral to understanding what the Allegory of the Cave represents in terms of the philosophers pursuit of deeper knowledge. From the allegory one can extract two powerful lessons about the relationship between the pursuit of knowledge and the political and social character of human life. Firstly, one can learn that the leaders or political body of a society play a vital role in whether or not their society will be prisoners in the cave. The political body controls the societys access to information and the kind of education that they receive, and they will shape the shadows that their people see. In societies like North Korea or the former Soviet Union, the government uses its power to severely limit the peoples access to education, in order to prevent dissidence and ensure compliance with the government. Citizens in such societies are like prisoners in the cave, in that their perception of their world is so shallow and far from reality. In contrast, free societies such as the United States grant their citizens full access to the internet as well as a proper education that allows the citizens to pursue kn owledge and move up to a higher level of understanding. However, it is not only the political aspect of human life that controls whether society will progress further in their pursuit of knowledge. As a society, the people will determine how far they progress in their pursuit of knowledge, depending on their close-mindedness. Unfortunately, societies tend to be close-minded like the prisoners in the cave, and choose to accept their own version of reality. For people to leave their caves, the philosopher-rulers must fix the eyes of their citizens on the right things, and the people must live with a constant open-mindedness to change their perspectives and deepen their understanding of everything they know. One might argue that the peoples progress in their pursuit of knowledge is determined solely by the political leaders who have the power to shape the information and education that the people are presented with, and the people themselves have no power in freeing themselves from the cave. If people have access to education and new knowledge, surely they will eventually turn their heads from the shadows and ascend to deeper understanding! After all, all knowledge is gained in a context. Such a contention could be inferred from the focus on the role of the philosopher and educators in turning people from the darkness to the light in order to free them from their perception of mere shadows. However, if one looks carefully at the allegory, it will become clear that the people themselves play an important role in their own enslavement to the cave. In the allegory, the prisoners in the cave mock the freed prisoner who tries to tell them about the reality beyond the shadows, due to their unw illingness to challenge their understanding of reality and to be open to the possibility that there is more to reality than they perceived. Socrates says of the prisoners reactions to the freed prisoners attempts to convince them to join him in leaving the cave: wouldnt he be the source of laughter, and wouldnt it be said of him that he went up and came back with his eyes corrupted, and that its not even worth going up? And if they were somehow able to get their hands on and kill the man who attempts to release and lead them up, wouldnt they kill him? The prisoners of the cave are prevented from climbing up the divided line towards true understanding because of their own close-mindedness. The leaders, philosophers, and educators can only go so far in showing their citizens the true and good things and creating that context for pursuing deep truths. It is upon the people themselves to be willing to listen, to be challenged, and to change their current perceptions of the world.