Crime And Intentional Tort Essay Example for Free

Crime And Intentional Tort Essay A crime is defined as â€Å"acts or omissions that are in violation of law† (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). The states and the federal government have enacted criminal laws that define each of the crimes and prescribe penalties in case of violation or commission (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). The two elements of a criminal offense are: â€Å"actus reus and mens rea; one is physical and the other, mental state† (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Thus, â€Å"actus reus must be causally related to the mens rea for a crime to occur† meaning that the evil intention of the mind must coincide with the physical manifestation through the unlawful act (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). However, as an exception to this rule, the courts have in a line of judicial precedents ruled that in case of strict liability the person who may not be â€Å"at fault or negligent† shall be legally liable for damages to the injured party. The injured party will only have to prove that he sustained damages (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Moreover, courts allowed liability on the basis of the actus reus alone as being sufficient (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). For instance, the employer is deemed liable for damages for the negligent acts of his employees while in the performance of their duties. Another example would be in the case of product liability where in the company is held liable for the injury sustained by a customer due to defective products. Crimes may be committed by natural and juridical persons. Natural persons are human beings while juridical persons are entities created by fiction of law deemed to be individuals capable of entering into contracts, owning and or possessing properties, enforcing rights and acquiring debts (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). A corporation therefore is a person. Corporations may be held liable for civil damages for the acts and conduct of the employees it employees. This liability is known as vicarious liability (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Anent criminal liability, a corporation is not capable of committing a crime because it does not have a mind statelacking in â€Å"mens rea. † It is also a legal fiction and therefore, one cannot put it behind bars. The recent years however, showed a different trend from these arguments. Nowadays, an American corporation engaged in criminal activities such as fraud can be convicted when the criminal conduct of its employee or officer is proven. The federal government through the Deputy Attorney General cited the reasons for indicting corporations as being beneficial to public interests (Thompson, 2003). It â€Å"enables the government to address and be a force for positive change of corporate culture, alter corporate behavior, and prevent, discover, and punish white collar crime† (Thompson, 2003). The federal government not only prosecutes the corporation but also the officers or agents of the corporations who apparently are guilty and culpable. Two recent cases may be cited to illustrate this point. The prosecution of Ebbers where his former finance officer testified against him, resulted in at least a total of 85 years imprisonment consisting of â€Å"one count of conspiracy, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of false regulatory filings† (Associated Press, 2005). It was also discovered that manipulation on the books of accounting resulted in the amount of $ 11 billion (Associated Press, 2005). In another case, Reliant Energy Services, Inc. and four of its officers were criminally charged for â€Å"manipulation of the California energy markets† (U. S. DOJ web site, 2004). Thus, when there is corruption in a company, disrespect for the law, fails to see to it that internal mechanisms are in place to detect fraud and corruption and thereafter fails to cooperate in the investigation, the federal government vows to criminally prosecute the corporation (U. S.  DOJ web site, 2004). In both cases, the corporations involved were charged and prosecuted because of the pervasiveness of the violations such as when directed by upper management or when in conspiracy with the other officers of the corporation (U. S. DOJ web site, 2004). The rule of respondeat superior shall apply in case the violation is an isolated case as when committed by a single officer and with a compliance program being implemented by the corporation. The company can only act through its agents and officers, thus if an overwhelming majority have committed fraud or any criminal act, then such act is considered the act of the corporation—the mens rea being the mental state of the culpable officers and agents. This is penalized in accordance with the Sentencing Guidelines. In the two cases cited, the respective companies are guilty of a felony because the charges were of serious nature with an imprisonment of more than one year (Wests Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). Corporate crime can be a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the penalty attached by law for its commission.

Is Mary the Theotokos?

Is Mary the Theotokos? Is Mary the Theotokos?  Does it matter? Without the Blessed Virgin Mary Christianity, would be meaningless. That Mary is Mother of God is rooted deeply in sacred scripture, and this Church doctrine has been confidently taught since the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431), during which occurred a decisive intervention of the Churchs teaching authority on behalf of Marys divine motherhood and against the claims of Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople who stated that Mary did not give birth to God, but to an ordinary baby, called Christ, who was in some way connected to God. Consequently, Mary did not deserve to be called by the title of Theotokos, or God-bearer, but rather the meeker title of Christotokos, or bearer of Christ. To get an idea of what was happening at the time we need to take a brief look at why this controversy began and at what was being said. So, to begin, it was the primary concern of the Council of Nicaea to make it plain beyond all possibility of misunderstanding that Jesus of Nazareth, while personally distinct from the Father, is God in the fullest sense of the word. As the Creed states, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, consubstantial with the Father; it was the Churchs determination to maintain this doctrine of derived equality without deviating into either modalism or tritheism, that led her on the long intellectual pilgrimage whose goal was full understanding of that mutual interpenetration of the three divine Persons, through their union with the one divine Essence, which is denoted by the word perichoresis. Only when the divinity of the Son had been firmly established could the Church give her full attention to the fact that the Son, being God, had become man. But can there be in Christ an unconfused union of Godhead and manhood? This was the question which was to exercise the minds of theologians and throw the life of the Church into turmoil from Constantinople to Chalcedon. What the orthodox Fathers were striving to do, and what was ultimately achieved at Chalcedon, was to preserve the doctrine of unconfused Godhead and manhood of Christ against tendencies which strove, on the one hand, to unite the two terms at the cost of confusing them with each other and, on the other hand, to keep them distinct at the cost of separating them. This today may not seem to offer any special difficulty; that this is so is a sign of the triumph of Chalcedon in theological thought, but, in the fifth century it was a notion that could only be achieved at the cost of bitter controversy and schism. So, when the theologically unimaginative but critically active Nestorius became Patriarch of Constantinople everything was ready for an explosion, which came when Nestorius openly supported his chaplain Anastasius in denouncing the application to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the title Theotokos. Nestorius was an Antiochene in Christology, deeply influenced by the ideas of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and it was his clumsy, clumsily articulated elucidation of the inferences of the position of the Antiochenes that was to set light to the controversy. Quite early on Nestorius was called upon to pronounce on the suitability of Theotokos as a title of the Virgin Mary, and ruled that its correctness was doubtful unless Christotokos was added to balance it. But in getting himself around this issue Nestorius used uncontrolled language which was calculated to provoke those whose approach was different to his own. He argued that no human being could be Gods mother and no human being could give birth to God; Mary gave birth to a man not God, the instrument of divinity. God could not have been carried for nine months in a womans womb, or have been wrapped in baby-clothes, or have suffered, died and been buried. Behind the description of Mary as Theotokos, he professed to detect the Arian theory that Marys Son was human or the Apollinarian concept that the manhood was imperfect. These flare-ups of Nestorius were calculated to be confrontational. But they played into the hands of Cyril of Alexandria, Nestoriuss bitter rival. Cyril claimed to see in them as a resurgence of the theory of two sons which was rejected in the fourth century. Alarmed by this claim that Marys son was just a man, Eusebius, later to become Bishop of Dorylaeum, quickly concluded that Nestorius was trying to re-establish the adoptionism of Paul of Samosata. By exploiting this interpretation Cyril was able to secure Nestoriuss condemnation as a heretic at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Based on these judgements the traditional picture of Nestorianism as a heresy which split God/man into two distinct Persons rapidly formed itself. When Divine Scripture is about to tell of the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary or [his] death, in no place does it appear that it puts God but either Christ or Son or Lord, because these three are indicative of the two natures, now of this and now of that, now of the one and now of the other. For example, when the Book relates unto us the birth from the Virgin, whom docs it say? God sent his Son. It says not that God sent God the Word, but it takes a name which indicates both the natures. Since the Son is man and God, it says that God sent his Son and he was born of a woman; and therein thou seest that the name is put which indicates both the natures. Thou callest [him] Son according to the birth from the blessed Virgin, for the Virgin Mother / of Christ bare the Son of God. But since the Son of God is twofold in natures, she bare not the Son of God but she bare the humanity, which is the Son because of the Son who is united thereto (Nestorius, 450 AD). The first chapter of St Johns Gospel tell us quite simply that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Two points need to be noticed. The first is that in Hebrew flesh and blood means not just the material part of a man in contrast with his soul, but human nature as a whole. The second is that St John does not say that the Word united flesh to himself, but that he became flesh. St Athanasius was fundamentally clear on this point. In general, however, he was quite content to think of the Incarnation as taking place through the union of human flesh to the divine Word. He took upon him our flesh, as Aaron did his robe, and assumed a body like ours, having Mary for the Mother of his body (Athanasius, 356/360). Nestorius himself never drew from his premises the conclusions which Cyril believed him to have drawn and which were drawn by some of his followers. Nor is it to be supposed that the outlook of Antiochene theology logically implied the Nestorian heresy. What is true, however, is that, while the pluralistic emphasis of Antioch made it perfectly easy to preserve the distinction of the humanity and the divinity in Christ, it made it very difficult to provide for their real union. Apollinarius had maintained the union by removing from Christs humanity one of its constituents, the rational soul, and inserting the divine Word (Logos) in its place. No Antiochene could tolerate such a mutilation; the humanity must remain entire and complete. But how then is this unity of divinity and humanity to be effected? If the humanity is complete we shall surely have a complete human individual and it will be this individual and not the divine Word (Logos) who will be the subject of Christs life. No wonder, then, the Alexandrian will reflect, that these Antiochenes refuse to call Mary theotokos; they cannot help believing that he whom she bore was not God but a man, even if God came to dwell in him after she had borne him. Whatever they may say, they believe in two Sons, one the Son of God and the other the son of Mary, however close the relation of the two may be. The clash between these points of view was fierce at first. Cyrils intervention was quick when he heard of Nestoriuss mockery of Theotokos, in refuting what he deemed gross heresy. The patriarchs exchanged some quite prickly letters without with neither of them making any significant headway. So, Pope Celestine was contacted by Cyril, who send him a dossier of extracts from Nestoriuss writings and from the declarations made on the Incarnation by the reverend fathers of past generations. Nestorius also wrote letters to Celestine and in his third he stated: I have learned that Cyril, the most distinguished bishop of the city of Alexandria, has become worried about reports against him that we received, and is now hunting for subterfuges to avoid a holy synod taking place due to these reports. In the meantime he is devising some other disturbances over terms and has chosen [as a point of controversy] the term Theotokos and Christotokos: the first he allows, but as for Christotokos, sometimes he removes it from the gospels, and sometimes he allows it, on the basis of what I believe is a kind of excessive prudence. In the case of the term Theotokos, I am not opposed to those who want to say it, unless it should advance to the confusion of natures in the manner of the madness of Apollinaris or Arius. Nonetheless, I have no doubt that the term Theotokos is inferior to the term Christotokos, as the latter is mentioned by the angels and the gospels. And if I were not speaking to Your Worship who is already so knowledgeable, I would need to give a very long discourse on this topic. But even without a discourse, it is known in every way to Your Beatitude, that if we should think that there are two groups opposed to each other, the one using only the term Theotokos, the other only Anthropotokos, and each group draws [others] to what it confesses or, if they have not accomplished this, puts [others] in danger of falling from the church, it would be necessary to assign someone to such an affair if it arises who exercises concern for both groups and heals the danger of both parties by means of the term taken from the gospels that signifies both natures. For as I said, the term Christotokos keeps the assertion of both parties to the proper limits, because it both removes the blasphemy of Paul of Samosata, who claimed that Christ the Lord of all was simply a human being, and also flees the wickedness of Arius and Apollinaris. Now I have written these very things to the most distinguished bishop of Alexandria, as Your Beatitude can tell from the copies I have attached to this letter of mine, as well as from the copies of what he wrote to us. Moreover, with Gods help it has also been agreed to announce a world-wide synod in order to inquire into the other ecclesiastical matters. For I do not think it will be difficult to investigate an uncertainty over words, and it is not a hindrance for a discussion of the divinity of Christ the Lord (Nestorius, 430) It did not take to long for Celestine to make a decision, and he called a synod in Rome in August 430 which decided against Nestorius and voted in favour of the title Theotokos. Nestorius was given a warning that, within ten days he would be treated as excommunicate unless, after receiving the notification, he retracted his teaching. The implementation of this ruling was given to Cyril and he characteristically carried out his task. He held a synod at Alexandria, afterwards sending a letter to Nestorius requiring him to subscribe to twelve anathemas. These anathemas, which were intentionally confrontational, summarise in terms which were uncompromising the Cyrilline Christology, some of which I reference here: If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is God in truth, and therefore that the holy virgin is the mother of God (for she bore in a fleshly way the Word of God become flesh, let him be anathema. If anyone does not confess that the Word from God the Father has been united by hypostasis with the flesh and is one Christ with his own flesh, and is therefore God and man together, let him be anathema. If anyone divides in the one Christ the hypostases after the union, joining them only by a conjunction of dignity or authority or power, and not rather by a coming together in a union by nature, let him be anathema. If anyone distributes between the two persons or hypostases the expressions used either in the gospels or in the apostolic writings, whether they are used by the holy writers of Christ or by him about himself, and ascribes some to him as to a man, thought of separately from the Word from God, and others, as befitting God, to him as to the Word from God the Father, let him be anathema. If anyone dares to say that Christ was a God-bearing man and not rather God in truth, being by nature one Son, even as the Word became flesh, and is made partaker of blood and flesh precisely like us, let him be anathema. If anyone says that the Word from God the Father was the God or master of Christ, and does not rather confess the same both God and man, the Word having become flesh, according to the scriptures, let him be anathema. If anyone says that as man Jesus was activated by the Word of God and was clothed with the glory of the Only-begotten, as a being separate from him, let him be anathema. If anyone dares to say that the man who was assumed ought to be worshipped and glorified together with the divine Word and be called God along with him, while being separate from him, (for the addition of with must always compel us to think in this way), and will not rather worship Emmanuel with one veneration and send up to him one doxology, even as the Word became flesh, let him be anathema. (Alexandria, 430). This union of two natures in the one divine Person of Christ is called the hypostatic or personal union. It is the mystery of the Incarnation of God; it is also the mystery of the divine Motherhood of Mary. Cyril also said in this letter: Therefore, because the holy virgin bore in the flesh God who was united hypostatically with the flesh, for that reason we call her mother of God, not as though the nature of the Word had the beginning of its existence from the flesh (for the Word was in the beginning and the Word was God and the Word was with God, and he made the ages and is coeternal with the Father and craftsman of all things), but because, as we have said, he united to himself hypostatically the human and underwent a birth according to the flesh from her womb. This was not as though he needed necessarily or for his own nature a birth in time and in the last times of this age, but in order that he might bless the beginning of our existence, in order that seeing that it was a woman that had given birth to him united to the flesh, the curse against the whole race should thereafter cease which was consigning all our earthy bodies to death, and in order that the removal through him of the curse, In sorrow thou shalt br ing forth children, should demonstrate the truth of the words of the prophet: Strong death swallowed them Up, and again, God has wiped every tear away from all face. It is for this cause that we say that in his economy he blessed marriage and, when invited, went down to Cana in Galilee with his holy apostles (Alexandria, 430). A letter was issued by Theodosius summoning a general council to meet at Ephesus at Pentecost 431, with an astonishing medley of rival meetings taking place before the event. Recognised as the Third General Council Ephesus was effective in that Nestorius was never rehabilitated, dying in exile in 451. Its more positive achievement was to canonize the Nicene creed as establishing orthodoxy. In the two years following Ephesus strenuous efforts were made to heal the divisions in the Church. The instrument of agreement, known as the Formula of Reunion, was contained in a letter sent by John of Antioch to Cyril, it ran as follows: We confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man composed of a rational soul and body, begotten before the ages from the Father in respect of His divinity, but likewise in these last days for us and our salvation from the Virgin Mary in respect of His manhood, consubstantial with the Father in respect of His divinity and at the same time consubstantial with us in respect of His manhood. For the union(henosis) of two natures has been accomplished. Hence we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. In virtue of this conception of a union without confusion we confess the holy Virgin as Theotokos because the divine Word became flesh and was made man and from the very conception united to Himself the temple taken from her. As for the evangelical and apostolic statements about the Lord, we recognise that theologians employ some indifferently in view of the unity of person but distinguish others in view of the duality of natures, applying the God-befitting ones to Christs divinity and the humble ones to His humanity (Antioch, 433). Cyril greeted this formulary with enthusiasm in his letter to John Laetentur coeli. Which was read out at the Council of Chalcedon, part of which I now cite: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦We confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, perfect God, and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and flesh consisting; begotten before the ages of the Father according to his Divinity, and in the last days, for us and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin according to his humanity, of the same substance with his Father according to his Divinity, and of the same substance with us according to his humanity; for there became a union of two natures. Wherefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of this unmixed union, we confess the holy Virgin to be Mother of God; because God the Word was incarnate and became Man, and from this conception he united the temple taken from her with himselfà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Chalcedon, 451). After these early great councils of the Church feasts to The Blessed Virgin increased, lots of churches were dedicated to her and in the latter part of the seventh century four new feasts to Mary had started to be celebrated; the Annunciation, the Assumption, the Purification, and the Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary. With Pius IX promulgation of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 devotion to our Blessed Lady accelerated, and many appearances of the Blessed Virgin took place. And also at this time many Marian customs grew which included Maytime processions, the wearing of the Miraculous Medal and the Rosary. 1962 saw a major change which happened with Vatican II grounding more firmly in Scripture and liturgy devotion to Mary placing The Blessed Virgin securely in the mystery of the Church. The truth of the Blessed Virgin Marys divine Motherhood and its corresponding dignity are found in these words of the Second Vatican Council: The Virgin Mary, who at the message of the angel received the Word of God in her heart and in her body and gave Life to the world, is acknowledged and honoured as being truly the Mother of God and Mother of the Redeemer. Redeemed by reason of the merits of her Son and united to Him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the high office and dignity of being the Mother of the Son of God, by which account she is also the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace, she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth. At the same time, however, because she belongs to the offspring of Adam she is one with all those who are to be saved (Lumen Gentium, 53). The mark of our Blessed Ladys holiness is that she was filled with the grace of God. The Blessed Virgin is the pattern to follow. Giving herself completely with love she was filled with the life of God. Marys Yes to the angels message reveals her part in the work of salvation. And the Angel said: Fear not, Maryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the most High shall overshadow you, and therefore the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:26-35). These are the words of the great mystery of Marys divine motherhood heralded by the angel in Lukes Gospel, their straightforwardness is persuasive as they announce the origin of our religion. In the beginning, they inspired triumphant faith, the faith of the martyrs and the Saints. The faith which will continue to inspire all Christians to the end of time.

Comparing Tragedy in Oedipus the King and Antigone :: comparison compare contrast essays

Oedipus the King More Tragic then Antigone   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sophocles was a master of tragedy, thereÕs no argument there. But which of the 2 plays weÕve studied, Oedipus the King and Antigone, is the more tragic? I believe that Oedipus the King was more intensely tragic and I think that if I were to see a the plays Ã’back to back,Ó Oedipus would be the more likely one to rivet true emotions from me. I think OedipusÕ cathartic value can be seen clearly when you compare the entirety of the results in both plays.    In Antigone, she loses 2 brothers, and then a lover, and finally her life. Oedipus loses his self-confidence, his true father, his true mother, his Ã’adoptiveÓ father, his wife, his integrity, his people, and his sight. When you weigh the two, Oedipus is obviously the more tragic, in this one area at least. Certainly one must see that Oedipus goes through a more cathartic tragedy than Antigone when one looks at the circumstances under which the tragedy falls as well. Antigone knew full well that what she was doing was wrong. She knew that if she buried her brother bad things would happen and she was ready and willing to die. Oedipus on the other hand actually thought he was doing the city some good by searching out the killer of Laius. He thought everything was going to turn out just fine in the end, which makes his downfall that much worse. A point that also must be considered is hybris. Many people donÕt feel like they can relate to Oedipus because of his hybris, whereas Antigone is a very palpable sort of character, very down to earth and a Ã’peopleÕs heroÓ so to speak. She is strong, and willing to die for her cause.

Spinster Essay -- Literary Analysis, Sylvia Plath

In the poem â€Å"Spinster† by Sylvia Plath, a girl and her lover take a walk through the woods on a spring day. As they are walking, the lover attempts to make romantic gestures towards the girl, which frightens her. The girl’s physical withdrawal from spring and her act of embracing winter is a metaphor for her fear of love and longing for the predictability and control that is not found in love. While on their walk through the woods, the disorganization that the girl feels emphasizes the girl’s discomfort in embracing unpredictable feelings such as love. The speaker’s choice to begin the poem with the word â€Å"now† implies that this scene of the girl walking with a lover in the woods is not new and it has been seen before (1). The feelings of the girl throughout the poem are reoccurring ones and not just ones of this particular scene. The repetition of her actions further highlights the depth of her fear of love because she is so terrified by the idea of love that she cannot overcome her fear. The description of the girl as â€Å"particular† reveals the speaker’s critical tone as the word describes her as picky and peculiar (1). This foreshadows that the girl is unlike others in her actions. The speaker includes that the walk is occurring in â€Å"April† in order to illustrate that the time they are taking the walk is ideal (2). I nstead of seeing the setting of April as the perfect time to walk, the girl becomes â€Å"struck/By the bird’s irregular babel and the leaves’ litter† (4-6). The girl is irritated by all of the disorganization that is present in spring and love. The girl is unable to control the sound of the birds or the growth of the plants. Nature, like love, happens on its own. This reflects how she feels about love because she is also ... ...self (29-30). The word â€Å"love[‘s]† ability to stand alone on its own line expresses the great threat that love has to the girl. The other words that describe the threats of the man are harsh but grouped together. Love is such a great threat that it carries the weight of all of those threats combined by consuming an entire line. This again enforces the girl’s fear of love, as she believes it has the ability to completely ruin her. The girl’s fear of love causes her to long for control. The title of this poem, â€Å"Spinster,† highlights the speaker’s highly critical tone of the girl. While the girl may not be an old lonely woman yet, the continuation of her actions of withdrawal will cause her to be alone forever. The metaphor used in this poem as spring representing love and winter representing control is perfect because spring is variable while winter is monotonous.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles :: Literary Analysis, Thomas Hardy

In Thomas Hardy’s classic novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, there are many complex and intriguing characters that emerge from it. Two such characters are the two young men who tried to win Tess over, Alec d’Urberville and Angel Clare. These two characters are distinctly different from one another in many ways, but in other, more subtle ways, they possess some similarities. Their physical appearances are noticeably different though it is noted that they are both especially handsome young men. Alec has â€Å"touches of barbarism†(32) in his face while Angel’s has â€Å"grown more thoughtful† (112). They also seem to have the opposite colors of hair. Alec’s hair being â€Å"black† (35) while Angel has the â€Å"palest straw colour† that â€Å"deepens to a warm brown†(112). Furthermore, their mouths have variations as well. The â€Å"badly molded†, but â€Å"smooth†, â€Å"full†(35) lips of Alec are much different than the â€Å"small† and â€Å"delicately lined†(114) ones of Angel. Even more, their eyes are described with opposing adjectives. The difference in the Alec’s â€Å"bold rolling eye† and Angel’s â€Å"fixed, abstracted eyes†(114) are quite present. The variety in their faces are most definitely there. The descriptions of their general features relate to their actions. Alec is a womanizer who jumps from woman to woman without regard to their feelings, carelessly flinging around their hearts and virginity. Barbaric. His hair, the darkest possible color, can be associated to a dark personality related to sin and other negative aspects of life. His mouth, which is shaped roughly, like his actions and character, can sometimes be overlooked because of the smoothness of them. Like the smooth trait of his lips, Alec can use trickery to disguise his real motives with people, which include his us of sly words. He certainly has a bold personality, like his eyes, having the audacity to steal a â€Å"cursory kiss†(70) from Tess when he can. The rolling part of his eyes can be taken literally. Because he cannot keep his eyes still, his eyes are forever roaming. It shows his unwillingness to commit to one woman because they are always wondering to others. Angel who is described with reserved, quieter adjectives, is in fact more so Alec. His reservedness often leads many women to fall for his as well because humans, for the most part, naturally want what they cannot have. And Angel who is â€Å"too much taken up with’ his own thoughts to notice girls†(113) fills these requirements.

Multicultural Education Essay

Multicultural Education is becoming important in our society, because of the big social change in the United States; Americans have been forced to look at the cultural change in the schools. We have had to address multicultural education and the educational needs of our students which continue to be a struggle for educators. Multicultural education programs could be put into three categories. Content-focused, student focused, and socially focused. Content-focused is known to be the most common type of multicultural educational. The students are taught in the curriculum about different cultures. For example holidays. Student-focused programs address the academic needs of the minority groups of students. This approach helps the students integrate into the main stream of the school system. Socially focused programs are designed to develop knowledge among the different cultures in our schools. There are different learning Styles. Every student that comes in your classroom gains and uses the information in different ways: this is done by seeing, hearing, touching, analyzing. As our students are different so are the teaching styles which also may vary from person to person. I have learnt that if a teacher does not try to understand the students in their class there will be a problem passing on the knowledge to their students. and the students will become bored if they are not interested in the subject, it is up to the teacher to make it interesting so they can reach all students. I feel as a teacher you should try to incorporate a variety of different teaching styles into your lessons to help engage all students that will enable them to learn more effectively. Philosophy of Education  I believe that each child is special and they need a secure, caring, and stimulating environment in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. As an educator it is my duty to help students meet their full potential, and this can be done in by providing an environment that is safe, orderly, and invites a sharing of ideas. There are three ways that will help create such an environment in the classroom. †¢ the teacher acting as a guide †¢ allowing the child’s natural curiosity to direct his/her learning †¢ Promoting respect for all things and all people. The teacher’s role is to guide their students. If we give our student’s access to hands-on activities and allow them enough time to use materials that will reinforce the lesson we are teaching it will creates an opportunity for the students to find the information for themselves. Student life in school and at home Students usually separate their lives into different areas, doing the same things they do at home, and school. The things students learn during these various life stages will eventually be the foundation from which they can build their careers. Most students need to develop the skills they learn that they will use in their future professions. Almost every student in school will learn that the only way to get assignments done on time is by managing their time effectively. The Transition from elementary school to college is difficult for students, as they have to become independent quickly. Today’s classroom Class sizes have become too big in the America school system, and the people making the decisions are taking out the paraprofessionals that help the teachers in the classrooms. In my personal opinion I feel that the classrooms are overcrowded and this extends from the elementary schools to the high schools. Classes used to be smaller and the student teacher ratio helped achieve greater academic success. Some benefits of small class sizes are that the students receive more personal attention. Smaller class sizes will help a student that has a learning disability, and the needs of the other students would be met. A small number of students in the classroom can also help with less noise and disruptive behavior. Tracking Tracking seems to be a common practice in the United States, and allows a teacher to work with students that are on the same academic level. The Students are placed together in classrooms by using test scores. Tracking has been around for about a century and is used in most schools across the United States. I found out in my research that there are different types of tracks. For example there is high or low tracking, all the students in each class are on the same level. Tracking seems to be a good idea, but in reality it seems to be very complicated. One of the main problems is that the students in low tracks are largely populated with minority students, and the low tracks are not good for a student’s development. I also found out that it affects the teachers in different ways. Teachers teach in different styles to educate their students. The students in high track classrooms are taught the content of the curriculum and the students in the lower track classrooms just briefly cover different subjects. In other words the high track students are challenged and the low track students are not. Low track teachers seem to have low expectations of their students (Callahan 2005) and high track classrooms have a positive attitude which helps the students desire to learn (Hotter 2004) The classroom has become very culturally diverse with students from all over the world. I found out that the students who were in the low tracks were predominately minorities, and the high track students were Caucasians and Asians. The text book states† In a classic study done in the 1970s, Ray Rest Observed a kindergarten class in an all-black urban school. By the eighth day Of class, the kindergarten teacher, apparently using such criteria as physical Appearance, socioeconomic status, and language usage, had separated her students Into groups of â€Å"fast learners† and â€Å"slow learners. † She spent more time With the â€Å"fast learners† and gave them more instruction and encouragement. The â€Å"slow learners† got more than their fair share of control and ridicule. The children soon began to mirror the teacher’s behavior. As the â€Å"fast learners† Belittled the â€Å"slow learners,† the low-status children began to exhibit Attitudes of self-degradation and hostility toward one another. This teacher’s Expectations, was formed during the first eight days of school, and this shaped the Academic and social treatment of the students in her classroom for the rest of the school year. Records of the grouping that had taken place during the first week of kindergarten which was then passed on to the teachers in the upper grades, providing the basis for further differential treatment. † (Sadker, Zittleman pg. 106. ) This is true because working in the school system you here teachers telling other teachers about the students they have in their classrooms, and what to expect if they come into their classrooms. In conclusion I found out that tracking is not the main problem it has its positive and negative points. I believe that if all students had the equal opportunity of a good early education there would be more students excelling in our schools. For example if all students had the opportunity to attend preschool it would help the students from being put into high or low track groups as all children would have the same opportunity in education my opinion is that detracking would help all students work and learn from each other no matter what their level is in the classroom.

Analysis Swot Tows and Financial Herman Miller

Financial Ratios and Analysis of Herman Miller Liquidity Ratios Liquidity ratios for a company help whomever is analyzing the data determine the company’s liquidity. When a company has good liquidity they are able to pay off their short term debt without having to take out any additional financing. We will look at Herman Miller’s current ratio for 2009 and 2010. The current ratio is calculated by taking the company’s current assets and dividing it by the current liabilities. It shows how many times the current assets can cover the current liabilities. 2009 current ratio | 2010 current ratio | 50. 9/282. 2= 1. 597| 394. 7/313= 1. 261| Herman miller’s current ratio in 2009 of 1. 597 shows they have approximately $1. 60 of current assets to ever $1. 00 in current liabilities. In 2010 they had $1. 26 of current assets to ever $1. 00 of current liabilities. This is a bit of a drop from 2009 to 2010. With the ideal point for the current ratio being above 1. 0; Herman Miller can cover their short term debt without any financing but, the ratio is still mediocre. Debt Management Ratios Debt management ratios show to what extent a company uses borrowed funds to finance its operations.These ratios are important to a company because creditors use them to determine the riskiness of the company’s financial position. Using the debt ratio we can determine how much of Herman Miller’s assets are provided through debt. The debt ratio is found by taking the company’s total debt and dividing it by the total assets of the company. Here is the debt ratio for 2009 and 2010 Debt Ratio 2009| Debt Ratio 2010| 759. 3/767. 3= . 99| 690. 5/770. 6= . 896| From the debt ratio we can tell that Herman Miller has nearly as much debt as assets in 2009. This could shy away some creditors.In 2010 they improved y about 10% which really helps their potential ability to gain more financing from creditors. With ideal ratio being below 1 Herman Miller is ok here but far from good. Profitability Ratios Profitability ratios are used to determine how profitable a company is during a specific period of time. These ratios are important because most investors will look at them when deciding whether or not to take stake in your company. High profitability shows that your company is strong financially, and, can also show that your company is growing. We will look at the return on assets ratio for Herman Miller.The ROA is found by taking the net income an d dividing it by the total assets of the company. The ROA shows how well a company can turn the money it has to invest into net income. Here is the Herman Miller’s ROA for 2009 and 2010 ROA 2009 | ROA 2010 | 68. 0/767. 3= 8. 86%| 28. 3/770. 6= 3. 67%| Herman Miller has pretty good ROA considering the industry they are in. according to statistics posted by Fortune 500 on money. cnn. com Herman miller was one of the few profitable companies in their industry with many of the top competitors losing money from 2007-2009. So looking at the industry this is a strong ROA. http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/industries/216/index. html)SWOT Analysis Strength The first strength we will talk about is that Herman Miller is a profitable organization. In the two years that we looked at (2009 & 2010) Herman Miller had a positive ROA. This shows that even during the harsh economic times in the United States over the last four years Herman Miller has managed to make a pro fit where a lot of their competition struggled. Another strength that Herman Miller has is its management. The best example of this being a strength is the fact that Herman Millers top executives are illing to take pay cuts before the general workforce in 2009 they took a 10% cut in January and another 10% in march when they cut all other employees 10%. Showing your workforce that you are willing to make the sacrifices to stay employed before they bottom of the totem pole makes the employees feel appreciated and more willing to go along with a pay cut when necessary. The third strength we recognized is that Herman Miller creates an empowered and positive workforce. Employees at Herman Miller feel empowered they have no problem telling a supervisor that they are breaking the rules and also feel like they can make some decisions.Empowering your workforce even just a little boosts morale and makes workers feel like they are important to the company. This in The last strength we will me ntion is Herman Miller’s production. Herman Miller implements the process of lean manufacturing. They call their process the â€Å"Herman Miller Performance System†. They maintain efficiencies and cost savings by minimizing the amount of inventory on hand by using â€Å"just in time† inventory process in the case they mention that some suppliers deliver to Herman Miller multiple times daily. Weaknesses The first weakness would be how close their debt ratio is to 1.Having such high debt ratio could chase away creditors. When you have a small amount of creditors to choose from then you lose the power to choose between different creditors depending on interest rates and other variables. This could greatly increase things like interest expense. Another weakness Herman Miller might have is also a strength. The manufacturing strategy and using just in time inventory can be very efficient but, it can sometimes create problems. If a supplier ran out of material or some other type of crisis could cause Herman Miller to lose out on orders and in relation lose out on sales.The third weakness is their participative management style. Although this could be considered a strength if this style isn’t used appropriately it could affect the company in a bad way. If managers take too much time making decisions because they want to have their employees participate in all decisions then it is extremely difficult to make the quick decision when needed. Sometimes in business managers need to make this quick decision and, with participative management if made fully participative some employees may feel different emotions about a decision being made without them knowing it was being made.The last weakness is they are in somewhat of a specialty market during a harsh economy. Being the manufacturer of high end office furniture during a recession is a big weakness when it comes to growth. Not many consumers are looking for high end products right now although they are still profitable with the strategy they have it could take a serious downturn if things were to get worse. Opportunities One opportunity that Herman Miller has is to become totally green. This means having next to no waste and using renewable resources.Herman miller has been working a little bit towards this in the past years. With the demand of environmentally friendly products on the rise this would open up the opportunity to break into and dominate a new market segment. Another opportunity is the increased amount of time spent by people in front of their computers. This is an opportunity because it opens up the idea of making ergonomically superior office furniture that would make the consumers time in front of their computer more comfortable and reduce the risk of injury. The third opportunity is the growth in the Mexican economy.With the Mexican economy rapidly growing this opens up a whole new country that Herman Miller could potentially do business in. the possibilit y of a whole new demographic of customers along with the possibility of opening a new location. The last opportunity Is the rising demand of senior housing in the United States. The baby boomers are getting older every year and with senior housing overflowing all over the US there will be more housing opening. These housing centers will need office furniture along with household furniture to furnish the units. Threats The first threat we will mention is the rise in telecommuting.With more and more people and business using telecommuting the demand for office furniture will see a hit. This could potentially hurt the sales for Herman Miller. Another threat is the possibility of new entrants in the market from overseas. Having international competitors enter the market can really hurt Herman Miller because of their ability to obtain low cost material while still creating a quality product. The third threat is the possibility of another economic downturn. With the economy on the downsid e right now Herman Miller is remaining profitable but would they be able to take an even harsher recession.The last threat is the shortage of skilled workers in the US. With skilled workers declining steadily in the US it is starting to effect manufacturing companies. Without skilled workers you have a higher turnover rate and longer training periods. This will boost up cost and will lose Herman Miller money in the long run.TOWS Analysis Strengths and Opportunities Herman Miller’s strength of an empowered good willed workforce could help them take advantage of the opportunity of the growing senior housing demand.With a workforce that is happy and willing to work they would have no problem taking on the extra hours and work needed to keep up with the added demand. Another strength that Herman Miller could use to take advantage of an opportunity is their production strategy would work well with the opportunity of a growing economy in Mexico. Using their production strategy and opening a new location in Mexico could help them benefit from the rapid growth of the Mexican economy. Strengths and Threats The strength of having empowered and good willed employees could help with the threat of declining skilled workers in the US.If the employees you get that are skilled are less likely to leave you company if they feel empowered and enjoy working there. This will lower your turnover rate and your demand for more skilled workers. Another strength that Herman Miller has is their management willing to take pay cuts. This could help during the threat of an economic downturn. During economic downturn most companies need to cut cost for the decrease in demand of their product having top executives take 10-20% pay cuts really helps the cost cutting process and, could be the difference between going under and staying afloat during a recession.Weaknesses and Opportunities A weakness for Herman Miller is operating in a high end market during a harsh economy. They could op en up a new location in Mexico where the economy is booming to help balance the loss of demand in the United States. With a dollar going a lot further in Mexico than it does in the US having a plant there would be more beneficial than exporting their goods from the United States. Using the same weakness Herman Miller could break into the rise of senior housing demand.Even with the economy being in a recession there are still customers that want your product it’s just a matter of getting the contracts and, having the willingness to make a product that suits the customers’ needs and wants. Weaknesses and Threats Herman miller has some weaknesses and threats that a related the goal is to turn them into opportunities and strengths. Every company tries to do this and the successful companies are good at it. Herman Miller needs to use their strengths as a counter when they see a weakness or a threat arise. They have done a good job at it thus far and will continue to stay a profitable company in the future.