Celebration of Nature in Literature

Celebration of Nature in Literature Romanticists celebrated nature. They loved nature and enjoyed being outdoors. Their writings were nature inspired. I, like the romantics love nature and being outdoors. I also enjoy the beautiful scenes in nature that God creates. I have chosen two pieces to discuss. The first is Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The second is The World is too much with us by William Wordsworth. In these two pieces I will discuss the beauties of nature that each writer is passionate about. Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a lyrical poem that addresses the west wind as a powerful force. Shelley uses the wind and nature as an inspiration for this ode. Shelley wants to scatterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ my words among mankind. Just as leaves are scattered as the autumn wind blows. As we discussed in class, Shelley saw the west wind as a symbol of true inspiration. It is addressed in the first three stanzas the influence that the wind has on the sky, sea and land. Shelley wants people to realize that the wind can be a preserver and a destroyer, Wild Spirit, which are moving everywhere; Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear! This is not just a gentle breeze it is ferocious, blowing things around. In the first stanza he is addressing the west wind as a human. The human is pestilence- stricken multitudes. It is talking about being infected with diseases. It is also referring to the dead leaves decomposing on the ground. I think that the multitudes that Shelley is talking about in this stanza, is society. He sees how society is just out to get material things. They do not care about nature and how they are damaging it. Shelley was concerned about nature and the effects that we have on it. In the next stanza Shelley is talking about the effect the wind has on the clouds. Loose clouds like Earths decaying leaves are shed. It also talks about how the clouds erupt with rain. In this stanza, Shelley talks about the lighting against the night sky. It looks like a bright shaft of hair from the head of Maenad. In stanza five the poet asks the wind to scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! He wanted his words to be spread around the world, as if they were ashes from a burning fire. Shelley also speaks in the last line of winter and spring. The trumpet of prophecy! O Wind, If winter comes, can Spring be far behind? Even though winter is here, you can still look forward to spring to come again. Just like in life, there may be dark and dismal times in your life but there is always tomorrow. Every day comes with a new start and everything that lives must die. That is a part of the life cycle. I think that the themes in this piece are connecting life and death. The next piece that I want to look at is The World Is Too Much With Us. It is written by William Wordsworth. Like many other Romantic writers, Wordsworth saw nature as an emblem of God and the divine nature of him. His poetry celebrates the beauty and spiritual nature of the world. In The World Is Too Much With Us, Wordsworth contrasts nature with the world and their lust for materialism. They were just worried about the getting and spending. This sounds just like our world today. So many people are caught up in materialistic things that they do not stop and look around at the simple beauties of the world. They do not even stop long enough to hear the birds sing. The World Is Too Much with Us is a sonnet by William Wordsworth. In this piece he is criticizing the world for the Industrial Revolution. They were absorbing themselves in materialism and distancing themselves from nature. We, as a society, have so many modern conveniences today that most of us do not rely on the earth for any of our needs. Most people do not use the earth as a natural resource. I feel that we should get back to using our earth as a resource and take better care of it. My family and I garden and love doing it. My son is in the second grade and they are teaching him about recycling. I feel that it is important that we recycle and help reduce the amount of trash that we produce. The wordslate and soon describe how the past and future generations are included in his views of mankind. He views them as greedy. Wordsworth sees the potential of our powers but knows it is hindered by the mentality of getting and spending. The poet knows what they were capable of and what they could do, but that was affected by the lust of the flesh. We have the same problem in society today. People are worried about keeping up with the Jones. They are worried about what they can get out of the world, not what they can give back. I think that the society today is much like the society that Mr. Wordsworth is speaking of. Little we see in Nature that is ours. The earth and nature is very important to our existence. We must do everything that we can to take the best care of it. We have given our heart away, a sordid boon! This line refers to the materialistic progress of mankind. Just as Mr. Wordsworth dealt with materialism then we deal with it today. In lines ten and eleven Mr. Wordsworth speaks I, standing on this pleasant lea, have glimpses that would make me less forlorn. He reveals his perception of himself in society. He is a romantic with touch with nature. In Mr. Wordsworths sonnet This World Is Too Much With Us. We can relate with many of the things that Wordsworth speaks about. I enjoyed studying the Romanticism Era. They really understood nature and the part that God plays in it. They realized that he created it and everything good in it. I think that we struggle with some of the same issues that these writers were struggling with. People are materialistic and do not slow down enough to enjoy the simple things in life.

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory Essay

The Cognitive Development Theory was first identified by Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896 in Neuchà ¢tel, Switzerland. Piaget became well known by the many papers he published throughout his late teen years. Once graduating from the University of Neuchà ¢tel, he received his Ph.D. in natural science and published two philosophical essay concerning adolescence. These two essays later became the general orientation for the first publication of the Cognitive Development Theory. According to the Jean Piaget Society by Les Smith, Piaget was married to Valentine Chà ¢tenay and soon after had three children. These children where primary examples of the study Piaget was doing concerning with the development from infancy to language. After the age of eighty-five, the Swiss psychologist died in Geneva on 1980, making him one of the most significant psychologists of the twentieth century. The objective of the theory was, and still is, the explanation by which the process o f an infant, and then child develops into an adult that can both reason and comprehend. Saul McLeod published an article, â€Å"Jean Piaget†, in the website Simply Psychology, where he quoted Piaget, â€Å"Cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, [and] then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment† (McLeod 2). There are three basic components to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory: Schemas, the four processes that enable the transition from one stage to another, and the four stages of cognitive development. When starting with the Schema, Piaget described this word as a basic building block of intelligent behavior that a person would use by forming information using what the person saw, heard, smelled and touched. In the article, â€Å"Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development†, from ICELS.ca Blog explains how a schema can be thought of as a unit of knowledge, relating to one aspect of the world including objects, actions, and abstract concepts (Unknown 4). An example of schema is how a child will know how to grab his favorite rattle and put into his mouth because he has  gained knowledge of what that object was used for. Dr. George Boeree, author of Jean Piaget, describes how a toddler that is introduced to a new object will use his â€Å"grab and thrust† schema. Dr. Boeree calls this assimilation; the toddler is relating the old schema onto the new object (Boeree 3). The child after knowing how to react with his rattle is then puzzled with the new object in front of him, he does not know how to react and therefore uses the same schema as he would with the rattle, putting the object into his mouth. However if the existing schema does not work, the toddler has to find a new approach, this is known as accommodation. Accommodation occurs when there has been an unpleasant state of disequilibrium. Equilibrium occurs when a child’s schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation. McLeod clarifies the steps in as the four processes than enable the transition from one cognitive stage to another: Assimilation Equilibration New Situation Disequilibrium Accommodation When Piaget continued to study the each of these steps more carefully, he began to see similarities between most of the children in their nature and their timing. This became the development of the stages of cognitive development. The first stage of the cognitive development is the sensorimotor stage which can be found from the ages of zero until approximately two. In this stage the key feature is object permanence meaning how the infant uses his senses and motor abilities to understand the world. In the article, â€Å"Development of using experimenter-given cues in infant chimpanzees: longitudinal change in behavior and cognitive development†, found in Developmental Science, author Sanae Okamoto-Barth states, â€Å"Jean Piaget conducted experiments with human infants which led him to conclude that object permanence was typically achieved around seven to eight months of age† ( Okamoto-Barth 100). He clarifies how this cognitive skill develops in infants through a fixed series of steps with characteristic transitional errors. Throughout this stage there are three reactions that occur: primary circular reaction, secondary circular reaction, and tertiary circular reaction. Between the age of one to four months, the child has the primary circular reaction. In this reaction the child responds with the same action with the object. Dr. Boeree uses the example of a baby sucking on her them, because it feels good she continues to do it (Boeree 3). Between four to twelve months the infant now  uses secondary circulation which involves with the infants surroundings. Dr. Boeree’s example is a rubber ducky that the infant squeezes; the duck makes a â€Å"quack† entertaining the infant and wanting to continue the squeezing in order to get the same response again. As Okamoto-Barth stated this is the part in which object permanence is found. This ability can be recognized when the infant understands that just because an object is out of sight it does not been that it is gone, non-existent. The experiment used to know if the child had this ability was by doing the Blanket and Ball Experiment (McLeod 4). In this experiment Piaget would have a ball in front of the child and once the child got interested with the ball, he would cover it up with the blanket. The deal was to know if the child still believed in the existence on the ball or if he believed it was gone and no longer existed. Infants of a younger age would go about and entertain themselves with different objects in their surroundings, while infants that achieved object permanence would uncover the blanket and find the ball. The third reaction found in the sensorimotor stage is the tertiary circular reaction. This can be found from the ages of one to two. This is when they start to perform trial-and-error experimentations. An example of this reaction would be when a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from his caregiver (Unknown 4). Children also begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects and during this time the child is quickly moving towards the mental representation and mental combination (Okamoto 105). In this occasion, the infant becomes outstanding in pretending. For example the infant will now talk, feed, and play wit h a doll unlike before where she would just suck on it or throw it around. Once these examples are shown in an infant, the preoperational stage is now in place. The preoperational stage happens during the ages of two to seven. Although the child cannot think logically yet, he is acquiring language in a fast pace and is able to represent the work through mental images and symbols. However these images and symbols are only on his perception. The key feature in this stage is egocentrism. Egocentric is when a child sees things pretty much from one point of view, his own (Boeree 4). Piaget used the experiment of the Three Mountains in order to see if the child is in the preoperational stage or has advanced into the next stage. In this experiment children were  asked to choose a picture that showed the scene which they had observed as well as a picture in which what Piaget had seen. Children almost always chose their own view of the mountain. According to McLeod, children experienced this task difficult because they are unable to take on another person’s perspective (McLeod 4). In this stage children also develop curiosity and the questio ns begin. Children tend to make up explanations when they do not have an answer because they only know so little of the world. The third stage of the cognitive theory is the concrete operation stage which varies from the ages of seven to eleven. In this stage logic begins to play a part in the child’s life. Piaget defines a mental operation as an interiorized action, an action performed in the mind (McLeod 4). The mental operations allow the child to think about what he has done or will do. This also permits the child to have the ability to count from one to ten. The key feature in this stage is conservation and the experiment behind this is the Conservation of Numbers. According to Dr. Boeree, conservation refers to the idea that a quality remains the same despite changes in appearance (Boeree 5). The experiment that Piaget conducted was putting four marbles in a row and four below those. The child would then see that the marbles were the same distance from each other and say they were identical. However, on the other side the top row would have more distance between each other than the bottom. A chi ld that was still in the preoperational stage would look at this and believe that that row had more than all the others. On the other hand, a concrete operations child would know that there are still four marbles and that the extent ion of the distance between each marble did not make a difference. Children learn to understand numbers, mass, area, weight, and volume; although they may not be able to achieve them all at the same time (McLeod 6). They can now mentally reverse the direction of their thoughts and learn how to add and subtract. The child can memorize and trace his way home or remember where was the last place they left an object. Finally, the formal operational stage is the last stage of the cognitive development. This stage begins at the age of eleven on to adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to sustain abstract concepts, such as logical thoughts, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning (Okamoto 108). The person can now comprehend all the possible ways in which he can solve a problem and can approach it in different points of view. The experiment done in this stage is the Pendulum Task, and it is used to find the key feature of manipulation of ideas in the head, such as abstract reasoning. The pendulum task consist of three factors, the length of the string, the heaviness of the weight, and the strength of the push in order to determine the speed of swing of the pendulum. The idea was to try the experimental method of using one same variable every time. If a teenager would tried different lengths with different weights is likely to be getting the wrong answer. Dr. Boeree states that there are four possible ways: conjunction, disjunction, implication, and incompatibility. In this experiment, conjunction is when both the string’s length and the pendulum’s weight make a difference. Disjunction would be with it is either the length or the weight but not both. Implication is the formation of a hypothesis, if this happens then this will occur. Lately, incompatibility is when the cause does not make an effect that was first hypothesized. McLeod quotes, â€Å"Operate on operations not just concrete objects† (McLeod 6). This simply means that the person has developed an inner value system and a sense of moral judgment that will be necessary for life purposes. When it comes to schools and learning abilities, harmless experiments can be used on a child in order to know what stage he or she is in and how the school administration, teachers, and other staffs can help the child out in his learning. At times a child that takes these experiments can excel and is then placed in a higher level where he or she can learn at his pace. When a child is put in a lower class level, he can tend to get bored and then will have no need no drive to want to excel to his abilities. These experiments can also help children when they have dyslexia and need accommodations for their learning skills. Knowing and understanding these stages is not only beneficial for the students and children but also for the adults. Parents, teachers, and other adults can understand how a child best learns and that  way attend them with individual learning, flexibility in the curriculum, and play with them to increase the child’s learning development. Jean Piaget was a curious person when it came to children and how they their minds developed. He has changed how people view the children’s world and the methods in which children are studied. His ideas were put to use to understand and be able to communication with children, pertaining to the educational field. In the cognitive development theory, schema occurs first followed by the four stages of development: Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Bibliography Boeree, George C. â€Å"Jean Piaget.† Personality Theories (2006). Web. 21 Oct. 2013. http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html. McLeod, Saul. â€Å"Jean Piaget- Cognitive Theory.† Simply Psychology (2009). Web. 15 Oct. 2013. http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html. Okamoto. Sanae Barth, et al. â€Å"Development Of Using Experimenter-Given Cues In Infant Chimpanzees: Longitudinal Changes In Behavior And Cognitive Development.† Developmental Science 11.1 (2008): 98-108. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. Unknown. â€Å"Jean Piaget’s Stage of Cognitive Development.† ICELS Blog (2013). Web. 21 Oct. 2013. http://www.icels-educators-for-learning.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=61.

Assignment Essay

1) By creating a new position between the CEO and the location managers the position can deal with the day to day tasks and operations needed for the store to operate properly. This will allow Dalman and Lei to spend less time assisting the location managers. By Dalman and Lei efficiently delegating the work, they will be able to spend more time on the strategic aspect of building and growing the business. 2) Both hiring within as well as seeking someone from the outside have their advantages and disadvantages. By hiring within the person who moves up is already working for the company as well as be familiar with some the needs and goals of the business. The negative aspect of hiring within would be possible issue with jealousy among co-workers. The advantage to hiring from outside you get the advantage of a fresh set of eyes coming in and seeing things from different perspectives. The disadvantage would be that they would not be familiar with the company and how it works. 3) Both Dalman and Lei should make the decisions. As the owners of the business they should be the ones deciding how they want their business ran. Dalman is currently playing and active role in this position as is, this should help them determine what they may want to change about how it is currently being ran. This would allow for a nice transition in to the change. Weather Dalman and Lei decide to hire from within in or find someone from the outside; it should be a joint decision that takes the growth of the business into full consideration when making the choice. 4) The levels of authority that Sandwich Blitz Inc have including the new position would be: CEO, CFO, Staff accountant, Operation manager, Site Managers, Team supervisor, Customer associate.

Glenn Beck -- A Biography of Glenn Beck

Conservative Credentials: As the Obama era got underway in 2009, Glenn Lee Beck became one of the 21st Centurys most important conservative commentators, eclipsing even Rush Limbaugh and becoming the voice for modern mainstream conservatives. Becks popularity is driven by what conservative writer David Frum says is a product of the collapse of conservatism as an organized political force, and the rise of conservatism as an alienated cultural sensibility.† Evidence of Becks wide-ranging influence can be found in his battle against the liberal political organization, ACORN, and the success of his outreach enterprise, The 9/12 Project. Early Life: Beck was born on Feb. 10, 1964 to Bill and Mary Beck in Mount Vernon, Wash., where he was raised as Catholic. Becks mother, an alcoholic, drowned herself in a bay near Tacoma when Beck was just 13 years-old. That same year, he got his start in radio after winning an hour of air time in a contest on one of two radio stations in town. Shortly after his mothers death, one of his brothers-in-law committed suicide in Wyoming and another had a fatal heart attack. Bill Beck, a baker, moved his family north to Bellingham, where his son attended Sehome High School. Formative Years: After graduating high school, in the early 1980s, Beck moved from Washington to Salt Lake City, Utah and shared an apartment with a former Mormon missionary. worked in Provo for six months at K-96 and later at stations in Baltimore, Houston, Phoenix, Washington and Connecticut. At 26, he wed his first wife, to whom he was married for four years and with whom he had two daughters, Mary (who has cerebral palsy) and Hannah. Despite his early success, however, Beck soon succumbed to the same substance abusing behavior that killed his mother. He was divorced in 1990, a direct result of his alcoholism and drug abuse. Recovery: During his battle with substance abuse, Beck had been accepted to Yale as a theology major thanks, in part, to a recommendation from Sen. Joe Lieberman. Beck lasted just one semester, however, distracted by the needs of his daughter, the ongoing divorce proceedings and his ever-depleting finances. After he left Yale, his family helped him get sober by acquainting him with Alcoholics Anonymous. Soon, his life began to turn around. He met his future second wife, Tania, and, as a prerequisite for marriage, he joined the Church of Latter Day Saints. Rise to Prominence: Beck returned to talk radio during this time and over the next several years began to emerge as a conservative force, identifying himself as a Mormon with Libertarian views and a strong sense of family values. He has drawn attention for expressing his opinion on controversial issues (he is fiercely critical of Hollywood liberalism, supports of the war in Iraq, opposes multiculturalism, political correctness, euthanasia, anti-smoking regulations and overt homosexuality in TV and on film. He is also pro-life), and over the years has been a vocal supporter of Republican leadership. National Spotlight: Beck went from a local radio personality to national star very quickly. The Glenn Beck Program began in 2000 at a station in Tampa, Florida, and by January 2002, Premiere Radio Networks launched the show on 47 stations. The show then moved to Philadelphia, where it became available on more than 100 stations internationally. Beck used his show as a platform for conservative activism, organizing rallies across America, which initially included San Antonio, Cleveland, Atlanta, Valley Forge, and Tampa. In 2003, he rallied in support of George W. Bushs decision to go to war with Iraq. Television: In 2006, Beck landed a prime-time news commentary show, Glenn Beck on CNNs Headline News Channel. The show was an instant hit. The following year, he was making appearances on ABCs Good Morning America. Beck also guest-hosted Larry King Live in July 2008. By this time, Beck had the second-largest following on CNN, behind Nancy Grace. In October 2008, Beck was lured to the FOX News Channel. His show, Glenn Beck, premiered on the network the night before President Barack Obama was inaugurated. He also had a segment on the popular OReilly Factor, called At Your Beck Call. Advocacy, Activism The 9/12 Project: Since 2003, Beck has toured the nation appearing in a one-man show in which he tells his inspirational story using his unique brand of humor and infectious energy. As a conservative spokesman and American patriot, Beck organized a series of rallies for troops deployed to Iraq. Becks biggest advocacy project, however, is The 9/12 Project, which he started in March 2009. The project is dedicated to upholding nine principles and twelve values that united America in the days following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/12 project also has become a rallying cry for many conservatives fed up with the new Left. Beck ACORN: Following the 2008 general election, allegations surfaced that the liberal, inner-city community action group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) had committed numerous instances of voter registration fraud in more than 10 states. After joining FOX News, Beck began do a series of reports taking a closer look at the liberal advocacy group revealing how the organization applied pressure on banks to make loans to minority and low-income borrowers and how its leadership applied Saul Alinskys Rules for Radicals. Beck continues to fight against the organizations liberal agenda. Beck President Barack Obama: For many conservatives unhappy with the direction the country has taken since Obama came to office in January 2009, Glenn Beck has become the voice of the opposition. Although he wasnt the impetus behind it, Beck has tacitly approved and vociferously supported the emergence of the national tea party movement, which developed in direct opposition to the Obama administration. While Becks assertions are always controversial -- he has said, for example, that Obamas health care reform package is a way to procure reparations for slavery -- he is likely to be a force in the conservative movement for a long time. 2016 Presidential Election During the 2016 election, Beck was a supporter of US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and frequently campaigned with him.