Analysis of Social and Political Contexts in Plays

Analysis of Social and Political Contexts in Plays With reference to at least two plays of your choice by different authors from different periods of theatre history analyze in what ways they reflect the social and political context in which they were written. â€Å"In the theatre, every form once born is mortal; every form must be reconceived, and its new conception will bear the marks of all the influences that surround it.†(Peter Brook) William Shakespeare takes the story of Julius Caesar and expresses his ideas about Queen Elizabeth, and the political atmosphere of Elizabethan England, using Julius Caesar himself as a metaphor for the growing Elizabethan empire, and the fears concerning the death of an heir-less Queen. Arthur Miller infuses the story of the Salem Witch Trials with sub textual references to the McCarthyism and Red Scare, which were going on in America in the 1950’s. In 2013, Anne Washburn sets her story, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, against a nuclear post-apocalyptic backdrop, using a popular television show, The Simpsons, as a catalyst, which in itself is a reflection on her ideas of modern American society, and society in general, as throughout the play, one bears witness to an old civilization unrav eling, and a resorting to story-telling in it’s most basic beginnings. This essay is a discussion on in what ways Julius Caesar, The Crucible, and Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play reflects the social and political context in which they were written. Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599, the first show to be performed at the Globe Theater in London. Though the text was not released until 1623, it is Shakespeare’s shortest play. Shakespeare is thought to have been heavily influenced in reference to the historical context by Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, which was written by Plutarch in the first century. In the play, Julius Caesar has just overthrown Pompey, who was threatening the republic. In the opening scenes, the people of Rome are seen celebrating Caesar, and try to crown him multiple times. This troubles many people in the shadows, who begin to whisper about the integrity of Caesar, and whether he will take the throne for his own, or honor the democratic republic, which Rome was in 440 B.C. These whisperings concern his peers, such as Cassius, who convinces Brutus that Caesar must be taken down before he becomes more powerful than the Republic. Ultimately, Caesar is assassinated, which results in mass chaos, as the entire country breaks out in civil war. In the end, almost everyone dies. Queen Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, forty years before Julius Caesar was first performed. â€Å"The Virgin Queen†, as she was commonly known, was the daughter of Henry VIII, and the last in the line of the Tudor monarchy. Queen Elizabeth ruled very strictly, and was extremely paranoid, therefore many people were imprisoned and questioned all the time for treasonous activity. â€Å"This was a meticulously recorded Police State, comparable with Hitlers Germany, Pinochets Chile, the former Soviet Bloc or Saddam Hussains Iraq. Almost all the major players in Shakespeares life including the poet himself would find themselves on the wrong side of the law at some point during their life†¦ And so England was a land of clear divisions: between the old faith and the new, between the cities and the rural communities, between the known and that which was unknown and therefore frightening.†(pbs.org) It was urgently necessary that if Shakespeare had a political view to share , he must share it very subtly. â€Å"Early modern writers frequently compared the English Parliament to the Roman republic’s Senate and popular tribunate. The English were also mindful of Rome’s role in their early history: Julius Caesar successfully invaded Britain in 54 BCE and the Roman Empire, which succeeded the republic, controlled Britain from 77 to 407 CE. At the broader level of political culture, English people strongly identified themselves as â€Å"free† in ways that (they believed) citizens of the Roman republic had been and others in Europe were not.†(newberry.org) In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare remarks on the political unrest of Elizabethan England in his portrayal of the rebellion and assassination of Julius Caesar. Throughout her reign, Elizabeth I thwarted many assassination attempts, as well as attempts at overthrowing her strongly Protestant rule by the Catholics. Shakespeare also comments on the impending future of England, as Elizabeth was very much like Caesar in a ge, and had no heirs to carry on her rule. He uses the Roman civil wars as a vehicle to perhaps predict a post-Elizabethan England, one that did not bode well for the English mass, as the eco-system that was Elizabethan English politics disintegrated into mass chaos. Hundreds of years later, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, in 1953. The Crucible is about The Salem Witch Trials, which happened in 1692 in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts. In the actual trials, young girls began accusing people of witchcraft, which led to mass hysteria, the persecution of over 200 people, and the execution of 20 people. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller adds dimension to a historic event, by adding his own ideas as to why and how the whole thing came about. He created answers as to why the girls began the dangerous faà §ade. He also combined historical figures as characters to create a clear and concise storyline. He took many artistic liberties. â€Å"For example, many of the accusations of witchcraft in the play are driven by the affair between farmer, husband, and father John Proctor, and the Ministers teenage niece Abigail Williams: however, in real life Williams was probably about eleven at the time of the accusations and Proctor was over sixty, which makes it most unlikely that there was ever any such relationship. Miller himself said, The play is not reportage of any kind . [n]obody can start to write a tragedy and hope to make it reportage . what I was doing was writing a fictional story about an important theme.â€Å"(ukmc.edu) In the 1950’s, the United States of America was going through a similar mass hysteria as during the Salem Witch Trials. After World War II, there was a huge anti-communist movement, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who famously brought in many people in the artistic and intellectual community and interrogated them about being communists. Americans were afraid of communism, or radical leftism, because of the belief that communism was in direct opposition to American values. This was the second time in the 20th century, that America had a Red Scare, the first being in the 1920’s. However, in the 1920’s the suspicions revolved a social movement, and in the 1950’s the fears stemmed from fears because of the conflict in Korea and China, and espionage based upon confessions by government officials of spying for the Soviet Union, the most famous being the trials of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed for passing on secret information to the Soviet Union about the atomic bomb. Senator McCarthy headed the Congresss House Un-American Activities Committee, which â€Å"launched an investigation into purported Communist influence in the movie business. HUAC subpoenaed writers, directors, actors and studio executives and inquired whether they were now or had ever been a member of the Communist Party.†(collin.edu) Although there is much speculation as to the exact mirroring of The Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible to the McCarthyism Red Scare hysteria of the 1950’s, â€Å"Miller writes, â€Å"These plays, in one sense, are my response to what was ‘in the air,’ they are one man’s way of saying to his fellow men, ‘This is what you see every day, or think or feel; now I will show you what you really know but have not had the time, or the disinterestedness, or the insight, or the information to understand consciously.†Ã¢â‚¬ (Steppenwolf.org) Arthur Miller himself had been brought in for questioning about being a communist, and among many others in the Hollywood and theatre scene. He was actually blacklisted at one point. The mass hysteria spread throughout the country, just like in Salem in The Crucible, and people became suspicious of everyone. â€Å"One group collected and published the names of people in the world of the arts and entertainment thought to be un-American in their politics. The most famous were able to successfully fight off such attacks butRed Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, ruined or harmed many peoples careers.†(Collins.edu) Anne Washburn wrote Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, which was performed at The Playwrights Horizon studio in New York City in Fall 2013. In the play, which is three acts, the show opens with a group of people sitting around a fire, in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, trying to recall an episode from the popular TV series, â€Å"The Simpsons†. Throughout the whole first act, the audience watches what was an actually word for word transcription of the cast during one of the first workshops try and remember word for word the episode, â€Å"Cape Feare†. In the second act, time has moved forward ten years and the audience learns that this new world has evolved into a place where people barter with memories of Simpsons episodes, with different troupes going around performing them, along with commercial breaks. It is as if any fragment of the ‘old’ world is cherished, if not quite misunderstood by this new civilization. People are willing to trade food and shelter for missing pieces of the stories, and there is somewhat of a rivalry between the different troupes, a competition for how many stories each has collected. The second act ends in bloodshed, as people become violent in trying to attain as many recalling of Simpsons episodes. In the third act, it is hundreds of years later, and the audience watches a bizarre performance of what was being rehearsed in the second act, except it is now revered, almost religious in the manner it is being performed. The whole act is culmination of years of retelling and evolution into a masked performance that at the same time is almost an exact retelling and something completely different. Anne Washburn’s use of the post-apocalyptic theme is smart, as the idea of post-apocalyptic society has taken America’s imagination by storm. â€Å"We use fictional narratives not only to emotionally cope with the possibility of impending doom, but even more importantly perhaps to work through the ethical and philosophical frameworks that were in many ways left shattered in the wake of WWII.†(livescience.com) In a post 9/11 society, after two wars and a financial recession, America needs the catharsis that comes with an imagined world after the end of the world. â€Å"The image of New Yorkers fleeing the crashing towers and the toxic clouds of the death was broadcast over and over until the image was emblazoned in indelibly in nation’s collective psychic. America’s exalted sense of invincibility came crashing down with the WTC, our feeling of security forever buried underneath metric tons rubble.†(ipharoah.thoughts) With Mr. Burns, Anne Washb urn has also commented on the influence of pop culture in America, and the trend towards escapism in American society. Television especially is embedded into the American culture, and many Americans use television as a way to block out the impending bills, and declining health, and general disarray of their lives. â€Å"That single â€Å"Simpsons† episode becomes a treasure-laden bridge, both to the past and into the future. And in tracing a story’s hold on the imaginations of different generations, the play is likely to make you think back — way back — to narratives that survive today from millenniums ago. Every age, it seems, has its Homers.†(nytimes.com) Throughout history, playwrights have continued to give us a snapshot of the world from which they are writing. Whether it is about a specific person, a movement, or the society as whole, Julius Caesar, The Crucible, and Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play are three examples. All three plays reflect the social and political context in which they were written with the use of metaphor and symbolism, and sometimes just a straight up comparison. The interesting thing about these three plays, is that not only are they allegories for the time in which they were written, but they can also be related to on contemporary terms. In turn, the three plays not only comment on a social and political context, but on the human condition, which never changes. Bibliography Arnold, Oliver O. â€Å"Chronology† and â€Å"Republicanism, Popular Politics, and the Rhetoric of Liberty in 1599.† InJulius Caesar,by William Shakespeare. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2010. Blumberg, J. (2007).A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. Available: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/. Last accessed 14 Jan 2014. Brantley, B. (2013).Stand Up, Survivors; Homer Is With You.Available:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/theater/reviews/mr-burns-a-post-electric-play-at-playwrights-horizons.html?_r=0. Last accessed 19 Jan 2014. Brook, P (1968).The Empty Space. New York, NY: Touchstone. Ipharoah. (2012).Apocalypse: As American as Apple Pie.Available: http://ipharaoh.thoughts.com/posts/apocalypse-as-american-as-apple-pie. Last accessed 14 Jan 2014. Layson, H and Zurcher, A. (2012).Shakespeares Romans: Politics and Ethics in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus.Available: http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/shakespeare-rome. Last accessed 14 Jan 2014. Linder, D. (2013).The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary.Available:http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.HTM. Last accessed 15 Jan 2014. Love, M. (2003).Shakespeares England.Available: http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/locations/location153.html. Last accessed 10 Jan 2014. Miller, A (1953).The Crucible. USA: Penguin Books. Pappas, S. (2013).Why Were Obsessed with the Zombie Apocalypse.Available: http://www.livescience.com/27287-zombie-apocalypse-world-war-ii.html. Last accessed 18 Jan 2014. Shakespeare, W (1603).Julius Caesar. London: N/A. Washburn, A (2010).Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play. New York: Smith Kraus. Wilkison, K. (2013).The Second Red Scare: Fear and Loathing in High Places, 1947-1954.Available: http://iws.collin.edu/kwilkison/Resources for Students/redscare.html. Last accessed 19 Jan 2014.

Decoding Hidden Misconduct of a Child Essay

In â€Å"The Child Who Walks Backwards†, Lorna Crozier conveys a case of neglect and child abuse, to see the harsh truth of this one needs to focus on what they witness and look focus on a deeper meaning in what they are told. The author conveys this idea through the use of structure and from, figurative language and character. Right of the bat the author uses specific wording to make the reader begin to question the neighbour. â€Å"My next-door neighbour tells me.† (Crozier, 1) the use of the words â€Å"tells me† (1) creates a sense of distrust in the line to come. These words create a stronger feeling rather than using the word says. It makes the reader wonder if the neighbour is being completely truthful or not. The constant concept of the child being clumsy throughout the text also begins to make the reader question what is really going on. In every stanza there are mentions of various injuries to the child â€Å"Trips.† (13), â€Å"Cracks.† (13), â€Å"Smacks.† (14), â€Å"Burns.† (16) the vast injuries that accumulate hint at abuse and neglect. The injuries get progressively worse throughout each stanza. â€Å"The casts that hold his small bones.† (24) the mother should be teaching her child to be more safe and precautious but because she is neglecting him the child’s injuries become more severe. The author uses figurative language in the mothers speech to make it appear as though she is claiming things are out to get the child as a way of covering up the truth. â€Å"Cupboard corners and doorknobs have pounded their shapes / into his face.† (5) the personifications used makes it appear as though the house is deliberately trying to injure her soon, when in reality that is not the case. â€Å"Sparks burn stars in his skin.† (22) again giving human qualities to non -living things are used as explanation for injuries that only a person could create. â€Å"Sits and stares at flames / while sparks burn stars in his skin.† (22) the alliteration catches the readers attention to make them concentrate on what the mother is telling the neighbour. Phillip 2 The language used hides what is really going on giving more reason to doubt what the mother is saying and realize her child is being abused and neglected. Evidence of true character makes it very clear that the child is not clumsy and something bigger is going on. In actuality the child shows no sign of being a klutz whatsoever. â€Å"This child who climbed my maple / with the sureness of a cat, / trips in his room, cracks / his skull on the bedpost.† (14) the next-door neighbour witnessed the child showing clear signs of coordination and agility making the mother’s claims happen to the child not add up to what is being visibly seen. It does not make sense that the child can so easily climb a tree but be so clumsy at home, this makes it quite apparent that the mother is lying about what goes on in their home. â€Å"While she lies / sleeping.† (31) the diction the author used of the word â€Å"Lies.† (30) creates a separate meaning to the line, being that the mother lies and lies asleep while these injuries take place. The fact that these things happen while the mother is asleep means that someone other than the child’s mother is abusing him. â€Å"He walks backwards.† (19) walking backwards makes the child come across as clumsy until you look deeper into the text. People walk backwards when walking away from someone, the child is not clumsy he is backing away from his abuser. In â€Å"The Child Who Walks Backwards†, Lorna Crozier conveys a case of neglect and child abuse, to see the bitter truth one must focus on what they see and looker closer to find a deeper meaning in what they are told. The author conveys this idea through the use of structure and from, figurative language and character. To conclude deeper meanings can be found from the text that su pport the idea of child abuse and neglect.

College Teachers Role in Society

Alexander the Great once said, â€Å"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well. † Each profession occupies a specific niche in society. Doctors heal, engineers design and bankers handle our money. Teaching, however, stands out as a very necessary entity. At a preliminary stage, teachers instill the beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding faculties of communication, decision making and awareness of social responsibilities. Later in life, no matter which field we choose to pursue, we again turn to teachers for training.A strong information base and well developed capabilities of comprehension and analysis are critical for progress. These crucial responsibilities of inculcating knowledge, kindling inspiration and encouraging creative thought are all vested in the teacher. Keeping in mind the increasing trend of both parents working long hours, the teacher is also expected to build a strong moral character and provi de emotional support. Thus, the teacher has to build a rapport with the student and be simultaneously approachable and authoritative. His/her role encompasses that of an instructor, friend, role model and confidant.College teaching is a profession built on top of another profession. Individuals come to the professoriate with specific, professional knowledge and skills, including content expertise, and research techniques. These skills constitute what may be called the base profession of college faculty. But college professors are immediately called upon to perform at professional levels in four possible roles: teaching, scholarly or creative activities (including research), service to the institution and community, and administration. We live in a rapidly changing society. In fact, love for change and progress is inherent in human nature.It is this reason why man, since the dawn of human civilization, has been trying to make adjustment to physical and social world around him. In thi s age of been even more rapid and dramatic, affecting our life styles, our ways of thinking, feeling and acting. The youth, like any other section of people simply cannot remain unaffected. The sacred duty of college teachers is to educate and guide the youth of society to cope with this rapidly changing and challenging society.The College teachers who are considered to be highly intellectual section of the society have even a bigger role to play  in this regard. Objectives:- The objectives of this Research Report are as follows : (I) To highlight the importance of educating and guiding the youth in the fast changing social scenario. (II) (III) To identify the needs, problems and challenges faced by the youth in the changing society and the areas in which they need guidance of the teachers. (IV) To highlight the role of teachers in general and the college teachers in particular in educating and guiding the youth in the changing society. Why the youth need to be educated / guided.I t goes without saying that the youth is the responsible citizens of tomorrow. Again youth is also the period which is characterized by certain unique features which are usually not found in the other stages of human stability and uniformity that marked his preceding stages i. e. childhood and boyhood. Furthermore, youth or adolescence being a period of rapid growth, development and change, is most likely to be accompanied number of difficulties and problems. The needs and problems of the youth are very peculiar and hence, these need to be understood and addressed very carefully.Without proper education and counseling it will be next to impossible on the part of the youth to make proper adjustment in the changing society. In the absence of such guidance, the youths are likely to face the danger of being misled and will be unable to translate their dreams and aspirations into reality. ROLE OF A TEACHER IN BUILDING CHARACTER OF A STUDENT: it is not everything that experience can teach us we cannot learn etiquette and manners from experience because children are like clay in a potter's hand just as a potter's gives a desired shape to the clay in his hands, so do children become what their teachers make them.Therefore there is no denying in the fact that the role of a teacher in a student's life is very crucial right from the time when child joins a day care center to the stage when he/she establishes a professional career. The important connections such as trust, courage, support, self esteem when develops between a student and a teacher often supports the building blocks of their relationship. A teacher plays many roles in the life of a student firstly as a caretaker for student.like parents, teacher shower their care, love, respect on them like a gardener watering his/her plants and even instruct them for their betterment, secondly as a friend by helping them in every right step of life, thirdly as a knowledge bank as proper education is the need of today if we want our country to progress this is because every child must be given the best level of education possible. Teachers create a safer and pleasant environment and their attitude is as positive as mother's have for their children. but as we know there are all type of teachers some are better than others.There are some teachers who just came in to the class and starts teaching. They did not get involved with the students. And students rarely like them so teacher should show their concern about what the students are feeling. Because there are many students who feel shy in interacting with their teachers apart from this students can interact frankly with their teachers by clearing his/her doubts. Therefore, i believe that the way students act depends on the teacher's attitude. that’s why i will always recommend teachers to invite the students to participate in the class.Motivating Students to Attend Class: While student success is important at every educational level, it gains sig nificance during the college years because this phase often represents the last formal education many students receive before competing for work. During the college years, students develop their abilities and match them with specific needs in the labor market. For this reason, education during these years is of particular importance. However, as in other levels of their educational careers, students sometimes fail to attain adequate learning outcomes.Motivation is considered to be the necessary cornerstone on which the other steps follow and build. Although motivation is identified as a fundamental aspect of learning for college students, many teachers at the college level are not trained as extensively in teaching methods and communication as are their counterparts in elementary and secondary school. College teachers must manage several tasks simultaneously. To serve on a variety of committees and to stay on top of administrative duties may compete with the desire to improve classr oom impact.Often the emphasis for college faculty is on research rather than on presentation skills. Faculty members gained social and educational status through scholarly productivity, and even though they might have wanted to gain satisfaction from teaching. They were unprepared for the demands. Major goal of college students was to receive practical training related to specific jobs, whereas their teachers had the goal of encouraging students' broad intellectual development. When college students are not motivated in a particular class, a common outcome is a lost desire to attend class, followed by frequent absences and plummeting grades.Class attendance at colleges was positively correlated with academic achievement. College teachers could enact strict attendance policies and penalize students who failed to attend; college teachers' classroom performance can influence students to attend the class. The teacher's focus is on his students. His task is to convey a fixed body of know ledge to his students and to worry about the best way to do so. He normally follows a textbook and a â€Å"syllabus†. A very important part of his job is to assign homework and to give tests to find out how much his students are learning.He pays attention to what the students think of him and his performance. He sympathizes with his students' worry about their grades. Educating the youth: Collegiate education has undoubtedly a significant role in shaping and moulding the future of the youth, and college teachers, being highly intellectual, are entrusted with the burdensome responsibility of guiding the student youth in the proper direction. In fact, college teachers as social engineers have a multifarious role to play in this respect.The role of college teachers in educating the youth can be discussed under the following headings: I) Understanding the mindset of the youth: The first and foremost task of the teachers in general and the college teachers in particular is that th ey must be capable of reading the mindset of the college youth who are confronted with a innumerous of emotional and psychological problems at this stage. Personal growth imposed by emotional disturbances of varying severity. Furthermore, problems of the youth are unique in that many of the difficulties are related to development issues of general cultural development and population in transition.These developmental issues lead to vague symptoms of anxiety and depression, rather than to clearly define emotional disturbances one would expect in a general adult population. College teachers can play a crucial role in addressing these problems. In order to address these problems of the youth college teachers need to be very sympathetic and cordial towards them. Teachers as counselor: College teachers can effectively play the role of a counselor in educating the young generation.They can not only guide and advise the youth, but also help them  to get over their stress and anxieties whi ch are caused by the fast changing socio-political-cultural environment around them. Giving new direction to the lives of the young people is the prime responsibility of college teachers. When Neil Armstrong set his foot on the moon in 1969, it was just one step for a man but a giant leap for the mankind. Behind this leap were the long hours of day to day scientific research by the scientist, and behind all the scientists was the ordinary day-to-day classroom teaching which is a self evident truth, so it is the good day-to-day classroom teacher on who depends the spectacular leap for the mankind.The main architect of the future of humanity is no one but the honorable teachers. They not only have to teach their subject to the pupils but even more important, the human values, positive attitude, emotional and psychological resilience, the courage of conviction to call a spade a spade on the face of it, and fully equip their students to be able to face the future challenges in their liv es squarely and bravely. A student looks at the teacher as a role model, which he or she likes to emulate if that teacher is able to have a lasting positive impression on his/her students.Teachers must remember, a child sees them as the source of all Inspiration and Truth in life. Whatever teachers do shape the future and affects the life of all heir students. And what our children are going to become tomorrow directly affects the well being of the Society, Country and the World at large. Teachers are directly involved in building the next generation. Much of what students learn from their greatest teachers is not detailed on a syllabus. Teachers who help us grow as people are responsible for imparting some of life’s most important lessons.During their initial school years, students encounter, perhaps for the first time, other children of the same age and begin to form some of their first friendships. Teachers show students how to become independent and form their own relatio nships; they carefully guide them and intervene when necessary. College is as much a place of social learning as academic learning, and this is true, not only in our early years of education, but all the way through college.Though a teacher’s influence on the social sphere of class lessens as students mature, those early lessons still have an effect on how they will interact with others in the future. Teachers are founts of experience. They have already been where their students are going, undergone what they will go through and are in a position to pass along lessons, not only regarding subject matter, but lessons on life. II) Inculcating a sense of social responsibility: Youth is also the period when the society expects something from the young generation.Youth are an asset of the nation, they have great social responsibility. Being a product of the society they must be sensitized to the needs and problems facing the society or the region they live in. It is needless to sta te that a team of dynamic and energetic youth can change the very fabric of a given society. In view of this, college teachers should be capable of sensitizing the young generation to the burning problems of the society and should also prepare them to shoulder social responsibilities in right earnest.The youths should be trained in such a way that they will use their skills and talents in the services of his community, his country and the whole world. III) Making the youth politically conscious: The youth of today being the future could assume the future leadership of the country they must be trained to be conscious of their own rights and duties, and they must be made to feel respectful to the democratic process of their roles in building up the economic prosperity of their country.IV) Cultivating qualities of good citizenship: Though the concept of education for good citizenship has been an old one, it has its role in fast changing world; the necessity of educating the youth for g ood citizenship has assumed greater significance. Youth is the most opportune time to inculcate a sense of good citizenship.The youth should be taught to cultivate the qualities of a good citizen which include, among others, ability to be aware of the importance of meeting human needs and to be concerned with the extension of the essentials of life to individuals, Practice the kinds of relationships that are consistent with a democratic society, Recognizes and endeavours to help in the solution of the social problems of the time, Possesses and uses knowledge, skill and abilities to facilitate the process living, Ability to work with others in a company, Ability to understand, accept and tolerate cultural differences.Ability to be sensitive towards and to defend human rights and rights of women, etc. One of the most important legacies of college education has been to provide students with the critical capacities, the knowledge and the values to become active citizens striving to real ize a vibrant democratic society. Teachers are an important indicator of the well-being of our democratic society. They remind us of the values that must be passed on to young people in order for them to think critically; to participate in decisions that affect their lives; and to transform inequities that close down democratic social relationships.Teachers built Education system on a strong foundation of relationships, human experience, and connectedness. Effective leaders will be expected to put words to the formless longings and deeply felt needs of others. Teachers create communities out of words. Students must be active participants in shaping their future. Student engagement involves the active participation of all students in sustainable environmental practices, a strong student voice in decision making, and involvement in the school and community in meaningful ways.Environmental education stimulates student engagement by focusing on the importance of relationships between ac tion and reflection, local and global issues, and people’s desires and needs. Student engagement has a positive effect on student achievement and motivation. Students who practice leadership in their colleges will become effective citizens in their communities. The community also has a vital role to play in providing environmental education opportunities and linkages for the educational institutions.Community groups can share their expertise and engage students in experiential learning and activities related to environmental education and careers. V) Imparting value education: The period during which the youth prosecute college education is very crucial in so far as the perception of values is concerned, there is great contradiction in what parents, teachers and leaders preach and what they themselves practice.In such confusing situation everybody suffers from a dilemma unique to youth’s time, economic dependency, subordinate role in the society, adult’s attempt s to understand them in the light of their own experience, ambitions and aspirations, distorted perceptions of and aspirations of the youth create a social situation where the youth comes to occupy a marginal place and is pushed to a stage of anxiety.Moreover, the weakening of social and moral values in the younger generation is creating many serious social and ethical conflicts and there is already a desire among some thinkers to balance the knowledge and skills which science and technology bring with the values and insights associated with ethics and religion at its best. Teachers in general and college teachers in particular must be able to inculcate in the youth a clear sense of values – moral, social and spiritual.In this context, the following aspects may be the responsibility of college teachers to take care of; a) To balance knowledge with essential social skills. b) To balance science and technology with ethics and religion. c) To help form character besides training in skills. d) To cultivate true citizenship spirit. e) To work for the fulfillment of national unity. f) To attempt eliminate religious fanaticism, superstition and fatalism. g) To attempt to transcend linguistic regional barriers.VII) Motivating the youth to dream : Adolescence or youth is also the time for dreams and aspirations to achieve better of individuals as well as of societies is propelled by the power of dreams want to become, of what kind of world we would like to live in, of how to find peace and happiness . Education is goal oriented and is motivated by the values we cherish, the ideals we seek, the priorities we choose to live by. In cultural surroundings around them, as a successful guide and counselor a teacher is capable of giving new direction to the lives of the young people of society.We need a vision, a dream. The vision should be the oneness, the essential and organic solidarity of the human family. The dream, that we each in our own way make our personal con tribution towards building unity and peace among us. The college teachers are expected to lead the societies not only by motivating the preparing them to meet the challenges of the changing societies but by empowering them to image preferred futures, better worlds for their generations and for those to come. Teacher is the role model of the society.Teacher inspires and encourages us to strive for greatness, live to our fullest potential and see the best in ourselves. A teacher is someone we admire and someone we aspire to be like. We learn through them, through their commitment to excellence and through their ability to make us realize our own personal growth. We look to them for advice and guidance. (viii) To instill self confidence: Mere making the youth dream high will be of no use unless they are taught to develop the will power.In this fast changing society, newer and newer challenges are coming before them which they must be able to face and get over with their strong will pow er. They must be encouraged to proceed with self confidence towards achieving their goal. Teachers can surely play a crucial role in developing such confidence and positive atmosphere. Conclusion : To conclude it may be said that the importance of the role of the teacher in general as an agent of social change, promoting understanding and tolerance has never been more obvious than today.Teachers have crucial play in preparing the young people not only to face the future with confidence but to build it with purpose and responsibility. This role is likely to become more crucial in the days to come. The need for change from narrow nationalism to universal ism, from ethnic and cultural prejudice to tolerance, understanding and pluralism from autocracy to democracy in its various manifestations, and from a technologically divided world, teachers in general and the college teachers in particular who participate in the molding of the characters and minds of the new generation.

Whats a Language, Anyway Essay - 672 Words

Speech is much like the fashions in clothing. Most of us dress according to the style of the day. The shoes we wear and the shirts we put on usually what is considered fashionable. If you choose to ignore the understood dress rules set by society, than your chances of being accepted become slim. In the same manner, when you ignore the majoritys methods of speech, you become less accepted for it. If you buy a cool Tommy Hilfiger shirt, nobody looks at you any less for giving in to the standard instead of wearing a pink and orange poke-a-dotted shirt like you might have wanted to. You have not degraded yourself for conforming, but instead have opened opportunities for an audience. Just the same, when you change your manner of†¦show more content†¦When reading Anzalduas essay, I could not help thinking how ridiculous it is for someone to be prejudged based solely on the language they speak. She states If a person, Chicana or Latina, has a low estimation of my native ton gue, she also has a low estimation of me. This is not how things should work. Stereotypes control too much of our perceptions of different people. Knowing that people rely on stereotypes to judge unfamiliar people, I do not believe that it is wrong to change our language to fit into another situation. If we change our methods of speech, then we are more likely to be heard and have our ideas appreciated. In the movie Educating Rita, Rita is a hair dresser who speaks the working-class dialect in Britain. Upon enrolling in a university, she realizes that she is very out of place and tries on many different identities and languages to fit in. Although no one ever comes out and ridicules her for speaking the way she does, there is always the pressure looming over her to conform to the rest of the students in their way of speaking. Rita was doing what she had to do to fit in. If she was to go her own route and continue talking the same that she did when she entered the college, she would not have many friends and her peers would not take her seriously. But she does change to a certain degree to fit into the student mold, and her social life benefits as a result. SomeShow MoreRelatedEnglish Spoken Language Features1299 Words   |  6 Pagesthat what is said can be followed by the listener or reader Ex. ‘first’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘now’, ‘what’s more’, ‘so anyway’. Discourse marker Words and phrases which are used to signal the relationship and connections between utterances and to signpost that what is said can be followed by the listener or reader Ex. ‘first’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘now’, ‘what’s more’, ‘so anyway’. Contraction A reduced form often marked by an apostrophe in writing Ex. 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