Inevitability of Change Revealed in Cry, the Beloved Country Essay

Inevitability of Change Revealed in Cry, the Beloved Country  Ã‚   Things grow old and die.   Change is inevitable:   a candle will eventually burn out, trees will fall to the ground, and mountains will crumble to the sea.   This inescapable process is clearly illustrated by the character Stephen Kumalo in the book Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton.   The Kumalo seen in the beginning of the book is a completely different person from what he is in the end.   He is initially very kind and caring, but by the end of the book, he is a far less naà ¯ve person, one who is able to lie even to his own brother.   The events that transpire and the changes they cause in the protagonist, Stephen Kumalo, clearly show that Cry, the Beloved Country is a book concerned with the effect external events can have on a man caught in the middle of them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The book begins in a small South African village called Ndotsheni, where Kumalo is the pastor of the only church.   Like all pastors, Kumalo is a kind, religious, tolerant, and caring man.   In chapter 2, very early on, Kumalo is demonstrably very conscious of other people’s feelings, as is shown by what he says to his wife: I am sorry I hurt you, he said.   I shall go and pray in the church. (p. 10) When he gets into an argument with his wife and unintentionally hurts her feelings, he is quick to apologize and, as an attempt to make up for what he has done, goes into the church and presumably begs the Lord for forgiveness.   Only a man with true compassion and love would go to such great lengths to make up for a wrong.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In chapter 4 of Cry, the Beloved Country, Kumalo makes a journey ... ...g of the book.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kumalo never would have considered, even for a moment, lying or hurting anyone or anything before he came to Johannesburg.   During his stay there, he is transformed from a gentle minister to a deceiving, insecure, hateful, frightened man.   The reasons for this change are not because of him, but because of things that happened to him and around him, and were completely out of his control.   Had his sister not been in need of help, he surely would never have gone to Johannesburg, but he could not hope to have prevented his sister’s illness when he knew nothing of it until it had already happened.   The subsequent events cause changes in Kumalo that he could not have foreseen or prevented, nor could anyone else in his position.   Change, welcome or not, will come to everyone and everything      

The Cost of Education

Joey Goodstudent English 101, Section Causal Argument Essay February 16, 2009 The Real Cost of Education It was David Henry Thoreau who said, â€Å"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. † He graduated from Harvard in 1837, but not with a diploma. He explains, â€Å"they have been foolish enough to put at the end of all this earnest the old joke of a diploma. † Thoreau understood that the piece of parchment handed out at commencement means nothing more than the hard work, studying, and education that came before it. Today, those values are lost, and only 59% of Arizonan high school students graduate. This number reflects changes in society, problems in schools, and student’s personal reasoning. Society today demands a degree, not to get ahead, but just to keep up. An article published in the July 17, 2008 Wall Street Journal titled â€Å"The Declining Value of your College Degree† states that â€Å"College-educated workers are more plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be the  purview of blue-collar workers only. What employers want from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college. † A phrase like this is very discouraging to a high schooler. When the prospect of a brighter future is taken from the table, the immediate response is â€Å"why try? † This attitude gives way to a sense of hopelessness and discouragement. A study by Civic Enterprises shows that 69% of dropouts said that they were not motivated to work hard. The growing cost of living coupled with the independence of today’s youth creates a need to work, and earn money. In society today, children are growing up much faster. A report by the Guttmacher Institute placed Arizona as the state having the second most pregnancies in women aged 15-19. We fell just 9 teen pregnancies shy of first, at 104. With the average annual cost of raising a child at $17,151, it’s practically impossible to support a family and remain in school. This causes both parents of the child to drop out; with both either working all the time or taking turns watching the child as the other works. Problems with the schools are also large contributing factors in the decision to drop out. High Schools often have stark attendance policies that step on the toes of students otherwise willing and able to complete high school. When a student misses a set number of class periods they’re simply audited. The student is not given a chance to catch up, or to learn what they’ve missed, but are assumed to be unable to finish the course. This notion runs contradictory to Arizona’s standardized testing, which suggests that if a child can pass a test, they’ve learned what’s necessary. The audited students are not given the chance to be tested, and show that they’ve learned the necessary material despite absences. A study by Civic Enterprises shows that 47% of students gave the reason â€Å"classes are uninteresting† as one of their motivations for dropping out. Uninteresting classes comes as a result of a strict curriculum to support standardized testing, and placing high value on practical subjects such as math and language, while stigmatizing creative subjects like art, drama, and dance, which would hold the attention of students otherwise bored. Teachers today are forced to stick to strict curriculums to ensure that students can pass a test at the end of the class. This often limits learning techniques considered to be more interesting than others, such as working in a group on a project, or having a class-wide discussion. These actions are replaced with long, prepared lectures and quizzes. Knowledge is lost on students, who sit in class bored. Education is increasingly geared towards practicality, and academic ability. Schools will teach daily mathematics and languages classes, and only offer art or music classes a fraction of that time. Students become bored with the subjects and have no motivation to continue attending school. If schools were to offer more fine arts students would soon gain fascination, and in turn be more interested and motivated to go to school. Class sizes in schools are also a problem, as a large class size will limit the one-on-one time student’s need with their instructor to fully understand what being taught. Often when a class is too large students are unable to ask questions because the instructor is busy help other students, or grading hundreds of assignments. When the class size is smaller, an instructor can get to know particular students weaknesses and help them develop those areas. In this way, a small class size fosters a stronger education, and in turn, happier students who enjoy learning. Students coming to high school from junior high are faced with a completely different social situation. Cliques and groups form to exclude people, and this causes self-esteem issues. Finding friends in this new situation can be tough for students, and feeling like an outcast at school will cause students to not want to be there. Belonging to a group will increase the chances of that students attending school. Conversely, some students get so caught up in the social aspect of high school and being a ‘teen’ that they let their attendance slip, preferring to go out to lunch or hang out with friends over going to school. Eventually, school takes the back seat to their sociability and they drop out. Peer pressure also limits those who earnestly want to succeed, but are not strong academically. Super-seniors will come back to school for another year instead of giving up, only to be ridiculed and called stupid by other students. They soon believe the ridicule and drop out. The true cost of education is the life we exchange for it. It could be at work, struggling to support ourselves and go to school. It could be at home studying for an upcoming exam, It could be in the classroom trying to pay attention, or with fellow students, trying to make friends. With time will come the consequence of these high drop out rates. Perhaps then we’ll take action and try to stop it.

Victims Can Exhibit All Sorts Of Mental And Emotional...

Victims can exhibit all sorts of mental and emotional reactions to the unwanted violation of assault. Mentally, the most common effects are PTSD, depression, and dissociation, all of which are not remediable overnight and ordinarily require outside help (Effects of Sexual Assault and Rape, 2017). Outside help includes speaking with a psychiatrist. However, the healing process is lengthened unnecessarily because it takes at least a year for 75% of child victims to tell someone what happened (The Assessment Center, 2016). For all ages, this waiting time before attempting to receive help serves the prevention of the healing process, thus prolonging the span of time spent in pain. At times it is difficult for the victims to heal as the†¦show more content†¦One method of raising awareness endorsed by the government, is the radKIDS self defense program. R.A.D. is an acronym that stands for Resisting Aggression Defensively. This is a ten hour program that teaches the children to recognize, avoid, resist, and if needed escape violence. However, the influence of radKIDS is limited severely in Idaho, as there is only one trained instructor. Throughout the USA, there are 1,285 trained instructors. On average, 25.7 instructors per state, alas this is nowhere near the actual number of instructors per state. Thirty one states possess below double digits, with several others with well over a hundred instructors (The national leader in children s safety, 2016). Emi Flamm, the sole instructor in Idaho, mentioned in a personal interview that much of the responsibility of keeping kids safe is placed on the parents. But the parents cannot maintain constant vigilance indefinitely. The kids participation in radKIDS empowers the children to be able to protect themselves when their parents cannot. Occasionally however, the child’s parents overlook the issue for a number of reasons. Private Affair At times it can be difficult for even the most loving parent to recognize and take protective action for their child. An exceedingly large number of child victims never disclose what occurred to them. A sex offender on average molests 120 victims, many of which are never reported (Child Abuse Statistics,Show MoreRelatedSchizophrenia, A Strange And Terrifying Journey1247 Words   |  5 Pagesneed to get in text citations throughout this paper Paranoia, hallucinations, emotional withdrawal - . fFor victims of schizophrenia everyday life is a strange and terrifying journey. Schizophrenia shatters people’s ability to feel, to communicate, to understand or interact with the everyday world. The symptoms represent what we know best about the disease however no one knows exactly why it strikes, who the next victim will be and how to reverse its life ruining effects. 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