Massachusetts Health Reform Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Massachusetts Health Reform Policy - Essay Example Public policy is a complex process which involves collaboration of various players to act toward achievement of that public policy. It involves development of laws, regulations, decisions and actions towards the policy achievement. This paper addresses health care policy and reform undertaken in Massachusetts health care in United States America (Kowalcyzk, 2006). Health care provision in USA has been a major debate over along period. The debate has centered on right to health care, accessibility, sustainability and the quality of health care system. Although United States heath care system is the most expensive in the world which consists a mixture of public and private system, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicated that use of health services was below its meridian. National Academy of Sciences and the institute of Medicine cited that US is the only developed state that does not cover its citizens, thus the debate on universal health care policy. The United States government policy which seeks to provide universal health care has been a major debate which has divided Americans along party lines. ... Those against universal healthcare argue for people to be let free to choose their health insurance. The universal health program is yet to be achieved in US (Sered, 2005). Massachusetts health care reform (2006) Before enactment in to law of Massachusetts healthcare reform in 2006 as Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 of the Massachusetts Legislature, most of the residents approximated to range from 395,000 to 653,000 were uninsured. US laws require all people to be treated in all hospitals regardless of residency or whether one has money or not. This brought unpaid hospital bills and expenses due to the uninsured residents in Massachusetts (Richard, 2005). A fund known as "Uncompensated Care pool" was used to reimburse hospitals the expenses of uninsured residents and those of non residents. The fund was raised through state contributions, federal tax revenue and annual assessment on insurance providers. The fund accumulated due to an increase in insured Massachusetts residents prompting the legislation of reform on health care without additional funding. The Massachusetts health care reform was made law in 2006. The law requires every Massachusetts resident to obtain cover of health insurance. Subsidized health care is provided to residents earning up to 100% of federal poverty level and partially to those earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level. An independent body was put in place to subsidize coverage and to facilitate the selection and buying of private insurance. Tax penalties are given to residents who fail to obtain health insurance (Kowalcyzk, 2006). Legislation of the policy The plan to cover uninsured began in 2004 when Governor Mitt Romney called for a cover plan for the uninsured. At that Affordable Care

Marketing and Sports Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Marketing and Sports - Research Paper Example While the world of business is trying to find a competitive benefit, the world of sports is welcoming the funds proposed. There are many hazards of sports marketing in the world of business. The Nike University and Art Modells contracts give various lessons to the people and companies in sports marketing (Cashman and Michael, pp. 11). If one is related with racially prejudiced statements, domestic violence and showing violence to the superiors, he or she stands to be defeated more than sports marketing making him to gain. Researching and understanding various individual people or companies who want to sponsor is a critical issue. There is no marketing plan termed to be fool proof. According to Mullinand William (pp. 1), other people feel bitter about the people in sports taking corporate funds. In the last twenty five years, prodigious things have emerged in sports due to the money issued. On the other hand, sports have come to pay shares for the companies that have spent on sports marketing. Nike Company focuses on every single spectator using their merchandises. In conclusion, sports marketing have gone into bigger companies budgets in the world. The stakes are increasing so that they can be in the gameand this may lead to diminishing returns. The way a consumer relates sports and business is very essential. Various athletes and sports rely mostly on endorsements and

Oliver Cromwell and Opinions of Him Essay Example for Free

Oliver Cromwell and Opinions of Him Essay Interpretations of Oliver Cromwell have changed over time, from a mass murderer to a hero. These interpretations have changed over time as a result of; -Certain events that affected people; laws etc: e.g. the execution of Charles I and the massacres of Drogheda and Welford etc. -The country they were in and how the people who had most of the power thought of him: e.g. Charles II etc. -What type of person you were classed as: e.g. lord, servant etc. -What religion you were and what experiences that religion have had: e.g. Catholic, Puritan etc. These are the main things that affected what people thought and how they acted towards him. So what did people think of him over times? In most of his earlier years Oliver Cromwell was a middle class citizen, however this changed when he received an inheritance from his uncle. This not only changed him financially but from then on he was recognised as a wealthy man who owned land and money. To add to this he also joined parliament which soon lead to him being in the civil war, making him recognised as a hero and a great cavalry leader by most of the public. This soon meant that he was one of many to sign the letter for the execution of Charles I for high treason and were recognised as heroes. Soon after he helped England become a common wealth county with the rest of the parliamentarians. Meaning he was recognised as a saviour of England! When Oliver Cromwell was in the army he was a cavalry leader and became known as a great one because of his knowledge and it was this that lead him to win many battles against rebels and many other armies, making him known as a hero but by some a murderous tyrant. He was also known for treating his army men well as well as respecting them for example when some of his own men rebelled he did not kill them but only the four ringleaders to set an example. This made people think that he was a powerful and proud military leader. However he was accused for ordering the massacre of 3000 men, women and children in Drogheda and 2000 in Welford both in Ireland because they were Catholic. This changed the thoughts of people to become twisted about Oliver Cromwell and made him seem more like a murderous tyrant than a hero. When Oliver Cromwell grew in power he created laws which some people liked and others disliked. These laws obeyed the daily laws in which a puritan lives their lives. Although the puritans liked it, many people felt offended because they had to obey the rules of a religion in which they did not worship and felt as if they were ordered to do it. To add to this some of the laws were outstandingly strict, for example you were not allowed to walk for leisure. This made people think of him as a saviour to some but a tyrant to others. When Oliver Cromwell was awarded the role of Lord Protector many people like the Puritans liked it although the Catholics disliked it. In this role he had the task of ‘healing and controlling’ the land. Also although people did not like this they could not argue as he was the ‘Lord Protector’. When Oliver Cromwell died many people mourned including his family and many Puritans, however other people celebrated such as the Catholics. Although the funeral was the most important part of it because it would show how important he was and because his funeral costed nearly  £70,000 he was mourned upon by many people as this costed more than some kings’ funerals. And so to some then he was remembered as a murderous tyrant however to others he was remembered as a hero. When Charles II came to power he mocked Oliver Cromwell in every way he could because he was one of many MPs to sign the treaty to accuse his father of high treason. To add to this the Dutch were on his side, as he fled there for his life when his father was executed and spread rumours of Cromwell bringing corruption in England, Scotland and Ireland. This made people think that Oliver Cromwell was evil and had changed some of their interpretation by rumouring. In the Victorian era Oliver Cromwell was hated and despised upon by many people because many people who worked in most of England’s more liberating jobs were Irish. And so on one occasion when Queen Victoria was planning to visit Manchester she did not because there was a statue of Oliver Cromwell situated there, this was a bad thing because if she went she might be despised by the Irish for liking him as a person making Oliver Cromwell seem a tyrant. This also occurred in the 1900 when Oliver Cromwell was compared to Hitler and mocked upon. In the twenty first century we have mixed thoughts about him because although comments have been made about him we cannot justify most things such as the massacre in Ireland as there was no proof that he ordered the soldiers to kill the people or that he was even involved in any of this. And so we can sometimes only have opinions that have no justifications. In my opinion Oliver Cromwell was a stern puritan although he did revolutionize most things and even become Lord Protector. So I think he was a noble man who was wrongly mocked and despised of!!!

ICICI Bank Limited Operations Management

ICICI Bank Limited Operations Management ICICI bank Ltd is largest private sector bank in India. ICICI bank offers large range of financial product and services. Retail banking section of ICICI bank is departmentalised into three units namely branch banking, sales and operations. Regional processing centre (RPC) under operations unit is responsible for processing and implementation of products and services offered by bank for allocated geographical region. With huge customer base and large number of services offered, operations unit has to frequently face fluctuation in processing volume. As banks are dealing with huge amount of transactions under regulated environment the capacity management need to be implemented carefully while maintaining required quality standards. The essay is focused on retail liability operations unit of ICICI bank. The purpose of this essay is to critically analyse the ICICI banks approach for managing its capacity and coping with fluctuating volume or rather fluctuating demand with same quality. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: ICICI Bank has been introduced and the sphere of analysis has been confined to retail liability section of operations unit. Overview of process at operations unit is defined by using Slacks (2009) model of Input-Transformation-Output. Capacity and demand for Regional processing centre is explained. Method use by ICICI bank to calculate the capacity of operations unit and individual resource at operation unit is explained and also shown in mathematical form. Idea of effective and potential capacity is briefly introduced. Demand -capacity mismatch is explained. Forecasting of demand is explained by divided it into long term and short term demand forecast, the demand can either be predictable as well as unpredictable. Few illustrative examples are given to show how forecast about surge in volume can be given from events that can be predicted. Capacity management methods suggested by scholars are explained and the existing situation at bank is analysed in light of literature. It is deduced that chase demand plan is used by bank to manage capacity in short term. Use of manage demand plan by bank at certain departments under RPC is suggested. Quality issues related to fluctuation in demand and capacity has been raised and implementation of coping strategies at bank has been explained. Finally recommendations are given to manage capacity of RPC for high demand and suggestions are given to maintain quality under fluctuating demand and capacity. It is concluded that capacity management can affect the quality of service provided to customer under high demand and how capacity planning supported by demand forecast can help to address the issue of demand capacity match while maintaining quality of service provided PROCESS DESCRIPTION: As per (Slack et al, 2009), under Input-Transformation-Output model branches and sales unit provide input to regional processing centre(operations unit) in the form of customer service request and processing request of financial product sold to customer. Now these inputs are processed at RPC and output is in the form of service provided to customers. For example account opening forms, term deposit request and negotiable instruments etc. processed at RPC provides the services and facility provided by bank to customer. Though operations unit at ICICI bank is not generating business directly but efficient working of this unit ensures customer satisfaction, compliance with central bank regulations and prevention of frauds CAPACITY AND DEMAND: Facet of Operations at ICICI Bank According to Hill (2005) capacity of operations unit at ICICI bank can be explained as resources to process customer request in limited time frame and desired quality. The resources at RPC are combination of staff, systems and facility required to produce desired output. For example number of negotiable instruments processed per day with given resources is the capacity of payment and settlement department of RPC. Demand is the requirements of the customers to avail the service and products offered by bank. Now, when it is clear that capacity has time dimension the variation in output is affected by all input elements to the RPC. So the variety of products and service packages offered by bank give rise to variations in the input and demand placed on the operations unit. Another aspect of the equation is to know about demand and its duration. This in turn is enclosed in a knowledge of the volume, variety, and variation in demand and in the nature of that demand (Armistead et al, 1991). As per Slack et. al (2009) ICICI bank need to know its capacity to meet demand. If capacity is low bank will not be able to meet the demand resulting into customer dissatisfaction and if capacity is more that demand bank is paying for extra capacity. ICICI bank has a well defined method to calculate the capacity of RPC (operations unit) as well as individual staff at RPC. Bank use the method of productivity calculation to identify the capacity to meet demand generated. Processing of services at RPC is further divided into department and formed the teams to perform specific task such as payments and settlement departments, account opening team, risk containment unit, transaction team. Overall task of the team is further divided into series of small tasks, which is formalised and same for all RPCs. After collating the inputs taken from line staff and team leads from all RPCs bank has prepared extensive list of all the task performed at RPC and the average time required to complete part icular task. Time requires to complete a particular task is termed as Hot time. Productivity of the individual staff is calculated as per formula: Productivity = Hot time Volume handled Summation of productivity of each employee in RPC is the productivity of RPC. It is used as means to calculate capacity of RPC to handle demand generated. Capacity of RPC will never be constant even if demand is constant. The fluctuation of demand on hourly to daily basis may be such that it can be difficult to meet demand. At ICICI bank clearing of high level negotiable instrument has to be done in small time window of four hours from opening hours of bank. For such small time frame, with fluctuation of volume it can be difficult to handle demand with existing capacity. The ability to change capacity to cope with changes in demand raises questions of the flexibility of the capacity (Slack et al, 2009). The interesting part is to find out that how an individual can increase its capacity. It can be by working hard, putting extra hours. But, as RPC is dealing with financial transaction worth Rs 150 million on daily basis standard of quality is necessary to be maintained to avoid wrong credits and compliance with regulation guideline. To cope with the fluctuation of capacity, the idea of effective and potential capacity is useful (Lockyer et al.,1988). Effective capacity is the capacity which is available to the manager, whereas potential capacity is the capacities which can be used if manage can provide additional arrangements to increase capacity. Both are short term decisions and pertain to the team and individual level rather than to the organisation as a whole. Long term increases or decreases in capacity such as opening of new RPC and it will have impact on whole branch network under that RPC. DEMAND FORECAST: According to Slack et al (2010) understanding of demand and capacity fluctuation is necessary to plan for future events, else it is only to react. For capacity planning forecast is a valuable input. Demand forecasting can be long term and short term. Demand can either be predictable or unpredictable. At ICICI bank short term forecasting for operations activity is done by respective team at RPC. Unpredictable variation in demand at RPC needs to be address with well planed capacity management scheme to fulfil the gap between demand and capacity. Short term forecast is used to plan the allocation of resources to meet the expected surge in demand. Short term variation in demand at banks is mostly predictable though not with exact figures but a fair assumption of demand can be made by evaluating historical data and trends as well as prevailing market situation. Example of negotiable instrument processing team is taken to illustrate the probable factors influencing fluctuation in demand, f actors can be Holiday for few days in row-It will increase demand Natural calamity- It will decrease demand Financial year opening-closing- It will increase demand Launch of popular IPO- It will increase demand Monthly payment cycle for payment of advances- It will increase demand Though this is not extensive list but it provides the rough idea of factors influencing fluctuation in demand. Similarly, at the time of campus recruitments bank can expect surge in salary account opening activity, increase in rate of interest on deposits will increase demand for term deposit requests and increase in workload at transaction department at last week of the month for salary credit process. Volume can be used as statement of the trend in demand over a period of time. Long term forecast of demand is based on different standard forecast models. These forecast models are based on different set of assumption (Hill, 2005). Apart from these assumptions there are few more factors such as macroeconomic factors, planning to use new technology etc. Forecast can never be accurate all the times .Over estimation of demand in forecast can lead to unnecessary expenditure on increasing capacity (Slack et al, 2009)). At ICICI bank long term estimation of demand is done at centralised unit keeping in mind the implementation of new technology, expected market share, change in regulation by central bank (Reserve bank of India) and quality of service offered by competitors etc. CAPACITY MANAGEMENT: Capacity management is concerned with the matching of the capacity of the operating system and the demand placed on that system. (Wild, pg304, 2002). Capacity management is the way to balance demand from customers and the capacity of the RPC to meet the demand. Capacity management gives high emphasis on understanding the nature of demand by forecasting and on managing capacity to meet demand (Lovelock, 1984). Demand capacity mismatch is the issue which operations unit at bank has to handle frequently. According to Slack et al (2009) there are three plans available to tackle the issue of demand capacity mismatch, most of the organisations will use mixture of all the plans according to requirement of business. The plans are: Level capacity plan Chase demand plan Manage demand plan Level capacity plan: In the level capacity plan capacity remains same throughout the planning period even if demand forecast is fluctuating (Slack et al, 2009). In case of ICICI bank if capacity level is maintained uniform and if demand is high quite high from base level capacity. Bank will not be able to fulfil the service level promised to customer. In case of low demand bank will end up paying extra for underutilised resources. ICICI bank cannot afford level capacity plan, as opportunity cost for bank for not fulfilling demand may lead to breach of central bank regulations. Chase demand plan: Chase demand plans try to match the capacity with change in demand. This plan can be reactive as well as proactive. If fluctuation in demand is unpredictable then change in capacity will be the reactive measure to match the demand. Chase will be proactive or well planned if fluctuation in demand can be predicted. Level of capacity can be controlled by changing the extent of resources by: Sharing of capacity between different departments at RPC. At ICICI bank, increase in volume at one department is handled by sharing the responsibility with members of other department handling comparatively low volume. This arrangement is suggested to be most efficient by Slack et al (2010). Using vendor support for less critical service: complying with banking regulation. At times of high volume at payments and settlement department activity like data entry of negotiable instrument and image capturing and encoding can be given to existing vendors in market. As banking is highly regulated sector, critical activities like credit and debit verification cannot be outsourced and it has to be done by bank official above certain specified grade. Shifts planned to cater peak volume of the day Working hours at ICICI bank is 12 hours, whereas working hour for each employee are nine hours. Each department at RPC has different peak time. For example payments and settlement department has peak volume at two different time first at around 10A.M. when high value cheques are verified and sent for clearing at around 11 A.M and another at around 3 P.M when all negotiable instrument collected during the day are verified. Two shifts are so arranged that each member of team is present at office to handle both peak hour volumes. Changing output rate. To increase output by expecting each staff at RPC to be more productive by working fast than his normal speed. This approach can be used as temporary measure. Prolong use of this method will deteriorate the quality of work and create dissatisfaction among staff (Slack et al, 2009) The solution suggested above for managing demand- capacity gap is used at ICICI bank, but sharing of work with resources in other department can be possible if resources in other team are well trained to work in any department. Guideline given by central bank need to be updated to all employees in all departments at RPC to make sure about that employee comply with regulation and adhere to quality standard. The purpose of chase demand plan is to maintain capacity closely in line with effective capacity thereby trying to attain maximum efficiency and service quality. Manage demand Plan According to Slack et al,(2009)demand management plan is used to change the pattern of demand to match it with available effective capacity. This method is used at ICICI bank for activity in which time frame is not a limiting factor for example request for term deposit can be processed on later date by providing value dated credit. QUALITY ASPECT: According to Slack et al,(2009), quality needs to be understood from customers perspective because it is defined by customers expectations. At bank quality of processing is understood from customers point of view as well as from regulatory authoritys point of view. Managers use capacity management as a tool to minimise the trade-off between capacity to meet demand and quality of service offered. Quality of service, quality of processing and resource capacity are important in the tactic perspective as they interrupt the ability of the bank to attain its competitive tactic described by a combination of added value and price (Bowman 1990).The importance of either quality or efficiency will to a large extent is driven by the competitive position of the Bank. If competitive advantage is gained by providing quality of service provided at comparatively high price then there will be more propensities to indulge in redundancy of capacity at times. If the bank is competing more on price then to increase capacity then is more likely that quality will take backseat. However with increasing expectations of customer for quality services ICICI bank is forced to maintain quality of service at lower prices in times of economic slowdown where bank need to maintain reputation. The crucial dimensions are those which win customers or those which if deteriorate may cause into loss of customers (Armistead 1991). ICICI bank was not able to take care of this factor at the time to highest growth at that point bank was handling very high volume hence with mentality to manage higher demand with existing capacity back actually neglected the quality aspect of services offered. Bank soon realised that it is losing customers more than creating new customers. In 2009 ICICI bank followed the policy to reconciliation by not going for aggressively to increase market share but rather focused on increase operations excellence and cost cutting, Bank actually used capacity management techniques for cost cutting. To increase the quality standards at bank RPCs has introduced memo system in which each error will be recorded in detail with proper root cause analysis and particular number of memo will lead to termination of employee. IMPLEMENTATION OF COPING STRATERGY: As the understanding of capacity management increased among service operations managers they started to balance capacity with demand. At ICICI bank operations manager started to work on capacity near breakeven point and this is the capacity where things start to go wrong. Drop in quality is observed when operating near breakeven point. We need a coping strategy which can be applicable on the short term inability to match effective with capacity and demand. As a sign to develop a coping strategy it is necessary that RPC should find its own combination of the chase and level plan by: Improving its capability to forecast Quality target should be well described and monitored Setting clear capacity target for team and fluctuating productivity target for individual employee To understand critical and hygiene dimensions of its quality (Armistead and Clark, 1991) To understand the possible failure points in operations unit (Armistead and Clark, 1991) To cope with demand capacity mismatch there are number of actions possible in the few coping cases: Chasing demand plan with High Demand In this scenario capacity is chasing demand and demand is high. With frequent extended working hours for staff at bank to meet demand it is highly probable that staff will commit error. Risk here is that quality of the service provided to customer will go down. Whereas staff frequently working under such condition will fell stressed and may quit job which is not good for employer as money and time has been invested to train the employee. To improve situation we can make extensive plan to tackle situation of fluctuating high demand by identifying particular dates on which high demand is certain and allocating resources to concerned team accordingly. Chasing demand plan with Low Demand It is scenario when demand is low and as capacity is chasing demand capacity will also be reduced. Since banking regulation in India does not allow part time workers in bank hence each resource is full time staff. As capacity for particular task has been reduced with decrease in demand targets are at risk. The possible actions are: Accept it as time to rest and recover, this will help staff to be stress free. Complete other tasks like cleaning and arrange maintenance of computer or cheque encoding machine. Finish the tasks which do not have time limit but necessary to be completed. Arrange interdepartmental training so that resources can be developed to support other department. Level demand plan with High Demand In this scenario it is not been possible to limit demand to match effective capacity. As capacity is fixed high demand will not be fully satisfied. In this case customer should be notified at time of receiving customer request that bank will not be able to process this request on time Level demand plan with Low Demand It is the scenario when it has not been possible to stimulate sufficient demand to match effective capacity. In this case bank should utilize the spare resources. Transfer of resources to other maintenance tasks. Complete the backlog generated from period when demand Is high. RECOMMENDATIONS: For Short term fluctuation in demand resources cannot be increased at RPC. As per Indian banking regulation banks are not permitted to recruit part time staff though they can outsource the activity of data entry and image capturing and encoding of negotiable instruments. The theoretical solution given for the situation of high demand under chasing capacity plan is to transferring resources typically between back office and front office. This solution is yet not applied by ICICI bank. Sales and branch banking unit are also part of bank, using these resources in times of high demand will be the optimum use of resources available within the bank. At time of low demand interdepartmental training can be organised within the RPC, one member of each team can be nurtured to be buffer resource that can fill the place in any team in times of high demand. The recommendations given will be helpful to fully utilise the resource capacity available within the bank. For quality maintenance issue it is suggested to conduct an audit on daily basis by taking few samples from all processed lots. As bank has started to issue memos to recorded errors, employees will try to avoid any negligence from their part as certain number of memos can result into termination of employee from job. CONCLUSION: ICICI bank has separate operations unit. So the volume handled by RPC (operations unit ) is quite high and the fluctuation in demand is also very high. The positive part is that RPC has many departments. The capacity of these departments can be utilized in case of surge in demand. Proper forecast for fluctuation in demand can be addressed by planning the capacity the pitching up the resources trained to tackle the volume surge of any department. Quality of the service will not be affected as bank is keeping an extra check by mean of concurrent audit and issuance of memo on error committed by employee will keep him vigilant while performing the task. Hence demand supply match can be obtained with maintained service quality is possible with proper capacity management.

Robert Cohns Struggle for Respect in The Sun Also Rises Essay

Robert Cohn's Struggle for Respect in The Sun Also Rises    Jake Barnes: "You're not an aficionado?" Spanish waiter: "Me? What are bulls? Animals. Brute animals... A cornada right through the back. For fun-you understand." (Hemingway, 67)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Why does everybody hate Robert Cohn? At the beginning of Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes, the story's point-of-view character, wants us to believe that he has at least some appreciation for Cohn. He relates some of Cohn's life for us, how at Princeton he was a middle weight boxing champ, how despite his physical prowess he had feelings of "shyness and inferiority...being treated as a Jew," (Hemingway, 11) his turbulent career as a magazine editor and his failed marriage. It's easy to begin to feel sorry for this guy. The only mistake he made was falling for Lady Brett Ashley. Cohn's infatuation with this heartless wench, coupled with the jealousy and competitive nature of the novel's other bon vivant characters, lead to his disgrace.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Brett Ashley is, from the start, a careless woman. A lady by marriage only, she has affairs with many men, breaks many hearts, and drinks lots of liquor. She wants to be the center of everyone's attention. She may be physically stunning, but she lacks class and restraint. Like the rest of the novel's main party, she has a taste for living the good life in disregard of the feelings and actions of others. It seems everyone loves or has loved her, including Jake Barnes. So Robert's unfortunate attraction to Brett Ashley has already heightened tensions between the male characters.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For a significant portion of the novel, Cohn is defending himself from the threats and name-calling of Mike, the man to whom Brett... ...on, he posed no great threat to the group and was more a victim of racism than of unrequited love. If his interest in Lady Brett amounted to anything, it was as a target for the jaded sentiments of his "fellow" bon vivants; someone should have clued Cohn in and told him he'd be better off staying in Paris. I suppose these sordid affairs only prove Hemingway's feelings, as expressed by Bill in the novel: "You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend your time talking, not working." (120) Maybe Robert Cohn, a victim of this ruination, will know better than to waste his time with these dark-hearted dilettantes who hold costly ideas of enjoyment. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest The Sun Also Rises. Scribner Paperbacks: NY, 1997.

Teacher Certification Admission Essay :: College Admissions Essays

Throughout high school and during my undergraduate studies, education was never a top priority for me. Only during the past two years, in the "real world", have I realized the importance of education. I look back at those years and wish I had done more and realized all the potential I had in my hands and not wasted so much time. During my undergraduate career my social activities consumed my life. My friends were not motivated to do well in school so I followed their lead. My grades were low, and I did not even care. After I graduated in 1997 with a Psychology B.A. and lost touch with my old friends and old ways, I have realized that I should have spent more time doing some soul searching and thinking what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I liked Psychology but what I really wanted to do was work with children more closely. I had spent my junior and senior years involved in internships at Head Start and at a High School in a Program for teenaged mothers. I loved my work ther e. At Head Start I was a Teacher Aid for the pre-school, teaching the children to read, numbers etc. And at the High School I counseled the teenaged mothers, took care of their kids while they went to school and after the school day I tutored them with their homework. After being out of school for a while, I started to miss that. The feeling that I was teaching something those kids, the feeling that I was making a difference. I was determined to find a job in education, with my background in Psychology, how hard could it be? I found work at a residential school for runaways and abused teenaged females. It was great! I was ready to go, I was going to change the world and change those girls lives. What I didn't realize is that will alone does not make me a teacher and that I needed training, a lot of training. I made a lot of mistakes in that job. I got discouraged and decided to forget about working with children, forget teaching and do something else that paid more. So, I got a job as a Secretary, I did that for about two years. Teaching, working with children was always on my mind.

Divine command theory

The most basic difference in divine command theory and Immanuel Kant’s moral theory is where the founding principle comes from. Kant argues that as rational creatures with the ability for autonomous thought and action, we can rationally determine the morality of any situation. Divine command theory requires that humans ascertain the will of God to know the difference between right and wrong. In large part the two theories overlap and many who promote divine command theory would argue that Kant simply did not take his explanation far enough.They would argue that had he determined the source of rationality, i.e. the theory that God endowed His creation will freewill and autonomy, then he would see that even the rational choice theory of morality leads back to divine intervention. However, Kant argued that it is impossible using rational arguments to determine if God exists or not. We can, however, argue rationally that humans are rational beings and capable of autonomous action. Therefore, we can argue that autonomous beings have the rational capability of determining a guiding moral principle.Kant’s theory argues that the moral principle which guides life should be determined in a vacuum, absent of the facts. This was his way of arguing against situational ethics. A guiding principle, the basics of morality, should be determined based solely on rational thought and then, once the principle is established, the facts of the situation may be applied to the moral principle and the appropriate action, the answer to the question, †What ought I to do?†,   can be determined. Kant’s theory requires the identification of the categorical imperative that is essential to living a moral life. Morality is determined by the one rationally determined categorical imperative.If then an action seems within the situation as though it will not be compatible with the categorical imperative, then it is morally wrong and there is no justifying it or ch anging things around to make it okay.   For example, if the rationally determined categorical imperative is that murder is wrong, then it is wrong. This is actually a form of the argument many people use in opposing the death penalty. They argue that it cannot be morally justified to kill someone even if it is being done because he killed someone else. Their categorical imperative is that it is irrational to kill another person. This person should also then be a conscientious objector as there is no circumstance under which killing is not morally wrong.Under diving command theory, the order of God that â€Å"thou shalt not kill† would be an equally definitive moral compass, except that the God’s commands are rarely that direct. One of the biggest criticisms of divine command theory is that it does not indicate how one is to determine what God’s command is. Many point to the scriptures, but those vary, sometimes greatly among translations and faiths. In centuri es past, many believed in the divine rule of kings as God’s voice on earth.Therefore, if the King commanded it, it was the word of God as well and since many of these kings sent men into battle in direct opposition to the commandment against killing, the theory of divine command is weakened by the need to identify God or His commands. Even extending into the modern day, the Pope is considered by Catholics to be the voice of God. Is the word of the Pope then the moral guide for the divine command theory? And, the seemingly contradictory messages of the Bible (or other scriptures) become a much greater problem. If we are basing our morality on God’s command, but His words are unclear, how can morality become clear?Ultimately, the difference between right and wrong in the two theories is potentially huge. Under the divine command theory, anything that God commands can be considered right and anything contrary to God’s command is wrong.   With Kant’s theory , wrong is defined as being immoral and immorality is irrational. Therefore, any act which is irrational could be considered morally wrong.   Thus the two theories can lead to very different conclusions in the exact same case.Essentially, the difference between the two is that though Kant argued that moral theory should be determined in the absence of facts, it is not hard and fast and allows for some circumstantial ethics. The simple problem with divine command theory is that if it relies on scriptures as God’s command, it is clear cut with no room for interpretation. Why then would man be capable of rational thought if there were no rationality needed? With divine command theory any creature that can understand simple commands could be taught to obey the law and the creation of a species capable of rational thought would be unnecessary.Likewise, the problem with moral theory is that it does not have clear cut right and wrong. By arguing that the requisite is rational acti on, Kant has made it possible for anything to be rationally justified even perhaps the greatest of moral wrongs including murder or even genocide, if the reasoning were sound. Because of the difference in their application, the two theories can be applied with completely different outcomes.For instance, assume that a man is walking through the woods late in the evening and sees a man attacking a woman whom he knows to be virtuous (just to make it clear she is the victim here). Because the attacker is in such a rage, the only manner that the observer has to prevent him from killing the innocent is to kill the attacker. If we use the divine command theory to determine our course of action, harkening back to the Ten Commandments and â€Å"Thou Shalt Not Kill†, the observer is left with no action that he can take to prevent the death of an innocent woman.Under Kant’s moral theory, it is completely irrational for the observer to allow an innocent to be killed simply because a Divine Being ordained that killing is wrong. Therefore, under the Kant theory, the observer would be wholly justified in killing the attacker. He would be doing the right thing. While clearly not all moral obligations and decisions would ever be this clear cut, this example illustrates where the two theories diverge drastically.It is precisely this type of scenario which leads me to support Kant’s moral theory over the theory of divine command. The theory of divine command relies on the existence of a Supreme Being and the knowledge of His will in personal action. Like Kant, I am not certain that we can determine if God exists, much less what His divine command would be. In a different age, divine command theory as method of determining morality made perfect sense.The king, ruling with diving right, could ordain the divine commands of his nation and the law would therefore be good, but as we have entered the age of reason and science, the theory of divine command falls sho rt. It does not offer any guidance on issues that were not conceived of when the Bible or other scriptures were written. Unless one accepts that the Pope is the direct conduit to God’s will left on earth, how could on determine what the divine command theory would be on an issue like cloning and therefore what the morality might be.Some religious people might say that cloning is wrong because it attempts to subvert God’s role in creation, but where in the Scripture does it say ‘thou shalt not clone’?   And, if we accept the argument that God did not intend for man to interfere in the creation process, should we not then find in vitro fertilization and even breeding controls on animals to be contrary to God’s law?   The simple failing of the divine command theory is that it does not reach into the modern age and allow moral decisions appropriate to the times in which we live.Kant’s theory on the other hand is perfect for the age of reason, probably based on the time frame in which it was being developed.   When the means test of rationality is applied, virtually any decision can be made, often in the style of Kant’s writings about common sense.For example, the rational mind can identify the moral ambiguity of cloning, especially cloning of a rational being. With all consciousness of thought, we can determine that creating that which we do not understand may be wrong. We can also rationally determine that choosing to mate specific animals in hopes of getting a particular set of genetic traits or implanting an embryo into a uterus is not an evil act simply because it involves creation. Even those who believe in the existence of a Supreme Being cannot argue why a God that is â€Å"good† and benevolent would object to the use of scientific advances to prolong life and to assist the natural process of procreation.As a further example of this, consider the use of nuclear weapons. Though we can default to th e idea that thou shalt not kill as divine command argument against the use of the weapon, the argument falls short when we realize that man has been commanded to kill hundreds of times throughout history in God’s name. However, when we consider the discussion of nuclear weapons using Kant’s theory, we can determine that the use of nuclear weapons on any widespread basis is irrational and therefore immoral and therefore wrong.The rational arguments against the weapons are plentiful: they destroy every living creature for miles, they destroy the land making it uninhabitable for years, and the radiation spread cannot be controlled, leading to countless additional injuries, illnesses and deaths. Ultimately, both theories come to the same conclusion, but Kant’s theory provides a better argument supporting the cause.Objectors will say that the problem with Kant’s theory is that humans have the capacity to act irrationally and therefore immorally. That irrationa lity negates the concept of a rational test of morality. This argument is flawed in that it is based on a premise which we call mental illness. In American society at least, when a person has lost the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong, we determine that they are mentally ill. This means even our system of psychology is based loosely on Kant’s premise that we are rational creatures, capable of autonomous action.Furthermore, nothing in theory would ever preclude a person from acting in a manner contrary to their moral theory. It is completely possible for a person to know an action is morally wrong and do it anyway. Sometimes, they will make attempts to justify the actions in their own minds or to others, but even the great majority of criminals can acknowledge that there is a significant difference between right and wrong even while they are choosing the wrong option. This is the reason that the American legal system recognizes mitigating factors, those ex cuses for why it was okay to do the wrong thing. We understand that the rational mind can also try to reason out doing what it desires.Critics of Kant’s theory would also argue that there are no simple clear cut definitions of right and wrong. That is correct. There aren’t. Ethics and morality are situational, no matter what people want to say or believe. It can be as simple as believing that a little white lie is occasionally okay (Do you really want to tell your mother her new dress looks hideous?) or as extreme as a blatant attempt to manipulate society and yourself that murder is justifiable. Regardless, Kant would argue that the theory holds true. Rational beings know that these actions are wrong and society, which is not a rational being, has dictated that we are allowed to act otherwise.