Cradle to Cradle Essay Example for Free

Cradle to Cradle Essay In this book the authors and environmentalists William McDonough and Michael Braungart discuss how very un-eco friendly are the people that design our world, from our buildings to the products we use and consume. They talk about how our solutions for our environmental problems, such as recycling, are basically just a band-aid fix for broken bone. They discuss the negative effects that our daily lives have on our environment and offer some solutions of their own to help counteract the problem as much as possible, even the book Cradle to Cradle is printed on eco-friendly paper that does not use trees. In this book McDonough and Braungart urge its readers to take our environment into account and look for better solutions to our global environmental problems then the ones that we have been settling for for the last half-century. In this book McDonough and Braungart identify two major problems with the way that we live that negatively affects our environment. The first is the problem of throwing things away, because in fact when we throw things away, they do not just go away. The things that we throw out stay here on our Earth, soiling our precious and finite earth and affect its well-being. The second problem that they discuss the the harmful product that are used, which not only have negative impacts on our planet, but also on ourselves. In this book the authors urge us to learn from nature through bio-mimicry, an effort to design buildings like trees, cities like forests. They also challenge us to look at ants and the role they play in the world and their self-sustaining way of life and to learn from them. Ants are able to inhabit a diverse a range of environments, are able to hunt, scavenge, and grow their own food, build their homes, effectively handle their wastes, create powerful medicines, and produce biological and chemical weapons, all the while contributing to the health of the natural world. We live on this earth less-effectively than ants and should look to their way of living as a role model for how we as humans live on this earth. McDonough and Braungart offer some of their own suggestions for way that we can live effectively with the Earth in mind, such as rooftops covered with soil and plants that serve as natural insulation, non toxic dyes and fabrics, their current overhaul of Fords legendary River Rouge factory, and even the book itself, which is printed on a synthetic paper that does not use trees. While creating an ultimate solution to our environmental problem is a very involved and complicated ordeal, McDonough and Braungart do offer some simple solutions to help cut down on the harm we are causing our planet. One things that we can do is to cut out all chemicals and substances that are harmful and destructive both to humans as well as the environment. Also they discuss how we must abandon our current cradle to grave way of thinking and adopt a cradle to cradle way of thinking, meaning that we need to consider where the products and its packaging will end up after we are finished with it. When creating a product we need to begin to understand and think about where it will end up after the consumer is done with it. We must think about how our waste can be reused in order to cut back on unnecessary waste and contamination of our planet. McDonough and Braungart in this book urge us to start looking at our wasteful ways and see how it is harming our own selves as well as the environment and see that we must adopt a cradle to cradle way of thinking in order to save our planet and use the finite resources we have in a smart and truly eco friendly way. After reading this book I examined the wasteful way in which I live my own life, and when I think about how I live and times that by 6,973,738,433, it’s hard to fathom how much damage we must be doing to our planet. Our resource, clean air and precious earth are limited but humans are consumers and don’t consider much past our own immediate wants and needs. After reading this book I see how important it is to move away from cradle to grave thinking and truly take on a cradle to cradle way of thinking and see the long term effects of our consumerism. This book should be read by everyone because it gives a clear and simple way to see how we are living now, and then how we should be living in order to help save and protect the planet that we have been given.

Writing Center Internship paper :: Teaching Authors Essays

Writing Center Internship paper Connective Thinking, Mimetic Thinking, and Minimalist Tutoring Pedagogy For the past two years, I have worked as a tutor at the Rutgers Writing Center as a â€Å"minimalist tutor.† Anthony Lioi, author of â€Å"Small Victories: The Practice and Process of Tutoring,† defines minimalist tutoring as â€Å"a method that requires students to solve their own problems under the supervision of a tutor who acts as a coach, a more experienced peer, rather than an editor† (Lioi, 1). At Rutgers, minimalist tutoring works in conjunction with The New Humanities Reader, which was put together by Kurt Spellmeyer and Richard E. Miller and has as its goal the promotion of â€Å"connective† as opposed to â€Å"mimetic† thinking. Lioi offers the clearest distinction between connective and mimetic thinking when he says, â€Å"’mimetic thinking,’ [is] designed to demonstrate mastery of a pre-established realm of knowledge, and ‘connective thinking,’†¦ links disparate realms of learning in new and unexpecte d patterns to solve problems unanticipated by traditional forms of knowledge† (Lioi 1). To this end, minimalist tutors are trained in a â€Å"hands off† method that emphasizes the importance of giving students exploratory writing exercises to do on their own during the tutoring session and discourages the practice of â€Å"correcting† students’ papers to â€Å"create a ‘perfect’ paper† (2). In my time at the Writing Center, I worked with many students and had much success with the minimalist tutoring methods. However, sometimes with some students, I did not seem to be very effective. I was never sure why the tutoring did not seem to be helping these students, and I couldn’t tell what, if anything, they had in common with each other that would make minimalist tutoring less effective. I was often tempted to break the â€Å"rules† of minimalist tutoring and to apply a more hands-on approach, but I was afraid I would be e ven less useful to them if I did. Finally, I was faced with a student who simply was not getting anywhere with the tutoring, even though I could tell he was working hard. I decided to break the rules and give him the help I thought he needed. In the process, I figured out that minimalist tutoring fails many students for the exact reason that it is effective with so many others. The emphasis of connective thinking over mimetic thinking in the Rutgers Writing Program, and the way that emphasis is translated into minimalist tutoring practices, ignores the specific needs of students who come to Rutgers without a strong background in expository writing.

Arthur Miller Essay

Between 1949 and 1953, Arthur Miller wrote two of his most famous plays. Both plays dealt with major problems in society. The main characters of the plays were similar. Also, the supporting characters of both plays were alike. Arthur Miller’s plays Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are similar in many ways. The main purpose of both Death of a Salesman and The Crucible was to show major problems in American society. In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller was trying to show the impossibilities of the American Dream. In The Crucible, he was trying to show how society is intolerant toward others and is prone to hysteria. Both plays dealt with society defeating the average, hard-working man. Each play showed a society that was full of deceit and liars. In both of these plays, society was depicted as an evil thing that would overpower the average person and create an unjust world. The main characters of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, Willy Loman and John Proctor, were alike in many ways. Both of these men had extramarital affairs, and in both cases, the affairs ended up destroying their lives. Both of these men were hard-working, average men who were just trying to make a good life for themselves and their families. Names were important to both men, and they both took pride in their names. In both cases, many decisions the two made were because of their family members. One large similarity between Willy and John was the fact that they both eventually died, and the death was partly their choice. Both men could have avoided death, but instead, they chose to die because they believed it was the correct thing to do. In these two plays, there were also many similarities between the supporting characters. In both plays, children had much more power than they normally do. In Death of a Salesman, Willy’s son controlled much of his life. In The Crucible, the girls, led primarily by Abigail Williams, caused many people to be hanged, and even more to be imprisoned. Also, both John and Willy had wives that were very loyal to them throughout their lives and supported them until the end. Both plays showed a figure of power, seen as Howard in one play and Judge Danforth in the other. In both plays, the main character had a friend who stood up for them at the end. Willy had Charley, who had been his best friend for a long time, and John had Reverend Hale, who tried to prevent John’s death. There are many similarities between characters in the two plays. Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are alike in many ways. Arthur Miller created similar characters in both plays. He used both to show the many things wrong in America. These two plays are both powerful pieces of literature that should be read and appreciated by all people.Sources: Death of a Salesman and The Crucible by Arthur Miller Arthur Miller Essay Can the audience be certain that Abigail is pretending when she has her fits (pages thirty nine-forty and ninety one-ninety six) In sixteen ninety two there was an outbreak of hangings for witchcraft. Arthur Miller based â€Å"The Crucible† on the events that lead to this to create an allegory of the events that took place in the nineteen fifties, when Joseph McCarthy was the head of the investigations of the senate committee on internal security. When Abigail her fit on page ninety two, Miller leaves the audience confused because of the other girls’ reaction to what Abigail does and also to Mary Warren’s accusations. When Abigail starts imitating Mary Warren the girls copy Abigail and start using it to accuse Mary Warren of â€Å"sending a shadow on them,† so Abigail used its sudden entrance into the court to stop Mary Warren from telling the truth about what happened in the woods. The way they chose to accuse her was by imitating Mary Warren. â€Å"Mary Warren (screaming out at the top of her lungs, and raising her fists): Stop it!! Girls (raising their fists): Stop it!! † Arthur Miller adds more uncertainty by making other girls leading into the fits. This happens when Betty wakes upon page thirty nine and starts a fit off by saying, â€Å"I saw Goody Howe with the Devil! † This is effective because Betty is apparently ill at the time that this happens then â€Å"As she is speaking BETTY is rising from the bed, a fever in her eyes, and picks up the chant. † Then in a fit on page ninety two, Mercy Lewis says â€Å"Mercy Lewis (pointing): It’s on the beam! Behind the rafter! † This is when the bird has appeared and Danforth asks where it was. This is an effective strategy to employ and these points in the play because it keeps the audience guessing and wanting to know what will happen next. Mary Warren is present during both the fits that Abigail has, although in the second one on page ninety two she is the one both accusing and being accused. At the end of the fit Mary Warren has a real stress induced fit â€Å"only MARY is left there, staring up at the `bird’, screaming madly. All watch her terrified by this evident fit. † The fact that Mary Warren has now joined in isn’t the only thing that makes this effective it is that she has just changed her mind after being so resolute on telling the truth, also that this implicates Proctor as being a witch because he is the one that took her to the court. In the sixteen nineties the buildings were furnished in a minimalist fashion because people couldn’t afford much more that the essentials, for example in Betty’s bedroom would have a bed a little chest of drawers for her clothes and a chair. There would also be a few windows. Therefore it would be quite shocking seeing it filled up with mainly young girls, then when all the girls suddenly start shouting it would be overwhelming and quite confusing for an audience member seeing this for the first time. However, When Mary Warren is persuaded to go to court she seems scared of Abigail as she says; â€Å"She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! † The audience also know that Abigail has lied from the beginning about what happened in the woods, as Abigail told her uncle that all they did was dance but then Betty says â€Å"you drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor! Also in the same conversation Abigail tells Mary Warren to carry on lying, â€Å"Let either of you breathe a word about the other things and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring pointy reckoning that will shudder you. † When the girls copy Abigail they never catch on straight away they always take a while to join in, such as in the court room on page ninety two Abigail has to repeat what Mary Warren says twice before the girls start repeating as well. â€Å"The Crucible† is an allegory of what was happening in America in the nineteen fifties. When Joseph McCarthy became a senator lots of people started having trouble with being accused of being a communist. It was mainly actors, actresses and writers that were accused but once you were accused there were only two things you could do to stop yourself from being blacklisted, which meant you would find it very hard to work again, you could either admit to being a communist and still be black listed or you could do the easier thing to prove you weren’t a communist which was accuse someone else. This is very similar to â€Å"The Crucible† as Abigail feels she has to accuse Tituba so that she isn’t accused of which craft. The only two differences when you were put in this situation ware that you wouldn’t be hung for being a communist you just wouldn’t be able to find work very easily. The other difference was that in Salem you had to be a witch to be hung, whereas in America you had to be a communist. There are certain similarities between Salem and today, such as today, lots of people treat Muslims differently because other people have turned Muslims into a scapegoat and projected everything wrong with the society that they live in and been blamed on a particular group of people, which in our case is Muslims. This prejudice against particular groups of people often isn’t fair. In America they projected their fears onto communists because they were that the communist uprising in Russia would spread to America, but now we are worried because a few Muslims out of millions decided to become suicide bombers and the government used them as a means to justify the war in Iraq by demonising the main faith in that country. Overall I think that the audience wouldn’t be able to whether Abigail was pretending while she was having her fits unless they had seen â€Å"The Crucible† before, because Arthur Miller uses a lot of tactics to confuse or scare the audience.

Essay Sample on Ethics

Essay Sample on Ethics Students Name Professors Name The Course The Date Ethics The term ethics or moral philosophy refers to the branch in philosophy that studies the concepts of right and wrong behavior, systematizes the knowledge on this subject, and examines the ways of its practical application. There are many philosophical schools that consider various aspects of ethics. Each of them prioritizes one or another facet of morality depending on cultural and historical context and desired model of behavior that the teaching aims to incline people to follow. In the field of academic study, the major goal of ethics can be formulated as an attempt to answer certain moral questions in order to improve communication between people in different social environments and to stimulate them to behave in accordance with norms accepted in a particular community. From this perspective, studying ethics in class may be considered an important and controversial question as it influences the psychological development of students and imposes a worldview limited by the framework o f one or another moral teaching. In my opinion, courses on ethics can truly change thinking in a more critical direction if the subjects it focuses on were explored with scientific approach. For instance, moral dilemmas should be regarded with such argumentation that relies on evidence-based scientific research and presents many-sided view on the problem. Ethics should also consider diverse cultural context and its specifications in order to answer certain moral questions that are acute in a particular society within a particular timeframe. Furthermore, to really refine someones thinking, ethics must be taught using a multi-layered approach to the problem that is accompanied with real-life examples of how certain moral dilemmas can be solved with the help of moral philosophy.