The Poverty-stricken Youth of America Free Essays

America has been described as a â€Å"melting pot†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ a land full of diversity. With that diversity comes a full range of income levels and statuses of its inhabitants, from the very, very rich to the destitute. Ronald Taylor†s article entitled â€Å"African-American Youth: Their Social and Economic Status in the United States† focuses on the issue of polarization. We will write a custom essay sample on The Poverty-stricken Youth of America or any similar topic only for you Order Now Polarization occurs when an increase of the percentage of people in poverty coincides with an increase of the percentage of people with higher incomes. Fewer people are considered ‘middle class†, but are either rich or poor. This paper will focus on the poverty-stricken youth of America. How are today†s poor white and poor non-white youth alike? How do they differ? Sociologists and researchers have found evidence to justify both, and I hope to focus on major points for both issues. Whether you†re white, African-American, or Hispanic, poverty for today†s youth has many recurring themes. A recent article by Duncan and Brooks for The Education Digest points out some very discerning facts that face today†s poor youth. â€Å"Low Income is linked with a variety of poor outcomes for children, from low birth weight and poor nutrition in infancy to increased chances of academic failure, emotional distress, and unwed childbirth in adolescence.† (Duncan Brooks, pg. 1). They also claim that low-income preschoolers show poorer cognitive and verbal skills because they are exposed to fewer toys, books, and other brain-stimulating items at home than their higher-income classmates. Low-income adolescents, in later years, will experience conflict between their economically stressed parents, as well as lower self-esteem than other teenaged children. An article from the Ojibwe News, a Native American Magazine, gives a startling statistic discovered by research analysts for the Minnesota Private College Research Foundation. They found that a child from a family earning $25,000 or less annually is only one-half as likely to enroll in college as a child from a family with an annual income of $50,000 or more. Both white and non-white youth in poverty experience a higher rate of teenage pregnancy, AIDS, and tend to live in single-parent homes. There are several differences that exist between white and non-white youth that live in poverty. Recent research for low-income youth has shown that the most important factor that contributes to the gap between employment rates of minority and white youth can be attributed to their social network. Three reasons were cited in lecture as to what lead to the declination of life chances among African-American youth in poverty. They are as follows: 1. â€Å"Affirmative Action† primarily helped better-educated, especially professional workers. 2. Relocation of industry to suburbs or abroad reduces â€Å"living wage† jobs for non-college educated. Lack of network contacts, plus continuing discrimination, puts minorities last in line. 3. Concentration of poverty in center cities. Higher income black families go to the suburbs for jobs. Therefore, loss of network contacts, community organizations, and the like. These reasons attribute to the starling fact that Black poverty rates and unemployment rates remain at approximately 3 times the white rate. Israel and Seeborg in their article entitled â€Å"The Impact of Youth Characteristics and Experiences on Transitions out of Poverty† state that â€Å"†¦being black increases the probability of exposure to adverse social and economic conditions (i.e. underclass environment)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which, in turn, reduces the chance that new generations can get out of poverty. This leads us to another point-if African-Americans experience the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, which perpetuates continuing generational poverty, will there ever be a time when African-American adolescents get out of poverty? It is not only African-Americans that feel a more pronounced state of poverty. The Ojibwe News, a native American newspaper, focuses on the plights of Native American youth in Minnesota, as well as statistical evidence of other minority students. â€Å"Divided We Fall: The Declining Chance for College Among Minnesota Youth From Low-Income Families and Communities of Color† is based upon information from the Census Bureau, the Minnesota Department of Education and other sources, and examined high school dropout and college participation rates and how they are affected by such socioeconomic factors as race, family income, and parental education (Laird, pg. 2). The Ojibwe News showed a strong correlation between education and earnings. Considering that the present funding system for public schools usually provides from two to five times as much money for wealthy school districts as for the poorest, and that whites are twice as likely to have good access to computers, it is no surprise that this correlation exists. According to projections by the Minnesota Department of Education, 62% of all black students and 56% of all Native American students who entered public high school in the fall of 1991 will drop out by 1995. Nearly 50% of Hispanic students and 21% of Asian students were projected to drop out as well. The rate for white students? Only 16%. The article also explains how those 18 to 24 year-old dependents with at least one parent who had completed four years of college were twice as likely to enroll in college than those peers who parents had no post-secondary education (Laird, pg. 1). In summary, there exist many similarities and differences between white youth and non-white youth in American cities. A recurring solution emphasized by researches and in lecture is the idea of socialization. By integrating poor minority and poor white students with their wealthier peers, as done in the Gautreaux program, the continuation of poverty can be decreased. How to cite The Poverty-stricken Youth of America, Papers

Daphnia research free essay sample

The effect the various drugs caffeine, nicotine and epinephrine had on the Daphnia magna is displayed in Figure 1. After three sample trials were taken there was an average of 180 beats/min-1  ± 6.928 taken under normal conditions. The addition of caffeine caused an increase in the average heartbeat to change to 192 beats/min-1  ± 9. We will write a custom essay sample on Daphnia research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 165 in the Daphnia magna tested. When testing the effect of nicotine on the Daphnia magna the average heart beat was 168 beats/min-1  ± 3.4641 taken under normal conditions. With the addition of nicotine, this caused a decrease in the Daphnia’s heart beat with an average of 146 beats/min-1  ± 8.717798. When the heart beat was taken under normal condition for the testing of epinephrine, the average heart beat was 192 beats/min-1  ± 3.4641. There was an increase in heartbeat of an average of 206 beats/ min -1  ± 7.211103 when the Daphnia magna was put in a solution of the drug, epinephrine. When testing for the effect ethanol has on the Daphnia magna’s heart, the average heartbeat taken under normal conditions was 162 beats/min-1  ± 9.165. With the addition of the Daphnia magna in a solution of ethanol, there was a decrease in the heartbeat changing it to 140 beats/min-1  ± 7.2111. The results testing for the effect different salt concentrations have on the Daphnia magna’s heartbeat is shown in Figure 2. When obtaining the control for the different concentrations, of the [0.05], [0.04],[0.03],[0.02] and [0.01] the average heart rate for the five different samples consisting of three trials each were, 164 beats/min-1  ± 8.717798, 170 beats/min-1  ± 2, 160 beats/min-1  ± 11.13553, 162 beats/min-1  ± 6.928203 and 166 beats/min-1  ± 8.717798 respectively. When testing effects the different concentrations had on the Daphnia’s heart rate there was fluctuation in the data obtained. When the different Daphnia magna were put into the different concentrations of 0.05 g/ µliter, 0.03 g/ µL, and the 0.01 g/ µL salt solutions, the average heart rate increased with 198 beats/min-1  ± 9.165151with a percent change of 20.73%, 194 beats/min-1  ± 5.291503 with a percent change of 16.87%, and 196 beats/min-1  ± 4 with a percent change of 18.07% respectively. When the different Daphnia magna were put into the different concentration of 0.04 g/ µL and 0.02 g/ µL salt solutions, the average heart rate decreased with 168 beat/min-1  ± 10.3923 with a percent change of -1.18% and 150 beats/min-1  ± 3.464102 with a percent change of  -7.41% respectively. Discussion Daphnia magna have been used mainly to test two things, whether or not Daphnias can be used as model for to understand the effects different toxins have on humans and as indicators for environment pollution issues present. When looking at the effects caffeine and epinephrine had on the heart rate of the Daphnia magna, it showed that they are stimulants by the increase in the Daphnia’s heart rate in comparison to the heart rate of the control group. This reflects accurate results reproduced by another experiment performed by Campbell et al (2004). When looking at the effects nicotine and ethanol had on the heart rate of the Daphnia magna, it showed that they were depressants by the decrease in the Daphnia’s heart rate in comparison to the heart rate of the control group. The results of Ceballos et.al (2010) supported the results obtained in this experimental. Ceballos et.al (2010) experiment analyzed further and noticed that the nicotine had different effects on the Daphnia’s heart rate based on two factors, the amount of time that was given for the Daphnia to absorb the nicotine and the concentration of nicotine given to the Daphnia. For the testing of the salt concentration, it was hypothesized before the experiment began that as the salt concentration decreases, the heart rate would decrease as well. The results did not support this hypothesis. It has been established that heart rate in Daphnia magna increases when there is a progressive lack of oxygen present. (Baumer et.al 2002). When the salinity of water increases there are increases in Na+ ions as well as Cl- ions. This increase in ion concentration causes a change in osmotic alternation and a competition between all the ions. (de la Paz Gomez-Diaz and Martinez-Jeronimo 2008). Although increase in salinity has been known to be detrimental to the health of the Daphnia magna, if high enough can result in mortality, Daphnia magna can adapt to low levels of salt (Baillieul et.al 1996). Since the Daphnia magna are freshwater crustaceans the lower the salt concentration there is the closer the heart rate should be to the resting heart rate of the Daphnia. Possible errors that could have gone wrong are the duration given to allow for the absorption of the different concentration of salt solutions due to the limited time during the lab period and the distinguishing of the separate heart beats and the inaccuracy of a constant time being off by  points of a second.

Students Skipping School Essay Example

Students Skipping School Paper Truancy has been a problem since the first schools. In the past, students were punished by parents and their schools for skipping. Today however, with many human rights laws and rules against punishing children (Parliament of Canada), truancy comes with almost no consequences and has grown in popularity (The Independent). Truancy is often caused by the students family problems, abuse and neglect, mental and physical health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, low self esteem, lack of friends, safety concerns and a number of other reasons. Some effects of truancy on students include involvement in crime, more likely to be unemployed, decreased academics, and risk of not obtaining a higher education (GTC Michigan). Truancy not only effects the truant student itself, but also an entire class, when a teacher slows down to help him catch up. Theory  B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) was only concerned with observable behaviors, not the mental processes behind them. Skinner used animals to study how the use of rewards and punishment can influence behavior, which became known as operant conditioning. He performed the Skinner box experiment, where a rat in a cage must press a button for food to be released into the cage. After the food has run out, the rat stopped pressing the button after a few futile attempts. This is called extinction. We will write a custom essay sample on Students Skipping School specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Students Skipping School specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Students Skipping School specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) studied â€Å"self actualizing† people, which is reaching ones full potential, only after basic needs are met. Maslow created his Hierarchy of Needs, it explains that basic needs must be fulfilled before higher order needs become important.  Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987) developed client-centered therapy. This approach focuses on the potential of each person to realize his or her own growth in self-awareness and self-fulfillment. I think B.F Skinners research could be applied to the issue of skipping school the best. Although therapy is important for truant students, rewards and punishments are more important. School is a place that teaches discipline, and Skinners idea demonstrates just that.  Solutions  The following are some possible solutions to dealing with truancy in the classroom.  1. Make students feel needed at school. To do this, teachers can assign certain responsibilities to the students, such as group projects. This way, the students will feel a responsibility to others and may be less likely to skip because they will feel guilty. 2. Use a reward system (operant conditioning). Offer truant students a reward for perfect attendance for a certain amount of time. This may encourage them to attend school for the reward.  3. Make students feel liked at school. To do this, teachers can display students work, be supportive of students, and engage students in group activities and clubs where they can be social and do work at the same time.  4. Work together with the truant students families. Find out why the student skips school and figure out a solution to prevent or change this behavior. This is an effective method because the families know the students the best and can find productive solutions together with the school. 5. Find out why the students skip school and figure out a solution. Counseling groups and guidance counselors are very important for this role, but they must respect the students opinions and statements and work with them to fix their problems (client-centered therapy).  6. Some students skip school because they are failing and see no point of returning to school. Teachers should give these students an opportunity to make up for their missing work and provide extra help at lunch or after school.  7. Make sure that the school is a safe and positive atmosphere for all students. Teach students to respect each other through assemblies and in class work. Increase teacher supervision. Conduct student surveys to find out how they feel about the school environment. Be open to suggestions from students on how to improve the school environment.

Mt Saint Helans Essays - Volcanology, Cascade Volcanoes, Free Essays

Mt Saint Helans Essays - Volcanology, Cascade Volcanoes, Free Essays Mt Saint Helans Mount St. Helens Location: Washington, United States Latitude: 46.20 N Longitude: 122.18 W height: 2,549 meters or 8,364 feet - 9,677 feet before May 18, 1980 Type: Stratovolcano Number of eruptions in past 200 years: 2-3 Latest Eruptions: Between 1660-1700, around 1800-1802, 1831, 1835, 1842-1844, 1847-1854, 1857, 1980-? Present thermal activity: strong steaming Nickname: Mount Fuji of the West Remarks: continuous intermittent activity since 1980 with occasional eruptions of steam and ash; occasional pyroclastic flows; intermittent dome forming. MSH is considered a young volcano that developed over the last 40,000 years and is one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Geologists predicted that the volcano would erupt before the year 2000. The May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount SH was the most destructive in the history of the United States. In a matter of hours, MSH caused loss of lives and widespread destruction of valuable property because of the avalanche, lateral blast and mudflows. On March 20, 1980, starting with an earthquake that was followed by many others, MSH became active again after a quiet period of 123 years. On March 27, 1980, there was a huge explosion and MSH began blowing ash and steam. This lasted until May 14, 1980. The explosion in March opened up two craters that quickly became one huge crater. While this was happening, an enormous bulge on the north side of the mountain top appeared. It grew about six feet each day. Geologist kept measuring the bulge, recording the earthquakes and sampling the ash and gases. By May, the bulge was 300 feet wide and more than one mile in length. On May 18 at 8:32 in the morning, Mount St.. Helens erupted taking the top 1,200 feet off the volcano. The eruption went on until nightfall. The area of destruction was 230 square miles and was one of the largest landslides ever recorded in history. The blast was preceded by two months of intense activity that included over 10,000 earthquakes, hundreds of small phreatic (steam blasts) , explosions and the north side bulge. A magnitude 5.1 earthquake below the volcano at 8:32 am started the eruption. MSH is still a potentially dangerous and active volcano even though it has been quiet since 1995. In the last 515 years th ere have been four major eruptions and dozens of lesser eruptions. Two of the eruptions were only two years apart. In 1480, the eruption was about five times larger than the one in May 1980. There have been even larger eruptions during MSH' 50,000 year lifetime. After the May 18, 1980 eruption, there have been five smaller explosive eruptions over a five month period. Since then, there have been 16 dome building eruptions through October 1986 when the new dome in the crater was formed. As the mountain was torn open, the pressure in inside was suddenly relieved. The rock shattered inside the mountain was exploded out the top at speeds over 200 miles per hour. The blast was so strong that it leveled whole forest of fir trees. Geologist call this a stone wind since the winds carried the rocks form the blast with them. The rocks gave the winds extra force that let them flatten the trees. 150 square miles of land was leveled. The edges of this area also lost their forested areas from the heat of the blast and the fires it caused. The original blast of the volcano only lasted 10 to 15 minutes. It quickly started up again. A dark cloud of ash and gases went up for miles into the sky and spread for miles in every direction, but mostly eastward. Forest fires broke out everywhere. After abut four hours, the color of the ash became much lighter since the volcano was now throwing out new magma instead of old rock. The temperature of the volcanic flow was approximately 1000 degrees and was traveling extremely fast....about 100 miles per hour. The volcanic flows went on until late in the afternoon. These flows triggered an avalanche. The avalanche poured rocks, tress and dirt into nearby Spirit Lake and then downward to the valley of the North Fork of Toutle River. The ice and snow caps that melted caused mudflows. The mud traveled down the same path. It was incredibly destructive.

Quotes From To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Quotes From 'To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse is one of the most well-known works by Virginia Woolf. Published in 1927, this book is full of quotable lines. Part 1 Chapter VI Who shall blame him? Who will not secretly rejoice when the hero puts his armor off, and halts by the window and gazes at his wife and son, who, very distant at first, gradually come closer and closer, till lips and book and head are clearly before him, though still lovely and unfamiliar from the intensity of his isolation and the waste of ages and the perishing of the stars, and finally putting his pipe in his pocket and bending his magnificent head before her - who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world? Chapter IX Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs. Ramsays knee. Chapter X A light here required a shadow there. There were the eternal problems: suffering; death; the poor. There was always a woman dying of cancer even here. And yet she had said to all these children, You shall go through with it. Chapter XVII It partook...of eternity...there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced at the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures. Chapter XVII She had done the usual trick - been nice. She would never know him. He would never know her. Human relations were all like that, she thought, and the worst (if it had not been for Mr. Bankes) were between men and women. Inevitably these were extremely insincere. Part 2 Chapter III For our penitence deserves a glimpse only; our toil respite only. Chapter XIV She could not say it...as she looked at him she began to smile, for though she had not said a word, he knew, of course, he knew, that she loved him. He could not deny it. And smiling she looked out of the window and said (thinking to herself, Nothing on earth can equal this happiness) - Yes, you were right. Its going to be wet tomorrow. You wont be able to go. And she looked at him smiling. For she had triumphed again. She had not said it: yet he knew. Chapter VIII The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening. Now - James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it? No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too. Part 3 Chapter III What is the meaning of life? That was all - a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one. Chapter V Mrs. Ramsay sat silent. She was glad, Lily thought, to rest in silence, uncommunicative; to rest in the extreme obscurity of human relationships. Who knows what we are, what we feel? Who knows even at the moment of intimacy, This is knowledge? Arent things spoilt then, Mrs. Ramsay may have asked (it seemed to have happened so often, this silence by her side) by saying them? But one only woke people if one knew what one wanted to say to them. And she wanted to say not one thing, but everything. Little words that broke up the thought and dismembered it said nothing. About life, about death; about Mrs. Ramsay - no, she thought, one could say nothing to nobody. Chapter IX She alone spoke the truth; to her alone could he speak it. That was the source of her everlasting attraction for him, perhaps; she was a person to whom one could say what came into ones head.

Article summary Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Summary - Article Example ost common type of cardiovascular disease among aboriginal people is the coronary heart disease whose cause although largely unknown, several risk factors have been found to increase its chance of occurrence. These include high levels of cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes mellitus smoking and high density of lipoproteins; these risk factors are attributed to the lifestyles and the socio-economic status of the aboriginal people. For the last couple of decades, the aboriginal people have adopted a western lifestyle including their nutritional patterns and behaviour, which include eating foods rich in calories and adopting inactive lifestyles; this has led to increase in cardiovascular diseases. Type 2 diabetes, which is the most common among the aboriginal people is usually characterised by resistance to insulin, high blood glucose levels and reduction in insulin levels. This type of diabetes is most often found in adults and its risk is increased by obesity, lack of physical activity, stress, depression and poor nutritional habits. Since diabetes and severe obesity have been found to be linked, mainly through the adipose tissue, which has been found to trigger insulin resistance in sells, the appearance of obesity will in most cases lead to diabetes. For the last 50 years, prevalence of type 2 diabetes has been increasing among aboriginal populations with about 17.9 percent of all adult being diagnosed with the disease, the figure rises to 35 per cent among individuals 55 years or older. In some communities in northwestern Ontario, the prevalence has been found to be as high as 80 per cent among women between 50 and 64 years of age. However, this trend has not spared people much younger among the first nation communities with studies showing that 53 per cent of those living with diabetes are below 41 years of age and 65 per cent are below 45 years. This type of diabetes, although not observed in youths, it has been found in young children between 5 and 8 years in

Higher cigarette taxes make smokers happier Essay

Higher cigarette taxes make smokers happier - Essay Example Each year in the United States, more than 400,000 smokers die of smoking-related illnesses. Smoking kills more people than AIDS, car accidents, alcohol, homicides, illegal drugs, suicides, and fires combined! Diseases associated with smoking include heart disease, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Smokeless tobacco is linked to oral cancers and can cause tooth abrasion, gum recession, and leukoplakia.Yet, despite these frightening and startling revelations, people still persists and the few that quit are replaced in many folds by new entrants. This inevitably leads to the question of what could be done to control cigarette consumption by Government in view of the challenges it poses to public health and the Nation manpower development. Government all over the world has toiled with the idea of levying high tax on tobacco products like cigarette in a bid to discourage its consumption.However, whether this has been achieved or not is evidenced in the increase turnover of Tobacco companies. Consider the scenarios below which tend to provide more insight into the effect of higher taxes on the average smoker. Adeolu is 47 years old. He has been smoking cigarette for the past 30 years.