Home Education: Legal and Beneficial Essay -- essays research papers

ARGUMENT PAPER Home Education: Legal and Beneficial Formal Outline Thesis: As parents, we not only have the right to educate our own children, but it is also our responsibility. I. Introduction II. Legality of homeschooling 1. Amendments a. 1st b. 14th c. 9th 2. Cases heard in court 3. State regulations a. teacher certification b. public school equivalency c. compelling state interest d. least restrictive means III. Benefits 1. Emotional 2. Spiritual 3. Educational IV. SOCIALIZATION – the main opposing argument 1. Opportunities for in homeschooling 2. Negative in public (or private) schools 3. Results of testing conducted V. Not a new fad, back to the way we were 1. Notables who were homeschooled 2. History of current homeschool movement VI. Conclusion Home Education: Legal and Beneficial While the idea of schooling children at home is not new to our country, it is new to our generation. Most parents today, including myself, are a product of the school system and rarely explore all of the options for schooling our children. Due to a lack of knowledge, we place our children in a preschool, then a kindergarten, eight years of elementary, and four years of secondary school. Fourteen or fifteen years (preschool is now beginning at age three) of our children’s lives are being spent away from us, and we’re wondering why we’ve lost touch with them. Psychologists now say that it’s not just quality time that we need with our kids, but quality and quantity time. How are we to give them a large amount of our time when they are away from us the majority of their waking hours? Homeschooling is the solution to this dilemma. Because of the lack of knowledge about schooling options, parents have many questions about homeschooling. Some of the major questions include the following: Is it legal?; Can it provide the same breadth of education?; and, most frequently, What about socialization? The responses to these questions make it clear that we have not only the right, but also the responsibility to school our children at home. Forty years ago, homeschooling was illegal in some places, so it is reasonable to question the legality of the homeschool. â€Å"Early homeschooling parents were legally threatened, arrested, and often brought to trial as abettors of truancy, sometimes even as child abusers†(Koetzsch 134).... ...nments were formed, and therefore families are quite capable of managing their affairs, including education, without the help of the government† (Blumenfeld 9).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Recently, an overwhelming lack of trust in public schools has arisen. Not only is the educational rigor disappearing, but there is now also a concern for the safety of our children. Studies have even shown that many high school graduates are not prepared for life after school. Some graduates have found a way to escape notice that they cannot even read, write adequately, or perform simple mathematical functions. A study by John Goodlad â€Å"sent note takers into a thousand classrooms, and they found that less than two percent of instructional time was spent on discussions requiring students to offer an opinion about something† (Guterson 42). A child whose intellect is not developed to the point of creating opinions and discussing them cannot fully participate in the adult world. The only way to make sure that our children do not fall through the cracks is to take them by hand and lead them one by one down the path of knowledge. School your children at home; it’s your right and responsibility.

Aims of the abstract sculpture,painting or architecture

Abstract art is an artistic style that utilizes both color and form to create a piece that is non-representational.   Its general purpose is to capture the intrinsic qualities of the object that it is depicting. Abstraction is a new way of representing the surrounding world that departs from the utilization of traditional methods.There were several movements throughout art history that helped shape modern abstraction and develop a clearer purpose of these works.   The four chief movements in abstract painting included: Cubism, Futurism, Abstract Expressionism and Post-Painterly Abstraction.Abstract paintings are meant to be thoughtful contemplations in their own right, the meaning interpreted by the spectator.Cubism is a radical movement that was a turning point in the world of Western art during the early twentieth century.   The Cubists, as they were referred, did not depict naturalistic representations, but preferred compositions of shapes and forms that â€Å"abstractedâ⠂¬  from the conventionally perceived world.â€Å"They dissected life’s continuous optical spread into its many constituent features, which they then recomposed, by a new logic of design, into a coherent aesthetic object† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 795).   The Cubists’ rejection of traditional forms is an illustration of the early twentieth century’s new avant-garde attitude.These abstract works were born out of the public’s idea that the world was not necessarily a concrete Newtonian world, these notions brought out by the modern physicists of the time including Einstein.   â€Å"One of the basic meanings of Cubism is that a work of art depends upon both the external reality of nature and the internal reality of art† (Rosenblum, 1966, p. 58).The artistic revolutionaries, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, are often credited for starting the Cubism movement.   The aim of these artists was to dissect the forms of their subjects.   This dissec tion was then put onto their respected canvasses for the viewer to witness.â€Å"Their type of Cubism involved analyzing the form and investigating the pictorial elements in order to convey meaning† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 795).   A prime example of this type of abstract painting is the work â€Å"The Portuguese† by Georges Braque.   In this piece, he dissects the form in the work and uses muted browns as his color palette.   This subtle use of color was meant to draw the viewer’s eye to the form of the piece and to not be distracted by the color of the work.   The complexity of the work is apparent by the large intersecting planes that make it a guess at what the subject could possibly be.That was one of the aims of Cubism, to make it a mere impossibility to arrive at a finite meaning of a piece.   The constantly shifting imagery makes it hopeless to arrive at a final reading of the image.The movement of Futurism was a mere extension of the aims that the C ubists were trying to achieve with their work.   The main difference between the Cubists and the Futurists were that the Futurists had a sociopolitical purpose.   These artists were angry over the political and cultural decline of Italy; therefore, they decided to propose revolution through both the literature and art of the time.   â€Å"When the Futurist manifesto was first launched in 1910 by the painters Boccioni, Carrà   and Russolo, its primary aim was to bring Italian painting on to the European scene and oppose all forms of provincialism† (Ballo, 1958, p. 14).   The aim of these compositions was to launch Italy towards a glorious future.   They felt the need for war in order to erase the country’s past.   The Futurists had extremely radical ideas; they called for the destruction of libraries and museums, in order to start anew.   The art of the Futurists focused on motion, in both time and space.   The forms within their paintings were not pure ly abstract.   â€Å"Futurism encouraged a new boldness of execution and a more adventuresome exploration of effect† (Taylor, 1961, p. 22).   The blending of Futurism and the ideas of Cubism is evident in the composition by Gino Severini entitled â€Å"Armored Train.†This work encompasses the act of motion as well as the idea of revolution.   The painting features group of soldiers upon a train shooting at an unknown target.   In abstract fashion, the artist depicts all of the objects into planes.The purpose of these types of pieces was to promote war and to inspire revolution.   Therefore, the ideas behind this artistic and political movement led to the fascist regime that would emerge in Italy during World War II.A departure from abstraction would rule the art world following the Futurist movement.   It was not until the 1940s, that works of abstraction would gain popularity again.   â€Å"Abstract Expressionism, the first avant-garde American movement , would emerge in New York during the 1940s† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 859).This movement would produce paintings that were abstract in form, but would also express the state of the artist’s mind.   The aim of these artists was to reach out emotionally to the viewers of their works.   This movement was inspired by the popular psychiatric theories of the time.These artists attempted to broaden their artistic processes by expressing what Carl Jung referred to as the â€Å"collective unconscious.†Ã‚   These artists were able to achieve this by turning inward in order to create their work.   The compositions typical of this movement were wild and full of energy.The artists of this movement intended to have the viewers of their work understand the content through their own intuition.   These painting were meant to be felt and to express a person’s absolute emotions.The Abstract Expressionists felt strongly about the importance of freedom.   They aimed for pe ople to see their pieces without memory or association.   As artist Mark Rothko explained, â€Å"Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man or life, we make it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings.   The image we produce is understood by anyone who looks at it without nostalgic glasses of history† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 860).   This movement had two central groups: the gestural abstractionists and the chromatic abstractionists.In gestural abstraction pieces, the composition relied on the expressiveness of energetically applied color.   Meanwhile, the chromatic abstraction works used color’s emotional resonance as their central focus.The most famous gestural abstractionist artist would likely be Jackson Pollock.   By the 1950s, he was comfortable with the abstract style and was creating his own unique paintings.   Pollock was best known for using mural size canvasses and composing his paintings out of drips and splatters of paint.These compositions wer e reminiscent of spider webs and were full of energy.   His methods of composing his pieces (using sticks and brushes, he flung and dripped paint) emphasized the method of creation.   Pollock wished to create art that was equally spontaneous and choreographed.   His technique was to immerse himself into his work as he created.His painting rejected the traditional aspects of painting and became abstraction in its truest form.   The paintings contained no central focus and were representative of internalized feelings.The downside of this type of this was the more Pollock â€Å"pushed his imagery toward abstraction, the wider became the range of possible interpretations and the greater the risk of misinterpretation† (Cernuschi, 1992, p. 132).The energy behind the compositions in the method of chromatic abstraction was muted in comparison.   â€Å"Chromatic abstraction did not pretend to have any philosophical or moral claims at all.   The works in this genre meant t o specify sensations and appearances in the immediate environment† (Frascina, 1985, p. 116).   The emotions that they wish to convey in their works were displayed by their use of color.   These works were simplified observations of objects.   Their main feature was â€Å"zips,† which were lines that ran from one side to the painting to the other.These zips were not meant to be seen as specific entities, but rather as accents that give energy to the paintings.   This method of simplification used in chromatic abstraction enabled the artist to express his feelings by the mere use of color.

Profile of the National Organization for Women (NOW)

During a June 1966 meeting of state commissions on the status of women in Washington, D.C., Betty Friedan and other attendees felt dissatisfied with the lack of concrete forward motion. Seeing the need for a civil rights organization specifically focused on womens rights, 28 of them met in Friedans hotel room and created the National Organization for Women (NOW) to take action to achieve the equality of women. The time was ripe for such a move. In 1961, President Kennedy had established the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) to study and resolve problems experienced by women in areas like work, education, and tax laws. In 1963, Friedan had published her groundbreaking feminist classic The Feminine Mystique, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had technically outlawed sex discrimination (though many women still felt there was little or no enforcement.) Did You Know? Betty Friedan was elected the first president of NOW and served in that office for three years. NOW Statement of Purpose 1966: Key Points womens rights as truly equal partnership with men, fully equal partnership of the sexesfocused on activism: confront, with concrete action, the conditions that now prevent women from enjoying the equality of opportunity and freedom of choice which is their right as individual Americans, as human beingswomens rights seen in the context of the world-wide revolution of human rights; equality of women as an opportunity to develop their fullest human potentialspurpose to put women in the mainstream of American political, economic and social lifeNOWs commitment equality, freedom, and dignity for women specifically defined as not being about special privilege for women or enmity towards men Key Feminist Issues in Statement of Purpose employment -- the most attention in the document is to issues around employment and economicseducationfamily including marriage and divorce laws, home responsibilities by gender rolepolitical participation: in parties, decision-making, candidates (NOW was to be independent of any particular political party)images of women in the media, in culture, in laws, in social practicesbriefly addressed issue of double discrimination of African American women, linked womens rights to broader issues of social justice including racial justiceopposition to protectiveness in work, school, church, etc. NOW instituted seven task forces to work on these issues: The Seven Original NOW Task Forces. NOW Founders Included: Gene Boyer, 1925-2003Kathryn Clarenbach,1920-1994Inez Casiano, 1926-Mary Eastwood, 1930-Caroline Davis, 1911-Catherine East, 1916-1996Elizabeth Farians, 1923-Muriel Fox, 1928-Betty Friedan, 1921-2006Sonia Pressman Fuentes, 1928-Richard Graham, 1920-2007Anna Arnold Hedgeman, 1899-1990Aileen Hernandez, 1926-Phineas Indritz, 1916-1997Pauli Murray, 1910-1985Marguerite Rawalt, 1895-1989Sister Mary Joel ReadAlice Rossi, 1922-More about some of these women and men: The First NOW Officers Key NOW Activism Some key issues in which NOW has been active: 1967 Into the 1970s At the first NOW convention after the founding conference, 1967, members chose to focus on the Equal Rights Amendment, repeal of abortion laws, and public funding of child care. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) remained a major focus until the final deadline for ratification passed in 1982. Marches, beginning in 1977, tried to mobilize support; NOW also organized boycotts by organizations and individuals of events in states which had not ratified the ERA; NOW lobbied for a 7-year extension in 1979 but the House and Senate only approved half of that time. NOW also focused on legal enforcement of provisions of the Civil Rights Act that applied to women, helped conceive and pass legislation inluding the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978), worked for repeal of abortion laws and, after Roe v. Wade, against laws that would restrict abortions availability or a pregnant womans role in choosing abortion. In the 1980s In the 1980s, NOW endorsed presidential candidate Walter Mondale who nominated the first woman candidate for VP of a major party, Geraldine Ferraro. NOW added activism against policies of President Ronald Reagan, and began to be more active on issues of lesbian rights. NOW also filed a federal civil suit against groups attacking abortion clinics and their leaders, resulting in a 1994 Supreme Court decision in NOW v. Scheidler. In the  1990s In the 1990s, NOW remained active on issues including economic and reproductive rights, and also became more visibly active on issues of domestic violence. NOW also created a Women of Color and Allies Summit, and took aim at the fathers rights movement as part of NOWs activism on issues of family law. In the  2000s+ After 2000, NOW worked to oppose the Bush administrations strategies on issues of womens economic rights, reproductive rights, and marriage equality. In 2006, the Supreme Court removed the NOW v. Scheidler protections that kept abortion clinic protesters from interfering with patients access to the clinics. NOW also took on issues of Mothers and Caregivers Economic Rights and the interface between disability issues and womens rights, and between immigration and womens rights. In 2008, NOWs Political Action Committee (PAC) endorsed Barack Obama for president. The PAC had endorsed Hillary Clinton in March, 2007,  during the primary.  The organization had not endorsed a candidate in the general election since the 1984 nomination of Walter Mondale for President and Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President. NOW also endorsed President Obama for a second term in 2012.  NOW continued to put pressure on President Obama on womens issues, including for more appointments of women and especially women of color.   In 2009, NOW was a key supporter of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed by President Obama as his first official act. NOW was also active in the struggle to keep contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Issues of economic security, right to marry for same-sex couples, immigrant rights, violence against women, and laws limiting abortions and requiring ultrasounds or extraordinary health clinic regulations continued to be on NOWs agenda.  NOW also became active on new activity to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).