Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management

Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management Corporate social responsibility (CSR), is also known as corporate responsibility, responsible business or corporate social performance, is a form of self regulation for the company. It acts as an autonomous mechanism whereby the business supervises its actions and guarantees adherence to law, ethical standard and international norms. The business is accountable for the results of its actions on the environment, employees, consumers, stakeholders and the community as a whole. CSR is a purposeful addition of public interest into corporate decision making. Managers face pressures to devote the resources of the company towards fulfillment of CSR which is a result of the demands of various stakeholder groups such as customers, suppliers, employees, stockholders and the local community. According to Doane D, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become the mainstream prescription by business and governments for dealing with social and environmental ills. It is a voluntary form of self-regulation that aims to tackle everything from human rights and labour standards to limiting carbon dioxide emissions that lead to climate change. But because CSR ultimately lies within the framework of markets, and requires market-based incentives for companies to invest in such programmes, it ultimately falls prey to the vagaries of the market. (Doane, 2004, p. 215) Human resource management on the other hand refers to the management of the human resource of the organisation. human resource management plays a major part in training and conditioning the employees to fit into the organisations culture. Employees gain valuable attributes that help them perform effectively and efficiently to benefit the employers. The human resource of the firm when managed properly can prove to be valuable assets and help in gaining competitive advantage over the other firms. The human resource is not substitutable or duplicable and hence gives the company a distinctive edge over its competitors. Companies like to create a public image wherein they are viewed as a responsible part of society. They wish to, in their own way, fulfill the duties and responsibilities of a model citizen. Companies like to refer to themselves as corporate citizens, or even good corporate citizens. A review of company websites and codes of conduct presents examples such as: ABN Amro We are a responsible institution and a good corporate citizen, Boeing Good corporate citizenship is a key Boeing value, Hitachi The Hitachi Company strives to be a responsible corporate citizen in communities worldwide. Shell To conduct business as a responsible corporate member of the society. (Jeurissen, 2004:87) Some examples of CSR actions include going beyond legal requirements in adopting progressive human resource management programs, developing non-animal testing procedures, re-cycling, abating pollution, supporting local businesses, and embodying products with social attributes or characteristics. (McWilliams Siegel, 2001: 117) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is gradually becoming a leading issue in business. A growing number of companies embraces the concept and feels the need to make clear what it actually means. They take a variety of initiatives all aimed at making sense of CSR. (Cramer, Jonker, van der Heijden, 2004: 215) A company needs to be sensitive to the social, political and legal environment as it is dependent on the elements of each of these in order to be able to survive, let alone flourish. For the better part of 30 years now, corporate executives have struggled with the issue of the firms responsibility to its society. Early on it was argued by some that the corporations sole responsibility was to provide a maximum financial return to shareholders. It became quickly apparent to everyone, however, that this pursuit of financial gain had to take place within the laws of the land. Though social activist groups and others throughout the 1960s advocated a broader notion of corporate responsibility, it was not until the significant social legislation of the early 1970s that this message became indelibly clear as a result of the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). (Carroll) The pressure on firms to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has increased. Many managers have responded to these pressures, but many have resisted. Those who resist typically have invoked the trade-off between socially responsible behavior and profitability (McWilliams Siegel, Corporate Social Responsibility nad Financial Performance: Correlation or Misspecification?, 2000:607) Expectations of stakeholders not only relate to the direct transactions between parties, they now expect management to participate in the debate on societal problems (e.g. unemployment, poverty, infrastructure) and proactively think about the effects of the business on society at large. (Kok, Van Der Wiele, McKenna, Brown, 2001:285) The economic and social purpose of the corporation is to create and distribute increased wealth and value to all its primary stakeholder groups, without favoring one group at the expense of others. Wealth and value are not defined adequately only in terms of increased share price, dividends, or profits. (Clarkson, 1995, p. 112) Managers can no longer be held responsible for maximizing returns to shareholders at the expense of other primary stakeholder groups. Instead, managers are now accountable for fulfilling the firms responsibilities to its primary stakeholder groups. This means that managers must resolve the inevitable conflicts between primary stakeholder groups over the distribution of the increased wealth and value created by the corporation. Resolving conflicting interests fairly requires ethical judgment and choices. (Clarkson, 1995, p. 112) When it comes to the question whether corporate social responsibility and human resource management are linked they certainly are. One of the major responsibility of the organisation is to keep their employees happy and to treat them in an appropriate manner, the employees in turn perform better and the organisation earns profit. The money earned by the organisation as profits are utilised to carry out responsibility of the organisation towards the employees and the community. The issue of business ethics and social responsibility is thus becoming a theme for organisations which are serious in their approach towards business excellence (Fisscher, 1994; Buban, 1995; Nakano, 1999). Kok mail IMP According to Woods, definition of corporate social performance (CSP) is not entirely satisfactory (wood, 1991). The definition of corporate social responsibility in itself is not well explained and its link to human resource management cannot be confirmed. However, as we know that corporate social responsibility of a firm refers to the firms acknowledment of its responsibility to the community and its members and the society as a whole, it can be said that human resouce management and corporate social responsibility are linked as employees constitute of the integral part of the organisation and also members of the society. Hence, organisations to call themselves responsible corporate citizens they need to focus their attention on the human resource they possess and be sensible to their needs. In the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) guidelines to Multinational Enterprises, it outlines few guidelines in the General Policy for the employees of the organisation in the country they are operating. Few policies relating to the employees for the enterprise are: Respect the human rights of those affected by their activities consistent with the host governments international obligations and commitments. Encourage human capital formation, in particular by creating employment opportunities and facilitating training opportunities for employees. Promote employee awareness of, and compliance with, company policies through appropriate dissemination of these policies, including through training programmes. Refrain from discriminatory or disciplinary action against employees who make bona fide reports to management or, as appropriate, to the competent public authorities, on practices that contravene the law, the Guidelines or the enterprises policies. (OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises) To carry out the policies underlines the Human Resource management should play an active role and these policies should be accepted. The OECD mandates economic, environmental and social issues and for companies to who aspire to be good corporate citizens have to abide by the policies and this implies that there is a link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management. Ethical issues with regard to employment are one of the major elements of corporate social responsibility. The human resources of a company may be internal to the company in theory. However, the employees of a company are a part of the society within which it functions. It is therefore, in the best interest of the company to take into consideration, the needs of its own employees and lay just as much emphasis on the satisfaction of its own human resource as it does on that of its customers. HRM can, therefore, be linked to corporate social responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is typically defined as actions on the part of the firm that signal their willingness to advance the goals of stakeholder groups. It is the most important issue in this period of time to achieve competence in the changed world to get the dynamic equilibrium. Achieving competitive success through people involves fundamentally altering how managers think about the workforce and the employment relationship. Firms that take this different perspective are often able to successfully outmanoeuvre and outperform their rivals. (Chang, 2009) IS THE LINK BETWEEN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT REALISTIC Furthermore, in the current climate of restructuring and redundancies, companies are finding themselves more and more hard pressed for fulfilling and living up to their economic commitments. In such a scenario, companies are cutting costs by downsizing operations. This results in them having to let go of a large number of employees. As simple as it sounds, society as whole has now turned its attention towards how companies treat their employees during times when resources are hard to come by. Companies are viewed as beneficial or detrimental to society based on whether or not they can fulfill their legal and social obligations towards their own employees. It has, in fact, become more important for companies to fulfill their corporate social responsibility with respect to HRM in order to come out of the entire economic crisis with their reputations intact or even enhanced. RESTUCTURING AND REDUNDANCIES Corporate restructuring is defined as a period of multiple divestitures for larger multiproduct firms where at least 10 percent of the asset base of such firms was divested. (Hoskisson Johnson, 1992, p. 625). Restructuring refers to the change in the structure, operations or ownership of the organisation. It a fundamental change in the direction and strategy of the organisation. Restructuring may involve increasing or decreasing the layers of personnel between the top and bottom, or reassigning roles and responsibilities. Corporate restructuring includes mergers, acquisitions, take- over, tender offers etc. an organisation seeks to restructure itself as a consequence of poor performance and this results in closure of many part of the business and the outplacement or letting go of personnel. Three types of corporate restructuring trans-actions occur: (1) financial restructuring including recapitalizations, stock repurchases, and changes in capital structure; (2) portfolio restructuring involving divestment and acquisitions and refocusing on core business(es), resulting in change of the diversity of businesses in the corporate portfolio; and (3) operational restructuring including retrenchment, reorganization, and changes in business level strategies. These three types of restructuring are not mutually exclusive; and in fact, frequently occur together. (Gibbs, 1993, p. 51) Redundancies refer to the dismissal of employee by the employer. Lay- offs and job loss are very frequent in the current economic climate where many countries are hit by recession and organisations are compelled to let go of the major workforce in order to sustain and as business is not good at the current climate having many employees is only increasing costs of the organisation and they are left with no other option than to let go of their employees. When economies face credit crunch and this being an external factor, the organisations are left with no other option than to make some of their employees redundant this is the part of human resource management where companies in order to survive have to adapt very quickly and also act wisely. Recently many organisations had let go of a major part of their workforce, the workers were made redundant by organisation. Although there is a link between Human Resource management and corporate social responsibility, the link does not seem to be realistic in the current climate of restructuring and redundancies. Organisations are becoming leaner and meaner by the day. There are different examples to support this. Companies in order to survive have made a number of employees redundant or they choose another path of restructuring which also results in downsizing the operations of the company which ultimately results in employees losing their jobs. This is an outcome of the economic condition or can also be a result of organisations intension to work on towards becoming HUGE And in this course leave behind the employees who dont seem to be beneficial to the company and are not productive. Organisations change their policies due to external factors, like during the last economic downturn many companies were laying off their staff. Downsizing in companies like Citigroup, the CEO Vikram Pandit announced layoff of 50,000 employees i.e. 7% reduction in the overall workforce as the credit crunch took a toll on the financial giant resulting in panic across the company. The layoffs were due to the economic situation of the country and nothing could be done by the company than to cut off employees to survive in that market situation. Under the same circumstances Jet Airways, one of the leading companies of civil aviation in India, fired 1100 employees after the economic disaster. The employees protested against the insensitive decision taken by the companys Chairman Naresh Goyal. However shortly, the employees were taken back into the company due to political pressure put on him. The survey was conducted among top level and financial managers of Estonian companies. The managers were asked to what extent the company has cut or intend to cut the basic salaries and what other cost- cutting strategies have been implemented in the organisation. According to the results of the express survey AS PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted among the leading Estonian companies and organisations, 2/3 of the surveyed companies have made employees redundant and 1/3 have reduced basic salaries in the last 6 months. Nearly half of the respondents have cut performance pay and other monetary and non-monetary benefits. 2/3 of the companies have reduced or are about to reduce the number of employees, while nearly 1/3 have introduced part-time work or forced leave. (Lehtsaar, 2009) The results of the survey show that 66% of the respondents have made their employees redundant or are planning to do it in the nearest future. 36% of these companies have lain off employees at all levels of the organisation out of which 26% have mostly laid off unskilled employees and 6% specialists and members of management. 34% of the respondents have not reduced and are not planning to significantly reduce the number of employees in the nearest future. According to an article written in November 2008, the month of November have been fierce for the job market, almost 15000 announced job cuts from a number of companies across several industries. Eight companies announced job cuts as a means of cutting cost during desperate times. The industries ranged from retail, finance, leisure, pharmaceutical and toy and automobile manufacturing. The Labour Department reported that the U.S. economy sloughed nearly 1.2 million jobs through October. Just in the month of October, the economy lost 240,000 jobs, raising the unemployment rate to 6.5%. Circuit City (CC, Fortune 500), an electronics retailer based in Richmond, Va., kicked off the week by announcing on Monday that it was reducing its domestic workforce by 17%. The company would not comment on the number of employees that would be affected, but according to a recent 10K filing, Circuit City employs about 43,000 people in the U.S. That would mean roughly 7,300 positions are being lost, the biggest of the cuts in November so far. (Smith, 2008) The Connecticut-based insurer Hartford Financial (HIG, Fortune 500) reported 500 cuts. (Smith, 2008) Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) was the most recent to announce job cuts, with 2,600 cuts announced on Friday. The battered auto maker said it was trying to hold on to its dwindling cash reserves as it reported a $3 billion operating loss for the third quarter. (Smith, 2008) In November 2008 companies like Circuit city, Hartford Financial, Glaxo, Fidelity, Mattel, Borgata Hotel Casino, La-A-Boy and Ford cut down jobs which summed up to almost 15000. These companies work in different industries and all have laid off their employees this directly shows that the economic downturn has affected these companies and in order to sustain they have opted to let go of a number of employees from their company. According to a study conducted by the human resources consultancy SD Worx, half of the companies located in Belgium expect to undertake restructuring during 2009. The companies expressing this view are mainly large organisations employing more than 500 employees and many are internationally owned. Domestic companies and small and medium-sized enterprises seem to be less concerned by restructuring processes. (Perin, 2009) The global economic crisis led to negative results for the Belgian economy in 2008. Furthermore, the Belgian central bank expects worse result for 2009. Between December 2008 and December 2009, a slowdown of 1.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected, as well as an increase in the unemployment rate from 7.1% to 7.8%. The Central Bank forecasts a loss of 58,000 jobs in 2009. The human resource consultancy SD Worx recently published a study on corporate restructuring in the Belgian market between 2006-2009 and over the last three years 41% of the companies located in Belgium undertook a restructuring process. Unemployment in vulnerable sectors is increasing, with major consequences for qualified and unqualified manual workers. Moreover, the economic crisis also concerns other types of workers. Between the second and third quarters of 2008, the Federal Public Service of Economy, SMEs, Self-employed and Energy noted a 25.3% increase in the total number of unemployed people, while the unemployment rate of workers aged between 15 and 24 years rose substantially by 78.1%. It should be noted that September always leads to an increase in the unemployment rate of young workers as they finish school and enter the labour market. (Perin, 2009) Ciscos second quarter conference call, CEO John Chambers seemed intent on not doing what nearly every big tech company (except Apple) has done in recent weeks: announce layoffs. But while there has been no across-the-board cut, the company has shed up to 1,000 employees through realignment and restructuring efforts over the past six quarters as the company focuses more resources on more promising growth markets. And the company expects 1,500 to 2,000 of its staffers to be similarly dis-employed in this manner in the months ahead. (Burrows, 2004) The distinction the company is making is to realign the people into the best prospect and cutting jobs in bad businesses, the company looks at it as a positive application that will bring out something good for the future. The company says that it has realigned $500 million in resources over the past few years and intends to realign another half a billion in the coming months. The companys total workforce consists of 67,000 people out of which there will be a few hundred job cuts per quarter. And Cisco management is clearly not looking to layoffs as the cost-cutting measure of first resort. Chambers says the company has already achieved a one-year goal to cut expenses by $1 billion (though some as a result of those job reductions), after just two quarters. One example: travel-related expenses per employees have dropped more than 50%.. (Burrows, 2004) In the examples given above, it clearly describes that the last economic downturn left scars on many companies performance and structure. Many companies restructured and redesigned their operations leading on to making many employees redundant. Letting go of employees of a firm is not an easy task to be done but in critical situations like this companies have to make harsh decisions be it downsising their operations and letting go of employees. Companies like Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Proctor and Gamble, Walt Disney, Motorola, IBM, Ford, Boeing and many others have cut off employees. The job cuts were although a tough decision to be made, the companies had to get it done. These companies prove to be good corporate citizens as company like Dell work towards betterment of the society and are sensitive to the environment as they are determined to be greenest technology company and achieved carbon neutrality in their global operations, the company also helps customers significantly increas e energy efficiency. And others like Microsoft, intel, Disney Motorola and other are good corporate citizens and have work towards the betterment of the society in their own ways but recently they all have laid off employees amking them redundant. This clearly shows that the link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management is not realistic in the current climate. CONCLUSION To conclude this, it can be said that there is a link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management. CSR works towards the well being of all the stakeholder of the company and is responsible for the actions taken by it towards them. Employees however being a part of the stakeholder group, the companies are responsible towards them and also because they form the integral part of the organisation. In addition to this the link between them is not realistic in the current climate of restructuring and redundancies. It is crucial for the company to maintain crucial competency and while countries are facing an economic downturn they have to act in the way they are. Holding on to the employees and continuously making loses will take the company nowhere and will do no good to either the company or the employees. However in the long run the company does act sensitive to its employees and works towards the empowerment and betterment of their employees along with the vari ous stakeholder group but in recent times and what the recent research has suggested that the link between Corporate Social Responsibility and Human resource management is not realistic. WORDCOUNT: 3705

Importance of and Benefits of E-Banking

Importance of and Benefits of E-Banking E Banking The usage of e banking by the enterprises came into existence in mid 90s.e banking came into existence in greater numbers because of low operating costs. First it is in the form of ATMs and phone transactions. Recently it transformed to internet a new channel between customers and banks which benefits both. The main aim of e- banking services is to provide the customers a much faster services with low cost. From the last twenty years, banking sector has chosen a new method of banking based on the progress of information technology. In addition to these customers, transaction and communication abilities are fastened based on information technology. The progress of electronic banking started with use of automatic teller machines and afterwards it developed to online banking. In the future it will be done in mobile phones(wap-enabled).Anyway online banking continues to be the best for financial transactions. IMPORTANCE OF E-BANKING: E banking provides many advantages for banks and customers .e-banking has made life much easier and banking much faster for both customers and banks. Main advantages are as follows. It saves time spent in banks It provides ways for international banking. It provides banking throughout the year 24/7 days from any place have internet access. It provides well-organized cash management for internet optimization It provides convenience in terms of capital, labour, time all the resources needed to make a transaction. Taking advantage of integrated banking services, banks may compete in new markets, can get new customers and grow their market share. It provides some security and privacy to customers, by using state-of-the-art encryption and security technologies. What is e-banking? Electronic funds transfer means computer systems are used to perform financial transactions electronically. The EFT is used for electronic payments and customer initiated transactions where the cardholder pays using credit or debit card. The transaction types are, Withdrawal,deposit,interaccount transfer ,inquiry, administrative transactions that covers non financial transactions including PIN change. Electronic Fund Transfer transactions needs authorisation and a means to match the card and card holder.EFT transactions require the cardholders PIN to sent online in encrypted form for validation by the issuer of the card.Other information may include the card holders address or the CVV2 security value printed on the card. Electronic funds transfer transactions are activated during e-banking procedures.The different methods of e-banking are Online banking Short message service banking Telephone banking Mobile banking Interactive -TV banking Of all the above procedures online banking plays an important role and maximum used by the account holders.now,discussing the above one by one. Online banking: Online banking also called as internet banking, allows the customers to use all the banking services from a computer which has internet acess.The customer can perform financial transactions on a secure website operated by the bank. Online banking offers features such as bank statements, loan applications, funds transfer, e-bill payments and account aggregation allows customers to monitor all their accounts in one place. Telephone Banking: Telephone banking is a service provided by the banks which provides customers to perform transactions on phone.All the telephone banking systems uses automated answering system with keypad response or voice recognition capability.To prove their identity coustomers must provide a numeric or verbal password or answering the questions asked by the call center representative.In telephone banking coustomer cannt withdraws and deposits cash but can do all the other transactions. Mostly there will be a coustomer care representative to which the customers speak ,although this feature is not guaranteed.The coustomer care representatives are trained to do what are available at the branch like chequebook orders,address change,debit card replacements. Sms Banking: SMS banking is a service permitting banks to do selected banking services from the users mobile by the sms messaging.SMS banking services have push and pull messages.Push messages are sent by the banks for alerting coustomer about new offers,marketing messages,alerts to events happening in coustomers account such as large amount of withdrawals from ATM or credit card etc. Pull messages are those that are sent by the coustomer to bank for having some information or to perform a transaction in their account.Examples include account balance enquiry,requesting for current exchange rates and for new offers that are launched. The coustomer has a choice to select the list of services he need to be informed.This can be done by integrating to internet banking or speaking to the coustomer care representative of the bank call centre. Interactive -TV banking: Interactive TV is a sevice that allows users to interact with TV content as they view it.It is also called as iTV or idTV.If the coustomer subscribes to a cable television service some banking facilities like balance enquiry,funds transfer between accounts ,bills payment are made available all the way through TV.Most of the major banks in UK have experimented banking services through cable and satellite TV companies. Some of the Statistics are : Half of the coustomers registering for online banking are giving up before signing up. 10% people who used internet banking services gave up due to poor usability or security concerns. In 2001 ,1/3 rd of the top European banks offered some form of interactive TV banking. In 2004 it is approximated that there were ten million users of interactive-TV based banking services in Europe . In 2007,the estimated number of Europeans using internet banking is 130 million 88% of e-banking users visit their banking websites as a at least once a week It is estimated that 35% of online banking households will be using mobile banking by 2010. By 2011 it is predicted that 80% of the bank customers in UK will use the internet to connect to their bank. Problems encountered by disabled people and the ageing population using e-banking Physically Impaired: The people with physical impairments who are using telephone banking finds hard to hold and activate the buttons.People with physical disability can not have proper control on hands and arms therefore it is difficult to use mouse effectively so using the banking website becomes a problem. Hearing impaired: People with hearing impairments require visual representation of the auditory information that is in the banking website. With increasing use of multimedia e.g vedio streaming the banking people should take care that these will be understood by the people having hearing problems. One of the straight farward way to make the banking site accessible to the hearing impaired people is to make the language simple particularly for BSL users for whom English is second language.so it si necessary to use a simple language and the inclusion of a glossary of banking terms. The people who are hearing impaired,canot use telephone banking.And the users of hearing aids will experience electromagnetic interference,from mobile phones.The radio signals from mobile telephones can arise humming and buzzing inside hearing aid. Blind and Partially sighted People having vision problems have a problem to insert the card into the ATM machine and typing their PIN .And people with vision problems can use online banking based on how the site is designed for the people with vision disabilities i.e blind people use browsers should with speech or Braille output which are text-based systems and should be browsed independent of graphics.The browser should have the option to vary the text size so that they can increase the font.The main problem for them is the graphics in the websites are not meaningful when they are accessing with a text browser And people with vision problems find hard to use telephone banking because of the decreasing in the size of mobile phones.Due to the compact size of mobiles people with low sight find hard to use the small keypads and smaller screens.And some people are unable to distinguish colour combinations used in mobile keypads and screens. And mailed notifications regarding e-banking are inaccessible to blind and people with low vision if they are not provide in alternate formats. Cognitively impaired The Banking websites with too many steps and unhelpful messages are difficult to browse for cognitively impaired people.The websites designed with complex page layouts,tables and navigation structures confuse these people and are become difficult to browse. And in telephone banking, mobile phones of latest technology are coming with so many features and complex operating systems.People with Cognitive disabilities find difficult to operate these kind of mobile phones People having dyslexia finds difficult to remember the PIN in the correct order and may enter incorrectly.So these people are prone to writing them down which lessens the security and can be misused. Age-related Impairments People as they age will experience so many changes in memory,eye sight,hearing and dexterity and they might not consider to have disabilities.These people will be benifited by the accessibility provisions that make websites accessible.People having age related eye sight may access the website by changing the text size.These people also finds difficult to use the mouse.Older people finds difficult to use mobiles having complex operating systems and too many options.

Educational Philosophy :: Education Teaching Teachers Essays

Educational Philosophy If you do not make a difference, then what have you made? This question has guided me in my pursuit of life, not simply my pursuit of a career. Simply put, the point is that being an educator is so much more than recording grades or getting a student through school. When a person begins to become educated, then that person’s life has begun. It starts as soon as we come into this world and continues throughout adulthood until we take our last breath. Education comes in all forms and from different forces. People can be influenced in several different ways, whether it was by friends on the streets or criminals made famous by the media, or a teacher who took the time to care. In each of those cases, an educational force of some sort got through to them. I want to teach. I want to guide. I want to be a role model. Most importantly, I want to make a difference. Looking back at my high school days, the period in my life when I had no clue of what path I wanted to follow, I can recognize the direction that began its pull on me. Before I understood that Socrates was more than a name, philosophy was slyly pulling me towards the path I am now on. I remember several times just standing and looking at my fellow students. I would stare and try to imagine 5, 10, 15 years down the road. What would become of them? Who would be a doctor, a lawyer, dentist, actor/actress? Then it hit me. Who would end up in jail? How many would grow up to become criminals and lead a life of crime? These thoughts seemingly came out of the blue and to this day I am not sure why I thought of such things at the time. Regardless of the reason, it was at that point that I began my journey towards becoming an educator, towards making a difference. I consider my philosophy to be an eclectic blend of several different theories and philosophies. But by far I like the Socratic method the best. Personally, I feel I am able to learn to my full potential by using it. Learning by asking questions makes sense to me and I think if I apply this method to my teaching goals that I will be successful.

The Second World War (WWII) Essay -- World War 2 II Two

World War I has often been referred to as the â€Å"Great War.† This is a rather deceiving statement being that over 65 million men fought, and over 37 million men died in a war that lasted 4 years. World War I was, also, referred to as the â€Å"War to end all Wars.† Yet, 20 years later that statement would no longer be true as WWII erupted in 1939. When WWI ended with no real purpose served, it became apparent that a peace conference needed to occur and that someone had to pay reparations for the damage done. So, many representatives from different European and North American countries met and formed the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty was harsh and punishing towards Germany, whom the rest of Europe felt was to blame for the war. However, the question asked at that time, and still today, is who is to blame for the â€Å"Great War† that is known for its great destruction to a generation? Many historians would agree that Germany was solely to blame for World War I. They would argue that Germany brought other countries (mainly Britain) into the war by invading neutral Belgium. They would, also, argue that by invading Belgium, Germany exercised a nine year old war plan to attack France. The move was offensive by Germany and therefore France and Britain were just defending their allies. Germany was again blamed for the repercussions of World War I because of their shady past with France. In 1870, Germany and the Prussian Empire defeated a highly confident French army. From this period on un...

Origin Of Surnames :: essays research papers

Origins of Surnames   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today’s society we all want to know who we are and where our names originated from. Our names are what give each of us our own style and individuality, the importance of style and individuality can be related back to our original surnames. Our surnames have come from all areas of the world, each with specific meanings to our family. Surnames or last names have an important meaning to all of us, they give us identity through our family’s history. Looking back into history our names have changed drastically, keeping some people from knowing how their surnames really originated. Surnames originated early in history and did so for many reasons.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first knowledge of surnames was in the biblical times, they used names that went by geography, for example â€Å" Corey of Carlisle.† The actual use of surnames originated in Europe, and in some Scandinavian areas, in the eleventh and fifteenth century by small villages. The reason that no surnames were used before this time was the fact that most people were illiterate, living in small villages in a country atmosphere. Living out in the country these people had no reason to learn to read or write, because their lives were lived off the land. They did not need surnames to signify who they we’re or what they did. In these small villages they went by their first names, people all had different first names, so they did not need surnames to tell people apart. But when the population of the villages grew, it became important to have surnames to identify two people with the same name. The use of surnames showed social class, culture, tradition and, the jobs they worked.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The forming of surnames first came from other names by which someone was called. The name â€Å"Johnson† originated from â€Å"the son of John,† and the same goes with my last name â€Å"Richardson.† In some countries they would use their mothers first name for a surname, such as â€Å"Paige.† Jimmy Paige, from the band Led Zeppelin, could say his surname originated this way. Other origins of surnames came from places and geographical names. The surname â€Å"England† or â€Å"Penn† show this quality. Obviously England is a country and Penn is shortened from Pennsylvania. Surnames like â€Å"Smith† ( as in blacksmith ) and â€Å"Carpenter† ( one who works with wood ) come from the jobs that these people held.

Soil and Water

When I was researching for this essay explaining what soil and water conservation means to me, I found two quotes that really stuck out to me. One written by Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, â€Å"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. †, and another that was written by an unknown author read, â€Å"Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. † I am not sure about you, but I love the life I live. Where would we be without soil and water? We wouldn’t be that’s the thing. Many people could care less about saving our soil and water, but they do not understand that soil is the base to everything, and water is a mixture that is inside everything, even you. An average adult human body is composed of about 55 to 65 percent water, and soil is in fact both the direct and indirect form of food. It is the base of every living thing; soil has everything depending on it. Think about it, you eat steak that comes out of a pasture right? Well, that cow gets its nutrients from grass, feed, and water. That grass and feed gets its nutrients from the soil, which has to be watered to grow that grass and feed. Until the last couple months the state of Texas has been in a severe drought since 2005. In 2006, farmers in south Texas lost an amazing amount of 87% of their crops losing about 34. 3 million dollars. That damaged those people’s wallets, especially if they were commercial farmers raising crops to sell to big industries, which will later be put on the average Americans table. Then, when rice farmers would go to the Lower Colorado River Authority to get water irrigated into their rice fields, there would either not be any water or only be enough for one of the two usual crops they plant every year. Even though it has been raining like crazy lately in Texas, those severe drops in lakes and rivers has not been renewed. Now, the big debate is, is there a thing as global warming? Depending on what side you are on you have a different perspective of how we can conserve water. Simple things you do everyday change the climate, which affects the amount of water we have, and the amount of ice bergs melting every day. Now wouldn’t it be nice to have soil and water a little bit longer?

Informal Essay

I received an education from elementary school through college in Shanghai, China. As Shanghai is an international city, its education authorities greatly value the importance of English learning and English is thus one of the mandatory subjects taught beginning in elementary school. Chinese students can score high marks and even outscore native English speakers on tests such as the GRE and GMAT, but on writing sections, Chinese students’ performance lags far behind the average. Why does this happen?What should be the proper teaching strategy in an ESL/EFL writing classroom? This paper shares my perspectives on English writing, teaching, and learning, based on my own experiences. My English writing classes started in middle school. Before that, my English classes mostly emphasized the teaching of vocabulary and grammar. However, even though I was now a middle school student, English writing was still not treated as an important part of English learning. There was no separate E nglish writing class.Once or twice every month, my English teacher would give us a 40-minute English writing lecture. The ironic thing is, as I see it today, this lecture was still more of a reading class than a writing class, because most of the time my teacher would assign us a certain amount of reading, ask us to underline the sentences we thought were â€Å"good† and write them into our notebooks. Although I agree that reading is the foundation of writing, I disapprove of this way of teaching writing.In my second year of middle school, teachers started to â€Å"formally† teach writing. We would be given certain simple topics to write about such as â€Å"The most unforgettable thing in your life† or â€Å"My family†. To begin the writing task, my teacher would first read several examples and carefully help the class analyze why each composition was excellent and explain what we should be aware of when writing about this topic. Another thing worth menti oning is that these examples were usually assigned as rote learning.The only criteria for a composition included length, absence of spelling or grammar mistakes, and the use of new vocabulary. As we can see, the content of the compositions was completely overlooked; instead, grammar and vocabulary alone still played the key roles in our writing education. Limiting the scope of this paper, I will not continue on with a summary of my high school and college English writing education, because I believe these early xperiences already suffice to represent the usual methods of teaching writing in China. Today, whenever I reflect on my past learning experiences in writing, I meet with some difficult emotions. I can say I am a skilled writer in my native language, but I still lack confidence in English writing. I feel I am a victim of English education in China because I always have a hard time outputting what is in my mind with decent English. Whenever that difficulty arises, I feel awful, as if I am linguistically and cognitively deficient.Also, having been educated for so long in China, where repeatedly writing model compositions is the fundamental approach in improving writing, another weakness of my writing is its lack of creativity and critical thinking. My thoughts are restricted into a limited space and I am just accustomed to recalling whatever is already filed in my repertoire of writing expressions, drawn from those model compositions. One year ago, I enrolled in a GRE writing course in Shanghai to prepare for my GRE test in which the only materials handed out were two books.One was a 28-page book with all kinds of model sentences this organization had arranged in a list, and the second was a thick book covering all the likely topics (about 130 topics in all) to be tested in the GRE writing section with sample compositions. Although the instructor offered some insightful writing skills, the implication was obvious to everyone—for those unable to writ e a composition themselves, just repeat the sample sentences and compositions; hopefully, the topic you are tested on happens to be the one you have learned by rote.Having undergone these frustrations and confusions in English writing, I realized that good English writing skills do not come from popular writing instruction books, no matter how appealing the titles—whether â€Å"Learn to Write in 10 Minutes,† or â€Å"Be a Writing King,† one cannot develop into a skilled writer by simply memorizing the tips they offer or memorizing the sentences they list. You can never become a skilled writer by only recalling sample compositions, or even by focusing only on correct grammar and spelling.From my own experience, I do benefit from reading books and newspapers written by native English speakers and recording the brilliant sentences or ideas from these resources. This might be the only aspect of the Chinese English education system I applaud, and I still keep this ha bit today. However, it should never be the sole method of learning. The second strategy I recommend to ESL writing students is to reject whatever appears first in their mind when searching for writing resources, because this might also be another’s first choice.Seven out of ten students might choose Marie Curie for the topic â€Å"Female Scientists;† erase the thought of Marie Curie and instead choose Ada Byron or Rosalind Franklin. You need to think carefully in order to make your compositions outstanding from others’ and leave your readers with a lasting impression. In my opinion, not everyone can produce the superior sentences or command the vast vocabulary of Mark Twain, but we can certainly distinguish ourselves by our content.Having practiced English writing for several years, I think the two most salient differences from my Chinese writing style and English writing style are the writing tone and the method of organizing a composition. Chinese writing styl es are typically reserved while American styles are more often straightforward. Chinese people pursue collectivism while Americans value individualism. To most Chinese, maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships is vitally important.Moreover, the Chinese government exerts invisible power over people through words, so people are cautious in expressing their opinions in order to avoid unnecessary trouble. As a result, My Chinese writing style is relatively more tactful than my English writing. I tend to call for the collective good in the last sentence of my Chinese compositions. In contrast, when I write in English, I prefer to express my voice without worrying about breaking harmony with others because I know individual rights are highly recognized in Western society.The second difference between my Chinese writing and English writing is the method of organizing compositions. The basic English composition structure follows the pattern of introduction-body-conclusion while th e Chinese structure is characterized as beginning-following-turning-concluding, which is the same as the Japanese style. The turning section is expected to be surprising, and the whole composition reaches its climax at this point. This also is related to what I have mentioned above—collectivism and individualism.When writing in Chinese, I like to make my writing beautiful, lively and ornate for my readers. In other words, I feel I have responsibility for my readers and hope they will regard reading my writings as an enjoyment. However, when writing in English, all I think about is how to make my ideas clear to my readers. From my personal experiences of learning and writing in English, I can see what an influential role culture plays in writing in a second language. My students might come from different cultural backgrounds and hold different beliefs.These all have a great influence over both what they write and how they write. As an ESL instructor, I think my job is not simp ly to teach them to comply with the Western way of writing and tell them to reject their original ways of writing. Instead, I think what is valuable for ESL instructors to know is how to guide our students toward writing truly excellent compositions. Their writing must be clear enough to be appreciated by the Western world, but should also maintain the cultural characteristics of their native language writing, because multiculturalism enriches our writing, bringing it color and vibrancy.