Lessons taught by Sonny and Cher Essay Example for Free

Lessons taught by Sonny and Cher Essay My parents to me have always been well, mom and dad. We lived in a world of routine where mornings would be filled with rushed breakfasts of bagels, cereal, coffee and juice. A hurried hi mom and dad, bye mom and dad! was all I could squeeze out while grabbing some toast before heading out the door. Dinner conversations were usually Hows school? and Fine. I had just entered high school then and I had many important things on the days agenda. I never quite realized how much my fixation on everything me, myself and I almost led me to miss out on knowing two of the most remarkable people Ive ever had the honor of knowing. I came home from school early one afternoon to find my mom leafing through some albums in the den. She mustnt have heard me come in for she fairly jumped out of her skin when I asked her what she was doing. Oh geez! You scared me! she said. These albums? Oh nothing, I was just looking at some photos of your dad and I from the old days. I picked up one album and was surprised to find myself staring at a photo of mom and dad dressed as Sonny and Cher at what looked like a Halloween party†¦the shocking thing was that Dad was the one dressed as Cher. Sure, I know how normal it is for some couples to dress up like that for costume parties and all but you see, my parents were not like that (at least I thought they werent. ) Here was a guy who was usually hidden behind the morning paper at breakfast and was usually quietly parked in front of the evening news after dinner dressed in a long blond wig and shiny dress. It was†¦well, shocking! Mom must have noticed some reaction in me for she cocked her head at me and with a quizzical eyebrow asked Whats the matter? You look like youve seen a ghost! Is that really you and dad? I asked Yep, and believe me, it took a lot of effort to find a dress that fit your dad, mom said blushing to the roots of her graying hair. Sensing my incredulity, she looked at me and grinned What? Oh come on, you didnt really think we started life on this earth as mom and dad did you? Well, yeah! I said. Oh all right, that may have sounded a bit stupid but hey, I think its a fairly normal thought for kids who come into this world and knowing people a just mom or dad. I spent the rest of the afternoon with mom leafing through the rest of the albums. I dont know if it was just beautiful weather outside or maybe the effect of afternoon sunlight filtering through the window shades but it seemed to me that mom looked younger and certainly more relaxed as we drank the Kool-aid she prepared and munched on some cookies while we looked at some more pictures. She showed me albums from her and dads college days. I never knew that dad actually played basketball in college or that mom was one of those hippies with long fringed vests and flowing hair. Looking at dad with his very proper business attire and glasses and mom whose hair has always been neatly pulled back since I could remember, I could hardly make the connection between them and the two grinning faces on the photographs. Another things is that while I knew my parents loved each other, to sit there and look at photos of a younger mom smiling up at my dads face just brought made that love real for me. I asked Dad seems to be a lot of fun in those days. How come he seems so serious now? What happened? Honey, nothing changed. You are hardly ever around to observe us let alone talk to us, mom pointed out. Perhaps Dad may seem quiet in those times that you are around but believe me, hes still got that devilish sense of humor I fell in love with and married him for. Maybe if you spent a little more time with us rather than talking on the phone or rushing out of the house, youd get to know us more, she added. Ouch. That evening I watched Dad as he prepared to take his usual place in front of the TV. He must have sensed something was up for he looked up at me and asked, What are you skulking around in the dark for? Out with it. Clutching the Sonny and Cher photo in my hand, I timidly made my way to him and held out the picture. Dad, I said. Is that really you? He stared at the picture gravely and let out a huge sigh. Yeah, that was me†¦and boy do I remember how much the high heels that went with that crazy dress cut into my feet! and he just burst out laughing. A giggling mom soon joined us and they regaled me with stories of how that particular party went and how moms sonny beard kept slipping and falling into her wine. Dad was laughing himself silly as he recounted the horror on his dads face as he came down the stairs of their home with the long wig, strappy heels, false lashes and all. I thought the old man was going to have a heart attack! Dad managed to get in between snickers. I dont think Ive ever seen my dad so animated or mom so carefree before that night. Since that day, I began to look at my parents in a different light. I realized that I have forgotten how my parents were actually two unique individuals who had their own lives and personalities outside of their roles as mom and dad. I dont know if this was just because I was too prejudiced against the parental institution (as most teens are) or just too preoccupied with my own things to notice them. But that soon changed. From that day on, I started noticing small cues they shared such as mom having a special way of tucking her hair behind her ear whenever dad gave her a compliment and how dad would sort of twitch his nose when hes about to beg off from accompanying mom to the sales. I also observed how mom could be much easier to talk to in the mornings while dad would be grumpy until he has had his usual two cups of coffee for breakfast. Afternoons would see mom winding down while dad would be more relaxed in the evenings. Since then I can honestly say that my relationship with my parents became much closer. While theyre still mom and dad, I learned to recognize and respect them for the individuals they are. I realize how people and personal identities can get so lost in the titles and roles that people play in life. Since what happened with my parents, Ive been able to look at other people I came in contact with as who and not what they are. I began to pay closer attention to people. For instance, I noticed how one cashier at the 7-11 near my house would pay extra attention to her elderly customers, always sending them off with their purchases with a smile†¦a smile that would be returned by the patrons whose day she has brightened up with that simple gesture. The doorman at one of the buildings I usually passed on my way to school would usually have a fresh flower at his lapel and would cheerily greet everyone And how are you doing today? I must admit that even I felt buoyed by such cheerfulness. Quite a few years have passed since that fateful day with the albums. My parents are looking more mature (mom would kill me if I said older) and some things in the old neighborhood have certainly changed. But I will never forget the valuable lesson that a simple photo has taught me in looking beyond the roles people play and recognizing people for the individuals that they are. I truly owe Sonny and Cher a lot.

It’s Time for Cities to Reject the Welfare Mentality :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

It’s Time for Cities to Reject the Welfare Mentality All over the nation-from New York to Los Angeles, from San Diego to Milwaukee-cities are on the rebound. Each successful city has accomplished its renaissance in its own particular way, with its own special twist. But if you look across the spectrum of flourishing cities, you can discern a clear set of principles that leads to urban health. To start with, there is a total rejection of the old municipal welfare state ideology, whose decades of failed policies led the nation's cities to the brink. Urban government, that idea went, was above all to achieve social justice and the uplift of the poor. It seemed to make sense: Cities always had big concentrations both of poor people to help and of wealth to tax. So cities piled on welfare benefits and social services, created huge bureaucracies to administer them, and taxed heavily to fund them. But things didn't work out as expected. With the information revolution, all those companies whose great skyscrapers made them look eternally rooted there no longer had to be in the cities to be near their suppliers, customers, or bankers. And global competition required them to get efficient and cut costs. No more could they justify paying high corporate income taxes, commercial rent taxes, inflated utility taxes. So the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in New York fell f rom 140 in 1947 to 31 now. And the new, smaller businesses that have generated all of the new jobs of the past decade or more never started up in many of the old cities. Result: A city like New York has created not one single net new job since World War II. Worse, the costly municipal welfare state turned out not to work. All the indicators are worse, not better, than when the whole rescue effort began. The inner city illegitimacy rate is way up, the urban high school graduation rate way down. The poverty rate hasn't dropped and, until the new-paradigm reforms, the welfare dependency rate had soared. All these billions of dollars made things worse, because, we learned, if communities don't make their citizens personally responsible for themselves and their families, but instead tell them they're victims, they will become dependent and demoralized. If the welfare state tells people that it's fine to have illegitimate children, that poverty excuses crime, that welfare payments are appropriate reparations for historical victimization, and that working in "dead-end" jobs for "chump change" is undignified-what can possibly result but illegitimacy, crime, welfare dependency, and non-work?

Manager And Leader Essay

Serious political and economical changes, which we experienced during the last 10 years, influenced not only psychology of a man, but basic tendencies of development in economical system as well. As a result of those changes, modern educational system must prepare managers, who will be effective in any enterprise. But the good manager should be a good leader, shouldn’t he? Is it really a big difference to be a manager and to be a leader? First of all, ‘manager’ is a person, who has legal power and usually regulates sphere of business relations, whereas ‘leader’ more often is informal person, who is the most influential individual in the sphere of emotional relations inside group. Leader can be the manager, but not always. A good manager should be a good leader (Stever Robbins, p.1). To be a manager, you need to have special skills, abilities and qualities. When you are a manager, you aren’t only a person, receiving tasks but you are a person, who should influence separate people and groups of people as well, stimulating them to work to achieve definite aim. He should act effectively, he should be a leader. Still, leader is a member of some group, who possesses the most valuable potential, which gives to him leading position in this group. First of all effective manager must show his qualities of leader. When manager becomes a leader, he executes his managerial functions (planning, organization, motivation, control, etc) through the prism of informal leader. Leadership is the most significant component of manager’s activity, which relates to ability to motivate and influence behavior of some definite workers and working team as a whole. Skills of communication and personal qualities of manager, corresponding to external and internal demands of group, can be the instruments of such influence. Being a manager means using more formal way of organizing people, whereas being a leader means having more emotional approach of influence (‘The Difference’, p.1). When manager gives orders, people obey to him (because he has legal authority), whereas leader in the group unites people (they follow him or his ideas by their own will and choice). Usually people are more loyal to leader, because he is more emotional. Works Cited: 1. The Difference Between Management And Leadership [online] http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/MENG/ME96/Documents/Intro/leader.html 2. Stever Robbins, The Difference Between Managing and Leading. Understanding people will help you make the shift from managing to leading a business. November 18, 2002 [online] http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,304743,00.html

Use Of Dsm 5 And Class Material Criteria On Diagnostic...

Use of DSM-5 and Class Material Criteria on Diagnostic Categories Exhibited in the Case Study Based on both the DSM-5 and the class material criteria, Kimmy s diagnosis of Asperger syndrome meant that it involved an exact number of items that were placed under the qualitative impairment headings, specifically in a social interaction, stereotyped, restrictive, and repetitive patterns of interests, behavior, and activities. The disturbance may have been caused by clinically essential impairments in occupational or social areas of the functioning. Sperry (2001) noted that there is no significant clinical delay in social language or developmental cognition. The criteria mentioned above in the case study are based on the age-appropriate self-skilled help, adaptive behavior, apart from social interaction and childhood curiosity. The criteria used for eligibility were met for the diagnosis of Kimmy’s Asperger syndrome, the following criteria: Evidence of the following: 1. The unequal developmental profile evidenced by the inconsistencies within or across social interaction includes language domain, cognitive skills, and adaptive behavior. 2. Kimmy s impairment in either verbal or nonverbal language came as a result of social communication skills, 3. And stereotyped patterns and/or restrictive, repetitive behaviors, activities, or interests, and, 4. Kimmy s need for special education defined by Sainsbury (2000). From the above diagnostic criteria used, especially the DSM-5,Show MoreRelatedAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most frequently diagnosed2400 Words   |  10 Pagestherapy, while 5 out of 10 (51%) report treatment or counseling from a mental health professional 8 out of 10 children receiving either medication for ADHD or mental health treatment was 82.5% 3 Definition ADHD is characterized by a pattern of behavior that must be present in multiple settings such as work, school or home. This pattern of behaviors can negatively impact performance across multiple environments including social, education, or work Symptoms are divided into two categories 1) inattentionRead MoreCollege Student Gambling: Examining the Effects of Gaming Education Within a College Curriculum15937 Words   |  64 Pagesgambling (N=201) and whether general gaming education can influence meaningful changes in college students’ gambling attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions. A group of college students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Casino Management class, received general gaming education while two comparison groups, one from the same university and one from Worcester State College, Massachusetts, did not. Assessment of the participants’ attitudes toward gambling, gambling fallacy perceptions, abilityRead MoreCauses and Effects of Internet Addi ction Among Students10456 Words   |  42 Pagesquestionnaire consisted of eight questions from Young’s Diagnostic Test for Internet Addiction (YDTIA) as well as an inventory including demographic factors and questions about academic performance, computer and Internet use. YDTIA had a good reliability and diagnostic accuracy, tested with Cronbach’s alpha (0.71) and sensitivity analysis. Results show that the percentage of IA (5-8 YDTIA criteria) is 11.6%, while problematic Internet users were (3-8 YDTIA criteria) 34.7%. Men were more likely to be addictedRead MorePsychological Trauma and Mental Health Institute Essay3938 Words   |  16 Pagesaspect that patients see as coping mechanisms for the post-traumatic stress disorder that they know little about. Post-traumatic stress and alcohol/substance abuse addiction often find themselves closely related due to the vast amount of individuals who use alcohol or other substances to treat the symptoms of PTSD. When a patien t takes on substance abuse, they no longer have one disorder to deal with, they have two. Patients and counselors alike have many different methods for trying to help those whoRead MoreUse Of Traditional Chinese Medicine During The Treatment Of Schizophrenia Essay7976 Words   |  32 Pages The Use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Treatment of Schizophrenia Shoanie Young Spring 2015 â€Æ' Part I: Biomedical Perspective Introduction Schizophrenia is a complex psychotic disorder evident by impaired thinking, emotions, judgment and behaviors. The person’s grasp of reality may be so disordered that they are unable to filter sensory stimuli and may have intense perceptions of sounds, colors, and other features of their environment. Although there are different levelsRead MoreChild Study - Educational Observation of Development of a 5th Grader6837 Words   |  28 PagesIntroduction Archie is a 10 year old in the fifth grade class here at Friends School. He’s attended this school from preschool until now, a total of seven years. He lives in the neighborhood and tends to be one of the first kids in the classroom every morning. In general he seems to be a happy child, smiling often. He has a tendency to be quite goofy at times and struggles with impulse control, often speaking out in class or being disruptive by talking or making jokes. This seems to stem fromRead More2301 Final Exam Workbook Essay6573 Words   |  27 Pagesresearch question, (2) design a study, (3) collect data, (4) analyze data, (5) draw conclusions, and (6) communicate findings. Identify the step associated with each of the following activities: _____ Dr. Lopez noted absent or present by each students name on his class roll at each class meeting. He recorded students exam scores on his roll sheet as well. _____ Dr. Lopez hypothesized that students who consistently attend class get higher grades than those who are absent more often. _____ Dr. LopezRead MoreLiterature Review on Autism Spectrum Disorders3442 Words   |  11 Pagesdoctors and other health professionals are becoming more aware of the criteria for these disorders, and are beginning to have greater recognition of ASD in more able, high functioning children. In the past, there have been several cases where high functioning children were first diagnosed with ADHD, and later received an ASD diagnoses (Keen Ward, 2004). With the recent awareness of autism spectrum disorders, a more clear criteria has developed for the diagnoses of these disorders. In broad terms,Read MoreCommunication Disorders7061 Words   |  29 Pagesexchange of ideas, opinions or facts between senders and receivers. Prevalence †¢ The overall estimate for speech and language disorders is widely agreed to be 5% of school-aged children. This figure includes voice disorders (3%) and stuttering (1%). Estimates of hearing impairments vary considerably, with one widely accepted figure of 5% representing the portion of school-aged children with hearing levels outside the normal range. Of this number, 10% to 20% require some type of special educationRead MoreEssay about 2301 Final Exam Workbook 2 6510 Words   |  27 Pagesresearch question, (2) design a study, (3) collect data, (4) analyze data, (5) draw conclusions, and (6) communicate findings. Identify the step associated with each of the following activities: _____ Dr. Lopez noted absent or present by each students name on his class roll at each class meeting. He recorded students exam scores on his roll sheet as well. _____ Dr. Lopez hypothesized that students who consistently attend class get higher grades than those who are absent more often. _____ Dr. Lopez