The Weakness of Modern Day Society Is Critical Thinking Essay Example for Free

The Weakness of Modern Day Society Is Critical Thinking Essay Modern day society has put strong restraints on critical thinking development in many areas including the educational world and work force. To begin the discussion on critical thinking and the resolutions, we must first figure out why it is such a sought after attribute. Does this skill set always make the best and hardest worker? Is it something a company or college needs to recruit for? It is not necessarily the case that a highly educated person will carry this skill set into the business world. A student may perform unbelievable on an ACT or SAT test but it is important to be careful and consider what this implies. These tests are based off of memorized information. There are several reasons for the overall different levels of critical thinking skills in employees in the business and education sector and it is related to standardized tests, courses taken and personality of students. Before even diving into large amounts of data and research papers, there is a common belief that education level and critical thinking have a direct correlation. Before reading many resources, I believed this to be nonfictional myself. However, there is a growing concern with the way students are taught and the effects it will have with critical thinking skill development. Starting as early as high school, students are put through a rigorous outline of information in what are called Standards of Learning (SOL’s). These standards can be both good and bad for students. They are taught the necessities that it outlines but are limited in the other facets of education. Teaching is not just done with a chalkboard and group work and projects are limited by these SOL’s. Teachers are limited in what they can teach because they have to stick to these SOL’s and time is of essence to meet the rigorous requirements. Fast forward to the end of the academic year and students understanding of the data required for the SOL’s will directly correlate to higher grade point averages. According to a study performed by Borg and Stranahan, there is little to no correlation to GPA scores and critical thinking skills. Now if you continue this trend, the higher GPA students will go on to colleges of their choosing and eventually into the work force. I believe this is a root cause for the lack or delay of critical skill development later on. Many people choose the majors in college that are most appealing or will allow them to find superior employment afterwards. However, there is evidence regarding critical thinking abilities and course work taken. Borg and Stranahan found a correlation between a basic economic course at a university and a higher level in critical thinking gained after the course. I think that there is much to be said regarding this information. The course work had a lot of group work and electronic discussion group projects. This supports my idea that there is a drastic improvement in critical thinking skills with group work starting in a secondary public school. The levels of critical thinking could reach a higher threshold if it is implemented at an earlier age. And again continuing this trend, it could greatly increases the abilities of the entry level worker. When we look at a student in an undergraduate degree, some safe stereotypes we can place on them is they are young and full of energy and proud of where they are attending college. I am guilty of the same infractions. Other than that we have no safe bets because we are all different and come from different places and lifestyles. One thing that concerns me about the entry level workforce is the way the personalities have developed. There seems to be a large portion that have not developed cognitive skills and are just full of useless trivial information. This could potentially lead to conflict at work and at home. Lacking of the group work and projects can increase the gap between information and viewpoints. This failure occurs because of their inability to separate facts from opinions, examine an issue from different perspectives, make rational inferences, withhold personal biases, question information given to them, go beyond surface meaning to discover the deep meaning, etc. † (Nazmi Al-Shalabi, page 41). The business sector could be shaken if we cannot mainstream some more ways to teach critical thinking to students. I do not believe my findings are an accurate description of the entire workforce. There are plenty of highly educated individuals that are highly capable of being placed in critical thinking situations and excel. However, I do believe the numbers will continue to skew and support my opinions if we continue down this path. There are many ways to implement and increase critical thinking skills, but the first step is for us to recognize that there is truly an issue. If we cannot make minor changes to the education system, increase course requirements with group work projects, and alter the strong personalities of entry level workers, we could be in trouble my friends.

The Death Penalty Debate Essay -- capital punishment, 2015

"The death penalty issue is obviously a divisive one. But whether one is for or against, you can not deny the basic illogic - if we know the system is flawed, if we know there are innocent people on Death Row, then until the system is reformed, should we not abandon the death penalty to protect those who are innocent?" --Richard LaGravenese In the United States the death penalty is used as a punishment for capital offenses. These specifically can vary from state to state, but commonly include first-degree murder, murder with special circumstances, rape with additional bodily harm, and the federal crime of treason. (Facts) The goal of the death penalty then, is to deter these crimes from even taking place, to be so feared that offenders think twice about committing such horrible crimes. But does it? In the following paper, the above question will attempt to be answered by looking at the background of capital punishment and the death penalty, the ideas behind it, viable alternatives, and finally, the effectiveness of the death penalty at deterring crime. Early death penalty laws date back to the Eighteenth Century B.C.. The death penalty also had a heavy presence in the Fourteenth Century Hittite Code, the Seventh Century Draconian Code of Athens, and the Fifth Century Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. (History, 1) Today, thirty-four states in the United States of America still practice the death penalty as a means of punishment for capital offenses and heinous crimes. The death penalty debate is one that Americans are no strangers to; it has been abolished and repealed numerous times throughout our history. Two of the first influential cases dates back to 1968, US v. Jackson and Witherspoon v. Illinois. In each ... ...1. "Facts About the Death Penalty." The Death Penalty Information Center. 16 July 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. "History of the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. Kovandzic, Tomislav V., Lynne M. Vieraitis, and Denise Paquette Boots. "Does the death penalty save lives?." Criminology & Public Policy 8.4 (2009): 803-843. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. "International Standards on the Death Penalty | Amnesty International." Amnesty International. Amnesty International, 1 Jan. 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Welcome to the United Nations: It's Your World. Web. 18 Oct. 2011 "In U.S., Support for Death Penalty Falls to 39-Year Low." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011

“Panopticism” by Michel Foucault Essay

â€Å"Our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests bodies in depth; behind the great abstraction of exchange, there continues the meticulous concrete training of useful forces; the circuits of communication are the supports of an accumulation and a centralization of knowledge; the play of signs defines the anchorages of power; it is not that the beautiful totality of the individual is amputated, repressed, altered by our social order, it is rather that the individual is carefully fabricated in it, according to a whole technique of forces and bodies.† (240, Foucault)In the essay, Panopticism, by Michel Foucault, he makes the argument that we live in a society of â€Å"surveillance†. It is mainly this surveillance that forms the basis of authority that draws the individual to believe that the world he lives in is one that is continually watching over him. This becomes another aspect of power where it underlies the main idea of separation as one of the many forms of forces in the Panopticon. The effects of surveillance are clearly discussed in Foucault’s essay. The infected population was always observed by presenting themselves at their windows for attendance. If they did not look out the window at that time, they would be considered and marked as dead. Their family would be removed, the house would be cleaned out, perfumed, and then, mere hours later, people would move back in. Obviously, the fear of not being watched would be strong in this situation, resulting in drastic measures taken once someone could not be watched. The plague stands as a representation against which the idea of discipline was created. The existence of a whole set of techniques for measuring and supervising abnormal beings brings into play the disciplinary mechanisms created by the fear of the plague. The Panopticon, is a prison that is â€Å"a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing.† (228, Foucault) This means that those who are being seen can not see one another and the one who sees everything can never be seen. For the observer, the benefit of being observed is that is establishes the ability to control, change and influence the person. The observer separates the individual from the group by observation, thereby making them individually  aware of themselves, but mainly the observer. This helps obscure the concept of cohesion with others and prevents organization and conspiracy. The panopticon architecture in which everyone is observed and analyzed is incorporated in a building that makes these operations easy to perform. The theory of discipline develops out of the need for surveillance shown in the plague. Plague measures were needed to protect society, which as a result allowed the panopticon to operate power efficiently. Foucault makes this assumption about today’s society by saying that we are always being watched whether we know it or not. One always keeps an eye over their shoulder as a result of the constant fear that someone is watching them. The power gives those in charge a safety net, making the individual conscious of the presence of a hidden watcher, causing them to think twice before acting. An example found in today’s society would be the notion of Santa Claus and how Santa Claus can be used as a form of power to make children behave. â€Å"He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake.† The song about Santa Claus is more than a Christmas carol, it is used to plant the constant fear in the mind of a child that they are being watched even when they can’t see who is doing the watching. The mere threat at Christmas time of this hidden force is enough to keep children well behaved. Another example is that when we are born, we are given a social security number and a record of our birth. Information goes into a database that is accessible to many people. The government and head offices in the United States can track us with ease since ever job and school we can attend uses our social security number. There is not a single bank account we can open or a loan we can receive without people in higher places knowing about it. Even though we can not see people watching us, we are constantly being watched and tracked by our government. These are examples of many in our society. Also, verbal communication in the Panopticon was not an option. The prisoners  were not allowed to speak to one another. This limit on communication dehumanizes the inmate. If one cannot communicate, not only is new knowledge difficult to gain, but one cannot feel comfort in the simple knowledge that they are not alone. Throughout this endless mind-game, people do not have the idea that they are fabricated and reshaped. Being under surveillance has brought discipline. â€Å"In the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen.† (226, Foucault) Foucault describes the inside of the Panopticon where in the center stands a guard. Whenever we walk into a retail store, we are always under observation. There is a circular glass piece on the top of the ceiling with a rotating camera looking down upon each of our movements. We think someone is watching us. And from that, we react with discipline. It has proven to be a form of behavior to give us a guilty conscious or the simple fear of being caught. In conclusion, Foucault’s argument may not be easily understood given the difficulty of his writing, but with the examples and proof of such the mind-games that we live in in our society today is a good way of understanding his point of view. Michel Foucault’s Panopticism shows that society is under surveillance. The panopticon represents the way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society, where it shows how the processes of observation and examination function. Schools, factories, hospitals and prisons resemble each other, not just because they look similar, but because they examine pupils, workers, patients and prisoners, classify them as individuals and try to make them conform to the â€Å"norm†. The fact that the modern citizen spends much of his life in at least some of these institutions reveals how far society has changed. We live in a society that watches over one’s movement to judge if their behavior is wrong. It is in ultimate fea r and anxiety that we live out our lives everyday.

Credit Score, And Why Is It Important For Your Future...

What is your credit score, and why is it important for your future success? Describe and demonstrate knowledge of credit scores The word credit has its origins on the Latin word â€Å"credere†, meaning â€Å"to place one s heart; to trust, believe† (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us). A credit score is a number between 300 and 850 that shows lenders the capacity of a borrower to repay loans (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us). The FICO score was first introduced in 1989 by FICO, then called Fair, Isaac, and Company (source). VantageScore exists as a competitor of FICO score since 2006. It’s been said that capacity was reputation-based in the past -mouth to mouth- which made it hard to judge fairly a person because business’ owners and lenders used to take into account the character of a person (specific habits, etc). So the concept of credit score was invented as a way of making fair decisions for lenders to improve business decisions. 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