Homeschooling Essay -- Teaching Public Education

Homeschool Home schooling is an alternative to public education. It is a choice that many more parents are making today, and even more are projected to make by the year 2000. It is estimated that at the end of the year 2000 there will be 2,000,000 home schoolers in the United States (Gorder 1996). There are other alternatives to Public School education. Some examples are Catholic or Private schools or a privately hired tutor. There are many reasons why people home school their children. Religious beliefs, academic achievement, social development, moral and psychological reasons are all cited (Wade 1996). However, religious beliefs are often the main reason (Gorder 1996). Some parents feel as if their children are not learning enough academics, but that they are learning moral and social values that conflict with their own (Gorier 1996). Many parents teach their children at home because they feel they can provide a better education for them. Another problem parents see with the school syste m is the lack of control and discipline in the schools today. â€Å"In 1996 every day 35,000 children took guns to school with them† (Gorder, p.15, 1996). Parents feel that since the government funds these schools they are used as podiums for preaching. They see the teacher using the class as an audience to preach to. There are also parents who want to teach their children so that they can spend more time with them. â€Å"The average school-age child spends only fourteen minutes a week talking to their parents† (Gorder, p.16, 1996). There are others who think that parents home school their children because they get joy out of seeing them learn and discover new things (Henger 1995). There is some history to the issue of home schooling. There are also many pros and cons, which will be addressed in this paper. Home schooling has been around for hundreds of years. There are many famous and intellectual people that have had their education through home schooling. Some examp les are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Margaret Mead, Charlie Chaplin, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain (Gorder, p.11, 1996). Most of these famous people were home schooled when it was a common occurrence and more than acceptable. Home schooling has grown substantially over the last twenty-five years. In that... ...he people that home schooled their children were extremists. Some were about religion; some were for other topics. I realized that not many average people home school their children. This movement is going to continue to grow over the coming years. Violence and control of the kids in school is going to have a lot to do with it. Parents are not going to send their children to school if they think that they are going to get shot, stabbed, or even killed. Parents’ feel that it is their job to protect their children and they will do whatever it takes. I can not see this movement taking over, if for no other reason because today two people need to work to run a sufficient household. I think that more people are going to want their children home but not be able to afford it. Bibliography: Works Cited Dorian, T. & Tyler, A.P.(1996). Anyone can home school. Louisiana: Huntington House. Gorder, C.(1996).Home schools: an alternative. Arizona: Blue Bird Publishing. Gutterson, D.(1992). Family Matters. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Hegener, M.(1995). The home school reader. Washington: McNaughton & Gunn. Wade, T.E.(1996). The home school manual. Mi.: Gazelle

Conditioning: Psychology

Learning is an important skill that all organisms must acquire in order to survive or fall prey to Darwinism’s main idea of survival of the fittest. Learning is the long lasting effect of a change in behavior. This would constrict the application of learning conditioning to a few applications. The three most recognizable applications are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and learning by observation. Each type of learning is different, but uses similar ideas such as an unconditioned stimulus, which is usually food, and an unconditioned response, which food is associated with salivation and hunger. There are several ways that an individual can condition an organism to learn skills through three different applications of learning: classical, operant, and observation. The idea of classical condition is one of the most notable learning techniques because it involves a stimulus rewarded for a certain response. Naturally, animals and human have unconditioned stimulus that triggers an unconditioned response. The most common connection is the correlation between food and salivation. Food naturally draws organism to it in order to satisfy a drive created by hunger to acquire homeostasis. A response is created because of the organism’s reaction to food, which is usually salivation. Classical conditioning is considered an effective way to train an organism to learn habits not naturally associated with certain unconditioned stimulus. This creates a conditioned stimulus. The once unconditioned response is now conditioned to respond to the conditioned stimulus, which is called a conditioned stimulus. An example of conditioned stimulus and response is the example of associating the school bell with food. Children are hungry by nature, but when the school bell is added, the children are reinforced to associate the school bell with lunchtime. Classical conditioning is effective when trying the teach an organism a skills by rewarding the organism with a unconditioned stimulus. An individual could use classical conditioning to teach an organism to learn skills that could aid in their own survival such as teaching human to avert certain food because of taste. If one were being taught to avert away from sour tastes, the teachers would first use a food that was extremely sour. By using the person’s innate instinct of hunger, they would give the person a lemon to eat. This sour extremity would cause the person to avoid lemons. The teacher would continuously use this tactic until the person has acquired the skill of aversion of lemons. The learner would have an acquisition of the skill. The teacher would then condition the learner in a variable interval to constantly reinforce the skill. The learner would then avoid all lemons. This may cause the learner to generalize the concept of lemon, for example, the learner may generalize the yellow color to symbolize all sour products, such as generalizing bananas as being sour. The teacher would then have the obligation of teaching the person how to discriminate items, so that his aversion is just towards lemons. While classical conditioning involves the stimulus being rewarded to incur a response, operant conditioning deals with changing the occurrence and forms of behavior. The main different between operant conditioning and classical conditioning is the operant conditioning deals with modifying the learner’s voluntary behavior. Operant conditioning involve consequences to teach desired skills. There are two ways that operant conditioning works, through reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement comes in two flavors: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the teacher adds something of pleasure to the learner’s behavior in order to get a certain skill. An example would be a mom allowing her child to play video games if the child put the trash outside. The mom uses the favorable stimulus, which is the video games, in order to achieve a behavior, which is taking out the trash, out of the child. There is also negative reinforcement, in which negative reinforcement is the teacher removing an aversive stimulus, which is usually seen as unpleasant, in order to increase the frequency of a certain behavior. For example, when someone wakes up early in the morning, they use an alarm clock to tell them when to wake up. When the alarm clock is activated, it sends a signal, which is usually an annoying buzzing noise, to the learner that it is time to wake up. To reinforce the behavior of waking up, the learner must get up from bed to turn off the aversive stimulus. Reinforcements are consequences of reinforcing favorable behaviors. Punishments, on the other hand, are consequences in which the teacher tries to reduce the frequency of unfavorable behaviors. As with reinforcements, there are also positive and negative punishments. Positive punishment refers to occurred behavior followed by aversive stimulation, such as shock. An example of positive punishment would be if a child had talked negative to the mom, and the mom would respond with a slap on the wrist in order to lessen the frequency of such behavior. Negative punishment, on the other hand, is the removal of a pleasurable stimulus after the occurrence of an undesirable behavior. As with the example of the mom, and the child taking out the trash, if the children had not taken out the trash, the mom would instead take away the video games to lessen the frequency of not taking out the trash. The problem with punishment is that it may cause the learner to demonstrate bad behavior in response to the punishment through responses of fear or anger, rather than lessen the occurrence of the aversive behavior. Operant conditioning is more effective using reinforcements than punishment. However, using both facets successfully is the most effective way. An individual could teach another through operant conditioning if one would like to change a voluntary behavior in another. The teacher would have to use reinforcements to reinforce the desired behavior from the learner. For example, if the individual wanted the learner to wash the dishes after eating, the individual would have to give an incentive to the learner in order for the behavior to continue, such as letting a child play video games after completing his chores. The continuous stimulation by the positive reinforcement would allow the learner to associate good behavior with pleasurable activities. Once the learner has acquired the behavior, the learner may generalize the behavior to include doing all his chores in order to gain the positive reinforcement. The teacher would use punishment sparingly to lessen the frequency of aversive behavior such a taking away the video games. The way that an individual could instruct an organism to acquire a skill is through observable learning. Observable learning is the observations made by the learner through the actions of the teacher in order to create a skill, or change a behavior. Observational learning is the most commonly used tactic. It allows the learner to learn a skill without reward or consequences. The learner learns through observing the teacher and then imitating the actions of the teacher. This is a more common tactic to teach child skills that are learned and reinforced throughout their adulthood, such as table manners. The individual could teach an organism how to do a skill through observational learning. The individual would do an act that is observed by the learner, and they would have the learner imitate the actions. For example, a mother would like to teach her child table manners. She would demonstrate proper table manners to the child. She would then have the child repeat and imitate her actions. Once the child has acquired that knowledge, the mom would continuously reinforce the behavior. The child would learn table manners without much need for punishment or reinforcers. The way that observational learning works, some may categorized observational learning as operant conditioning because it usually involves changing behaviors. The individual could use these three conditioning techniques in conjunction with each other, in combination with them, or separately. Either way, these techniques, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational leanring, are the effective way to show an organism how to learn skills.

New Business Venture: Music Academy

Introduction/aground After over five years experience working In corporations, four friends have a desire to start their own business because they enjoy creating music and saw the need for music training in downtown Toronto. The music academy would cater specifically to children ages 3-16 specializing in rock music genres preparing them in lessons for â€Å"voice, guitar, keyboard, and percussion so they can perform in their own bands†(Scalable 469).By offering specialized musical theory lessons to the children (public), the music academy can create a niche market segment and obtain a portion f the current musical retail/lesson market share currently share amongst Long and Macaque, Cosmos Music, and Stave's Music. Business Objective The music academy strategic goals include growth, expansion, dominating market share, and profitability. They must fully utilize each other's strengths and weaknesses to begin the business.In order to meet these objectives, the team must cooperate, incorporate effective customer service, and use their passion for music towards teaching, while creating a diversified musical learning environment. Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement Environmental scanning and market research yielded results that indicated that the music academy is currently positioned in a busy location with high traffic and opportunities include a need for specialized guitar lessons in the rock music genre. In order to capitalized the opportunity for growth and compete with current music retail/lesson businesses (I. . Long and Macaque), It would be advisable for the music academy to offer a selection of musical Instruments and accessories available for sale to the general public that Include both purchasing and financing options. The current team has the necessary skills for musical instruction involving bass, keyboard, vocals, guitar, and drums. A potential problem that poses a threat would be access to capital and making sure that the initial investment costs are covered â€Å"after two years in business†(Scalable 470).Critical Assumptions and Constraints This project requires strong participation of each music business members and the children. The four friends who participated In this music business should be able to work In a team and understand teaching children. The children must show improvement to prove the music training's effectiveness. Most members need to learn some teaching skills and training because of their lack of experience. Some members will still have other employment, so there is a need for pre-arranged shifts.Different courses with different teachers will be offered because of the members different skill set. Analysis of Options and Recommendation Our three options for our new business: 1 . Start the business immediately, since the key people are ready to build a music academy, a bass teacher who has experience of few paid gigs and also knows the aboard, a guitar teacher who can also record an d edit CDC, a singing teacher who also knows how to work a crowd, and a drum teacher who is also a music teacher in the middle school.The business can start right away according to the original plan. 2. Hold the business until there are enough staffs and Investments to start. Since there opening, until all the preparations are finished. 3. Do not start the business at all. Since the members all have Jobs and are doing well on their own, they do not really need to take the risk to start this business. Preliminary Project Requirements The main requirements of this project include the following: 1 . The business needs the initial investment amount. . The business needs cooperation of all team members. 3. The business needs a place to rent, and musical equipment. 4. Each team member needs to arrange his or her schedule because of different availabilities. 5. Each team member must be trained to teach children because not everyone knows how. Budget Estimate and Financial Analysis A prelim inary estimate of costs for the entire project is $100,000 for the first year. Most of the costs come from salaries, $108,000, then operating costs, $60,000.