All about education

Do your recall in high school that one class that you absolutely hated? Of course there were other factors such as your level of interest and ability to focus that influenced your dislike of the class. Yes, you remember. This was the class that was so painfully boring that you thought you would die before the bell rang. You painfully tried to stay awake and you would develop a splitting headache or daydream about lunch while the teacher went on and on with the lecture.

Actually this scenario is pretty normal according to the experts. The experts have determined that people do not learn well in the “passive” way. Learning byjust listening to a lecture or watching someone else really does not work in the experts’ opinion.

However by doing the activity being lectured on, experts have found it to be a much better and more effective way of learning. It has proven to be much better than by watching, listening, or reading.

They are not advocating that we get rid of the classroom but that we supplement classroom learning with hands-on learning. Sometimes classroom learningis the only option available however we now realizethat learning takes place by reading about a subject,discussing a subject, hearing others speak on thesubject, watching audiovisual presentations, studying real life experiences or by doing the task itself.

Different presentation methods result in differentretention rates. For example, it has been discovered that as adults we expend 90 percent of our focus in the first five minutes of a class.

The next best method of learning, after the reading or hearing methods, is seeing something done. And finally the best method is by doing.

Some old school teachers treat students like they are totally empty and it is up to them to fill them up with some amount of the world’s knowledge. However we are seeing “interactive” learning becoming more and more popular today. This type of learning recognizes the experiences that each student brings to the table and utilizing these experiences to achieve effective learning.

We must take into account the differences in personalities as they have an affect on the individual’s preferred learning style. No two people learn alike. Next time you attend a meeting at work, try your best to be an active participant in it instead of just soaking everything in. You will find that you may learn something and you will come away with a sense of achievement.

You will discover that when you take an active part in learning that the time will pass by much quicker and you may just get your tasks done earlier.

Students interested in continuing their education now have an easy, safe way to find their ideal program.

Two leading education organizations are advocating for their industry by creating a free, informative Web site of regionally accredited continuing education providers.

The site-UCEAdirectory.org- was created by the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) and Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc. (EDU) to provide students with access to a trustworthy array of associate, baccalaureate, graduate and certificate programs, both on-campus and online.

“The site’s mission is to help students further their careers and increase their potential, and to increase enrollment in continuing education programs,” said Roger Whitaker, UCEA president and dean of the College of Professional Studies at The George Washington University.

The goal is to ease the often arduous process of finding the right program with the right degree by offering vital information on schools that have earned the highest level of accreditation. Students can search via degree level, format, subject and, if applicable, zip code. The site will also offer college advice.

“We know how stressful it can be to find a school offering the best education with the most financial opportunities,” says Lori Faunce, site manager. “We have created this site in the hopes of easing this process for all students.”

Founded in 1915, UCEA promotes excellence in continuing higher education and works to increase awareness of the importance of lifelong learning. Member institutions, which include public and private accredited colleges and universities and nonprofit organizations with a significant commitment to higher education, are committed to extending opportunities to the expanding population of nontraditional students seeking continuous learning. Users are able to access the site and its database at no charge.

Finding just the right school may be easier with the resources found at a new, free site.

For some people, it was all about some building that inspired them as a child. Perhaps they grew up in some gorgeous mansion. perhaps they went to one of the great museums of the world as a kid and were completely captivated by it. Whatever it was, a single building got them interested in the process of designing and building others.

For other people, architecture schools are part of a political mission. You wouldn’t believe how many visionaries there are at an average architectural school. At the one I go to, they probably make up half the class. Some of them want to design buildings with the idea of providing beautiful and affordable housing to the poor, others to change the way we see space as a society.

For me, going to architecture school was part of a much more down to earth experience. As a matter of fact, you could say that I always had an interest in buildings. I grew up on a farm, in one of the last communities in this country that still practices barn raising. For me, architecture school was not the realization of a lifelong abstract dream, but rather a way to build on my early, hands on experiences with communal buildings.

I feel like this gives me a much clearer vision than many people in architecture schools nowadays. Your typical architecture school student has his or her head in the clouds. In some ways, this is a good thing. It is good to have a vision to unify your buildings. There are many things that buildings have to be. They have to be functional, structurally sound, and comfortable to occupy. They don’t necessarily have to be beautiful. When they are beautiful, however, it is like a wonderful luxury for the city around. Although not everyone understands an architect’s vision, they can tell whether or not he has one.

On the other hand, if you enroll in a school of architecture without any hands-on experience, you can lose track of the purpose behind what you are doing. Architecture is, after all, about providing spaces for people to live and work. Architecture school can teach you many things, but unless you go in with this understanding, you will never build with both elegance and practicality.

There is a wide variation when it comes to the public opinion on homeschooling. Some are avid supports, while some do not find it in the best interest of children. And to weight out the pros and cons of homeschooling, a list of advantages and disadvantages of this alternative means of education is set up.

Either way, if it is really the best of the learners that is at their supporters and detractors hearts; why not consider what the learner really needs in order to achieve learning success whether in the public and private educational system or through homeschooling.

Taking the side of homeschooling, it is important to evaluate and identify the needs of the children, their interest, the learning methods that best stimulates their curiosity and inquisitiveness. This is the only key to a quality homeschool education – addressing what the homeschooled kid needs.

In homeschooling children, the instructors may be in the form of the parents or a tutor should be able to commit a time for learning. And homeschooling, with all the preparations, will really take up much time. A child will have to be given a strict time schedule for learning, and time for playing as well.

Homeschooled children are criticized to be less sociable individuals. Indeed, socialization is a major factor in developing the personality of a child. Having this in mind, instructors should give attention to the child getting together with other children apart from the home.

All children grow at their own pace. Let kids be kids. Understand that they are experiencing the world for the first time. Get involved and be interested in what interests the child. If it is in the arts and crafts field, then focus on that. Not only will it help the instructor foster rapport with the child, but this will also stimulate and motivate the child to learn new things. Give the child some room to grow and develop on his own with proper guidance.

The effort of homeschooling children will never be too much. It is constant striving to address the children’s needs and this will greatly vary as you go along. Children grow and develop, and sooner or later will be interested in new things. And when this time comes, the instructor should always be ready to cater to the children’s requirement for learning.

Copyright 2006 Matt Weight

Wikipedia states that “Home education, also called homeschooling or home school, is an educational alternative in which children are educated at home by their parents, in contrast to the compulsory attendance which takes place in an institution with a campus such as a public school or private school.”

Around the world Homeschooling has been increasing quite substantially over the last 4 years. In 2003, in the United States, approximately 1.1 million children were Home Schooled, up 29% from 850,000 in 1999. Recent figures show that Homeschooling in other Western Countries are also continuing to grow. For example, an estimated 50,000 children are considered “home-educated” in the United Kingdom; Australia – 26,500; and in Canada (as at 2001) it was estimated that 80,000 children were educated at home with the numbers continuing to increase.

Most home education advocates have individual motivations to home-educate. Academic and social results of home education are varied and are the source of vibrant debate. Some feel that they can more effectively tailor a student’s academic program to suit an individual strengths and weaknesses, especially children who are gifted or have learning disabilities. Others are religious parents who see non-religious education as contrary to their moral or religious systems. Still others feel that the negative social pressures of schools, such as bullying, drugs, school violence, and other school-related problems, are impacting negatively to a child’s development. Many parents simply like the idea of teaching their own children rather than letting someone else do so.

A common concern voiced about home-educated children is they lack the social interaction with students and society that a school environment provides. Many home-education families address these concerns by joining numerous organizations, including home-education cooperatives, independent study programs and specialized enrichment groups for physical education, art, music, and debate. Most are also active in community groups. Home-educated children generally socialize with other children the same way that school children do: outside of school, via personal visits and through sports teams, clubs, and religious groups.

The academic effectiveness of homeschooling is largely a settled issue. “Numerous studies have confirmed the academic integrity of home education programs, demonstrating that on average, home-educated students outperform their publicly-run school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects.” The performance gaps between minorities and gender that plague publicly-run schools are virtually non-existent amongst home-educated students.

Notable home-educated individuals
• Thomas Edison, United States, scientist and inventor
• Alexander Graham Bell, Scotland, Inventor (Telephone, Hydrofoil)
• Dakota Fanning, United States, actress
• Hilary Duff, United States, Actress/Singer
• Charles Evans Hughes, United States, Governor of New York, United States Secretary of State, and Chief Justice of the United States
• Frankie Muniz, United States, Actor
• Rosa Parks, United States, civil rights activist
• Susan La Flesche Picotte, United States, first American Indian woman physician
• Woodrow Wilson, United States, the only United States President to hold a Ph.D.
• George Washington, United States, First United States President
• Abraham Lincoln, United States, President during American Civil War

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything learnt in school” – Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Getting a university education online has become a very practical reality for people who cannot spare the time and commitment to enroll in a regular university on a campus. Today there are countless options for getting yourself an online education, depending on your specific needs and goals. Therefore making the right choice that will be most suited to your schedule and learning style as well as the course itself is of prime importance.

1.  Be clear about your needs

Different people have different needs for getting an online education. Before you begin considering your options, do some introspection to determine what kind of education you seek, how you can schedule your online education to fit into your routine, how much time and effort you are prepared to spare and whether it is personal fulfillment or career advancement that you aim to achieve through the course.

2. Investigate your options

The Internet is teeming with offers of online education for every conceivable purpose. So take the time to gather information about the options that suit you. Most schools provide free information kit on their education programs that can help you get a better idea of what’s in store if you choose to enroll with any of them. You have the option of conducting searches according to the type of courses you are interested in and colleges based on locations. Make sure you have a clear idea of the program being offered before you invest your hard earned money and time into any one of them.

3.  Be wary of scams

As with all offers on the Internet, there is no dearth of scams that you need to be wary of when doing your searches for the right course. If you’ve heard about a course through a spam e-mail, steer clear of it. Fake degrees and credentials are plentiful and you’ll only be wasting your time, effort and money if you go with one of them.

4.  Look for accreditation

Accreditation of the school or institute that you enroll in, is of vital importance. After all if the reason you are pursuing further education is to advance your career, the degree you will be earning needs to be recognized by your employers or prospective employers.

5.  What are the facilities being offered

Different online courses have different facilities to offer their students. Many offer services like tutoring, reference links, library access, technical assistance, discussion threads, interaction with fellow students and a variety of other features. Depending on the kind of study aids that are likely to benefit you, make your choice based on the kind of facilities you can avail once you enroll for a course.

Philosophy is considered a science but it is difficult to say, when one has to compare with an ordinary science, for example biology, or chemistry. This is a question that turns into a burning problem among the scientists and linguists all over the world. Can philosophy be a science? What does philosophy operate with? It operates with categories, which can be as wide and as interchangeable as one can only imagine. Ordinary science operates with definitions, which are quite limited in their field of research. Ordinary science uses terms and laws of that very science to continue the research, uniting with the others in very rare cases. Philosophy gets into the sense of every science trying to achieve results.

We also can not call philosophy a supra-science, for it also uses hypothesis and arguments to state the opinion. But there is the obvious thing: there are now laws in philosophy and never will be, for the science changes with the age, the needs, beliefs and requirements of the citizens. To prove your opinion, you can write the definition essay and state all the facts and arguments you know to prove one way or another. This is also a nice way to research the problem and see what the solution is. But you have to research it carefully; otherwise definition essays will not be fruitful. As all sciences philosophy has gone through its stages of development. Some scientists believe that the crib of philosophy was mythology and religion. If to see the principles of life and some primitive morals stated in some myths we may see that the statement is quite true and philosophy still continues to develop out of social beliefs and ideas. Philosophy is a science which is obligatory learned by every college student in order for him to establish his own philosophy of life. It is quite exciting to find answers to ever existing questions: who am I? What do I know? What can I know? What am I destined to do? Here is one more interesting observation. You can see that all famous philosophers were researching other science fields also. For example, Freud, Yung, Kafka and others were doing research in linguistics and social sciences. Their numerous creations are the pride of human history for they revealed some secrets that remained undiscovered for a long time before their great contributions.

There are so many currents and branches, so many schools of philosophy that it is hard to decide, which one do you prefer and agree with. This much depends on the country, family, society you live in. This is one more difference between philosophy and other natural sciences. The law is stable for any country; gravity exists in India, same as in Brazil. Philosophy is a hard science, for it is very difficult to understand the sense of the dogma reading it only once. It is of course, not easy, but gives credit for you if you get interested and somewhere, being at the social event you quote one of the famous doctors of philosophy and make a great impression of an educated and intelligent personality.

Acting courses come in various shapes, sizes and most importantly costs. How do you know which is a good one? What I have below is a list of requirements, some obvious, some not, so when you are looking for a course the more of these boxes they tick the better. Some points may not be as relevant as others, but all are, to some degree, valid and worth considering. The order is no indication of importance – thats up to you.

A good acting course will give you a thorough appreciation of the filmmaking process. This will allow you to access and develop so many vital tools. It will give you understanding of how to create a character which is rounded and believable on screen. Understanding the technical process will hopefully help develop your confidence in front of the camera, if you know what a director wants, it should be easier to give it to them. Therefor any knowledge regarding the technical aspects of filmmaking will be to your advantage.

Any acting course should have be a positive learning environment. The classroom should be a forum for ideas and criticism, where no one is afraid to open up and enthusiasm encouraged. Large class sizes are not always a bad thing they give you the opportunity to network and make a few friends too.

Look for acting courses that provide script analysis and understanding as part of the curriculum. The script is your starting point and being able to see which characters work better than others or are more believable and three-dimensional, will enable you to work more efficiently with the director or writer.
The course should also highlight the difference between stage and film scripts, being good at understanding one doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be as competent with the other.

Even a film acting course can contain information and techniques for stage acting, they are quite different, but some aspects of stage craft can prove useful in front of the camera.

All of the above training and coaching will hopefully be provided by industry veterans or experienced professionals. Most courses will provide a resume for their instructors, but if no information is provided about the people who will be coaching you then the internet can provide quick and easy access to a persons professional background.

A good acting course will be able to supply you with plenty of testimonials from previous students to help you decide if its the right one for you. Don’t be blinded by one famous alumni, better a school produces a lot of good working actors than one superstar.

If you are to get a thorough understanding of the life of an actor your course should give guidance on auditions, including such aspects as monologues, casting call requirements and even details on agents. Lets not forget that they should be realistic and give you an incite into how to survive the arduous life of an actor.

Well thanks for taking the time to read my article. Acting courses really can be useful, even for experienced actors, I hope its been helpful.

University courses and degree programs take around four years of study to complete. Nevertheless, some students may need more time to complete the university course. It is also possible to shorten the university courses by studying in the intersession of spring and summer.

An average student has to spend three hours of study for every hour spent in class. Fifteen hours per week is the average time for a university course. Depending upon the university course’s subject, classes may be held during the evening, afternoon or in the day. To support the academic university courses, they may also have to attend the clubs, athletics, recreational activities and societies.

The overall requirement for the degree along with the degree elements will be explained to the students by the faculty advisor. The advisor should be kept informed if the student has any specific area of interest or careers in mind while selecting the university courses. The university courses can be chosen by the students based on their degree requirements, schedules and their interests.

During the transition to the university course, there will be a peer mentor or an upper class student studying in the same degree program to assist the first year students undergoing the university course.

Study skills are enhanced by free workshops conducted through out the year. By appointment and during the regular hours of office, the professors will also assist the students to overcome any problems faced by them during their university course period. For specific classes, tutorials and labs facilities will also be available for the students. In case of difficulties, the students studying a university course are encouraged to contact professors, faculty advisors or counselors to overcome their problems.

The cost of university courses depends upon the area of study and the lifestyle of the student. The technology fee, student fees and tuition fee are standard and must be paid by the students.

Each university course focuses on its studies. To cite an example, languages, politics, history, psychology are people oriented university courses in the Bachelor of Arts program. Where as the university courses under Bachelor of Science programs such as statistics, mathematics or biology are not people oriented.

Within a university course, in the degree program, a major should be chosen by the students. Within the overall degree, this is a specific study area. The majority of the courses will be related to the specific discipline when a major subject is chosen by the student. A student selecting history as his major in his university course will be studying more history related material than any other areas of study within that course.

Whilst selecting the university courses, try to find out the courses disliked during high school and concentrate more on the courses liked. To find more about the interesting university courses, make an appointment with the liaison officer for a discussion. Take a tour of the universities and colleges to find out more about the courses available.

The preservation of human life is the ultimate value, a pillar of ethics and the foundation of all morality. This held true in most cultures and societies throughout history.

On first impression, the last sentence sounds patently wrong. We all know about human collectives that regarded human lives as dispensable, that murdered and tortured, that cleansed and annihilated whole populations in recurrent genocides. Surely, these defy the aforementioned statement?

Liberal philosophies claim that human life was treated as a prime value throughout the ages. Authoritarian regimes do not contest the over-riding importance of this value. Life is sacred, valuable, to be cherished and preserved. But, in totalitarian societies, it can be deferred, subsumed, subjected to higher goals, quantized, and, therefore, applied with differential rigor in the following circumstances:

1.. Quantitative – when a lesser evil prevents a greater one. Sacrificing the lives of the few to save the lives of the many is a principle enshrined and embedded in activities such as war and medicinal care. All cultures, no matter how steeped (or rooted) in liberal lore accept it. They all send soldiers to die to save the more numerous civilian population. Medical doctors sacrifice lives daily, to save others.

It is boils down to a quantitative assessment (“the numerical ratio between those saved and those sacrificed”), and to questions of quality (“are there privileged lives whose saving or preservation is worth the sacrifice of others’ lives?”) and of evaluation (no one can safely predict the results of such moral dilemmas – will lives be saved as the result of the sacrifice?).

2.. Temporal – when sacrificing life (voluntarily or not) in the present secures a better life for others in the future. These future lives need not be more numerous than the lives sacrificed. A life in the future immediately acquires the connotation of youth in need of protection. It is the old sacrificed for the sake of the new, a trade off between those who already had their share of life – and those who hadn’t. It is the bloody equivalent of a savings plan: one defers present consumption to the future.

The mirror image of this temporal argument belongs to the third group (see next), the qualitative one. It prefers to sacrifice a life in the present so that another life, also in the present, will continue to exist in the future. Abortion is an instance of this approach: the life of the child is sacrificed to secure the future well-being of the mother. In Judaism, it is forbidden to kill a female bird. Better to kill its off-spring. The mother has the potential to compensate for this loss of life by bringing giving birth to other chicks.

3.. Qualitative – This is an especially vicious variant because it purports to endow subjective notions and views with “scientific” objectivity. People are judged to belong to different qualitative groups (classified by race, skin color, birth, gender, age, wealth, or other arbitrary parameters). The result of this immoral taxonomy is that the lives of the “lesser” brands of humans are considered less “weighty” and worthy than the lives of the upper grades of humanity. The former are therefore sacrificed to benefit the latter. The Jews in Nazi occupied Europe, the black slaves in America, the aborigines in Australia are three examples of such pernicious thinking.

4.. Utilitarian – When the sacrifice of one life brings another person material or other benefits. This is the thinking (and action) which characterizes psychopaths and sociopathic criminals, for instance. For them, life is a tradable commodity and it can be exchanged against inanimate goods and services. Money and drugs are bartered for life.