Solution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Solution - Essay Example It is essential to redesign healthcare intervention toward diabetic patients, increasing their self-care behavior; especially for workers and the elderly (Bandura, 1997), and education is one key prevention strategy (Jun-Qiao Wang, 1997). Early education enables patients to prevent the disease while reducing the expense of healthcare. Many diabetic patients don't understanding the value of self-care, and helping them acquire the skills to manage their condition is important. According to the International Diabetes Alliance (IDA), more than half of diabetics know nothing about diabetes, and the American disease control center estimates 50% - 80% of diabetes complications can be prevented. Surveys show 58% of diabetics are confused by doctors' instruction, and 35% have damaged their health by not following those instructions. Also, 88% of diabetic patients gain primary knowledge from their doctors while only 9% receive it from nurses. The relationship between nurse and diabetic patient is essential; in developed countries, most diabetes education is gained through nurses rather physicians. Medication alone cannot control diabetes, and lifestyle education enables the patient to increase self-management more effectively (Li, 2002). Physical activity can reduce the risk factors, and the Daqing study shows that lifestyle intervention can improve insulin resistance by 46%. The U.S. DPP experiment showed that among 3,200 cases, lifestyle intervention reduced the incidence of diabetes by 58%. Medical intervention is less effective compared to lifestyle intervention (Pan Lizhen, Chinese Nursing Research, 2004). Liu shows intervention is able to reduce glucose and increase the sensitivity of insulin, among other benefits (Liu, 2001), while another survey reveals a 40% decrease (Bing, 2005). Just 30 minutes of walking daily can reduce the level of glucose, and large studies in other nations have recently demonstrated that exercise reduces the incidence of diabetes by more than 50%. Patients: In China, diabetic patients tend to trust drug advertisements rather than healthcare professionals, and many think the side effects of western medicine are stronger than traditional Chinese therapies. Some believethink that the more expensive the medicine, the better health outcome they can achieve; which is a huge economic burden (Jia Fen, Wang Jun, Shanghai University). Most diabetic patients are worried about having an incurable disease, long term injections of insulin, and other factors. Chinese studies show older diabetic patients dislike the outpatient service due to administration and waiting times, while others dislike the inpatient services because of unfamiliar environments. Richard Donnelly shares that most patients in China prefer to use traditional Chinese therapies, and many prefer to combine the best of traditional Chinese with Western treatment. Behavior: Ming Yeong Tan (2003) says that lack of adherence to self-care behaviors requires lifestyle changes for long-term management, and identifying the barriers to behavior is important. It is vital to increase educational programs on patient behavior to improve the quality of life. Health System: In China, health management is

American Presidents Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

American Presidents - Assignment Example Out of the eighteen Republican presidents, only three of them were 50 years of age or less while seven presidents were elected on the Democratic party ticket with 50 years or less in age. Q4. The total number of presidents who were 50 years or less at their time of inauguration was 9. The number of American presidents who served one term or less was 23 out of the total 44 presidents. Most of these presidents were assassinated while still in office. Q5. Out of the 23 there was only one Republican president elected while less than 50 years of age and served less than one term. Q6. The American presidents who were elected on a Republican Party ticket and were over 50 years at their time of inauguration were 15. Q7. In the entire Us history, there were only nine presidents who were 50 years or less at the time of inauguration and out of these three were Republican and seven Democrats. Q8. There has been a total of 21 presidents in the US who served more than one term in office with one o f them going for three terms.

What Literacy Means to Me Essay Example for Free

What Literacy Means to Me Essay What literacy means for me and the impact that it has had on my life. Literacy refers to the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about the written word. The primary sense of literacy still represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from a critical interpretation of the written or printed text. Key to all literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand spoken words and decode written words, and culminates in the deep understanding of text. Literacy is taught through parents by making reading to your child a regular part of your daily schedule, just as my mother did when I was younger. She would read both early readers and chapter books to me. When reading, she would point to the words as she said them and read slowly. This allowed me to read along with her. Once she noticed that I understood certain words, such as the word the, my mother would let me say that word a few times when it appears in the story. This method taught me to be quite an advanced reader by the age of 5 and was heading into kindergarten. The definition of literacy is a difficult one to answer. When the word literacy comes to mind I think of it first in basic terms of just being able to read, but I know it contains more elements of being just able to read. In my mind literacy as a whole defines the relationship that people have with literature. Just like the way my mother taught me the love of reading, which has continued to grow as Ive aged and encouraged me to develop a love for chapter books and the stories depicted in them. I find myself becoming engrossed in these stories and sometimes even comparing them to my own life experiences. Literacy as a whole means the relationship with different types of literature and how well people can comprehend them. There is the basic standard of literacy which would be reading. Then the next step would be how well the reader could comprehend what is being read. Understanding the words written and know most of their meaning. After that it would be how well the reader could analyze the text. The next step from there would be if the writer could then analyze the text well enough to point out anomalies, binaries, patterns, strands, and any repetition that the literature being read may have. After the interpretation of reading and understanding the literature one should be able to write about it. When writing on the literature the reader should be able to communicate clear decisive thoughts about the text that isn’t already spelled out in the literature. With a sharp focused analytical claim. This shows that the reader understood the literature and is capable of translating it to others without retelling the literature that has already been read. For me literacy is very important and has a really strong impact in my life. When I was a kid I remember my mother always telling me â€Å"the more you know the better it is†. I never really understood what she meant nor did I pay that much attention. Society has proven time and time again, it will reward those individuals who are competent and impede those who are not, whether expressed in terms of employment opportunities or just on a social level. One needs look no further than their everyday activities in order to realize how important literacy is. Without adequate literary skills one may not be able to identify on a label the correct amount of medicine to give a child, or read and interpret a sign giving instructions on what to do in case of a fire. These two examples bring perspective to literacys importance. I discovered that I mainly use text or literacy to communicate with others for maintaining family connections or for work related information. I use text or literacy for entertainment as well, but I spend far less time using it for work than I do for entertainment. Overall, I think literacy is a very fluid concept—it is ever changing and evolving as we change and as our way of life changes. A generation or two ago, it was merely important to be able to read and write. Now, one must be able to read and write and use technology to be successful in the world. And for this necessary ability, I have my mother to thank for all her hard work teaching me these skills as a young child.

Substance Abuse Prevention Program

Substance Abuse Prevention Program Substance abuse is a serious problem. It can cause a lot of problems in peoples day to day functioning. Problems of substance abuse can be correlated to family problems, health problems, school problems and also occupational problems. Bigger problems lay within adolescents that have substance abuse problems. Substance abuse of adolescents between the ages of 12 to 17 has increased to 11.4%. This data was collected in 1997 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration. Their data also presented an increase from 2.2% to 3.8% between the ages of 12 to 13 years old (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, 1999). Therefore it is to be said that substance abuse is becoming more relevant at younger ages as time progresses. According to the National Institution of Health, the abuse of Ecstasy has increased in 12th graders from 3.0% to 4.5% and has also increased in 10th grades from 2.4% to 3.5% between the years of 2005 to 2007. Hansen and Ponton indicat ed that adolescent risk behavior of the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs will only get worse in the future. Adolescents that continue to abuse substances often experience a number of problems. Another substance that adolescents are increasingly abusing is alcohol in which 40.9% of 10th graders reported they had been drunk in the past year. According to the DSM-IV a substance abuse can be diagnosed if there is a continual pattern of substance use resulting in either failing to complete task such as school, work, or home, risking the harm of others by operating heavy machinery while under the influence. If the recurrent substance also creates legal problems by getting arrested or creates social or interpersonal problems within a 12 month period is to be considered a substance abuse. Because of these dangerous affects this paper will focus on the prevention of substance abuse rather than treating it. Negative Consequences: Adolescents are taking more risk than ever before. The consequences of these risks can encounter problems that affect their health, their lives, and their futures (Danish, 1997). Because of this early age of substance abuse more and more adolescents who are being treated are found to have more social and emotional problems (Fisher Harrison, 2000). One major consequence of a substance abuse is that it can negatively affect users health. Adolescents that are abusing illicit drugs increase their risk of death by suicide, homicide, accidents and illness (McCaig, 1995). The results of the drug abuse warning network study revealed that drug related emergencies increased by 17 % (McCaig, 1995). Not only is the physical health perceived as a negative consequence but also the users mental health. Adolescent illegal drug use causes problems involving healthy psychological growth and functioning for a healthy lifestyle (Brook et al., 1998a). Substance abusers frequently leads to depression, developmental lags, apathy, withdrawal and psychosocial dysfunctions (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992).Substance abusers can also develop a wide cluster of personality disorders. One personality disorder that is associated with adolescent substance abuse is conduct disorder (Stratton, 1998). Conduct disorder consist of behavior and emotional problems in adolescents. Adolescents with this disorder are viewed as bad or delinquents. They have a difficult time following the basic social and cultural norms and rules in which they behave in ways that are considered socially unacceptable. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992) Another consequence that is related to adolescent substance abuse has to do with the performance in academics. Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller (1998) cited research revealing that low levels of commitment to education and high truancy rates are related to an adolescent substance abuse. Truancies rates are also know as inexcusable absences. Low commitment to school and inexcusable absents set up bigger problems for education in the future. These bigger problems include users producing low standings compared to their class and even dropping out of school. The school consequences are very important to consider in the development of adolescents. Education is one aspect that dictates ones present and future quality of life. School dropout rates are highly correlated with adolescents that have substance abuse problems (Crowe, 1998). It is important to understand the different causes of the negative effects from a substance abuse. The more knowledge we know the better chance we have to preven t it. Cause: One cause that can make an adolescent vulnerable to start abusing substances at an early age could be due to social influences. Instead of only looking at the individual for explanations of the cause/origin of adolescent substance abuse it is also important to consider the social influences in which adolescents are surrounded by as an important causal contribution. Chau-Kiu Cheung and John Wing-Ling (2008) had conducted a study concerning the impact of social influences of adolescent substance abuse. Their study was directed to demonstrate how social influences, such as social encouragement and support are relevant to a cause of a substance abuse (Cheung and Ling, 2003). An adolescent is more likely or at greater risk of substance abuse when the adolescent is helpless due to contextual unhappiness (Patterson, 1999). From the results of Cheung and Lings study (2003), found a main interaction between social influences and contextual unhappiness. When external social influences engage i n an adolescent while they are unhappy, can create a vulnerability to abuse a substance (Cheung and Ling, 2003). Adolescents being stressed combined with an external social influence (encouragement support) also creates a vulnerability to cause a substance abuse (Cheung and Ling, 2003). The overall findings from Chau-Kiu Cheung and John Wing-Lings study (2008) shows that external forces play an important role in an adolescent substance abuse. These external forces lay in lines of our environment (peers, family members, and others) and are a huge contributor to the cause of a substance abuse. The findings from the previous study suggested that our environment is a causal factor to substance abuse. To better understand why our environment possess causality to substance abuse, we need to determine what aspects, domains, or settings put adolescents at risk for becoming substances abusers. Settings that include risk factor can include families, peer groups, schools, and your community. The more risk factors that adolescents are exposed to, the more likely the child will abuse a substances. (Hawkins and Spoth, 2001) Risk factors that appear in a family setting converse around the parents. Furthermore the risk factors revolve around parental active roles of supervision and appear in family situation (Kumpfer, Olds, Zucker,1998). For example, if there is a lack of attachment or nurturing between the parent/caregiver while that adolescent is developing. A number of investigators have shown that a close and mutually warm bond between the parent and the child is associated with less adolescent abusing drugs (Brook et al., 1993;Schmidt et al., 1996). Also drug use by a parent or sibling has been found to cause a substance abuse (Conger and Rueter, 1996; Duncan et al., 1995; Kandel, 1990; Kazdin, 1987; Loeber and Dishion, 1983; Patterson et al., 1989). If a family member is or has abused a substance and if there is a poor relationship between the child and the parent will put adolescents at risk of a substance abuser (Brook et al., 1990, 1998b). Children that have used drugs were compared to kids that have not and were found to be three times more likely to have a family member who is or has abused a substance (Brooks, La Rosa,Whiteman, Johnson, Montoya, 2000). In a study done by Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2000) did research examining family drug use, parent and child relationship, and environmental factors that contribute to a cause of a substance abuse. Strong parent and child relationships were found to decrease the chances of a substance abuse. In this study, parent-child relationship were described by support, identification, and non-conflict relationships. Results from the study (200) about parental identification suggest for a better internal representation of the father will decrease the chances of a substance abuse. This means not only the mother but the father has to spend more time with the child engaging in his or her life. This creates a close mutual relationship that will allow the child to admire his or her parental figure as a role model according to Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2002). Another aspect of the parent-child relationship was found to decreased a substance abuse was the amount o f time the parent spends with his or her child. Furthermore by parents not having a close mutual relationship and not engaging with the child will create a risk factors for a substance abuse. Overall this research presented by Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2000) demonstrated that parental drug use and poor parent child relationships are key risk components to developing a substance abuse. (Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya, 2002) Environmental causes outside of the family home setting can decrease the chances of a substance abuse (Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya, 2002). For instance, by having children attend to church regularly. Church can teach morals, values, and give guidance about life. Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2000) also hit on the importance of neighborhoods being a component of an environmental cause. Neighborhoods that are found to have violence, drug availability, low familism and non regular attendance to church will increase the chance of causality of a substance abuse. Like I mentioned previously there is more than one domain or setting that can cause an adolescent being involved in substance abuse. Not only can the family play apart in the causality of developing a substance abuse but also schools. Instead of blaming the victim we can put blame on our school systems. For example, the classrooms adolescents are attending to might not be conducting good classroom behavior or good social skills. These skills play a big role in the developmental process of an adolescent. This leaves kids very vulnerable to external forces from the classroom. Not only can the classroom be the problem but the school itself. Schools offer a lot of social activity and interactions. While being at school adolescent are at risk of associate and becoming involved with adolescent that have a substance abuse problem. This also opens up new doors for the availability of getting a hold of drugs; quantity and variety. (NIDA, 2001) Pervious intervention: Although there are a variety of types of treatments that show positive effects for a substance abuse. I want to focus on preventing a substance abuse and not blame the victim. Some adolescent substance abuse programs have attempted school based approaches, community approaches, and family based approaches. Pervious school based drug prevention programs have focused on protective factors of social influences on drug abuse. Some have been successful by delaying the use of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs for adolescents in middle school. Programs that have been targeted toward middle school have been found to miss the importance of the transition phase from middle school to high school. It is important to set prevention programs to gear in to adolescents that are making this transition phase. (Lynskeyet al., 2003) Another problem with previous prevention programs (ALERT) found that their programs affect boys more that girls. The cause of this problem still remains unknown (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007). The Project ALERT program was focused on middle school students. This programmed aimed its principles to motivate youth against using drugs and develop skills for resistance behavior. Project ALERT used small group activities and used techniques to examine questions and answers. These are important components to an effective program (Tobler, 1992). Pervious trials of the ALERT program have produced positive results, but they found room for improvement. Their new program called ALERT PLUS is based off the same fundamental principles of their old program; however, they have made changes to address problems. The ALERT PLUS added changes to focus on developmental changes during the transition phase of middle school to high school. Developmental changes can affect opportunities and motivation to drug use (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007). These developmental changes include friendship networks and dating opportunities. Overall, the new program goals were to strengthen norms a gainst drug use, help students cope with drug situation, and learn ways to quit. Furthermore they wanted to have a better educational system for teaching students consequences of drug and cope with emotional stress. (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007) Pervious results from their old program were able to prevent and reduce marijuana and tobacco in 8th grade students. However the program was not able to help students how have already smoked cigarettes. Also the old program only affected alcohol use in the short-run and not long-run. Therefore the PLUS program strengthened their lessons to improve education on alcohol use and was designed to help those who have already smoked more than one cigarette. (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007) The results of the ALERT PLUS program showed significant improvements. Girls in the PLUS program reported lower rates of weekly alcohol use. Girls in the plus program were compared to girls in the original program showing a reduction of alcohol by 32%. Reductions were also found in marijuana use by 49%. Another important finding that contributed to the new program was the scores of alcohol consequences and high risk alcohol use all showing improvements. (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007). Other programs mostly rely on school teachers and police officers to educate the youth during school time. In my opinion they never left enough time that adolescents need to be well educated/rounded on substance abuse. This next prevention program created by Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, (2002) set its principles on family based substance abuse prevention. This program offers skills that are directed toward parents. These skills are designed to increase family communication and bonding. Skills in this direction will decrease the chances of an adolescent substance abuse. The families in Action (FIA), includes techniques for a stronger parent-child communication, positive behavior management, ways of interacting among the family, factors for school achievements, and education on substance abuse. These were designed to create a better overall relationship. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) The FIA programs goal was to increase resiliency and protective factors within the family. The program was aimed toward children who are entering middle school. This prevention took place between 1994 to1995. It involved 37 children and 38 parents. The program involved once a week sessions for six consecutive weeks. The session went no longer than 2.5hrs. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) Families were measured on three different accounts for pre and post data. They were measured on family cohesion, family communication, and family fights. Cohesion was measured by the family environment scale on a nine point rating. Family communication was also measured on a nine point scale by participants indications the number of times they had different behavioral patterns. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) There were no significant finding presented between children in the FIA program when compared to a baseline group. However, the parents produced an important finding when compared to the comparison group. Parents in the FIA program had lower scores on attitudes toward tobacco, an appropriate age to drink at, and family cohesion. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) Program Description: Because substance abuse is becoming active at earlier and earlier ages as the time goes on, it is important to start prevention early in a childs life. What is needed is more consistent and long term adolescent substance abuse prevention that stays associated and involved with children during their courses of development. The program needs to be consistent by reaching out to where adolescent spend most of their time. This adolescent substance abuse program includes educations and developmental skills across the family and school settings. Because substance abuse can affect ones academics, physical and mental health and ones future, it is important to start prevention as early as 8 years old. For prevention to start this early prevention needs to be focused on families and more so on parents. One leading cause to a substance abuse is having a family history or a parent who was chemically dependent. Family members who were chemically dependent put their child to be genetically vulnerable to a substance abuse (Kumpfer, 1999). The first step of prevention is to get the parents to be well rounded and educated on drugs and substance abuse. Parents need to become aware of the origins of substance abuse. Meaning they need to know the causes and effects of a substance abuse. A great way for parents to become educated is to take part in neighborhood leader groups. Leader groups offer a great opportunity for getting and giving input and output. This also leads to another important prevention aspect in the family setting. Getting involved and paying attention to the child is important. Parents need to become very active when it comes to supervising. Staying involved with your child will heighten protective factors to outweigh the risk factors. Parental involvement is a crucial ingredient to preventing a substances abuse. Involvement doesnt just mean being around the kid when he/she is at home. Parents need to reach out past the home setting. A great skill for prevention is to get involved with your childrens interest. This can include friends, activities and their fantasies like a hero/role model. This is why it is important to take part in neighborhood leader groups. It gives the chance to know your childs friends and their families. Becoming aware of who their friends are, where they come from, and getting to know the parents makes for a very strong and effective way for staying involved and having a tight relationship. Getting to know your childs interest can really make a positive impact on the child an d is a great skill for prevention. For example, take your childs favorite superhero/role model and exemplify a new anti drug message once a week that has consequence toward that hero or role model. Parents being educated, staying involved with the childs interest and having good supervising skills offers a big part in keeping this prevention program consistent and long-term. Because it is important to keep the program consistent and long term in the development of the child, education and skills need to be implemented at school settings. At this point schools offer more risk factors than protective factors for substance abuse. Because of this window of risk factors and because schools take part in a big section of development of children; prevention needs to be enforced. Most school systems do not seem to be aware of the severity of negative effects of a substance abuse. This is apparent because of how high dropout rates are correlated to substance abuse in which rates are only going up. Instead of school systems only setting aside 15-20 minutes for drug awareness assemblies, school need to set aside more time for children just as their parents. In doing so the school systems have to change their academic system. They need to implement a full education class three days a week. Instead of the children just sitting in the class room and listening to the te acher, the class is going to involve a lot of participation. This participation will not only involve inside the classroom but will also take part as an extracurricular active outside of the school. By giving children extra actives to do outside and inside of school, will lessen the chance of them becoming involved with children that already have a substance abuse problem and take away from the availability of drugs. Inside the classroom teachers will be instructed to keep kids well rounded on types of drugs, health effects, academic affect, behavior affects and what a substance abuse can lead you to, like in the juvenile system. Activities inside the class room will be meant for participation toward learning coping skills, emotional control skills and social skills. Because this program is constructed to be long term and consistent, inside school classes and the extracurricular activities need to be practiced and implemented into school academic circular systems and not just as a b rief assembly or an announcement. The extracurricular actives outside of school are going to involve children reaching out into their communities beyond the school and family settings. This component to the program will stay active throughout the whole year and the summer so transition phases are not in effect. These activities will involve children from schools giving educational seminars in public place around their community. They will take what they have learned from inside the classroom and propose anti drug messages consistently across their community. Seminars will include places such as libraries, parks, beaches, neighborhoods, churches and shopping centers. Unlike other program this program needs to stay consistent and long-term through the stage of development. That is why this program is implemented into the family, school and beyond. In summary, this educational and skills substance abuse prevention program will strengthen the protective factors and weaken the risk factors of a substance abuse. For this program to be affective it has to take place in our families and school staying consistent and long term. All the aspects of family and school settings combine to create a chance of involvement of socializing creating strong relationship in a positive manner for being substance free. By having the protective factors outweigh the risk factors we can stop this continual pattern of adolescent substance abuse.

Theme of Carpe Diem in A Fine, a Private Place by Ackerman and To His C

The words carpe diem mean â€Å"seize the day† in Latin. It is a theme that has been used throughout the history of literature and has been a popular philosophy in teaching from the times of Socrates and Plato up to the modern English classroom. Carpe diem says to us that life isn’t something we have forever, and every passing moment is another opportunity to make the most out of the few precious years that we have left. In the poems â€Å"A Fine, a Private Place† by Diane Ackerman and â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† by Andrew Marvell, carpe diem is the underlying theme that ties them together, yet there are still a few key differences throughout each of these two poems that shows two very different perspectives on how one goes about seizing their day. The first poem by Ackerman is about two lovers who find their own special place to make love: under water. The writer describes the captured moment over four stanzas of the undersea world, describing physical attributes and actions with marine life. The woman in the poem is described as â€Å"his sea-geisha / in an orange kimono / of belts and vests, / her lacquered hair waving† (Lines 24-27) and the man with â€Å"his sandy hair / and sea-blue eyes, his kelp thin waist / and chest ribbed wider / than a sandbar / where muscles domed / clear and taunt as shells† (Lines 34-40) Ackerman’s poem has a feeling of tranquility and patience, capturing the moment and enhancing it to its fullest extent. She portrays sex as a beautiful act, saying â€Å"he pum...

College Fraternities :: essays research papers

College Fraternities College fraternities have always struck me as being an organization of guys who spend their time drinking beer and having their "social gatherings" (parties). Just moving to Austin recently (which is by no doubt a "college city") has made me want to know more about the sole purpose of these fraternities. For these reasons I chose to select this culture for my essay. The definition of a fraternity is defined as " chiefly social organization of male college students, usually designated by Greek letters". (Morris 1982:523) This definition is not true to all where most fraternity members are seen as drunks who accomplish nothing scholastically or socially . Unfortunately, the definition and portrayal of the people fails to mention the fact that membership in a fraternity is a life-long experience that helps its members develop social, organizational, and study skills, and also teaches true, everlasting friendship. As a matter of fact most of our presidents were members of a Greek organization. "The first fraternity was founded for literary and social purposes at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia on December 5th 1776." (Klepper 1937:24) Throughout the nineteenth century many new fraternities were founded, but none of these were permanent. By the end of the nineteenth century there were over thirty general fraternities in the country. Today's fraternities still have the characteristics of past fraternities. These characteristics include "a ritual, oaths of fidelity, a grip, a motto, a badge , friendship and comradeship (Klepper 1937:56) . During membership one must learn leadership skills. For this reason fraternities embrace these offices held by members: President, Vice-president, Treasurer, Scribe, etc. Since membership is seen as a great achievement by other organizations, every brother must be able to uphold that office at any time. Organization is a must for every member. Fund raising activities and community service are priority in every chapter, and each member is required to take part in these activities as an act of pledge, and a brother. This helps a member to develop organization and planning. Living together in what is known as a fraternity house adds to the development of social skills and being able to live with different kinds of people in different situations. Fraternities are famous for their social gatherings (parties) which requires all members to be socially active and also develop social skills. It is normal for fraternities to organize study groups during the school year and before exams. Most fraternities keep test files and other study aids available for the benefit of their members. A lot of members are able to receive scholarships and awards based on academic excellence, leadership and

An artwork is foremost a reflection and expression

It has been essentially argued since time immemorial of how an artwork is foremost a reflection and expression of the deeper emotions and values of an artist, which may sometimes be unfortunately suppressed in the artist’s life or unintentionally implied in the artwork. For that matter, any artwork is perhaps considered an artist’s personal drama set in a creative manner of expression. Sophie Treadwell’s play, Machinal, and T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred   Prufrock, are be fitting examples of modern human drama relatively framed in a dark, lonesome, and tragic milieu of love, death, age, solitude, and despair in the twentieth century. In Eliot’s poem, the narrator or speaker in his poem is a contemporary man who feels secluded brought by the fear of aging, and who is indecisive to act upon his crisis on love for a woman. The speaker Prufrock is rather an epitome of despair, frustration, and helplessness of the modern man toward a personal crisis. Prufrock positions himself as a symbol of disillusionment and dismay for failing to overcome his human weaknesses. What makes the poem or the speaker tragic is that his insecurity on a lot of things is holding his happiness in life and love. He remains to be brooding, dark, lonesome and awaits death in no time. Eliot has always been a difficult read, and this quality of writing has put him in the level of other literary masters. For a non-Eliot reader, the poem may initially seem confusing to understand. However, the speaker Prufrock has been endowed by Eliot the style of repeating particular phrases and going back to his main sentiment while the poem develops into a whole new set of ideas. This style is reassuring the reader that he can understand the deeper emotions of the speaker as he slowly reads through it. On one hand, this repetition may also show the speaker’s inability to communicate well with the society, and he needs to repeat words such as vision and revision to be clearly understood. Eliot possesses an ironic manner of writing that is very well implied on how Prufrock talks about his love for a woman but is coward enough to open up his feelings and of how he even contradictorily speaks of time as he would sense the urgency to capture life and love in his hands before old age and death take him away, but would also set it aside and reveal that there is still time to catch up on things. The first two similar characteristics or qualities of Treadwell’s play with Eliot’s poem are the twentieth century setting and powerful themes of death and despair, even though the former’s work is based on a sensational real murder case and the latter is more of a personal struggle brought about by aging. Machinal is also similar with Prufrock’s written image of pessimism and depression for things that they are incapable of having, but both end in different resolutions. Machinal’s main character, Helen, is unhappily married to a vicious man and yet happily having an extra-marital affair with a younger man. But, Helen being incapable of loving the younger man in the most proper ways as dictated by society’s conventions, murders her husband and releases herself from the wretched married life. In the case of Prufrock, he remains attached to his fears of opening up to his love and to the society. Machinal is as powerful and intense as Prufrock in its presentation of despair over love. Machinal is desperately consumed with two kinds of love as previously stated. What makes Helen a tragic hero like Prufrock is their disparate heroism takes them not into the world of admiration, but into a world of utmost dismay and desperation – theirs is a tragic presentation of surrender to an inescapable human obstacle of frustrating emotions. Treadwell is capable of repetitive rhythm like a strange poem – a quite tricky concept like Eliot – yet incorporated the theatrical lingo of any expressionistic writing during the twentieth century. To say expressionistic is to only define the attributes of human emotions, not necessarily placing it into an approach of realism. But, moreover, Machinal is an engaging, dark display of human wickedness doomed like Prufrock’s love song. Works Cited Treadwell, Sophie. Machinal (Royal National Theatre). London: Nick Hern Books, 1995. â€Å"T. S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.†