The Idea of Innocence in Bambara’s the Lesson free essay sample

During the reading of the story â€Å"The Lesson† by Toni Cade Bambara† many thoughts have come to my mind on how to react towards the attitude and the feelings of the protagonist, Sylvia. The day starts when Ms. More brings the kids to downtown New York City in a special shop. Many things will occur at this place and one thing that we will notice is the innocence throughout the interactions of the kids. As they step inside FAO Schwarz, an important and well known store in the city, they happen to see toys, like a small toy sailboats at prices around 1000$ and other things at ridiculous prices! Not understanding how people could spend that much for such little things, the underprivileged neighborhood kids don’t seem to make such a big deal out of it, and are more amazed than anything. Except for Sylvia, she notices the reason of her trip here, and her moral innocence towards this isn’t at the same level as the others †¦ At first, Sylvia happens just to be a girl that does not want to go wherever Ms. We will write a custom essay sample on The Idea of Innocence in Bambara’s the Lesson or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Moore is going to bring them, but she is listening to her parents. This first decision just brings in her a negative effect. Even if Ms. Moore happens to be the nicest women in the world, she prefers being at the pool at this moment. The atmosphere isn’t the best, and the kids, especially her, can’t wait to get back to their houses and go play outside. Sylvia demonstrates absolutely no innocence at this moment and in fact, she tries to look at Ms. Moore from a high point view, thinking that this lady won’t learn anything to her today. â€Å"And she was black as hell cept for her feet, which were fish white and spooky† (Bambara P. 116). The author used the last quote to demonstrate how she insults Ms. Moore and how since she is so black but she is wearing white, there is a connection between her and the white community at this moment. Maybe that’s why Sylvia may be the only one in the end that will understand something of this day. As the story moves on, an evident change is occurring in Sylvia’s thoughts, she still thinks that this a stupid expedition but she starts to think now, how can people afford these things. â€Å"My parents could pay the rent, the food and my clothes for a year with kind of money! (Bambara P. 119) As a stubborn girl, she really is confused with the motive of this trip and a moral innocence starts to be present in her thoughts. She starts to see how society works and that she will have to one day stand up if she wants to have her share of the pie; not only her, but the whole African-American society that lives in the slums of New York. With an attitude that is extremely present, she gets really mad at how society works because she is starting to understand it a little bit. Compared to the other kids that are living a total dream, seeing all these toys and thinking that one day they would play with them, she stands out. The innocence present in the other kids is really clear: they see amazing toys at exorbitant prices and their feeling pretty much stops there. Innocent of the ignorance they aren’t able to go to school and understand what is going on outside of their little community. Finally, Sylvia shows that she is mad and her moral innocence starts to disappear as she starts to understand what kind of pie Ms. Moore is talking about. Honestly she doesn’t really want to show it to others because she is way too hard headed to give the old lady any sort of recognition on this trip. Her innocence then becomes something more spiritual. Because now that the day is over, she can think of the ice cream she will buy but she also (when Sugar starts to run to race her to a store) she says: â€Å"She can run if she want to and even run faster. But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin†(Bambara P. 121). I think that it is at this moment that all the innocence she showed during the trip, how she didn’t understand the motive, changes and disappears and becomes spiritual. She is now ready to confront the real world and knows that no one will beat her at anything and this is how Ms. Moore did her job. The story really brought another dimension on the lives of these people living in misery. We really see how the innocence is present in the brain of all these kids. If this trip didn’t occur, they wouldn’t even know that some people have more money than others. With the fact that internet and television weren’t that present at this time, really shows how they were disconnected. This experience is really something that will mark them since it happens at a period where their brains are growing and are starting to build links in their heads. It’s in that case that I say, once again, that there is also a certain spiritual innocence that will just rest inside their heads, and make them understand better in the future, how society works, and how they need to move on if they want to see a change. The time for them to stand up will arrive soon, and they will then thank Ms. Moore I am sure†¦

Take Time to Wrap Up the School Year in 3 Steps

Take Time to Wrap Up the School Year in 3 Steps By the time any school year winds down to a close, the last thing any teacher wants to think about is the next school year. Unfortunately, the end of the school year is also when a teacher has the most information about how to make the transition into September much smoother. So, how to make the best use of this information? Teachers should try to spend time -a few hours on each of the following categories- at the end of this year because time invested now  could yield positive results in the next school year. #1. Spend Time Cleaning Up and Cleaning Out Before a teacher leaves for the school year, he or she could take a picture of the room (maybe from several angles) and post these pictures on the bulletin board for the custodial staff to see. This will make sure the room is organized and ready for students in the next school year.   Teachers should box supplies and clearly labels them so materials can be located quickly.( NOTE: Painters tape is more easily removed than other kinds of masking tape if furniture is marked.) In cleaning out, teachers and staff should follow the following guidelines: Remove the materials that were not used this year.Go through files and purge what is outdated. Remove  items that are irrelevant Remove saved items that â€Å"might†¦Ã¢â‚¬  be used. Do not keep those unused items inherited from teachers who came before...and do not feel guilty. #2. Spend Time Reflecting on Goals: If the teacher evaluation program (EX: Danielson or Marzano) has a self-reflection requirement, then much of this effort is already done. A teachers self-reflection can help him or her to focus on what areas might need attention in the next school year. If there is no self-reflection, teachers can still review the following questions in order to draft a goal or set of goals for the coming school year: How can I improve on writing this same or a similar goal for next year?What new ways could I use to measure this same goal or a new goal?Can I use different groups to make growth more visible?What could be the next step after meeting this goal?What single factor was most helpful with my goal this past year?What single factor caused problems with meeting my goal this past year?How can I improve my use of time in meeting a future goal? #3. Spend Time on Preparing Special Events Teachers can do a little pre-planning during the summer to alleviate the stress of planning special events (field trips or guest visits-in person or virtually) for students during the school year. Contacting locations or guest speakers in advance of the school year will help provide the school office personnel the time to plan for logistical support (transportation, permission slips, substitutes, video chats) well in advance, especially when the school calendar is being created. Special events are what students remember about the school year, and a little planning in advance can make the effort for all stakeholders worthwhile. In spending a few hours at the end of the school year on each of the three suggestions above, teachers can leverage their experiences of this past school year in order to make positive steps towards making the next school year experience even better.

The Two Major Theories Relating To Leadership and Motivation in Essay

The Two Major Theories Relating To Leadership and Motivation in Organizations - Essay Example The researcher states that the modern world has become competitive requiring organizations to be as creative as possible so as to ensure that their workplaces are motivated as much as possible. When motivation is concerned, the modern workers are not directly motivated by financial increments. Some may prefer other motivational ways most of which can be suggested by the employees themselves. This brings in another issue of communication, which is crucial to the management being practiced and requires the leadership traits of the supervisor to keep up. In this instance, most successful organizations take employees seriously and view them as the most important asset to the functionality and productivity of the organization. In contrast, the organizations that view employees in a similar way to the machinery and the equipment in the workplace encounter resistance when it comes to implementation of changes in the organization and in fulfilling the core tasks that the organization intends to realize. Such organizations are also prone to intense competition since the productivity is wanting from the perspective of employee psychological health. A happy workplace is a highly productive workplace. Analyzing and contrasting two of the best theories related to motivation and organization’s leadership is essential so as to put this into perspective. One of the best theories related to motivation and leadership of the organization and one that is essential to the working of the organization is the participative theory of leadership. This is a contrast theory to the autocratic theory but both can be utilized in a creative manner to ensure smooth operation of the organization and the achievement of the intended objectives and goals. The participative theory can also be referred to as the democratic theory due to its nature.