It is reported in the video that schools in New York City are among the most segregated in the USA. Although the region has a vast diversity of the population, schools are still able to reject students of primarily African American and Latin ethnicity. This paper will discuss questions related to the admission screening that school conduct to choose among various students; and how the minority in the student body can influence the future life of graduates.
The idea to remove the history of misbehavior from the admission material is controversial. On the one hand, the information about suspensions and improper behavior may indicate that a student lacks certain traits to be able to enter good middle school and study successfully. On the other hand, removing students from the learning process might be based on teachers’ biases or might be evoked due to unfair treatment from acquaintances in school. Thus, the authorities may decide on the degree of misbehavior that should be reflected in the admission material.
Talking about schools where the student body was mostly minority, I can say that there were specific gaps in resources that could have been bridged. Among these was a lack of personalized guidance and limited counseling programs that could improve the studying results and socializing experience and communication with students. I believe that there are adverse consequences of high school life for future development when a school does not provide comprehensive education on integrative contact with various people, fair competition, and advising programs. In the future, people who had better socializing and educating systems may get a better higher education, admission scores, and job positions.
To conclude, one can say that school experience is essential for all people. Therefore, students must get as fair and integrative education and attitude from others to become successful in the future, get better positions, and improve lives. The better experience of students may also be reflected in the economic and social state of communities where education is enhanced with the support of advisors and authorities.
“Murder On The Orient Express” By Agatha Christie: Interpretation
Setting
The first part of the book focuses mainly on the theme of identity and introducing the characters. The identity of the main character, Poirot, is not presented in the first chapters. Perhaps, the author used this method to emphasize his detective capabilities instead of merely stating his talent. Poirot needs to travel to London and takes an almost fully booked carriage. The readers are later introduced to a set of other passengers who are noted to be strikingly different in regard to their gender, assumed ethnicity, origin, and background. One of the passengers who approach Poirot are Ratchett and his secretary; even though Poirot took an interest in a couple, they disgust him due to their apparent arrogance and self-entitlement that Poirot finds repulsive.
Eventually, Ratchett asks the main character to protect him due to the death threats he receives, and Poirot denies the request. However, the concerns were correct, and the next day, after a troublesome night, Ratchett is found dead from twelve stab wounds. Although all characters are different, they develop a sense of unity in finding a murdered, contributing to the overall theme of identity. Despite their differences, they find common ground and share information, which hints at a shared secret between the passengers. The purpose of the introduction is to establish a setting.
Clues
The second part of the narrative focuses on the start of the investigation. The purpose of the section is to introduce the readers and Poirot to a set of clues that later will be pieced together to uncover a mystery. Firstly, Poirot interviews the secretary of the deceased, McQueen, and discovers that throughout their work together, the secretary suspected that “Ratchett” was an alias, and he was escaping from something. As one of the first clues, McQueen presents the detective with one of the death threats received by Ratchett, which turns out to be written by several people.
Upon closer inspection of the murder scene, the detective discovers that the deceased has been stabbed multiple times by both right and left-handed people, indicating that there has been more than one murderer. Furthermore, more clues are discovered: a handkerchief with an “H.” initial, different matches, and a piece of paper that says “remember Daisy Armstrong,” which helps Poirot to uncover the real identity of the deceased. In the following chapter, Poirot lunches with Dr. Constantine and Bouc, who also investigate the murder, and explains the real identity of the deceased – Cassetti. As it turns out, Cassetti kidnapped a daughter of a wealthy Armstrong family and requested ransom but killed Daisy regardless of receiving the money. After the accident, the mother, Linda Arden, suffered a miscarriage, and her husband and a nursemaid committed suicide, while Cassetti remained not convicted. The section presents readers with clues as parts of the puzzle and allows them to guess the murderer and their motive.
Evidence Gathering
Unlike a previous one, part three describes how Poirot actively gathers evidence instead of passively observing it. He interviews Pierre Michel, a conductor of the wagon, to discover that he saw the deceased at dinner and then visited his room per his request but was let go shortly afterward. The conductor has visited Mrs. Hubbard and Poirot after they rang a bell, made Ratchett’s bed, and saw a woman in a red kimono in the corridor. Pierre ensures the detective that the train was searched and the murderer already left the train. Upon the second interview with Ratchett’s secretary, Poirot discovers that he has an alibi, and McQueen’s father was an attorney working on Armstrong’s case. Lastly, he also reports seeing a woman in a kimono. Interrogation of Ratchett’s valet does not yield any significant results: he was laid off by his master the night of his murder and asked not to disturb him the following morning. The detective also discovers that the valet is a smoker.
Mrs. Hubbard, a passenger of the same carriage, interrupts Poirot’s interrogation and claims that she saw the murderer in her compartment who left a conductor’s button as a piece of evidence. Greta Ohlsson confirms her story and confesses that she accidentally entered Ratchett’s chamber at 10 pm and saw him reading. When Poirot questions the conductor about the lost button, he finds that the evidence is not connected to him. Princess Dragomiroff, Ratchett’s neighbor, states that although she went to sleep early, she expresses her concerns about the communication door between their compartments and suggests that it is the way murderer might have accessed Ratchett. In this section, the author attempted to confuse the reader by giving an abundance of opinions and points of view, which perpetuates the intrigue and complicates the plot.
Discovery
The last part of the story aims to piece all the evidence together to uncover an unexpected ending. Following the interviews of the aforementioned suspects, Poirot continues to examine the carriage’s passengers. After all of the meetings are completed, he sits with his companions and tries to piece all the gathered evidence. Poirot discovers a red kimono on his bed and concludes that the pipe cleaner and kimono clues have been forged evidence aimed at distracting him. As a result of his observation, he confronts one of the passengers, Countess Andrenyi, who turns out to be Helena Goldenberg, Mrs. Armstrong’s sister. Despite the lies about her identity, she claims to have no connection to the murder, and Poirot believes her. Later, an owner of the handkerchief, Princess Dragomiroff, confesses that it is hers but also denies any participation in the assassination. Upon the following inspection, Poirot discovers that every person has a connection to the Armstrong family. All passengers worked for or were a part of the Armstrong family and decided to enact justice on their own by avenging Daisy’s murder.
During all-passengers gathering, Poirot presents two options for the solution to the case. Firstly, the assassin might have entered their train on one of the stops, killed Ratchett at approximately one in the morning, and left the carriage unobserved. On the other hand, a more likely solution is that the Armstrong household with Linda Arden, Daisy’s mother, in the lead all killed Cassetti to avenge Daisy’s assassination. Although the passengers confess that they lied about their identities and killed Ratchett, Poirot and the other investigators decide to tell the police the first solution to protect Armstrong’s justice. The purpose of this ending, along with the whole work of literature, is to show that justice is not necessarily enacted by law but by hurt individuals who decide to perform their punishment. While it is illegal, ethical reasons allow them to seek revenge due to their loss.
American Promise Ideals Overview
The American Promise is primarily the ideals of freedom, democracy, and liberalism. The founding fathers first formed this position; this is the attitude towards the development of constitutional liberties, the independence of the American nation, and the glorification of the ideals of liberalism. In the US, human rights are considered the highest value. Since people were all created equal from the very beginning, the provision by the government of the right to life and freedom, and other fundamental rights is the main task of the state.
The US model of democracy was created under specific historical and cultural conditions, and attempts to copy it in other countries were unsuccessful (Roark et al. 435). From a formal point of view, the US is the most balanced republic within the framework of an institutional organization, which is also a state federation. Each state is free to create its local legislation in part not delegated to the federal level. The US political system has stood the test for more than 200 years of strength.
The election procedures have never been canceled or broken in all the time since the end of the War of Independence; in European democracies, such situations have happened, and more than once. The balance between personal freedom and religion is one of the essential characteristics of the US, as well as the balance between private property and equality, individualism and social life, reliable power, and decentralization.
Furthermore, the American Promise is not only internal cohesion and democracy. The ability to influence the democratization processes positively in the world has always been a strong point of the US. However, in the process of establishing power in the adjacent territories, the US almost turned into an imperialist country. The US nearly broke its promise when it acquired a large number of colonies. Still, fortunately, imperialism did not receive as much development in the USA as it did in Europe. The United States became the guarantor of democracy and the promise of freedom after overcoming the temptation to become a world power by seizing territories.
The government concluded that becoming a leading power is possible without destroying ideals of liberty. Likewise, the establishment of human freedoms was not simple, and citizens had to fight for their independence from the start. An obstacle arose at the very beginning of the formation of liberal democracies. Authorities established the property qualification for voting people, but protests and public anger forced the government to lower it.
Nowadays, the American Promise confirms the historical value of the struggle for democracy. The government did not establish democracy in the US; this state structure was born in the country, and people created it throughout the years. The represented situation obliges the nation to act as a guarantor of freedom and justice all around the world. The US conquered the temptation to become an imperialist power and compromised to preserve liberal values. Such personal freedom does not exist in any nation; the US and the Statue of Liberty are associated with democracy around the world precisely because liberalism and equality arose here.
The democratic idea and how authorities implement it in the US is self-contradictory and continually self-renewing. The struggle for liberalism and individual freedom has gone beyond the borders of the state recently. The government is trying to fulfill the American promise and spread the idea of liberalism throughout the world, although sometimes it requires intervention in the internal politics of states.
Work Cited
Roark, James L. et al. The American Promise: A Concise History, Volume 1: To 1877. St. Martin’s, 2013.