The environment in the context of learning can be defined as the surrounding of the learner in terms of both physical and emotional dimensions. This therefore implies that both physical and emotional aspects of the environment influence the learning process. The environment plays a very significant role in the learning process and especially fro children.It is the environment that important materials that are crucial for the cognitive process can be found. The environment here can be taken to be the space, people with which interactions occur so as to effect learning. The right physical environment for effective learning is where safety and other essentials are well catered for especially in the context of child learning. This includes the teachers as the facilitators of learning and the other adults who are in charge of the child who is supposed to be learning. The appropriate physical environment for learning is the one which gives an opportunity for both indoor and outdoor activities for the child to explore alongside a knowledgeable adult who is supposed to give direction to the learner. An environment where the learners are not comfortable for instance high temperature or congestion is not conducive for learning. The environment should also be safe and make the students feel that there safety needs are well catered. Learners who are in war prone areas have problems since they stay worried about whether they will be harmed or not. (AMES AND ARCHER, 1988)
The materials in the environment should be familiar to the learner to enable learning from the known to the unknown. New materials also should be available in the environment.
The best learning materials to be supplied in the environment for learning should have a variety of uses. This is very crucial for the development of cognitive cues in the mind of the learner. An environment that is quiet and free from noise is important for learning. This is because such an environment is free from things like noise which would attract the attention of the learners.
The environment is very crucial in the sense that it offers challenges to the learner and therefore aids in memory enhancement and thus effective learning. For instance in the case of a child who is in the environment fro learning challenges will help the child learn about taking risks and how to stay safe in the environment. The environment is also essential for learning in the sense that it helps to build confidence in the learner. As the learner explores the physical environment confidence is build especially with the handling of various materials available in the learning environment. An environment that is full of destructors will hinder the involvement of the learner in important activities that facilitate the learning process. This follows then that if the environment is free from such materials / resources that are likely to divert the attention of the student then they should be removed so as to improve learning processes. In humanistic schools focus is on emotional environment which should be highly supportive and respectful to the learner. This is quite essential for the purpose of helping the learner to validate his/her goals and even express them (BAIRD, 1986).
The emotional environment should also be designed in such a way that it can empower the learner and improve his participation in important learning activities. This is based on an increased awareness at both levels. Factors such as self worth and autonomy determine the deep involvement of the learner in the learning activities. This therefore means that if consideration is not made on these factors the involvement of the learner in essential activities can be compromised and consequently hinder learning. A factor like autonomy is quite essential when learning scientific concepts whereby the learners are supposed to be given freedom to choose partners and handle the materials on their on so as to develop the required analytical skills. If the learners are not given the chance to handle experiments on their own they would always depend on their teacher and learning would be minimal
A good environment for learning is the one which is supportive to the learner in the sense that it helps to stick knowledge into the cognitive structures of the learner. The type of activities that the teacher uses also matter. If the materials are not suited for the particular environment then this would impede on learning. Motivation of the learner should be the main target of any environment which is conducive for learning. This is so because motivation remains a very important aspect of learning and without it learning becomes very minimal. Extrinsic motivation has been stressed by most theorists as to be very supportive to learning. This extrinsic motivation can originate from the environment of the students. When leaner are provided with people who have achieved much in life, they become role models to them and can be a good source of extrinsic motivation. In conclusion it is vital to underscore the fact that the environment is critical for the learning process. A good environment facilitates attention of the learners and makes them stick to the important activities for learning. A bad environment on the other hand would impede learning because it affects attention and the cognitive processes in the mind of the learner.
References
- AMES, C. AND ARCHER, J. (1988) Achievement goals in the classroom: Students’ learning strategies and motivation processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 260-267.
- BAIRD, J. R. (1986) Improving learning through enhanced metacognition: A classroom study. European Journal of Science Education, 8, 263-282.
- Future.
- Life.
Diplomatic Immunities And Abuse Of Immunities
Thesis statement
Immunities from criminal to civil actions are granted between nations that have diplomatic ties because they have officials who are personal representatives of the head of state. The abuses are increasing because immunity is offered to diplomats who use it to protect themselves from being prosecuted even if they commit a crime. There are various cases where immunity is abused such as people avoiding to pay tax to the government, criminals failing to be charged in a court of law, and individuals importing goods without paying import duty.
Immunities
Diplomatic immunity is a principle used by international law where certain officials of a foreign government are not subject to the jurisdiction of authorities and local courts. Ancient tribes are the ones who began the concept of immunity. Information was exchanged through messengers traveling from one tribe to another without the fear of being harmed and they were not protected even when they had brought bad news.
Today, immunity is used to protect diplomatic communication channels by diplomats being exempted from the local jurisdiction to be able to perform duties with security, freedom, and independence. Diplomatic immunity is not supposed to be of personal benefit to individuals; it is used to ensure that foreign officials are able to perform their jobs. Under reciprocity, diplomats who are assigned to various countries in the world enjoy equal benefits from diplomatic immunity. (Ashman, 1986 pp24-28)
The Vienna convention about diplomatic immunity and consular relations provides people with immunity depending on their rank in a consular post or diplomatic mission and according to the kind of immunity needed for them to be able to perform their duties. For example, diplomatic members and agents of immediate families get immunity against criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. Technical and administrative staff members of the embassies receive immunity at low levels. Consular officers who serve throughout the country in consulates have the immunity of lower levels and staff members of embassy service and consular employees receive immunity for acts that are performed as official duties.
Diplomats get exempt from the civil, administrative, and criminal jurisdiction of the host country but the exemption is waved by the home country. Moreover, immunity for a diplomat who is from the jurisdiction of the host country is not allowed to exempt him from the jurisdiction of his home country. Discretion of host country declares any member of diplomatic staff who is unwanted or persona non grata and this happens any time when there is no obligation for explaining such a decision. If such a situation occurs, as a rule, the home country recalls the involved person and terminates his function in the mission. (Dickinson, 2004 pp11-15)
Specific measures are provided by the Vienna Convention that is taken by home and host countries if there arise cases of abuse or misuse of immunities and diplomatic privileges. Diplomatic immunities and privileges serve as efficient tools which help to facilitate state relations. Diplomatic immunities guarantee diplomatic members or agents of immediate family where they can not be prosecuted, subpoenaed as witnesses, detained, or arrested and their residences can not be entered into and searched.
There were many instances where oppression and state justice occurred in state legislation of flagrant violations of immunity of citizens in the United States which national government-furnished and could not furnish remedy centrally to constitutions express letter. There was the infliction of unusual and cruel punishments under state laws with a union of citizens for sacred duty that was done and crimes committed against which and for which the United States government provided no remedy.
The United States fourteenth amendment of the constitution is unique in its provisions because there is believed by some scholars that it was read out substantially in Supreme Court decision and the clause has remained dormant since that time. The immunities clause originally was intended to incorporate the first eight amendments of the United States bill of rights that was against state governments and incorporate constitutional rights against state governments.
However, the incorporation has been achieved using the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause that series of decisions of supreme courts such as Duncan versus Louisiana in order to incorporate protection and amendment rights as privileges of State residents. (Fox, 2004 pp34-39)
In the cases of the slaughterhouse, the court recognizes the rights of citizens who are citizens of the United States and are covered by the immunities clause of the fourteenth amendment while rights of citizens for belonging to a state are under article four of the immunities clause. Slaughterhouse did not prevent the Bill of rights from being applied to the states through the immunities clause but instead, there was a violation of a person’s natural rights by state monopoly for the person to engage in trade, do business, or vocation. This means that there was no bill of rights provision that was issued in that case and no other right that followed in the constitution.
Citizens were given constitutional immunity from acts of states that were abridging as each of them was recognized to have possession from congress abridgment. What Congress was forbidden to do previously was to pass the fourteenth amendment which any state was forbidden. There was anticipation that the immunity clause protects state infringement a broad range of rights that exceeded what was enumerated in the Bill of Rights. However, this was because of interpreting immunities in the original constitution before the amendment. According to how the older clause was interpreted, it was noted that people who framed the fourteenth amendment knew that the Supreme Court had not defined its nature or immunities in the original constitution and the matter of interpretation was left in the hands of the judiciary. (Van, 2007 pp14-18)
One of the arguments against the interpretation of the immunities clause as a requirement of states to comply with a bill of rights is the interpretation renders the fourteenth amendment Due Process Clause redundant. Although this question has been raised by constitutional scholars, fourteen amendments intended to extend the right to due process to citizens and other people. A similar issue of redundancy is posed by how immunities are interpreted in order to guarantee equality. (Barker, 1996 pp13-17)
Abuse of immunity
There was a ruling by a federal judge that the Holy See is considered as a foreign state and enjoys immunity protections by placing restrictions of lawsuits by three men who alleged that after children were abused sexually by the priests, the case was covered up by the Vatican. A speech was delivered by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican but the three men from America sued it and said the catholic priests abused them.
According to the ruling that was obtained by the associated press, the judge of the District Court in the United States rejected the argument of the victims saying that the Holy See is an international religious organization where a foreign state is subject to provisions in the Foreign Sovereign Act of Immunities. This ruling is important because religious activities of the Holy Sees are irrelevant to immunity protections that it enjoys for being a foreign state. This could only have implications for cases where the Holy See is a defendant in a scandal of clerical sexual abuse. (Kelly, 2005 pp15-18)
Labor law and local employment have diplomatic immunity when employing staff from the host country and have precipitated abuse. When we have a diplomat employer, employees face legal limbo where neither the host country laws nor laws of the diplomat’s country are enforceable. Conflict of interest arises because diplomats are the chief representative of the laws of their country and can not be forced to be obedient to local laws so that diplomat employer who is abusive acts with virtual impunity.
The laws about minimum wages have been ignored, a maximum number of working hours, holidays, and vacation. The worst abuse has made employees be imprisoned in their homes and deprived them of the wages they used to earn and they could not have access to the outside world.
Many diplomats do not pay tariffs and import duties for the items purchased for personal use. In some countries, diplomatic agents are the ones who profit personally when they resell these tax-free goods. The state that is receiving may make a choice to put restrictions on what may be referred to as personal use, for example, a certain cigarette quantity to be consumed every day. When such restrictions are enacted, they can be generous and fair to everyone. Many people do not pay fees that are imposed by the government because they try to avoid paying taxes. The nature of fees charged may lead to disputes but the receiving state should not discriminate between states as to who is supposed to pay tax and who should not pay. (Thanki, 2006 pp34-37)
References
Barker C. (1996): the abuse of diplomatic privileges and immunities: Dartmouth, pp. 13-17.
Ashman C. (1986): The abuse of diplomatic immunity: Hardback, pp. 24-28.
Van R. (2007): The immunities of states and their officials: Oxford University Press, pp. 14-18.
Fox H. (2004): The law of state Immunity: Oxford University Press, pp. 34-39.
Dickinson A. (2004): State Immunity; Selected Materials and Commentary: Oxford University Press, pp. 11-15.
Kelly M. (2005): Defeat of the Sovereign Immunity Defense: Peter Lang, pp. 15-18.
Thanki B. (2006): The Law of Privilege: Oxford University Press, pp. 34-37.
Adult – Child Relationships In American Movies
Introduction
The following research paper is about the relationship bond of an Adult and a child shown in American movies. The paper would explore the meaning of a relationship between an adult and a child and would emphasize its importance as well. The relationship between that particular adult and the child could be any, for example, it could be a relationship of a parent with the child, or a relationship of an adult with its relative child. It would also evaluate the various aspects of life and its meaning with respect to relationships and responsibilities and the attitude of adults towards their children.
Relationship
(Parke and Kellam 1) Relationship can be understood as a bonding or connecting attributes that binds two or more people together. Relationship combines emotional, blood, marriage, physical, friendship, family, business relationships, or society together through some means. Relationships are mostly taken as people connected in a family who are bonded to live together with love, understanding, affection, care and peace. Most of the times, relationship is taken with aspects of a family connection. A family is connected with relatives and via a bond of blood and emotions. In short, it can be described as the association between two or entities is known as a relationship. Most typical relationships in families are of parents, children, siblings, and other relatives such as aunt, uncle, grandparents, and others. Many other relationships in this world are not related to a family. These relationships are of business, sexual, friendship, corporate, customer, or commercial type. For example, relationship between buyer and seller, health and diet, parent and child, employer and employee, student and teacher, giver and taker, the customer and the company, doctor and patient, and many others (Vangelisti 1).
Relationship Bond between Children and Their Adults
(Irving and Nolo 326) The relationship between a child with its adult as a parent or a relative is the most important and trustworthy in this universe. This relationship can be regarded as the most precious and most reliable because this kind of relationship is not developed for some specific reason. Relationships between parents and relatives with their children bear no cost or has no monetary value because there is only love, affection, care and concern regarding the child and nothing else! In the current cunning and mean society, pure relationship is hard to find, but the relationship between a child with its parents or relatives can be regarded as the purest and loving bond seen.
(Hersen et al 373) Adults and relatives play the most important and crucial role for the children because children are made of what they learn from their elders. If parents and relatives show caring, humble and loving towards their children, then the children would adopt this habit and would carry this attitude for the rest of their lives. The world is changing very rapidly as time passes and thus, it differs in so many ways which could not be explained to the children, but can only be taught from their adults. Children today face a more complex and impersonal society as compared to their adults because they are not matured enough to decide what is right and what is wrong for them. This is why children adopt whatever they learn or get from their adults as parents or relatives. Parents and relatives are the ones who can teach their children, how to react in what kind of situations? What to decide in emergencies? How to become independent and self-controlled? And how to handle responsibilities. Every child is the reflection of what he or she has learned from his elders, parents and relatives and the sole bearer of his elders’ characteristics. It is the sole duty of the parents or the relatives to take care of their children, to provide them food and all the necessities, to provide them with excellent education, to protect them and to nourish them with good faith and attitude. This is what the child learns from his elders and bears it with him for the rest of his life (Roberts 161).
Adult/Child Relationship as Shown in American Movies
Movies are usually regarded as to showcase what is going on in society and reflects the real essence of everything that is happening around the world on screen so that people could know about the situation while gaining the sense of entertainment from the movies. Movies, no doubt, are the reflection of society and relationships of the society of the real world. Many directors and producers develop art or commercial movies just to portrait what is going in there minds and what is needed to be known to people and general public. In return, they get appreciation and money as their rewards. The American movie industry is one of the largest industries in the world. Every year, hundreds of movies are made for the entertainment of people and these movies are rated according to their standards and cast of the crew.
In the American cinema industry, when it comes to relationship bonding, the directors and the movie makers emphasize greatly on the value of relationship because it not only affects their movie values, but also affects the minds of the public coming to watch the movie, especially children and their relatives. Children usually adapt what they learn from their adults and relatives, this is why it is important to reflect the value of the relationship bond so that if the children are not learning it from their adults, then they could get it from the moral of the story of the movie.
As told above, there are many American movies that emphasize greatly on the relationship of an adult with his child, and some of them would be discussed in this research paper for the convenience of the readers. These movies are Shadow of a Doubt (by Hitchcock in the year 1943), Affliction (by Schrader in the year 1998), Best Boy (by Wohl in the year 1979), and Hannah and Her Sisters (by Allen in the year 1986). These movies reflect the relationship of children with their adults and portraits the value of the affection between them. They also reveals how the children were affected by the attitude of their adults and what kind of way or career they chose for themselves in the future after learning from their adults and relatives.
Shadow of a Doubt
(Sterritt 52) The movie Shadow of a Doubt is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and it was one of Hitchcock’s favorite movies because it reflects suspense and creativity with full devotion while focusing on the relationship of an uncle with his niece. It is the story of a young girl, Charlie Newton who wanted to visit her uncle for once in a life and then her wish comes true when she gets the chance to visit him. She shares a very special bond with her uncle and totally counts on him. She feels that he is the only entity in the world to whom she can call upon at any time in life and he is the only man in the world who understands her needs fully and she is very happy to live with him. So, when life becomes dull and difficult for her to live with, she calls him to visit. However, there arrives two detectives and then a series of unusual events and clues started growing up, with which she realizes that her uncle’s behavior and attitude has also been changed accordingly. Young Charlie starts suspecting that her life is no longer safe and must find a way to save herself from trouble. The entire plot of the movie has been settled very systematically and portrays every scene and emotion very well. The relationship of uncle with his niece is lovely at times, which also reflects that there may be problems in perfect looking life and one should not be afraid from any circumstances, no matter how young is that person (Bellour and Penley 243).
Affliction
(Berardinelli and Ebert 151) The movie Affliction is originally base on the novel by Russell Banks and is directed by the director Paul Schrader. It is a typical yet subtle and strong story plot that reveals the relationship of a child with his abusive father. The starring child becomes a lone policeman (Nick Nolte), whereas James Coburn plays the role of the abusive drunken father, who was always angry and brutal with his two sons in their entire childhood. The father seems to be a sick machismo who ultimately afflicts his son. As a result, when Nick grows up, he has afflicted his father’s habits, although his style is way too different from his father’s. Nick becomes subtle, with rare facial expressions seen on his face, he becomes emotionless in most of the time of his life because he has learned to control his emotions and does not react extremely in any case of life. He has never forgotten his past and the treatment from his father. As a whole, the movie is a gloomy, yet well performed from its crew and reflects how elders influence and affects the lifestyle of their relatives and children specially. Just like in the case of this movie, where father was always shown brutal that eventually made his children suffer and become emotionless in the practical life after growing old because they saw the life very differently as compared to other children of their ages.
Best Boy
(Villarruel et al 122) The movie Best Boy is directed by Ira Wohl and is an academy award winning film as well on the American screen that was released in the ending era of the year 1988. The plot of the movie revolves around the fifty-two years old mentally retarded Phillip Wohl has been abandoned by his parents because his disability. Philly is mentally retarded since the time of his birth and never lived away from his parents. Now it is about time to make him realize how to live independently. So, Ira Wohl takes lead in this documentary film and the entire family with the help of Ira helps Philly to learn things and how to survive with self-reliance. The whole story of the movie is all family confronting and portrays development of the retarded Philly from the summer camp to training center and from there, he moves ahead to an independent group. The movie Best Boy is highly tenderized movie that reflects the thinking of a retarded person and the people associated with him, and how the entire family could move ahead to react as a helping family, so that the person could learn how to live strongly and how to survive alone in the world all by himself.
Hannah and Her Sisters
(Polhemus 304) Hannah and her Sisters is a comedy-drama type movie, directed by Woody Allen in the year 1986. The plot of the movie revolves around Hannah as the main character and her sisters. Other related characters are their husbands and boyfriends. There can be seen clear confrontations and crises going on in the movie, but the movie is also a mixture of mixed feelings of love, affection, care, and concern that can be observed clearly from the director’s point of view. It reflects the close relationship bond of the three sisters and their responsibilities and the problems that could emerge living a normal life and while taking care of sisters at the same time as an elder sister. The movie is slated to be Allen’s one of the best shots because it reflects humor, sensation, emotions and other different aspects of life at the same time.
Works Cited
Shae Irving, Nolo; 2007, Nolo’s Encyclopedia of Everyday Law: Answers to Your Most Frequently Asked Legal Questions; Published by Nolo, p326.
Michel Hersen, Samuel M. Turner, Deborah C. Beidel, Inc NetLibrary; 2007; Adult Psychopathology and Diagnosis, Published by Wiley-Interscience, p373.
Dorothy E. Roberts, 2002, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, Published by Basic Books, p161.
Ross D. Parke, Sheppard G. Kellam; 1994, Exploring Family Relationships with Other Social Contexts, Published by Routledge, p1.
Anita L. Vangelisti, 2004, Handbook of Family Communication, Published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p1.
David Sterritt, 1993, The Films of Alfred Hitchcock, Published by Cambridge University Press, p52.
Raymond Bellour, Constance Penley; 2001, The Analysis of Film, Published by Indiana University Press, p243.
James Berardinelli, Roger Ebert; 2003, ReelViews: The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video; Published by Justin, Charles & Co., p151.
Francisco A. Villarruel, Rosemary T. Faiver, Esther Onaga, June Pierce Youatt, Christie Eppler, Sue Carter, Marsha Carolan, Robert J. Griffore, Kelly Morrison, Marjorie J. Kostelnik, LaRay Jones; 1999, Thirty-First Annual National Council on Family Relations Media Awards Competition, Family Relations, Vol 49, p 122. Web.
Robert M. Polhemus, Lot’s Daughters: Sex, Redemption, and Women’s Quest for Authority; Published by Stanford University Press, p304.