...admission to a charter school. Guggenheim lays the blame for the failing public education system at the feet of the various teachers unions, and makes a plea for the public in general to get involved in reforming the system. By analyzing Waiting for Superman through a sociological perspective, issues of inequality will be explained using the theoretical approach of the conflict perspective. Waiting for Superman begins with the director, David Guggenheim driving past the Los Angeles public schools as he takes his own children to a private school. Guggenheim starts to explain the problems with public education, in regards to how it is failing our society in general, and that the only way for the average family to escape it, is luck. The documentary follows five children, four are minorities from lower income families and one is white from an affluent area of California. All five face the same problem, a public education system that views them as numbers that feed the system. They are not considered for their individual talents or shortcomings. They are all doomed to follow a predestined track, developed by a bureaucracy that favors the welfare of the teachers over the students. Guggenheim presents to the audience charter schools, an alternative to public education. These schools are not controlled by the normal bureaucratic processes and teachers unions. They are free to hire and promote based on performance. The idea of tenure is left by the wayside. Tenure is, in the...
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...problems with education in America. The film is extremely eye-opening, showing just how bad a state most of our education systems are in. They clearly illustrate that no matter the area, teachers are failing America's youth at an alarming rate. I found the film to be very biased though, as it only points out what's wrong with the system, and fails to mention any of the positives that still exist in education. It also fails to offer solutions for the problems. Guggenheim throws lots of facts and figures at us and repeats the same themes. It gets to a point where he's just beating us over the head with the same concepts. Many people saw this as an inspirational call to action, but me, I saw it as a guy complaining. Honestly, if you can't offer up a solution than why present the problem? I'm pretty sure that almost everyone in America knows how bad education has gotten, even if they don't have the exact figures in front of them 3) What are the major theme(s) of the documentary? One of The major Inconvenient Behind Waiting for Superman' is provides a critique of an increasingly free-market driven education system, the undermining of teacher unions and overall faith in the idea that charter schools are just what the country needs. 4) Evaluate the film for equality and interest. Would teachers be...
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...In her article, “Grading Waiting for Superman,” Dana Goldstein critiques the movie, “Waiting for Superman,” on their argument and points. She points out many unmentioned facts about public and charter schools that are not acknowledged by the producers of the film. She follows these holes with how it weakens the argument of the movie. She discusses how many people were excited and anxious prior to the release of the video. Goldstein also states how others debated reforms in public schools even before the movie was released while unions continue to reform. She asserts her opinion that unions are credited with the most reform despite the portrayal of unions in the video. After that she contradicts herself by quoting someone that unions struggle...
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...THE SOCIAL FORCES BEHIND TRADE UNION FAILURE TO PROTECT WORKERS INTERESTS IN TANZANIA: A specific look at the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) Eric Michael Mattaba B.A (Sociology) Dissertation University of Dar es Salaam August 2015 THE SOCIAL FORCES BEHIND TRADE UNION FAILURE TO PROTECT WORKERS INTERESTS IN TANZANIA: A specific look at the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU) By Eric Michael Mattaba A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) of the University of Dar es Salaam University of Dar es Salaam August 2015 CERTIFICATION The undersigned certify that they have read and hear by recommend for acceptance by the University of Dar es Salaam a dissertation entitled: The social forces behind trade union failure in protecting workers interest in Tanzania: A specific look at the Tanzania Teachers Union (TTU), in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) of the University of Dar es Salaam Mr. Armstrong Matogwa (Supervisor) DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT I, Eric Michael Mattaba, hereby declare that this dissertation is my own original work and that it has not been presented and will not be presented to any other University for a similar or any other degree award. Signature………………………………….. This dissertation is a copyright material protected under the Berne Convention, the copyright Act 1999 and other international and national enactments in that behalf, on intellectual property...
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...the country, 1928 Prepared by: Yulia Kirillova ID: 10095380 The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, when the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. After the death of its first leader, Vladimir Lenin, there was a power struggle from which Joseph Stalin emerged as winner for the control of the Communist party. By the day of Lenin’s death there were five candidates with the potential to emerge as the new leader of the U.S.S.R: Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev; Bukharin belonged to the “Rightists” and wished to continue Lenin’s economic policy, which gave more economic freedom for the peasants and promoted agriculture, Zinoviev and Kamenev wanted state control of economic life, Trotsky believed in the importance of a worldwide communist revolution, and Stalin filled the room for interpretation in Marxist though with the concept that he called “socialism in one country”. That was a significant shift from the previously held Marxist position that socialism must be established globally, and was in sharp opposition to Leon Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution. In contrast to what Trotsky thought and envisioned for Russia, Stalin believed that the success of Marxism in Russia was dependent on the construction of a successful soviet union, rather than a multitude of communist revolutions throughout the world. One step towards building a successful Soviet Union, as Stalin saw it, was the introduction of the five-year plans, which began the rapid...
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...Tentative deal reached in 5-day Chicago teachers strike From Katherine Wojtecki, CNN Updated 12:03 PM EDT, Sat September 15, 2012 Chicago (CNN) -- The Chicago Teachers Union and the city's school board reached a tentative agreement Friday in their dispute over new contract terms that have closed public schools for 350,000 students. Despite the possible deal, union president Karen Lewis cautioned that the strike, in its fifth day Friday, is not yet over. Union officials will meet between now and Sunday to draft specific language on a "framework for an agreement." They will present the document to a special committee of union representatives, at which time a majority vote will be taken on whether to suspend the strike. “Our delegates were not interested in blindly signing off on something they have not seen," Lewis said. However, Lewis was optimistic that the deal would be finalized. “We think it's a framework that will get us to an agreement, but we are not quite there," she said, adding she is "hoping and praying" students will be back in the classroom Monday. Chicago School Board President David Vitale was similarly positive about moving forward. "We have in place frameworks around all of the major issues that should allow us to conclude this process and to conclude it in time for our kids to be back in school on Monday morning," he said. Lewis declined at a news conference Friday afternoon to discuss details of the agreement. A source close to the negotiations said some...
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...2010 Here's what you see in Waiting for Superman, the new documentary that celebrates the charter school movement while blaming teachers unions for much of what ails American education: working- and middle-class parents desperate to get their charming, healthy, well-behaved children into successful public charter schools. Here's what you don't see: the four out of five charters that are no better, on average, than traditional neighborhood public schools (and are sometimes much worse); charter school teachers, like those at the Green Dot schools in Los Angeles, who are unionized and like it that way; and noncharter neighborhood public schools, like PS 83 in East Harlem and the George Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama, that are nationally recognized for successfully educating poor children. You don't see teen moms, households without an adult English speaker or headed by a drug addict, or any of the millions of children who never have a chance to enter a charter school lottery (or get help with their homework or a nice breakfast) because adults simply aren't engaged in their education. These children, of course, are often the ones who are most difficult to educate, and the ones neighborhood public schools can't turn away. You also don't learn that in the Finnish education system, much cited in the film as the best in the world, teachers are—gasp!—unionized and granted tenure, and families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare...
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...In May 2013 there was a proposal to shut down at least fifty Chicago Public Schools from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal. As stated in the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel said that he was voting to close these schools because they were “underperforming and underutilized” (Study Looks at Aftermath of Chicago School Closings in 2013). Schools that are underperforming are ones that are on probation, lack the student body needed, or show low test scores. Most of the schools closed are located in low-income communities where students majority are African-Americans or Hispanics. Therefore, elementary school closings in the South side of Chicago, which affect minority groups, are the greatest threat to justice in Chicago, because it’s a bigger struggle to...
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...which affect minority groups, are the greatest threat to justice in Chicago, because it’s a bigger struggle to...
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...Nov 3, 2010 Jack Nelson's Problem An article for Human Resources Management course, Gary Dessler 12/e, page: 52 1st Question: What do you think is causing some of the problems in the bank’s home office and branches? - There is not any communication between branch supervisors, home offices, and other branches. The supervisor employ their own employee without any communication with the main branch. The major problem is high employee turnover, actually there can be many reason for turnover, however in the text this is a result of when an employee would be hired, they would be resign another employee. In additionally, Ruth Johnson has been working in a home office for two months, howeever she does not know what the machine called she used and what it did. That means, there is not any HR to asist her about that machine. 2nd Question: Do you think setting up an HR unit in the main office would help? - Setting up an HR unit in the main office would help the managers. Through the HR unit the bank can employ the educated bankers and reduce turnover ratios. I mean, because of HR unit will work for supervisors’ and line managers’ needs, the employee which apply the job probably educated by HR unit about the which machine or computer software does he/ she have to. As a result of HR unit, turnovers decrase and efficiency increases in the bank. 3rd Question: What specific functions should an HR unit carry out? What HR functions would then be carried out by supervisors...
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...service, showing clear career paths to their employees that they can take, and helping out with the community and environment by litter picking for example. Stakeholders Stakeholders are an individual or group which is affected by a business, and has an interest in its success or failure and can be either an internal stakeholders i.e. employees, suppliers, managers; or external stakeholders i.e. customers, local community, trade unions. Customers Holly Lodge’s customers consist of its students and their parents. They both want good teachers and teaching environments otherwise they’re less likely to learn, with this they want the best grades possible so they can go on and get a good job and support themselves. Parents are also more likely to want the school to aid in teaching their child good values such as respect to others and a sense of responsibility that comes from doing and looking after their work. A final thing both types of customers want from the business is good school days; parents won’t want them too short because they may struggle trying to find someone to look after them if they’re young, and the students won’t want them too long because they’ll get bored and...
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...in Dickens's own magazine, Household Words, in April 1854. Morley claimed that over the previous three years, there had been a hundred deaths and nearly twelve thousand accidents in factories in England. These figures were disputed by other contemporary commentators, but there is no doubt that many serious accidents did occur, often caused by unguarded machinery. In Hard Times, there is a reference to people being "chopped up" by machinery (Book 2, chapter 1). Factory workers sought to protect their own interests by joining trade unions, which were growing in power in the 1850s. But the unions often faced fierce opposition from employers. A notorious example of industrial conflict took place in Preston, a textile-manufacturing town in northwest England, not far from Dickens's fictional Coketown. In October 1853, between fifteen and sixteen thousand weavers went on strike for better pay. The mill owners responded by closing the mills. A bitter struggle ensued, in which the...
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...organizer trying to bring the union to the mill. Norma decides to join forces with the union organizer, Reuben Warshosky. Management saw her as a threat and ordered her out of the mill, but not before she inspired the mill workers. It is greatt leadership that finally brings the mill workers together and they vote in and start a branch of the Textile Workers Union of America. The film is a real testament to the transformation of an oppressed woman who was a follower and then become a leader. The story of Norma Rae is based on an actual event, it tells how a fast talking, middle class union organizer named Reuben Warshovsky comes to a small souther mill town to organize a branch of the textil workers union. The textile mill O.J. Henley Plant was run with low, unfair wages, and unhealthy working conditions. In the beginning Reuben wasn't having any luck and through his struggle with the mill workers he inspired one worker Norma Rae and she joined forces with Reuben. Norma was a tough, southern middle class working woman who felt stick in her ho hum drab extistence. She has a love-hate relationship with her father Vernon, who was overprotective of Norma. She was trapped with a job going no where and two teenage children. She has very little time for anything else but with Reuben's prodding finally joins him in his efforts to bring a textile workers union to the mill. He was horrified by their working conditions and pay. Norma is not just about union organizing she is very concerned...
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...Strike as a social problem can first be traced to the disfunctioning of the society when looking at it from the functionalist perspective. Functionalism which is one of the perspectives of studying the society was developed in the 19th century, it’s a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, custom, tradition and institution. A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer presents these parts of society as "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system". For Talcott Parson "structural-functionalism" came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of Social Science, rather than a specific school of thought. The structural functionalism approach is a macro sociological analysis, with a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole. In summary Functionalism...
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...motivating and will hold their interest (Herz & Gallo, 1996). One such book is Rifles for Watie, a historical fiction novel and Newbery Medal winner. It was written by Harold Keith in 1957. This book can be used to connect the history of the Civil War with a students everyday life. The story is about a sixteen year old boy named Jefferson (Jeff) Davis Bussey. He joins the Union side of the Civil War and while serving gets noticed by for his intelligence, skill, and calm disposition. He becomes a spy, pretending to be part of the Rebel side, gaining information for the Union. Students will be able to relate to this young man. He struggles with many of the same things as students do today. The older men see him as young and inexperienced and not as valuable. Jeff also misses his family and struggles with the realization that even though the Rebels are his enemy, they are real people who face the same issues as his family. It brings the Civil War into reality. The Civil War brings up many good questions for teachers. The young men who fought in the war were about the same age as students in their classrooms. Teachers could discuss with students how they would feel about going to war and what type of issues would they be willing to...
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