The Benefits of increasing Drinking Age Research Paper

The Benefits of increasing Drinking Age - Research Paper Example In many developed nations such as USA and Australia, the legal age for consuming alcohol is 21, but there are sections of society, which claim that lowering drinking age is the best solution to curb this habit among youngsters and specifically students. However, those who propose lowering drinking age as a feasible solution in this regard does not understand the salient disadvantages associated with allowing drinking at teen-age. Alcohol consumption is no more a habit or just a beverage option among youngsters; it has become a way of life, a part of the culture in today's scenario (Alcohol and Drug Information Service). There is a dire need to restrict their access to alcohol because it is a proven fact that starting to drink early can impose several short-term as well as long-term disadvantages on human health and society. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the benefits of increasing the drinking age from various aspects of an individual’s life as well as the impact on gove rnment and society in a broader spectrum. Health-related benefits of increasing drinking age: Increasing drinking age restricts young students from consuming alcohol at an early age, and as they reach adulthood, the craving for alcohol is likely to die-down or controlled. Various critics of increasing drinking age argue that when people can vote and marry at 18, why cannot they drink according to their choice? The problem is that voting and marriage do not harm a person’s psyche, mental development, and physiological health. However, consuming alcohol is susceptible to infinite life-risking implications from every possible aspect of human health and also considerably deters public welfare. The most significant point in the debate upon lowering or increasing drinking age is that, Is drinking suitable for individual health at all? Then the other point that arises is that will it benefit young people in any way if they are allowed. to drink at the age of 18? The fact which canno t be ignored is that alcohol in itself is extremely injurious to health, and its impact can be devastating. Frances Webb and Ellie Whitney claimed that â€Å"Age does matter. Young people do not benefit their health by drinking; rather, they increase their risk of dying from all causes; young non-drinkers are found to have a lower risk of dying than even light drinkers† (101). There is enough substance in this claim from Webb and Whitney, since if medical science research is anything to abide by, then it is true that drinking is not a healthy habit at all, instead, it becomes the base for various life-threatening ailments. It is a reality that alcohol consumption paves the way for more than 60 fatal diseases in the human body (Freeman). James Garbutt, a psychiatry professor and researcher of Alcohol studies at the University of North Carolina, revealed that â€Å"Alcohol does all kinds of things in the body, and we're not fully aware of all its effects. It's a pretty complic ated little molecule† (Freeman). Diseases like Anemia, Cancer, Cardiovascular problems, Gout, Depression, Nerve damage, Dementia, high-blood pressure, Pancreatitis, and Cirrhosis are all caused by alcohol consumption, and the virus gets triggered more intensively if one starts drinking at an early stage of life (Freeman).  

The Great Gatsby Essay Example for Free

The Great Gatsby Essay The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, introduces the reader to scenes of violence that contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Wealthy, powerful characters such as Tom Buchanan are the major causes of violence introduced because they are selfish and careless. Through an accident that killed Myrtle Wilson, or the passionate murder of an innocent man, Fitzgerald incorporates themes of the novel. The violent act that begins the downward spiral in The Great Gatsby is when Tom Buchanan hits Myrtle, his mistress, in the face. It was a body capable of enormous leverage — a cruel body (Fitzgerald, 12). † is how Nick describes Tom’s intimidating physique when he first meets him. So it is not surprising that when Myrtle begins to taunt him by repeating his wife’s name that he reacted and â€Å"broke her nose with his open hand (Fitzgerald, 41). † This scene of violence demonstrates that people like Tom, living in East Egg, think that they are better than everyone else and can disrespect or ignore others because of social status. This is the underlying cause of the deaths in the novel. One of the most tragic scenes of violence occur when Daisy Buchanan is driving in the car with Gatsby, returning home from their dramatic visit to the city with her husband. She is hysterical because Tom revealed that Gatsby is a bootlegger. While passing through the Valley of Ashes, Myrtle runs out to the car because her husband is forcing her to move and she needs help. â€Å"The ‘death car,’ as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment and then disappeared around the next bend (Fitzgerald 144). is how the killing is described. As a result of Daisy’s recklessness, she brutally ran over Myrtle Wilson. Besides the fact that Myrtle was murdered, the importance of this scene is that Daisy did not even stop to take a look at the damage her state had caused. Her ignorance ultimately was the cause of Gatsby’s death. Fitzgerald purposely included wealthy, irresponsible characters in his novel that caused the violence and completed story. To sum up the importance of the crowd with â€Å"old money†, this is a quote from when Nick is speaking to rejected Gatsby. He says, â€Å"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. (Fitzgerald, 188)† It is clear that all they cared about was themselves, and after the murders occurred, they left town and did not attend one funeral. The last act of violence, when Gatsby is murdered, leaves an important impression on the reader and the novel. George Wilson is devastated by his wife’s death and thinks that God wants him to kill the person who is responsible for it. Naturally, he went to the Buchanan’s to get some answers because it was their car. Tom was in a fragile state because he truly loved Myrtle, and directed George to Gatsby. Gatsby did not kill anybody but he paid the price for it. He was laying in his extravagant pool and saw â€Å"that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees (Fitzgerald, 172). † First George shot Gatsby, then he shot himself and ended two innocent lives. It was because Gatsby constantly chased one single dream his whole life that the scene of violence had to happen. Daisy was not good for him, and dreams keep getting pushed farther and farther away from people because the past is haunting and unchangeable. The violent scenes Fitzgerald included in The Great Gatsby are the altering moments that support the underlying themes of the past, society and class, and love. Tom’s powerful nature, cheating on his wife, and violence represent the danger and authority. Fitzgerald made a point to include careless, wealthy characters in the novel that contributed to completing the violence and work as a whole.

Pentecostal History Essay -- Church History

To know the history of the Pentecostal movement, one needs to know what they believe. Pentecostalism is a movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. During Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell upon those in the upper room. Acts 2:1-4 says, â€Å"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[ as the Spirit enabled them.† (1,3) The Pentecostal movement started in the late 19th century in revival movements in Great Britain and in the United States of America. Within this movement more attention was placed on the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Some people felt that the church was missing the power and authority of the church they read about in the bible. We will look at the Pentecostal movement from the past and look at it all the way up through to today. (1) The earliest date given for the beginning of the Pentecostal movement is January 1, 1901. A man by the name of Charles Parham began teaching that the act of speaking in tongues was the biblical evidence that someone was filled with the Holy Spirit. He started teaching this at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. Over time Charles Parham moved to Texas to teach. While Charles spoke in Texas, William J. Seymour was attending. William J. Seymour traveled to Los Angeles where he led the Azusa Street Revivals in 1906. The beginning of the w... ...ecostals. It is important to know where we came from in order to know where we are going. The future is bright for the Assemblies of God if they just rely on God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Works Cited 1. Wacker, Grant. Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001. 2. Miller, Donald E. and Tetsunao Yamamori. Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2007. 3. Hollenweger, Walter. Pentecostalism : Origins and Developments Worldwide. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997 4. Burgess. Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity 5. Blumhofer, Edith L. Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture, 1993 6. www.ag.org

My Lobotomy Essay

There wasn’t many answers to the medical society and anything that seemed to be working, was probably the greatest invention ever back then. I believe once they noticed that people started to change to behaviors, they thought they might have found a cure. With that hope, thats why they probably continued with the procedure. There were a lot of people with medical conditions that were being force to living in terriable conditions, so with this precedure, they probably thought this can help with that problem and hopefully get them to normal behavior so they may go back home. Do you think that Howard Dully may have had a childhood onset disorder such as ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Conduct Disorder, or some combination of these disorders? Support your conclusions about this with examples from the memoir. Also discuss why the narrative and its various angles make it difficult to determine, retrospectively, whether or not he had any type of diagnosis. Howard Dully might of had Oppositional Defiant Disorder as a child and the stepmother might of not understand what was happening to his stepson. O. D. D is a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures. According to his step mother, the behavior seems to be a personal issue towards the step mom. When one’s mother dies at a young age, a new stepmother may cause the child to dislike them thus cause inapproiate behavior towards the new mother. Howard seemed like many 12 years boys out there but the stepmother just instantly disliked the child. Howard was just put in a bad situation and this was the â€Å"cure† for any disorder at the time and of course the mother was all for it because it would alter his personality. I believe that if Howard was just raised from a different mother, he was of been a normal teenager. Why do you think Freeman fabricated the diagnosis of schizophrenia for Dully? Do you think this was merely justification to perform the lobotomy or do you think this actually reflects misconceptions about schizophrenia during the time Dully was growing up? I believe Freeman probably did it for both reasons. Freeman, during the time, was probably wanting the fame of the lobotomy, by performing the lobotomy on a twelve year old, and trying to show the world that lobotomy precedures can even be performed on young ages. Dully’s mom didn’t help either. Explaining symptoms that could be perceived as schizophrenia, even though they really didn’t seem like they were behaviors of schizophrenia, could be enough reason for a man that wants to prove his precedure works. What are the effects on Dully of accessing records from before his lobotomy, including notes on dialogue between Dr. Freeman and his stepmother? Also, do you think he gains any peace of mind by questioning his father about his role in the â€Å"treatment† despite the fact that his father shows no remorse and accepts no blame whatsoever for the lobotomy or the effects it has on his son’s life? Dully is offended on how terrible his step mother is. He noticed that he was told to get a lobotomy on his birthday and his mother didn’t hestistate. He couldn’t believe that she was lieing to Dr. Freeman and actually continue trying to get Dr. Freeman to understand that he should get a lobotomy due to some behaviors. When he read about his brother getting attacked from him, he basically was in shock because in his heart, he knows he would never hurt his brother. I think he does gave some peace questioning his father because, even though it took both spouses approval to do the opearation, he know that his step mother was deciever and a liar. If his father can say such things about her, I believe he has a better understanding of what type of person she is and that his life could have been different if it wasn’t for her. I believe in the text, he states that even though his father is not taking blame, it was still the happinest he has been. Explain why good families and parents (i. e. think about Lizzie Simon and her statement about her family versus the harsh world), unlike the cold, unloving parents of Howard Dully, would have allowed Freeman to perform lobotomies on truly mentally ill family members? Base your answer on the PBS excerpt from American Experience: The Lobotomist. Also, describe a real life situation where extreme measures of treatment might be (or actually have been) sought by the family or caretakers of a person with a severe disorder. I believe most families were just looking for answers to their problems. There were families that watched their mother, sister, brother, father, grandmas, or even grandfathers go through changes for the worst and they were just looking for a way out. With all the hype of a possible cure, who wouldn’t blame those family members that were really trying to help their families out. When they made the trans-orbital precedure, it also seemed like a cheaper, quicker fix so many people probably jump on the wagon because of being that way. There are plenty of situations in which family might need to step in and do what is necessary for their family members to be healthy. One example is when a child is going through Anorexia and has the mind set that she will not eat anything because she believes she is overweight. If this child rejects and refuses to listen to their parents, school therapist, and even friends, the parents need to step in. They might need to force their child into a clinic to help them with their problems. They would get professional help and thus, hopefully getting rid of that thought of looking extremely thin is ok.

Reflection: Education and Reflective Practice Essay

The aim of this assignment is to give a reflective account on group presentation and the peer assessment process as well as the development of a personal action plan. It would involve using ‘The What? Model of Structured Reflection’ (Driscoll 2007) to analyse the experience of using a group designed assessment tool to assess my peers and the experience of being peer assessed. Additionally, experience of completing a group presentation would be reflected upon. A personal action plan which identifies areas for personal development and the designed assessment tool is attached as appendix 1 and 2 respectively. Reflection entails reviewing experience from practice so that it may be described, analysed, evaluated and consequently used to inform and change future practice in a positive way (Bulman and Schutz 2013, p6). Reflection could be (Oelofsen 2012, p4) in real time (reflection in action) or retrospectively (reflection on action). Several authors (Jay and Johnson 2002; Taylor 2006) have suggested the use of frameworks to guide students undertaking reflective writing. However, John (cited in Bulman and Schutz, 2013, p118) cautions that reflective frameworks are guides rather than a rigid prescriptive format. Jasper (2006) also warns that frameworks come with the author’s perspective and values base and leads reflectors in a specific direction. It is therefore imperative to be critical of the model of choice and adjust the framework to suit ones purposes so that it can be used effectively. Numerous frameworks for facilitating reflection are utilised in nursing (Doel and Shardlow 2009, p42) such as Gibb’s Reflective Cycle (1988) and John’s Model of Structured Reflection (1995). Following critical analysis, ‘The What? Model of Structured Reflection (Driscoll 2007) consisting of three simple questions; What?, So what? and Now what?, each with sub questions was chosen. The rationale for this choice is that this framework is comparatively simple (Howatson-Jones 2010), effective and very apt for novice practitioners but can equally be used at different levels (Jasper 2003, p99). Moreover, it can be used logically with any type of situation by using the cue questions which gives a deeper and meaningful reflective process hereby leading to the formulation of an action plan for the future. Furthermore, as opposed to Gibbs and John’s framework, it enables reflective activity to lead to action being taken rather than being proposed or tentative. The purpose of returning to this situation is to learn from the experience of using a devised assessment tool to assess my peers. Haven being divided into a group of four students based on our learning styles, each group was expected to design an assessment tool and carry out a presentation which is to be peer assessed. The group presentation involved presenting on one of the 3 future roles of a nurse: educator, manager or professional. Devising our assessment tool was very challenging as each member of the group brainstormed, shared views, and prioritised. Communication was done via emails, phone calls and meetings as agreed by all members. Effective team working was evident among all members. The assessment tool was amended based on feedback received from the lecturer. On the presentation day, majority of the students including myself were anxious as there was a misunderstanding of the date of presentation so were not prepared. Although, this affected the quality of our presentation as it was prepared under 20 minutes. However, students’ still proved that they could be innovative even under duress. The peer assessment process involved an individual assessment of each group’s presentation using our assessment tool and calculating the average to give the final grade. During this process, I realized how difficult it was assessing others and being assessed without being biased. It was particularly difficult to measure the criteria as our assessment tool was not explicit making it impossible to justify the marks awarded. It had too many separate components with inappropriate weighting which made it arduous and complicated in the averaging task. Although, the assessment tool appeared simple as it involved ticking boxes. However, it was diff icult to decide which boxes to tick because students demonstrated majority of the criteria but at different levels and this led to being over marked. It would have been more realistic to award marks to each criterion rather than ticking boxes. Hargreaves (2007) as well as Quinn and Hughes (2007, p270) propose that assessment tool should be both valid (assess what it claims to assess) and reliable (perform in a consistent and stable manner). It is of the opinion now following the assessment that our assessment tool cannot be considered valid and reliable for the following reasons. Learning outcome was not part of the criteria so it was impossible to make a judgement about the quality of the students’ presentation and thus could not be penalized. Hinchliff (1999) suggests that learning outcomes should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed (SMART). It should include an indication of the evidence required to demonstrate that learning has been achieved (Dix and Hughes, 2004), but Welsh and Swann (2002) caution that too many may create unreasonable expectations. Moreover, the ambiguity of the tool and individuals’ subjectivity in terms of attitudes, beliefs and values (the ‘halo’ eff ect) resulted in perceived bias which affected the reliability. Bias however, remains an issue to overcome and as such I felt the feedback received from my peers would not be accurate. Although the peer assessment process made us engage fully in the presentation and learn from the strengths and weaknesses of our peers, there is a need to develop the necessary skills and judgements to effectively manage peer assessments and this involves knowledge and experience (Oelofsen 2012, Somerville and Keeling, 2004). Furthermore, there is a need to be fully prepared and equipped, develop criteria that match the identified learning outcome, consider the issue of fairness particularly with disabled students and clearly communicate assessment criteria . The above reasons can be considered as areas for future development, an in depth analysis of this can be seen in the attached action plan (appendix 1). This process of reflection on action has proved successful as it brought about learning. Even though critics like Rolfe (2003) and Markham (2002) criticised reflective practice for lack of definition and unproven benefit. Taylor (2010) however argues that it is nevertheless worth the effort to bring about deeper insights and changes in practice and education. In conclusion, this essay has demonstrated an understanding of the peer assessment process by assessing the worth of our assessment tool on other students and the experience of being assessed by peers. Using a framework of choice, my experience was analysed and areas for further development identified and attached as appendix 1. Overall, this reflection has brought about deeper insights which identified strengths and weaknesses that would consequently enhance my professional development and result in changes in the future should the situation arise again.