Prompt 2 Parents working and Child Development
It is important that parents should be able to take their responsibilities to guide and monitor the development of their child. However, due to some uncontrollable factors like poverty or economic stability, parents tends to work just to provide the needs of their children and the obligation of caring for their children is being given to a caregiver. Such idea has been considered as one of the most debatable topic in line with child care. It is said that the development of a child living and growing without their parents are less monitored. Thus, this will attempt to discuss whether the development of a child is affected by parent’s work life.
The issue of child care is one that is seen as a direct result of today’s changing economy and family dynamics. Most of the premises surrounding the family have given way, leaving its youngest members without the support that we have come to expect for them. Gone are the days when a family is one where there is always someone around to care for the young ones. Historically, the need for ‘extra-familial’ child care can be rooted from factors that will serve to bring it to the subject of debate and legislative movements that it is today. Starting in the late 1800s, child care was seen as a welfare service for the support of low-income and immigrant children while their mothers were not available for them. This was already because they were busy earning a living outside their homes.
Child care is defined as regularly used arrangement for supervising young children that supplements care by one or both parents. It is usually provided outside the child’s home but not always. It is usually for pay but not always. It is more frequent and more sustained than occasional babysitting but less sustained than around-the-clock care. It may or may not include a significant educational component; it may or may not be regulated by government (Gormley, 1995). Although, there are people who claimed that letting a child to be taken cared of other people is advantageous for parents who wants to earn much to sustain the needs of their children, there are still some critics for this idea.
It is said that even though children are forced to spend less time with their parents, this doesn’t have to be harmful to them if only they will be able to enjoy the continuous care of another caring and responsible adult. But circumstances are such that children often find themselves being passed from one provider to the next, and this has been shown to adversely affect a child’s development. It is only, this lack of consistency in the care being received that has been shown to do damage, just as all disrupted routines upset a child’s balance. On the other hand, if a child receives security from an established up-bringer then it has also been shown that they do not need to suffer from any lack of development.
Although there are still strongholds on the belief that the best care for children, especially during the developmental stages, is maternal, there is still no denying the fact that the current economic and social movement continue to make this difficult for our family units to provide. As with every change that direct affects the family and a child’s well-being, the acceptance of child-care as an alternative to parental care is gradual and tenacious. It can be concluded that letting other people take care of a child can still be considered as an option for parents who are working, but the parents must bear in mind that they must still spend some quality time for their children and must monitor if their child develop the way he or she must be developed.
Reference
Gormley Jr., William T. (1995). “Everybody’s Children: Child Care as a Public
Problem”. Washington, D.C.:Brookings Institution.
Prompt 3 Extracurricular Activities and Academic Achievement
The main purpose of education is to prepare individual to become productive in the society. In order to do so, the children are provided different academic related studies as well as extracurricular activities. However, there is an ongoing debate about the importance of each field in terms of the preparation of students for future occupational success. In this case, I will give emphasis on the importance of focusing on academic achievement.
Because adolescence is a period of preparation for the roles of being an adult, considerable attention has been given to the development and expression of academic achievement during these years. As stated, academic achievement concerns the development of cognitive abilities including capabilities, motives, behavior and interests in line with performance in evaluative situations. Particularly, the study of academic achievement focuses on the performance of students in educational settings and on their plans and goals for future scholastic and occupational careers.
It is noted that to become successful, an individual must begin by being successful in school. Most of the teachers advised their students to work and study hard so that they could get good academic graded which would eventually help them have a better occupation in the future (Barber, Eccles & Stone, 2001).
Students who identify with the expectation that working hard in school and achieving will lead to occupational success are likely to invest themselves in the academic work of school. Such students have better academic achievement than other students who do not focus on their studies.
Academic achievement is one of the factor which is highly noted when a graduate student will apply. Most employers rely on educational credentials when selecting individuals for specific work tasks, and individuals, accordingly, invest in education in order to improve their competitive advantage on the labour market. It is evident, that both individual investments in education and the use made by employers of qualifications, affect the pattern of association that people observe between academic achievement and occupational success. Further, it is also a fact that people with higher academic achievement are easily promoted than those who do not have excellent educational background.
In this manner, it can be said that academic achievement is really an important aspect in determining occupational success of a certain individual. In industrialized nations, those people who have better academic performance and achievement are given the chance to grow in their career than other employees with average or no achievement at all.
Reference
Barber, B.L., Eccles, J.S., & Stone, M.R. (2001). Whatever happened to the Jock, the Brain, and the Princes? Young adult pathways linked to adolescent activity involvement and social identity. Journal of Adolescent Research, 16, 429-455.
Prompt 4 Community Service
Part of the educational system nowadays is the inclusion of community service for high school students. It is said that there are many opportunities for high school students to make a difference within the community. Hence, this proposal to include community service as a requirement for graduating students will be provided. In this particular school, graduating students are suggested to be a part of an after school community program. Such community service program can provide many benefits for the students. These include personal and social development and academic and cognitive enhancement.
Studies show that participation on community service activities positively linked with student’s personal and even social improvement. For instance, it has been noted that high school student who get involved in community services are likely to increase the level of their personal and social responsibility. In addition, it also enables them to have self-esteem and moral development (Conrad & Hedin, 1991). In addition, students who have been involved in community service activities are also benefited in terms of developing their self-identity (Root, 1997) and they are also given the opportunity to be aware of their future career (Shumer & Belbas, 1996).
Students are not only benefited in terms of their social and personal development. It has also been argued that students who get involved in community service may also be benefited in terms of having academic and cognitive enhancement. Accordingly, through the involvement of the students with these programs, their intellectual skills are also being developed. Furthermore, through this, the students may also learn different things which will be helpful in their lessons.
If an individual will be given a chance to be a part of the community and handle responsibilities aside from studying, these students will have a tendency to become more productive in the society. In addition, these community services may prevent the students to engage in other negative activities. This will also help uplift the student’s morale and boost their confidence that they can be an essential part of the community in spite of their status.
All in all, it can be said that having a community service activities as part of the requirements for graduating students is an important part of school curriculum. This will not only benefit the community but will provide many advantages for the students for them to learn how to take responsibility and handle such responsibilities carefully.
Reference
Conrad, D. & Hedin, D. (1991). School-based Community Service: What We Know from Research and Theory, Phi Delta Kappan, 72:743-49
Root, S.C. (1997). “School-Based Service: A Review of Research for Teacher Educators”, in Joseph A. Erickson & Jeffrey B. Anderson eds, Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in teacher Education.
Shumer, R. & Belbas, B, (1996). What We Know about Service Learning, Education and Urban Sociology, 28(25): 201.
Prompt 5 Animals in Medical Research
One of the hottest topics facing the society today is whether animals should be utilised in scientific experimentation in medical researches. There are people who argue that using animals in medical researchers is more acceptable than using humans to be experimented. On the other hand, those who are pro-nature also cited their argument on not using animals for medical researches. In this particular case, the focus will be on the disagreement that animals can be used in medical researches.
Most people that support that use of animals in medical researches do not feel this means that humans are free to harm or abuse animals whenever they wish or that they lack grounds for having moral concerns over the suffering of the animals. In the past, animal research has played a major role in the advancement of medical treatment (Rosenberg, 1990). The French chemist Louis Pasteur studied infectious diseases in animals and found that these diseases derived from external microorganisms. Pasteur proved through these experiments that a vaccine to prevent these diseases could be produced. It’s breakthroughs like this that have people believing that animal research is necessary.
However, I personally do not conform to this belief. Despite years of animal research, diseases such as cancer have provided no cure. Many of the medical discoveries such ad antibiotics, CAT scans, aspirin, and anesthetics have been developed from non-animal experiments. Non-animal experiments include automated devices, computers, test tube cultures of cell and tissue cultures, physiochemical studies, behavioral studies and postmortem studies on humans. Use of these types of experiments has proved beneficial not only to humans but also to animals. For example the limes test, a test to see if a substance is carcinogenic, uses a micro-organism culture. This test takes just a few days compared to years on animals, saving many research dollars and sparing over 30,000 animals per year.
Furthermore, some results of many animal experiments have proved different results on humans. Because species are so different, what works on a rat, doesn’t mean it will work on a human. For example aspirin causes birth defects in rats and mice, while it acts as a pain reliever for humans. Zipeprol, a cough suppresant, had no effect on animals but caused coma and seizures in humans. It seems to me that allocated research funds for the study of animals related to psychological experimentation could be better spent.
For an example, researchers inflict fears and pain in an animal to see what the animal will do. The animal receives electric shocks until they learn to press a button. Once learned the animal presses the button when shocked. This kind of testing is cruel to the animals involved and has no significance to humans. Hence, I believe that the use of non-animal sources provides more accurate results and more cost effective, this should be the method used. Studies should be focused on programs to work on prevention of diseases, such as heart and lung diseases.
Reference
Rosenberger, J. (1990). “Whose Life is it, Anyway?” New York.
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