Youth Violence: The Problem is Not As Big As It Seems :: essays research papers fc

Youth Violence Reality Check: The Problem’s Not as Big as it Seems   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Violence is a never-ending problem that our society has battled with since the beginning of time. To most people, the most ridiculous and most noticeable violence is adolescent crime. While these crimes committed by children and adolescents fascinate the public and generate a great deal of media attention, youth violence is actually less serious than reported.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fifteen people are dead, twenty-three wounded in the worst school massacre in history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The two gunmen were dead at Columbine High in a small town Littleton,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Denver (Colorado). Suspects were â€Å"fascinated with W.W.II and the Nazis.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  April 20, 1999 Hitler’s Birthday. (qtd. in Devitt)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story flashes across the television screen, floating from state to state, country to country, giving society the accusing, misinterpreted view of today’s â€Å"violent youths.† Media reports debated for days about the problem of increasing teenage violence. Most reports exaggerated that the public was unsafe by youth â€Å"lawlessness† (Schwartz, Wendy). â€Å"Youth violence is not as pervasive as is feared† (Schwartz, Wendy). The media also tends to point out the fact that adolescents have increased the dangerous use of weapons. P.A. Strasburg states realistically, juvenile violence is considerably less serious in the aggregate than violence by adults† (qtd. in Schwartz, Ira 52).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The output of the media goes straight to the public, giving society as a whole the same misperception as the media. â€Å"Parents are a lot more concerned for their kids nowadays even though their kids are in a more stable environment than the parents themselves were as children† (Schwartz, Ira 53). Stability through technology and general better living have given children more security. America’s adolescents are not as violent and unlawful as the public thinks (Devitt).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Researchers have been finding out that both the media and the public have been exaggerating the severity of increasing youth violence (Miller 45). According to P.A. Strasburg, â€Å"juveniles use fewer weapons and less deadly weapons and inflict less injury and financial loss on their victims then they have in the past† (qtd. in Schwartz 52). Researchers also discovered that â€Å"there have never been any self-contained dramatic increases of violent juvenile crime which did not parallel increases in adult crime† (Miller 45). Certainly from time to time, there are strange rises in violent crime (45). But one of the main reasons is because of the number of adolescents in the population (45). The total youth population has increased by almost double the total from 1956 (45).

Is Daycare Harmful to the Development of Infants Essay

There have been many concerns over the past several years on whether or not early daycare causes negative or positive effects on the development of children. These fears are influenced by the fact that the early separation of a baby from his mother may cause emotional harm to the child or disrupt the mother-infant bond. Studies continue to research the effects of early daycare on children The cost of living has made it nearly impossible for mothers to stay at home even in the very beginning of their newborn’s life. This means that someone else will be responsible for ensuring that the baby is cared for while their mother is at work. Each and every day well-meaning and loving parents are forced by economic pressure to place infants, even as young as two weeks old in daycare. Studies have shown that the beginning of a baby’s life, especially the first year is a critical period in the attachment process. The question is â€Å"Is childcare harmful to the emotional developm ent of infants†? There have been many concerns over the past several years on whether or not early daycare causes negative or positive effects on the development of children. These fears are influenced by the fact that the early separation of a baby from his mother may cause emotional harm to the child or disrupt the mother-infant bond. Studies continue to research the effects of early daycare on children. If a mother is forced economically to work during her child’s early stages of development that means that during the child’s waking hours, he will have no contact at all with the person/persons with whom he must develop a strong and stable emotional bond (usually, his parents). This fact has to interfere with the attachment process of infants. In an article I read it stated that the results when mothers of infants work outside the home are completely neutral, but further on in the article (page 63) we learn that child behaviors after the mother works full-time outside the home in the first year of life, together with consideration for the timing of the start of that work, be it at three, six, or nine months after birth: At age 4.5, children whose mothers had worked (full-time) at three months, six months, or nine months have significantly more externalizing behavior problems than children whose mothers did not work in the first year and this also was the case when the children reached first grade. (MROZEK, A, 2010) I) Effects of Childcare on Emotional Development The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) conducted a comprehensive study between 1991- 2007 to observe and document the effects of daycare on over 1,000 preschool age children. The â€Å"Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development,† revealed key areas of child development that were influenced by day care providers and experiences. In some instances when a young child was left with a day care provider, the child exhibited a range of negative emotions and behaviors which included crying and clinging to parents, and screaming or hiding from the daycare provider after their parents had left. These children frequently developed insecure attachment issues and separation anxiety however other children adjusted more readily and eagerly joined their peers, barely acknowledging when their parents had left the room. These children demonstrated more security, less separation anxiety and greater preparedness for eventually entering school. II) Effects of Daycare on Behavioral Development Children who attended daycare at an early age were more likely to develop negative behavioral issues, which included aggression and noncompliance. According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Health (NIH) they demonstrated a connection between children’s poor behavior and the amount of time spent in day care settings. According to the NIH study, elementary school teachers reported that students who regularly spent ten or more hours per week in day care tended to be more argumentative, disobedient and unruly in class. However in regards to a high quality daycare the NIH found that these attentive, stimulating day care environments produced children who were overall more cooperative and positive in their interactions with caregivers, peers and parents. III) Effect of Daycare on Cognitive Development School age children who spent significant time in daycare as infants frequently have better verbal, reading and math skills throughout the elementary school years. This is often the case in children from disadvantaged families wherein they excel more in academic development if they had spent time in daycare during their infancy and the early childhood years. This may be because the daycare setting may offer more opportunities for them to improve their skills. Children who participated in daycare during early childhood tend to have a larger vocabulary which enhanced their language development. Research conducted by the National Institutes of Health published in Child Development suggests that children frequently benefit from daycare in terms of cognitive development. The study showed that children who spent time in daycare during their early childhood continued to score higher on academic achievements even into the high school years. IV) Effects on Social Development Children in daycare settings at an early age had a greater ability to form relationships with peers and adults than children who did not attend daycare. This is because there are instances when aside from daycare the child would not be in consistent contact with other children their age, therefore daycare provides them with that opportunity. Conclusions and Findings After reviewing the research concerning the effects of daycare attendance on the emotional, cognitive, and social development of infants a wide spectrum of results can be noted. I believe that if the parent’s commit themselves to finding a high quality daycare the effects on these areas of development could even be considered positive especially in terms of an infant’s social and cognitive development. References MROZEK, A. (2010, Aug 19). Research unclear on how daycare affects child development. The Gazette. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/746423295?accountid=32521 Pritchett, J. (2009, Dec 29). Daycare opens doors of opportunity; proposed early learning and child care act seen as positive step for young mothers, children. Telegraph-Journal. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/423338000?accountid=32521 http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/upload/seccyd_06.pdf http://www.nationalacademies.org/headlines/20070404.html

Teaching Vocabulary to Young English Learners - 3602 Words

Teaching English vocabulary to young learners A crucial component of learning a foreign language is the acquisition of vocabulary. For young learners, the very first words that they acquire could lay the profound basis for a better later learning of the children. This study is intended to investigate the specific application of techniques in teaching English vocabulary to young learners. I strived to investigate the current techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners and studied the difficulties that teachers encounter during this process. Oral interviews, questionnaire and observation schemes were used as useful instruments for data collection. The questionnaire-based survey aims to scrutinize teachers’ common†¦show more content†¦Coincidentally, H. Dellar and D. Hocking indicated that progress made from learning grammar most of the time would be much less than that from learning vocabulary. To be short and concise, when comparing the importance of grammar and vocabulary, both mentioned statem ent above show that most of learner’s improvement was created when the learner himself learned more words and expressions. It was also emphasized when it came to communicate that â€Å"you can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words† (Thornbury , p.13). 2.2. Young learners 2.2.1. Definition The term â€Å"young learners†, according to the author of the book An A-Z of ELT, Thornbury , â€Å"is used to describe children of pre-primary and primary school age, although it is sometimes used to include adolescents as well† (p.250). In the same way, â€Å"young learners† as defined by Sarah Phillips (1993) are â€Å"children of formal schooling (five or six years old) to eleven or twelve years of age.† (p.4). Teaching English to young learners, therefore, has a long history: in many multilingual countries, primary school children are taught English as preparation for secondary school, where it is the medium of instruction. In recent years, there has been a phenomenal increase in the teaching of English to young learners, in EFL context as well as in ESL, and in state schoolShow MoreRelatedTeaching English Vocabulary Through Pictures for Young Learners1546 Words   |  7 PagesTeaching English Vocabulary through Pictures for Young Learners INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background All languages consist of words. Languages emerge first as words, both historically, and in terms of the way each of us learned our first and any subsequent languages. Vocabulary plays an important role because it appears in every language skills. Mastering vocabulary is very important for the students who learn English as a foreign language. 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The vast differences in theRead MoreLanguage Acquisition Theories : Behaviorism, Linguistic Nativism, Social Interactionism, And Neurobiological Perspective1580 Words   |  7 Pagescomprehend dialect along with the construction and use of terms and sentences along with non-verbal mannerisms in order to communicate with one another (Christie, J. Enz, B., 2011). This paper will provide specific examples of observations in my teaching practice that is related to language acquisition, along with comparing the specific examples and assessing by the discussion of: how students develop language meaning, current practices promote language learning (acquisition) in effective ways, whatRead MoreTeaching English As A Language959 Words   |  4 PagesTheories abound reporting the most effective method of teaching English as a language, and the two methods that people tend to subscribe to are 1) primarily focus on the technical side of the language or 2) primarily focus on the content. 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