School Vouchers Essay

School Vouchers Essay School Vouchers Essay School vouchers: Are they effective or damaging? During the 1950s, Noble Prize winning libertarian economist, Milton Friedman, made the first proposal for American education to include a voucher system. However, it was not until the 1980’s when the nation’s first school choice voucher program came into effect, which was passed by the legislature of Wisconsin, and provided parents the opportunity to choose the school where they felt was appropriate for their child. The Friedman Foundation defined the notion of school choice in two parts: (1)†¦a common sense idea that gives all parents the power and freedom to choose their child’s education, while encouraging healthy competition among schools and other institutions to better serve students’ needs and priorities, [and] (2) a public policy that allows a parent/guardian or student to choose a district, charter, or private school, regardless of residence and location (www.edchoice.org). While the idea of school choice seems fitting and beneficial, especially to students who come from low-income families, there are many lies, dangers and threats seamed within the idea. School vouchers not only pose a serious danger to students and to the system of public education, but they also violate the separation between church and state. Beneficial†¦to an extent On its website, The Friedman Foundation provides an explanation to the significance and objective of school vouchers: Vouchers give parents the freedom to choose a private school for their children, using all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education. Under such a program, funds typically expended by a school district would be allocated to a participating family in the form of a voucher to pay partial or full tuition for their child’s private school, including both religious and non-religious options (www.edchoice.org). In a nutshell, vouchers are monies given to students in order to attend a school of their choice. The first sentence of the foundation’s explanation lays out the first benefit gained from the voucher program. What incites people to the idea of the voucher system is the opportunity that is given to low-income families to send their children off to an elite private school. While many are blinded by this aspiring opportunity, others, like Barbara Miner, look beyond the sugarcoated promises made by voucher programs. In her article, â€Å"Why I Don’t Vouch For Vouchers,† Miner makes a very interesting point by saying, â€Å"Private schools can control whom they accept and the terms upon which students stay enrolled. [†¦] The schools are to select on a random basis, [†¦] one problem, however, is enforcement. Who ensures that the rules are followed?† (1998). Parents do not realize that, although they are promised to be provided a better education for th eir children, they are never guaranteed that the child will be accepted to the school they choose, or whether they will succeed in a private school rather than in a public school. Yet again, Miner makes another thought-provoking point in questioning the furthering of segregation in schools through the voucher system. To provide an answer to this question she points out some statistics from a school in Milwaukee: In Milwaukee, the public schools are approximately 60 percent African American. At Divine Savior/Holy Angels and Pius XIth High Schools, only 3 percent of the students are African American. At Milwaukee’s most elite religious high school, Marquette University High School, 5 percent of the students are African American. Some religious elementary schools in Milwaukee do not have any African American students (Miner, 1998). Whether these numbers may just be sheer coincidence or intentional, the idea of providing vouchers to parents as a means of reserving the best possible education for their children do not come with a guarantee that the school they choose will be a safe haven and far better than public schooling. Another benefit gained

Othello Essays

Othello Essays Othello Paper Othello Paper The audience, having been introduced to Othello by Iagos motiveless malignity,1 expects this man to be professionally bombast and animalistic. In fact Othello is not named until the third scene, thus dramatising his blackness and bestiality. However this preconception of Othello is immediately undone when he successfully calms the angry Brabantio and satisfies the suspicious Duke and Senators. Othellos heroic nature cannot be doubted due to the solidity of his character in the first two acts of the play; as Rebecca Warren notes, Othello possesses a mythical and monumental quality that cannot be denied; he speaks and acts powerfully in a way that inspires confidence in his character. 2 This essay will explore the extent to which Othellos heroism is interdependent with his love for Desdemona, and what implications this dependency will have on the power of both. Othellos first action in the play is to convince Brabantio, the Duke and the Senators that he genuinely loves Desdemona, not that he has used mixtures, a dram or a practice of cunning hell to seduce her. Shakespeare allows Brabantio to speak before Othello, immediately creating a confident and superior character in the latter. When Othello does make his case, he uses linguistic devices befitting a hero with great control over both himself and others, Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors rude am I in my speech and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace. Tim Blake Nelson uses non-dietetic mounds in the willow scene, Even the sun goes down Heroes eventually die these lyrics are foreshadowing the decline of the tragic hero and the audience is left to wonder about the events that to unravel. The Issue of race Is a quintessential aspect In both play and film. The racist undertone In Othello and O explores the Idea that Othello and Odin are seen as outcasts, haltingly that the universal value of race Is everlasting. The protagonists different ethnic background provides a platform for examining Ideas of racial conflict. Accepted part of public life; people of color were often thought of as savage. Shakespeare would have encountered no societal pressures against presenting such ideas. Yet he doesnt actually portray Othello as inferior, in fact he is represented as the noble savage. Although Ago makes him sound despicable in the first-act, Shakespeare then shows Othello as a well-spoken and highly regarded military leader. Shakespeare, throu gh the use of characterization, explores the critical factor of race all throughout his play. Othello the moor is consistently seen as an outsider. Ago initiates racial slurs and tension amongst all characters. In Act 1, Scene 1 He scribes Othello and Adhesions consummation as an old black ram Tipping A white ewe and making the beast with two backs. These racial innuendoes implicate the true feelings Ago has towards Othello and that he cannot look past the color of his skin. Othello could easily be read as a racist play. Its tragic hero is often described in racist, degrading tones. Tim Blake Nelsons setting of contemporary American enable him to explore racism more overtly in O. Odin and Dies Jokingly discuss their different races. When she disapproves of his use of enigma, he tells her that he is allowed to say it but she Anton even think it. Ironically Odin is haunted by a profound self-consciousness about the color of his skin. When Hugo tells him that Dies and Mike called him the enigma, the camera has an extreme close up of Dins face, and through expression it is evident that Dins worst fears are confirmed and he then begins to act out in rage and self-loathing, beginning the downward spiral of the tragic hero. Tim Blake Nelson has empowered this particular scene by employing dramatic irony; the audience knows to not trust Hugo although Odin does not. One of the most radical differences between the play is the setting. Othello takes place in the 17th century, Venice, contrasted against O, which takes place in an American private school, this is to exude the major time difference. Shakespeare has taken advantage of the patriarchal society that was in place in the 17th century. Desman throughout Othello represents one extreme of the stereotypical female, the passive ideal wife, and Emilie represents the other extreme, an independent and assertive woman. At the end of the play, Othello smothers Desman to death, she screams out O, Lord! Lord! Lord! through the use of apostrophe Desman is ailing out to the heavens, suggesting that she was controlled and manipulated to a greater degree. It is later revealed that Ago behind the events, bringing to light his duplicitous nature. Ago as a misogynist is a crucial example of the way women were perceived as Just pawns in the game of concurring Othello. The protagonist in O is power hungry and dominating. In the first party scene hip- hop music is employed to Juxtapose the divide between black and white in the preppy private high school. Symbolism has been initiated in the scene where Odin puts the rubber band around Deeds finger; he has blatantly declared his ownership ND power of Des. The rubber band is also the color green, which relates back to the green-eyed monster, this leitmotif signifies Jealousy and power. Shakespearean Othello and the contemporary appropriation O by Tim Blake Nelson, both explore the universal values of Jealousy, race and the domination of women. The themes and techniques used empower both play and film to help determine the values of each respected time. Although there are differences, ultimately the values attitudes and ideas explored do remain constant throughout history while maintaining textual integrity.