True Beliefs :: essays research papers

True beliefs   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Robert Frost's 'Minding Wall'; is written natural, yet there are many things beyond the literal world of the poem that can be taken out of context. The poem is about two neighbors and a wall between them and both of them also have different beliefs on why or why not the wall should be there. This paper will describe both the speaker and neighbor's characters, and also give an interpretation and analysis of a few specific lines from Robert Frost's, 'Mending Wall'; poem, Then ending up with an over all analysis of the poem's meaning.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Frost's poem there are two characters that have a rock wall which serves as their property line. The first character is the speaker, who seems to be kind and has an education, or at least much so than his neighbor. His intelligence is shown through his open-mindedness toward other people's opinions, although he knows that changing his neighbor's beliefs may be impossible. Also he is able to place himself inside his neighbors' point of view and this may be where the speaker comes up with the question why fences make good neighbors. The speaker does not believe there is a purpose for a wall between him and his neighbor, the speaker believes that fences, or walls in this case, will create barriers between friendships and also allows for unneeded separation between people. Despite this belief that a wall is unnecessary, he still comes out every year and helps his neighbor mend the wall. The speaker would like to ask his neighbor the question why fences make good ne ighbors but the speaker wants to hear his neighbor say it himself. The speaker also says if he was building a wall he would like to know what he was walling in or out and to what or whom he needed to take offense to. This is where the speaker is trying to rationalize what purposes a wall would need to be built.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second character in the poem is the speaker's neighbor, who is more down to earth. He is a decent person but seems to lack the intelligence of the speaker to accept any outside opinions. To prove this point, the neighbor repeats himself over and over by saying, 'Good fences make good neighbors,'; and will not to stray from this belief, a belief which came from his father and that he will not accept as being wrong.

On the Absence of Self-Control as the Basis for a General Theory of Crime Essay

Self-control theory theorizes the single most important factor behind crime is an individual’s lack of self-control. This is explored and explained much more in-depth in A General Theory of Crime. In this book, Gottfredson and Hirschi theorized that low self-control is the root to all crime at all times and ultimately the general theory of crime. They referenced back to the cause of low self-control describing the parenting that they claim is to blame and therefore theorized that bad parenting leads to low self-control that leads to crime, making low self-control the root of all crime. Gilbert Geis, a criminologist, has dissected the theory and found many deficiencies regarding its applicability to all crime. Although Geis admires the attempt to generalize a theory to explain all crime he also admires a saying that states â€Å"nothing is more tragic than the murder of a grand theory by a little fact† (p. 77). Through many examples of different crimes, criminal behaviors, and scenarios, Geis was able to dispute the self-control theory in regards to: its definition of crime, the matter of tautology, its discussion of criminal law, its inclusion of the acts analogous to crimes, exceptions to the theory, the role played in the theory by the concept of opportunity, its views about specialization in criminal behavior, its handling of the matter of aging, how it deals with white collar crime, research on the theory, ideological issues, and child-rearing and the theory. How much variance can the theory explain? There should be one theory per one type of crime. It is not likely that any contributing variable is applicable for all crimes. This is the idea that fueled Geis to dispute the claims made by Gottfredson and Hirschi. The idea of creating one general theory is too great of a goal where as a more modest and effective goal would be to create a family or group of theories to explain the root of most crime. It is believed by Geis that this self-control theory will be sloughed off as a general theory to explain all crime. Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler than possible. Research and facts that are incompatible with the theory should not have to be explained away or shaped to fit within the patterns consistent to the theory. A study conducted in 2007 by Cretacci examined self-controls ability to explain different forms of crime and whether the support that it has gained has been exaggerated. The results collected from these tests indicated that self-control theory is a predictor of probability of involvement in property and drug crime but is practically silent in its ability to explain crimes of violent nature. In addition to this, Cretacci also has found many logical deficits that exist in many explanations the theory is supposed to serve. One particular deficit is the idea of the stability of self-control. According to Gottfredson and Hirschi the level of self-control an individual possesses levels out around the age of 7 and remains the same throughout the individual’s lifetime. This information was only supported by one resource. Questioning this claim, Turner and Piquero conducted a study in 2002 to reexamine the resource utilized by Gottfredson and Hirschi that resulted in mixed support for their claim. Geis feels that the idea of explaining a massive field with one general theory is impossible. This belief applies to all human acts and broad categories such as criminal behavior. There are too many variables within a broad category or topic as such to be fully explained by one explanation. Human nature drives us to believe such easy explanations for sake of simplicity and solidity and this is often why individuals tend to hold theories such as this for truth even when factual research and support contradict said theory. A famous scientist once said â€Å"Nothing is more surprising than the way in which a theory will continue to survive long after its brains have been knocked out† (p. 177)

How Education Shapes Life Chances - 1556 Words

Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. In sociology we have various schools of thoughts or theories and each of these have their own view on the impact of sociology on â€Å"life chances† Functionalist one of the â€Å"theories† of sociology are mainly concerned with the function of education to society and to seek solution to the following questions, â€Å"what is the relevance of education to the social system and â€Å"what are the relationship between education and economic system†. The†¦show more content†¦Marxists also strongly believe that â€Å"the hidden curriculum† is being used too strongly by schools. By teaching pupils to follow instructions (e.g. â€Å"sir† and â€Å"miss† and folding their arms) they are preparing them for the â€Å"exploitation† during work of when being asked to do something and then automatically doing it. This means that workers could be â€Å"used† in the process and then fined out about the capitalist system that we live in the hard way. While Marxists do share many ideas of functionalists e.g. the fact that education prepares us for out acceptance of the values of society they also see how the education system is alienating children. Functionalists, on the other hand, seem unable to see this and believe that the education system can only do well to children by teaching them norms and values. The interactionist theory believes that the teacher is the most significant tool to pupil†™s educational achievement. It implies that teaches assess pupils not by ability or intelligence, but by traits that relates to class, gender and ethnicity, such as attitude, appearance and behavior. According to an internationalist the way pupils are influenced by teachers include: labeling-involves two people in an interaction with one have the power to label stick on the other. For example when teacher tag students as â€Å"smart and bright† or asShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Education1389 Words   |  6 PagesEducation is a right recognized by many countries across the world, and yet many children don’t even have access to attend school. In Plato’s â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave†, coming out of the cave and being blinded by the sun is like learning for the first time. The amount of information may be overwhelming at first, but then can be accustomed to. Education creates opportunities which then creates a better life for children and society, e specially in poorer countries. 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