Plato Essays - Visual Arts, Adolescence, Animation, Cartoon Violence

Plato And Conservative Christians The views of Plato back in Ancient Greece and that of conservative Christians today about education for children have surprisingly similar views. Plato thought it to be most beneficial for children, if their learning consisted of music and poetry to shape the soul, and of physical training to shape the body. However, only stories that were fine and beautiful should be selected. Stories that co ained falsehoods should be banned along with passages that teach fear of death. The teaching should be done in moderation, only the good endings should be taught and only good deeds of heroes should be told. Conservative Christians today believe in many of the same ideas as Plato. Instead of music and poetry to shape the soul, the Bible should be the primary learning tool. Only shows that are non-secular and do not contain references to evolution should be allowed for children to watch. Shows that portray death to children should be monitored by parents. At the heart of these ideas, is the concern with cartoons and the effect they have on young children. This way of thinking does more harm to children then it does to protect them. By shielding them from what actually goes on in this world, i.e. death, sex and non religious views, you are setting them up for a harder time of understanding these concept when they are faced with them in real life. Cartoons can be a wonderful way of exposing children to the evils of this world in a less harmful way. Children are able to relate to cartoons in a special way that we as adults are unable to do. Because of the young age of the children in question, eir innocence is not lost and cartoons have a magical way of relating issues on a program to those that are prevalent in real life. Take for instance the idea of death that is seen in ?The Lion King' or ?Bambi'. This is the perfect segway for parents to start to teach their children about death. This allows children to see death in a non-realistic way and also gives them the curi ity to ask their parents about it. Parents should not shy away from a subject like this. Death is such a part of life that it needs to be explained to children at the earliest possible time that they are able to comprehend it in just the least. Just ink how much more difficult it would be trying to explain to a five year old that his mother has died, if you as a parent have never even mentioned the notion of death and what it entails to that child. That child would have such more difficulty unders nding that his mother is never coming back if he had been shielded from ever seeing death. There is the argument that you should protect a child's innocence for as long as possible because once its gone it will never return. There is merit in this argument. However, you have to make the decision on whether you want protect a child for a couple of more years, or explain to them the trials of life and in doing so, making it easier for them to comprehend this world when they are older. A child that never learns about death, will never be able to embrace it and to realize that death is not an ending but a new beginning. Everyone is going to experience death at some point in there life and by learning at a young age what death actuall entails will make it easier for that child when faced with the situation. Cartoons are given too much credit for shaping the way that young children think and behave. Adults are giving cartoons this credit because they can look at them and see subtleties because they are older and have so much more education. Children on the other hand are watching these cartoons solely as entertainment. They are not comprehending any underlining political or social message these cartoons may be conveying. If there are any political or social messages contained in cartoons, then they e intended for adults and will only be understood by adults. This also can be applied to the issues regarding death, sex, and violence in cartoons. A good majority of children don't watch cartoons to learn, but rather as a form of entertainment. Violence that is seen in cartoons by children is very rarely, if er emulated by them. If it is in fact

Summary of The Power of Context by Malcolm Gladwell

Summary of The Power of Context by Malcolm Gladwell Free Online Research Papers Summary of The Power of Context by Malcolm Gladwell In â€Å"The Power of Context† by Malcolm Gladwell, the author proposes a theory to explain the phenomenon that occurred when the sudden period of intense cleaning and maintenance of crime-infested New York City was able to slash crime rates to astonishing new lows. During his vacation in Africa, Gladwell witnessed the AIDS epidemic firsthand, when the HIV virus was initially contained within a small group of homosexuals, but passed the â€Å"Tipping Point† – a critical point that when exceeded, the rate at which a process proceeds significantly increases – and rapidly infected a large portion of the population. Gladwell applies this concept in his essay â€Å"The Power of Context,† suggesting that when the crime in New York City passed and went below the Tipping Point, a chain reaction began that led the crime rate to decrease exponentially. He provides an account of the steps leading to the recovery of the city, supporting his general theory that the environment exerts greater influence over a person’s mentality and actions than previously realized, as it behaves as a mechanism that triggers abnormal emotions and personalities. Gladwell’s arguments can be traced to th e ongoing debate in the psychological field over Nature versus nurture, as he cites numerous examples of people being affected and manipulated by their surroundings, such as the story of Bernie Goetz and the four youths and the Good Samaritan study; however, he fails to provide and refute counterexamples to his theory. While Gladwell is correct in the sense that the environment can considerably influence many, the majority of these impressionable people are weak-willed, and it can be observed that those with strong mentalities can resist any controlling forces that the environment may exert. Gladwell paints a vivid picture of New York City in the 1980s, when its crime rate was â€Å"in the grip of one of the worst crime epidemics in its history† (288). The most frightening scene of all, Gladwell describes, was the subway, a site plagued by countless problems ranging from robbery to murder. Muggings and other violent crimes were daily occurrences on the trains, as â€Å"New York City averaged well over 2,000 murders and 600,000 serious felonies a year† (287). However, the focus of Gladwell’s tale of the New York City subway system directs attention to the more obvious but less serious surroundings, for example, graffiti, panhandlers and fare beaters. Gladwell thoroughly details such â€Å"Minor, seemingly insignificant quality-of-life crimes,† (292) because he believes these events are Tipping Points of violent crime, as theorized by criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in their Broken Windows theory, suggesting crime is contagiou s. Gladwell goes deep into the details about the incident involving Bernie Goetz, declaring the environment is in control of everyone in the train. However, Gladwell downplays the characters of the witnesses riding in the same train; while Goetz and the four youths were under the spell of the graffiti, the other passengers were sitting, not committing violent crimes. Though the crime rate on the subway did increase dramatically during the eighties, a period of rampant graffiti, Gladwell’s statement claiming â€Å"Character is more like a bundle of habits and tendencies and interests, loosely bound together and dependant, at certain times, on circumstance and context,† (297) is not justified by the story. The passengers riding along with Goetz did not submit to the writing on the train walls and commit violent crimes, which disproves Gladwell’s theory that all humans are slaves to their environment. Gladwell also points out the concept known as the Fundamental Attribution Error, a theory that suggests people tend to undermine the importance of situation, and overestimate the impact of personal character. Gladwell includes the Good Samaritan study to prove the theory correct, which shows seminarians being rushed to a speech had a ten percent chance of helping a downtrodden person whereas students with time to spare helped the man sixty-three percent of the time. Gladwell maintains that the time constraint made â€Å"Someone who was ordinarily compassionate into someone who was indifferent to suffering – of turning someone, in that particular moment, into a different person,† (299). While the study is very convincing of Gladwell’s proclamation, ten percent of the students in a rush were able to break out of the situation’s submission hold and help the broken man, further supporting the idea that the majority of people tend to succumb to the power of co ntext and the rare heroic type is unable to be bound by anything other than his or her own will, as well as refuting Gladwell’s conjecture. Research Papers on Summary of The Power of Context by Malcolm GladwellCapital PunishmentBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseMind TravelThree Concepts of PsychodynamicAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and