Hope In Action Essays - Jaime Escalante, Stand And Deliver

Hope In Action STAND AND DELIVER In the Gospel of Matthew it states, ? Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.? (Matt. 25:40). This relates to Moltmann's guideline of the preferential option for the poor. In today's society we are faced with the poor everywhere we go. Whether it be in the largest cities in the world such as London, New York, or Los Angeles; or in the smallest towns in middle America, or third world countries the poor are suffering all around us. I chose to discuss what I believe is an excellent example of the preferential option for the poor. The movie is called ?Stand and Deliver?. This movie is based on the true story that focuses on a high school teacher in Los Angeles. His name is Jaime Escalante, portrayed by Edward James Olmos. He was a well-respected, well-liked teacher that decided to take a job at an L.A. high school in a poor, Spanish area, known for its violence, drugs and gangs among other things. Many of the families that lived in this area could barely speak English, if at all. Many could not read or write past a fifth grade level either. The families were usually overpopulated with children that were underprivileged. These high school students were just trying to survive in their ?world? without getting into trouble or dying, school was not a major concern for many of them. Most of these students normally ended up in jail, working in blue-collar jobs or even dead. The teacher, Mr. Escalante, was also of Spanish decent and could relate to the trials of his new group of students. He had grown up in a tough neighborhood as well. He could not understand though, why they gave up so easily and why they seemed to lack self-discipline and self-respect as well as a lack of respect for others. He was taught to survive but to also respect his elders. Mr. Escalante's area of expertise was in mathematics and he was hired to teach these students calculus. He walked into the classroom and was astonished to find that most of his students only knew basic mathematics. His goal was to prepare them for a statewide test in mathematics in order for them to be able to graduate from high school. His job was extremely difficult though, more difficult then he had anticipated. He never gave up hope for his students though. After a few trying weeks the students seemed to pick up on the math that Mr. Escalante was trying to get across to them. He used everyday ideas and problems to convey the math to the students. For example, he used an apple to show the students that when you split an apple it gets cut in half (1/2), and if you cut the half you have quarters etc. This gave the students the help they thought they needed because they were always shown that they would end up like their families did, poor and always fighting for the necessities of life. All the while he was also becoming their friend, mentor, father figure, counselor, motivator, as well as a teacher. He became involved in their personal lives helping them when and if he could anyway he could. For example, one student portrayed by Lou Diamond Philips, was a gang member, drug-dealing punk who lived with his Spanish-speaking grandmother who couldn't read. Mr. Escalante on his own time taught the boy's elderly grandmother how to read and when a particular student got into trouble Mr. Escalante got him out of it as well. Another example of hope in action found in the film was the fact that every week Mr. Escalante would teach a night course to a group of ESL adults. He taught his students that they should be above all else proud to be who they are and that they can achieve something that many of their parents didn't achieve. They would with perseverance go on to better themselves in all aspects of their lives. He gave them the best gift of all?hope. It was this hope that was key when Mr. Escalante suffered a heart attack

Learn a Computer Programming Language Online for Free

Learn a Computer Programming Language Online for Free Many new graduates find frustration in today’s job market as employers increasingly focus on hiring employees with concrete skills rather than diplomas alone. Even those looking to work in non-computer related fields will often find that regardless of major, graduates now need coding skills and many employers give priority to applicants with some knowledge of HTML or Javascript. Learning a programming language is an excellent way to improve your resume and make yourself more marketable. Those with access to a computer can learn a programming language online without paying to attend a university course. Learning to program at a beginner level can be surprisingly intuitive and a great introduction to a career in  technology. Regardless of age or level of familiarity with computers, there is a way for you to study and learn online. e-Books From Universities and More For the last few decades, books have been used as one of the primary means of learning to program. There are many books available for free, often in digital versions online. One popular series is called  Learn Code the Hard Way and uses a code immersion strategy that allows students to perform code work first, and then explains what happened. Contrary to the name, this approach is very effective at reducing the difficulty of explaining programming concepts to novice coders. For those looking to get started with the basics of programming rather than focusing on a specific language, MIT offers a free text called  Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. This text is offered alongside free assignments and course instruction to allow a student to learn to use Scheme to understand many important computer science principles. Online Tutorials Interactive tutorials are a smart choice for those with a tight schedule that want to steadily improve with a few minutes time a day rather than setting aside a large block of time all at once. A great example of an interactive tutorial for learning programming is Hackety Hack, which provides an easy way to learn the basics of programming using the Ruby language. Those looking for a different language prefer starting with an easier language like Javascript or Python. Javascript is often considered an essential language for anyone looking to work with web pages and can be explored using the interactive tool provided on  CodeAcademy. Python is well regarded as a simple-to-learn language of great use to those who need to develop more complex systems than Javascript allows for. LearnPython is a good interactive tool for those who want to start programming in Python. Free, Interactive Online Programming Courses In contrast to the single-serving format provided by interactive tutorials, many people prefer to learn in  Massively Open Online Courses  - a format similar to those provided at universities. Many courses have been put online to offer interactive methods to take a full course on programming. The website Coursera provides content from 16 different universities and has been used by more than one million â€Å"Courserians.† One of the participating schools is Stanford University, which provides excellent courses on such topics as algorithms, cryptography, and logic. Harvard, UC Berkeley, and MIT have teamed up to offer a large number of courses on the edX website. With courses like software as a service (SAS) and Artificial Intelligence, the edX system is an excellent source of modern instruction on fairly new technologies. Udacity is a smaller and more basic provider of interactive courseware, with instruction on such topics as building a blog, testing software, and building a search engine. In addition to providing online courses, Udacity also hosts meetups in 346 cities around the world for those that benefit from in-person interactions as well. Static Programming OpenCourseWare Interactive courses are sometimes too advanced for those who need lots of time or are unfamiliar with technology. For those in such a situation, another alternative is to try static OpenCourseWare materials such as those provided by MIT’s Open Courseware, Stanford’s Engineering Everywhere or many other programs. Learn More Whatever your method of learning, once you have identified your schedule and what fits your study style, you will be surprised at how quickly you can pick up a new skill and make yourself more marketable. Updated/edited by Terri Williams

Intellectual Property Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Intellectual Property - Essay Example Almost all the organizations whether large of small, national or multinational, and industrial or artistic develop logos, draw designs and introduce some brands that serve as the identity mark of the company. Intellectual property is the identity mark of an individual, a company, an organization or an industry, over which the creator contains complete and unconditional rights. The statute of law provides protection to such property in favour of the originator, and claim over this type of property without referencing to the devisor is against the statute of law and liable to be punishment. Copyright Act, Trademark Ordinance and Patents Ordinance provide protection to intellectual property rights. There are two main types of intellectual property i.e. i) Copyright and ii) Industrial property. Copyright consists of sections of art and literature including prose work, poems, lyrics, drama, novel, narrative, thesis, presentation, articles, essays, broachers, film, paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, musical tones and songs, printing material, publications, architectural and audio-visual works. â€Å"Copyright is given†, Rafique states, â€Å"to the first producer of a book irrespective of the fact whether that book is wise or foolish, accurate or inaccurate, or of literary merits or no merit whatever†. (Copyrights Ordinance 1962, 2005: p 4). Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs. In the same way, Industrial and manufacturing intellectual property consists of logo, slogan, trademark, patents, brand name, company design, software, chemical formula, machine, apparatus and inventions. It is fact beyond doubt that the person who makes efforts in respect of creating an innovative idea or making invention deserves