Stanislavskis System Essay Example for Free

Stanislavskis System Essay All of our acts, even the simplest, which are so familiar to us in everyday life, become strained when we appear behind the footlights before a public of a thousand people. That is why it is necessary to correct ourselves and learn again how to walk, sit, or lie down. It is essential to re-educate ourselves to look and see, on the stage, to listen and to hear. Stanislavski (Konstantin Stanislavski quotes) Realistic drama was said to be born in the late 1800s, however before that, no director or actor trainer had succeeded in creating a method in order to instil believability in a character through the actor. There were some actors and actresses that used their own individual talent to achieve this, but there was not a developed system or method that one could teach or even pass on to the future generation of actors. In the midst of this thirst of authenticity, Konstantin Stanislavski actor and director extraordinaire developed his own system over a lifetime. When we are on stage, we are in the here and now Stanislavski (Konstantin Stanislavski quotes) Due to the fact that he was born into a wealthy family of merchants, Konstantin Sergeievich Alekseiv, had to begin his service to the family business, but soon realized that nothing could overpower his love for theatre. His family too shared some of his enjoyment for theatre and built him an amateur theatre in which he had his first stage appearances. His family also funded expensive vocal and stage movement lessons from Moscows best teachers. However, his love for theatre intensified to such an extent that in 1884, he was forced to adopt Konstantin Stanislavski as a stage name for his first public debut in order to hide his theatre aspirations from his family. In 1888, although he was still being forced to work in the family business, he co-founded the Moscow Society of Arts and Literature. Being the co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre helped Stanislavski set up a basis for his own system of training actors. This unique system required actors to research the situation provided by the script according to the characters motivations, create a subtext to their script whereby they show the meaning or the imagination beneath the text their script, and bring to mind their own experiences so that they may use the emotions from their own experiences as emotions for their character in order to make their character more believable. Love art in yourself, not yourself in art. Stanislavski (Konstantin Stanislavski quotes) These requirements forced the actors to perform the actions and reactions of their character based, not only on the actors motivation, but also on the actors personal experiences. It also allowed the actor to match his motivations to that of the character in the script. After having already identified the characters motivations, the actor can recall his emotions and experiences whilst playing the character on stage in order to give a more authentic and convincing performance. His new proposed system for acting had eight questions that the actor must answer in order to build and establish the character. These included: I. Who? II. When? III. Where? IV. What? V. Why? VI. How? VII. What do I need to overcome? VIII. Before time? (Stanislavski for Beginners) These questions helped the actor recognize the characters purpose and establish the actors own movement on stage so that they may be able to project the characters purpose to the audience. Stanislavski developed a number of techniques and principles that he considered fundamental in helping the actor achieve a believable character on stage. Stanislavski felt that most actors assumed that believable acting was derived from simply being natural on stage. However, from his observations, Stanislavski concluded that realistic acting on stage was extremely difficult and can sometimes come across as artificial. Bring yourself to the part of taking hold of a role, as if it were your own life. Speak for your character in your own person. When you sense this real kinship to your part, your newly created being will become soul of your soul, flesh of your flesh. Stanislavski (Konstantin Stanislavski quotes) After having memorized my monologue I figured I knew my character quite well she was a young girl who was sad because her best friend just died. I didnt think I needed to know any more than that in order to deliver a good monologue. However, when the time came to answer the questions above for my character, I resented it and I didnt think it would help in any way. I decided that I would perform my monologue for a class mate before and after answering the questions in order to prove my point. The first thing I realized was that answering those questions was no easy feat for me, which proved how much I didnt know my character. After much use of my imagination, I finally managed to answer the questions in depth. Whilst answering the questions I found out things that never even occurred to me about my character. I felt like I was talking about a real life person who had a past, a present, and even a future. Needless to say, the real impact of what I found out about my character did not hit until I performed my monologue post-questions. I found myself really feeling and actually believing that I was that character and not just impersonating someone. After performing my monologue I honestly felt like I had given birth to an actually human being Undoubtedly, I received the most positive feedback about my monologue post-questions. Some of the principles of the Stanislavski System included: * The actor is aware that the play is fiction, but he must question himself about how he would behave if the situation was real. This helps the actor transform the play as if it were real. * The actor must question himself about his character and must understand not only what, but why he is saying what he is saying and doing what he is doing. * The actor must not get distracted by the audience and must concentrate on what is happening on stage. * The actor must learn how to rid his body of muscle tensions and relax himself so that he may call upon his actions with ease in order to reach his goal as the character. The relaxation and observation exercise was quite an experience for me because I was able to tap into emotions so deep that at times I virtually forgot that I was in Drama class. When Ms. Kennedy was declaring the emotions that we had to feel, experiences that never occurred to me popped up in my head. For instance, when Ms. Kennedy declared that we were to feel jealous, an incident that popped up in my mind was one of which I was unaware that I felt jealous at that moment! I presume that it was my mind reminding me that I was subconsciously jealous at that moment. With every emotion that Ms. Kennedy declared, I found my body subtly changing. This change occurred from the tilt of my head to the direction of my toes. What amazed me the most was that it felt as though my body was changing by itself. The changes were so subtle and gradual at first, and then when they got to be a little more intense was when I realized that I was tapping my toes or holding my breath. I presume that it is these subtle movements and actions that make acting more believable on stage. * The actor must consciously perform the small physical actions that people perform unconsciously do in real like in order to make his character look realistic. When Ms. Kennedy told us to stand up and imitate the actions of the members of my ensemble, I realized how unconsciously we perform little actions that make us who we are. For instance, I am constantly running my hand through my hair because of my fringe that comes in my eyes. I am so used to this action that I do it without being aware of what I am doing. When I did so during this exercise I was taken aback when my ensemble started imitating me and I thought to myself, Did I just do that?. I saw similar reactions from the members of my ensemble. Through these exercises I learnt that it is the little actions that make us unique. * The actor must recall his emotional experiences from his emotional memory. This will bring truth to his character. * The actor must establish good communication with his ensemble (i.e. the other actors on stage) by listening to what they are saying and by looking directly at them, unless when the script requires them not to do so. * It is vital for the actor to understand the play and perform his part with determination. He must also feel for his part to such an extent that his portrayal of the character looks nothing but authentic and convincing on stage. * In order to convince the audience, the actor must use the techniques to call upon memories that help him react to other characters in the play as well as act. This makes his character more believable. (The Stanislavski System) Some techniques of the Stanislavski System include: * Objective Words o The actor must understand the objectives of the character behind each and every line that they say. I used this method to first indentify the intentions of my character behind every line, and then match those intentions with an action. This gave every action behind every line a purpose and made it easier for me to recall my emotional memory when I needed it. * Magic If The actor must connect with the character by asking how he would behave if his characters situation was real and was actually happening to him. This helps the actor think like the character and not just impersonate him. Stanislavskis Magic If and As If has really helped me in my monologue as I have to imagine that I am speaking to a corpse of my best friend. Throughout the monologue, I really enjoy that I am forced to use my imagination and make-believe that a table is a casket and boxes are a deceased human being. Although I dont find it that hard pretending that I am speaking to my deceased friend, I really enjoy the challenge of making my audience believe and see what I am seeing. With more practice and more rehearsal of my monologue, I will be able to make my audience feel not only the pain of losing a friend, but also the pain of my own personal experience that I drew out to play this part. * As If o The actor should get in role and as himself what he would do if here was to be in his characters situation. This brings about convincing actions and reactions for the character. Before I first practiced this technique, I immediately told myself that I would imagine that I was at the funeral of my best friend. However, this will be hard to improvise because I just simply cannot imagine my best friend dying. It is unthinkable. Thus, I decided that I would bring back the memory of when I was at my uncles funeral and use those emotions in the context of my monologue. This helped my monologue significantly as it was easier to bring back emotions of things that have already happened. While I was performing my monologue, I really felt as though I was back at my uncles funeral and I was able to use the emotions I felt then to emphasize the lines of my monologue. Although my uncles funeral was some 5 years ago, this technique helped me realize that those feelings are still alive. Although this technique benefited my monologue, it also benefited my life as when I brought those emotions back I felt that I was able to deal with them better than I did those 5 years ago. * Subtext o The actor must know the emotion and meaning that lays underneath his characters lines. The actor does not speak this, but portrays this though choice of action, gestures, posture, pauses etc. Subtext generally increases the audiences involvement in the play as it acts as a secret between the audience and the character with the subtext as opposed to the other characters present on stage. o Inner Monologue * The actor must know all the thoughts that are going through the characters mind not only while he is speaking his dialogue, but also while he is listening to the other characters on stage. o Mental Images * The actor must bring together all the pictures that he sees in his mind as the character and communicate this to the other actors on stage. This method really taught me how to break down the text of a script and read in between the lines in order to fully understand my character. After I had determined what was going through my characters mind at every line in the play, * Given Circumstances o Whilst building his character, the actor must take into account all the information the playwright has given the actor through the script. This technique helped me exert all the circumstances that my playwright had given me, and with this information I was able to establish my character and her personality more. This technique also taught me how to apply the emotions that I derived from the previous techniques like As If. * Imagination o The actor must work really hard in order to use imagination to fill in the gaps of his characters life where the playwright hasnt given enough information. Imagination was my key component in any Stanislavski technique that I attempted and applied to my monologue. However, Imagination was most useful to me when I first began creating my character and her personality. I used my imagination to first answer my WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, WHY, WHENCE, BEFORE TIME questions which in turn helped me create a really descriptive and in-depth character analysis. Imagination also helped me be less mechanic and more authentic on stage. I used imagination to give life to the words on paper and give life to a real character. This process is really similar to giving birth. * Circles of Attention o Although they are in public and in front of an audience, the actor must feel as though they are alone on stage and they must throw circles of attention on their actions in order to really concentrate. The actor must be able to draw into a small circle of attention, if they need arises, even though he may be performing in front of thousands. It is difficult for the actor to take in whole spaces at once and therefore must focus on the space bit by bit. This will increase the actors attention because as one could have a small, medium or large circle of attention. As the circle grows larger and larger, your concentration it tested at its limits. Thus it is recommended for actors to withdraw to a small circle of attention if they find their attention wavering in order to rebuild into their larger circle of attention. * Perspective o Perspective requires the actor to see their role as a whole. It requires them to sustain their concentration, focus on their objectives and also watch for any problems that could possibly occur on stage. They must develop a pace for their acting as the play unfolds on stage. Funnily enough, Perspective really helped me develop my costume and what message I was wanted to portray with my costume. I was debating to either wear boyish clothes that showed off my characters tom boyishness and establish her to the audience in that manner or to wear girly clothes and emphasize my characters uncomfortable feeling. I chose to go with the second choice to really show how isolated and uncomfortable my character feels in the situation that life thrust her in. For my costume I decided on an off-white skirt with black flower embroidery, topped with a black t-shirt-like blouse and black boots. Although my character hates skirts and anything girly, I am wearing a girly outfit to show that my character is uncomfortable with not only what she is wearing, but where she is, what she is about to do and the situation as a whole. My costume consists mainly of the color black because she is attending a funeral and black is the code mourning color. I am accompanying my outfit with boots to show that my character, although caved in into wearing a skirt and blouse, refused completely to wear high heels or sandals. The boots keep some of my characters personality alive. * Tempo-Rhythm o Tempo * Actors must realize that every action that they have planned will take time and they can either chose to decelerate the tempo whereby they will be giving themselves more time to speak and perform or to accelerate the tempo which would have the opposite effect. o Rhythm * The actor must know how and what to stress while he is on stage in order to portray the message that he is trying to portray. (The Stanislavski System Growth and Methodology) These techniques and principles of the Stanislavski System helps the actor develop an interior monologue for the character, so that each action that the actor takes as the character comes across as spontaneous to the audience. In addition, Stanislavski also believed highly on the use of costumes, sets and props contributing to the realism of the character. He believed that every prop must serve a purpose, and if a prop was placed on stage, then the actor must know the history of the prop in relation to the play (where it was bought, who it was bought by and how it came to be in this particular location). Stanislavski also worked on something called The Method of Physical Actions whereby he focused on physical action encouraging truthful emotion. The main aim was to reach the subconscious mind through the conscious mind. (Method Acting) Due to the fact that the theatre held great social and educational significance for Stanislavski, he found it difficult to separate the social context that was attached to his theatre. He was known to use the stage to reflect the social issues that were occurring during the civil unrest that lead to the Russian Revolution in 1905 and the Soviet Union being established. However, even though he responded to criticism saying that he never staged contemporary Communist plays by directing several plays of revolutionary significance, he was still criticised for catering to progressive middleclass audiences. Thus he refused his company to produce plays that were undeserving of its traditions and high standards in order to maintain his integrity and dignity. Fortunately for Stanislavski, he was caught in the midst of the violence of the revolution and needed to be protected by Lenin from being eradicated alongside the Czar Dom. The communists had elected his system and made the Moscow Art Theatre the fountainhead of social realism. (Stanislavski, Konstantin) His theatre quickly began producing Soviet propaganda due to an allegiance that was being maintained between the USSR and Stanislavskis socially conscious method of production. Needless to say, Stanislavski survived both Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The Stanislavski System is known to only be as good as the person who uses it. It is not something that will immediately turn a bad actor into a good one, nor will it guarantee success. The Stanislavski System is simply a serious of developments, techniques and ideologies that help the actor make use and develop his skills and talents and to gain control of his gift in order to become a better actor. Using the system requires time and understanding that are not so easily summoned up these days. However, who so ever have studied and have been trained in the Stanislavski System know that it is a diligent method that requires a lot of work, but also makes seem more effortless and believable. Stanislavski always told his actors to leave your ego at the stage door as you come in and those who intend to follow the Stanislavski System must know that it is not solely based on the actor himself. The actor must not only develop his own talent, but must also develop a bond with his ensemble and know that a performance can only be put on when there is trust and dependence among the actors. (Stanislavski and the Actor, 149) Thus I will end with a quote from the master himself, In the creative process there is the father, the author of the play; the mother, the actor pregnant with the part; and the child, the role to be born. (Konstantin Stanislavsky quotes) and say that one must commence on the journey that is the creative process in order to realize the true value of Stanislavskis teachings. Bibliography Allen, David. Stanislavski for Beginners. New York City: Writers Readers Publishing, 1999. Benedetti, Jean. Stanislavski and the Actor: The Method of Physical Action. New York: Theatre Arts Book, 1998. Jones, Trevor, and Bradley W. Bishop. Stanislavski. Untitled Document. 22 Feb. 2009 http://www.kryingsky.com/Stan/Biography/bot.html. Konstantin Stanislavsky quotes. Find the famous quotes you need, ThinkExist.com Quotations.. 22 Feb. 2009 http://thinkexist.com/quotation/love_the_art_in_yourself-not_yourself_in_the/166692.html. Method Acting. Moderntimes: Classic Film Pages. 22 Feb. 2009 http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/method.htm. Stanislavsky, Konstantin: Biography from Answers.com. Answers.com Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and much more. 26 Feb. 2009 http://www.answers.com/topic/konstantin-stanislavski. Sawoski, Perviz. The Stanislavski System Growth and Methodology. Homepage. 22 Feb. 2009 homepage.smc.edu/sawoski_perviz/Stanislavski.pdf. Stanislavski Quotes. Free Website Hosting Tripod free website templates to make your own free website. 22 Feb. 2009 http://members.tripod.com/~Jim_68/stan.htm. Stanislavskis system Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 22 Feb. 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavskis_system. The Stanislavski System. Teachit. 19 Feb. 2009 www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/stanis.pdf.

State Of Nature Would Be State Of War

State Of Nature Would Be State Of War Thomas Hobbes set out to account for political authority with the use of the State of Nature. He illustrated what life outside of society without any overall authority keeping anyone in check would be like. Hobbes identified the State of Nature with a State of War but used war in an extended sense, to include not just armed hostilities but any situation where there is no reasonable expectation that hostilities will not erupt. He argued that the known readiness to engage in acts of aggression amounts in itself to a State of War. Specifically there are three principal causes of quarrel (lev) which throw people into hostilities. These causes are competition, diffidence and glory (Lev p. 88) and together they ensure that the State of Nature is a State of War. The State of Nature put simply is a situation in which human beings have no government, no political institutions and the feelings that they engender and no executive forces such as a police force or army in other words, it is a condition of anarchy. The State of Nature is an idealisation, a model. (Engaging P.19) Hobbes uses the State of Nature to justify political authority, or as Hobbes calls it, the commonwealth. He does not describe literally everything that would be the case in the absence of political arrangements, but only those things that matter for explaining political authority. What Hobbes did, was to identify features of human nature and the human condition that are universal, that in no way depend upon political authority relations, and that are relevant to explaining political authority causally. The State of Nature can be considered as a condition from which people are to escape if political authority is to be justified. So the sole alternative to political authorit y is the State of Nature, however according to Hobbes, the State of Nature is unbearably nasty as what is crucial to the state of natures justificatory role is the fact that life in it is pretty grim. Therefore the sole alternative to political authority is unbearably nasty, hence imposing political authority is justified. Hobbes attempted to illustrate that subjection to authority is vastly preferable to anarchy the State of War; he held the view that if we had reasons to believe that political authority is much better than the State of Nature, then imposing political authority is justified. Hobbes attempted to demonstrate that the State of Nature is a State of War in order to justify political authority. He depicted the State of War as a place full of insecurity and uncertainty in order to further substantiate his claim. The State does not necessarily consist in actual fighting, but a known disposition thereto, during which there is no assurance to the contrary. (page 86 Leviathan). Hobbes depicted the State of War as a condition in which civilisation and its benefits are absent. Only through the organisation of society and the establishment of the commonwealth can civilisation be attained. One thing that Hobbes recognised about the natural condition of mankind was the relative equality of individuals within it. When Hobbes spoke of equality he did not mean equality in a moralised sense, but more the distribution of physical and mental endowments. Nature has made men so equal that, although some humans are manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind, these endowments are distributed in such a way that even the weakest, slowest and dumbest among them can kill the strongest, fastest and smartest. Hobbes claimed that when all is reckoned together, the difference between man and man is not so considerable, all human beings are, in other words, vulnerable to assault at the hands of all others. Equality, for Hobbes, is based upon the equal ability to kill or conquer others so inevitably equality leads to conflict, a State of Nature will be a war of all against all.(leviathan p. Vii) In the State of Nature, there are three causes of conflict: competition, distrust and the desire for glory. Competition leads to fighting for grain, diffidence to fighting to keep what has been gained and glory to fighting for reputation. These sources of conflict arise from what Hobbes calls the equality of ability (lev) in men. This natural equality of men is not equality of rights or of worth but an equality of ability, which leads to equality of hope in attaining ones ends and so to competition. The right of each to all things invites serious conflict, especially if there is competition for resources, as goods -are in relatively short supply in the State of Nature.(Stamford) So if any two men want a single thing which cannot be attained by both, they will become enemies (page 84 Leviathan) Conflict can occur for example when someone has come to possess a better piece of land. If an invader would have nothing to fear but that one mans individual power, then it is more than likely that someone will choose to invade this estate and attempt to deprive the owner of his possessions. But then the successful invader will then be in similar danger from someone else. It is an endless cycle of conflict in the State of Nature, which inevitably creates hostile conditions. However, Hobbes claim that all men are equal is false. The very young, the very old and the infirm generally pose no mortal threat to able bodied persons in the prime of life and therefore there would be no competition in some circumstances. Whilst it was not Hobbess aim to describe what is literally the case, this does demonstrate that not all of his reasons were convincing when explaining why the State of Nature would be a State of War. Hobbes further illustrated a State of as a State of War as it is a place where nobody feels secure, each person has a reason to attack any other person, for fear of being attacked first; this is what Hobbes referred to as diffidence. Because of this distrust amongst men, the most reasonable way for anyone to make themselves safe is to strike first, so attack can be seen as the best form of defence in a State of War. And, because each person has roughly equal killing power, everybody is both a potential killer and a potential victim. The fact that each of them is liable to aggression from others means that each person has to treat every other person as an enemy. People dont just regard everyone as possible enemies, in the State of War everyone is an enemy. Hence diffidence makes people invade one another for safety. Hobbes quite rightly held that the State of Nature would be a State of War therefore as people would fear that others may invade them, and may rationally plan to strike fi rst as an anticipatory defense, a natural human instinct to preserve their own safety. Hobbes also said that The State of War arises from the nature of some people, mainly those who want others to value them as highly as they values themselves. Glory drives people to attack others to raise their value in the eyes of others. Glory is therefore a source of unwarranted aggression and when there is no common power to keep people at peace, conflict will occur which Hobbes quite rightly said. Hobbes had a particularly good reason for believing that the State of Nature would be one of war as morality has no place in this pre-political world that Hobbes created. Everyone has an interest in killing everyone else pre-emptively, whenever possible, and this is acceptable as nothing holds any individuals back from committing any immoral acts, humans would merely act as their interests dictate. In a State of Nature, by definition there are no rules, not even unenforceable ones that might deter some from committing such acts. Therefore even moral restrictions to do or withhold from doing certain things for example, not to kill have no effect in a State of Nature. Hobbess view was that in the natural State of War there are no objective moral distinctions. In this State of War of every man against every man nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have n place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Hobbes assumed that the state of nature would be a state of war as taking people as they actually are, if you were to remove all political institutions, the natural proclivities that would ensue would lead to a state of war. Notably, without political institutions, the natural impulses to self-preservation are doomed to failure. In the state of nature, that is our unhappy predicament. Natural right of self-preservation (ch. 14): the liberty each one has to use her/his own power for self-preservation. A central claim of Hobbes: It is rational to give up ones right to self-governance to a sovereign, if everyone else agrees to do the same. (See chapter 17, section 13) The natural state of war, therefore, is the state of affairs in which the individual is dependent for his security on his own strength and his own wits. In such conditions there is no place for hard work, because there is no assurance that it will yield results; and consequently no cultivation of the earth, no navigation or use of materials that can be imported by sea, no construction of large buildings, no machines for moving things that require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no practical skills, no literature or scholarship, no society; and-worst of all-continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Perhaps we would imagine that people might fare best in such a state, where each decides for herself how to act, and is judge, jury and executioner in her own case whenever disputes arise-and that at any rate, this state is the appropriate baseline against which to judge the justifiability of political arrangements.

Scientific Classification in Biology Essay -- Papers Biological Classi

Scientific Classification in Biology Classification in biology, is the identification, naming, and grouping of organisms into a formal system. The vast numbers of living forms are named and arranged in an orderly manner so that biologists all over the world can be sure they know the exact organism that is being examined and discussed. Groups of organisms must be defined by the selection of important characteristics, or shared traits, that make the members of each group similar to one another and unlike members of other groups. Modern classification schemes also attempt to place groups into categories that will reflect an understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying the similarities and differences among organisms. Such categories form a kind of pyramid, or hierarchy, in which the different levels should represent the different degrees of evolutionary relationship. The hierarchy extends upward from several million species, each made up of individual organisms that are closely related, to a few kingdoms, each containing large assemblages of organisms, many of which are only distantly related. Carolus Linnaeus is probably the single most dominant figure in systematic classification. Born in 1707, he had a mind that was orderly to the extreme. People sent him plants from all over the world, and he would devise a way to relate them. At the age of thirty-two he was the author of fourteen botanical works. His two most famous were Genera Plantarum, developing an artificial sexual system, and Species Plantarum, a famous work where he named and classified every plant known to him, and for the first time gave each plant a binomial. This binomial system was a vast improvement over some of the old descri... ...ly and structurally too dissimilar to the species categorized above to fit into that scheme of taxonomy. Although this system is complex and intricate at times, its universality makes it a necessity. With out the system presently in use the world would be years and years behind in their task to name all of the living organisms on earth. This system is great but it is always possible that some new finding could cause the system to evolve to become more inclusive. This system is by no means set in stone, and Linnaeus would probably be astounded to see the way that it has evolved since his original system. Bibliography: Berkely University. www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html/ Galbraith, Don. Understanding Biology. John Wiley and Sons. Toronto. 1989, Microsoft. Encarta Encyclopedia 97. Microsoft Corporation. 1997

Influence of Indian Warfare on the Development of the United States Arm

Influence of Indian Warfare on the Development of the United States Army Throughout history, when two or more armed groups oppose one another in battle, certain tactics are transferred from one to the other. These tactics are usually perceived by either group as superior to their own. This process of transferring tactics often occurs over a length of time, and usually encompass a number of conflicts between the groups. This is a natural phenomenon for armed forces that mimics the Darwinian Theory of Evolution; the strongest survive, the weak die. For a group to become the strongest in armed conflict, it must employ superior tactics and doctrine over its enemy. One method that an armed force uses to become stronger is to adapt the superior tactics of its enemy, incorporating them into its own doctrine. Today, the United States Army is undoubtedly the strongest armed force in the world. This has not occurred without the Army also adapting tactics used by forces which opposed it throughout its development. One such opposing force were the American Indians. The history of opposition between these two groups can be traced back to the conflicts that occurred between the Amerindians and the English Colonists, whose militias were the ancestor of the U.S. Army. The colonial militia was an institution of the English that was imported to their colonies in the New World in the sixteenth century. The colonial militias thrived, however, as those of England faded into relative non-existence in the seventeenth century while a new, professional army was developed in their place. No colony could afford to develop a professional armed force because every able-bodied man had to devote all his energy to the economic survival of the colony. ... ...ll, William G., et al, comps. American Military History. Army Historical Ser. Washington: GPO, 1989. Coakley, Robert W., and Stetson Conn. The War of the American Revolution. Washington: GPO, 1975. Fennell, Jr., Charles C. "The Civil War: The First Modern War." The American Military Tradition. Ed. John M. Carroll and Colin F. Baxter. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources,Inc., 1993. 3-22. Mahon, John K., and Romana Danysh. Infantry Part I. Army Lineage Ser. Washington: GPO, 1972. Overy, David H. "The Colonial Wars and the American Revolution." The American Military Tradition. Ed. John M. Carroll and Colin F. Baxter. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources,Inc., 1993. 3-22. United States. Dept. of the Army. Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks - Skill Level 1. Washington: GPO, 1990. Weigley, Russell F. History of the United States Army. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984.

Morality and Politics Essay -- History, Philosophy, Plato, St. Augusti

Morality and politics have always been closely linked; even in present day politics, morality often has a part to play. Morality within politics has always been a controversial and highly debated topic by many leading political thinkers. There have been many key thinkers on the subject; however, Plato and Augustine have both an interesting and highly debated view on the argument of whether politics should be focused on morality. Both Plato and Augustine had differing views on the ideas of politics and the role that morality plays within this. These two political thinkers were around in very different times and this is reflected in their views of morality and politics. Plato was born in 429BC and came from a distinguished Athenian family, heavily involved in Athenian Politics. As a pupil of Socrates it was inevitable that Plato would be influenced by Socrates and inspired to go into politics. At the time that Plato wrote, Greece was beset by instability and Plato’s focus was to stabilise the â€Å"Polis†, meaning ‘city-state’ and mainly involving Athens and Sparta, which results in an interesting view on morality and politics. Augustine was born in 354AD, in a Rome dominated culture, and had strong Christian beliefs, which heavily influenced his views on morality and politics. This essay will examine both Plato’s and St. Augustine’s view of morality and politics, and whether or not politics should be focused on morality, before coming to a reasoned judgement. Both Plato and Augustine examine whether or not politics should be focused on morality, however, their approach to study and the outcome of their thought leads to very different results. The theory behind these two political thinkers is complex and will therefore need to be examin... ...this Augustine attempts to keep morality and politics separate, however, a closer look reveals that Augustine attempts to remain apolitical due to the immorality surrounding politics, this immediately makes politics focused on politics, even if it is the immorality in politics. Politics should, therefore, be focused on morality. Morality has had an important role to play in the explanation and justification of many political events over the years. It is almost impossible to separate politics from morality therefore a focus of politics on morality can only serve to enhance the understanding of various political systems. Politics has been focused on morality from the era that Plato was writing through to Augustine and even in the present day, it was and remains to be important for politics to be focused on morality; therefore politics should be focused on morality.

The Basis for Today’s Weapons of War

During World War Two, many types of technology were being invented and advanced. Most types of technology are often discovered by or at least first utilized by the government and military, and there is no time in which this is more evident then in wartime. All countries want to be the most advanced and have the newest technology that would be even unimaginable to their counterparts. World War Two was in some ways, the beginning of a time filled with much technological advancement. All of the more prominent countries of the free world were involved in advancing these new types of technology. Some countries were the engineers and others were the followers. The United Sates, who remained neural during the first half of the war, were the most prominent engineers of this time of technological advancement. Many new weapons were being used by all of the countries built with technology first developed by the United States. Decoding machines were becoming more prevalent in this War then in any other before. Aviation technology, along with submarines were being advanced. And of the most useful aspects of technology in World War Two, was Nuclear Energy. The advancement of nuclear technology as used in the invention of the Atomic Bomb was the most valuable of all the types of technological advancement in World War Two. The discovery of x-rays in 1895 was the first step toward nuclear energy research. Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays in 1895 when he noticed that some fluorescent material was glowing that he had laying near a covered cathode ray tube (Rhodes, 42). When he put his hand between the tube and the material he could see the glow was a little more dull but still visible. He could also see bones of his hand as a refection on the material. Roentgen realized that whatever the substance was that was making the material glow, was penetrating the black paper cover of the tube and thus creating this reflection. After Roentgen†s discovery of the x-rays, in 1896, Henri Becquerel wondered what the substance was that could make the fluorescent material glow. He conducted some research of his own only to discover radioactivity. However, it was not named radioactivity until later by Marie Curie. Becquerel discovered the first radioactive element of Uranium. Himself, Curie and others went on to discover many other radioactive elements. Radium was discovered by Curie in 1898 and found to emit more heat at one time then any other substance (Walker). Another chemical/physical process was not found that could change the release rate of energy until 1939 when uranium fission was discovered. These discoveries came right in time for WWII. This was the beginning of atomic research by the United States as well as other countries. President Franklin D Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein in August of 1939 informing of German Atomic research and the potential for a bomb. Roosevelt immediately â€Å"†¦ ormed committees to investigate military implications of atomic research (EM)†. In the mean time, the United States, whom was neutral prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 by Japan, entered the war. The United States were now in more of a hurry to research atomic energy. After much more research, the United States decides to start the building of an atomic bomb, before the Germans (Rhodes, 431). This secret project was known as the Manhattan Project with General Leslie Groves in charge. Locations that contained research facilities were Washington, Tennessee, and New Mexico. Much research was also done at many university laboratories that included Columbia, New York and Berkeley, California. Many people, including civilians were hired for this top-secret mission. The employees did not even know what they were working on until the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The site chosen for the center laboratory in November 1942 was in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Robert Oppenheimer was selected as the director of this site (Hoddeson, 6). The goal to be achieved at this site was to create a bomb small enough that could be carried by an airplane but also contain enough nuclear power. The scientists at the Los Alamos site were simply told that they were working on a project that may help end the war. Altogether, 5,000 people worked and lived with their families at Los Alamos. 300,000 people across the states were involved in the project. Many experiments and tests of nuclear energy were performed but never a full-scale test of an actual explosive weapon until July 1945, 18 months after a site was established to do so (Rhodes, 667). This site was to be known as Trinity and it opened in March 1944 in Alamagordo, New Mexico. In July 1945, the first successful test of a nuclear weapon was complete. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Vice President Harry Truman knew nothing about the Manhattan Project and was briefly informed of it the same day that he took over the Presidency. President Truman, who had taken over office only 4 months sooner, made the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Nagasaki, Japan was also bombed on August 9, 1945. The United States had succeeded in being the first in detonating an Atomic Bomb. The time and money that the United States had put into atomic research had paid off. Japan Surrendered and World War Two would soon come to an end. The end of World War Two brought along with it another beginning – The beginning of the Cold War. The years of the Cold War included a great threat in which many countries were at a race for nuclear warheads. The Soviet Union and the United States were the most prominent of these countries. Between the two, they had more than 40,000 nuclear bombs (Drell, 132). This made up 99 percent of all the nuclear explosives in the world. This threat lasted until the Cold War ended in November of 1990. This was done by a pact signed at the United Nations Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (EM). In July 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union also signed their own pact to cut back on nuclear arms by more than 30 percent within a time period of seven years. After the United States dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not only did it bring with it the Cold War, but also the after effects of the nuclear explosions. Although World War two ended in August of 1945, the underlying effects of the atomic bomb have stayed with us, not to mention the immediate effects. The immediate effect of course included the destroyed cities and many casualties. In Hiroshima, the deaths that occurred the same day and were caused by the blast totaled to 45,000. The deaths that occurred 2 days – 4 months afterward came up to 19,000 (Kondo, 4). The numbers of deaths in Nagasaki were slightly less. 22,000 immediate casualties from the initial blast and 2 days – 4 months later there were 17,000 deaths due to the bombing. This is not mentioning the other surviving casualties who suffer from other effects. There was more surviving casualties then deaths caused by the bombings. The most recent data showed there to be 73,884 people dead and 74,909 people injured (Kondo, 4). Of the people that died 2 days to 4 months after the bombing, the causes of death consisted of burns, lesions, and radioactivity and bone marrow injury. Many of the people that did survive lost their homes and their means of survival. All of the survivors in the areas in and around Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered from immense amounts of radiation and radioactive fall-out caused by the bombings. Some died of the initial radiation, but more died of residual radiation. Of the people that died of a bone marrow injury, it was mostly because the leukocyte count was so low. The people did not have enough white blood cells, the cells that fight sickness and infection, to heal themselves (Kondo, 7). People with open wounds, lesions, died of infectious disease. And others suffered from heat caused by the blast and serious burns that could not heal. It is believed that the radiation resulting from the bomb is responsible for many defects that occurred in newborn babies. Atomic energy is a very serious type of technology. It is in no way meant to be taken lightly. This is the one type of technology created by humans that could bring about the destruction of all humankind. While it was very useful in bringing about the end of World War Two, it could just as easily start other wars. Many lives were probably saved by the use of the Atomic Bomb in WWII. Had the war continued, many more people from many countries would have died. It is evident that the bombings created a tremendous amount of grief caused by the pollution and medical effects. Many efforts still exist to this day to treat people suffering from the underlying effects of the bomb and to clean up much of the land and air pollution that was caused by the radiation. Today, there are many other uses of nuclear energy rather than just bombs. There are many nuclear power plants. Efforts are also being made to keep these plants under control and to regulate the amount of waste and pollution produced by them. I hope that we are all aware of the many advantages of nuclear energy and appreciate it but also to know of the many dangers created by nuclear energy as well.

Education Sector Essay

The typical Indian classroom was once characterized by students sitting through hour-long teacher monologues. Now, technology is making life easier for both students and educators. Schools are increasingly adopting digital teaching solutions to engage with a generation of pupils well-versed with the likes of PlayStations and iPads, and trying to make the classroom environment more inclusive and participatory. Take Smartclass from Educomp Solutions, one of the first Indian companies in this space. Smartclass is essentially a digital content library of curriculum-mapped, multimedia-rich, 3D content. It also enables teachers to quickly assess how much of a particular lesson students have been able to assimilate during the class. Once a topic is covered, the teacher gives the class a set of questions on a large screen. Each student then answers via a personal answering device or the smart assessment system. The teacher gets the scores right away and based on that, she repeats parts of the lesson that the students don’t appear to have grasped. â€Å"Technology makes the teaching-learning process very easy and interesting,† says Harish Arora, a chemistry teacher at the Bal Bharti Public School in New Delhi who has been using Smartclass since 2004. â€Å"For instance, [earlier] it would easily take me one full lecture to just draw an electromagnetic cell on the blackboard. Though I could explain the cell structure, there was no way I could have managed to show them how it really functions. This is where technology comes to our aid — now I can show the students a 3D model of the cell and how it functions. Instead of wasting precious time drawing the diagram on the blackboard, I can invest it in building the conceptual clarity of my students. † According to Abhinav Dhar, director for K-12 at Educomp Solutions, more than 12,000 schools across 560 districts in India have adopted Smartclass. More importantly, the number is growing at almost 20 schools a day. On average, in each of these schools eight classrooms are using Smartclass. â€Å"When we launched Smartclass in 2004 as the first-ever digital classroom program, it was an uphill task convincing schools to adopt it,† Dhar notes. â€Å"These schools had not witnessed any change in a century†¦. It is a completely different scenario now. Private schools across India today see [technology] as an imperative. A digital classroom is set to become the bare-minimum teaching accessory in schools, just like a blackboard is today. † Dhar recalls that one major roadblock for Educomp’s proposition in the early days was on the price front. At US$4,000 (at the exchange rate of Rs. 50 to a U. S. dollar) per classroom, schools found the product very expensive. To get over this hurdle, Educomp quickly decided to make the initial investment and gave the schools an option to pay over a period of three to five years. The strategy worked. Enthused by the market response, in January Educomp launched an upgraded version — the Smartclass Class Transformation System — with more features, including simulations, mind maps, worksheets, web links, a diagram maker, graphic organizers and assessment tools. Huge Potential According to the â€Å"Indian Education Sector Outlook — Insights on Schooling Segment,† a report released by New Delhi–based research and consultancy firm Technopak Advisors in May, the total number of schools in India stands at 1. 3 million. Of these, private schools account for 20%. Educomp’s Dhar points out that only around 10% of the private schools have tapped the potential of multimedia classroom teaching whereas in government schools, it has barely made any inroads. â€Å"The current market size for digitized school products in private schools is around US$500 million,† says Enayet Kabir, associate director for education at Technopak. â€Å"This is expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 20% to reach the over US$2 billion mark by 2020. However, the market potential then might get as big as US$4 billion [i. e.if the total population of private schools that could adopt multimedia actually adopt it. ] Apart from this, the current market size for ICT [information and communications technology] in government schools is US$750 million. We expect this to grow five times by 2020 due to the current low level of penetration in government schools. † Kabir lists Educomp Solutions, Everonn Education, NIIT, Core Education & Technologies, IL&FS and Compucom as dominant players in this sector. New entrants include HCL Infosystems, Learn Next, Tata Interactive Systems, Mexus Education, S.Chand Harcourt (India) and iDiscoveri Education. Except for S. Chand Harcourt, which is a joint venture between S. Chand and US-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, all the others are Indian firms. A recent trend is that schools in tier two and tier three cities are increasingly adopting the latest technology. Rajesh Shethia, head of sales and marketing at Tata Interactive Systems, which launched Tata ClassEdge in early 2011 and has partnered up with more than 900 schools, says that â€Å"more than half of the demand for digital classrooms is from tier two and tier three cities. † According to Shethia, schools in these smaller cities realize that it is difficult for their students to get as much exposure as students from tier one cities. â€Å"[So] they proactively subscribe to solutions such as ours, which richly benefit both teachers and students by simplifying the syllabus†¦. Even parents want the best for their wards and are not averse to paying a little extra. They see value in these initiatives by schools to modernize the way teaching is imparted today. † Making some back-of-the-envelope calculations Shethia adds: â€Å"If we consider the top 100,000 private schools in India as the captive market, the potential is approximately two million classrooms of which currently just about 80,000 have been digitized. † Srikanth B. Iyer, COO of Pearson Education Services, also sees tremendous potential in the smaller cities. Pearson provides end-to-end education solutions in the K-12 segment. Its multimedia tool, DigitALly, has been adopted in more than 3,000 private schools across India since 2004. â€Å"DigitALly installations have been growing at three times the market for the past two years,† Iyer says. â€Å"Currently, more than 60% of our customers are from tier two and tier three towns, such as Barpeta (in the state of Assam), Sohagpur (in Madhya Pradesh) and Balia (in Uttar Pradesh). † In order to make its offering attractive to the schools, Pearson has devised a monthly payment model under which a school pays around US$2 per student per month. â€Å"As the price point is affordable, schools across all locations and fee structures find it viable to opt for our solution,† Iyer notes. â€Å"We focus on tier two and tier three towns and cities where penetration is relatively low and desire for adoption of technology is high. † HCL’s Digischool program, which launched about 18 months ago, has also made a strong beginning, with a client base of more than 2,500 schools. Partnering with State Governments Meanwhile, state governments are also giving a boost to the adoption of technology in schools. Edureach, a divison of Educomp, has partnered with 16 state governments and more than 30 education departments and boards in the country, covering over 36,000 government schools and reaching out to more than 10. 60 million students. â€Å"Edureach leads the market with 27% of the total schools where ICT projects have been implemented,† says Soumya Kanti, president of Edureach. â€Å"We are looking [to add] 3,000 more schools this fiscal year and 20,000 to 25,000 additional schools in the next five years. † As of now, Edureach has created digital learning content in more than 14 regional languages for these projects. In the northern state of Haryana, CORE Education and Technologies is implementing a US$59 million ICT project that aims to benefit 5 million students across 2,622 schools. Five of these schools will be developed as â€Å"Smart† schools. CORE is also implementing ICT projects in the states of Gujarat, Meghalaya, Punjab, Maharashtra and Nagaland. The scope of work in these projects ranges from implementation of computer-aided learning in schools, installing bio-metric devices to monitor attendance of teachers, and setting up computer hardware, software and other allied accessories and equipments. â€Å"The task has not been an easy one,† admits Anshul Sonak, president of CORE. â€Å"There are several logistical issues. Delivery of equipment to rural areas is a big challenge in itself†¦. There is lack of basic infrastructure — either there are no classrooms or there are ones with no windows†¦. Some schools don’t even have toilets. Moreover, the power availability in these areas is often poor and we have had to deploy generator sets in many schools. † But despite the challenges, educationists are optimistic. Rahul De, professor of quantitative methods and information systems area at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (IIM-B) believes that â€Å"ICT can have a huge impact on our education system. † He points out that ICT can result in increasing the reach [of education] and in keeping the costs low. â€Å"With increasing penetration of mobile phones and Internet kiosks, the potential is indeed immense,† he adds. A study conducted by De in 2009 on the economic impact of free and open source software (FOSS) in India found that it resulted in significant cost savings. â€Å"FOSS can play a huge role in education,† De notes. â€Å"In the state of Kerala, it has already had a huge impact in both saving costs and providing state-of-the-art access computing to students in government schools. FOSS has a huge number of packages for school students, many of which can be ported to local languages and used in schools. It is also helping disabled students in a big way, by enabling them to access digital resources using audio-visual aids. † Edureach’s Kanti adds that a study by the Centre for Multi-Disciplinary Development Research in Dharwad in Karnataka in 2006 revealed significant improvement in student enrolment and attendance, as well as a reduction of student dropouts due to ICT interventions. â€Å"Yet another study conducted by the Xavier Institute of Management in Bhubaneswar in 2007 revealed that computer-aided education has improved the performance of children in subjects such as English, mathematics and science, which are taught through computers using multimedia-based educational content. † All in a Tab In line with this increasing interest in technology for school education, there has been a rush of education-focused tablet computers in the market. The most high-profile of these has been Aakash, which was launched by Kapil Sibal, union minister for human resource development, in October 2011. The Aakash project is part of the ministry’s National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NME-ICT). It aims to eliminate digital illiteracy by distributing the Aakash tablets to students across India at subsidized rates. While the project itself has become mired in delays and controversy, it has generated a lot of awareness and interest among students around the educational tablet. Meanwhile, DataWind, the Canada-based firm that partnered with the union government for the Aakash project, has also launched UbiSlate7, the commercial version of Aakash. â€Å"The opportunity for low-cost tablets in India is huge. In the next two years, it will exceed the size of the computer market in India i. e. 10 million units per year,† says Suneet Singh Tuli, president and CEO of DataWind. In April, technology firm HCL Infosystems launched the MyEdu Tab, which is priced at around US$230 for the K-12 version. The device comes preloaded with educational applications and also books from the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a government organization. Anand Ekambaram, senior vice-president and head of learning at HCL Infosystems, is in the process of partnering with more than 30 educational institutes across India for MyEdu Tab. â€Å"MyEdu Tab has content offline and can be accessed over the cloud. It allows students to learn at their own pace,† Ekambaram notes. â€Å"With a topic revision application and a self-assessment engine, students can evaluate their skills and knowledge on their own. Teachers can upload content, which can be accessed by students and parents for tasks such as homework and progress reports on their respective devices. The parent can monitor the progress of his or her child through the cloud-based ecosystem. † Earlier this year, Micromax, a leading Indian handset manufacturer, also launched an edutainment device called Funbook. Micromax has also partnered with Pearson and Everonn to make available relevant content for students. Susha John, director and CEO at Everonn, was upbeat at the launch. â€Å"Digital learning facilitated through tablets will revolutionize the educational space,† John said. â€Å"Everonn has invested in developing content and services targeted toward tablet audiences. To start with, we will offer our school curriculum-learning modules †¦ and at home live tuition products on the Funbook. Students can now have access to good teachers, educational content and a great learning experience anytime, anywhere. † At Pearson, Max Gabriel, senior vice-president and chief technology officer, is â€Å"focusing on K-12 content in English to begin with. We are sitting on a huge repository of existing content. Adding the right level of interactivity and richer experience will be our priority. † Meanwhile, Educomp is gearing up to launch content that is device agnostic and can be run on any tablet. But even as schools in India are going through this transformation powered by technology, one key question is how big a role technology will play in the education sector. In an earlier interview with India Knowledge@Wharton, S. Sadagopan, founder-director at the International Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore, pointed out that there are four parts to learning — lectures, library, laboratory and life — noting that, â€Å"Technology plays a critical role in all these. † Kabir of Technopak adds another perspective. â€Å"Despite numerous studies on the impact of ICT in education, the outcomes remain difficult to measure and open to much debate. It needs to be understood that technology is only an enabler and a force multiplier and cannot be treated as a panacea. We believe that impressive gains in teaching-learning outcomes are possible only through an integrated approach rather than a piecemeal intervention. † Don Huesman, managing director of Wharton’s innovation group, recommends caution in considering potential investments in educational technologies. â€Å"These are very exciting times for online and distance education technologies, but there are risks facing parents, educators and policy makers in evaluating the opportunities these new technologies, and their proponents, represent. † Huesman points to the recent growth in high-quality, free, online educational courseware offered on websites like the Khan Academy and the Math Forum, as well as the work of the Open Learning Initiative in developing intelligent cognitive tutors and learning analytics. â€Å"But such technologies, available from a global network of resources, only provide value when understood, chosen and integrated into a local educational community,† he says. As an illustration, Huesman offers the example of cyber kiosks, provided in recent years by foundations at no cost to rural communities in India, exacerbating the â€Å"gender divide† in many traditional communities in which young women congregating at public cyber cafes, also frequented by young men, would be considered taboo. â€Å"Interventions by governments and NGOs must be inclusive of local community concerns and aware of local political complications,† Huesman notes. Globalization: Impact on Education by Satish Tandon, September 2005 The principal objective of education has been the development of the whole individual. The minimum level of education that was necessary to achieve this goal in the agrarian society was basic or primary and in the industrial age, secondary. In the present borderless information society, education needs to be able to respond to additional demands of a rapidly globalizing world by raising awareness of environment, peace, cultural and social diversity, increased competitiveness, and the concept of a global village. Such education is to a knowledge or information society what secondary education was to an industrial economy. Education prepares the individual to connect – and live in harmony – with the environment around him. Globalization has changed the size, nature and quality of that environment. The challenge for higher education, therefore, is to reform, create and develop systems that prepare the individual to work in a borderless economy and live in a global society. In other words, our educational institutions need to produce global citizens. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed liberal democracies to claim victory for the capitalist system and contributed to increasing the pace of globalization that was already under way. As globalization gained momentum, market substituted political ideology as the dominant force guiding national and global policies. What followed next, therefore, does not seem so illogical. National governments everywhere – partly in deference to the ascendancy of the market and partly in response to pressure from the private sector to expand their sphere of activities – began to relinquish control over the delivery of social goods. Everything began to be viewed as a commodity that could be produced and delivered by the private sector in line with market forces and according to the principles of supply and demand. One by one – water, electricity, postal services, health, and now education, have been turned into a commodity. The withdrawal of state from higher education has also been helped by economists, who have had an overly simple way of assessing the return on investments in higher education. The basic problem is that they have measured the return on education exclusively through wage differentials. With reference to someone who has no education, someone who has been to primary school, someone who has completed secondary school, and someone with a university degree, one can ask how much more each earns than the previous. These differences are then compared to the incremental amounts invested in their education to find the return. The results generally suggest that higher education yields a lower return than primary or secondary education – and they have been used to justify the skewing of government budgets and development funds away from higher education institutions. The rate of return calculations are flawed because they do not take account of the full range of benefits to those who receive higher education. For example, higher education can enhance health, openness, peace, and social development, and at the same time reduce disease, bigotry and blind nationalism – so the private benefits to the individual and to society are not just the direct labour productivity benefits, as the rate of return analysis suggests. Higher education confers benefits above and beyond enhancing the incomes of those who receive it. And many of these benefits take the form of public goods, such as the contribution of higher education to enterprise, leadership, governance, culture, and participatory democracy, and its potential for lifting the disadvantaged out of poverty. These are all vital building blocks for stronger economies and societies and all routes by which the benefit of investment in higher education multiplies throughout society. Liberal democracies have traditionally operated on the principle of separation of activities in the social sphere just as they have on the principle of separation of powers in the political sphere. The private sector had been given a relatively free hand in the production and delivery of economic goods while the state concentrated on the provision of healthcare, education and other infrastructure goods, also known as public goods. Globalization has changed all that. The rapid expansion of the influence of the private sector at the global level necessitated a corresponding expansion in their sphere of activities by diversifying into the production and delivery of public goods that had always been within the purview of the state. The takeover was swift and remarkable in the sense that the effort did not meet much resistance. One of the major consequences of the globalization of education has been commodification and the corporatization of institutions of higher learning. It is said that the for-profit education market in the United States is worth more than $500 billion in revenue for the involved corporates. More than one thousand state schools have been handed over to corporations to be run as businesses. But there is a fundamental problem with the way business models have been applied to the delivery of education and other public goods. Unthinking adoption of the private sector model prevents the development of a meaningful approach to management in the public services in general or to the social services in particular based on their distinctive purposes, conditions and objectives. There is another, more serious, problem with corporatization of education. Corporations operate on the principles of cost reduction and profit maximization. These require introducing standardization and the packaging of product in compact, measurable, byte-like, configuration. Applied to education, these approaches would possibly negate its basic fabric and purpose. Education has always encouraged and represents openness, inquiry, diversity, research and limitless learning. Corporatization of education would make it elitist – the one provided by corporations for the masses and the poor who cannot afford going to the traditional institutions of learning, and the other for the rich and the affluent. The delivery of public goods and services is and should remain the primary responsibility of the state. Representative government may not be the ideal or perfect arrangement for governance but it represents the best that is available, and certainly more desirable than the private sector management of public services such as education. If the state relinquishes its control over education and education policy, we run the risk of diminishing it to the status of a packaged for-profit product which it is not. Openness, diversity, scholarship, research and disinterested learning will be its biggest victims.