The world economy is in turmoil. Supermarkets are no different, as we Essay - 1

The world economy is in turmoil. Supermarkets are no different, as we discovered during the year - Essay Example The performance of supermarkets within the global financial crisis is the main issue addressed in this study. The examination of the relevant data has led to the assumption that not all firms operating in the supermarket sector had been adversely affected by the world recession; in fact, where appropriate strategic plans have been applied the performance of supermarkets has been increased. In any case, the financial crisis worldwide has created a strong turmoil the end of which cannot be identified – at least for the moment. Under these conditions, the performance of supermarkets worldwide has been declined – even if exceptions of good performance have been also noted in the international market. In Britain, the firms operating in the supermarket sector have suffered severe losses – also in this country there have been supermarkets that managed to handle the crisis and increase their performance, like in the case of Simsbury’s. In this paper, the effects o f the world recession on the supermarket sector are analyzed by referring to a specific firm: Waitrose. The specific firm failed in identifying and handling the risks related with the global recession and the changes in the customer preferences. This failure led to the limitation of the firm’s profits without signs for a fast recovery. The response of the specific firm to the challenges of the world recession has been proved inadequate – if taking into consideration the strategic plans used by its competitors. The examination of the British market – and especially of the supermarket sector – leads to an interesting findings: not all supermarkets in Britain have suffered loss of their profits because of the global financial crisis; the limitation of profitability of the firms operating in this sector has been rather the result of poor strategic management. The above assumption is verified using the principle of Breakeven; the use of this principle for

Process and Content Theories of Motivation Essay Example for Free

Process and Content Theories of Motivation Essay There are several process theories of motivation: The Vroom Expectancy Theory, the Adams’ Equity Theory, the Needs-Goal-Setting Theory, and the Reinforcement Theory of Motivation. Here our centre of attention is on helping you make a clear-cut distinction between process and content. Basically, process theories of motivation focus on how workers needs influence their own behaviour. Here our attention goes beyond motivation, our focal point is on giving you a key conceptual tool to help you manage both the performance of your direct reports (management) and the performance of your entire organization (leadership). â€Å"Process† is how employees work together, as opposed to the what – the â€Å"content,† the task, the issue – they are working on. An example of â€Å"process† is the way in which people interact with each other during a meeting; on the contrary, an example of â€Å"content† is the decision they make in that meeting. Process is hiring (the hiring processes that a company practices); content is the selected candidate that becomes the new employee. Process is the nature in which day-to-day performance conversations take place between the manager and her direct reports; content is what gets talked about, agreed upon, and actually understood. Process is the way in which people interact with each other in order to solve a problem; content is the actual solution to the problem. Most executives have the unconscious tendency to focus on content – which is great, that’s what they get paid for – but unfortunately most executives also have the unconscious tendency to forget about the process they are using. However, the quality of the â€Å"process† that is used (the type of meeting that is used to make a decision for example), has an impact on the quality of the resulting â€Å"content† (if the meeting is poorly designed, the quality of the resulting decision is likely to be poorer, but if the meeting is well designed, the quality of the resulting decision is likely to be better). Again, the better the process used, the better the resulting content, and vice versa: The poorer the process used, the poorer the resulting content. Do the people in your company hate meetings because they spend too much time in them? The problem is not in the meetings themselves, but in the way your company runs those meetings. Does your company have several low performers? The problem is not in those poor people who perform below standards, but in your company’s management practices. Is your company lagging behind its competition? The problem is not in those high performing organizations, but in the leadership skills of your company’s leaders. The process by which a company is led and managed determines its long-term success.heori of Motivation A great company is successful in the long run not because of its great products or services, but because of the nature of its leadership and management processes. You can have the greatest product or service, but if you don’t have the appropriate management and leadership processes, your company won’t get too far. It’s that simple. The next time something doesn’t go as you wanted it to go, stop for a second, step back, get your focus off the content, and take a closer look at the process you are using. How can you improve the process that you are using?

For People Knowledge Is Power Philosophy Essay

For People Knowledge Is Power Philosophy Essay For people, knowledge is power . Knowledge is the awareness of a situation or a fact. It is a unique possession that cannot be plundered. Therefore those who have wide-range of knowledge can capture power and influence. Knowledge gave the man the feeling of strength and power. Knowledge are desirable for democracy, therefore each president for their each country should have masses of knowledge. However , it is important to see that knowledge in form of power or authority is use to provide benefit for human welfare and for constructive purposes. Like president for a country, he should use knowledge for the benefit of his people not to take advantage from the position or knowledge he has. Example such as President Johnson and President Nixon that lied to the American people about the war in Vietnam that they already know that the war most likely could not be won and if the war continue it can lead to many casualties to the people yet they still continue the war. But there is a person w ith the authority and knowledge about the incident which is Daniel Ellsberg. He turned over the Pentagon Papers that consist of government knowledge about the war to the New York Times so that the people of America and even the Congress can know the truth. His reasoning is because he has the change of heart about the war and decide to act for his people. As we can see, Daniel has take an ethical obligation to expose the truth to the people because he has the knowledge and an ethical responsibility for his people. The truth should not be hide to public because it will alter the perception and emotion of the people once the truth leak. Therefore, it shows that Daniel used his knowledge as a rational to justify the moral action he has to take. However, by having knowledge and carry the ethical responsibility could carry some consequences for the person. The ethical responsibility may consists about the decision that a person must take, the sense of right and wrong course of action and being each persons moral values included. Anyone that possessed a certain kind of knowledge is forced to accept the consequences of their action whether to reveal the information or knowledge they had or to hide it because to reveal the information could challenge the person that carry the knowledge can potentially harming the witnesses . So, being affected by the emotion, afraid and as reasoning to protect them self , they will choose to hide the knowledge instead of reveal it. So, it will affect the perception of the individual about his or her action. The most convincing example is a murder scene. You as a witness of a murder case but you are too afraid to reveal the truth about the person or they because you afraid they holding grudge on you and will find you or hurt you and you close relative. It is a common perception of the society how they will react to this kind of incident. In addition, emotion that co-exist with human feeling could alter the perception of the person with knowledge to carry the ethical responsibility. The emotion that exist can constrain the person with knowledge of an unjust situation because they have the feeling of sympathy and empathy towards the person who involve in the unjust situation. The unjust situation is in context when your family or your close relative involve with the incidence . Therefore the emotion will cause the person to obliged to act the ethical responsibility because they do not one someone precious to them be punished of confine due to their action. The nearest example for these situation is when your family member involve in murder cases deliberately. Your brother and his friends unintentionally killed his friend during a prank joke and they try to cover up the incident, hide the body and pretend nothing happen. You are the witnesses but you afraid to act the ethical responsibility to tell the incident to polic e because you do not want your brother to be caught by police and jailed as he is your family. Due to your emotion and feeling of love towards your brother, it obliged you and constraint your from telling the knowledge to other people. So, based on solely concern about your family and your judgement about the punishment of the crime, you choose not to act. So even though possession of knowledge carry the ethical responsibility but emotion that exist able and can change or alter the perception of the person with knowledge about the ethical responsibility they should carry. As conclusion, possession of knowledge carry an ethical responsibility but only to some extent as there is certain limitation that may arise . To carry out ethical responsibility is fully dependent on the person with the knowledge because the decision is making depend solely for the person to make. The existence of emotion, feeling, moral judgement and even personal perception may affect the decision making of the person. Therefore, the statement possession of knowledge carry an ethical responsibility but only to some extant. http://www.publishyourarticles.net/knowledge-hub/essay/an-essay-on-knowledge-is-power.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

The Human Diversity In A Counselling Environment Sociology Essay

The Human Diversity In A Counselling Environment Sociology Essay In todays society the concept of both identity and human diversity have become both an integral and important aspect of peoples daily lives. In the case of a counsellors role, where a mutually trusting therapeutic environment is conducive to the success of any outcomes of therapy, it has become paramount for todays professional counsellor to acknowledge and address these issues when entering into any therapeutic relationship with clients. With global migration easily available to many individuals, the World has become a profoundly multicultural, multiethnic and multinational place, with many millions of people moving to live within new cultures. As a result it is estimated that one in every 35 people is such an international immigrant. (Lago, 2011) Such a change in the demographics of potential clients for any counsellor/psychotherapist today has resulted in a high probability that they will come in to contact with individuals of differing race, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs,  political beliefs or other ideologies. The issues regarding identity is invariably complex and can be continually changing (Kettle, 2004) and needs to be successfully navigated by the counsellor to ensure a mutually respectful relationship is created between them and the client in order for any therapeutically beneficial outcome to be achieved. If these identity issues are not addressed the effect could be very harmful and detrimental to any potential relationship due to the dynamics of power and control between the client and counsellor (McKenzie, 1986; Lago, 2011). This essay will describe the key issues of what it is that gives us our identity and what it means to be diverse. A simple definition for diversity can be given as being very different (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2012). It can however, be argued that it is much more than that. It is having an understanding that each individual person is unique and recognising those individual differences. For a counsellor and their client it is the exploration  of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment.  It is about understanding each other and moving beyond  simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the  rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual and discovering how they may affect both the counsellor and client in developing a healthy working relationship. The advent of Rogers third force of psychotherapy, the client centred approach in the 1960s, introduced the idea that the client should be both the focus and at the very centre of the therapeutic session (Rogers, 1957). This soon led to the concept that an acceptance of a clients identity and culture is paramount to these aims being met. The term the culturally encapsulated counsellor was introduced by Wrenn (1962) to critique a universalistic approach to counselling which soon came to be known as multicultural counselling, which today is regarded by many therapists as the fourth force in psychotherapy/counselling. Multicultural counselling is what takes place when a counsellor and their client are from differing cultural groups. Cultural identity itself however is not simply defined by the colour of a persons skin or the geographical location or even their ethnicity, it can encompass a multitude of factors. Gender, religious beliefs, social economic status, sexual orientation are all identity factors that a culturally encapsulated counsellor needs to be aware of, not only from the clients perspective but also to have a good self awareness of their own cultural identity. (Middleton, et al., 2011) The issue of race and ethnic identity comprises of several factors which include an understanding of more than just what it is to black or white. A sense of identification with what whiteness means as compared to being part of a racial/ethnic minority group, including the importance of the difference between race and culture itself is critical to becoming an effect multicultural counsellor. It is vital that counsellors do not assume, for example, that all blacks or all Asians have similar cultural backgrounds. There are various ethnic identifications that exist within each of these racial groups such as language, religion, or gender roles and whilst it is true many of these ethnic groups share the physical characteristics of race, they may not necessarily share the same value and belief  structures (Katz, 1985). Some examples of these ethnic identifications can be seen in the cultural value system of many black Africans, where a great value is placed on the concept of family, especially their  children, who are seen as a  gift from  God. There is a great emphasis on their sense of community and their place in it. Personal wellbeing becomes secondary to that of social conflict resolution, which is seen as more important, to ensure peace and equilibrium within the community. Another example can be seen within the Chinese cultural environment, where passivity rather than assertiveness is revered. Quiescence rather than verbal articulation is seen as a sign of wisdom and there is the role of the all-knowing father that the Chinese respect for authority bestows on them (Ching and Prosen, 1980). The fact that traditional counselling therapies have been developed upon the research with predominantly middle classed white men indicates a propensity towards gender bias within the profession. It has even been reported that some professional counsellors have evaluated female clients as less competent than male clients (Balkin, Schlosser and Levitt, 2009). Aspects of gender can be also affected by religious attitudes from both the counsellor and client, either of which may have more traditional beliefs about specific gender roles and behaviour. There are also certain individuals or groups who adhere to religious fundamentalism which should be taken into consideration, which places women in the more traditional roles other than those chosen by more modern contemporary women. These fundamentalists have been seen to exhibit strong sexist behaviour in regards to issues of gender (Balkin, Schlosser and Levitt, 2009). It is clear that religious identity has been shown play a pivotal role for both the client and the counsellor within the therapeutic process. It is suggested that highly religious people have a tendency to believe they have stronger moral attributes than those of non-religious people (Hunter, 2001 cited in Balkin, Schlosser and Levitt, 2009, p.420). In the case of a highly religious counsellor, such a bias could cause complications within the counselling environment in regards to issues such as homophobia, gender bias and racism. It could be argued that when faced with issues such as homosexuality, which is regarded as a sin in many conservative religions, it could give rise to problems with dealing with clients who fall into the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender group for the highly religious counsellor (Balkin, Schlosser and Levitt, 2009). A persons gender/sexual orientation could be argued as being one of the more complex identity issues, with its anonymity and invisibility being a large factor that can create problems for both counsellor and client. Despite a growing public awareness of gender identity with the acceptance of trans-identified celebrities on popular television such as Graham Norton and Gok Wan, there can be a certain amount of confusion for the counsellor when working with transgender clients as the distinction between gender and sexuality is prone to being misunderstood. (Hawley, 2011) Sexual orientation generally refers to a persons sexual object choice, as in whether we choose to have sex with male or with females. As a result the options are to be straight (heterosexual), gay (homosexual) or bisexual. For most people the determination of sexuality is dependent on the gender of the individuals, i.e.: male/female, male/male, and female/female. However for some this is more complex for what if your gender was unknown to you? For some, this issue goes beyond the physical sexuality of their bodies; it is subject to behaviours, social acceptance and/or belonging to specific groups to which their allocated sex consigns them. (Hawley, 2011) For the counsellor, it is important to be aware of the multiple possibilities that fall within gender/sexuality identification. Pre-judgement and bias is an all too easy mistake for the inexperienced counsellor to make about sexuality, with the arrival of a cross dressing client. Similarly the client themselves may be feeling terrified and in a state of bewilderment as to their own feelings, in such instances a open minded and understanding therapist would be considered a lifeline. (Hawley, 2011) In an effort to address the diversity of clients in the counselling environment, a number of models have been introduced to the counselling professional in an effort to provide adequate training in the areas of race, culture, ethnicity and other areas of diversity as key variables in understanding the representations of psychological distress in clients (Moodley, 2005). Sue, Arredondo and McDavis (1992) states that counsellors who practice without adequate training or competence when working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds are prone to practicing unethically and with potentially harmful actions, which borders on a violation of human rights. Sue and Sue (1990) identified three areas in which a culturally skilled counsellor could become proficient in multiculturalism. The first is the process of becoming aware of their own assumptions about human behaviour, values, biases, preconceived notions and personal limitations. Secondly, is the attempt to understand and share the worldview of their culturally different client with respect and appreciation and without imposing any negative judgments. Thirdly and finally, a culturally skilled counsellor is someone who actively develops and puts into practice appropriate, relevant and sensitive intervention strategies utilising skills when working with their diverse clients. However, since the publication and formal adoption by the American Counselling Association of the Sue, et al. (1982) multicultural counselling competencies (MCC) model, some researchers have noted that little empirical research has been carried out to evaluate the model itself (Chao, 2012). Patterson (1996) states that multicultural counselling is generic in nature and as such all counselling is multicultural. It is not hard to accept the uniqueness of each individual client when you consider the infinite number of combinations and permutations of identify. As such to try and develop a different counselling technique for each one would be an insurmountable task. There appears to be an emphasis on the difference in values between diverse cultures, but it should be acknowledged that so many of these different values are actually customs, lifestyles, habits, social norms and as such common to many different groups and even considered to be universally accepted values (Patterson, 1996). The success of the exsisiting models within counselling/psychotherapy should not be so easily abandoned in an attempt to become more culturally diverse. Any compromise of the westernised therapeutic psychological models should be limited as has been suggested through the intervention of a more multicultural approach when working with ethincally diverse clients, for diluting the process would surely lead to a less effective service being provided (Patterson, 1996) Sue Sue (1990) acknowledged that the core conditions such as unconditional positive regard, respect and accpetance of the individual, an empathic relationship of understanding the clients problem from their own perspective and allowing the client to explore their own core values and reach their own solutions are counselling qualities that may trancend culture. Rogers (1957) claimed that there are five basic qualities that all counsellors need to become an effective counsellor and as such create an effective therapeutic relationship. The nature of this relationship has been well established within the counselling environment and is the same, regardless of whatever cultural, ethnic, gender or social group a client belongs to. Having respect for clients, trusting them to make the right decisions, take responsibility for themselves. Genuiness, where the counsellor acts like a real person, not coming across as the all knowing expert or using a battery of techniques on the client. Empathic understanding for a client is more than simply having the knowledge of the group to which they belong. It is being able to use this knowledge to enter the clients world by invitation through self disclosure by the client, which is related to the degree of respect and genuiness displayed towards the client. (Rogers, 1957; Patterson, 1996) It is essential that communication of these qualities is perceived and felt by the client during the threapeutic process in order for them to be effective. The understanding of cultural differences in both verbal and non-verbal behaviours can overcome some of the difficulties encountered when dealing with culturally diverse clients. It can also be said that these qualities are not only essential for an effective counselling environment but also facilitate all interpersonal relationships. Being neither time-bound or culture-bound thay can encompass all issues of identity within the counselling environment. (Patterson, 1996)

Mapping the Future Essay -- Cartography Technology Computers Essays

Mapping the Future Technology and computers have revolutionized many of the aspects of our lives. Many professions and businesses have used technology to their advantage and completely changed industries. One profession that has drastically changed because of computers and technology is cartography or mapmaking. The impact of technology on geographic information and mapmaking has led to new techniques and skills for these now computer-based jobs and careers. New technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) have emerged in mapmaking. There are also new Internet-based map services including MapQuest and MapBlast as well as other digital maps. Before analyzing the effects that technology has on mapmaking, it is important to understand some of the history of maps. Hundreds of years ago, maps were drawn by hand and much of the work had to be done manually. In ancient Greece , philosophers came up with the idea of â€Å"geography† and that was where the foundations of maps were created. Information about geography is very crucial in designing a map and at this time methods of mapmaking were very primitive. Over a thousand years ago, China navigated its surrounding waters and was able to create the most accurate maps at the time (Knox 12). Exploration was on the rise in the 1500s because of Europeans’ discovery of America and maps were needed by these empires. In the next few centuries, mapmaking became more accurate because of the ever-expanding knowledge of information about geography. As the methods of mapmaking improved during the years prior to the 20th century, advancements were made in cartography in terms of measurem... ...duced and more common because the ability to produce them has become easier. Computers and technology have definitely had significant, positive effects on mapmaking and cartography. Works Cited Knox, P. L. & Marston, S. A. Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography. Upper Saddle River , NJ : Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. Chrisman, Nicholas Exploring Geographic Information Systems. New York , NY : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002 Hafner, Katie. Adventures in Driving, Via Web Map. The New York Times. C-1 Jan. 16, 2003 . Davis, Bruce GIS: A Visual Approach. Florence , KY : Onword Press, 2001. DiBiase, David. â€Å"Understanding Geographic Data.† ESRI Virtual Campus Retrieved: 10 Apr 2003 . Kaplan, Elliott. Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications. Norwood , MA : Artech House, 1996. Mapping the Future Essay -- Cartography Technology Computers Essays Mapping the Future Technology and computers have revolutionized many of the aspects of our lives. Many professions and businesses have used technology to their advantage and completely changed industries. One profession that has drastically changed because of computers and technology is cartography or mapmaking. The impact of technology on geographic information and mapmaking has led to new techniques and skills for these now computer-based jobs and careers. New technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) have emerged in mapmaking. There are also new Internet-based map services including MapQuest and MapBlast as well as other digital maps. Before analyzing the effects that technology has on mapmaking, it is important to understand some of the history of maps. Hundreds of years ago, maps were drawn by hand and much of the work had to be done manually. In ancient Greece , philosophers came up with the idea of â€Å"geography† and that was where the foundations of maps were created. Information about geography is very crucial in designing a map and at this time methods of mapmaking were very primitive. Over a thousand years ago, China navigated its surrounding waters and was able to create the most accurate maps at the time (Knox 12). Exploration was on the rise in the 1500s because of Europeans’ discovery of America and maps were needed by these empires. In the next few centuries, mapmaking became more accurate because of the ever-expanding knowledge of information about geography. As the methods of mapmaking improved during the years prior to the 20th century, advancements were made in cartography in terms of measurem... ...duced and more common because the ability to produce them has become easier. Computers and technology have definitely had significant, positive effects on mapmaking and cartography. Works Cited Knox, P. L. & Marston, S. A. Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography. Upper Saddle River , NJ : Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. Chrisman, Nicholas Exploring Geographic Information Systems. New York , NY : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002 Hafner, Katie. Adventures in Driving, Via Web Map. The New York Times. C-1 Jan. 16, 2003 . Davis, Bruce GIS: A Visual Approach. Florence , KY : Onword Press, 2001. DiBiase, David. â€Å"Understanding Geographic Data.† ESRI Virtual Campus Retrieved: 10 Apr 2003 . Kaplan, Elliott. Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications. Norwood , MA : Artech House, 1996.

Ships Main Engine Lube Oil System :: essays research papers

Ship's Main Engine Lube Oil System Cleanliness of the lube oil is very vital in the Main Diesel Engine Lube Oil System. A strainer is a device that is usually made up of a single layer of course gauze, and a very course wire mesh. This setup is used to filter out large objects that could cause blockage or damage to the lube oil system. A filter is used to filter out much smaller particals. The filtering elements in a lube oil filter has a more complex make-up. Aboard our ship, we have self cleaning lube oil filters along with the standard lube oil filters. The size of the cartridges in these filters usually range from 3-12 mm. Our ship has two full flow filters per engine. The plates inside of a strainer corrode and erode very easily. Special attention must be given to these plates when cleaning them. Make sure that a gap has not formed at the end of the plate. If there is a gap, rags and other particles may pass right by. If in doubt of the condition of the plate, it should be renewed. The cost of a single plate is much cheaper than the cost of cleaning out an entire clogged system. All gasket surfaces must be checked closely to ensure a proper seal. Our ship has a high pressure lube oil system. Because of this, basket type strainers are used. Lube oil systems are equipped with a wide variety of strainers. It is important to operate these strainers at all times to prevent clogging. Aboard our ship, we have Hayward Plug-type Duplex Basket Strainers. All of these types of strainers are one way. The liquid to be strained enters to the top and filters through the bottom. Both strainers and filters clean lube oil using a similar process.

College Pressure

â€Å"What's wrong with the students of today? Back when I was a student we had a better attitude! † Criticisms like this are often heard from parents and teachers, in the newspapers and other media? And it's been that way ever since education began. No matter what society or era you consider, there are always plenty of wise authorities pointing out that â€Å"The students of today† are somehow failing to grasp the true meaning of university education. Or maybe it's the other way around: Are universities failing to grasp the true meaning of students? This text examines different aspects of this question and discusses the many pressures that modern students face. College  Pressures William Zinsser I am master of Branford College at Yale. I live on the campus and know the students well. (We have 485 of them. ) I listen to their hopes and fears — and also to their stereo music and their piercing cries in the dead of night (â€Å"Does anybody care? â€Å"). They come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives. Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don't want to hear such news. They want a map — right now — that they can follow directly to career security, financial security, social security and, presumably, a prepaid grave. What I wish for all students is some release from the grim grip of the future. I wish them a chance to enjoy each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a tiresome requirement in preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as educational as victory and is not the end of the world. My wish, of course, is naive. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, worshipped in our media — the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive — and glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old. I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It's easy to look around for bad guys — to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no bad guys, only victims. Today it is not unusual for a student, even one who works part time at college and full time during the summer, to have accumulated $5,000 in loans after four years — loans that the student must start to repay within one year after graduation (and incidentally, not all these loans are low-interest, as many non-students believe). Encouraged at the commencement ceremony to go forth into the world, students are already behind as they go forth. How can they not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? Women at Yale are under even more pressure than men to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society hasn't yet caught up with this fact. Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined. I see students taking premedical courses with joyless determination. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people. â€Å"Do you want to go to medical school? † I ask them. â€Å"I guess so,† they say, without conviction, or, â€Å"Not really. †    â€Å"Then why are you going? † â€Å"My parents want me to be a doctor. They're paying all this money and †¦ †   Ã‚   Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin from the very start of freshman year. I had a freshman student I'll call Linda,† one instructor told me, â€Å"who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn't tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda. † The story is almost funny — except that it's not . It's a symptom of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they could sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the rattling of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: â€Å"Will I get everything done? †   Ã‚  Ã‚   Probably they won't. They will get sick. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out. I've painted too grim a portrait of today's students, making them seem too solemn. That's only half of their story; the other half is that these students are nice people, and easy to like. They're quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They're more considerate of one another than any student generation I've ever known. If I've described them primarily as driven creatures who largely ignore the joyful side of life, it's because that's where the problem is — not only at Yale but throughout American education. It's why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age. I tell students that there is no one â€Å"right† way to get ahead — that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell them that change is healthy and that people don't have to fit into pre-arranged slots. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. I invite heads of companies, editors of magazines, politicians, Broadway producers, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians — a mixed bag of achievers. I ask them to say a few words about how they got started. The students always assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. But in fact, most of them got where they are by a circuitous route, after many side trips. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not preplanned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to lead them down some unforeseen trail. College Pressures by William Zinsser( , ) , , , Dear Carlos: I desperately need a dean's excuse for my chem midterm which will begin in about 1 hour. All I can say is that I totally blew it this week. I've fallen incredibly, inconceivably behind. Carlos: Help! I'm anxious to hear from you. I'll be in my room and won't leave it until I hear from you. Tomorrow is the last day for †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Carlos: I left town because I started bugging out again. I stayed up all night to finish a take-home make-up exam and am typing it to hand in on the 10th. It was due on the 5th. P. S. I'm going to the dentist. Pain is pretty bad. Carlos: Probably by Friday I'll be able to get back to my studies. Right now I'm going to take a long walk. This whole thing has taken a lot out of me. Carlos: I'm really up the proverbial creek. The problem is I really bombed the history final. Since I need that course for my major I †¦. Carlos: Here follows a tale of woe. I went home this weekend, had to help my Mom, and caught a fever so didn't have much time to study. My professor †¦.. Carlos: Aargh!! Trouble. Nothing original but everything's piling up at once. To be brief, my job interview †¦.. Hey Carlos, good news! I've got mononucleosis. Who are these wretched supplicants, scribbling notes so laden with anxiety, seeking such miracles of postponement and balm? They are men and women who belong to Branford College, one of the twelve residential colleges at Yale University, and the messages are just a few of the hundreds that they left for their dean, Carlos Hortas — often slipped under his door at 4 a. m. — last year. But students like the ones who wrote those notes can also be found on campuses from coast to coast — especially in New England, and at many other private colleges across the country that have high academic standards and highly motivated students. Nobody could doubt that the notes are real. In their urgency and their gallows humor they are authentic voices of a generation that is panicky to succeed. My own connection with the message writers is that I am master of Branford College. I live in its Gothic quadrangle and know the students well. (We have 485 of them. ) I am privy to their hopes and fears — and also to their stereo music and their piercing cries in the dead of night (â€Å"Does anybody ca-a-are? â€Å"). If they went to Carlos to ask how to get through tomorrow, they come to me to ask how to get through the rest of their lives. Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don't want to hear such liberating news. They want a map — right now — that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, social security and, presumably, a prepaid grave. What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy grip of the future. I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world. My wish, of course, is naive. One of the few rights that America does not proclaim is the right to fail. Achievement is the national god, venerated in our media — the million dollar athlete, the wealthy executive — and the glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old. I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is easy to look around for villians — to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are are no villians, only victims. â€Å"In the late 1960's,† one dean told me, â€Å"the typical question that I got from students was, ‘Why is there so much suffering in the world? ‘ or ‘How can I make a contribution? ‘ Today it's, ‘Do you think it would look better for getting into law school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them? Many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said, â€Å"They're trying to find an edge — the intangible something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal. † Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on pape r is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yale's official system of grading, A means â€Å"excellent† and B means â€Å"very good. † Today, looking very good is no longer enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh, Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170 students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000. It's all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them good lawyers or doctors. And it's nice to think that admission officers are really reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension of commitment or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling so many transcripts studded with A's that they regard a B as positively shameful. The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the â€Å"gentlemen's C,† when students journeyed through college with a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses — music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion — that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would employ graduates who have this range and curiousity rather than those who narrowly purused safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I don't know if they are getting A's or C's, and I don't care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They can't. Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private colleges now comes to at least $7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60% of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what colleges receive in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs higher every year, of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. Postage is up. Health premium costs are up. Everything is up. Deficits are up. We are witnessing in America the creation of a brotherhood of paupers — colleges, parents and students, joined by the common bond of debt. Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part-time at college and full-time during the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years — loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used â€Å"he,† incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themsleves, their parents, and society. In fact, they are probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society hasn't yet caught up with that fact. Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined. I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people. â€Å"Do you want to go to medical school? I ask them. â€Å"I guess so,† they say, without conviction, or â€Å"Not really. † â€Å"Then why are you going? † â€Å"Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They're paying all this money and †¦ † Poor students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean well; they are trying to steer their sons and daughters toward a secure future. But the so ns and daughters want to major in history or classics or philosophy — subjects with no â€Å"practical† value. Where's the payoff on the humanities? It's not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do, indeed, pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics — an ability to synthesize and relate, to weigh cause and effect, to see events in perspective — are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many thaters would rather put their money on courses that point toward a specific profession — courses that are pre-law, pre-medical, pre-business, or as I sometimes put it, â€Å"pre-rich. † But the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obligated to fulfill their parents' expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them. I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be a good one — she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as a well-rounded person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a â€Å"dumb† thing to be. The student vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furtively and takes some of the â€Å"dumb† courses her father wants her to take — at least they are dumb courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students — no small achievement in itself — she deserves to follow her muse. Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman year. I had a freshman student I'll call Linda, † one dean told me, â€Å"who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn't tell her that Barabra had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda. † The story is almost funny — except that it's not. It's symptomatic of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clack of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due : â€Å"Will I get everything done? † Probably they won't. They will get sick. They will get â€Å"blocked†. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out. Hey Carlos, Help! Part of the problem is that they do more than they are expected to do. A professor will assign five-page papers. Several students will start writing ten-page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment. â€Å"Once you have twenty or thirty percent of the student population deliberately overexerting,† one dean points out, â€Å"it's just bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic works, psychologically. † Why can't the professor just cut back and not accept longer papers? He can and he probably will. But by then the term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professor's main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and doesn't know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Nor is it really his business. He didn't sign up for dealing with the student as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage the student brought from home. That's what deans, masters, chaplains, and psychiatrists are for. To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spend time with students don't have as much time to spend. They also are overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their fingernails onto a shrinking profession. If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments — as departmental chairmen or members of committees — that have been thinned out by the budgetary axe. Ultimately it will be the student's own business to break the circles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents' dreams and their classmates' fears. They must be jolted into believing in themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future. â€Å"Violence is being done to the undergraduate experience,† says Carlos Horta. â€Å"College should be open-ended; at the end it should open many, many roads. Instead, students are choosing their goal in advance, and their choices narrow as they go along, it's almost as if they think that the country has been codified in the type of jobs that exist — that they've got to fit into certain slots. Therefore, fit into the best-paying slot. † â€Å"They ought to take chances. Not taking chances will lead to a life of colorless mediocrity. They'll be comfortable. But something in the spirit will be missing. † I have painted too drab a portrait of today's students, making them seem a solemn lot. That is only half of their story: if they were so dreary I wouldn't so thoroughly enjoy their company. The other half is that they are easy to like. They are quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They are not introverts. They are unusually kind and are more considerate of one another than any student generation I have known. Nor are they so obsessed with their studies that they avoid sports and extra-curricular activities. On the contrary, they juggle their crowded hours to play on a variety of teams, peform with musical and dramatic groups, and write for campus publications. But this in turn is one more cause of anxiety. There are too many choices. Academically, they have 1,300 courses to select from; outside class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it. This means that they engage in fewer extracurricular pursuits than their predecessors did. If they want to row on the crew and play in the symphony they will eliminate one; in the '60's they would have done both. They also tend to choose activities that are self-limiting. Drama, for instance, is flourishing in all twelve of Yale's residential colleges as it never has before. Students hurl themselves into these productions — as actors, directors, carpenters, and technicians — with a dedication to create the best possible play, knowing that the day will come when the run will end and they can get back to their studies. They also can't afford to be the willing slave for organizations like the Yale Daily News. Last spring at the one hundredth anniversary banquet of that paper whose past chairmen include such once and future kings as Potter Stewart, Kingman Brewster, and William F. Buckley, Jr. — much was made of the fact that the editorial staff used to be small and totally committed and that â€Å"newsies† routinely worked fifty hours a week. In effect they belonged to a club; Newsies is how they defined themselves at Yale. Today's student will write one or two articles a week, when he can, and he defines himself as a student. I've never heard the word Newsie except at the banquet. If I have described the modern undergraduate primarily as a driven creature who is largely ignoring the blithe spirit inside who keeps trying to come out and play, it's because that's where the crunch is, not only at Yale but throughout American education. It's why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age. I tell students that there is no one â€Å"right† way to get ahead — that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell them that change is a tonic and that all the slots are not codified nor the frontiers closed. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. They are heads of companies or ad agencies, editors of magazines, politicians, public officials, television magnates, labor leaders, business executives, Broadway producers, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians — a mixed bag of achievers. I ask them to say a few words about how they got started. The students assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by a circuitious route, to their surprise, after many detours. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.