An enquiry into the factors affecting the child's preference for school subjects

During a teaching career extending over twenty years in which the Writer has taught as a sole teacher, assistant in large town schools, headteacher of Maori school, as an itinerant instructor in Agriculture, and as an Education Officer with the Armed Forces, he has been struck by the frequency with which sweeping generalisations are made by many members of the teaching profession. Among these most frequently made are such as, "Boys like handwork better than do girls"; "Clever children prefer arithmetic to handwork." Such statements have aroused his interest in the matter of the child's alleged likes and dislikes for school subjects. If such likes and dislikes do ,in fact, exist, then it is felt that as teachers we should know what these are.

An enquiry into the factors affecting the child's preference for school subjects

During a teaching career extending over twenty years in which the Writer has taught as a sole teacher, assistant in large town schools, headteacher of Maori school, as an itinerant instructor in Agriculture, and as an Education Officer with the Armed Forces, he has been struck by the frequency with which sweeping generalisations are made by many members of the teaching profession. Among these most frequently made are such as, "Boys like handwork better than do girls"; "Clever children prefer arithmetic to handwork." Such statements have aroused his interest in the matter of the child's alleged likes and dislikes for school subjects. If such likes and dislikes do ,in fact, exist, then it is felt that as teachers we should know what these are.

Paul Robeson

Many intellectuals describe Paul Robeson as one of the nation’s greatest musicians, scholars, actors, athletes, and activists of the 20th century. Born on 9 April 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey, Robeson was the youngest of five children born to William Drew Robeson, a runway enslaved African American who went on to graduate from Lincoln University, a historical black college located in Pennsylvania, and Maria Louisa Bustill, a biracial Quaker who was also from Pennsylvania and came from a family of abolitionists. Without question, Robeson’s fame as an athlete on the football field, on the theater stage, in the concert hall, in films, as an activist, and as a leader for social change and justice has been documented in a variety of ways. His being blacklisted and the seizure of his passport by the US government for his anti-colonialism stance and articulation for certain forms of socialism during the 1940s and 1950s has also received much attention from scholars. But most folks do not know about his humble beginnings. For instance, in 1910 the Robeson family moved to Somerville, New Jersey, a relatively large town located between Westfield and Princeton, New Jersey. This is where Paul’s father, Reverend William Drew Robeson, served as pastor of the St. Thomas AME Zion Church until his untimely death in 1918. As a youngster, Paul was a very bright student who attended a local all-Black elementary school, where he graduated at the head of the class. Upon his graduation, his father, although very proud of him, seemed to not show any great enthusiasm. Many years later Robeson recalled, “I guess . . . it was only what he expected of me,” and that he “was never satisfied with a school mark of 95 when 100 was possible.” This attitude, Robeson, continued, was not because his “Pop” wanted perfection. It was rather a sign of his belief in the concept of “personal integrity,” which included the idea of “maximum human fulfillment.” Thus, Robeson proclaimed that “success in life was not to be measured in terms of money and personal advancement, but rather the goal must be the richest and highest development of one’s own potential.” These words embodied and directed the rest of the life of Paul Robeson until his death in 1976, at the age of seventy-seven. More importantly, Robeson’s philosophical framework and political activism can be divided into four main areas: Religion; Anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism; Music and Theater Performances; and Human Rights.

Jakarta, Mental Landscape, and Social Issues : Case Study of Rindu Kami Pada-Mu

Although Jakarta seems to be the most favorable setting for Indonesian films, most Jakarta films are not about the city or its people, but rather about a large town with no name (Jufri (eds.) 1992: 23). Asrul Sani highlights the importance of showing physical pictures such as prominent buildings and adequate clothing, and a mental landscape. In Andre Bazin’s term, the mental landscape shows the "spiritual vitality" of one city on-screen, which construes s specific indications referring to that particular city. Some social and gender issues within the films will be revealed and questioned by exploring the mental landscape. This paper will discuss Rindu Kami pada-Mu (Of Love and Eggs, Garin Nugroho, 2004). I try to answer the question: how does Rindu Kami represent post-Reform Jakarta and its social and gender issues? I argue that Rindu Kami pada-Mu represents the backdoors of Post-1998 Jakarta. Not only depicting the physical and mental landscape of lower-class society, such as a slum market, the film also portrays the psychological developments and achievements of urban people. They struggle against the remaining ideology of the New Order (State Ibuism, military-political system) and its concrete implementations (domestic violence, demolitions) in social issues. By doing textual analysis, using theories of Mental Landscape and Stuart Hall’s Representation, I will elaborate on "the other side of Jakarta" and its social issues, namely solidarity and communication Issues. Gender issues, such as the depiction of negative male characters and masculine militarism, will be discussed.

LEARNING FROM PISA EXPERIENCES: READING TASKS TO EXPLORE BIASED INFORMATION

The paper presents the results from a study involving 70 students in grade 9, from two technological highschools situated in a large town in Romania. In September 2020, the 15 year olds read and answered the questions from one of the released units after PISA 2018, and then reflected on their reading experience in a self assessment sheet. The results show good results in working with information from one article and poor ability in corroborating conflicting information from two sources that focus on a same topic. The students display little familiarity with biased information even if the majority enjoyed the reading challenge of two divergent points of view. The results are consistent with the PISA reading trend for Romania. In order to improve reading comprehension, teachers should renovate the reading practices by challenging students with work on multiple texts and tasks that focus on evaluation and reflection and on the sources credibility.

Small and medium-sized businesses in towns of commodity regions as source of diversification and modernization of their economy

The article presents the results of the analysis of economic indicators of economic entities of the regions with raw materials specialization, from the perspective of the goals and capabilities of medium and small-sized businesses. In modern conditions, due to the achievements of scientific and technological progress, the goals of the activity, and the potential of small and medium-sized businesses, the authors identify and analyze possible directions of diversification and modernization of the economy of these regions. The towns of commodity regions are located mainly in areas of adverse environmental conditions away from large industrial and cultural centers and in many cases depend on the performance of one or two large town-forming companies. Thus, the prospects of maintaining the attractiveness of doing business for small and medium enterprises in the towns of these regions as well as the attractiveness of these towns for the population were revealed and analyzed. As measures to maintain this attractiveness, the authors consider the possibility of diversifying and modernizing the economy of such towns by supporting the activities and development of small and medium enterprises, as well as implementing measures aimed at introducing the technologies of the “Smart City” concept. It is assumed that to diversify and modernize the economy of the commodity regions, it is necessary to create conditions for the revitalization of many areas of activity. In particular, it can be achieved through the implementation of “Smart City” projects in these regions. This should stimulate the process of activating the most technologically advanced and innovative areas of activity and have a positive impact on the development of small and medium-sized businesses involved in these areas. In turn, the stable and efficient functioning of such enterprises is one of the most significant tools for such transformations and can speed and intensify the efficiency of the implementation of these processes. At the same time, the use of “smart” technologies for making “smart” decisions, in the process of modernizing the urban economy included, will increase both the efficiency of functioning of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the mechanisms for supporting their activities and development.

Reconnaissance of 2016 Central Italy Earthquake Sequence

The Central Italy earthquake sequence nominally began on 24 August 2016 with a M6.1 event on a normal fault that produced devastating effects in the town of Amatrice and several nearby villages and hamlets. A major international response was undertaken to record the effects of this disaster, including surface faulting, ground motions, landslides, and damage patterns to structures. This work targeted the development of high-value case histories useful to future research. Subsequent events in October 2016 exacerbated the damage in previously affected areas and caused damage to new areas in the north, particularly the relatively large town of Norcia. Additional reconnaissance after a M6.5 event on 30 October 2016 documented and mapped several large landslide features and increased damage states for structures in villages and hamlets throughout the region. This paper provides an overview of the reconnaissance activities undertaken to document and map these and other effects, and highlights valuable lessons learned regarding faulting and ground motions, engineering effects, and emergency response to this disaster.

Application of Fuzzy Logic for Monitoring of Appearance of Heat Waves in Large Towns

In the paper are introduced some results of the influence of cooling effect of vegetation on the climate in large towns. The results have been acquired from measurement of some meteorological variables in selected parts of large town and from application of fuzzy models on the prediction of maximum day temperature. Great motivation of the paper is not only course of maximum temperature in standard days but especially the more dramatic situations as is appearance of Heat Waves. Besides the selection of relevant variables and the design of knowledge based system (with application) is performed an approximation operation for knowledge based systém function taking into account the conditions throughout the city.

A Defeat and a Victory

In this chapter, John Russell Kelso gives an account of the events that transpired from May to July 1862, during which he and his regiment suffered defeat at the hands of the enemy before scoring a victory against the rebels. After their return from Linn Creek, Kelso and his group again remained in camp training. They were then ordered to Neosho, a large town about eighty miles distant in a south-westerly direction. In a letter written to his wife on June 6, Kelso described the principal events of this expedition, including their march to Mount Vernon and their return to Springfield. He also narrates what he considers one of the most disgraceful military affairs in which he was ever involved.