What makes anyone a legal parent? :: Essays Papers

What makes anyone a legal parent? How easy is it for the courts to decide who should be the legal parent of a child? With the advances in assisted reproduction technology (ART), such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF), more people both inside and outside the traditional relationships of a biological mother and father have a chance to have a child. These families consist of single parents and also same sex couples. With same sex relationships, a third party has to be involved, which could be either a surrogate mother or a male donor. This leaves the child with more than the two biological parents. How do authorities determine who will be the most beneficial to the child? The courts try to determine the legal parents out of the best interests of the child but their ruling gives the biological parents more rights over other individuals. Unfortunately, this discriminates against same sex couples because only one partner can be the biological parent. This closed judgment by the courts and society demonstrates that both parties do not understand the abilities same sex couples have in raising a child. Many partners in nontraditional relationships lose their involvement in their child’s life because courts make these conventional decisions which do not recognize same sex marriages. Everyone should have the same opportunities to raise a child because, as many successful adoptions show, a biological tie is not required for a person to be the best parent for a child. Lesbian co-mothers are growing in population. ART has contributed to a significant increase in the number of lesbian and gay individuals choosing to raise genetically related children (Goldstein 412). Most lesbian couples obtained a child from either a past heterosexual relationship or by alternative insemination where the child then has two mothers and a male donor. One of the main questions is how fitting is a lesbian couple to raise a child? Society seems to discriminate against same sex couples. As mentioned earlier, one reason is because there are more than two possible parental figures. People within society are concerned about this because it is not a traditional type of family. They feel that a child should have both a male and female figure represented in a family to make an ideal environment.

Graduation Speech: Aim at the Sun :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Graduation - at last! I thought we'd never get here. Only 13 years ago, we started our first day of kindergarten. It may be easy for some of you to recall those memories. Remembering those magical days of elementary, hop-scotch, tether ball, swinging on the monkey bars, playing the map game, boys chasing girls on recess, and for us girls, day-of-the-week underwear were a big hit. If only the days were as simple as those. The six years flew by quickly and we were off to middle school and soon to junior high or Cedarcrest. Now we were into dances, telephone numbers, big hair, lockers, and the girls were chasing the boys. Who can forget the rivalry between the "Downtowners" and the "Cedarpreps"? There was one focus and one focus only, victory. Four more years gone by and we are "squashmores." It seems like only yesterday when we stepped foot onto County High School. We looked with amazement at all of the different buildings and the numerous classrooms. It was the seniors that frightened us the most. Those helpful seniors: the tapings, the directions, even raw eggs. We soon ventured into our junior year, we were now the Class of 2012. We had made new friends and discovered that Mr. Thomas was the most versatile of all schedule organizers. By now most everyone had their license, and up and down, and up and down, and up and down State Street we went. What fools we were, or maybe some of us still are. Finally, we became the big bad seniors we once feared. There have been numerous memories that one will never forget and will always cherish. These memories include: dodging seagulls, sneaking past security, formal dances, eating lunch on the forum, tea, the picnic and now graduation. As we choose our own paths, some will continue their education, while others will go straight into the work force.

Musical Style and Innovations of Beethoven Essay

Musical Style and Innovations Beethoven is viewed as a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history. Above all, his works distinguish themselves from those of any prior composer through his creation of large, extended architectonic structures characterized by the extensive development of musical material, themes, and motifs, usually by means of â€Å"modulation†, that is, a change in the feeling of the home key, through a variety of keys or harmonic regions. Although Haydn’s later works often showed a greater fluidity between distant keys, Beethoven’s innovation was the ability to rapidly establish a solidity in juxtaposing different keys and unexpected notes to join them. This expanded harmonic realm creates a sense of a vast musical and experiential space through which the music moves, and the development of musical material creates a sense of unfolding drama in this space. In this way Beethoven’s music parallels the simultaneous development of the novel in literature, a literary form focused on the life drama and development of one or more individuals through complex life circumstances, and of contemporaneous German idealism’s philosophical notion of self, mind, or spirit that unfolds through a complex process of contradictions and tensions between the subjective and objective until a resolution or synthesis occurs in which all of these contradictions and developmental phases have been resolved or encompass ed in a higher unity. Beethoven continued to expand the â€Å"development† section of works, extending a trend in the works of Haydn and Mozart, who had dramatically expanded both the length and substance of instrumental music. As Beethoven’s major immediate predecessors and influences, he looked to their harmonic and formal models for his own works. However, both Mozart and Haydn placed the great weight of a musical movement in the statement of ideas called the exposition, for Beethoven the development section of a sonata form became the heart of the work. Beethoven was able to do this by making the development section not merely longer, but also more structured. The very long development section of the Eroica Symphony, for example, is divided into four roughly equal sections, making it, in effect, a sonata form within a sonata form. The first movement alone of this symphony is as long as an entire typical Italian-style Mozart symphony from the 1770s. His focus on the development would, like others of his innovations, set a trend that later composers would follow. Although Beethoven wrote many beautiful and lyrical melodies, another radical innovation of his music, compared especially to that of Mozart and Haydn, is his extensive use of forceful, marked, and even stark rhythmic patterns throughout his compositions and, in particular, in his themes and motifs, some of which are primarily rhythmic rather than melodic. Some of his most famous themes, such as those of the first movements of the Third, Fifth, and Ninth symphonies, are primarily non-melodic rhythmic figures consisting of notes of a single chord, and the themes of the last movements of the Third and Seventh symphonies could more accurately be described as rhythms rather than as melodies. This use of rhythm was particularly well suited to the primacy of development in Beethoven’s music, since a single rhythmic pattern can more easily than a melody be taken through a succession of different, even remote, keys and harmonic regions while retaining and conveying an underlying unity. This allowed him to combine different features of his themes in a wide variety of ways, extending the techniques of Haydn in development (see Sonata Form). He also continued another trend – towards larger orchestras – that went on until the first decade of the 20th century, and moved the center of the sound downwards in the orchestra, to the violas and the lower register of the violins and cellos, giving his music a heavier and darker feel than Haydn or Mozart. Gustav Mahler modified the orchestration of some of Beethoven’s music — most notably the 3d and 9th symphonies — with the idea of more accurately expressing Beethoven’s intent in an orchestra that had grown so much larger than the one Beethoven used: for example, doubling woodwind parts to compensate for the fact that a modern orchestra has so many more strings than Beethoven’s orchestra did. Needless to say, these efforts remain controversial. In his Fifth Symphony Beethoven introduced a striking motif, drawn from a late Haydn symphony, in the very opening bar, which he echoed in various forms in all four movements of the symphony . This is the first important occurrence of cyclic form. He was also fond of making usual what had previously been unusual: in the Fifth Symphony, instead of  using a stately minuet, as had been the norm for the â€Å"dance† movement of a four-movement work, he created a dark march, which he used as the third movement and ran into the fourth without interruption. While one can point to previous works which had one or more of these individual features, his music, combined with the use of operatic scoring that he learned from Mehul and Cherubini, created a work which was altogether novel in effect – too novel, in fact, for some critics of the time. On the other hand, his contemporary Spohr found the finale â€Å"too baroque†, though he praised the second movement as being in â€Å"good Romantic style†. His Ninth Symphony included a chorus and solo voices in the 4th movement for the first time, and made extensive use of fugues, which were generally considered to be a different form of music, and again unusual in symphonies. He wrote one opera, Fidelio. It has been said that he wrote beautiful vocal music without regard for the limitations of human singers, treating the voice as if it were a symphonic instrument – even though his conversation books note his desire to make his music singable and include references that indicate that he had remembered his father’s singing lessons. Beethoven’s development and works are typically divided into three periods: an early period in which his works show especially the influence of Mozart and Haydn; a middle, mature period in which he developed his distinctive individual style, sometimes characterized as â€Å"heroic†; and a late period, in which he wrote works of a highly evolved, individuated, sometimes fragmented and unorthodox style sometimes characterized as â€Å"transcendent† and â€Å"sublime†, where he tried to combine the baroque ideas of Handel and Bach with his icons Mozart and Haydn. In his late years he called Handel â€Å"my grand master†. In contrast to Mozart, he labored heavily over his work, leaving intermediate drafts that provide considerable insight into his creative process. Early drafts of his Ninth Symphony used rough vertical marks on the score in place of actual notes, to indicate the structure he had in mind for the melody. Studies of his sketch books show the working out of dozens of variations on a particular theme, changing themes to fit with an overall structure that evolved over time, and extensive sketching of counter-melodies.

A Successful College Student Essay

Successful means accomplishing or achieving an aim or a goal, a purpose. A College is an educational institution which can gain knowledge by students. Student can further their education at college after graduated from high school or secondary school. Student is the one who is studying at a school or a college, and student can also defined as a learner. College student can take any courses that they are interested in a college or university. Students who choose to further their study in college is the most important steps to being success, and successful college student is start from choosing the correct subject, which is the student wanted or interested in the subject. But a lot of the students are studying the subject that their parents want them to study, but not the subject that they want. Choose the correct subject is the first steps of being success, so you must fight for it, because you are allowed to decide your future. There are a lot of types of student in the college, different types of student have different kind of goal or aim. But most of the students’ goal is to be a successful college student. To be a successful college student is not that easy, some of the students think that get well result in their academic is consider a successful student. , but this idea is definitely wrong. A successful college student does not mean the smartest in the class, the best result in academic student, the word â€Å"success† means success in various aspects. A successful student must set realistic goals and targets to motivate themselves. Although goals must be challenging but must be realistic, do not set the goals which are impossible to achieve. Goals should be measurable and specific, better to include a deadline for accomplishment. Short-term goals or small goals is easily to complete and can be accomplished quickly. Short-term goals can be set by monthly, weekly, or even tough daily, such as hand in assignment on time, do extra exercise, or master in a new chapter and etc. However, a student must have the act and behavior like a student in the college. At college, some of the students attend to class late or refuse to attend class, especially the subject which cannot forbid student to the final exam. The successful student must attend every class on time, unless have forgivable reason. Next, good student should be sit in front of the class, listen every word from lecturer and try to understand it. Students should not be afraid to ask when don’t understand on something, if student is having difficulty on study can always take advantage of the tutoring session, it is useful and beneficial to student. Besides, prepare before the class started and take the note down when the lecturer is explaining, then review after class, do more than just listened is one of the tips to become successful. Spend around 30-45minutes to review all the notes which have been taken in the class, and try to understand concepts instead of memorize all the details, use the shortcut learning skill in study, because successful student must work smart but not work hard. And then, hand in all the work that given by the lecturer on time, because successful student will take responsibility for their education. They don’t even waste a minute with doing nothing. To become a successful college student must learn on time management. Properly manage the time between study and also fun time. Set a weekly schedule which contains study time, fun time, sport time, and also family time. Although sometime we have not enough time for us to do what we want to do, but we must give a little time for our family, even though a period of dinner time. Study is very important to a student, but the over study will lead to the worse situation. In fact, don’t forget to relax from the challenging study, take a short break between study sections, and have a good rest for further journey. Furthermore, good looking is not the must, but good dressing is the must. Student must have the look of student, not to wear like a hoodlum, they should always keep ourselves neat and clean. Have at least one time bath everyday to keep ourselves clean, and wash and change the clothes everyday, do not wear same cloth in two days. Otherwise, keep ourselves health is also one of the steps to be a successful college student. Successful student should always keep their energy in high level, for instance, have 8 hours sleeping time for everyday, keep doing exercise everyday or at least 4 days in a week. Don’t always skip meal with the reason busy or no time to eat, eat three meals a day is the must and eat well with healthy food but not fast foods. To maintain a healthy lifestyle, a successful student should always have the positive mind thinking and stay free from drugs and also alcohol. Drugs and alcohol will affect our brain and slowed our reaction, in long-term, our brain will damaged. Communication skill is the worse skills of student nowadays, student do not know how to communicate with each other, they communicate well with using online chatting, email or sms, but not proper speaking with each other. Successful student must be good in communication and socialize skills. To improve the skills, involve yourself in different kind of activities, such as become member in a club, join community, and etc. Moreover, involve yourself in the camp can train your leadership, leadership is very important, because he or she carries the risk of whole group. Besides that, friendship can also be create on the camp activities, all of the student will work together and help out each other to complete a mission that given by tutor. While they are completing the mission, the solving skill of student has been trained. Communication and participation skills will be improved when accomplishing a mission or an activity, because they will discuss to solve the problem that face by them together. Camping really brings a lot of advantages and it helps students to gain extra skills, create a large social network, which might lead student to become successful. The good activities are good for us but must not involve yourself in illegal activities such as gambling, fighting, stealing and etc, it might get you in to trouble. Study is good but not just concentrate on it only, try to have fun during college, but fun time and serious time must manage wisely, not too concentrate on study and left out community and time for fun. A suitable reward for the hard work of many nights are needed to a student to relax our stress and refresh our messy mind. Conclusion, tips to become successful college student have been mentioned on above. Although no one is perfect, but every students have to try their best to achieve their goal, which is to became a successful student. Finally, a successful college student must have a good behavior, even you are a talent, good behavior is very important, because how you treat people, is the same way how people treat you back. The last tip for student is learn how to learn, because a great education is one of the most important things in our life.

Potentially Unethical

What is potentially unethical about the situation described in the Daryl scenario is the choice of not informing my superior of the shenanigans my peer, Daryl, is committing. That, basically, is the theft of company time, company equipment and company staff for his own personal benefit. The very fact that I would be fully aware of his deliberate underhanded actions, and that I would continue to be silent about it, I think, would make me almost as culpable as him. Close to a co-conspirator, but not quite.Although, I would not be actually participating in this disreputable manner, I would by virtue of not saying anything would make me, at the very least, tacitly giving approval. And, if my boss were to find out in the future for some reason or other that I was fully aware and said nothing, it would not be unfair to say an outright dismissal might be appropriate in the eyes of my employer. At the very least, I would appear to be a not too trustworthy or dependable employee.To know somet hing and not say something because perhaps one did not wish to, but into anyone else’s business is one thing. But to not say something for self serving reasons is another. If I were to keep my mouth shut so that I may do the same thing as Daryl i. e. use company property, use company time and use company personnel for reasons that have nothing to do with the company, is to use an unprofessional word: scandalous.This kind of behavior is outright theft. True, one may feel a bit like a tattletale if one were to choose to inform their higher-uppers. But so what? Better to be that than to be the kind of employee no employer desires to have. And besides that, it would all be Daryl’s fault if he did get busted. After all, he would be the one committing this devious behavior. That does not seem like the kind of person that has any company loyalty.

Freedom Writers vs the Outsiders

Comparing Freedom Writers and The Outsiders Taking place in Long Beach California, Richard Lagravense directed an amazing movie titled â€Å"Freedom Writers. † Freedom Writers came out in 2007 and has inspired many teenagers all over the world. Not only do I consider this to be one of my favorite movies, but many others do too. Freedom Writers was a movie with many interesting characters. Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell (Mrs. G), a high school teacher who realizes that teaching is her passion and who doesn’t know what she would do without her students.Scott Glenn plays the role of Steve Gruwell, Erin’s husband. The rest of the stars of the movie are Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey, Imelda Stainton as Margret Campbell, April L. Hernandez as Eva Benitez, Mario as Andre Bryant, Kristin Herver as Gloria Munez, Jaclyn Ngan as Cindy, Sergio Montalvo as Alejandro Santiago, Jason Finn as Marcus, Deance Wyatt as Jamal Hill, Vanetta Smith as Brandy Ross, Gabriel Chavarri aas Tito, Hunter Parrish as Ben Daniels, Antonio Garcia as Miguel, Giovanne Samuels as Victoria, John Benjamin Hickey as Brian Gelford, Robert Wisdom as Dr.Carl Cohn, Pat Carrol as Miep Gies, Will Morales as Paco, and Armand Jones as Grant Rice. I feel that each character played an important part in this movie and I loved each and every one of them. Due to the fact that this is one of my favorite movies, and how much I enjoyed watching it, I would rate this movie a 4. 5 out of 5 stars. The only reason I felt that it didn’t deserve 5 stars is because I found some of the parts in the movie to be rather confusing. At times, scenes were hard to follow and truly understand what was happening. For example, Eva and Paco went to the convenience store.When they arrived they unexpectedly bumped in Cindy and her boyfriend. Paco tries to shoot the guy in the orange sweatshirt (the guy who beat him up in school) because he wanted his money back on a game he was playing and was giving the cashier a difficult time. Paco also wanted revenge. When Paco took out his gun and fired it at the guy in the orange sweatshirt, he accidentally ended up hitting Cindy’s boyfriend because the other guy ducked. After watching this part a second time I more clearly understood what was happening. The first time I really didn’t know who each character was or the point of the scene.I would still highly recommend this movie to kids all ages. Some parts are violent but this movie does teach valuable lessons. The movies, Freedom Writers, and The Outsiders, are both spectacular movies. Even though these two movies are quite different, they do have some similarities. Both Freedom Writers and The Outsiders are about two extremely violent gangs. All of the gangs in the two movies stuck up for all of their fellow gang members and each member stands by whatever another member does. This is true for all gangs. Personally, I think that Freedom Writers was a better movie. Hey, do you w ant some fries with that shake? † says a male student to Mrs. Gruwell on the first day of school. That type of rudeness was pretty much the way things always were in Long Beach California where the movie Freedom Writers takes place. Hillary Swank (Mrs. Gruwell) stars in this gripping story of inner-city kids raised around drive-by shootings and hard-core attitudes. Whenever you step out the front door of your house, you have to beware because anythitwo gangs in Freedom Writers fight for their territory, race, respect, and what’s theirs.In this movie, the music played throughout the scenes was always different. At the beginning of this movie, the two gangs wouldn’t even sit next to each other in school, let alone talk to one another. At the end, the gangs made peace and everyone ended up getting along all because of Mrs. Gruwell. Even though the gangs, The Greasers and The Socials, are violent in The Outsiders, they are not quite as violent as the gangs in Freedom Writers. The Greasers are more caring and respectful whereas the gangs in Freedom Writers don’t really care about anything.The music played during this movie is always the same song; it is just different parts of the song being played or the same part repeated. Taking place in the 1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma makes this movie older which contributes to some of the differences in the gangs. Although The Outsiders is a thrilling and well directed movie, I didn’t find it to be as exciting as Freedom Writers. My recommendations for these movies would depend on the age of the viewer. I would recommend The Outsiders to pre-teens and Freedom Writers to teens because it is more violent.

Antarctica

White fields of snow, surrounded by ice covered mountains and no civilization around for miles. This may sound like a fantasy land but is the blank canvas of Antarctica. Some people think of it as an arctic waste land but I see it as an unexplored frontier. Antarctica is one of last places on the planet that has not been thoroughly explored. It gives the land a kind of mystery; like anything could exist there. It represents an older simpler time in the world, before industrialization, automobiles, and roads. People have not breached this still natural and wild habitat. This natural world holds a magnificent beauty that is unparalleled anywhere else. It is one of the last uncultivated places left in the world where nature still reigns, free from the influence of human kind.Antarctica intrigues me because I am also interested in what is new and developing. This land has the opportunity to be created into anything. Any kind of government or economy; a whole new way of life could be crea ted here. Any type of society could develop from a colonial government controlled by some world power or a new sovereign nation. The unknown ignites my imagination. It makes me ask the question what new advancement in technology can be found or scientific discoveries can be made? I am intrigued by the unknown and of all the places in the world Antarctica is the epitome of the unknown.