The condition of secondary education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The condition of secondary education - Essay Example lt, secondary schools in the US are under constant pressure to perform regardless of the availability of materials and programs capable of improving educational quality. The vast majority of American secondary schools are public institutions dependent on funding from local, state, and federal governmental sources. However, this funding is contingent on the performance of students on standardized tests within core academic areas. The â€Å"No Child Left Behind Act† requires that schools maintain certain levels of achievement in math and English and provide proof of this through yearly state testing of the student body. This law applies to both primary and secondary schools, and facilities which fail to achieve the required standard risk losing their federal funding and may fall under the requirements of their state (New York Times, 2011). Besides the additional expense related to standardized testing, this increases pressure on teachers and administrators and limits the flexibility of the educational system in general concerning topics of academic concentration and teaching methods. While secondary education is subjected to constant governmental statues demanding compliance with current statutes, that funding which is available is not adequate to provide schools with all of the required materials, staff, faculty training, and educational programs needed to provide high quality education. As over 90 percent of secondary schools are public institutions, they bear near total responsibility for educating the minors within the population. Overcrowding within dense populations further strains available text books and other learning materials and limits the availability of instructors. Recent studies suggest that the combination of these circumstances greatly inhibits a student’s ability to learn (wik.edu.uiuc.edu, n.d.). This threatens the ability of individual schools to achieve testing standards in order to gain future funding while reducing the quality of education

How sex in advertising has negative effects on societies perception of Term Paper - 1

How sex in advertising has negative effects on societies perception of beauty - Term Paper Example This "How sex in advertising has negative effects on societies perception of beauty" essay outlines the impact of the usage of sex images in advertisement on our society and our standards of beauty. In most of the current advanced societies, children spend more times in front of televisions and computers rather than in play grounds. â€Å"Research has shown that young children—younger than 8 years—are cognitively and psychologically defenseless against advertising. They do not understand the notion of intent to sell and frequently accept advertising claims at face value†. Children during their early developmental stages may not possess the ability to segregate between good and evil. Moreover, children also possess intrinsic thirst for sexual activities even though it may not be visible or identifiable to others. When a sex provoking advertisement is displayed in front of the children, they are getting a new knowledge or a wrong message which they will keep in the ir mind forever. For example, bedroom scenes are common in the advertisements of condoms and beauty products. These advertisements often portray males as the symbol of strength or stamina and females as the symbol of beauty or figure. Children watching these advertisements may develop a feeling that only stronger men and beautiful women are capable of enjoying sexual life. In their 2002 thesis, â€Å"Effects of Sex in the Media,† scholars Richard J. Harris and Christina L. Scott address the effect of visual cultures whose morals are affected by this advertising. They say a worldview that progressively reflects the perception of the media may be refined by repeated contact to a regular set of messages. As an example, they say â€Å"watching numerous sitcoms and movies showing teenagers being sexually active may cultivate acceptance of such a position in the viewer and thus weaken family- taught values against pre-marital sex.† So, the viewing of sexual images in adverti sing also distorts the moral values of teenagers, maybe even to the point of rebellion against the values their family taught them (Robertson, p.2) â€Å"Sex is used in commercials to sell everything from beer to shampoo to cars. New research is showing that teenagers' exposure to sexual content in the media may be responsible for earlier onset of sexual intercourse or other