A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift - Article Example Jonathan Swift begins with the vivid imagery of the plight of poor children and is able to evoke sympathy.  An important aspect is that this is so sincerely done that the most skeptical person would want to read on. Then he moves with calculated precision and creates a logical assessment of the condition of the poor. He also professes to have â€Å"maturely weighed† his calculations and proposal giving confidence to the reader to reach further down the narrative. Swift then smoothly places a dramatic twist by immediately following his preamble with the first shocking suggestion of â€Å"eating† all the penniless children in this manner: â€Å"a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.†. After this point, Swift begins to target the moneyed class of that period. He not only enrages the reader by the cold irony of his suggestions but also forces him to think by using startling imagery and saddening but stark realities of life. In a formal and methodical manner, he gives solutions to visible problems of poverty by calculating the worth of children’s flesh offered as food to â€Å"persons of quality and fortune† and other rich members of the society of that time. With striking prose filled with sarcasm, he challenges human emotions by recommending â€Å"buying the children alive and dressing them hot from the knife† as is done in roasting piglets. The subject of his criticism, the moneyed class, is woven in with a detached and mathematical precision by drawing parallel examples of their lavish spending and the worth of the poor considered as meat. In his cynicism, Swift does not spare any member of the society of that time that has contributed to or closed eyes from the causes and reasons of poverty. These include the pseudo-patriots, the clergy as well as royalty.

Research in Urban education Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

In Urban education - Research Paper Example In most cases, gender differences have been noticed when it comes to selection of particular subjects of study and overall college performance as well. In this paper, I would like to achieve an understanding of both sociological and psychological effects that single sex schools have on a student’s preference of certain major over others and also the impact that it may have on one’s personal development and ability to perform well in college and subsequently perform well in life. In the past few decades the interest in single sex education in both private and government schools has risen drastically. In fact the trend is the same in most countries including U.S, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. This has been attributed to underachievement of students and the practice of taking up gender-stereotypes subjects for study (Smyth, 2010). An individuals’ life choices is often based on his schooling and school attainment. This is simply because the quality of education at the school level plays a pivotal role in shaping a persons’ cognitive and behavioural aspects. Schooling and schooling atmosphere has broader implications on a student’s future choices and ability to perform in a much demanding college environment. Our education system regards single sex schools or sex segregated classes as an antidote to the inequality present among the genders. Single sex schools have been looked upon as an attempt to influence school attainment (Lee and Marks, 1992). From a more personal perspective I believe that the existence of the debate about the affect that single schools may have on education and career choice is very much vindicated. There exists both pros and cons when it comes to single sex schooling and co-educational schooling. In fact, the effect of such schooling is known to have more impacts on female students than on their male counterparts. Therefore, we one may say that the schooling system potentially impacts a female student’s life and

Reinforced Concrete Walls Engineering Overview

Reinforced Concrete Walls Engineering Overview Reinforced Concrete (RC) walls are often used as coupled systems in construction of multi-story buildings because of their advantages in comparison with individual walls such as higher lateral stiffness, lower bending moments on each individual wall, and higher energy dissipation because of the inelastic deformations of coupling beams (El Tawil et al., 2010). These elements have been extensively utilized in medium-rise and high-rise building structures within the past decades. Nowadays, RC coupled shear walls are popular lateral force resisting systems, especially in high-risk seismic zones (Farhidzadeh et al., 2013). The reason behind this trend is that RC coupled walls are significantly capable of controlling the inter story drift ratio, which has been frequently used as a performance indicator in design of structures (Carrillo and Alcocer, 2012). Similarly, these structural systems are quite efficient in reducing the associated implication of non-structural elements damage. The expected energy dissipation mechanism of a ductile RC wall system under lateral deformations is flexural yielding (i.e. plastic hinges) at the base of both the cantilever and coupled wall systems, and at both ends of each coupling beam in a coupled wall system (Boivin and Paultre, 2012). Series of design provisions are specified in the current codes to confine the inelastic response at the wall base. These are aimed at ensure enough strength against undesirable modes of failure like brittle shear failure(Ghorbanirenani et al., 2012). Many researchers have conducted both experimental and analytical investigations to identify the behavior of coupled walls, and to improve the performance of these systems. The C-shaped coupled wall system (i.e. core wall) is one of the simplest and is a popular arrangement used in practice. Despite their popularity, however, there have been relatively few studies on the seismic behavior of these RC structures (Beyer et al. 2008), necessitating research on the seismic performance of C-shaped cores. One of the most important characteristics of these nonplanar wall systems is their response when the structure is subjected to torsional efforts due to the eccentricity of lateral forces. This will be more significant when the structural system is asymmetric in plan regarding the lateral stiffness and strength distribution. Such a configuration in plan of a building is prone to have large torsional response during a severe earthquake. Reports and field observations after the past earthquake s showed severe structural damages because of torsional effects (Hart, 1975; Esteva, 1987). A recent investigation by Dizhur et al. (2011) reported significant structural damages, which was apparently caused by a torsionallysensitive response, after the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. Most of the researches carried out in the past focused on the behavior of planar RC walls, including various proposed approaches for predicting their nonlinear flexure-shear interaction behavior (Colotti, 1993; Elwood, 2002; Massone et al., 2006 and 2009; Mullapudi and Ayoub, 2009; Zhang and Xu, 2009; Jiang and Kurama, 2010; Beyer et al., 2011; Panagiotou and Restrepo, 2011; Fischinger et al., 2012). These approaches were mostly based on fiber-section elements such as multiple-vertical-line-elements (MVLE) proposed by Vulcano et al. (1988). Biaxial behavior of concrete material (e.g. modified compression field theory; Vecchio and Collins, 1986) were also considered in some of these approaches. On the contrary, experimental researches on the performance of non-planar (e.g. C-shaped) RC walls subjected to lateral loads are very limited. In one of the first attempts, Ile and Reynouard (2005) examined three full scale U-shaped RC walls under thecyclic lateral loading. The purpose of the study wasto study the behavior of U-shaped walls against uniaxial and biaxial bending and shear, and to compare the design provisions required by two versions of Eurocode 8. A shell model was also developed for simulation of non-planar RC walls. Beyer et al. (2008-a) investigated the bi-directional quasi-static cyclic response of ductile U-shaped RC walls by conducting experimental tests on two half-scale specimens with different thicknesses. The tests mainly focused on the flexural behavior of walls, considering different directions of loading (two orthogonal as well as diagonal). Results showed the diagonal direction as the most critical direction, in which the maximum moment resisted by the wall was less than the corresponding value calculated by the plastic hinge analysis. Moreover, the displacement capacity of the wall in diagonal direction was found to be smaller than the other two orthogonal directions. A simplified numerical model was also developed by Beyer et al. (2008-b), and a practical approach was proposed for implementation and analysis of of U-shaped walls. The numerical approach was based on wide-column analogy, and has been shown to produce reasonable estimation of the inelastic displacement response for slender walls. Constantin and Beyer (2012) used a 3D multilayered shell element model for U-shaped walls to capture their local as well as the global behavior under diagonal loading. The model was developed using the software VecTor4 developed at the University of Toronto (Wong and Vecchio, 2003), and was found to be accurate in terms of loading capacity of the wall, but not for its displacement ductility. Lowes et al. (2013) examined three 1/3 scale C-shaped wall specimens, representing a part of a coupled RC core system, under biaxial loading protocols. Results of cyclic tests showed that bidirectional loading significantly affected the response for displacement cycles in excess of the yield displacement. At these displacement levels, bidirectional loading resulted in a significant reduction in the stiffness of the wall in the direction parallel to the web of the wall (loading activating strongà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ axis bending). Recently, Lu and Panagiotou (2014) presented a three-dimensional (3D) cyclic model for non-planar RC walls, based on beam-truss analogy. The model was able to predict the effects of flexure-shear interaction, considering biaxial behavior of concrete material, and account for mesh-size effects. Although the proposed model has been revised several times and they validated the model for three reinforced concrete T-shaped, C-shaped, and I-shaped section wall specimens, the modeling approach was found to be complicated in terms of calibration of truss members and material properties (Kolozvari, 2013). The results were also sensitive for precisely tracking the displacement responses of walls in a wide-amplitude. In design of RC shear walls, the fundamental design equations are mainly based on the plane sections remain plane assumption, which is unable to capture the shear lag effects related to flexure and warping torsion. Such effects can be substantial in non-planar (C-, I- or T-shaped) wall configurations, and might affect the response of structural system in seismic excitations. A study Boivin and Paultre (2010) was shown that the seismic provisions proposed by NBCC 2005 and the CSA standard A23.3-04 (2014) for design of ductile RC shear walls buildings could considerably underestimate the shear demand, especially at the base of the shear wall system. This issue would be due to the fact that the amplification effects from the higher modes of vibration cannot be efficiently taken into account by the current capacity design methods. In seismic design of a multi-story ductile RC wall, this can produce design strength envelopes that largely underestimate the seismic force demand. Hence, more studies need to be conducted on the seismic performance of these structural systems and effectiveness of available retrofitting methods, both of which were investigated in the current study. A recent research (Pelletier, 2015) showed that the dynamic shear amplification factor newly introduced in CSA A23.3-14 (2014) allows a more realistic seismic shear force demand to be obtained for RC shear walls. This factor should be applied to prevent brittle shear failure and to account for the inelastic effects of higher modes. However, RC shear wall systems that are designed based on the CSA A23-04 need to be controlled for shear demands. Moreover, CSA A23.3-14 excludes the coupled and partially coupled walls from the clause specified for accounting for inelastic effects of higher modes. Furthermore, NBCC 2015 provides a higher mode factor Mv which is equal to 1.0 for coupled shear walls except in very occasional cases, Ta=2.0 seconds and S0.2/S5=65, in which the Mv is equal to 1.03. On th e contrary, it was found by Boivin and Paultre (2010) that the shear envelope calculated based on the capacity design method is significantly unconservative in either the cantilever or coupled wall directions. Therefore, more accurate evaluations for the future designs and retrofit options for existing building are essential.

The Australian Aboriginal People: Dating the Colonization of Australia :: Biology Biological Colony Essays

The Australian Aboriginal People: Dating the Colonization of Australia Abstract The colonization of each continent by modern human populations remains an important question in our history as a species. Studies of variations in mitochondrial genomes, Y-chromosomes, satellite DNA, and other genetic markers can be used to estimate the time of divergence of one population from another. Recent advancements in technology have advanced our capabilities in genetic analysis. In particular, PCR can be used to amplify, study, and sequence DNA from long-deceased specimens. Ingman and Gyllensten studied 101 complete mitochondrial genomes from contemporary populations in Australia and many other regions. The mitochondrial genetic diversity of Aboriginals is remarkably high, similar to that found in Asia. Ingman and Gyllesten estimated colonization of Australia at 40,000-70,000 years ago and supported multiple waves of migration. Another study by Adcock and others indicates that anatomically modern humans were present in Australia before complete fixation of the mtDNA lineage, but does not establish a colonization date. A study of Y-chromosome variation by Vandenburg and others in 1999 revealed two haplotypes unique to Australian Aboriginals. Most (78%) of Aboriginal haplotypes fell into two clusters, possibly indicating two original, separate lineages of founding Aboriginal Australians. As recently as the 1960’s, anthropologists predicted the colonization of Australia at less than 10,000 years ago. Advancments in thermoluminescence dating pushed back the estimated colonization time to 50,000-60,000 years ago in the early 1990’s. Improvements in thermoluminescence and carbon dating techniques adjusted previous colonization dates of 50,000-60,000 years to approximately 45,000 years. The results of morphological dating best-support the multiregional evolution hypothesis of modern humans, and further complicate the possible ancestry of modern Australian Aboriginals. Mitochondrial DNA analysis, recent thermoluminescence dates, and the history of ocean levels coincide roughly to indicate a colonization of Australia at approximately 50,000 years ago. Introduction Throughout recorded history, humans have been defined by a desire to know ourselves: Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going? Many questions are directed towards our appearance as a species and subsequent populating of the earth, -- piece by piece. One particularly large piece of the earth is Australia: a continent, a country, and a mystery in human history. Though the major events in Australian natural history have been revealed, for the most part, human history remains a great topic of debate.

Clinical Trial and Nucleon Assignment Notes

Nucleon Assignment Notes Porter’s 5 Forces Industry Analysis †¢Competition: Intense †¢Buyer Power: Moderate to High oBig pharma companies likely have a lot of power, although as a small firm, your power increases once you clear phases of drug trials. †¢Supplier Power: Unsure, Moderate? oThe case makes it sound like there’s not many manufacturers out there for contracting purposes. Not sure what power suppliers of raw materials have. †¢Threat of Substitutes: Moderate to High oLots of firms racing to create the next blockbuster drug or treatment for big money illnesses.However, most drugs fail, so the likelihood of a substitute is probably only moderate. †¢Threat of New Entrants: Moderate oRelatively easy to start a new small drug research firm. Just need some smart scientists. Funding is currently difficult to come by, however. Nucleon †¢Competition: Moderate to Low oThe case mentioned they were in a pretty niche area of biotech. †¢Buye r Power: Moderate to High oBig pharma companies likely have a lot of power. But if Nucleon clears phase II their power increases substantially. †¢Supplier Power: Unsure, Moderate? The case makes it sound like there’s not many manufacturers out there for contracting purposes. Not sure what power suppliers of raw materials have. †¢Threat of Substitutes: Moderate to Low oI don’t think there’s much out there in the way of burn treatments (need to check on that). †¢Threat of New Entrants: Moderate to Low oThe drug research process is slow, so any new entrant in this specific area is going to be significantly behind with little to no way to catch up. Resource Based View VRIO Value:There’s definitely value in a successful drug for burn treatment; it also presents itself as a possible cure for other ailments as well (i. . kidney failure) Rarity:Not many alternatives for burn victim treatment (assumption based on the case’s voice); large mole cule research is still new and rare, tough to get into. Imitability: Not very imitable, especially if Nucleon can gain strong patent protection. Also, the slow development time means that even if another firm could mimic a similar drug, it would take time. Organization:Nucleon is currently not organized to begin trials and manufacturing of this drug. They also don’t have a significant amount of financial backing at this point.Transaction Based Economics Hold-ups †¢Contract manufacturer could hold up Nucleon for more money if drug passes phases and becomes more likely to be successful. †¢Contract manufacturer could increase manufacturing costs, slow production, or create problems in quality in order to hold up Nucleon. Options Going Forward Option 1: Build Pilot Plant Pros †¢Nucleon keeps tighter control of IP †¢Can retain ownership of product rights through phase I and II †¢More flexibility †¢Can begin to develop staff for in-house manufacturing, making scaling later easier Cons Expensive (likely need more financial backing/don’t have enough as is) †¢Risky oDrug could fail in clinical trials (which statistically is likely) oProcess uncertainty; bacterial vs. mammalian cells †¢Distracts Nucleon’s financial and human capital away from their core, the drug R&D Option 2: Contract Manufacturing Pros †¢No major upfront capital investment †¢Access to experienced manufacturing facilities and staff immediately †¢Retain ownership of product rights through phase I and II Cons †¢Still not cheap; doesn’t save Nucleon much money over Option 1 †¢Risk of IP issues Contract specifics are very difficult to hash out due to the nature of biotech †¢No faster than building their own plant due to slow process of negotiating, knowledge transfer, then scale-up Option 3: Licensing Pros †¢No capital investment †¢Little to no risk †¢Simple; allows Nucleon to focus on the R&D à ¢â‚¬ ¢Immediate cash flow †¢Keep rights for CRP-1 for other uses (other than for burn treatment) Cons †¢Much less share in the profits if drug is successful (mortgage the company’s success) †¢Would likely lower employee morale, which could in turn decrease likelihood of success of drug †¢Risk of IP issues Clinical Trial and Nucleon Assignment Notes Nucleon Assignment Notes Porter’s 5 Forces Industry Analysis †¢Competition: Intense †¢Buyer Power: Moderate to High oBig pharma companies likely have a lot of power, although as a small firm, your power increases once you clear phases of drug trials. †¢Supplier Power: Unsure, Moderate? oThe case makes it sound like there’s not many manufacturers out there for contracting purposes. Not sure what power suppliers of raw materials have. †¢Threat of Substitutes: Moderate to High oLots of firms racing to create the next blockbuster drug or treatment for big money illnesses.However, most drugs fail, so the likelihood of a substitute is probably only moderate. †¢Threat of New Entrants: Moderate oRelatively easy to start a new small drug research firm. Just need some smart scientists. Funding is currently difficult to come by, however. Nucleon †¢Competition: Moderate to Low oThe case mentioned they were in a pretty niche area of biotech. †¢Buye r Power: Moderate to High oBig pharma companies likely have a lot of power. But if Nucleon clears phase II their power increases substantially. †¢Supplier Power: Unsure, Moderate? The case makes it sound like there’s not many manufacturers out there for contracting purposes. Not sure what power suppliers of raw materials have. †¢Threat of Substitutes: Moderate to Low oI don’t think there’s much out there in the way of burn treatments (need to check on that). †¢Threat of New Entrants: Moderate to Low oThe drug research process is slow, so any new entrant in this specific area is going to be significantly behind with little to no way to catch up. Resource Based View VRIO Value:There’s definitely value in a successful drug for burn treatment; it also presents itself as a possible cure for other ailments as well (i. . kidney failure) Rarity:Not many alternatives for burn victim treatment (assumption based on the case’s voice); large mole cule research is still new and rare, tough to get into. Imitability: Not very imitable, especially if Nucleon can gain strong patent protection. Also, the slow development time means that even if another firm could mimic a similar drug, it would take time. Organization:Nucleon is currently not organized to begin trials and manufacturing of this drug. They also don’t have a significant amount of financial backing at this point.Transaction Based Economics Hold-ups †¢Contract manufacturer could hold up Nucleon for more money if drug passes phases and becomes more likely to be successful. †¢Contract manufacturer could increase manufacturing costs, slow production, or create problems in quality in order to hold up Nucleon. Options Going Forward Option 1: Build Pilot Plant Pros †¢Nucleon keeps tighter control of IP †¢Can retain ownership of product rights through phase I and II †¢More flexibility †¢Can begin to develop staff for in-house manufacturing, making scaling later easier Cons Expensive (likely need more financial backing/don’t have enough as is) †¢Risky oDrug could fail in clinical trials (which statistically is likely) oProcess uncertainty; bacterial vs. mammalian cells †¢Distracts Nucleon’s financial and human capital away from their core, the drug R&D Option 2: Contract Manufacturing Pros †¢No major upfront capital investment †¢Access to experienced manufacturing facilities and staff immediately †¢Retain ownership of product rights through phase I and II Cons †¢Still not cheap; doesn’t save Nucleon much money over Option 1 †¢Risk of IP issues Contract specifics are very difficult to hash out due to the nature of biotech †¢No faster than building their own plant due to slow process of negotiating, knowledge transfer, then scale-up Option 3: Licensing Pros †¢No capital investment †¢Little to no risk †¢Simple; allows Nucleon to focus on the R&D à ¢â‚¬ ¢Immediate cash flow †¢Keep rights for CRP-1 for other uses (other than for burn treatment) Cons †¢Much less share in the profits if drug is successful (mortgage the company’s success) †¢Would likely lower employee morale, which could in turn decrease likelihood of success of drug †¢Risk of IP issues

No Child Left Behind Essay

The education policy that I chose is on education today and the influence of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act. The NCBL is a United States Act of Congress, which includes Title 1 (program for disadvantaged students offered by the government). This Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. Each state is required to give these assessments to all students to receive federal school funding. This Act does not set the standards nationwide; each individual state sets the standards. Diane Ravitch, an education philosopher was a supporter of this Act when it was being passed. She believed that every child had the right to a proper education. As the years passed she acquired more experience and knowledge on the Act, and is now completely opposed to the NCLB Act. Ravitch believes that the states dumb down the standards in light of the NCLB. The question now is: is the No Child Left Behind Act se eking to repair the problem, or is it the cause? Under NCLB, the accountability of a child’s education is examined by the Federal government and turned into the hands of the state. This was the first time an American president has set a goal of universal proficiency in reading and mathematics for all children. The federal emphasis on literacy, reading, and mathematics emphasizes teacher and school accountability, with negative consequences when schools do not meet established improvement goals (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). Under NCLB the state must have accountability provisions that include how they will close the achievement gap. According to the Department of Education the achievement gap is defined as such; The difference between how well low-income and minority children perform on standardized tests as compared with their peers. For many years, low-income and minority children have fallen behind their white peers in terms of academic achievement (Department of Education, 2002). States must also monitor that every student not excluding the disadvantaged achieve academic proficiency. Yearly assessments must be produced to inform parents of the progress of both the state and the  community. Schools that do not meet the academic proficiency standards must offer supplemental services and take corrective action. If within five years the school is still not making yearly progress, than dramatic changes in the school’s academic direction must be made. Dramatic changes according to the Department of Education are defined as follows; â€Å"†¦additional changes to ensure improvement.† The definition raises the question of whether there is a plan for failure at all. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, in its â€Å"National Report Card† shows that these goals may be falling short. Students in fourth grade show temporary improvement in math right after No Child Left Behind became a law, but returned to pre-reform growth rate. The NAEP estimates that by 2014 less than 25% of financially challenged and African American students will achieve NAEP proficiency in reading. Using the same time frame less than half the financially challenged and African American students will obtain proficiency in math. With so much pressure on the states to perform well, a trend is becoming apparent that they are inflating proficiency levels of students. This causes discrepancies between the NAEP and state assessments especially among the financially challenged, African American, and Hispanic students. With no sufficient evidence shown on that NCLB is working, the question is as follows; is the federal government capable of running our school systems? There are undoubtedly dangers in the public school system teaching a federally mandated curriculum. When one controls people’s perception of history, one controls the present. There is, of course, a point to be made that if the nations’ children are kept in watered down public schools, positions of power will be opened to the children of the aristocracy, who without fail, are being sent to private schools. So many of those Politicians who stand in the way of allowing poor children to escape failing schools, send their own children to private schools (sic). In New York City, where I have spent most of my professional life, both the current and the past chancellor of schools sent their children to private schools. Six of the seven members of the now-defunct Board of Education had  also sent their children to private schools at one time or another. One might add to the list other notables in New York-the governor, the mayor, the leaders of both houses of the legislature, and the junior U.S. senator (and former first lady). In fact, I cannot remember a mayor of the city who sent his children to public school (Viteritti, 2003). The reports of success of NCLB are encouraging to those who support the project. There have been schools in Sterling, Virginia and New York City that have received No Child Left Behind blue ribbons for their success in closing the achievement gap. Other schools have earned national praise for instituting such curriculum as â€Å"Fit for the Future,† a standards-based health and fitness curriculum for grades 1-10; and an anti-bullying intervention program in York, Pennsylvania (Department of Education, 2005). These programs are used to show the benefits of NCLB but are they academic necessities? The curriculum in a kindergarten class in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin included a lesson entitled â€Å"The Little Convincer.† In which a state trooper came into the classroom with a mechanism designed to simulate a car accident. In a discussion about car seat laws, a topic critics of the curriculum call too heady for kindergarteners, the students, ages five to six years old, were asked repeatedly which one of them were actively using car seats, and whether their parents wore seat belts as well. One child who innocently told the officer that his daddy did not wear his seatbelt was told by the trooper that his daddy could go through the windshield and the glass would cut his face and arms like ribbons, and once he hit the road, the car would roll on top of him. The dramatic lesson ended with each of the students taking a turn in the mechanism that simulated the car crash. The officer would speak softly to the child asking them questions about their class or the clothes that they were wearing and when the child began to speak would jerk them forward violently to teach them that an accident could happen at anytime. The question is, are these academic lessons that parents assume that their children are attending school for? Is placing the curriculum in the hands of legislators going to further our children’s grasp of the three R’s as most parents hope, or are they going to be taught how to become complacent law abiding citizens? The problem in purposing that the public school system is flawed beyond repair is offering an alternative that people are comfortable with. When a conversation about privatizing the school system begins many questions must be answered to abate the fears of the public. Would privatizing schools be affordable to all families? Many debates have waged on the validity of a voucher program, allowing families to choose any school they desire whether it is parochial, private, public, or chartered. Without public schools, there are no taxes necessary to support the program, and that money can be returned to the families of school aged children, creating extra funds for private education. In a system of free market education the individual and specialized institutions of learning would have to compete for students, because the money would be linked to the students themselves. Never in the history of the free market have advances been made without competition. When the monopoly on our children’s future ends, a true marketplace of ideas will be born. In an interview with US News, Ravitch was asked â€Å"What needs to happen to make the law more effective for school?† she responded â€Å"I think the main thing to change is . . . to get rid of the remedies and the sanctions because the remedies don’t work and the sanctions don’t work. What No Child Left Behind has given the United States is an atmosphere of punitiveness. The word accountability has come to be a synonym for punish. If students don’t learn, it’s the teachers’ fault. Fire the teachers. Close the schools. We’re now on a wrecking mission to destroy American public education.† Ravitch has completely rejected this Act, and believes we should do something to make our education system stronger. I questioned? Is the No Child Left Behind Act seeking to repair the problem, or is it the cause? I now have the answer. The NCLB Act sounded very tempting as it was passed by congress, and many like Diane Ravitch had hopes in such a great project for our education system, but everything is not perfect. The NCBL offers great support to schools, although standardized testing is not the correct way of determining the amount of financial support each school deserves or requires. After long hours of research I believe that the No Child Left Behind Act has taken a part in the cause of our problem in our education system today. Schools will not improve if the value is set only on what is tested. â€Å"The tests we have now provide useful information about students’ progress in reading and mathematics, but they cannot measure what matters most in education.† (Ravitch. The Death and Life of The Great American School System, pg. 226) In order to improve our public school system we must start by focusing on our schools, offering them an authentic and sincere education that encourages our students to learn.