Causal Analysis of the Arab Spring

Tunisian female municipal officer and her asides who confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from a street stall and slapped his face in the process, set himself on fire and passed away a few days later. As an aftermath of this incident, a huge wave of protests over unemployment and social issues sparked out in Tunisia, forcing then-president  Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his position after 23 years in power. Following this event, activists and ordinary people started to head out onto streets in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and other Arab sub-regions and societies, demanding democracy, social justices, dignity, and freedom. Ultimately, an unprecedented  revolutionary wave  of nonviolent and violent  demonstrations,  protests, riots, and  civil wars known as Arab Spring, or many may call it Arab Awakening,  has spread across the entire  Arab World, overthrowing handfuls of tyrants and authoritarian regimes that, for decades, had been taking control over the area. Behind the actual uprisings were many and long gathering root causes. For decades, Arab people had faced repression of free speech, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, corruption, and stifling of political dissent. Social justice and human dignity were also not respected in most countries. Furthermore, this area of 300 million people was producing an unprecedented youth population, with around two-thirds of the total population below 29 years of age. At the same time, this young generation was annoyed by 25 percent unemployment, frustrated by diminished dreams, motivated greater personal freedoms, and equipped with technological tools of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In addition to that, international influences from Europe and the United States, actors who have long been desiring for the abundant energy supplies, trade and investment regional security in the region, also induced the event in the name of â€Å"promoting democracy. † Looking back to the causes of the Arab Spring, although Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation set fire to the revolution, the actual driving forces behind the revolt were primarily the development of social media and the internal social issues that have been smolderingly existing in the region for decades. First of all, it is important to mention that even before the happening of Bouazizi’s self-emulation, the Arab World has long been striving for political changes because of the mass unemployment and low living standards of educated class. Unlike most regions, unemployment rates in the SWANNA region are highest amongst the more educated youth. According to Imed Drine in his article â€Å"Youth Unemployment in the Arab World: What Do We know? What is the Way Forward? , published by the World Institude for Development Economics Research, youth unemployment rate in the region was about 25 percent, among the highest in the world. The situation is even worse for young women with an unemployment rate of about 40 percent. Compared to other global regions, the region has shown the highest rate of labour force increase over the last three decades; the unemployment rate for young age groups is 40 percent in some countries. In many Arab countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, it was very usual that university graduates were forced to drive taxis or sell grocery in open stalls to survive, and families with children struggled to provide food and education for their kids. On top of that, there were also drastic gaps between the income of the majority of the population and that of the top elite in most Arabic countries. â€Å"Egypt has had a massive income gap throughout Mubarak’s control, which is clearly the root cause of the original uprising. One half of Egyptians live on $2/day or less. The average per-capita income in the country is just $6,200 and 24% of young people in the Arab region cannot find jobs (source). In addition, in some Arab sub-regions, large budget deficits were pervasive mainly due to the unnecessary price subsidies on consumer products such as fuel that did not really help the poor but rather favored the affluent population. Other economic issues including poverty, rising food prices, and inflation have also been serious internal issues that eventually led to Arab revolution. According to two Russians researchers, A. Korotayev and J. Zinkina, in their analysis on Egyptian revolution, Egypt was also one of the most fast growing countries in the world in terms of food prices. This fact had undoubtedly played a role in undermining the Egyptian sociopolitical system. While half of the population survived only on $2 per a day or even less and had to face a huge price inflation, the upper class was flooded with abundant resources. Such gaps in income and social classes are obviously undesirable, if not dangerous, for the stability of a society as they create tensions and tear down the sense of unity in the population. They certainly set the stage for the uprising to occur, causing a small incident of Bouazizi to become a devastating social event like Arab Spring. Another internal problem that has made a great contribution to people’s discontent and rebellion was the corruption of Arab leaders and their aging dictatorship. The corruption was extremely widespread in Arab world, and economic hardships were unequally distributed. The political system only worked with and responded to the elites and large businesses in an attempt to accumulate enormous sums of money. Only a small minority of the country actually benefited from this corrupted regime, the rest suffered and was neglected. Nothing could have been done or approved without bribery to the Arab leaders and their relatives. In most cases, whether an investment deal would be closed or not depended on the bribing and one’s connections. Besides the corruption issue, the political system was destabilized due to incompetent and outmoded leaders. â€Å"By the end of the 20th century, most Arab dictatorships were utterly bankrupt both ideologically and morally. When the Arab Spring happened in 2011, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak had been in power since 1980, Tunisia’s Ben Ali since 1987, while Muammar al-Qaddafi ruled over Libya for 42 years† (source). During the time of rising literacy and shrinking birthrate, instead of replacing the problematic leadership positions with younger, more educated, and innovative leaders, old and stagnant government was preserved, which eventually lead to the overall social and economic decline of the region. There is always the fear of being oppressed by the security services and the lack of political opportunities among the citizens. Although people remained passive and submitted to the repression of their rulers until the Arab revolution in 2011, needless to say, most of them highly doubted the legitimacy of the aging political systems and their leaders. Their discontent and feelings of injustice with the government was the platform of the revolt and later became the potential source of further social disruption and conflict. In addition to being a counter act to the aging dictatorship, Arab Spring was simultaneously a response to human rights violation. The political freedom of expression of people was limited and there was a shift in power o the police endorsed by the law. This law â€Å" . . . allow[ed] the state to detain individuals and censor and close newspapers more easily and allow[ed] authorities to try civilians in front of military and security courts under certain circumstances† (Sehata:2004). A regular citizen was oppressed, did not have a freedom of speech and was treated poorly by the secu rity services. Even an educated person, as is evident in the case of the graduate student Mohamed Bouazizi, had to endure the same ill-treatment and injustice. Furthermore, the uprising was also a reaction to sexual abuse and domestic violence of women and children. It attempted to bring equality, political, and social rights for disadvantaged groups, especially for women who were often considered the second-class citizens. Women were a driving force in the protests. â€Å"At the time of the revolution, we really observed that women of all social classes, including the lower class, were mobilized. Women stood in defiance of political regimes, and challenged their traditional exclusion from the public sphere† (Bertrand, The Voice of Russia). Women played a crucial role in this revolution since they were active participants who fought for their dignity, economic, political, social, and their children’s rights. Besides all the internal issues discussed above, it is important to mention that there were also other factors that have contributed to the spread of this phenomena such as the use social networks. A big part of this uprising is intrinsically associated with recent social media and changes in the global social climate. It is very important to take into consideration the fact that social events are more than just susceptible to the conditions of their external environments. The Arab Spring, thus, is not an exception. We are living in an information-age where people interact and exchange ideas at a much higher rate and wider range than ever. With the inventions of telecommunicational devices, the Internet, global social networks, etc. , it has become just a matter of a blink of an eye for a message to get to its targets. These technological advancements have also changed the way people commune and spend their time. People are becoming more and more inclined to communicate virtually rather than face-to-face. The number of internet users in both Tunisia and Egypt nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009. According the the CIA World Factbook, Egypt ranks 21st in the world in terms of the number of internet users; Tunisia, by contrast, ranks 60th. Though internet access may not be as strong as, say, in the United States, in these countries it is comparatively cheaper and it is safe to say that a great many people in these countries have internet access of some kind. Also, according to the latest research conducted by the Internet World Statistics, around 90 milion Arab people use the Internet on a day-to-day basis to either look up new information or stay connected with their friends. This number makes up to 40% of the total population. The same research also shows that out of these internet users, 20% are registered on Facebook. Taking other activities and social networks into consideration, the number would be many times that. As a consequence, these social and behavioral changes have brought about an environment extremely sensitive to word-of-mouth epidemics, and the Arab Spring is one of the benefactors. In countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen, rising action plans such as protests made up of thousands, have been organized through social media such Facebook and Twitter. â€Å"We use Facebook to schedule the protests,  Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world,† said one Arab activist. Activists were able to build extensive social networks and organized political action, thus, social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom. Furthermore, social networks have also broken the psychological barrier of fear by helping many people to connect and share information about the social uprising. It has given most people in the Arab world the knowledge that they are not alone, that there are others experiencing just as much brutality, just as much hardships, just as much lack of justice. There are numerous number of videos on YouTube where activists speak out their ideas and call for people reactions. According to Catherine O’Donnell a writer for the University of Washington in her article â€Å"New Study Quantifies Use of Social Media in Arab Spring†, â€Å"During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets from Egypt — and around the world — about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day. Videos featuring protest and political commentary went viral – the top 23 videos received nearly 5. 5 million views. The amount of content produced online by opposition groups, in Facebook and political blogs, increased dramatically. This enormous number not only indicates how popular the Arab Spring is but also implies how important social media are for the Arab Spring. Hussein Amin, professor of mass communications at the  American  University  in  Cairo  said that social networks for the first time provided activists with an opportunity to quickly disseminate information while bypassing government restrictions. † Nowadays, just as much easier for activists to reach their targeted audiences, so too it is for the audiences to learn about new ideas and social events, all thanks to the advents of technologies and the extra amount of time people spend on social networks. Despite all of the factors above, Arab Spring could have never happened if it was not for Bouazizi’s self-emulation. As mentioned above, there was always the fear of being oppressed by the security services. Before the happening of the incident, although the government did not respect people’s dignity, they remained passive and submitted to the repression of their rulers. Therefore, the bad social conditions in the Arab World and those influences from social media have only been the platform for Arab Spring to spark, and the precipitating cause that triggered the uprising is Bouazizi. His act symbolized the frustration and desperation of millions in the Arab world and sett into motion a series of revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa. His death has urged people across the region raise their voice, fight for their own rights, and come fearless of the goverment. His was a cry for dignity, justice, and opportunity, which continues to be heard around a region undergoing tumultuous change. His death has not taken people’s anger to a next level but also gathered people who face the same issues with the government together. Thanks to him, in todays Middle East, people have come to realized that they do matter. Thanks to him, people in the Middle East has learned to voice their concerns and fight for their rights. Many people are now engaged in what could be a life-long struggle to fight long-standing grievances and take greater control of their lives, all thanks to Bouazizi. His death is like that one extra salt crystal that makes a solid form out of a saturated solution; for decades people had been remaining passive and submit to their tyrants and the next second those aging dictators had to crumble just because of one incident. Nothing would have happened if Bouazizi had not reacted against oppression and a lack of espect. The revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt provides a keen example of how new media can be used to afford people political agency. The movement’s participants innovated with the technology to compose coordinated efforts, compose an identities (using the technologies affordances rather than its prescribed templates), compose quickly and deliberately, and compose messag es to change the materiality of where they live. Furthermore, this uprising also reminds people around the world that people do react to social injustice and ill-treatments from the government. It is also of utmost importance not only for the Arab people but also people from all over the world to honor the sacrifice of Bouazizi as he has initiated the revolution that has awakened people’s power and changed the way governments look at their people. Although we cannot tell whether Arab Spring will have fix those social issues in the Arab world and have a positive impact on the society or not, it is a firm confirmation that with today’s social media, people do and will respond to any kind of social justice.

Epidemiological Principles and the Issue of Teen Pregnancy Personal Statement

Epidemiological Principles and the Issue of Teen Pregnancy - Personal Statement Example This legally mandated reporting system provides accurate data on the number of teens giving birth as well as specific demographic details such as race, legal residence, age, and the number of previous births (Martin et.al. 2006).     From this data changes, distribution patterns and trends over time can be monitored and areas for future research and causal relationships can be researched further.   This legally mandated reporting system provides accurate data on the number of teens giving birth as well as specific demographic details such as race, legal residence, age, and the number of previous births (Martin et.al. 2006).     From this data changes, distribution patterns and trends over time can be monitored and areas for future research and causal relationships can be researched further.  Ã‚   Additionally, based upon this ongoing monitoring, programs put into place to reduce or eliminate teenage pregnancy can be evaluated for effectiveness.   This is only possible t hrough this accurate data collection and just as importantly the publishing of results which allows researchers to evaluate and further investigate this serious issue.      The next area that shows the epidemiological principals are applied to the teen pregnancy problem can be found in the anonymity of data collection and studies performed.   Epidemiology focuses on groups of people as opposed to individual cases.   All the government agencies previously discussed as well as private agencies that present statistical data on teen pregnancy deal with teen pregnancy in terms of numbers, percentages and other statistics, which are further broken down into various categories such as race of mother, age, economic background, educational level, number of pregnancies and many other categories as opposed to individual case studies. Based on this ongoing data, researcher further applies principles of epidemiology by analyzing the data and through the scientific method make hypotheses based upon the data as to causal effects and contributing factors that increase the risk of teen pregnancy.   Also based on the data researchers can ascertain life-changing consequences teen mothers face.   These facts are determined by applying the epidemiological principle of studies performed by researchers.   There are according to the CDC two main types of studies observational and experimental.   In the case of teen pregnancy, various types of studies are conducted to evaluate relationships between teen pregnancy and various factors which contribute to it.   Additionally, studies are conducted to evaluate the effect of teenage mothers.  Ã‚  

Reading Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading Assessment - Assignment Example In their past experience, they should also be able to relate to the main character's initial delight at being able to eat all the saccharine-laced food that was being presented and recognize the need to eat other kind of food for their nutritional value. The selection was written in simple language with basic idiomatic expressions that children of their age normally use. There is an introduction to the use of adverbs and usage of present-tense verbs as the selection describes what the character does in candy land. New vocabulary words are highlighted filled with context clues. The context clues will prove useful for describing sensory images that will create an effective mental picture of the dilemma the character experiences as the story progresses. The selection is written in simple language and there would be minimal confusion if the reader's first language was English. Since some of the words are in boldface, the facilitator can develop an exercise where the readers figure which of those words fit in each item of the exercise. It can focus on vocabulary mastery or grammar skills. There were some sentence patterns that might need further explanation for the readers as they are filled with modifiers, clauses and other word groups. They can be taught to identify the key words and the main components of the sentence patterns to comprehend the complex sentence structure. Most of the words tha... Students will be encouraged to read the selection by paragraphs so that they will be able to form hypotheses and predict outcomes for the next set of paragraphs. Word families will also be incorporated so that they get to recognize word patterns in the story in order to get a new word's meaning lacking context clues. Students will be encouraged to enrich the vocabulary they already know through creation of original sentences which may not be related to the read selection. Summary Gunning (1996) believes that the reading theories are interconnected and that the learner will make use of these reading theories to comprehend the selection. Huffman (1998) on the other hand, thinks that students will resort to the KWL method, an acronym that describes reading comprehension occurs accordingly: what the students know, what the students want to know and what was learned. The reading activities can be structured according to the KWL method but incorporating the skills described in the reading theories. The unit plan can be built around this text as it can be enriched through language development. However, since this is upper-level elementary, the students will crave for a variety of selection to read. There could be one prevailing theme, as in balanced nutrition in this selection, but made up of various reading texts of gradually increasing complexity. Bibliography A Sweet Adventure. (2007). Retrieved January 12, 2010, from ABC Teach website: http://www.abcteach.com/free/r/rc_sweetadventure_elemupper.pdf Gunning, T. G. (1996). Creating Reading Instruction for All Children, (6), 192-236. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Huffman, L. E. (1998). Spotlighting Specifics by Combining Focus Questions with K-W-L.

Turkey military and islamists Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Turkey military and islamists - Research Paper Example retained the leadership for three consecutive terms without being overthrown by the military or being removed through the intervention of a constitutional court since multipartism in 1946. The conflict between political parties and the military have destabilized Turkey’s leadership over a long period. The fight between the constitution and Muslim religion has characterized the politics of Turkey. Turkey is officially a secular state as per the provisions of the constitution and their traditions. The constitution governs the activities of the political parties; it provides that any anti-secular political party can be banned by the constitutional court. An Islamic movement started finding its way in the country’s politics in the 1980s in an effort to fight for the economic inequality in the country. The movement has stood in favour of Islamic democracy based on the Islamic Sharia law and has attempted to bring these aspects in the Turkish politics. The military has intervened severally to bring down the extremism by some of these parties. The current leadership by the Justice and Development party has veered off from the stands that were upheld by the previous regimes. The party has Islamic roots but its ideologies have helped it in retaining leadership in the country that h as seen intensive military confrontation with the Islamic parties. Erdogan has been pro-west and has distanced his party from any religious inclination, an aspect that has helped the party remain in harmony with the constitutional provisions. The history of the rise of Islamic politics and the military engagements dates way back in the early 20th Century. Kemalism is an ideology that has been developed from the founder of the country, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk . In the process of its development, the country made a number of changes including an education system that focussed on the pre-Islamic civilizations of the Turkish people. The reforms that were made did not deter the people from

5.8 Ghz Laptop Based Radar System Research Paper

5.8 Ghz Laptop Based Radar System - Research Paper Example This project will involve carrying out a series of experiments during the implementation of the Radar kit. Some of the experiments will include measuring the speed of passing cars. This system contains design slides, circuit schematics with a high resolution image. The MATLAB is installed in the laptop and a code is used for every stage of the experiment. The Radar system has 3 different modes it uses to operate which include Doppler, time and range. The system contains the modulator1 which produces linear ramp to regulate the pin in the OSC1. The modulator 1 makes the system one of the most complicated radar. The linear ramping plays an important role in the system of causing OSC1 to produce a linear FM chirp. This chip transmits and receives with the desired set magnitude. The system also uses a power supply and battery pack which consists of 2 battery packs and 12VDC power analog circuits. The battery packs are 4 AA batteries with each of them producing 6V and 12V. The report also indicates the bill of materials for all equipment needed in the making of this Radar system to enable proper budgeting. This is an important aspect because being a student, they issue of finance cannot be overlooked under any circumstances. The Radar system is important because of its efficiency especially because it uses modern technology. This makes it very effective because it has a high frequency of 5.8GHz and has clear images. The reason behind choosing this project is that a laptop-based radar sensor system is capable of measuring Doppler, range and it is also able to form synthetic aperture radar images. Its frequency of 5.8GHz is different from others and the idea is new in the industry. This new idea is meant to bring revolution the sector of producing laptop that have high frequency and with improved

Sentencing Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sentencing - Term Paper Example Contextually, there are various considerations and provisions under the aforementioned clause, wherein courts are required to perform a review of every case in relation to proportionality (Gardner & Anderson, 2011). The major considerations and provisions that are included in proportionality in the US Courts are as follows. The magnitude of the crime committed and the severity of the punishment sentenced Sentences that are enforced for identical criminal acts in similar jurisdictions Sentences that are enforced for identical criminal acts in relation to other jurisdictions Source: (Gardner & Anderson, 2011) The principle of proportionality came into practice following the case rule in Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 227 (1983) and subsequently, the Supreme Court of the US implemented the procedures in accordance with which proportionality amid crime and penalty were to be evaluated. The case of Pulley v. Harris, 1984 can also be regarded as a landmark case in the history of developing the pr inciple of proportionality by the US Supreme Court Gardner & Anderson, 2011). ... Contextually, there are certain groups of individuals who cannot be offered with the death punishment sentence. These individuals include defendants who are (i) mentally retarded or insane, or (ii) are juveniles under 18 years of age and (iii) defendants who are found to be guilty in aiding a felony act but restrains from committing a homicide or a similar category of felony themselves (Gardner & Anderson, 2011). For an example, in the case of Graham v. Florida (No. 08-7412) (2010), the delivered judgment advocated that Graham (the defendant) committed robbery and armed burglary crimes. Later, Graham was charged with additional crimes and accordingly, the trial court canceled his probation terms, convicting him with life imprisonment punishment sentence. Graham then appealed and charged against his sentences under ‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause’. Contextually, in accordance with the principle of the clause, because Graham was a juvenile, it was ruled that he could not be sentenced with life imprisonment of death penalty without parole in case of non-homicide crime (Cornell University Law School, 2010). The ‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause’, under the provisions of the US Supreme Court, also states that mentally retarded people or insane convicts cannot be deemed eligible to be punished with death sentence, but can be or life imprisonment [Ford v. Wainwright (No. 85-5542) 752 F.2d 526, reversed and remanded] (Cornell University Law School, n.d.). As mentioned above, the principle also prohibits the US courts from delivering a death sentence to a convict who is found guilty to aid and/or abet a homicide crime or equivalent criminal offence(s) but is not directly responsible for the committed crime [Enmund v. Florida (No. 81-5321) 399 So.2d

Media assignment Essay Example for Free

Media assignment Essay The article Bad parents? Expel kids has three underlying psychological assumptions or issues. The first is that teachers are applying for new rules to allow them to expel pupils who have badly behaved parents;  Head teachersdemanded new laws to allow them to expel pupils whose parents are violent or abusive towards staff  The teachers are wanting to do this as they believe that if the parents show abusive behaviour, their children will show similar behaviour as parents are seen as role models. This links with Bandura et als Bashing Bobo study, where they showed how childrens behaviour changes to how they see adults conduct themselves. Also in the article is the view that teaching boards should be able to do everything in their powers to parents who neglect their children;  Education authorities are failing to use their powerto tackle feckless parents  Feckless parents refer to those who let their children do whatever they want to. If the parents do not make their children go to school then this will be seen as the right thing to do. This links to Skinner, a behaviourist, and his study of operant conditioning. The third psychological issue is when the general secretary of the national association of head teachers, David Hart, states; that he believes that if a parent and school has a bad relationship, then the schools should have no obligation to teach their children.  If relations between a school and a particular parenthas broken down I really dont think we should educate their children  He believes that poor relationships between schools and parents will have bad effects on the pupils education. These poor relationships link to Tajfels study on insiders and outsiders. Bandura et als experiment on Bashing bobo provides the psychological evidence behind the first issue. They created a number of situations using groups of small children, different toys a large doll (bobo) and a role model (an adult who demonstrated different behaviours). Bandura et al found that the children who were shown no violent behaviour by the model, towards bobo, showed none or little violent behaviour. However, a large proportion of the children who were shown violent behaviour towards bobo acted in a violent way also. This links to the article where teachers believe they should have the power to expel pupils whose parents are abusive towards teaching staff. This is because all parents are role models for their children. Therefore the children will see the behaviour of their parents and believe this to be the way to act. In 1938 a behaviourist called Skinner carried out a study on rats where he showed how the rats behaviour could be shaped until it learned what was required. This study supplies the psychological evidence behind the second assumption in the newspaper article. Skinner created a habitat for rats which included a lever in its cage. To start with if the rat got close to the lever food would come out of a hatch. This process progressed until the rats actually had to push the lever to receive the food. When this was learnt, the rat did not actually think consciously what it was doing, it just did it when it wanted food. This relates to the article as if these feckless parents persist in not making their children go to school then their behaviour will be shaped as they will view this behaviour to be correct. They will do this without even thinking about what they are doing or the consequences. The psychological evidence that lies behind the third issue raised is that of Tajfels study of insiders and outsiders. Tajfel carried out a study, in which there were 64 schoolboy subjects, into intergroup discrimination. He placed the boys into different groups, although the children did not know who else was in the group. He then asked them to assign money in certain ways. He found that the boys discriminated against the groups other than his own. This shows ethnocentrism, where we believe that the group we belong to is the norm and all other groups are not as good. This links to the article and the poor relations between teachers and parents. This could show that the parents believe they are better than the teachers as they are not part of their group. Therefore the teachers are discriminated against. This could go onto show that as the parents believe this so will their children, so they to will discriminate against the teachers.  In relation to the first psychological assumption I would suggest that head teachers are given the right to expel pupils whose parents are abusive towards teachers. If these changes were made then the abusive parents may think more about the consequences of their behaviour. If their attitude did change then their children would perceive this as how to act, as parents are role models. Therefore the childrens attitude would also change. This change in rules for head teachers may act as operant conditioning, which links to the study on this by Skinner. A suggestion base on the second psychological issue would be to arrange behaviour modification sessions with the feckless parents. These sessions will tell them that they need to make their children go to school as they will be rewarded in the long run. This would be because their children may get better jobs and therefore the parents will be proud and may benefit financially. The shaping of the parents behaviour will then be seen by the children and their views towards school will also change. Also the parents may encourage their children to go to school, they will do this as they will both ultimately benefit. Based on the third issue within the article I would suggest that the parents whose relationships with schools have broken down should be sent a very formal letter inviting them in for a talk. During this talk they should be shown how difficult it is to teach pupils whose parents have no respect for them. They should be told that the pupils also believe that teachers deserve no respect. If a normal relationship can be made then the students may look at this and also change their relationship with their teachers. References Oliver, K (2000) Psychology and Everyday Life. Hodder and Stoughton.