Feminist Approach to Witchcraft; Case Study: Miller’s the Crucible

Title: Re(dis)covering the Witches in Arthur Miller's The Crucible: A Feminist Reading Author(s): Wendy Schissel Publication Details: Modern Drama 37. 3 (Fall 1994): p461-473. Source: Drama Criticism. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. Document Type: Critical essay Bookmark: Bookmark this Document Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage LearningTitle Re(dis)covering the Witches in Arthur Miller's The Crucible: A Feminist Reading [(essay date fall 1994) In the following essay, Schissel offers a feminist reading of The Crucible, in an effort to deconstruct â€Å"the phallologocentric sanctions implicit in Miller's account of Abigail's fate, Elizabeth's confession, and John's temptation and death. ] Arthur Miller's The Crucible is a disturbing work, not only because of the obvious moral dilemma that is irresolutely solved by John Proctor's death, but also because of the treatment that Abigail and Elizabeth receive at Miller's hands and at the hands of critics. In forty years of criticism very little has been said about the ways in which The Crucible reinforces stereotypes of femme fatales and cold and unforgiving wives in order to assert apparently universal virtues. It is a morality play based upon a questionable androcentric morality.Like Proctor, The Crucible â€Å"[roars] down† Elizabeth, making her concede a fault which is not hers but of Miller's making: â€Å"It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery,†1 she admits in her final meeting with her husband. Critics have seen John as a â€Å"tragically heroic common man,†2 humanly tempted, â€Å"a just man in a universe gone mad,†3 but they have never given Elizabeth similar consideration, nor have they deconstructed the phallologocentric sanctions implicit in Miller's account of Abigail's fate, Elizabeth's confession, and John's temptation and death.As a feminist reader of the 1990s, I am troubled by the unrecognized fallout from the existential humanism that Mille r and his critics have held dear. The Crucible is in need of an/Other reading, one that reveals the assumptions of the text, the author, and the reader/critic who â€Å"is part of the shared consciousness created by the [play]. â€Å"4 It is time to reveal the vicarious enjoyment that Miller and his critics have found in a cathartic male character who has enacted their exual and political fantasies. The setting of The Crucible is a favoured starting point in an analysis of the play. Puritan New England of 1692 may indeed have had its parallels to McCarthy's America of 1952,5 but there is more to the paranoia than xenophobia–of Natives and Communists, respectively. Implicit in Puritan theology, in Miller's version of the Salem witch trials, and all too frequent in the society which has produced Miller's critics is gynecophobia–fear and distrust of women.The â€Å"half dozen heavy books† (36) which the zealous Reverend Hale endows on Salem â€Å"like a bridegro om to his beloved, bearing gifts† (132) are books on witchcraft from which he has acquired an â€Å"armory of symptoms, catchwords, and diagnostic procedures† (36). A 1948 edition of the 1486 Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches), with a foreword by Montague Summers, may have prompted Miller's inclusion of seventeenth-century and Protestant elucidations upon a work originally sanctioned by the Roman Church. Hale's books would be â€Å"highly misogynic† tomes, for like the Malleus they would be premised on the belief that â€Å"‘All witchcraft comes from carnal lust which in women is insatiable. ‘†7 The authors of the Maleus, two Dominican monks, Johan Sprenger and Heinrich Kraemer, were writing yet another fear-filled version of the apocryphal bad woman: they looked to Ecclesiasties which declares the wickedness of a woman is all evil †¦ there is no anger above the anger of a woman. It will be more agreeable to abide with a lion and a dr agon, than to dwell with a wicked woman †¦ rom the woman came the beginning of sin, and by her we all die. (25:17, 23, 33) The Crucible is evidence that Miller partakes of similar fears about wicked, angry, or wise women; even if his complicity in such gynecophobia is unwitting–and that is the most generous thing we can accord him, a â€Å"misrecognition† of himself and his reputation-conscious hero John as the authors of a subjectivity8 which belongs exclusively to men–the result for generations of readers has been the same.In Salem, the majority of witches condemned to die were women. Even so, Salem's numbers were negligible9 compared with the gynocide in Europe: Andrea Dworkin quotes a moderate estimate of nine million witches executed at a ratio of women to men of as much as 100 to 1. 10 Miller assures us in one of his editorial and political (and long and didactic) comments, that despite the Puritans' belief in witchcraft, â€Å"there were no witchesà ¢â‚¬  (35) in Salem; his play, however, belies his claim, and so do his critics.The Crucible is filled with witches, from the wise woman/healer Rebecca Nurse to the black woman Tituba, who initiates the girls into the dancing which has always been part of the communal celebrations of women healers/witches. 11 But the most obvious witch in Miller's invention upon Salem history is Abigail Williams. She is the consummate seductress; the witchcraft hysteria in the play originates in her carnal lust for Proctor. Miller describes Abigail as â€Å"a strikingly beautiful girl †¦ ith an endless capacity for dissembling† (8-9). In 1953, William Hawkins called Abigail â€Å"an evil child†;12 in 1967, critic Leonard Moss said she was a â€Å"malicious figure† and â€Å"unstable†;13 in 1987, June Schlueter and James Flanagan proclaimed her â€Å"a whore,†14 echoing Proctor's â€Å"How do you call Heaven! Whore! Whore! † (109); and in 1989, Bernard Dukore suggested that â€Å"if the ‘strikingly beautiful' Abigail's behaviour in the play is an indication, she may have been the one to take the initiative. 15 The critics forget what Abigail cannot: â€Å"John Proctor †¦ took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! † (24). They, like Miller, underplay so as not openly to condone the â€Å"natural† behaviour of a man tempted to adultery because of a young woman's beauty and precociousness, her proximity in a house where there is also an apparently frigid wife, and the repression of Puritan society and religion. Abigail is a delectable commodity in what Luce Irigaray has termed a â€Å"dominant scopic economy. 16 We are covertly invited to equate John's admirable rebellion at the end of the play–against the unconscionable demands of implicating others in a falsely acknowledged sin of serving that which is antithetical to community (the Puritans called that antithesis the devil)–with h is more self-serving rebellion against its sexual mores. The subtle equation allows Miller not only to project fault upon Abigail, but also to make what is really a cliched act of adultery on John's part much more interesting.Miller wants us to recognize, if not celebrate, the individual trials of his existential hero, a â€Å"spokesman for rational feeling and disinterested intelligence† in a play about â€Å"integrity and its obverse, compromise. â€Å"17 Mary Daly might describe the scholarly support that Miller has received for his fantasy-fulfilling hero as â€Å"The second element of the Sado-Ritual [of the witch-craze] †¦ [an] erasure of responsibility. â€Å"18 No critic has asked, though, how a seventeen-year-old girl, raised in the household of a Puritan minister, can have the knowledge of how to seduce a man. The only rationale offered scapegoats another woman, Tituba, complicating gynecophobia with xenophobia. ) The omission on Miller's and his critics' p arts implies that Abigail's sexual knowledge must be inherent in her gender. I see the condemnation of Abigail as an all too common example of blaming the victim. Mercy Lewis's reaction to John is another indictment of the sexual precociousness of the girls of Salem. Obviously knowledgeable of John and Abigail's affair, Mercy is both afraid of John and, Miller says, â€Å"strangely titillated† as she â€Å"sidles out† of the room (21).Mary Warren, too, knows: â€Å"Abby'll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor† (80), she says when he demands she tell what she knows about the â€Å"poppet† to the court. John is aghast: â€Å"She's told you! † (80). Rather than condemning John, all these incidents are included to emphasize the â€Å"vengeance of a little girl† (79), and, I would add, to convince the reader who is supposed to sympathize with John (or to feel titillation himself) that no girl is a â€Å"good girl,† free of sexual knowledge, that each is her mother Eve's daughter.The fact is, however, that Salem's young women, who have been preached at by a fire and brimstone preacher, Mr. Parris, are ashamed of their bodies. A gynocritical reading of Mary Warren's cramps after Sarah Good mumbles her displeasure at being turned away from the Proctor's door empty-handed is explainable as a â€Å"curse† of a more periodic nature: But what does she mumble? You must remember, Goody Proctor. Last Month–a Monday, I think–she walked away, and I thought my guts would burst for two days after. Do you remember it? 58) The â€Å"girls† are the inheritors of Eve's sin, and their bodies are their reminders. Though, like all young people, they find ways to rebel–just because adolescence did not exist in Puritan society does not mean that the hormones did not flow–they are seriously repressed. And the most insidious aspect of that repression, in a society in which girls are not considered wome n until they marry (as young as fourteen, or significantly, with the onset of menses), is the turning of the young women's frustrations upon members of their own gender.It is not so strange as Proctor suggests for â€Å"a Christian girl to hang old women! † (58), when one such Christian girl claims her position in society with understandable determination: â€Å"I'll not be ordered to bed no more, Mr. Proctor! I am eighteen and a woman, however single! † (60). Paradoxically, of course, the discord only serves to prove the assumptions of a parochial society about the jealousies of women, an important aspect of this play in which Miller makes each woman in John's life claim herself as his rightful spouse: Elizabeth assures him that â€Å"I will be your only wife, or no wife at all! (62); and Abigail makes her heart's desire plain with â€Å"I will make you such a wife when the world is white again! † (150). To realize her claim Abigail has sought the help of vood oo–Tituba's and the court's–to get rid of Elizabeth, but not without clear provocation on John's part. Miller misses an opportunity to make an important comment upon the real and perceived competitions for men forced upon women in a patriarchal society by subsuming the women's concerns within what he knows his audience will recognize as more admirable communal and idealistic concerns.The eternal triangle motif, while it serves many interests for Miller, is, ultimately, less important than the overwhelming nobility of John's Christ-like martyrdom; against that the women's complaints seem petty indeed, and an audience whose collective consciousness recognizes a dutifully repentent hero also sees the women in his life as less sympathetic. 19 For Abigail and Elizabeth also represent the extremes of female sexuality–sultriness and frigidity, respectively–which test a man's body, endanger his spirit, and threaten his â€Å"natural† dominance or needs.In order to make Abigail's seductive capability more believable and John's culpability less pronounced, Miller has deliberately raised Abigail's age (â€Å"A Note on the Historical Accuracy of This Play†) from twelve to seventeen. 20 He introduces us to John and Abigail in the first act with John's acknowledgement of her young age. Abby–the diminutive form of her name is not to be missed–is understandably annoyed: â€Å"How do you call me child! † (23). We already know about his having â€Å"clutched† her back behind his house and â€Å"sweated like a stallion† at her every approach (22).Despite Abigail's allegations, Miller achieves the curious effect of making her the apparent aggressor in this scene–as critical commentary proves. Miller's ploy, to blame a woman for the Fall of a good man, is a sleight of pen as old as the Old Testament. There is something too convenient in the fact that â€Å"legend has it that Abigail turned up late r as a prostitute in Boston† (â€Å"Echoes Down the Corridor†). Prostitution is not only the oldest profession, but it is also the oldest evidence for the law of supply and demand. Men demand sexual services of women they in turn regard as socially deviant.Miller's statement of Abigail's fate resounds with implicit forgiveness for the man who is unwittingly tempted by a fatal female, a conniving witch. Miller's treatment of Abigail in the second scene of Act Two, left out of the original reading version and most productions but included as an appendix in contemporary texts of the play, is also dishonest. Having promised Elizabeth as she is being taken away in chains that â€Å"I will fall like an ocean on that court! Fear nothing† (78)–at the end of the first scene of Act Two–John returns to Abigail, alone and at night.The scene is both anticlimactic and potentially damning of the hero. What may have begun as Miller's attempt to have the rational Jo hn reason with Abigail, even with the defense that Elizabeth has adjured him to talk to her (61)–although that is before Elizabeth is herself accused–ends in a discussion that is dangerous to John's position in the play. Miller wants us to believe, as Proctor does â€Å"seeing her madness† when she reveals her self-inflicted injuries, that Abigail is insane: â€Å"I'm holes all over from their damned needles and pins† (149).While Miller may have intended her madness to be a metaphor for her inherent evil–sociologists suggest that madness replaced witchcraft as a pathology to be treated not by burning or hanging but by physicians and incarceration in mental institutions21–he must have realized he ran the risk of making her more sympathetic than he intended. Miller is intent upon presenting John as a man haunted by guilt and aware of his own hypocrisy, and to make Abigail equally aware, even in a state of madness, is too risky.Her long speech about John's â€Å"goodness† cannot be tolerated because its irony is too costly to John. Why, you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were fire you walked me through, and all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, John, we lay in fire. And from that night no woman dare call me wicked any more but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the wind lifted up my skirts; and blushed for shame because some old Rebecca called me loose. And then you burned my ignorance away. As bare as some December ree I saw them all–walking like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites in their hearts! And God gave me strength to call them liars, and God made men to listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! (150)22 We must not forget, either, when we are considering critical commentary, that we are dealing with an art form which has a specular dimension. The many Abigails of the stage have no doubt contributed to the unacknowledged view of Abigail as siren/witch that so many critics have.In Jed Harris's original production in 1953, in Miller's own production of the same year (to which the later excised scene was first added), and in Laurence Olivier's 1965 production, Abigail was played by an actress in her twenties, not a young girl. The intent on each director's part had to have been to make Abigail's lust for John believable. Individual performers have consistently enacted the siren's role: The eyes of Madeleine Sherwood, who played Abigail in 1953, glowed with lust †¦ [but] Perhaps the most impressive Abigail has been that of Sarah Miles in 1965. A â€Å"plaguingly sexy mixture of beauty and crossness† †¦Miles â€Å"reeks with the cunning of suppressed evil and steams with the promise of suppressed passion. â€Å"23 Only the 1980 production of The Crucible by Bill Bryden employed girls who looked even younger than seventeen. Dukore suggests that Bryden's solution to th e fact that John's â€Å"seduction of a teenage girl half his age appears not to have impressed [critics] as a major fault† was â€Å"ingenious yet (now that he has done it) obvious. â€Å"24 Abigail is not the only witch in Miller's play, though; Elizabeth, too, is a hag. But it is Elizabeth who is most in need of feminist reader-redemption.If John is diminished as Christian hero by a feminist deconstruction, the diminution is necessary to a balanced reading of the play and to a revised mythopoeia of the paternalistic monotheism of the Puritans and its twentieth-century equivalent, the existential mysticism of Miller. John's sense of guilt is intended by Miller to act as salve to any emotional injuries given his wife and his own conscience. When his conscience cannot be calmed, when he quakes at doing what he knows must be done in revealing Abigail's deceit, it is upon Elizabeth that he turns his wrath: Spare me! You forget nothin' and forgive nothin'.Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she is gone. I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house. (54-55) What we are meant to read as understandably defensive anger–that is if we read within the patriarchal framework in which the play is written–must be re-evaluated; such a reading must be done in the light of Elizabeth's logic–paradoxically, the only â€Å"cold† thing about her.She is right when she turns his anger back on him with â€Å"the magistrate sits in your heart that judges you† (55). She is also right on two other counts. First, John has â€Å"a faulty understanding of young girls. There is a promise made in any bed† (61). The uninitiated and obviously self-punishing Abigail may be excused for thinking as she does (once again in the excised scene) that he is â€Å"singing secret hallelujahs that [his] wife will hang! † (152) Second, John does retain some tender feelings for Abigail despite his indignation.Elizabeth's question reverberates with insight: â€Å"if it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not† (54). John has already admitted to Abigail–and to us–in the first act that â€Å"I may think of you softly from time to time† (23), and he does look at her with â€Å"the faintest suggestion of a knowing smile on his face† (21). And John's use of wintry images of Elizabeth and their home in Act Two–â€Å"It's winter in her yet† (51)–echoes the imagery used by Abigail in Act One. 25 John is to Abigail â€Å"no wintry man,† but one whose â€Å"heat† has drawn her to her window to see him looking up (23).She is the one who describes Elizabeth as â€Å"a cold, snivelling woman† (24), but it is Miller's favoured imagery for a stereotypically frigid wife who is no less a witch (in patriarchal lore) than a hot-blooded sperm-stealer like Abigail. Exacerbating all of this is the fact that John lies to Elizabeth about having been alone with Abigail in Parris's house; Miller would have us believe that John lies to save Elizabeth pain, but I believe he lies out of a rationalizing habit that he carries forward to his death. Miller may want to be kind to Elizabeth, but he cannot manage that and John's heroism, too.Act Two opens with Elizabeth as hearth angel singing softly offstage to the children who are, significantly, never seen in the play, and bringing John his supper–stewed rabbit which, she says, â€Å"it hurt my heart to strip† (50). But in the space of four pages Miller upbraids her six times. First, John â€Å"is not quite pleased† (49) with the taste of Elizabeth's stew, and before she appears on stage he adds salt to it. Second, th ere is a â€Å"certain disappointment† (50) for John in the way Elizabeth receives his kiss. Third, John's request for â€Å"Cider? made â€Å"as gently as he can† (51) leaves Elizabeth â€Å"reprimanding herself for having forgot† (51). Fourth, John reminds Elizabeth of the cold atmosphere in their house: â€Å"You ought to bring flowers in the house †¦ It's winter in here yet† (51). Fifth, John perceives Elizabeth's melancholy as something perennial: â€Å"I think you're sad again† (51, emphasis added). And sixth, and in a more overtly condemning mood, John berates Elizabeth when he discovers that she has allowed Mary Warren to go to Salem to testify: â€Å"It is a fault, it is a fault, Elizabeth–you're the mistress here† (52).Cumulatively, these criticisms work to arouse sympathy for a man who would season his meal, his home, and his amour, a man who is meant to appeal to us because of his sensual awareness of spring's erotic promise: â€Å"It's warm as blood beneath the clods† (50), and â€Å"I never see such a load of flowers on the earth. †¦ Lilacs have a purple smell. Lilac is the smell of nightfall† (51). We, too, are seasoned to believe that John really does â€Å"[aim] to please† Elizabeth, and that Elizabeth is relentless in her admonishing of John for his affair, of which she is knowledgeable.It is for John that we are to feel sympathy when he says, â€Å"Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband more† (54). Miller has informed us of several ways in which Elizabeth could improve herself. Neil Carson claims that â€Å"Miller intends the audience to view Proctor ironically† in this scene; Proctor, he says, is â€Å"a man who is rationalising in order to avoid facing himself,† and at the beginning of Act Two â€Å"Proctor is as guilty as any of projecting his own faults onto others. 26 While I find much in Carson's enti re chapter on The Crucible as sensitive a criticism of the play as any written, I am still uncomfortable about the fact that a â€Å"tragic victory† for the protagonist27 necessarily means an admission of guilt for his wife–once again, it seems to me, a victim is being blamed. No critic, not even Carson, questions Miller's insistence that Elizabeth is at least partly to blame for John's infidelity. Her fate is sealed in the lie she tells for love of her husband because she proves him a liar: â€Å"as in All My Sons,† says critic Leonard Moss, â€Å"a woman inadvertently betrays her husband. 28 John has told several lies throughout the play, but it is Elizabeth's lie that the critics (and Miller) settle upon, for once again the lie fits the stereotype–woman as liar, woman as schemer, woman as witch sealing the fate of man the would-be hero. But looked at another way, Elizabeth is not a liar. The question put to her by Judge Danforth is â€Å"Is [present tense] your husband a lecher! † (113). Elizabeth can in good conscience respond in the negative for she knows the affair to be over. She has no desire to condemn the man who has betrayed her, for she believes John to be nothing but a â€Å"good man †¦ nly somewhat bewildered† (55). Once again, though, her comment condemns her because an audience hears (and Miller perhaps intends) condescension on her part. The patriarchal reading is invited by John's ironic response: â€Å"Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer! † (55). What seems to be happening is that Goody Proctor is turned into a goody two-shoes, a voice of morality. Why we should expect anything else of Elizabeth, raised within a Puritan society and a living example of its valued â€Å"good woman,† escapes me.I find it amazing that the same rules made but not obeyed by â€Å"good† men can be used to condemn the women who do adhere to them. The other thing which Miller and the criti cs seem unwilling to acknowledge is the hurt that Elizabeth feels over John's betrayal; instead, her anger, elicited not specifically about the affair but about the incident with the poppet, following hard upon the knowledge of Giles Corey's wife having been taken, is evidence that she is no good woman. Her language condemns her: â€Å"[Abigail] is murder! She must be ripped out of the world! † (76).Anger in woman, a danger of which Ecclesiastes warns, has been cause for locking her up for centuries. After Elizabeth's incarceration, and without her persistent logic, Miller is able to focus on John and his sense of failure. But Elizabeth's last words as she is taken from her home are about the children: â€Å"When the children wake, speak nothing of witchcraft–it will frighten them. She cannot go on. †¦ Tell the children I have gone to visit someone sick† (77-78). I find it strange that John's similar concerns when he has torn up the confession– "I have three children–how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my riends? † (143)–should be valued above Elizabeth's. Is it because the children are boys? Is it because Elizabeth is expected to react in the maternal fashion that she does, but for John to respond thus is a sign of sensitive masculinity? Is it because the communal as defined by the Word is threatened by the integrity of women? And why is maintaining a name more important than living? At least alive he might attend to his children's daily needs–after all, we are told about the sad situation of the â€Å"orphans walking from house to house† (130). 9 It would be foolish to argue that John does not suffer–that, after all, is the point of the play. But what of Elizabeth's suffering? She is about to lose her husband, her children are without parents, she is sure to be condemned to death as well. Miller must, once again, diminish the threat that Elizabeth offers to John's martyrdom, for he has created a woman who does not lie, who her husband believes would not give the court the admission of guilt â€Å"if tongs of fire were singeing† her (138).Miller's play about the life and death struggle for a man's soul, cannot be threatened by a woman's struggle. In order to control his character, Miller impregnates her. The court will not sentence an unborn child, so Elizabeth does not have to make a choice. Were she to choose to die without wavering in her decision, as both John and Miller think she would, she would be a threat to the outcome of the play and the sympathy which is supposed to accrue to John.Were she to make the decision to live, for the reasons which Reverend Hale stresses, that â€Å"Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it† (132), she would undermine existential integrity with compromise. I am not reading another version of The Crucible, one which Mi ller did not intend, but rather looking at the assumptions inherent in his intentions, assumptions that Miller seems oblivious to and which his critics to date have questioned far too little.I, too, can read the play as a psychological and ethical contest which no one wins, and of which it can be said that both John and Elizabeth are expressions of men and women with all their failings and nobility, but I am troubled by the fact that Elizabeth is seldom granted even that much, that so much is made of Elizabeth's complicity in John's adultery, and that the victim of John's â€Å"virility,†30 Abigail, is blamed because she is evil and/or mad. I do want to question the gender stereotypes in the play nd in the criticism that has been written about it. Let me indulge finally for a moment in another kind of criticism, one that is a fiction, or more precisely, a â€Å"crypto-friction† that defies â€Å"stratifications of canonical thought† and transgresses generic boun daries of drama/fiction and criticism. 31 Like Virginia Woolf I would like to speculate on a play written by a fictional sister to a famous playwright. Let us call Arthur Miller's wide-eyed younger sister, who believes she can counter a scopic economy by stepping beyond the mirror, Alice Miller.In Alice's play, Elizabeth and John suffer equally in a domestic problem which is exacerbated by the hysteria around them. John does not try to intimidate Elizabeth with his anger, and she is not described as cold or condescending. Abigail is a victim of an older man's lust and not inherently a â€Å"bad girl†; she is not beautiful or if she is the playwright does not make so much of it. Her calling out of witches would be explained by wiser critics as the result of her fear and her confusion, not her lust.There is no effort made in Alice's play to create a hero at the expense of the female characters, or a heroine at the expense of a male character. John is no villain, but–as a nother male victim/hero character, created by a woman, describes himself–â€Å"a trite, commonplace sinner,†32 trying to right a wrong he admits–without blaming others. Or, here is another version, written by another, more radical f(r)ictional sister, Mary Miller, a real hag. In it, all the witches celebrate the death of John Proctor.The idea comes from two sources: first, a question from a female student who wanted to know if part of Elizabeth's motivation in not pressing her husband to confess is her desire to pay him back for his betrayal; and second, from a response to Jean-Paul Sartre's ending for the film Les Sorcieres de Salem. In his 1957 version of John Proctor's story, Sartre identifies Elizabeth â€Å"with the God of prohibiting sex and the God of judgment,† but he has her save Abigail, who tries to break John out of jail and is in danger of being hanged as a traitor too, because Elizabeth realizes â€Å"‘she loved [John]. † As the film ends, â€Å"Abigail stands shocked in a new understanding. â€Å"33 In Mary Miller's version Elizabeth is not identified with the male God of the Word, but with the goddesses of old forced into hiding or hanged because of a renaissance of patriarchal ideology. Mary's witches come together, alleged seductress and cold wife alike, not for love of a man who does not deserve either, but to celebrate life and their victory over male character, playwright, and critics, â€Å"‘men in power' †¦ ho create and identify with the roles of both the victimizers and the victims,† men who Mary Miller would suggest â€Å"vicariously enjoyed the women's suffering. â€Å"34 Notes 1. Arthur Miller, The Crucible (New York, 1981), 137. The play was originally published in 1953, but all further references to The Crucible are to the 1981 Penguin edition, and will be noted parenthetically in the text. 2. June Schlueter and James K. Flanagan, Arthur Miller (New York, 1987), 68. 3. Neil Carson, Arthur Miller (New York, 1982), 61. 4. Sandra Kemp, â€Å"‘But how describe a world seen without self? Feminism, fiction and modernism,† Critical Quarterly 32:1 (1990), 99-118: 104. 5. Miller's interest in the Salem witchcraft trials predated his confrontation with McCarthyism (see E. Miller Budick, â€Å"History and Other Spectres in The Crucible,† Arthur Miller, ed. Harold Bloom (New York, 1987), 127-28, but it is also clear from the Introduction to Miller's Collected Plays Vol 1 (New York, 1957) that he capitalized upon popular response and critical commentary which linked the two. Miller has been, it seems, a favoured critic on the subject of Arthur Miller. 6. In 1929 George L.Kittredge published a work called Witchcraft in Old and New England (Cambridge) in which he remarked that â€Å"the doctrines of our forefathers differed [in regard to witchcraft] from the doctrines of the Roman and Anglican Church in no essential–one may safely ad d, in no particular† (21). In GynEcology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (Boston, 1978), Mary Daly says that during the European witch burnings–she does not deal with the Salem witch trials–Protestants â€Å"vied with and even may have surpassed their catholic counterparts in their fanaticism and cruelty† (185-86). . Cited by Peter Conrad and Joseph W. Schneider, Deviance and Medicalization: From Badness to Sickness, expanded edition (Philadelphia, 1992), 42. 8. Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory (Oxford, 1987), 30-31. 9. â€Å"[N]ineteen women and men and two dogs were hanged, one man was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and 150 were imprisoned† (see Schlueter and Flanagan, 72). 10. â€Å"Remembering the Witches,† Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics (London, 1982), 16-17.See also the 1990 National Film Board production, The Burning Times, directed by Donna Read, which declares the Euro pean executions for witchcraft to have been a â€Å"women's holocaust. † Of the nine million people the film numbers among the burned, hanged, or otherwise disposed of, 85 per cent, it reports, were women. 11. The Burning Times discusses at length the place of women healers in Third-World cultures. 12. From Hawkins's review of the play in File on Miller, ed. Christopher Bigsby (London, 1988), 30. 3. Leonard Moss, Arthur Miller (New York, 1967), 60, 63. 14. Schlueter and Flanagan, 69. 15. Bernard Dukore, â€Å"Death of a Salesman† and â€Å"The Crucible†: Text and Performance (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London, 1989), 50. 16. Luce Irigaray, â€Å"This Sex Which Is Not One,† New French Feminisms: An Anthology, ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron (Amherst, 1980), 101. 17. The only critic I have read who has made comments even remotely similar to my own regarding Abigail is Neil Carson.In a 1982 book he remarks that â€Å"Abigail is portr ayed as such an obviously bad piece of goods that it takes a clear-eyed French critic to point out that Proctor was not only twice the age of the girl he seduced, but as her employer he was breaking a double trust† (75). Despite his insight, when it comes to explaining the effect of Miller's omission of detail regarding the early stages of the affair, he does not, I think, realize its full implications.He says that â€Å"Proctor's sense of guilt [seems] a little forced and perhaps not really justified,† but I think the choice was deliberately made so as to minimize John's guilt and emphasize his redemption as an existential man. Conversely, Abigail is more easily targeted (as the critics prove) for her active role in her seduction. 18. Daly, 187. 19. Carol Billman (â€Å"Women and the Family in American Drama,† Arizona Quarterly 36: 1 [1980], 35-48) discusses the study of â€Å"everyman† made in the family dramas of O'Neill, Williams, Albee, and Miller (al though she does not mention The Crucible): â€Å"women ecessarily occupy a central position, [but] little attention is paid to their subordination or suffering. †¦ Linda Loman [and I would add Elizabeth Proctor] †¦ suffers at least as much as her husband† (36-7). Victoria Sullivan and James Hatch, as well, have complained about the standards of review: â€Å"‘a complaining female protagonist is automatically less noble than Stanley Kowalski or Willy Loman †¦ [only] men suffer greatly'† (quoted in Billman, 37, emphasis added). 20. Carson, 66.In a play that is historically accurate in so many ways, it is significant to note that the affair between John and Abigail was invented by Miller (Dukore, 43). 21. Conrad and Schneider, 43. 22. I think that whether or not one sees the irony as intentional on Abby's part, she becomes more sympathetic. If intentional we can agree with her realization that John's hypocrisy was least when he was seducing her; he is a commonplace lecher. If Abigail is not cognizant of the extent of the irony of what she is saying, then she truly is too young–or too emotionally disturbed–to understand the implications of what she is doing.Carson again comes close to making a very astute judgment about Abigail's awareness of events going on around her: â€Å"It seems clear that we are to attribute at least a little of Abby's ‘wildness' and sensuality to her relationship with John, and to assume that the ‘knowledge' which Proctor put in Abigail's heart is not simply carnal, but also includes some awareness of the hypocrisy of some of the Christian women and covenanted men of the community† (68). Carson's insight, however, is limited by his belief in the â€Å"‘radical' side of Proctor's nature,† something with which modern audiences are sure to identify.The problem here is that the focus is once more removed from Abigail's plight to her vicarious participation in one more of John Proctor's admirable traits, for his â€Å"is not a simple personality like that of Rebecca Nurse† (68). 23. Dukore, 102. 24. Ibid. , 95. 25. One critic, who celebrates John's â€Å"playfulness† and who does not want his description of John as a liar to be taken in a pejorative sense, suggests that John and Abigail share a kindred spirit: â€Å"The physical attractiveness of Abby for John Proctor is obvious in the play, ut, I think, so is the passionate imagination which finds its outlet in one way in her and in another in Proctor† (William T. Liston, â€Å"John Proctor's Playing in The Crucible,† Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought 20:4 (1979), 394-403: 403). John is a liar–that is part of his guilt–and to suggest that Abigail offers John something that Elizabeth does not condemns Elizabeth and exonerates John even more than Miller intends. 26. Carson, 69-70. 27. Ibid. , 75. 28. Leonard Moss, Arthur Miller, revi sed edition (Boston, 1980), 40, emphasis added. 29.I think it significant that the orphans are but one of the wasted possessions unattended to in Salem. The next part of the same sentence mentions abandoned cattle bellowing and rotted crops stinking. Miller has described a material and contemporary world. 30. Richard Hayes, â€Å"Hysteria and Ideology in The Crucible,† Twentieth Century Interpretations of â€Å"The Crucible,† ed. John H. Ferres (Englewood Cliffs, 1972), 34. I find it interesting and instructive that a 1953 review of the play uses the term to describe Arthur Kennedy's portrayal of John Proctor. 31. Aritha Van Herk, In Visible Ink (crypto-frictions) (Edmonton, 1991), 14. 2. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (Harmondsworth, 1984), 160. 33. Eric Mottram, â€Å"Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Sorcieres de Salem,† Twentieth Century Interpretations of â€Å"The Crucible,† 93, 94. 34. Daly, 215. Source Citation Schissel, Wendy. â€Å"Re(dis)covering the Witche s in Arthur Miller's The Crucible: A Feminist Reading. † Modern Drama 37. 3 (Fall 1994): 461-473. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 July 2011. Document URL http://go. galegroup. com/ps/i. do? &id=GALE%7CH1420082425&v=2. 1&u=uq_stpatricks&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w Gale Document Number: GALE|H1420082425

Classroom Management Plan Essay

I will provide the right environment for all students to learn. I will generate energy, ideas and opportunities to foster student achievement. I will motivate learners to high academic achievement. I will care for, love and understand my students. I will center my decision making about curriculum around my students. I will never feel that I cannot better myself as a teacher. My Philosophical Beliefs About Teaching In evaluating my philosophy for my future teaching career, I have been very seriously considering my values and beliefs about discipline, my own management style and the social goals for my students. As organization is one of my top priorities as a student, I will strive to be as organized as possible when I start my career. My goal is to organize the logistics of my classroom so that I can make my classroom student-centered instead of teacher-centered. I value the education process, and young minds and new ideas never cease to intrigue me. I am committed to making my classroom a safe and challenging environment and engaging my students through the curriculum as well as getting to know them and interacting with them one-on-one. I believe that meeting the needs of my students is a very crucial part of my classroom. I want them to be comfortable with the other students, as well as me, so that there can be meaningful discussions and interactions. Talking will be common place in my classroom, along with group work. I want to encourage all students to participate in class so that they can learn from each other as well as me. I want to have a democratic and equitable classroom so that students can learn. I want to be a fair as I can be, so the students trust me. I feel that I have a very patient and calm attitude with my class. I ask students about their life outside of class and feel that they respond in class even more, knowing that someone is paying attention to them. I want them to feel comfortable asking questions of me. I think my attitude towards the students is not overbearing or authoritative. I do not believe in forcing the students to do anything. I want to work with them in all circumstances so that we can achieve together and they do not feel like I am spoon-feeding them information. I want students to be a part of their learning. I want to motivate students to learn and keep their interest by using engaging curriculum. I want to involve students in rules about the classroom as well as what curriculum they would like to study. I believe if students feel they are involved in the workings of the classroom, they will be more motivated to engage in the class and in turn, learn. In order to be as organized as possible, the structure of my classroom will be variable, allowing me to change parts of my plan from year to year. I realize that this management plan is a work in progress and what I value now as important points to address in my first management plan may eventually come easily to me with experience and other issues of management may require more attention than those I have addressed. In order for my classroom management plan to be effective it needs to align with my beliefs and values. Therefore, I have chosen the theories and practices that reflect my personal teaching style. There are numerous beliefs and practices that serve as the foundation on which I am building my classroom management plan. I believe that the teacher and students should work cooperatively together in order to create a safe and inviting classroom. Linda Albert’s Cooperative Discipline theory emphasizes that the teacher and students should work together to make class decisions. Albert recommends informing and involving the students’ parents in class decisions as well. This can be accomplished by implementing what Albert refers to as the Three C’s: connections, contributions, and capabilities. I agree with Albert that the classroom should be safe and free of threat for all students. The classroom should be a place that the students feel welcome. If the students are contributing to the class, they will feel as if they are an asset to the class. Finally, I believe that the teacher and students should work together because it is essential to developing a community of learners. I believe in creating a code of conduct cooperatively as a class. This belief coincides with Linda Albert’s Cooperative Discipline as well. A class code of conduct indicates how students are expected to behave instead of how they should not behave. Albert states that the teachers and students should work together to determine consequences for when a student does not follow the class code of conduct. When the students are involved in the determining the consequences, Albert feels the students are more likely to follow them because they are connected to them. I believe that having a class code of conduct in the classroom allows the students to know how they are expected to behave. The students will be more likely to remember what is expected of them because they were involved in creating the expectations. Therefore, the students feel as if the expectations are reasonable and can be met. I like that the teacher is not telling the students how to behave. I feel that students should play an active role in the classroom, and that students are capable of making good decisions. I will be sure to place the code of conduct in a visible spot in the classroom so the students can refer back to it. I believe in using â€Å"I-messages† to communicate my feelings to the students. This practice is introduced by Thomas Gordon in his theory of Discipline through Inner Self-Control. â€Å"I-messages† allow the teacher to share their personal opinion with the students in a non-threatening way. On the other hand, â€Å"you-messages† blame the students for their behavior which causes the students to become defensive. I believe that the teacher should have open communication with students, but in a positive way that creates a safe environment. This method could be taught to the students as well in order to help them solve conflicts. I believe that teachers should encourage their students. William Glasser refers to teachers who provide encouragement to their students as â€Å"lead teachers†. Glasser states that teachers should not try to force information into their students. This makes common sense to me because who likes to be forced to do something. I agree with Glasser that the students’ motivation to learn resides within themselves. It will be my job as a teacher to spark their interest to learn. Therefore, as a teacher I will need to create engaging activities, and be there to provide support to the students as necessary. I believe in creating a sense of community in my classroom. Alfie Kohn mentions that classrooms should be â€Å"learning communities in Beyond Discipline. A classroom should be a place where the students feel cared about and are encouraged to care about others. Eventually, the students will begin to feel connected to one another and see themselves as part of the whole class. I believe that in order for my classroom to be an effective learning environment the students need to feel comfortable. A sense of community will encourage my students to be active participants in class matters. I believe that the teacher should teach â€Å"life skills† to the students so that they can be successful not only in the classroom, but in life as well. Kagan, Kyle, and Scott’s Win-Win Strategies promote the use of â€Å"life skills† in the classroom. They refer to â€Å"life skills† such as self-control, anger management, good judgment, and empathy. These theorists believe that if the students require these skills they will be able to live more successfully. I believe that teachers are responsible for preparing students for life so this theory matches my belief. After my students leave my classroom, I want to see them succeed in life. I am strong believer that one needs to be the change that one wants to see in the world so I will model these â€Å"life skills† for my students. I believe that a teacher should handle behavior problems privately. If the teacher must get involved, Glasser believes that the teacher should do so in way that does not punish the student. I am going to take this one step farther, and say that the teacher should talk to this student in private about his/her behavior. Hopefully, the student and I will be able to determine a longterm solution for the behavior problem. I believe that students should be taught procedures in order to maximize their learning and show them responsibility. The Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom Management Plan supports this belief. Harry and Rosemary Wong state that most students will act responsibly if taught the procedures to do so. They believe students’ achievement is affected by how well the procedures are laid out and taught to them. I agree with Harry and Rosemary Wong that procedures are an important aspect of a classroom. I believe that procedures provide students with a structure that lets them know what is expected of them. This will help cut down on disruptions if the students are not confused about what they are supposed to be doing. Management Plan Goals Having the right environment for all students to learn. The ability to manage children’s behavior. Students will have a complete understanding of the classroom rules. Keep parents involved and â€Å"in the know† of their child and the classroom. Instructional strategies will be taught to the best of my ability. Physical Environment The importance and variety of a properly designed early childhood classroom cannot be over-emphasized when providing a learning environment for children. I will provide in my classroom safe and orderly spaces, filled with a variety of materials that will make the classroom more satisfying for both the teacher and the children. Furthermore, well-designed areas will decrease the number of conflicts that may arise. Quite naturally, any space must accommodate all the activities it will be required to house. Therefore, when making my classroom environment safe and orderly, I must make accommodations to have certain spaces to be multipurpose. It will be very important to make sure these areas, as well as other areas in the classroom, are filled with a variety of materials organized into appropriate activity areas. Clearly defined interest areas will allow young children to work best in small groups where they can learn to relate to other children, establish friendships, and solve problems together. The use of low furniture in these areas will allow me to see into all areas while at the same time giving children a sense of privacy. Use of low furniture also helps define work spaces that help children concentrate because they will not be distracted by other activities taking place in other areas. These different areas will be defined by what activities will be taking place in them. For example, I will have such areas as: dramatic play, art area, building area, science/sensory area, game area, and quiet area. I will also make sure to provide an area where children can relax and be alone with friends. This space will have large pillows, beanbags, and carpet. This so called â€Å"soft area† is very important for young children because it is important to their mental health and it promotes positive behavior because children who spend long hours in a group environment need time to themselves where they can rest. When it comes to supplies and materials in the room, they should be displayed on low shelves where children can reach what they need. This helps promote independence because the children will be responsible in getting materials out and putting them away. When displaying materials on shelves they must be in the area where they will be used. I will place labels and pictures showing where each object belongs. Logical grouping of materials promotes their appropriate use. Labeling the place for each object helps children maintain a clean and orderly environment. When it comes to the teacher’s supplies and materials, I will keep them up and away from the children so that they cannot access them. When the children walk through the door, they will be hit with all different colors coming from the pictures and posters on the walls. I hope to have a room with big windows that allow for natural lighting. The pictures I will have on the wall will be displayed on the children’s eye level, thus children will take better notice. I will also display the work of the children. Displaying their original artwork shows them respect and value for their hard work and effort. One last important thing to me, when it comes to the physical environment of my classroom, is that I will make sure the classroom materials will reflect the cultural richness of our society, the backgrounds and life experiences of the children, and people with different abilities. Children need materials they can relate to through past experiences, before they are asked to learn new concepts. A respect for diversity is important for identity and self-esteem. Behavior Management Many disputes and conflicts can be prevented by careful planning and with positive adult support. There is always a reason behind children’s behavior. Misbehavior is usually directed at achieving one of four goals: revenge, power, attention, and/or feelings of adequacy. I know I can’t force a child to change his or her way of behaving, I can only change the way I behave with the child. My ultimate goal in behavior management and child guidance is not to manage children’s behavior, but to help children manage their own behavior. I am aware that conflict situations provide important learning opportunities for children. Therefore, when it comes to classroom management, I will not deprive the children these opportunities to learn problem-solving skills. My role as a teacher in children’s conflicts is to de-escalate them when the children can no longer work out their problems by themselves. When I communicate with the children in my classroom I will use â€Å"I† statements instead of â€Å"you† statements. I will use gentle body language and make sure that I listen to both sides of the issue. I will try to focus on the present and future of the child’s behavior instead of past behavior. Also, I will focus on the child’s behavior and not the child. Most importantly I will keep in my mind the needs of each child and their best interest when it comes to fixing their misbehavior, and not focus on my best interest. My classroom rules will consist of four basic principles. Those four basic principles will be caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. I believe any rule thought up by a child can fit into one of these four basic principles. For example, if a child is not keeping their body to themselves, they are not respecting the other child’s space. That is why I will not have a list of rules in my classroom, but rather have these four principles posted in my classroom where every child will see them. Therefore, when a child is not following the rules I will state what they are doing wrong and how it relates to one of the four principles. When it comes to classroom management and discipline, I will not use punishment, but logical consequences. There are two types of logical consequences. They are naturally occurring consequences and imposed consequences. Naturally occurring consequences usually occur when the problem belongs to the individual on whom the consequences fall. For example, Sally leaves her coat out on the playground and when she goes back for it, the coat is gone. I then say to her, I am sorry that it is gone and tell her it is her responsibility to keep track of it. Imposed consequences often occur when a behavior creates a problem for another person who then must impose consequences in order to change the behavior of the individual creating the problem. When I impose logical consequences on the children in my classroom I will try to keep certain things in my mind. Such things as being a consultant in helping the child solve his or her own problem. Keep the burden of the solution on the child and not me while implying that the child is capable of solving his or her own problem. I must also tie the time and/or place of the misbehavior to the consequence. These are just a couple of ways I will try to manage children’s behavior in my classroom. Parent Communication One of the most vital parts of teaching children and managing a classroom is communicating with their families. There is no one right way to communicate with parents, therefore as a teacher, I have to utilize many different methods to communicate with parents to build rapport. One of the first methods I am going to use is a parent board. On the parent board will be pictures of the activities the children have been doing and other information such as the weekly curriculum and things the children have to bring from home to school. I will have the parent board on a table where there will also be a notebook where parents can leave me messages, and where I can leave them messages. I will also have monthly newsletters to the parents that I will set out on the parent table. Another way I will communicate with parents is by having parents come into the classroom and be a classroom helper. I would try to get every parent to come into the classroom at least one time during the school and spend the day with their child or at least a couple hours. This would help me to get to know the parents of the children I teach and this would give me a good chance to build rapport with the parents so that communication will be made easier. Some of the most basic methods I will use to help me communicate with parents are by use of the telephone. I will call parents when need be and make sure that they know they can call me when needed. Finally, the last way I will communicate with parents is by talking to them face to face. Things I know to remember when talking to a parent are to first approach them with a smile or pleasant look and then introduce myself if I have not ever done so in the past. I will always try to start out the conversation with the parent with something positive about their child. If I were communicating with the parent because of a problem their child is having in my class, I would first tell them the issue at hand and then offer some possible solutions. I then would tell them what I want their role to be after I let them talk about what solutions they have. If they need to further talk to me I would offer them other times they can talk to me. I also would give them other possible people to talk to if they feel that they need to. When communicating with a parent I want them to feel that they can ask me questions about their child’s education or other issues they might have. If I can’t answer their questions, I will flat out tell them I don’t know the answer, but I will find out. I also will make sure not to make promises I can’t keep. If need be, I will always make myself available for a teacher-parent conference when scheduled ahead of time Instructional Strategies and Methods When it comes to instructional planning in my classroom I am going to start with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. The reason I am going to start with the standards is because in the classroom the students are working towards a goal, and those goals should be set higher than the standards. If I do not teach my students to at least the level of the Pennsylvania standards, then I have not set the goals high enough for my instructional planning. If I set goals for my instructional planning, that gives me a start in what direction I need to go in my lesson planning. The second step I am going to take in my instructional planning is assessment. I have to measure the progress of achieving my goals by doing assessments of my students. Two kinds of assessment I will be doing are what you would call summative assessment and diagnostic assessment. The summative assessment will be tests, examinations, final projects, or other things depending on grade level of the students. These types of assessments will tell me if the students are learning the objectives and making progress towards meeting the goals. On the other hand I will use diagnostic forms of assessments when it comes to planning on how far I have to go to get my students to reach the goals or in meeting the standards. I will use diagnostic assessment at the beginning of the school year and before I begin each new unit. The third step in my instructional planning is planning for the long-term. My long-term plan will be as simple as planning my year end academic goals and group those goals into some discrete units to make sure that I cover my long-term academic goals. When it comes to the delivery of my lessons, I am going to keep it as simple as possible. Even though there are many different formats of lesson plans I can use, there is one general way I can make all the different types of lesson plans fit me. Using the following format to teach my lessons will help my students obtain the goals and objectives of my lessons. The format I will use is to first introduce the lesson. Then have an opening to the lesson, which is when I will tell the students what they will learn and why it is important. Next, I introduce the new material and teach it to the students. Afterwards, I allow time for guided practice and then independent practice. These two areas are where I make some informal assessments to check to see if the students learned the objectives. Last, but not least comes the closing. This is where I stress the connection of the lesson and check the students’ understanding by doing some type of assessment, usually a summative form of assessment. Schedules and Routines. When I go to a class, I like to see a schedule of what we are working on for the day. I believe that all students should be given this courtesy of knowing what is going to be happening during the school day by reading a daily schedule of the day’s activities. I will always have the schedule posted at the front of the class, each day updating any changes in the schedule. In addition, I will list the specifics of the day: for instance, what we are working on that day in math. I have seen schedules that list the basic outline of the day: math, language arts, social studies, lunch and science. I would like to take the schedule one step farther and include some details about the day and what will be happening. Not only are daily schedules helpful for students to see what is happening during a given school day, but my daily schedule will allow me to evaluate my the activities in my classroom, assuring that the type and variety of activities are appealing to different types of learning situations. Also, I want to find a good balance between teacher directed instruction, independent work and cooperative group work. Repetitious activities can sometimes impede the school day as it may evoke comments such as â€Å"We’re doing this again? † However, having routines in which students can predict what will happen can ease the transition from the bus, car or the walk to school to the classroom. To be specific, I will have a beginning of the day routine and an end of the day routine, so that I maintain consistency each day and convey the message that in our class, we use all of our time together to learn and we do not like to waste time. For my start of the day routine, I will play music as the students walk in. I will play quiet music that sets the tone for the day: a warm and relaxing learning environment where we are safe and ready to learn. I will have a welcome message posted on the board with a list of housekeeping items to do before we get settled for the day: sharpen pencils, turn in homework, put coats and backpacks away. In addition to this everyday welcome, I will have a list of activities that students can work on from previous days of school, including plenty of options to accommodate those that have finished all of their work. Also, I will greet my students as they enter the classroom, talking to each student as they get settled for their day, ensuring that I get to see each student and have contact with each one first thing in the morning. At the end of the day, I will take the last ten minutes to wrap up the day. I will post an end of the day wrap up list on the overhead for students to use a guide to get ready to go home. I will have mailboxes with the days handouts in them and my students can collect these handouts and place them in their â€Å"take home† folder. Then I will ask groups to get their backpacks and put away all of their materials. I will ask that they clear off their desks and the area on the floor around their desks so that the custodian does not have to clean up after us. As the students line up to go home, I will have my goodbye salutation: a piece of poster paper with four types of goodbyes: a handshake, high five, or smile. The students can pick any combination of these goodbyes when the leave. I want to have this goodbye so that I can be sure to have contact with each of my students before they leave for to go home. In doing this, I want to convey to my students that I care about them and I want to wish them a safe trip home and tell them that I look forward to seeing them tomorrow. By having structured routines for the beginning and end of the day, I will be setting the tone for the school day. For the beginning of the day, I want to imply that we structure our mornings so that we can get off to a good start with our minds and materials ready for the day. At the end of the day, I want to bring the day to a close with daily routine to ensure that my students understand that every part of our school day together is as valuable as any other part. Individualization In order to promote individualization and responsible behavior, I will implement a job chart where students will have jobs throughout the week. I will have paper passers, overhead cleaners, board erasers, recyclers, lunch duty, and line leaders. I will introduce these jobs on the first day of school and assign jobs to random students. Emphasizing the importance of the jobs will enhance the students’ desire to have the job to demonstrate their responsible behavior. I will have a policy stating that any student who cannot demonstrate responsible behavior and reliably complete their job will have to give up their job title and a different student will get their job. I have seen such a job system in another classroom in which I worked and this system was very successful in creating a sense of responsibility among students. Reflection As I complete my management plan, I feel that I am fully prepared to teach tomorrow. However, I know that that is not the case. My management plan will forever be growing and changing. My management plan focuses on the students’ needs in my class. By organizing many structured components of the school, I am attempting to prepare myself for any discipline problems that may occur. I will organize many aspects of my class before the year starts, but I will also sit down with my students during the first weeks of school and have discussions about rules and expectations to determine what they need from me and from each other. While I know that some misbehavior will occur in my classroom, I am instituting this plan to assist me in dealing with these issues as they occur. I believe classroom management is the key that unlocks the ability for children to learn and in creating an environment where children feel safe. I will set high expectations and encourage my students to succeed. Finally, my classroom management will not only be about creating a good rapport with the students, but creating a rich and engaging curriculum. | | | | | | | | | | | | References Albert, Linda, Pete DeSisto, and Linda Albert. (1996) Cooperative Discipline. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Web. Guillaume, Andrea M. (2004). K-12 Classroom Teaching: A Primer for New Professionals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall. Print.

Business costs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business costs - Assignment Example For example, a firm always prefer to produce any unit of output who’s per unit marginal revenue exceeds the marginal cost of the unit. By doing so, the firm would gain more revenue by selling that unit. On the other hand, if the marginal cost of a unit of output is more than its marginal revenue; in that case, the firm avoids producing that unit. If the firm produces such unit, it would incur loss rather than profit on the unit. 2- What do you understand by the term economies of scale? Reductions in per unit cost resulting from increase in market size and increase in firm are called as economies of scale. Any unit cost reduction that occurs when a firm increase its production base or aggregately, the market in which that firm is producing its units, increase. Over that period of time; globally as well as locally, the firms and the markets are increasing. This increase in both is mostly contributed by the latest means of technology, which are mostly used nowadays in the process of production. For example, previously much work was carried out manually as a result, a sufficient amount of resources were consumed. Thanks to machinsation and computerisation that have sufficiently added in the process of economies of scale. ... enue- totally equalling with the total costs- or in total units of production, the cost of produced units offsets the revenue obtained by the sale of units. Some reasons may justify a company keep producing units even it is making loss. First, the loss, occurred by the break-even point or near to that point, most of time doesn’t last for a considerable period of time. The company may be experiencing a seasonal variation in the demand of a particular unit. As soon as that period of seasonal variation in demand ends, the company again observes profits- revenue exceeding costs. 4- What market power may large firms enjoy? How and why may a government seek to limit this? Market power is associated with the behaviour of a firm and the way firms affect competitive conditions and prices in a market (Bourdet, 1991). The way a firm adopts its supply of goods and services production mechanism and its aggregate strategy towards its prices determines its market power. For example, if a fir m has 70 percent market shares in the sale of a particular commodity. Under this condition, it would not be incorrect to say that the firm has sufficient market power to affect and control the prices of that commodity. A government via legislation can restrict to limit the market power of the firm. By enacting a particular legislation and implementing it, the government would become in a position to limit the firm’s market power. The main reason for limiting the market power of the firm is to allow the competitive market conditions. The competitive market conditions benefit producers and the consumers as it would protect consumers who would pay higher costs if the firm limit the required level of commodities in market. 5- Consumer gain as much from small business as from large ones. Analyse

Professional Code of Ethics Exercise Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Professional Code of Ethics Exercise - Assignment Example In Principle I, professional teachers have the duty to help foster civic virtues by treating the child justly (without distortion, bias, or prejudice) in accordance with the law and school policy, by protecting their rights to confidentiality of information and exposure to disparagement, and by moving away the students from conditions detrimental to learning, health, and safety. In Principle II, the professional educator is deemed responsible and accountable for his or her performance in order to preserve the dignity of the profession, obey the law, and demonstrate personal integrity. Thus, a professional educator has the responsibility to do what is expected of him of her in the school, in the educational organizations, and in the community. He/She must not use his/her connections for partisan advantage and instead, values hardwork by continuing professional education and remitting all funds accounted to him/her. In Principle III, a professional teacher must respect the right of colleagues to confidentiality of information and freedom of choice and should not make willfully make false statements about a colleague or school system. Lastly, Principle IV states that a professional educator aims to achieve a quality education and develop partnerships among parents and communities by informing them of plans that would be best for the students, respecting diversity in classrooms, and manifesting positive and active role with school/community. Yes, I agree with everything that was stated in the AAE Code of Ethics. In order to attain a quality education, a professional teacher should observe ethical conduct when dealing with students, parents, professional colleagues, and self. Adherence and implementation of rules should be interactive like learning and must be consistently executed to foster discipline and good example. Yes, there is. I would have

Great Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Great Britain - Essay Example rnment has been one of the most complex and multifaceted political processes.1 This is so because throughout history there has been a struggle to shift power and accountability from the supreme king to the people who claimed to be the representatives of people. Britain is one of the very few countries that have been lucky enough to have not been invaded over the past thousand years. Due to this reason, Britain has no history of any revolution or constitution. As a consequence, there has never arisen any need for a written constitution or set of laws. The ultimate result is that the political system of Britain is not really logical or clean. However, the change in laws that has occurred throughout history has been gradual and often built on consensus. One of the major problems that the political system in Britain faces is the fact that the United Kingdom throughout political history has been divided into three parts. According to Hesperides, the three parts of United Kingdom, namely Scotland, Wales and the Northern Ireland have special statuses and have separate local administrations with a huge number of responsibilities.2 It is, however, ironic because England, the part of Great Britain that has the highest (or more precisely 84%) population, does not have a strong sense of regionalism. As a result, the United Kingdom is not very similar to the American system of government that rules over a total of fifty states. Although matters like defence and foreign affairs are some things that are under the direct control of the central British government, devolution of the Scottish, the Welsh and the Irish assembly have led to a greater desire among the people to strengthen the local government in the United Kingdom. This has led to an increased divide between the people who just wish to be representatives of a certain group of people. UK, as mentioned earlier, is a country that has not been invaded and conquered in any way for the last thousand years. The fact that

An analysis of ethics in the 21st Century Research Paper

An analysis of ethics in the 21st Century - Research Paper Example Types of ethics will give us information about how ethics are related with various folds of our life. Amongst the type of ethics we will discuss in brief about Business Ethics in our report. This discussion would include details of business ethics as in what business ethics are, how they affect business and limitations of business ethics. After getting information of business ethics we will discuss about ethics in 21st century and finally moving on with the conclusion of report about what we have discussed in the report. Ethics may be defined as the philosophical study of behavior that is considered as correct amongst a particular profession or group. Ethics are also termed as Moral Philosophy. It is the discipline or study guiding about what is morally correct and what not. Ethics and values are essential for the development of every society, state, region or country. Today the world around us is changing with a fast pace thus creating uncertainty in lives. This may be due to cut throat competition and globalization. Thus ethics may serve as a guidance laying principles of conduct which is considered as morally correct. The universal values for natural environment, health and safety, human rights, equality of men and women and principles of human conduct all comes under study of Ethics. It is a broad term covering almost all the spheres of life laying principles for fair behavior (Singer 2011). Business Ethics is about responsibly doing the business. It means that the businessmen must keep away from indulging in unfair trade practices like publish misleading advertisements, adulteration, black marketing etc. The businessmen should supply quality products to their consumers at reasonable prices all the time. There should be no unfair competition and monopolies. Workers exploitation should not be there and they must get proper wages with good working condition. Business Ethics can be divided into two parts

Significance of HRM to organizational profitability and survival Term Paper

Significance of HRM to organizational profitability and survival - Term Paper Example On the other hand, affirmative action refers to the deliberate organizational approach to addressing past practices of discrimination, by proactively recruiting, hiring and promoting the previously marginalized groups at the workplace including women, minorities, and disabled individuals, among others. EEO is essential at my workplace because it has fostered fairness in all the various human resource aspects of our organization, from hiring to training and development, to promotion of deserving human resources. At my workplace, EEO regulations protects all employees against discrimination on the basis demographical factors; as a result, everyone is treated with respect and dignity that they deserve, regardless of their sex, color, religion, nationality, disability and age. The new knowledge gained in the process of this reflective exercise is that EEO instills confidence in all employees at the workplace while enhancing their self-motivation and commitment towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. This fosters the development of a unified and fully integrated workforce that is not only highly motivated and committed to the organization, but also actively engaged in the pursuit of organizational goals and objectives (Koà §, Çavus & Saraà §oglu, 2014). My future career plan as a HRM professional is more likely to be greatly influenced by the understanding that all human resources are entitled to a fair chance in the hiring process, as well as equal opportunities to promotions.

Management , work and Society assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Management , work and Society assignment - Essay Example An occupation can be a job or a business or any other work which gives a return as payment and utilizes the time and effort of a person. Choosing an occupation can be influenced by different factors and those factors can have several barriers. The occupational choice barriers often force an individual to go against their personal choice of occupation. The major objectives of this study would be to highlight the various occupational choice theories, and identifying the barriers of occupational choice and its impact on the process. The paper would also involve the various measures to overcome the occupational barriers through the occupational choice theory (Hitchcock & Mabry, 1971). Findings Different Theories of Occupational Choice The occupation is the key means of living for every individual of the world. There are several different theories to support the occupational choices. These theories provide certain mathematical models to analyse the different factors of choosing an occupat ion for every individual. The theories include Super’s Development Self-Concept Theory of Vocational Behaviour, Holland’s Typology Theory of Vocational Behaviour, Roe’s Theory of Occupational Choice, and Ginzberg’s Theory (Brown, 2002). ... s the self-concept of an individual which reflects the behaviour of the person in a distinct manner such as, ‘I am strong’ or ‘I am smart’ among others. These behaviours help an individual to choose the right occupation by eliminating the occupations which do not suit the self-concept of that particular person. If the person is from commerce background, he or she would never go for the engineering or any science options. Super has also involved the Trait-Factor Theory. This theory relates with the occupational choice regarding various personal traits of an individual and the type of job such as, the aptitudes, the personality, the interest and the features and the requirements of the job. According to Super, an individual has the freedom to choose his or her own occupation and which is very much helpful for the occupational choice (Hotchkiss & et. al., 1979). The other theory of occupational choice is the Holland’s typology theory of vocational behavi our. This theory was proposed in the year 1959. According to Holland, the preferences or the orientation of career depends upon the types of personality. Holland has given six most important career courses i.e. the realistic, which involves the career orientation which is described by the aggressive behaviour, activities interests, physical strengths and skills, and masculinity. These people have a preference of ‘acting-out’ problems. These kinds of people ignore the task which involves verbal and interpersonal circumstances. These are the people who achieve low score on communal skill and sensitivity and score comparatively high on the activities of physical power and concreteness. The other orientation of career is investigative. In this part of the theory, an individual thinks much more than he/she acts,

Curcumin to cure Cancer Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Curcumin to cure Cancer - Research Paper Example ies have been performed that hold up curcumin-mediated regulation of COX pathways, which is an essential mechanism by which curcumin stops a number of ailment processes, including the cancer. The precise regulation of COX-2 by curcumin is not fully established; though, existing evidence show that curcumin controls COX-2 mainly at the transcriptional level and, to some extent, the posttranslational level. The curcumin-selective transcriptional control action of the COX-2 inhibitory potential of this naturally occurring agent offer unique advantages over synthetic COX inhibitors, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Cells will be treated with free Cisplatin and then with free curcumin to test the effectiveness of the chemotherapeutic drug. This control will be compared to a plate of cells treated with nano-encapsulated curcumin along with cisplatin. My hypothesis is that the nanoparticle delivery of drugs will show less resistance in the cells to the chemopreventive drug, a down regulation of COX-2, as well as decreased proliferation. I will be using fluorescent mesoporous  silica  nanoparticles to encapsulate the cisplatin and deliver it to the mitochondria of the cells. The delivery system should not only demonstrate enhanced cellular uptake, but also show an elevated  drug effect which should reduce the associated side effects. In addition, a new, simple and reasonably priced fluorescent based PT quantification technique has been adopted as an alternative of the commonly used ICP-based quantification method and this strategy of quantification could be elaborated to monitor fluorescentà ‚  pro drug  nanoparticles  during real-time diagnosis. A common problem with the present chemotherapeutic interventions is that it causes inflammation in the gut and kidney cells. To test my method against this, I will also conjugate the cisplatin nanoparticles with curcumin to test if the side effects are even further diminished. To measure the effectiveness of the

Main idea and themes of Simon Schama's Caravaggio Essay

Main idea and themes of Simon Schama's Caravaggio - Essay Example One of the themes represented is breaching of Renaissance art. Caravaggio went against the rules of Renaissance that is sticking to religious subjects, capturing reality, and depicting mythology in most of their work. He settled for his own style of art; capturing what he saw in real time, and translating it directly onto canvas. The other theme of the video is the use of paintings in the Roman Catholic Church. The [Catholic] church used paintings to seduce people, or â€Å"win souls†. The paintings depicted Christian themes of the Virgin and baby Jesus, and were used to decorate churches. The final theme appearing in the video is the standoff that existed between the Roman Catholic Church and the emerging Protestant Christians. The Protestants were advocating for the destruction of all catholic paintings saying that the Bible is what should guide a Christian, and not paintings. Additionally, the Protestants were attacking the Catholic’s obsession with painting, terming it as idolatry and a misguided

Master1 Essay Example for Free

Master1 Essay Psycholinguistics merges the fields of psychology and linguistics to study how people process language and how language use is related to underlying mental processes. Studies of childrens language acquisition and of second-language acquisition are psycholinguistic in nature. Psycholinguists work to develop models for how language is processed and understood, using evidence from studies of what happens when these processes go awry. They also study language disorders such as aphasia impairment of the ability to se or comprehend words and dyslexia impairment of the ability to make out written language. It is the study of interrelationship of psychological and linguistic behaviour. Its most important area of investigation has been language acquisition. It has raised and has partly answered questions such as how do children acquire their mother tongue? How do they grow up linguistically and learn to handle the registral and stylistic varieties of their mother tongue effectively? How much of the linguistic system that they ultimately command, are they born with and how much do they iscover on the basis of their exposure to that system? John D. Carroll states that this branch uses: Some aspects of psychology and some aspects of linguistics. It is confined to the study of how people use a language system and how they learnt it By language acquisition is meant the process whereby children achieve a fluent control of their native tongue. By 1950, people thought that children imitated their elders and got language but now various theories have been presented. Some argue that it is the environmental impact and product of our experience and others discuss the nnateness of language or Empiricist (Behaviorists) and Rationalists (Mentalists). The theoretical questions have focused on the issue of how we can account for the phenomenon of language development in children at all. Normal children have mastered most of the structures of their language by the age of five or six. The earlier behaviorist assumptions were that it was possible to explain language development largely in terms of imitation and reinforcement. Psycholinguistics therefore argue that imitation is not enough; it is not merely by mechanical repetition that children acquire language. They also acquire it by natural exposure. Both nature and nurture influence the acquisition of language in children. Both schools of thought have said significant things but neither is perfect. Language Acquisition is a process of analogy and application, nature and nurture. Experience and innateness. Imitation is there but the child forms his own grammar of rules. Children learn first not items but systems. In other words, what is being claimed is that the childs brain contains certain innate characteristics which pre-structure it in the direction of language learning. To enable these innate features to develop into adult competence, the child must be exposed to human language, i. e. it must be stimulated in proper to respond but the basis. David Crystal asserts: On which it develops its linguistic abilities is not describable in behaviourist terms Psycholinguistics nas researched and exposed that there is a critical period in first language acquisition. If the child, in the first thirteen years, is not exposed to language, he loses his critical period and then he can never master a language; even his native tongue. Genie and Chelsea ho lost their critical period, are the examples in this proof. If he is exposed to language in his childhood, he goes certain stages to learn his mother tongue. The development of a childs language starts from babbling; merely saying /b/, [p/ and / m/ etc. and then he goes on to word level. His One-Word Stage is between the ages of 12 months, children are able to produce one word utterances. And the child can use one word to mean the whole thing as dada to mean I see daddy or daddy is coming etc. or Juice to means give me Juice etc. In Two-Word Stage: such as baby chair eaning the baby is sitting in the chair or babys chair etc. Hit Doggie meaning I hit the doggy etc. In Telegraphic Stage, children begin to produce longer and complex sentences such are chair broken, Car make noise, I good boy, man ride bus today etc. Language development from age 2 is rapid and fast. The telegraphic stage is a very important period which is characterized by the emergence of powerful grammatical devices. In short, Psycholinguistics deals with relationship between language and mind focusing mainly on how language is learnt, stored and occasionally lost. Mind and language have two functions: Acquisition and Performance and the two are linked. For empiricists, language learning is the result of conditioned behavior while Chomsky maintains that every human being has an innate capacity to learn his language. Language behavior is a very complex phenomenon. Language behavior is subject to different social and psychological factors. There is strong evidence to prove that language learning is a biologically controlled process. Psycholinguistics seeks to study all these issues and more.

History of International Human Resource Management

History of International Human Resource Management Up until the 1960s, even firms operating internationally maintained organizational structures with centralised technical and managerial resources, manufacturing ability, and the access to and control of the capital (Doz Prahalad 1981). As exports increased, it was seen as more attractive to establish sales subsidiaries in other countries, often staffing them with skilled personnel from the home country. These expatriates had the necessary product knowledge, and could even initiate local manufacture, but also had a perceived primary loyalty to the home company and country culture. Unfortunately, this was also an era of convergence thinking (usually towards the dominant U.S. culture), with sometimes lamentably littleattention being given to national sensitivities and cultural beliefs and behaviours With the developing internationalisation of many firms in the late 1960s and early 1970s, companies established overseas plants and entered joint ventures with foreign affiliates. Firms sought commercial success through moving closer to their customers by employing more host-country nationals. In some situations, they aimed at being perceived more as local rather than foreign, for various reasons. In the 1990s, not only has the practice of IHRM become more sophisticated, but research into its policy and practice has become established. It has a developing body of research and practice which is regularly considered at dedicated conferences, and published in general management as well as HRM journals. Increasingly, international HRM is being taught in university faculties of business management courses, and management MBA graduates, as well as graduates in HRM, are now more frequently aware of the issues involved, and the functions of HRM in an international context. International human resource management What an HR manager does in a multinational corporation varies from firm to firm. It also depends on whether the manager is located in a global corporations headquarters or onsite in a foreign subsidiary. What is IHRM? Actually, it is not easy to provide a precise definition of international human resource management (IHRM) because the mission of an HR manger in a multinational corporation (MNC) varies on a large scale. Generally speaking, IHRM is the effective utilization of human resources in a corporation in an international environment. The term IHRM in most studies has traditionally focused on the area of expatriation (Brewster and Harris, 1999) Broadly defined, international human resource management (IHRM) is the process of procuring, allocating, and effectively utilising human resources in a multinational corporation. If the MNC is simply exporting its products, with only a few small offices in foreign locations, then the task of the international HR manager is relatively simple. However, in global firms human resource managers must achieve two somewhat conflicting strategic objectives. First, they must integrate human resource policies and practices across a number of subsidiaries in different countries so that overall corporate objectives can be achieved. At the same time, the approach to HRM must be sufficiently flexible to allow for significant differences in the type of HR policies and practices that are most effective in different business and cultural settings. This problem of balancing integration (control and coordination from HQ) and differentiation (flexibility in policies and practices at the local subsidiary level) have long been acknowledged as common dilemmas facing HR and other functional managers in global corporations. Although some argue that IHRM is not unlike HRM in a domestic setting, others point out that there  are significant differences. Specifically compared with domestic HRM, IHRM (I) encompasses more functions, (2) has more heterogeneous functions, (3) involves constantly changing perspectives, (4) requires more involvement in employees personal lives, (5) is influenced by more external sources, and (6) involves a greater level of risk than typical domestic HRM. When compared with domestic human resource management, IHRM requires a much broader perspective on even the most common HR activities. This is particularly so for HR managers operating from a MNCs headquarters (HQ). The number and variety of IHRM activities are daunting. International HR managers must deal with issues as varied as international taxation; international relocation and orientation; various other administrative services for expatriates; selecting, training and appraising local and international employees; and managing relations with host governments in a number of countries around the world. Even when dealing with one particular HR function area such as compensation, the international HR manager is faced with a great variety of national and international pay issues. For example, while dealing with pay issues, the HQ-based HR manager must coordinate pay systems in different countries with different currencies that may change in relative value to one another over time. An American expatriate in Tokyo who receives a salary of $100,000 may suddenly find the buying power of that salary dramatically diminished if the Japanese yen strengthens in value relative to the US dollar. A US dollar purchased 248 yen in 1985, but less than 110 yen in 2000. In the case of fringe benefits provided to host company employees, some interesting complications might arise. For instance, it is common in the United States to provide health insurance benefits to employees and the employees family, which usually means spouse and children. In some countries however, the term family may include a more extended group of relatives-multiple spouses, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nephews, and nieces. How does the firms benefit plan deal with these different definitions of family? A final aspect of the broader scope of IHRM is that the HQ-based manager deals with employee groups that have different cultural backgrounds. The HQ manager must coordinate policies and procedures to manage expatriates from the firms home country (parent country nationals, PNCs), host-country nationals (HCNs), as well as third country nationals (TCNs, e.g. a French manager working for an American MNC in the firms Nigerian subsidiary) in subsidiaries around the world. Although such issues are important for the HQ-based manager, they are also relevant to the HR manager located in a subsidiary. This manager must develop HR systems that are not only acceptable to the host country but also compatible with company-wide systems being developed by his or her HQ-based counterpart. These policies and practices must effectively balance the needs and desires of local employees, PCNs and TCNs. It is at the subsidiary level that the increased involvement of IHRM in the personal lives of employees becomes particularly apparent. It is not unusual for subsidiary HR managers to be involved in arranging housing, healthcare, transportation, education, and recreation activities for expatriate and local staff. IHRM activities are also influenced by a greater number of external forces than are domestic HR activities. The HQ-based manager may have to set equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies that meet the legal requirements of both the home country and a number of host countries. Because of the visibility that foreign firms tend to have in host countries (especially in developing countries), subsidiary HR managers may have to deal with ministers, other political figures, and a great variety of social and economic interest groups than would normally be encountered in a purely domestic HRM. Excerpt from Human Resource Management by Cynthia D Fisher, Lyle F Schoenfeldt, James B Shaw. Published by Biztantra

Energy Efficiency: Directives and Legislation

Energy Efficiency: Directives and Legislation 2.1 Introduction The debate is ongoing, but there is now overwhelming scientific evidence that mans activities are causing significant climate change. Climate change has the potential to affect all aspects of life on earth and will have major detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts. The best response to these challenging issues is to change. Change the way we think. Change the way we act. (Get source) 2.2 Background to Directives for Climate Change The International climate change agenda containing the Directives and Legislation that drives for energy efficiency began in 1992 with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The objectives of the UNFCCC were to: stabilise the atmospheric greenhouse gases at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climatic system, to be achieved in a time frame to ensure food production is not threatened and to enable economic development proceeds in a sustainable manner. The UNFCCC is the parent treaty of the Kyoto Protocol (1997) which was developed to implement the UNFCCC effectively and properly. (www.euroace.org/reports) Irelands relation to the Kyoto Protocol is outlined in the subsequent sub-chapter. In December 2007, the latest climate change conference took place in Bali, Indonesia and it included representatives of over 180 countries. The two week period included the sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, as well as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The ‘Bali Roadmap was adopted from the conference which charts the course for a new negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 that will lead to a post 2012 international agreement on climate change. The next meeting of the parties to the climate change convention is scheduled to take place on December 2008 in Poland. After the Kyoto Protocol was established, Europe needed to take action to succeed in cutting its greenhouse gas emissions to 8% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, as required by the Kyoto Protocol. This action was taken by launching the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) in June 2000 which was then ratified in October 2005. The main goal of the ECCP was to develop all of the necessary elements of an EU strategy to implement the Kyoto Protocol. From this European Climate Change Programme, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD 2003) was developed. This is explained in chapter 2.4 of this text. (www.euroace.org/reports) In order for Ireland to meet its Kyoto target of limiting the increase of greenhouse gas emissions to 13% above 1990 levels by 2008-2012, a National Climate Change Strategy was implemented. 2.3 Ireland and the Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol was adopted to tackle the threat of climate change. It contains legally binding greenhouse gas emission targets for developed countries for the post 2000 period. The Protocol promises to move the international community one step closer to achieving the Conventions (UNFCCC) ultimate objective of preventing man-made interference with the climate system. As a first step towards tackling the threat of climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) required developed countries to put in place policies and measures with objectives of returning emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the end of the decade. However, in recognition of the need to take more substantial and urgent action, industrialised or developed countries committed to reduce their combined emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 5% compared to 1990 levels by the first commitment period 2008-2012. The protocol came into force on 16 February 2005. As of November 2007, 174 parties have ratified the protocol. Of these, 36 developed countries are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the levels specified for each of them in the treaty. The EU has an overall reduction target of 8% below 1990 levels and has agreed a burden sharing agreement that recognises the different economic circumstances of each member state.   Irelands target is to limit the increase in its greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol to 13% above 1990 levels by 2008-2012. To date Ireland has struggled to get on target and at this stage looks unlikely to meet the 13% figure. With the help of the National Climate Change Strategy and the Protocol flexible mechanisms, this target may yet be achieved. The National Climate Change Strategy 2007- 2012 provides the national policy framework for addressing greenhouse gas emission reductions and ensuring that Ireland meets its target for the purpose of the Kyoto Protocol. Ireland may achieve their individual targets through domestic actions and use of flexible mechanisms provided for in the Protocol. The Government has decided that it will use the Kyoto Protocol flexible mechanisms to purchase up to 3.607 million Kyoto Units in each year of the 2008-2012 period. (www.environ.ie) 2.3.1 Kyoto Protocol Flexible Mechanisms / Emissions Trading An important part of the Kyoto Protocol was the introduction of three flexible mechanisms to reduce the costs of achieving emission reductions for the member states with emission reduction or limitation targets. The mechanisms enable Parties to purchase Kyoto Units from other Parties or to invest in cost-effective opportunities to reduce emissions. While the cost of reducing emissions varies considerably between projects and between countries, the effect for the atmosphere of limiting emissions is the same no matter where the action occurs. The three mechanisms are outlined below: Joint Implementation (JI) This is provided for under Article 6 of the Protocol, and enables Parties with reduction commitments to implement projects that reduce emissions in other member states with reduction commitments, in return for credits. The tradable unit under the JI mechanism is an Emissions Reductions Unit (ERU). Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) This is provided for under Article 12 of the protocol and enables Parties with targets to participate in projects that reduce emissions in those Parties that do not have targets under the protocol. This mechanism is aimed at developing countries. Credits generated using the CDM mechanism can be used by the investing Party for compliance purposes. The tradable unit under the CDM mechanism is a Certified Emissions Reduction (CER). International Emissions Trading This is provided under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol and enables Parties or member states that have a greenhouse gas emissions limitation or reduction target under the Protocol to acquire Kyoto Units from those Parties that have reduced their emissions beyond their target under the Protocol. The tradable unit under emissions trading is an Assigned Amount Unit (AAU). The National Treasury Management Agency is the designated purchasing agent for Ireland and will administer and manage purchases of Kyoto Units on behalf of the Government. A dedicated Carbon Fund has been established for this purpose. All purchases will be made in accordance with the following objectives: That they contribute to the ultimate objective of the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change That risk is minimised, particularly in relation to the timely delivery of credits That they represent good value for money The National Treasury Management Agency will use the following mechanisms to purchase Kyoto Units: Direct purchase of Kyoto Units from other Kyoto Protocol member states Direct investment in joint implementation and clean development project activities Direct market purchases of Kyoto Units Any surplus Kyoto Units held by the State at the end of the 2008-2012 commitment period can be banked and used in a subsequent commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol or any successor treaty. (National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government) Below is a graph illustrating the total greenhouse gas emissions for all sectors of all the member states up to 2005. As we can see, Ireland is somewhat off reaching its Kyoto target. 2.4 The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2.4.1 Introduction â€Å"Energy performance demands in the building sector within the EU range from rather demanding energy regulations and already established energy certification schemes in countries like Denmark and Germany, to the situation in countries like France and Spain with low regulation demands and without certification processes established at national level† (Casal, 2006). EU legislation and policies, implemented through the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD), aim to provide a more uniform approach to implementing building energy saving measures and reaching Co2 emission goals. Each member state is required to translate and implement the policies and guidelines within the context of its legal and economic framework. The EPBD was enacted by the European Union in line with the Kyoto Protocol to: reduce European building energy consumption by 10 per cent by 2010 and 20 per cent by 2020; complete energy ratings of 2 million existing buildings by 2010; and cut Co2 emissions by 45 million tonnes by 2010 (Casal, 2006). The directive is the first move to target buildings specifically to reduce emissions and overall energy consumption in the construction sector. 2.4.2 Overview of the EPBD The EPBD is a legislative act of the European Union which requires member states to achieve particular results with respect to the energy performance of buildings. The directive 2002/91/EC (EPBD, 2003) of the European Parliament and Council on energy efficiency of buildings was adopted by member states and the European Parliament on 16th December 2002 and came into force on 4th January 2003. This directive is a very important legislative component of energy efficiency activities of the European Union designed to meet the Kyoto commitment. The directive concerns a large number of participants on all levels with different impacts and different motivations: designers, housing associations, architects, providers of building appliances, installation companies, building experts, owners, and tenants effectively all energy consumers in the European Union. It will greatly affect awareness of energy use in buildings, and is intended to lead to substantial increases in investments in energy efficiency measures within these buildings. The EPBD has created a great challenge for the transformation of the European building sector towards energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy resources. The 4th of January 2006 was the official deadline by which the 25 member states had to transpose the directive. 2.4.3 Objectives and Requirements of EPBD The objective of the EPBD is to improve the energy performance of buildings within the community, taking into account outdoor climate conditions as well as indoor climate requirements and cost effectiveness. The directive lays down requirements regarding: The framework for a methodology of calculation of the integrated energy performance of buildings The application of minimum requirements on the energy performance of new buildings The application of minimum requirements on the energy performance of large existing buildings that are subject to major renovation The energy performance certification of buildings The regular inspection of boilers, an assessment of the heating installation in which the boilers are more than 15 years old and an inspection of air conditioning systems in buildings The requirements for experts and inspectors for the certification of buildings, the drafting of the accompanying recommendations and the inspection of boilers and air conditioning systems. The requirements of each member state are set out in the EPBD under different articles. (EPBD, 2002) 2.4.4 Summary of Articles 2.4.4.1 Adoption of a methodology Each member state is required to have a method of calculating the energy performance of buildings. This calculation method can be set at a national or a regional level. This is an extract of the directive on article 3: ‘Member States shall apply a methodology, at national or regional level, of calculation of the energy performance of buildings on the basis of the general framework set out in the Annex. Parts 1 and 2 of this framework shall be adapted to technical progress in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 14(2), taking into account standards or norms applied in member state legislation. This methodology shall be set at national or regional level. The energy performance of a building shall be expressed in a transparent manner and may include a CO2 emission indicator (EPBD, 2002) 2.4.4.2 Setting of energy performance requirements These minimum requirements shall be reviewed every five years. Some categories of buildings may be exempted from the requirements. These include: Protected buildings and monuments Buildings used as places of worship Temporary buildings Residential buildings intended to be used for less than 4 months of the year Stand alone buildings with a total useful floor area of less than 50m ² 2.4.4.3 Setting of energy performance requirements for new buildings Each member state will set minimum energy performance requirements for new buildings. For large new buildings with a floor area of over 1000m ² member states should consider alternative energy systems before construction starts. These include: Decentralised energy supply systems based on renewable energy CHP (combined heat and power) District or block heating or cooling, if available Heat pumps, under certain conditions The consideration of the alternative energy systems should take technical, environmental and economic feasibility into account. 2.4.4.4 Setting of energy performance requirements for existing buildings Each member state will ensure that when buildings over 1000m ² undergo major renovation that their energy performance is upgraded to meet minimum requirements. The minimum standards may be applied to the whole building or limited to the renovated part. 2.4.4.5 Energy performance certificate Each member state must ensure that when a building is constructed that an energy performance certificate is made available to the owner. When a building is sold or rented out an energy performance certificate must be made available to the prospective buyer or tenant. The certificate is valid for 10 years. For buildings over 1000m ² occupied by public authorities, an energy certificate must be placed in a prominent place clearly visible to the public. 2.4.4.6 Independent experts Member States shall ensure that the certificate of buildings, the drafting of the accompanying recommendations and the inspection of boilers and air-conditioning systems are carried out in an independent manner by qualified or accredited experts, whether operating as sole traders or employed by public or private enterprise bodies. (EPBD, 2002) Implementing EPBD in Ireland 2.5.1 Building Control Act 2007 The Building Control Act provides for the legal transposition of the EUs Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) into Irish law. This will lead to energy efficiency becoming an important aspect of design concern for all buildings, both residential and non-residential. It is essential that the general public and companies involved in the industry understand the impact of the directive on residential and commercial property in Ireland. The Act requires that there will have to be mandatory building energy rating (BER) certificates for some buildings. This means that when a building is constructed, sold or rented out, the owner must provide a BER certificate to the prospective buyer or tenant. The BER will be accompanied by an advisory report setting out recommendations for cost-effective improvements to the energy performance of the building. This is further explained in chapter 3. ‘‘The successful implementation of the directive will require that systems are in place to guarantee the day-to-day delivery of assessment and inspection services by qualified people in a way that is consistent, practical and cost efficient, and with acceptable response times that maintain levels of service in the construction and property markets. (www.lkshields.ie/htmdocs/publications/newsletters) www.sei.ie www.epbd.ie http://www.euroace.org/reports/CIBSE_EUBD.pdf Casal, X.G. (2006), ‘‘Analysis of building energy regulation and certification in Europe: their role, limitations and differences, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 38 No.5, pp.381-92 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2002