Gender Identity Essay Example for Free

Gender Identity Essay There are a couple factors that determine gender identity; like genetic factors, environmental situations, psychosocial factors, and even sexual hormones. â€Å"Gender identity is almost always consistent with chromosomal sex. † (Rathus, S. A. , Nevid, J. S. , and Fichner-Rathus, L. 2005). From the moment sperm fertilized an ovum, our destiny to be a girl or a boy is chosen. Usually at this point; 23 chromosomes from the male donor and 23 from the female come together and combine to make a â€Å"zygote†. Starting about six weeks into the pregnancy, our bodies began to form and create into what they are meant to be, and after the seventh week, our genetic code (XY or XX) begins to really assert itself. Gender identity is not always a term referring to a person’s anatomic sex, â€Å"sex assignment† is now the correct term to ask a person their anatomic sex that occurred at birth. It is said that by 36 months old, most children are said to have a firm sense of their gender identity. Our genes play an important role in determining our gender identity. The SRY gene (which is the gene that determines the Y male gene) will bind to DNA and distort, and alter it, creating the testes. The gene called Sox 9 is the gene that regulates the expression of SRY. If Sox 9 did not get to regulate the SRY gene; it would turn into a male fetus. We without help from the SRY gene, female reproductive organs would form instead of male organs. Recent research suggests that as many as one in every hundred individuals may have some intersex characteristics. † (Domurat, 1998). Some people do not believe that their gender identity corresponds with their biological sex (mainly transgender people, but also including; transsexuals and inter-sexed individuals as well. ) Difficulties can begin because society maintains that a person must accept a manner of social gender roles, which is based on their sex, and the person may feel that it is not consistent with their gender identity. This is known as â€Å"gender identity disorder†, and by definition means that the individual is uncomfortable with their anatomic gender, and presents themselves or act like a member of the opposite sex. Masculinity and femininity are terms that we hear every day in our lives. For example, we hear that Shawn is so secure in his masculinity that he is comfortable being a house-husband or that Wendy’s mastectomy is threatening her sense of femininity. Even though most people think of masculinity and femininity on opposite ends of one continuum, it does not make it true. Just because an individual may possess some traits of both categories does not make them too masculine or feminine. Where a person should be placed on the masculinity and femininity continuum, all depends on the degree to which the show or report specific gender-linked qualities, and behaviors. The midpoint on this hypothetical continuum is known as the zero point, and if a person has failed to develop gender-role identification, or they have transcended it, then they would be placed at this point of the line. Those who show strong sex-role identifications would go at either one end or the other of the hypothetical continuum. One of the factors in my life that have helped determine my gender identity is; by nature I am a female because I have the sexual reproduction system of a female. That is not what makes me a female though. What makes me a female is how I carry myself in everyday life. I am secure in my womanhood, and have never felt like I should have been a male instead. I like to dress like a woman, talk like a woman, and even use manners that are considered â€Å"womanly†. I chose to keep long, pretty, unpolished fingernails, and I wear make-up on special occasions, but since I do not wear it all the time that does not make me masculine. I was raised in an environment that my parents, teachers, and any other important figures in my life treated me like a female; therefore, I act like a typical societal female. I even grew up with toys that were specifically designed for female use like; dolls and make-up, and cooking toys. The masculine and feminine traits that I attribute to myself using the hypothetical continuum are kind of split in some ways. I can identify with both points of view regarding females and males. My mother thought it best to teach me things that most of the time need a man. She taught me these â€Å"manly† activities because she believes that women should be independent and never need a man for anything. Women are just as good as men (she used to tell me), and women should never be made to feel differently on the subject. I whole-heartedly agree. In conclusion, gender identity and gender roles can cause some conflicts in some people within their daily lives. These disputes can be lessened when the individual is able to develop a secure masculine or feminine gender identity about how they perceive themselves. There are rites of passages that help young female into womanhood, or a young male into manhood, depending on the culture around you as to what the rite of passage may include. Once an individual has figured out what identifies them as either masculine or feminine, they will be able to progress their own positive feelings about masculinity and femininity.

Witchcraft in Salem Essay -- Salem Possesed Witchcraft Witch Trials Es

Witchcraft in Salem In the past, the word Salem has always been somewhat synonymous with the infamous witch trials. Thanks to works such as Arthur Miller’s â€Å"The Crucible†, many people find it hard not to envision a community torn apart by chaos, even though Miller’s play was not so much about the witch trials but instead a commentary on the rampant McCarthyism going on at the time he wrote it. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, however, see a very different picture when the Salem witch trials are mentioned. Rather than overlook the â€Å"ordinary† people living in the towns in which they write about (in the case of Salem Possessed, the town of Salem, Massachusetts), they instead take the instance of the witch trials of 1692 and springboard from them into a detailed inquisition into the entire history of the small village of Salem; or, in their own words, Boyer and Nissenbaum have â€Å"exploited the focal events of 1692 somewhat as a stranger might make use of a li ghtning flash in the night: better to observe the contours of the landscape which it chances to illuminate† (xii). That is to say, the authors strive to show how the witch trials were not simply a completely spontaneous event, but rather a long, horrible process by which individuals were singled out, tried, and executed in order to vent emotions of hostility towards change. The way in which the authors go about this, however, is in a somewhat difficult to comprehend style that goes back and forth between the years, forcing one to rethink all the facts thus far each time a new chapter is introduced. In addition, the authors tend to focus mostly on the social and economic aspects of witchcraft, with little to nothing as far as further explanation of the actions of the women accused. In the year 1692, the small farming village of Salem, Massachusetts saw a social phenomenon that would propel the village into the history books: the calamity that was witchcraft. The witch trials were initiated whenever three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam were caught performing fortune telling rituals in the woods, trying to gather information on what type of man would be best for them. Soon thereafter, the girls began experiencing hysterical fits, prompting Betty Parris’s father, Reverend Samuel Parris, to call in the authorities to confirm the cause of the girls’ symptoms. ... ...rought into the case would treat it as though it were a completely rational occurrence. But then again, this is perhaps more of a fault of my own than of the authors. In the end, Salem Possessed did indeed leave me with more of an understanding of the events that took place in Salem Village, even though that understanding did seem a little shallow, as I felt it only focused on one aspect of the whole. But regardless of my unpleasant viewpoint on said novel, Mr.’s Boyer and Nissenbaum have done an admirable thing by taking the Salem witch trials and examining them by today’s standards. By going strictly from church records and personal accounts, the authors have brought a whole new light to what was once percieved as a purely tyrannical act of prejudice against seemingly random people, letting the public know that it was in fact a calculated attack on many ‘radical’ individuals. And, while the book did occasionally fall short on offering a complete picture of the events, it was still a fairly succinct guide to the economic factors involved with the village of Salem and its â€Å"fifteen minutes†, as it were, a nd as such would be reccommended to history buffs around the world.

Task 1 Eymp 1

Context and principles for early years provisions. The Early Years Foundation Stage was brought into force in September 2008 by orders and regulations which come under section 39 of the Childcare Act 2006. All of the early years providers are required to use the EYFS to ensure a flexible approach to children’s care, learning and development that enables young children to achieve the five Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes. These 5 outcomes are staying safe, being healthy, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic wellbeing.The EYFS is used in many different settings and some of these are schools, nurseries, pre-schools, playgroups, after school clubs, breakfast clubs and child minders. This statutory framework sets out legal requirements to relate to the learning and development of children and the legal requirements relating to welfare. There are early learning goals which are the educational programmes and the assessment arrangements. The welfare requirements are given legal force by regulations made under section 39 of the Childcare Act 2006.Together the order, the regulations and the statutory framework documents make up the legal basis of the EYFS. Each individual child is supported by the EYFS because it is there to support the needs and interests of each individual child. There are six areas covered by the early learning goals and educational programmes. They are equally important and depend on each other to support the rounded approach to child development. All these areas much be delivered through planned, purposeful play with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities. These six areas are; * Personal, Social and Emotional Development. Communication, Language and Literacy. * Problem-solving, Reasoning and Numeracy. * Knowledge and Understanding of the World. * Physical Development. * Creative Development. * The EYFS has partnerships with parents and from this we know when parents and practitioners i n the early years work together it has a direct impact on the children’s development and learning. The EYFS does observations to look at and listening to children to find out how they are developing, what they like doing and what they are learning through their play and the other experiences they are given.Assessment in the EYFS is of two main types. The first type is  on-going assessment  which is what practitioners do on a daily basis to make decisions about what the child has learned or can do already. This is to help the child move on in their learning. Another type of assessment known as summative assessment takes place twice in the Revised EYFS. Firstly when a child is between 24 and 36 months, the outcomes of this are recorded and parents and practitioners  use the information gained to identify  a child’s strengths and their learning needs.The second assessment takes place  towards the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage. This is to sum up all the different information from on-going assessments that have been made about the child. Planning in the early years is about meeting young children’s needs so that they can play and learn happily in ways which will help them develop skills and knowledge across the   Prime and Specific areas of learning in the EYFS. Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage is non-statutory guidance material which is intended to support practitioners in implementing the statutory requirements of the EYFS.It shows how the four themes of the EYFS and the principles that inform them work together to support babies and children. A progress check is done when the child is two years old which was developed by the National Children's Bureau. This check covers the legal requirements for the EYFS. It is done to check how the child is progressing. There is also a check done at 5 years old which is when children are starting school. The statutory framework is split into 3 sections which are the introduction, the learning and development requirements and the welfare requirements.The introduction is an overview which explains the aims and legal requirements. The learning and development requirements is the early learning goals and are a statutory requirement for all Ofsted registered providers. The welfare requirements are universal and have to be met by all Ofsted registered settings. There are 4 main themes to the EYFS which are a unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments and learning and development. A unique child theme is there because every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.The positive relationships are there so children can learn to be strong and independent through these positive relationships. Enabling environments is a theme because Children learn and develop which gives them experiences which respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and carers. Learning and development is a theme as it means children develop and learn in different ways and the framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.There are many different theorists which have very different approaches on the early years education for children. Some of these theorists are Reggio Emilia, Friedrich Frobel, Rudolf Steiner, Susan Isaacs, Margaret MacMillan and Maria Montessori. I am only going to explain in detail about 3 of these. The 3 I have chosen are Reggio Emilia, Friedrich Frobel and Margaret MacMillan. The Reggio Emilia approach is an early childhood education approach and was started in a town in the Northern end of Italy in 1940’s and is now worldwide.This approach values the potential of all children to think, learn and construct knowledge. This approach gives children the right to be recognised as subjects of in dividual, legal, civil and social rights. The Reggio Emilia approach offers training materials and courses which are designed to promote this approach throughout Italy and the world. This approach is a progressive child-centred approach to education which believes children must be free to discover and learn for themselves. A teacher which teaches in the Reggio Emilia approach allows children to do many things and supports them in many ways e. . they allow the children to ask their own questions and to explore and generate many possibilities. The teacher provides opportunities for the children to communicate their own ideas to other children. The Friedrich Frobel approach enables children to be cherished, simulated and to flourish their full potential. Friedrich set up education systems in Germany which are still used to this day. Friedrich Frobel believes all children are like tiny flowers, they are varied, they need care but each child is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in t he community of peers.He done this approach for children from birth to 7 years old and it recognises how unique each child is and every child’s different areas of development as a whole. This approach provides an environment which is safe, intellectually challenging, allows free access to a rich range of materials, opportunities for play and which work close in partnership with parents and other skilled adults. The Margaret MacMillan approach emphasis relationships, feelings and ideas in the physical aspect of learning. It also works in close partnership with parents and provides play for children as Margaret believes it helps children apply what they understand.Margaret believes in first-hand experience and active learning so she provides most of her learning through play because she believes this helps the children. She also believes children can’t learn if they are undernourished, poorly clothes, sick or ill, with poor teeth, poor eyesight, ear infections, rickets a nd so on. Therefore Margaret provides everything possible which is needed to help these things e. g. free school clothes and meals. She will not allow a child which is ill or sick into her environment as she believes they should be at home getting better.

Definition and Examples of Substantives in Grammar

In traditional grammar, a substantive is a word or a group of words that functions as a noun or noun phrase. In contemporary language studies, the more common term for a substantive is nominal. In some forms of construction grammar, substantive is used in a broad sense thats unrelated to the traditional meaning of substantive  (or noun). As Peter Koch observes in Between Word Formation and Meaning Change, It simply has the sense of constituted by one or more particular lexical or grammatical items (Morphology and Meaning, 2014). (See Hoffmans remarks in Examples and Observations below.) EtymologyFrom the Latin, substance Examples and Observations Doctors have asserted many times over the centuries that  walking is good for you, but  medical advice has never been one of the chief attractions of literature.(Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Penguin, 2001)The motion was eager, shy, exquisite, diffident, trusting: he saw all its meanings and knew that she would never stop gesturing within him, never; though a decree come between them, even death, her gestures would endure, cut into glass.(John Updike, Gesturing.  The Early Stories: 1953-1975. Random House, 2007)A [substantive is a] grammatical term that in the Middle Ages included both noun and adjective, but later meant noun exclusively. It is not usually found in later 20c English grammars. . . . However, the term has been used to refer to nouns and any other parts of speech serving as nouns (the substantive in English). The adjective local is used substantively in the sentence He had a drink at the local before going home (that is, the local public house) .(Sylvia Chalker and Tom McArthur, Substantive. The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press, 1992)A substantive noun or a substantive is . . . a name which can stand by itself, in distinction from an adjective noun or an adjective. It is the name of an object of thought, whether perceived by the senses or the understanding. . . . Substantive and noun are, in common use, convertible terms.(William Chauncey Fowler, English Grammar. Harper Brothers, 1855)Substantive Nouns and Adjectival Nouns- In Aristotelian, and scholastic, terminology, substance is more or less synonymous with entity. It is this by now almost obsolete sense of substance which gave  rise to the  term substantive for what, in modern  terminology, are normally called nouns.(John Lyons,  Natural Language and Universal Grammar: Essays in Linguistic Theory. Cambridge University Press, 1991)- The objects of our thoughts are either things, like the earth, the sun, water, wood, what is ordi narily called substance, or else are the manner or modification of things, like being round, being red, being hard, being learned, what is called accident. . . .It is this which has engendered the principal difference among the words which signify the objects of thought. For those words which signify substances have been called substantive nouns, and those which signify accidents, . . . have been called adjectival nouns.(Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot, 1660, quoted by Roy Harris and Talbot J. Taylor, Landmarks In Linguistic Thought. Routledge, 1997)Substantives in Construction Grammar[C]hildren acquire language based on a specific lexical input. For example, they first acquire  fully substantive constructions  (i.e. structures in which all positions are filled such as I wanna ball). Only gradually do they then  schematize these constructions  by replacing a substantive lexical item by a variable slot (I wanna ball thus becomes I wanna X and X can then be filled by doll, apple, etc.).(Thomas Hoffman, English Relative Clauses and Construction Grammar.  Constructional Approaches to English Grammar, ed. by  Graeme Trousdale and Nikolas Gisborne. Mouton de Gruyter, 2008)Pronunciation: SUB-sten-tiv