Self Managed Learning, Definition and Discussion

Self Managed Learning, Definition and Discussion Introduction: Before completing this assignment, the main objective of this assignment will be to enable a chance for to assess and develop a range of professional and personal skills in order to promote future personal and career development. We will have to ensure also that it will develop ability to organize, manage and practice a range of approaches to improve performance as self-directed learners in preparation for work or future career development. To complete this assignment, at first we have to understand how self-managed learning can enhance lifelong development. Then we have to take responsibility for own personal and professional development. Next we have to implement and continually review own personal and professional development plan. Finally we have to demonstrate acquired interpersonal and transferable skills. Self-managed learning is a way in which individuals can manage their own learning. This means organizations can have self-managed learning programmers that fit within their structure and ensure staff is developing in a certain direction; or individuals can take responsibility for decisions about what and how they learn, and when and where they learn. Self-managed learning programs can be designed and developed, allowing individuals to lead and manage themselves through learning, so that can continue to extend their repertoire of capabilities without the need to necessarily be reliant on another human resource to teach or manage their learning. It is a form of development where we take the initiative in learning new skills, knowledge and attitudes with the support of the organization. Five question to start the self-managed learning: Where have I come from – what are our past experiences? Where I am now – what strength and weakness do I have? What is the current situation that I am in? Where do I want to get to – what goals/targets/objectives do I want to set for ourself? How will I get there – what programmed of study should I design to achieve our goals? How will I know if I have arrived – what criteria can I apply to assess our learning Clear goal setting – an overview Step 1: get the big picture. It will be a statement outlining idealized description of your lifes outcome that will inspire you and create your target Step 2: brainstorm your thoughts to come up with a wish-list for each of your relevant life aspects, career, family and friends Step 3: set achievable goals, even if that means taking a larger goal or dream and breaking it down into bite-size chunks. A personal SWOT analysis is a great way to work it out Strength Weakness Opportunities Threat Step 4: Prioritize – goal setting is a skill, how to set goals takes time and practice to become proficient. Once you achieve the easy, single goals, youll feel motivated to try the process on some harder goals and confident in applying the process. Step 5: when you have a set of personal goals that are meaningful and will help you achieve your big – picture, all you need to do is develop your chosen goals and make sure they are SMART: Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Time bounce SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES A wealth of knowledge usually, presented by many speakers at one time in one place A lot of learning at one clip, with most material compressed into two or three days worth of time. Seminars and conferences gives people the opportunity to present their knowledge about something to other people who end up learning new things. Seminars and conferences helps people becoming confident in speaking in the public and develops presentation skills which are needed in the organization Internet A Personal Learning Environment is comprised of all the different Internet tools we can use for learning. Social software is increasingly being used in education and training through such applications as web logs, wikis, tools and applications for creating and sharing multimedia and tools for sharing all kinds of different personal knowledge bases including bookmarks and book collections. Examples of the software you can use for your personal learning environment include a word processor, an e-mail client for communication, a Web browser, making multimedia presentations, a content management system for creating websites, a photo editing program and sharing service. Task P2 Propose ways in which your lifelong learning in personal and Professional contexts could be encouraged. Kolbs four stage learning cycle shows how experience is translated through reflection into concepts, which in turn are used as guides for active experimentation and the choice of new experiences Concrete experience, either planned or accidental and where the leaner actively experiences an activity, is followed by Reflection, when the learner consciously reflect back on that experience Abstract conceptualization is where the learner attempts to conceptualize a theory or model of what is observed. Active experimentation is where the learner is trying to plan how to test a model or theory or plan for a forthcoming experience Proposed the ways in lifelong learning in personal and professional Set aside each day for yourself a little time to learn. Learning and doing homework, reading books should have benefited our life. Learning every day is the most basic method to improve our self forever. We should also do the daily schedule for ourselves. Every day have a lot of work to do, if not order them again, I will miss our work. Moreover, when there is a logical schedule, it will help our daily life became more reasonable. Participate in group activities; the forum is also developing a form of lifelong learning. In the group the Knowledge that I read, learned will be brought to share with everyone, so, knowledge that I know will be known by others. When all participants share the feeling, comment me, I will have deeply sight on what they share, therefore our knowledgell become richer. I need to participate in the long course and short term, be useful for future careers, such as courses to communicate with customers, soft skills, continuously improving English. After learning these things, I will apply their knowledge to practical work, which draws from the experiences themselves. Then I will use our knowledge to share and exchange with people in the same profession as me. Task P3 Evaluate the benefits of your self-managed learning to the individual and organization. Organization try to make sure their objectives are met and such objectives need to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound), this is by evaluating the qualities and expectations they need from the staff to those whom they have contracted with in achieving such objectives. They need staffs that have potential skills such as leadership skills, time management, and team player. Writing and communication skills, ambitious etc, such skills could be linked with objectives of the organization. The first benefit of lifelong learning is helping us to adapt to change. A lifelong learner will keep up with society by staying current and aware of changes in such areas as technology, news and political trends or finance and money issues. We adapt and grow and seem to thrive on staying up on the latest technology. Lifelong learners look for opportunities to embrace the new technologies. The hugest benefit of lifelong learning is the enriching and fulfilling life it provides for us. To people for whom continuing education, they can look forward to active and meaningful lives. We all have subjects in which we are interested in. A lifelong learner uses opportunities to explore these topics which they find compelling. The end result can be less stress on the body, in the home, or marriage. Task M1 What can be the development opportunities to meet current and future needs for both personal and professional Current needs pursuing qualification higher national diploma in business our target is completing all the assignment by end of June so that our results or transcript could be used by the university to enroll us for the final year top up degree in BA Honors in business. And to score a good brand in ilets which will help us visa process and improvement of English skills. Future needs Opportunities are the chances that a person may have developing themselves further in another level of understanding and professional. Opportunity we have personally is continuing with further education that is joining university for the third year degree top up in Business. After that am planning to specialize in HR management, after our degree I will have various training in HR management as our future needs for both personal and professional. We also have the opportunity for doing our Masters in HR management. Task M2 Suggest personal and professional development plan for the learners. Everyone should develop personal and professional development plan to find out what are the required skill is necessary for the long term development in life. Education is the initial stage of our life to acquire knowledge and skill and professional life is stage where we can implement those knowledge and skill, Professional life is also help us to enhance our existing skill and knowledge. One should develop the personal and professional development plant at the early stage before the person leave the academic sectors. For example currently we are doing BA Honors and we want to be a human resource manager in our long term career plan. We will describe future career plan and we will also describe why we choose this career. We will describe what the skills currently we possess. We will use modern tools and techniques, to analyze our skills, values, interest and knowledge. We will also find out the gaps and develop the action plan for further development on that sector. This will show us a clear path for our future career progression in professional life. Career Selection Currently we are business administration students and we like be in HR management in future.HR is one of the most important roles in a company. HR manager is a very important role because he/she deals with human resource which is one of the most intangible valuable assets for the company. Organization success completely depends on the employee performance and human resource manager play an important to enhance those performances. One of the important roles of HR manager is to develop the organizational structure on which organization run successfully. There are several reasons why we choose HR manager as our career and they are described below: Each of the organization has employee and to manage the employee organization need a department named as HR department. All over the world each of the organization has its own HR department, so there is ample of job opportunities around the globe. This will ensure us a secure job for a smooth transition in our career. HR management role is very challenging job and much passionate about to take very challenging job role. HR manager play a significant role for development of organizational policy that is one of the integral part for organization to run very smooth way. Short term and Long term plan Short term career planning means to develop a career plan for less than 5 years. Short Term Plan: In the short term development plan we will start with the self-evaluation process. We will evaluate our personality skills by self-evaluation process. In the self-evaluation process we will conduct self-analysis where we will find what our interest, values, skill and personality is. One the other side we will conduct an occupational analysis. In this process we will try to find out what qualification is required and what id the occupational trend in the industry. In this stage we also select our goals what we want to achieve in the short term and long term. Long Term Plan: Long term usually refer to career plan more than 5 years. we want to practice our career as a HR manager next five years once we are promoted as a HR manager. After that we want to be an HR head or director. In this time period we want to conceptualized all the HR skills and learn all the tools and techniques during our work tenure. Our long term plan is to learn all the industry HR management skill, tools and techniques. Different industry has different organizational structure, recruitment, training process, appraisal system, policy development techniques and some other HR factors. Skill Required for Our Career: We want to be a successful HR manager, critically evaluate the job roles and responsibilities. After analyzing job responsibility and job specification, we found that following are the skills required for our further career development. Handle and manage difficult employee. Develop and consistent positive attitude Good verbal and communicational skill Efficient conflict of interest management skill Good negotiation skill and negotiate with more confidence Effective learning and listening skill Develop and conduct performance appraisal Good supervision skill Good knowledge about HR policy Efficient and effective implementation skill Complete understand about the HR rule and laws Our Self-Evaluation In the self-evaluation process one can easily find out what the skills the individuals have and what are the skills the individual need to acquire more. For self-assessment we use SWOT analysis tools and techniques that are described below. Strength: our main strength is to handle difficult people. We believe that we can effectively supervise the difficult people as a HR manager. We have the positive attitude for any difficult work to be handled more effectively. We can solve critical problem more effectively. We have strong communication skill both written and verbally. We can also handle the conflict management more effectively. We have also good negation skill that one HR manager should have during the salary selection. We are very good at work periodization, that means how to evaluate each of the jobs effectively and which work need to be perform first. Weakness: we have few weaknesses also. We need to develop our presentation skill that is required for employee training process. We have less customer service skill and we are not too much friendly with people. Again our selling skill is not that much effective. We can handle too much stress but we need to develop this skill because in HR management lot of work stress one has to take. We have very little knowledge in conducting performance appraisal. We need to know how the performance appraisal is conducted. We are very poor in networking development with people. Opportunities: There are lots of opportunities in HR sector. Each of the organization has HR department. So there are lots of job opportunities all over the world. So that is our biggest opportunity to select the career in HR department. we will graduate in business administration and we have some knowledge and skill from our university and with the initial amount of knowledge and skill in HR we can easily apply for jobs in initial entry level jobs. Threats: HR career is one of the most tentative careers for student, who is studying in business administration. HR job has a huge demand all over the world. So this our biggest treat. As there is lot of talented people in market this job sector is quite competitive. We need to acquire all HR skills and need to become more competitive in this regard. Continuous Profession Development Plan (CPD) Continuous professional development plan is the process and techniques that enables us to continuously develop our skills and knowledge. CPD helps individual to develop credibility and confidence. CPS also help to develop the own self-appraisal system. CPD also fix out any gaps in the career goal setting objectives. CPD makes individual more productive and efficient. Personality: Personality is the combination of emotion, behavior and attitude. We very honest person and hard working person. If any work is assigned to us, we feel that this is our own task and perform the task accordingly. We never tell lie, which is one of the biggest strong point in our personality. we like to work under pressure and also like to influence and motivate other people to work in more efficient and effective way. Interest: we are very much interested to work in environment where we can express our own skill and knowledge. We do not like other to monitor us too much. So we are a self-driven person and very much interested to read books, article and magazine to acquire more knowledge and skills. We are very much interested to help others and work with others. We are interested to work in a secure environment. Values: our main values are not to harm people, rather help people in their difficult time. We believe that honestly is the best policy and never tell lie to others. We are very flexible personalities, so we do not belief the hard and fast rule of anything. We are honest, and reliable. Skills: We a very good team worker and we can motivate to work more effective way. Our decision making process is very prompt and effective and understand any problem very effectively and develop the solution of the plan more effectively. In the critical time we can work alone and control our stress. We are very creative to provide any particular solution. We have very good communication skills in both orally and verbally. Action Plan we need to take certain action plan to remove all the gaps that are discovered from the self-assessment tools and techniques. we need to improve the public contact development skills that means the networking skills, we need to meet with more professional people and need to start using the all the social networking method such as LinkedIn, facebook, twitter and other internet social networking medium. We need to start reading more books and scholarly article during the problem solving situation. We need some other contact sources for more creative and effective solution. We need to contact with superior problem for better solution development. We need to be more self-confident and need to accept supervision and need understand the factor that the mentors are more experienced than us. Task D1 Recommendations for the learners in order to develop their learning skills Personal and professional development is very important for the individual to be successful in the long run. It is the process through which person can make the self-assessment and find out the gaps they have currently in the skills and knowledge. It also help individual to develop long term and short term plan. PPD is the process that help individual to set up the aim in life in the career. This is very important as the individual can act according to attain the career goals and objectives. The recommendations for the learners are that if they want to choose HR field in future should think the following aspects for their career development. They need to develop certain skills and knowledge that are necessary for long term development of their career. They should have certain basic skills such as communication skills, decision making skill, leadership skill, prioritizing skill, motivational skill, valuing other people, analysis skill, delegating skill and reporting skill. After achieving those skills, they need to make the proper plan for their future career succession plan. In the HR department one should have the skill of interpersonal skills, negotiation and diplomatic skills, work in own initiatives, work under pressure, budgeting skill, job responsibility and job specification development skills, basic knowledge of the employment rules and regulation and IT skills. In the short term personal development plan their plan will be to acquire all the skills to get entry in the industry. In the long term they need to acquire some advanced skills and techniques, such as effective way to solve a particular HR problem, conducting interview, outstanding negotiation skill, organizational structure development skills, employee salary structure development skills, develop retail and recruitment policy and advanced budgeting skills. We are planning to acquire all the skills in the long term. They will find out the scope of their job in different industry sector in HR and will also try to find out what are the opportunities and after that they will select the best industry to apply there. In this regard they will also select the factor where they want to work in local companies or multinational companies. They will develop there our mission and vision for our long term career development progression plan. And will develop their motivation in this stage. Once they develop their mission and vision, they will start acquire basic and advanced knowledge and skills to be a successf ul HR manager.

Gender differences

Males will use the Splashradio in different ways than females and will react differently to how it is used. The Splashradio is designed for both males and females and they can use it in many similar situations, however, males and females may use it to play in very different ways and since the Splashradio has no major rules, it can be used however the players choose. Gender roles still hold their stereotypical values developed throughout time, but they are continuously changing. Some barriers are starting to break and girls are beginning to enjoy video games more. The difference between male and female has been culturally constructed and society teaches children what is appropriate and inappropriate based on social norms and stereotypes (Cassell 6, 28). For example, boys are generally more interested in computer games and electronics than girls. This is not due to lack of women's ability, but their access to technologies and prior negative beliefs about women and electronics (Cassell 11-12). Stereotypes wont stop girls from using the Splashradio, but it may effect how they use it. Stereotypically girls play house and Barbie's while boys play more aggressive games, like war and wrestling, due to social norms. They can still do this with the Splashradio, but it doesn't limit them to the stereotypical roles. It will allow them to easily cross the line between designated male only and female only games. Right now it is still too difficult to market towards girls alone, but since the Splashradio can be used in any situation, it should be easily marked for both sexes (Cassell 16). Just because games like Purple Moon and Hawaii High failed don't mean all will. Girls can still play with romance plots, secrets, Barbie's and other traditional interests if they wish, but they aren't limited to them (Cassell 21). Cassell and Jenkins suggested it is best not to design gender specific games, because they will tell users how they are supposed to act and what they should like. The Splashradio leaves these decisions entirely up to the user. Girls may seek â€Å"complexity in terms of character relations, not in terms of action elements† like boys do, but they will be able to create this with the Splashradio. Simplifying games or making things pink, like the tanks in â€Å"Barbie Quake† won't help girls enjoy using the Splashradio (Cassell 26). The genders are different; they think differently, like different things, and in some cases want to play differently. Girls and boys should be given equal opportunities to explore and play with the same toys and they will have this chance with the Splashradio. Typically boys tend to explore and roam more than girls do (Jenkins 267). Boys are, stereotypically, more outdoor-oriented and girls are more indoor-oriented (Jenkins 268). In the past, boys have grown up more independent, they have gained recognition for risky play, were more competitive, violent, aggressive, and participated in more role-playing activities than girls did (Jenkins 270-274). Girls grew up being more dependent, house ridden, quiet, and conservative. According to Jenkins, girls are more interested in romance novels, secrets, and gossiping. However, in the 21st century girls aren't as interested in the romance novels and slow â€Å"exploring† games, like Purple Moon (Jenkins 284). Some girls still choose to play stereotypical games, but others are interested in competitive games, just like boys. Gender roles are not as strict as they used to be and girls are discovering many new forms of play that earlier generations thought were only for boys. Girls and boys may use the Splashradio to play games like Star Wars, football, or Marco Polo. However, it can still be used to play with dolls or house, as well, but the device is not gender specific and does not limit the kind of games people play relating to gender. Only social experiences and past stereotypes will control the types of play people participate in while using the Splashradio. One major reason boys and girls will play differently with the Splashradio and other toys is gender segregation. â€Å"Not only do preschool-age children tend to self-segregate by sex, but that segregation leads to the development of different sets of social skills, styles, expectations, and preferences† (Cohen 1). Observational studies have proven that the more children play with same sex peers, the more they follow gender stereotypes created by society. Researchers Carol Lynn Martin and Richard A. Fabes of Arizona State call this phenomenon â€Å"the social dosage effect†, implying how a greater â€Å"dosage† of gender segregated play will increase gender differences (Cohen 2). It is important for children to experience mixed-gender play in order to eliminate falling into gender stereotypes, however, when playgroups include both genders, another problem may arise. Girls aren't as active in play when boys are around, because boys tend to â€Å"monopolize† toys (Maccoby 514). Powlishta's research shows when two kids are alone boys get more play time with the toy, in this case a movie viewer. When an adult is present boys are more inhibited and girls acquire at least equal access to the toys (Maccoby 515). This means that in coed situations girls may not play with the Splashradio as much as boys, unless an adult is present.

A Dirty Job Chapter 1

This book is dedicated to Patricia Moss, who was as generous in sharing her death as she was in sharing her life. AND To hospice workers and volunteers all over the world. PART ONE THE SORRY BUSINESS What you seek, you shall never find. For when the Gods made man, They kept immortality for themselves. Fill your belly. Day and night make merry, Let Days be full of joy. Love the child that holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace. For these alone are the concerns of man. – The Epic of Gilgamesh 1 BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH – HE KINDLY STOPPED FOR ME – Charlie Asher walked the earth like an ant walks on the surface of water, as if the slightest misstep might send him plummeting through the surface to be sucked to the depths below. Blessed with the Beta Male imagination, he spent much of his life squinting into the future so he might spot ways in which the world was conspiring to kill him – him; his wife, Rachel; and now, newborn Sophie. But despite his attention, his paranoia, his ceaseless fretting from the moment Rachel peed a blue stripe on the pregnancy stick to the time they wheeled her into recovery at St. Francis Memorial, Death slipped in. â€Å"She's not breathing,† Charlie said. â€Å"She's breathing fine,† Rachel said, patting the baby's back. â€Å"Do you want to hold her?† Charlie had held baby Sophie for a few seconds earlier in the day, and had handed her quickly to a nurse insisting that someone more qualified than he do some finger and toe counting. He'd done it twice and kept coming up with twenty-one. â€Å"They act like that's all there is to it. Like if the kid has the minimum ten fingers and ten toes it's all going to be fine. What if there are extras? Huh? Extra-credit fingers? What if the kid has a tail?† (Charlie was sure he'd spotted a tail in the six-month sonogram. Umbilical indeed! He'd kept a hard copy.) â€Å"She doesn't have a tail, Mr. Asher,† the nurse explained. â€Å"And it's ten and ten, we've all checked. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest.† â€Å"I'll still love her, even with her extra finger.† â€Å"She's perfectly normal.† â€Å"Or toe.† â€Å"We really do know what we're doing, Mr. Asher. She's a beautiful, healthy baby girl.† â€Å"Or a tail.† The nurse sighed. She was short, wide, and had a tattoo of a snake up her right calf that showed through her white nurse stockings. She spent four hours of every workday massaging preemie babies, her hands threaded through ports in a Lucite incubator, like she was handling a radioactive spark in there. She talked to them, coaxed them, told them how special they were, and felt their hearts fluttering in chests no bigger than a balled-up pair of sweat socks. She cried over every one, and believed that her tears and touch poured a bit of her own life into the tiny bodies, which was just fine with her. She could spare it. She had been a neonatal nurse for twenty years and had never so much as raised her voice to a new father. â€Å"There's no goddamn tail, you doofus! Look!† She pulled down the blanket and aimed baby Sophie's bottom at him like she might unleash a fusillade of weapons-grade poopage such as the guileless Beta Male had never seen. Charlie jumped back – a lean and nimble thirty, he was – then, once he realized that the baby wasn't loaded, he straightened the lapels on his tweed jacket in a gesture of righteous indignation. â€Å"You could have removed her tail in the delivery room and we'd never know.† He didn't know. He'd been asked to leave the delivery room, first by the ob-gyn and finally by Rachel. (â€Å"Him or me,† Rachel said. â€Å"One of us has to go.†) In Rachel's room, Charlie said: â€Å"If they removed her tail, I want it. She'll want it when she gets older.† â€Å"Sophie, your Papa isn't really insane. He just hasn't slept for a couple of days.† â€Å"She's looking at me,† Charlie said. â€Å"She's looking at me like I blew her college money at the track and now she's going to have to turn tricks to get her MBA.† Rachel took his hand. â€Å"Honey, I don't think her eyes can even focus this early, and besides, she's a little young to start worrying about her turning tricks to get her MFA.† â€Å"MBA,† Charlie corrected. â€Å"They start very young these days. By the time I figure out how to get to the track, she could be old enough. God, your parents are going to hate me.† â€Å"And that would be different how?† â€Å"New reasons, that's how. Now I've made their granddaughter a shiksa.† â€Å"She's not a shiksa, Charlie. We've been through this. She's my daughter, so she's as Jewish as I am.† Charlie went down on one knee next to the bed and took one of Sophie's tiny hands between his fingers. â€Å"Daddy's sorry he made you a shiksa.† He put his head down, buried his face in the crook where the baby met Rachel's side. Rachel traced his hairline with her fingernail, describing a tight U-turn around his narrow forehead. â€Å"You need to go home and get some sleep.† Charlie mumbled something into the covers. When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. â€Å"She feels warm.† â€Å"She is warm. She's supposed to be. It's a mammal thing. Goes with the breast-feeding. Why are you crying?† â€Å"You guys are so beautiful.† He began arranging Rachel's dark hair across the pillow, brought a long lock down over Sophie's head, and started styling it into a baby hairpiece. â€Å"It will be okay if she can't grow hair. There was that angry Irish singer who didn't have any hair and she was attractive. If we had her tail we could transplant plugs from that.† â€Å"Charlie! Go home!† â€Å"Your parents will blame me. Their bald shiksa granddaughter turning tricks and getting a business degree – it will be all my fault.† Rachel grabbed the buzzer from the blanket and held it up like it was wired to a bomb. â€Å"Charlie, if you don't go home and get some sleep right now, I swear I'll buzz the nurse and have her throw you out.† She sounded stern, but she was smiling. Charlie liked looking at her smile, always had; it felt like approval and permission at the same time. Permission to be Charlie Asher. â€Å"Okay, I'll go.† He reached to feel her forehead. â€Å"Do you have a fever? You look tired.† â€Å"I just gave birth, you squirrel!† â€Å"I'm just concerned about you.† He was not a squirrel. She was blaming him for Sophie's tail, that's why she'd said squirrel, and not doofus like everyone else. â€Å"Sweetie, go. Now. So I can get some rest.† Charlie fluffed her pillows, checked her water pitcher, tucked in the blankets, kissed her forehead, kissed the baby's head, fluffed the baby, then started to rearrange the flowers that his mother had sent, moving the big stargazer lily in the front, accenting it with a spray of baby's breath – â€Å"Charlie!† â€Å"I'm going. Jeez.† He checked the room, one last time, then backed toward the door. â€Å"Can I bring you anything from home?† â€Å"I'll be fine. The ready kit you packed covered everything, I think. In fact, I may not even need the fire extinguisher.† â€Å"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it – â€Å" â€Å"Go! I'll get some rest, the doctor will check Sophie out, and we'll take her home in the morning.† â€Å"That seems soon.† â€Å"It's standard.† â€Å"Should I bring more propane for the camp stove?† â€Å"We'll try to make it last.† â€Å"But – â€Å" Rachel held up the buzzer, as if her demands were not met, the consequences could be dire. â€Å"Love you,† she said. â€Å"Love you, too,† Charlie said. â€Å"Both of you.† â€Å"Bye, Daddy.† Rachel puppeted Sophie's little hand in a wave. Charlie felt a lump rising in his throat. No one had ever called him Daddy before, not even a puppet. (He had once asked Rachel, â€Å"Who's your daddy?† during sex, to which she had replied, â€Å"Saul Goldstein,† thus rendering him impotent for a week and raising all kinds of issues that he didn't really like to think about.) He backed out of the room, palming the door shut as he went, then headed down the hall and past the desk where the neonatal nurse with the snake tattoo gave him a sideways smile as he went by. Charlie drove a six-year-old minivan that he'd inherited from his father, along with the thrift store and the building that housed it. The minivan always smelled faintly of dust, mothballs, and body odor, despite a forest of smell-good Christmas trees that Charlie had hung from every hook, knob, and protrusion. He opened the car door and the odor of the unwanted – the wares of the thrift-store owner – washed over him. Before he even had the key in the ignition, he noticed the Sarah McLachlan CD lying on the passenger seat. Well, Rachel was going to miss that. It was her favorite CD and there she was, recovering without it, and he could not have that. Charlie grabbed the CD, locked the van, and headed back up to Rachel's room. To his relief, the nurse had stepped away from the desk so he didn't have to endure her frosty stare of accusation, or what he guessed would be her frosty stare of accusation. He'd mentally prepared a short speech about how being a good husband and father included anticipating the wants and needs of his wife and that included bringing her music – well, he could use the speech on the way out if she gave him the frosty stare. He opened the door to Rachel's room slowly so as not to startle her – anticipating her warm smile of disapproval, but instead she appeared to be asleep and there was a very tall black man dressed in mint green standing next to her bed. â€Å"What are you doing here?† The man in mint green turned, startled. â€Å"You can see me?† He gestured to his chocolate-brown tie, and Charlie was reminded, just for a second, of those thin mints they put on the pillow in nicer hotels. â€Å"Of course I can see you. What are you doing here?† Charlie moved to Rachel's bedside, putting himself between the stranger and his family. Baby Sophie seemed fascinated by the tall black man. â€Å"This is not good,† said Mint Green. â€Å"You're in the wrong room,† Charlie said. â€Å"You get out of here.† Charlie reached behind and patted Rachel's hand. â€Å"This is really, really not good.† â€Å"Sir, my wife is trying to sleep and you're in the wrong room. Now please go before – â€Å" â€Å"She's not sleeping,† said Mint Green. His voice was soft, and a little Southern. â€Å"I'm sorry.† Charlie turned to look down at Rachel, expecting to see her smile, hear her tell him to calm down, but her eyes were closed and her head had lolled off the pillow. â€Å"Honey?† Charlie dropped the CD he was carrying and shook her gently. â€Å"Honey?† Baby Sophie began to cry. Charlie felt Rachel's forehead, took her by the shoulders, and shook her. â€Å"Honey, wake up. Rachel.† He put his ear to her heart and heard nothing. â€Å"Nurse!† Charlie scrambled across the bed to grab the buzzer that had slipped from Rachel's hand and lay on the blanket. â€Å"Nurse!† He pounded the button and turned to look at the man in mint green. â€Å"What happened†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He was gone. Charlie ran into the hall, but no one was out there. â€Å"Nurse!† Twenty seconds later the nurse with the snake tattoo arrived, followed in another thirty seconds by a resuscitation team with a crash cart. There was nothing they could do.

College Athletes Should Not Be Paid - 1238 Words

Over several decades, there has been the incessant question of whether college athletes should be compensated for his or her talent. The question has even lead to lawsuits over the more recent years. Although many athletes don’t have enough time to work and pay for school, the benefits derived from just attending college is far greater. As a result, college athletes should not be compensated for their abilities on the field. Many college coaches spend several years to developing each recruiting class. With each class comes the varying level of talent in every position. As for the athlete, there may be sentimental reasons as to choosing a college to play for. Some may even choose the popular and dominant college in his or her sport.†¦show more content†¦The argument that college athletes should be compensated is invalid in that colleges currently award their athletes through a variety of ways. In return for their athletic ability, colleges give full and partial scholar ships to the student athletes. â€Å"Athletic scholarships enable many students to attend college who would otherwise be excluded by economic factors† (Gerstein 51). So, athletes who lack the competence to attend college would scrape by acceptance with their physical ability. And, athletes that would otherwise be unable to receive benefits would then be awarded with scholarships that very intelligent students would miss out on. Such an privilege should be taken seriously by any athlete no matter what the expense. Unfortunately, many still feel a sense of entitlement to money and perks while in college. Furthermore, athletic scholarships greatly reduces their amount of student loan debt. â€Å"A high percentage of student-athletes graduate without the burden of student loans, which most other students accumulate† (Mitchell 3). There should be no justification that an athlete does not have time for a job or to make money. The athlete does acquires little to no debt and is still participating in sports. If tuition is an issue, then the student-athlete can have his or her parent pay for the remaining costs. Most students who attend college have parents that are college educated as well. College educated parents will, for the most part, have a career that