School as the primary promoter

Developmental assets are the basic life skills and attribute that are critical building blocks for young people’s successful growth and development. They are classified broadly into two: external assets and internal assets. Each further classified into subclasses;External; support, boundaries empowerment and expectationsInternal; constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies and positive identityThere are modalities in building the above assets and this was divided into 6 ways by the search institute;Everyone can build assets. Building assets requires consistent messages across a community. All adults, youth and children play a role.All young people need assets. While it is crucial to pay attention to those who have the least (economically), nearly all young people need more assets than they have.A relationship is the key. Strong relationships between adults and young people, young people and their peers, and teenagers and children are central to asset building.Asset building is an ongoing process. Building assets starts when a child is born and continues through high school and beyond.Consistent messages are important. Young people need to receive consistent messages about what's important and what's expected from their families, schools, communities, the media and other sources.Intentional redundancy is important. Assets must be continually reinforced across the years and in all areas of a young person's life. (By search institute)The assets that designate school as the primary promoter of are; · Achievement motivation; this is basically done by arousing the child psychology to act toward a desired goal. The motivation is usually achieved by understanding the child and appealing to the mental faculty of the child. These help children to achieve the following;Increase rate of high school completion, more students enrollment in college, student becomes more efficient, have greater expectation of success and achi eve better grades in school, the children have positive perception of their teachers, this also helps the children in knowing how to manage stress and anxiety. The child will also be able to communicate effectively.   All the above can only be achieve if proper technique is used. We should be able to focus on the child developing mind and self esteem which is very important in the child development. · School engagement; a developmental asset that focus mainly on the child’s involvement in the school activities. When a child participate in the school activities both extra-curricular and curricular activities, the child develops a good working relationship with his or her colleague and also with the teachers and it will help the child to develop and achieve the following; the child will want to attend school regularly, he will spend more time on his homework, it will also help the child in learning and use of â€Å"deep† study technique, there’s also greater f eeling of support at school which will affect the child’s ego positively, there’s also less involvement in drug use and less adolescent child bearing. · Homework; helps to achieve higher test scores, greater homework completion and accuracy, improved scientific literacy and fewer conduct problems and less marijuana use. Home work has the same objectives as that of school in general. It s helps by increasing the child's knowlegde and improve the capacity and skills it also help to reinforce what the child has learnt and also help in preparing them for the upcoming complex task.Risk factors that would benefit from strengthening of the assetsØ   Achievement motivation. This developmental asset is very important in building a child’s self esteem. Most human who have inferiority complex tend to lack adequate motivation from childhood. They simply don’t believe in themselves and this will surely affect their productivity.Ø   School engagement. This cant be underestimate when it comes to child’s development because it strongly influence the academic performance of the child and how he or she relates with outsiders. The school can provide activities such as sports, story telling through writing, visual autobiographies, using resources in the community to teach them and teachers can identify their successes which is utmost in boosting their moralsØ   Home-work. The third developmental assets who designate the school as the primary promoter of the child’s development are home works. Home strongly influence the way child learn   by reinforcing what he has learnt before and preventing the child from getting involve in some other activities that could have a negative impact on his life.Developmental assets and my personal philosophyDevelopmental assets are vital keys or tools in child’s development; I strongly believe that it enables parent and child care-givers and teachers to bring out the best in the ch ild so he or she can really make maximum use of his or her potentials.My experience and philosophyWhen I was young my involvement in school activities greatly influenced my life positively. I learnt how write my own stories such as my experience with riding a bicycle. With such experience, I have been able to develop my writing skills.The home works I did then was somehow stressful, because I always want to go and play but I got used to it and know I reinforce all my   classroom works by simply going over it again at home and this gave an edge in all my results.The motivation and teachings I was exposed to earlier in my life, I can manage stress and anxiety easily. So my philosophy in life about education is that â€Å"catch them young† when all is fresh and when all the neural connections are being form to achieve life success.ReferencesSearch institute. (1999). Pass it On! Ready-ta-Use Handouts for Asset Builders. Developmental assets. Retrieved July 10, 2008. From www.se arch-institute.org

Happines and Contemplation

â€Å"Happiness is Contemplation† Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man s own will. In his book â€Å"Happiness and contemplation† Josef Pieper; reassures this statement. And, in a systematic way he devoutly presents, the tlrst halt ot his book to the examination ot happiness; the Importance of Its linguistic extraction, from the simple way to the spiritual, why we desire happiness, and the nature of our longing for It, The metaphysics of happiness, the possibility of happiness and goodness of being stand or fall together, the cause of happiness, the relationship between happiness and Joy, as well as the means to happiness.The latter he argues is contemplation; which he sees as an Intultlve perception ot the universal good enthused and sharpened by love. contemplation us such Is gradually assembled to the Idea of the need of human happiness; with different meanings and alms he concludes that Contemplation Is â€Å"d focusing on the inner gaz e, undistracted by anything from outside, but troubled from within by the challenge to achieve a profounder?. peace. Happiness is sold as a product in the marketing world and we as humans boldly buy we as society tall Into the trap otthe old tormula â€Å"greatest happiness. tor the greatest number. (13) so It comes to us Ilke a surprise when we hear that mans ultimate happiness consists in contemplation. It would not be wise to discard the proposition that contemplation is man happiness, however we deeply analyze the meaning of the word and the roots of it.Happiness is rooted in God and therefore in beatitude Happiness has many meanings in vernacular language, but, none of them have any connection with the splrlt or virtue ot the person, they are all related to the enjoyment or pleasure of the body. St. Thomas estates happiness† as an â€Å"attainment of d created good† and all humans can experience It In many different ays, from the drinking of water when thirsty to the enjoyment of the company of a loved one. However the appearance of happiness in satisfaction is not enough. The pursuit of happiness† comes to us as human nature, we want happiness by nature. because we are the only beings that can feel It. it would be unnatural to think that an animal feel happiness. so, to us Is a necessity and should be our ultimate human goal because this Is something that we cannot control, with this we conclude that happiness should be the ultimate goal of human life. Human nature conditions human souls to desire happiness, even though arguments gainst this concept might arise; ultimately we can say that men will have not the power to not want happiness.Happiness as a concept ot satiation ot our own pursuit, provides for us the drink that will sausfy our thirst, and analyzing the complexity of human nature and all the needs of humans we only have to look up to the only perfect being, The only one who is Happy by his mere existence. â€Å"To God alon e may perfect beatitude be attributed, by virtue of his nature. † (28) Looking to â€Å"happiness† as part of human nature and looking up to God as the ultimate happy being, the summa reassures this tor us as St Thomas concludes that Any human being who Is happy share In happiness that Is not of himself.For God, existence. † By this we conclude that God and happiness are the same, we fall in the same conclusion God as an impaired divine being. Exploring more the concept of â€Å"Happiness† as a pursuit and an end; we come to explore a metaphor where we see happiness as a thirst and we relate this thirst, as seeking happiness as a satiation of the will which demands quenching and this quenching of the thirst is happiness.However, this simple metaphor can unfold in two parts one looking to â€Å"happiness as drink† and the other with â€Å"happiness as rinking† This can fall into the satisfaction of a non virtuous nature, as humans our thirsts s ometimes go to extremes, man seek fame, fortune, wealth, and pleasures to quench our thirst but ultimately we realize that our happiness depends upon the glory of God. Because of this holy longing we are guided to conclude that the greatest happiness is sharing in eternity. So the satiation of this hunger and thirst only will not be satiated unless we partake of God himself.Is happiness nothing but gladness overflowing, infinite Joy? St. Thomas will say NO. Happiness without Joy is unthinkable; but they are two different things. In the Summa both concepts get clarified as Thomas explains it. â€Å"Therefore a person rejoices because he possesses a good appropriate to him†whether in reality, or in hope, or at least in memory. The appropriate good, however, if it is perfect, is precisely the man's happiness†¦ Thus it is evident that no t even the Joy which follows the possession of the perfect good is the essence of happiness itself. Enjoying life, filling with meaningful things, like serving others, being charitable, surrendering yourself to God, doing the right thing when is needed. All these things ring Joy to my heart; the ends of my dedication to them are only building on my happiness as a man. Differentiating we conclude that Joy is essentially secondary, the response to happiness. But, Joy has not purpose beyond itself. Happiness as the attainment of â€Å"the whole good† even though is difficult to find the meaning of the word attain we can conclude that is the means we use to reach our goal, so we find happiness being the result of acting and doing.The idea of happiness as action reach to three propositions, happiness means perfection; perfection means realization; realization comes from acting. Happiness means erfection, â€Å"In perfect felicity the whole man is perfected,† Perfection means full realization† felicity must consist in man's attainment of the uttermost degree of being real. â€Å"Realization is achieved b y action† in analyzing this concept one might think of this of being an outward action, but, this should be done so this remains within the person himself.