ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: family

Hawthorne’s sisters Ebe and Louisa were also a foundation of hold up for Hawthorne. His sisters may be the bases for Hawthorne’s dark and light female character. The dark heroine is sensual and outspoken, while the light is virginal and soft – spoken. Ebe was more critical while Louisa was more nurturing. Louisa was supportive of her brother, and her only involvement with his writing process was her encouragement of his endeavors; her feedback was never critical. Hawthorne’s elder sister, Elizabeth, or Ebe, fits the profile of the dark heroine in that she was a vocal figure in his life. When it came to his fiction, she was opinionated, and she helped her brother edit his work. Ebe was also an intellectual confidant for her brother; her influence is best depicted in a character such as Zenobia in The Blithedale Romance.
Topic: family

Hawthorne’s wife was emotionally supportive of her husband’s personal and professional life; Sophia’s personality, therefore, resembles Hawthorne’s light heroines. Mrs. Hawthorne becomes the light heroine in Hawthorne’s fiction: she is virginal, domestic, and serves as a support system for her male partner. There is compelling confirmation for this link between Sophia and Hawthorne’s light heroine, in The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne, for example, names his light brave woman after his wife’s pet name, Phoebe. Also, while Sophia’s participation with her husband’s occupation as a writer is not obvious in hiss fiction, it had much to do with Hawthorne’s artistic accomplishment since her aptitude as an editor had much to do with her husband’s accomplishments as a writer. Other, less well-known women in Hawthorne’s family life, such as his aunts, also be converted into the basis of female protagonists in his fiction. Characters based on Hawthorne’s aunts, Mary, Betsy, Priscilla, and Maria, can be linked to female protagonists in such short stories as the title character in “Mrs.Bullfrog” and Hepzibah in The House of the Seven Gables.
Topic: family

Hawthorne’s behavior of his aunts in real life can be seen from side to side his narrator’s move toward to Hepzibah, for example. He often teasingly tease his aunts about their single status just as the narrator mocks Hepzibah. Yet Hawthorne’s come within reach of to such women, though tongue in cheek, is understanding as well. Women often fall wounded to alarming patriarchies, and even though his heroines give the feeling powerless, Hawthorne’s women lead small revolutions within their own family next to influential male figures that change their community and, debatably, the entire American culture. though Hawthorne has often been criticize for his vagueness about women’s public roles in society he give somebody a talking to them for writing fiction that he careful middling and pass judgment on activists for women’s rights such as Margaret Fuller. He is not a conservative in his fiction when it comes to women’s issues. Making female protagonists central figures in his fiction alone substantiates his pioneering imagination as an artist since dynamic fictional female characters were rare in early American fiction. The bonds between age band of women in Hawthorne’s fiction are symbols which direct future generations of heroines to develop an artistic emotional retort that will lead to the fruition of their full possible as women.
Topic: family

Hawthorne’s intentions as an author are wide-ranging and possibly will never be entirely understandable. Critical standpoint allows the understanding audience to take to mean textual meaning from different critical angles. on the other hand, there is also the question of how characters and narrators within the text understand meaning from the text itself. This issue will be the focus of the residue of the study: how female characters exchange a few words with one another within the text, and how these characters come to an sympathetic of the symbolic implication of their feminine ancestors. from beginning to end his narrators, Hawthorne was not only addressing a general reading spectators but also an audience within the text that includes female characters. Studies such as Michael Dunne’s Hawthorne’s Narrative Strategies and Bercovitch’s The Office of the Scarlet Letter offer scholars a narrative viewpoint through which they can view Hawthorne’s texts; they particularly deliberate on the female perspective in the author’s fiction. Dunne, for example, analyzes Hawthorne’s story technique and questions the narrator’s standpoint in The Scarlet Letter. Some scholars normally focus on how the reading audience interprets Hester’s return to Boston, critics must also keep in mind what this return suggests to the narrator and the characters within the narrative. While Bercovitch quarrel that Hester’s return shows her disobedience to the Puritan community. Pearl perceives not only Hester’s actions, but mother’s implication as a symbol. Hester, may have been more worried with her own daughter’s opinion of her mother than with the town’s decision of her. There is a symbolic language among women.
Topic: family

The heroines in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables talk to one one more from side to side symbols, and it is this symbolic language that reveals to future generation of women how to overwhelm patriarchies and become self-reliant feminine figures. The implication of the symbolic language between women within convinced family circles in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Women from previous generations exchange a few words through symbols Hester reveals herself to Pearl through the “Scarlet A,” and Alice Pyncheon communicates from the dead through the posies in the Pyncheon garden. Younger female heroines come to their own conclusion about their ancestors as they learn to become self-governing.
Topic: family

The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables may be alike in how younger heroines read the representative clue their ancestors go away behind, but the two novels are far removed from in tone, and, thus, what Hawthorne reveal about American society come into view more miserable in The Scarlet Letter than it does in The House of the Seven Gables. For case in point, while The Scarlet Letter appears to have a happy ending for Pearl, the viewpoint for Hester and her group of people is not as hopeful. Pearl run away the community in which she has been reared, but Hester returns to it at the end of the novel. Ultimately the community’s awareness of Hester changes; some people in her community would go as far as recitation her as angelic. on the other hand, Hester does not run away her agreed place in society; she proceeds to Boston and remnants inaccessible from the rest of the world awaiting her death. The end of the novel does not give the impression to point to the heroine’s achievement; instead the letter “A” appears on her gravestone, and consequently she cannot run away her disgrace even in death. even though Hester does have a negligible collision on her community, she does not change it considerably. Hawthorne does not set the story in a time when a woman can make a place for herself within a male – under enemy control society.
Topic: family

His novels possibly reveal his changeable ideas about women in the nineteenth – century. Hester may snot have started a feminine revolution, on the other hand in this novel Hawthorne begins to point out how one human being can be the cause for progress for an entire culture romantic writers believed the key to altering American society was the human being. Pearl learns to read symbols, thus thoughtful the art of language. while everybody else in the Puritan community cannot read how the scarlet letter signify a inheritance of feminine reformers that leads back to Ann Hutchinson’s time, Pearl make sense of this message. The development of American society, as Hawthorne make known, has much to do with artistic emotional response, and in this novel, Pearl’s receptiveness to the scarlet letter is an design of a new age group of Americans learning to be grateful for the art of fiction.
Topic: family

Hawthorne make use of the beauty of an additional flower in The House of the Seven Gables to educate a young heroine, Phoebe Pyncheon, not only how to liberate herself from the Pyncheon patriarchy, but, more prominently, to develop an positive welcome for art. Unlike Hawthorne’s young heroine in The Scarlet Letter, Phoebe, in The House of the Seven Gables, reveals a deeper considerate of the symbolic implication of a posy. Not much is known about Pearl’s life as an adult, and thus Hawthorne does not provide a total picture as to how Pearl’s awareness of Hester has influenced her. on the other hand, in The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne focuses more on the younger heroine’s fate and does not make known much about her ancestor, Alice Pyncheon. Alice, like Hester, is characterize as a flower Hester as a rose and Alice as Posies and in the end a willing victim. While in the present time of the narrative not much is known about Alice, Phoebe relate the posies in the Pyncheon garden to her, and Holgrave narrate Alice’s life story in one chapter. Yet, as a symbol, Alice represents strength from which succeeding Pyncheon women can draw. She died possibly a martyr to the cause of women’s freedom in the Pyncheon family. She runaway her fate, on the other hand, when she died, for she was reveal from the hold that Maule’s power had over her free will. If she could not uphold her free will in life, she would protect it by any means essential, even by death. Alice’s death could, questionably, be a Pyncheon’s woman’s first effort at avoidance male – power that is standing for by the house.
Topic: family

The lively sandwiched between Phoebe and Hephzibah is only one of its kind in that both work jointly to administer the shop, take care of Clifford, and ultimately escape the house of the seven gables. Phoebe’s connection with Hepzibah is not, on the other hand, typical of a younger heroine’s association with an older female figure. The association between the two women is not as clear as that flanked by Alice and Phoebe. These uniqueness of Hepzibah’s do little to motivate Phoebe, yet her temperament is more solemn by the end of the novel. Hepzibah begin to believe her individuality; she is not noble, but part of a more plebian the social order, relying less on her bequest and depending more on making a earnings from her labor at the shop. The old matron may not have urbanized a sensitive sensitivity for art like her niece, but she does learn how to become self – reliant.
Topic: family

When asked to describe her friendships, Ashley’s descriptions could be summarized and described as integrated relationships. The integrated relationship is one of four types of relationships; the four types of relationships include friendly, intimate, integrated and uninvolved (Peers, 2019). Friendly relationship places attention on the activities individuals share with one another, such as playing on the same basketball team. The intimate relationship focuses on emotional attachment and warmth individuals share; for example, Ashley established that her close friendships were partly based on intimate conversations. The integrated relationship involves both aspects from the friendly and intimate relationships, and the uninvolved relationship would display the lack of friendly and intimate relationship characteristics (Peers, 2019). Ashley described her friendships as being built on shared activities like basketball, as well as intimate conservations; therefore, her friendships would be labeled as integrated relationships.
Topic: family

When asked how her friends provide support for her, Ashley described the characteristics of informational support. There are four types of support that are provided between friends, those of which include informational, instrumental, companionship, and esteem (Peers, 2019). Informational support is when friends provide advice and guidance to one another in regards to personal issues. Instrumental support entails assisting friends with actual assignments, which can include but is not limited to, schoolwork in the case of adolescence. Companionships support encompasses the displaying of dependability on a friend to be there for you at social activities; and lastly esteem support involves individuals supporting each other in times of failure and celebrating together in times of success. Ashley described her friend’s support as informational, and this was evident in how she described her interactions with friends. She specifically explained that when she was going through a break up, her friends were there to provide advice and be there for her. This demonstrated informational support. Talking with her friends about decisions and sharing advice amongst themselves appeared to be a commonality amongst Ashley’s friends.
Topic: family

When asked about her relationships within her family, Ashley provided a great deal of information about her relationships with her parents and sibling. This had proven to be insightful when determining what attachment style would best describe Ashley. When attempting to understand relationships within a family it has been shown to be useful to examine the relationships through the family systems approach. The family systems approach entails the recognition that each subsystem in the family influences other subsystems in the family. A subsystem can be described as relationships between individuals in the family, such as the relationship between a mother and an adolescent daughter. Also, a change in any family member or family subsystem results in a period of disequilibrium until the family system adjusts to the change. Disequilibrium can be defined as an unbalance in the family, for example; if a sibling moves out of the house, or a divorce takes place. This will take time for all family members to adjust. Once adjustment has taken place equilibrium can be restored. Equilibrium can be described as balance in the family, when there is a rhythm to how the family functions. Ashley was asked if there had ever been a big change in her family, and how did it get resolved; she described the time her grandmother passed away. Her grandmother was very involved in her family, and after her passing it seemed that her parents struggled with day-to-day tasks; this would be considered the family being in disequilibrium. She explained that her family has since adjusted to not having her grandmother around; this would be considered the return to equilibrium.
Topic: family

There are four parenting styles, which include authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and disengaged. Parenting styles are evaluated through the means of demandingness and responsiveness. The demandingness aspect is comprised of how parents produce expectations and guidelines for their children. The responsiveness involves the compassion and warmth parents express towards their children’s needs and their children in general. Authoritative parents are both high in demandingness and high in responsiveness; meaning that these parents have high prospects for their children but also engage in discussion with their children to explain why things may be the way they are. Authoritarian parenting style is high in demandingness but low in responsiveness; this means that the parents have great expectations for their children, and do not display much warmth toward them. Permissive parenting style is low in demandingness and high in responsiveness; this means that the parent has limited expectations of their children and express great warmth toward their children. The disengaged parenting style displays low in both demandingness and responsiveness. Unfortunately, the parents that use this approach are commonly uninvolved with their children’s lives.
Topic: family

When asked about her relationship with her parents Ashley’s description was of the authoritative parenting style. Ashley’s relationship with her parents is built on open communication and high expectations. She talked about how her parents have placed great emphasis on open communication, but also have great expectations of her to remain committed to her job, do well in school and contribute at home by doing her chores. The authoritative parenting style is the most ideal and provides the best outcomes in Western culture (Family Relationships, 2019). A few of the outcomes for adolescents that are favourable include but are not limited to independence and good social skills. Ashley demonstrated these favourable outcomes in her daily life based on her commitment to her employment and clarity in the way she spoke about her relationships. She demonstrated independence at her job; she talked about how she had been given a new responsibility for closing the restaurant some nights. She confirmed that she had developed good social skills through her discussion of her life and the amount of healthy active relationships she had in her life. The healthy relationships were between her and her friends, her peers, and her family. She expressed that she has no difficulties in approaching individuals in her life to discuss issues. She particularly spoke about an incident where her friend was being too flirty with her boyfriend and she discussed the matter with her friend and they maturely worked things out.
Topic: family

It appeared that Ashley would fit the definition of having a secure attachment style, which is also attributed to having been brought up with authoritative parents. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth both critically studied attachment and produced critical data that is used to frequently analyze attachment to this day. Bowlby went on to describe types of attachment, which include secure and insecure; with insecure having subtypes of avoidant, resistant, and disorganized (Family Relationships, 2019). Secure attachment is demonstrated in infants who use their mothers as a source of security; they explore their environment but pursue comfort from their mother or primary caregiver if they become threatened. Insecure Infants are cautious of discovering their environments and have been found to display avoidant behaviour when their mothers or primary caregiver puts efforts toward soothing them. Positive outcomes that come from secure attachment include but are not limited to higher self-esteem, better psychological physical health, and self-reliant (Family Relationships, 2019). Ainsworth’s work involved the execution of the strange situation experiment, which observed attachment styles. She designed the strange situation experiment to study emotional attachment between a primary caregiver and their child. Children with secure attachments executed the use of their mother as a safe base to explore their environment and welcomed the caregiver when they attempted to comfort them. The children that had insecure attachment displayed cautious behaviors regarding exploration of their environment and avoidant behaviour when the primary caregiver attempts to comfort them. Ainsworth’s work was beneficial in providing a great observatory for the execution of the various attachment styles.
Topic: family

In relevance to Ashley, based on her current relationships with her parents, peers and friends it appears that she would have displayed a secure attachment style when she was a child. Erikson’s explanation of development, which will further be addressed in the Identity Development section of this paper, described individuals as going through crises at various stages in their development. According to Erikson’s theory, if Ashley had a secure attachment in her childhood, this would have provided her with the platform to help her move forward into her adolescence and be on the right path toward identity achievement. Which would explain why she has demonstrated the many positive outcomes that she has thus far in her life.
Topic: family

There were four different types of sibling relationships caregiver, buddy, critical, rival and casual. The caregiver sibling relationship was described as a relationship in which one sibling provides care for the other in such a way that a parent typically would. Buddy sibling relationships would describe as a relationship in which the siblings treat each other as friends. A critical sibling relationship involves elevated levels of conflict between siblings. Rival relationship between siblings involves competitive behaviour between the siblings, including the siblings comparing their success against each other. A casual relationship between siblings has been described as not being emotionally intense; the siblings may not be involved in each other lives. Ashley is the eldest sibling; she has one younger brother who is fourteen years old. When asked about her relationship with him she described a casual relationship. She mentioned that they only see each other in passing at home and rarely spend time in the same room if they are home at the same time. Her brother is involved in many sports and spends a lot of his time with friends and peers in recreational activities. She described her family as very busy and they do not usually have time to sit down as a family for dinner.
Topic: family

Ready, Steady, Play!: A national Play Policy was first published by the National Children’s Office of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in March 2004. It is Ireland’s National Play Policy document. The document provides a framework for future development. It deals with a range of different issues, including, guiding principles; the development of a play infrastructure; safety and public liability insurance; funding arrangements; and, suggests a partnership approach between all stakeholders like the community, voluntary, statutory, and private sectors.
Topic: family

It has eight objectives. First impressions are that this is not simply an aspirational dream but an actual plan setting out responsibilities for implementation and putting down target dates for the implementation of the plan. Simply put, the policy document is about creating better play opportunities for children by increasing public play facilities thereby improving their quality of life. The policy document is divided into five sections. The first provides a context for developing a play policy vision. The second section deals with children’s play in Ireland today.
Topic: family

Adults were also consulted but, surprisingly, they failed to indentify the importance of play to children. Accordingly, it could be said that the process provided an admirable example of how consulting with children can yield unexpected and rewarding results. It also proved the importance of listening to children and not just assuming we know what they want, or worse still, what is best for them. It was the children here who identified a gap and contradiction in public policy. The publication of Ready, Steady, Play! provided the first step in closing that gap. The eight objectives consisted of giving children a say in designing play policy; raising an awareness of the importance of play; developing child-friendly
Topic: family

Ireland was one of the first countries in the world to produce a detailed national policy on play. Acknowledging at the time that previously children’s play had not been given the priority or attention it deserved, the Government of the day, the Fianna Fail led coalition, said it wished to honour commitments it had made in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the National Children’s Strategy (2000) and the Programme for Government (2002). The policy document was drawn up under the direction of Brian Lenihan, Minister of State with Responsibility for Children and then introduced by Michael Martin, the then Minister for Health and Children. The government acknowledged that one of the key messages of the policy was that children should be consulted on issues that affect them. The document pointed out the importance of play and the various reasons why play was changing in Ireland. At the time, Brian Lenihan, said that the policy has been developed as a response to the concerns of children, parents and the providers of play. He hoped that it would contribute to improving play opportunities for children as well as enriching their experience of childhood. This paper will examine if it achieved that purpose.
Topic: family

To put matters in context, in 2004 Ireland was in the middle of a property boom and was experiencing accelerated and unprecedented growth. Between 2000 and 2006, house prices doubled. Tax incentives were recognised as a key driver of this price rise. In 2004, 12% of the workforce was employed directly in the construction industry (DOE 2006). Ireland was booming. Money was not in short supply. Against this background the policy document acknowledged certain failings (p.10):
Topic: family

The document then proceeds to give us various definition of what play is before telling us that best practice in play provision has been identified by the NPFA, PLAYLINK and CPC (2000). It then sets out what best practice is. Coalter and Taylor (2001) identified the three characteristics inherent in definitions of play by academic researchers as “freedom of choice, spontaneity and an absence of extrinsically imposed rules.” These three elements are included in the definition of play provided by NPFA, PLAYLINK and CPC (p.6 2000): “Play is freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child.” The document says that these definitions guided the report. For this reason it excluded sport in the definition of play. The document then goes on to set how play, as defined above, can be supported by policy. The policy document showed it was aware of how play was changing and recognised the need for more outdoor activities. In 2004, the public playgrounds and amenity spaces were provided primarily by local authorities and to a lesser extent by D?chas (p.16). Various initiatives were in place to provide more public playgrounds but these were a matter for the individual local authorities. Planning regulations were adopted to enhance more recreational grounds in building developments by the use of levies.
Topic: family

The document set out the existence of three types of playgrounds, traditional, contemporary and adventure and acknowledged that more adventure playgrounds were necessary “that challenge current skills and provide opportunities to learn new ones” (p.17). Table 1 on page 18 of the policy document sets out the number of public playgrounds managed by local authorities. All in all, there were 168. Donegal, Longford, Kilkenny and Offaly had none. Local authorities were questioned as to whether they were providing more playgrounds. Only Clare, Kildare and Limerick city said they were not while Monaghan failed to respond. In this analysis the policy document is impressive in its findings pointing out that Section 48 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 is a particularly helpful mechanism in obtaining funding. It provides opportunities to fund the capital cost of recreational and community facilities. Adventure playgrounds were singled out in the policy document as being particularly beneficial for children’s physical and intellectual development.
Topic: family

But this is perhaps its greatest weakness. There is much more involved in children’s play than in providing additional playgrounds. Siolta’s Research paper entitled Standard 2 Environments emphasises indoor and outdoor play. It states that indoor and outdoor environment require planning at every level, including type of play, design and layout, compliance with health and safety, and the determination of what is developmentally appropriate for children of different ages. The paper advises that we need to consider the needs of all children and crucially that we provide a range of developmentally appropriate, challenging, diverse, creative and enriching experiences. The setting should become more than a just a place where children spend time but also a place where “their initiative is encouraged, their competence is nurtured, and their curiosity is aroused.” Aistear’s Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Learning and developing through play paper is relevant. They point out that children love to play inside and outside, and benefit from both. They say that some are more enthusiastic when taking part in outdoor play and show greater confidence in the outdoor environment. They recommend that it is better if the outdoor play area is directly connected to the indoor area so that it can provide ease of access throughout the day. Much of what can be done inside can also be done outside and in the outdoor type of activities these can be provided on a larger and more expansive scale. However, it is important to remember that most of this research was conducted after this policy document was published in 2004. The plan was innovative in that it gave a voice to children. Only in relatively recent years have we seen a growing awareness of the importance of the rights of children. In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, introduced a framework or basis for children’s rights. In 1992, Ireland ratified this Convention which provides the first ever framework within which discussions about the nature of childhood and the rights of the child around the world can take place. In 2000, the National Children’s Strategy 2000 outlined a vision for all children. Then the National Play Policy document followed in 2004. Since then we have had in 2007 the Agenda for Children’s Services, a policy document setting out a framework for all children’s services. Furthermore, Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, 2009 sets out the context of enabling principles for all preschool children. The Children’s Rights Alliance seeks to protect all children’s rights. In recent years, we have also seen a wave of Acts and legal precedents providing more protection for children. All of these initiatives have changed how we view children in our society. We now see them as individuals and not part of a system. There is a change in our attitude. We now listen and provide support (Wyness, 2012). The National Play Policy was innovative in that it gave a say to children and more importantly listened to them.
Topic: family

In so far as the plan concentrated on increasing playgrounds it would have to be considered a success. Since 2004 the number of playgrounds has substantially increased and the vast majority of playgrounds now being built are in the form of adventure playgrounds. An article in the Irish Times on the 20 May 2017 set out 50 of the best adventure playgrounds in Ireland and it is clear from that article that not just the quantity of adventure playgrounds has increased but also their quality. It was the 2004 policy document that set this in motion. So, in that respect, it has been a success.
Topic: family

Kiersey (2009) critically examines early childhood education and care policy in Ireland. Five years after the play policy of 2004, she accepts that while the Irish government have, in the previous ten years, invested considerably in the broad early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector a distinction still remained between childcare and early education within Irish policy, both structurally and conceptually. She accepted that there was initial funding put in place for a variety of child care services but that “there has been no integrated national programme or strategy which aims to encompass both early childhood education and care”. One could reasonably argue that this is somewhat harsh. The desire has been there and she herself admits there has been a proliferation of policy documents but the problem really has to do with funding. Since 2009 there has been much improvement and it could be argued that policy documents like the 2004 play document were the foundation for this growth.
Topic: family

A practical criticism of the play policy is that the government of the day were awash with money. While they acknowledged that a lack of priority had been given to children, their rights, education and care, they left it up to local authorities to raise funding. It could be argued that they had the funds at the time to make a direct financial contribution to ameliorate and accelerate the play programme but singularly failed to do so. Kiersey and Hayes (2010) are also critical of Ireland’s second periodic report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Again, the criticism may be considered harsh. They argue that “much of the discourse is rhetorical” while claiming that the paper draws on “the language necessary to sell the government as successful in implementation of the Convention, to the CRC.” On reading this study one is reminded of the argument made above that perhaps the play policy was more concerned on selling the government rather than financing the implementation of what was essentially a very basic and simple plan.
Topic: family

The Government would argue, and usually do, that when it comes to childrens’ education and care it does its best according to the funds available to it. But the figures don’t necessarily add up. According to a study by German Bertelsmann Stiftung philanthropic group reported in the Irish Times on the 6 November 2017 (Smith, 2017) Ireland spends just 0.1 per cent of GDP on pre-primary education, the least of all in the EU. This is a damning indictment of a government that produces policy document after policy document on child care, education and rights. But, in 2004, when the play policy was published the Government’s document was a step in the right direction. They just neglected to finance it. This is all the more surprising considering that in the body of the document they acknowledge that Ireland lagged behind other European countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, UK and Sweden in prioritising play.
Topic: family

On the one hand there is much to like about the 2004 play policy document. It acknowledged the importance of play for children. It gave children a voice and listened to them. It highlighted the need to spend more time on children’s rights, education and care. But, play is not just about having fun and it is surprising that the policy document restricted it, in the main, to public playgrounds. Had the policy document been called a national public park play policy it might have been a more apt title. Indoor and outdoor play is equally important. Play in education is crucial, yet this was completely ignored. Certainly it gave a voice to children and listened to them but there is an elegance of rhetoric and a gaucheness in the manner in which they sought to implement the plan. Ireland may sing its own praises in the publication of policy report after policy report in relation to childrens, education, care and rights but the report from the German Bertelsmann Stiftung philanthropic group suggests its way out of tune with its EU compatriots. Ireland spends just 0.1 per cent of GDP on pre-primary education, the least of all in the EU. So, as the great Elvis Pressley once said: “A little less conversation, a little more action please” is really what is required.
Topic: family

The app I chose to evaluate is called “Baby and Child First Aid.” The focus of this app is to provide simple, easy-to-learn skills to help a baby or child in a first aid emergency. They offer users immediate information to handle various situations ranging from nosebleeds to unresponsiveness. Ultimately, they share information to the users on first-aid and even provide videos to help aid them, as well as have mini self test to evaluate what you have learned.
Topic: family

This app targets parents, grandparents, babysitters and ultimately anyone who spends a lot of their time around young children. I believe young parents or first-time parents would ideally be the target users of this app. First-time parents might not know how to address every issue they may face with their newborn. Additionally, the stress of taking care of their newborn may cause other issues towards their mental health. Apps like “Baby and Child First aid” can really be an eye opener to these parents and help them along their way of parenthood.
Topic: family

The “Baby and Child First Aid” app has several different functions that make it easy for the users to handle. They have 5 separate sections labelled; Learn, Prepare, Emergency, Test and Toolkit. Under the learn section the users can get information on 19 different topics; allergic reactions, fever, bleeding heavily, broken bone, burns, choking, epileptic seizure, febrile seizure, head injury, nosebleed, vomiting and diarrhoea, poisoning, unresponsiveness and breathing/not breathing, meningitis, and croup. Under each topic there is also a video and a list of instructions that clearly demonstrate the steps the users can take to deal with the issue at hand. Along with the video there are some Q&A that address other questions that the users may possibly have. Under the second major section, ‘Prepare,’ the app provides information on things that can potentially occur and be harmful to your child as they grow up. For example, they talk about watching babies carefully when they first start to learn to eat solid foods, so they don’t choke. They also have information on how to prepare for an infant or child when you go out to the park, travel, and when you are near water. The emergency section seems very similar to the Learn section but does put an importance on calling 911 or visiting a physician immediately. The test section is a place where users can get tested on the information, they have learned form the other sections and be rewarded with a pin. The final section is the ‘toolkit’ which is where you can add your child’s medical record.
Topic: family

Mobile app usages has grown drastically among patients and studies show that these apps can support a variety of routine medical tasks. This includes patient education, assessing medical records and clinical decision support (Lewis & Wyatt, 2014). Although this app does not specifically address patient issues directly to the patient, it allows their caregiver the necessary information to do so. It also does provide patient education to the users as that is the primary focus of the app. The app has collected various situations parents could possibly face when taking care of their children and has come up with useful information to help parents in those situations. It seems to have collected data from other sources and combined the most efficient method to provide first aid to your children in that specific situation. Moreover, it is an example of consumer health informatics which bridges the gap between the patient and health resources. Consumers health informatics is about getting the consumers to get involved with health care processes and to actively participate in the decision-making process (Demiris, 2016). In the case of this app, the patients are taken care by the users of the app which can be their parents. The parents thereby participate in the decision-making process of how to treat their child and provide them with the best possible care. It empowers people to take control of their child’s health and be prepared for almost anything they can possibly face.
Topic: family

The organisation is run at a national executive and local level through groups, and is entirely volunteer-run. The current “Children’s Book Award” Coordinator is Sarah Stuffins. On speaking about the award, she says: “I’m passionate about the “Children’s Book Award” I have been involved with the FCBG for 14 years now, since meeting members of the Exec at the Hay Festival in 2004 which led to us setting up the Reading CBG. At the time I was very keen to find out about new authors for my children to discover and I’ve stayed involved because I’m passionate about giving others the chances they had to read and share a love of reading with their families and friends.”
Topic: family

There are two voting stages to the Children’s Book Award: Full testing and top ten testing. The full testing involves the reading, reviewing and rating of books published each calendar year in the UK. Twelve of the Federation Children’s Book Groups participate, organised by the Children’s Book Award Co-ordinator Sarah Stuffins, and only Federation members are able to participate in this voting. One copy of every submitted book is sent to each of the twelve groups, paid for by participating publishers. The group coordinators then take the books to member schools’ libraries for the children and young people to read, review and rate. The top fifty are then finalized and the shortlist Top Ten is chosen, a process that takes an entire year from January to December.
Topic: family

Top Ten testing leads to the selection of the Category Winners and Overall Winner. Any child or young person across the UK can participate in this element of the award, voting on-line. This process takes three months from February until May. There are three age-related categories: Younger Children (Picture Books), which has four nominations in the top ten, Younger Readers (ages 6 – 11) and Older Readers (ages 10 – 18), both which have 3 nominations in the top ten. Overall, fifteen hundred votes are cast a year, over one thousand one hundred books are read each year, and over one hundred publishing imprints submit books to the award.
Topic: family

In 2011 The Federation of Children’s Book Groups won the Eleanor Farjeon Award – an award given to an organization in recognition of excellent service to the world of British children’s books. The Children’s Book Circle and the Eleanor Farjeon committee presented the 2000 gift to the then Chair Adam Lancaster during an award ceremony. Receiving the award, Mr Lancaster spoke: “Everyone involved in the Federation is a special person. They are the ones on the front line, working with tens of thousands of young people each year, doing those things that politicians and suited board men talk about. To be awarded this honor is to recognise all those people who over the years have played a part in igniting that spark and fanning those flames of reading. Books change lives. The Federation changes lives.”
Topic: family

The “Children’s Book Award” has a good reputation with librarians and booksellers as it is a truer indication of what books UK children are enjoying rather than a matter of prestige or awarding authors based on previous success. Though it is a small award, it is one that is recognised for its value as genuine and honest, and I could find no controversy or bad press surrounding it. However, though it lacks bad press, it is arguable that the award lacks much press at all. The award is little known – perhaps because it doesn’t hold “big-name’ panelists for the media to deem it worthy of attention, or because it is volunteer-run. I would argue, though, that with the growth of the award over the last decade this may change with time.
Topic: family

“We come then to the questions presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities? We believe that it does.” That is a small excerpt from the Supreme court opinion on Brown V. Board of Education given on May 17, 1954. The goal of Brown v. Board of Education was to unify schools and communities and create a productive learning environment for all students.
Topic: family

Kansas law did not require that schools be segregated. Instead, it was left up to local school districts to decide if they would be segregated or not. This meant that not all schools were segregated, in fact, there were quite a few schools that were integrated simply because they could not afford to add another school. “If a school district wanted to segregate its schools it would have to be able to afford the cost.” Many small town schools were not able to segregate because they couldn’t afford the cost of another school.
Topic: family

In 1879 a law was passed that permitted segregation in elementary schools in cities of “the first class” or with a population of over 15,000. This law, along with the financial side continued to prevent many small school districts from segregating. One school board went as far in defending their decision and said that African American children and white children had “somewhat different intellectual requirements.” More than once a case was brought to the Kansas Supreme court regarding a school’s attempt to segregate. In 1879 there were only three school districts that were large enough in Kansas that were able to legally segregate. Schools tried to find ways around these rules but they often ended up in court and would lose the case. Schools that were not large enough to segregate would be closed down because school boards could not stand the thought of white children and black children going to school together. If a district was determined to have segregated schools, they would close the public schools and private schools that required a tuition payment would be the only option in the area. This prevented not only many poor African American students from attending school but also poor white students. This decision not only divided students by race but then divided all students by socioeconomic status.
Topic: family

In Kansas, an 1870 bill was defeated that would have required racially separate schools. Sponsors of the bill said the only way to ensure African American students received a quality education was to create separate schools for only African American students. This was the same rationalization used in the twentieth century advocating against desegregation of all public facilities. There was a fear that integration meant that African Americans would not be treated fairly. The irony surrounding this argument is beyond words. Following the theme of irony, in 1874 Kansas passed a law that prevented discrimination on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Topic: family

While the idea behind segregating schools was to create an equal learning opportunity for all students, that certainly wasn’t the case. An educator values the environment that students are placed in to learn. Oftentimes, they refer to the environment as a third teacher. Schools that were solely for African American students were often referred to as, “unsanitary, inconvenient, and undesirable·a veritable cesspool.” This created poor learning conditions which led to poor student achievement. Even though these students were able to attend school, they were still being divided in quality of education compared to their white counterpart.
Topic: family

Prior to the Brown case, in 1940 another sizeable case arose in Topeka. It is known as the Graham case. The Graham case came in response to Kansas legislators attempt to implement segregation into all schools across the state. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) involved itself in the case but, it was tough. The association experienced an interesting division. One side advocated for African American teachers, administrators, and their jobs. This side closely aligned with the white community but for different reasons. The NAACP was concerned with keeping jobs for African Americans while the white community was concerned with keeping the racial status quo. The other side was anxious to disband segregation. This group involved not only African Americans but also white community members. Even though the NAACP was sharply divided, there was unification in the community on each side of the issue between both races. “The 1940 Graham case was the last time the NAACP had involved itself in school desegregation, it almost self-destructed.” The tensions found prior to Brown created a division within one of the strongest civil rights advocate groups in the United States.