Friday, May 29, 2020

The Devil’s in the Details Aesthetics, Epistemology, and Religion in Beckett’s ‘Malone Dies’ - Literature Essay Samples

‘Accordingly, he took the paper and lowered his spectacles, measured the space at his command, reached his pen and examined it, dipped it in the ink and examined it again, then pushed the paper a little way from him, lifted up his spectacles again, showed a deepened depression in the outer angle of his bushy eyebrows, which gave his face a peculiar mildness (pardon these details for once you would have learned to love them if you had known Caleb Garth), and said in a comfortable tone – ’ (George Eliot, Middlemarch) Typically one expects of an item of fiction a certain degree of world-building, a certain vividness and depth within the fictional world that eases the suspension of disbelief and allows the reader to access the story. To build a vivid world necessitates the inclusion of detail and to include detail is to run the risk, as Eliot’s narrator suggests, of overburdening the reader with detail that is unnecessary to conveying the point of the story. Beckett’s ‘Malone Dies’, however, serves as a counterpoint to the notion that a fictional world should be breathed into existence as if it were a real one through its philosophical references and literary technique. The novel presents a myriad of views on what it means to create fiction, or as Beckett puts it ‘Live and cause to live’ which I have simplified down to three fundamental counter-positions to the traditional stance of fiction writers. The first is that the entirety of aesthetics is self indulge nt and childish, and that, rather than simply apologise for detail, one should apologise for fiction entirely, this view being championed by Malone’s allusions to Kierkegaard and his theories regarding aesthetics. The second stance of misanthropic nihilism presents fiction and, indeed, all other facets of mundane human existence as nothing more than ‘tedium’ which is to be endured only for the sake of continued existence: ‘What am I doing now, I wonder, losing time or gaining it?’. This reading demonstrates aesthetics as not necessarily sinful, as the previous suggests, but merely a necessary evil and to include superfluous detail is merely to ‘play’ badly, a crime so menial as to not be worth apologising for. The third view is that, while the suspension of disbelief and the notion of building a fiction world apart from our own is a mere pretension and there is no objectively right way to tell or interpret a story, since a story is so fu ndamentally subjective a thing, a story can still be held to have meaning. The difference between this view and the traditional stance espoused by Eliot’s narrator lies, as it were, in the details. For Beckett, accepting this reading of the text, to over-build your world is to defeat what allows the story to have meaning, that being the reader’s ability to interpret it and to see meaning where he or she wishes. In short, Beckett says it best himself: ‘but to hell with all this fucking scenery.’ One of the central ideas regarding Beckett’s presentation of the concept of detail is the idea that the act of creating fiction is quite simply an act of childish escapism. Malone refers to what he is doing by recording his tale of Sapo as ‘a game’ in the same way he refers to all acts of socialising as ‘play’ or ‘coming and going’: something which is done merely to the point of surviving. In fact, Malone treats the entire exercise of what he is doing as little more than futile escapism: ‘I knew there would be an end to the long blind road†¦ No matter. It is playtime now.’. Malone finds something within this act of survival to be childish, however, in attempting to remain alive through his old age by means of play, forces himself to be subject to it. This is evidenced by his reference to old age as ‘second childishness’ and his description of the book in which he is recording his story as ‘this big chi lds exercise-book’. This attitude towards aesthetics as being something naive and meaningless is again suggested by Beckett’s repeated allusions to the works of Kierkegaard and, specifically, the three stages of existence. According to Kierkegaard, the first stage, the aesthetic stage, is the stage of naivety and childishness, within which the being is attached to nothing more than the world around it and holds no attachment to moral or religious belief. Beckett directly references the first stage of existence when Macmann is interned into the asylum: ‘Let us then first consider this first phase of Macmanns stay†¦ We shall then pass on to the second, and even to the third’. Malone later describes this stage as that of the bed, referring to the relationship between Moll and Macmann, a superficial and, by Kierkegaard’s definition, aesthetically minded chapter in a superficial and aesthetic story of no greater purpose than to continue the existenc e of Malone. In other words, the only purpose of the detail, with regards to this view presented by the novel, is to ‘cause to live’ in the most mundane sense. One cannot survive without ‘play’ and so it is very easy to mistake play as something of value, when it, in fact, is nothing more than what it is: play. Therefore, to apologise for detail is only as absurd as to write fiction in the first place. There is no measure of importance to separate the important details from the wastes of time; No specific part of the story is ‘fucking scenery’, simply put, the whole thing is. Beckett, however does not leave this extreme view of fiction unchallenged. Still using Kierkegaard’s stages of existence as a guideline to explore this idea, Malone describes a personal view of what it means to reject humanity, or ‘play’, in favour of the divine through a chapter in the life of his own character, Macmann: ‘And without knowing exactly what his sin was he felt full well that living was not a sufficient atonement†¦ as if there could be anything but life, for the living’. This description perfectly mirrors Kierkegaard’s conception of the rejection of aestheticism and the, as Kierkegaard puts it, ‘leap of faith’ required to reach the third and final stage of existence, the religious stage. In his book ‘Fear and Trembling’ (which Beckett references in this part of the book: ‘And it was often in fear and trembling that he suffered’) Kierkegaard describes the ascension to the third stage of e xistence as an ultimate surrendering of all earthly things, body included, to a greater power motivated only by faith, and links this leap of faith to Abraham sacrificing Isaac. However, the religious stage of existence is characterised by more than surrender, it is also characterised by the recognition of sin and, as Kierkegaard himself puts it when he says ‘suffering is the religious category’, suffering for sins beyond the human comprehension, as reflected by Macmann seeking to atone for sins he does not recognise. This conflict between the human, as espoused by the act of creating fiction, and divine, as espoused by the act of indiscriminate suffering, and not the greatness and self-understanding Kierkegaard predicts, puts the question of detail into a new light; The life above and beyond the superficial is no life at all and yet the world of the mundane leaves Malone ‘groaning with tedium’ and so Malone finds himself caught between divine apathy and a humanity that is, in and of itself, entirely uninteresting. And yet somehow, caught between these two extremes, Malone seems convinced he had a meaningful existence: ‘yet it sometimes seems to me I did get born and had a long life and met Jackson and wandered in the towns’ and despite the fact that Jackson (who Macmann and Sapo are likely analogues of) was only a man like any other, for some reason Malone attaches great importance to him, venturing so far as to spend two pages describing his clothing after acknowledging ‘clothes dont matter, I know, I know’. But by what standard does Malone decide that clothes don’t matter when they evidently matter to him and what principle leads him to this contradiction? In other words, since Beckett seems to be suggesting that life can have meaning, the mundane details like clothing included, what is the source of this? One theory Beckett explores as to what importance the mundane can have is the concept that what lends a story meaning and quality is not the content of the story, in other words the reality of the fictional world, but what can be taken away from it by a reader. One way this is done is by challenging the objectivity of reality. One sees evidence of this in his scathing and comical mocking of concept empiricism (the philosophical notion every concept within the human mind has its genesis in the outside world). The character of Jackson is described as having a parrot whom he attempts to teach the peripatetic axiom (‘nihil in intellectu nisi prius in sensu’ or ‘there is nothing in the mind which was not first in the senses’) however the parrot is only able to repeat back the first three words, ‘nihil in intellectu’, literally meaning ‘there is nothing in the mind’. What Beckett seems to mean by this quip is that the view of the world wh ich thinks of reality as the only source of knowledge leaves us with no knowledge that is certain or meaningful. This appears to be a very bold stance to take, however Beckett explores too the psychology behind this notion; Often Malone hypothesises and invents an imaginary world around him, only occasionally able to tell what is real and what he has convinced himself of: ‘Perhaps she is dead’ he muses about his carer, later he presumes that a man in a black suit came to visit him, stood by his bed for ‘several hours’ and then hit him on the head and left, he speaks frequently of a french pencil ‘in the bed with me somewhere I think.’ which, despite his other pencil being reduced to a nub of lead and being lost for forty-eight hours he never considers using. The list continues, but, in short, Malone’s relationship with reality is complicated and, where he lacks knowledge, he is much more entertained by filling in the gaps than only permi tting himself to believe what he knows, despite insisting that he is ‘done with feelings and hypotheses’. This philosophy, that the details should not serve the reality of the fiction but should only serve the imagination of the reader is further demonstrated in the fiction of Malone himself who often directly asks the reader to substitute whatever description has the makes the most sense to him or her. One example of this is Malone’s account of the grey hen with which Sapo becomes acquainted who is described as being ‘the grey hen †¦ or one of the grey hens if you prefer.’ This detail, which entirely changes the meaning of this chapter of the life of Sapo, is left entirely in the hands of whatever the reader would find more compelling. There is no reality in this fiction for in the story the grey hen is both one and many identical hens and only becomes one or the other in the mind of the reader. The grey hen(s) either symbolise(s) individuality and the pursuit of something beyond the mundanity of normal life, or it/they symbolise(s) the futility of trying to liv e something more meaningful than life and the onus is left entirely on the reader to decide what the story is. Another case of this is his reference to the story of the Penitent Thief from the Bible, one of two thieves who were crucified with Jesus who, by repenting on the cross was saved: ‘For why be discouraged, one of the thieves was saved’. What is interesting about the story of the Penitent Thief is that, in the gospels of Matthew and Mark both of the thieves mocked Jesus and neither were saved, in John they are not mentioned, and only in Luke is the Penitent Thief saved. Much like with the grey hen(s), the story is only so much as whatever is made of it. Whether the thief is saved or not is a matter of taste and so even in the Bible there is no objective reality in which the fiction exists. These stories can be taken as symbolic of the idea that the objective reality of a work of fiction existing solely in the mind of the author (or even existing at all) is a fals e construct. Therefore the act of overbuilding one’s world seems entirely futile. The story which gives the greatest meaning seems not to be the one which forces its minutiae and meaning upon readers, but, in fact, the one which presents enough to relate the basic concept cogently and lets the reader interpret and ‘hypothesise and feel’ whatever he or she chooses to. ‘Malone Dies’ presents many conflicting views of what it means to mean something. One might ascribe to it Kierkegaardian apathy towards the entire notion of fiction and the rest of the novel and claim that the suffering of Malone is a metaphor for the act of trying to find meaning in play and mundanity where there is none to be found. One may then follow this to its logical conclusion and declare that, not only should one apologise for detail but one should apologise for fiction in and of itself, since it is merely the recounting of that which is intrinsically meaningless, since meaning can only come from surrender to that which is greater than the petty mundanity of human life. One might ascribe to it a more nihilistic, misanthropic apathy that concludes not that fiction must be surrendered in favour of God but instead that, if fiction is what is needed to pass the time and hence survive, to add or withdraw superfluous detail from a work a fiction is largely irrelevant, since death is inevitable and therefore to apologise for it is similarly irrelevant. Or one may read from it what I choose to read from it; The book that lets the reader write it is the book which the reader will feel is best written and that a well written book may be nothing of value intrinsically, but its ability to convey meaning is somehow important, if only by virtue of the importance it can have to the individual reader. Therefore to burden the reader with detail for one’s own sake or to burden oneself with detail for the apparent sake of a reader when it is not necessary to conveying the story serves only to hem in the imagination of the reader and waste time constructing a reality that intrudes on the reader’s view of the meaning of the story, resulting only in overwriting and ‘tedium’.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

The Lotus by Toru Dutt - 1493 Words

THE LOTUS A poem by Toru Dutt Love came to Flora asking for a flower That would of flowers be undisputed queen, The lily and the rose, long, long had been Rivals for that high honour. Bards of power Had sung their claims. The rose can never tower Like the pale lily with her Juno mien-- But is the lily lovelier? Thus between Flower-factions rang the strife in Psyches bower. Give me a flower delicious as the rose And stately as the lily in her pride-- But of what colour?--Rose-red, Love first chose, Then prayed,--No, lily-white,--or, both provide; And Flora gave the lotus, rose-red dyed, And lily-white,--the queenliest flower that blows. An Analysis of the Poem The†¦show more content†¦After converting his family to Christianity, Govin took them to France and then England before returning to India in 1874. During these travels, Dutt’s writing began to develop. Although she was educated extensively in Europe, Dutt does not abandon her Indian heritage. Instead, she weaves her own culture with the English language, producing a tapestry of lyricism and imagery. Her sonnet, â€Å"The Lotus,† is just one example of this young woman’s ability. Notes; 1) As Dr. Mary Ellis Gibson notes in her recent tudy of Toru Dutt, Dutt’s father published most of her poetry after her death, but if she herself titled this poem, the appearance of â€Å"Sonnet† in the title plays an interesting role. Because she is writing in English, the declaration of the poem’s form is curious—an English audience would have recognized the poem as a sonnet without her naming it in the title. Poetically, however, the appearance works in several ways: I) it claims the form as hers, thereby making her a â€Å"bard of great power,† such as she references in the poem; II) it juxtaposes the most beautiful form of English poetry with the lotus flower itself, reinforcing its unrivaled beauty; III) it poetically expresses both the hybridity of the color of the lotus as well as that of the poet. Toru wrote â€Å"Sonnet.—The Lotus† as a Petrarchan sonnet, a form whose structure often informs its content. Petrarchan sonnets are comprised of 14 lines which are divided into an octave andShow MoreRelatedSarojini Naidu1131 Words   |  5 Pageshad begun to dream that it had a soul. ( â€Å"Introduction† The Bird of Time ) Such a revelation of the heart of India began with the poems of Toru Dutt. Greatly influenced by the puranas and the religious culture of ancient India, she interpreted Indian life before the Western world by recapturing the legendary past of India in her verses. Following Toru Dutt, Sarojini Naidu wrote poems rooted in Indian folklore, myths and legends thus showing the West the soul of India. Sarojini Naidu’s poetry can

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Short Story - 997 Words

There wasnt a thing on television. I shut off the TV and lay back on the bed with a sigh. Youd been in the bathroom for over twenty minutes, making me wonder what could be keeping you. As if in answer to my unspoken question, the bathroom door opens, and the sound of footsteps approaches. I glance to the doorway and spot you. I sit straight up in bed. You lean against the door frame seductively, one knee straight, one bent slightly. You are wearing a red satin teddy, complete with garter belt and red lace-top stockings. I eye your body hungrily, a silly smile spread all over my face. See anything you like? You ask, almost purring. Everything, I reply, getting out of bed to approach you. Not so fast, Loverboy, You say, holding†¦show more content†¦Your fingers find your clitoris, you begin gently rubbing in slow circles. I cant tear my eyes away from your hand, through the red lace as it is, moving over your clit like that. I want to place my hands upon you, to caress you the way you are caressing yourself†¦ but this was something you had been working up to, and I was certainly enjoying it. Let me touch you, I whisper to you. Do you want to touch me? You ask, not opening your eyes as you continue to rub your hard clit. Yes. A simply, short reply. Beg me, You command. Now this is something new to me! I smiled, feeling my body respond to this new idea. Please, let me touch you, I say, as seductively as I can. You smile, and that smile quickly turns mischievous. Stand behind me, You instruct, not stopping your hand, Massage my breasts. I follow your instructions, moving to stand behind you, slipping my arms around you, and cupping your breasts through the red satin. You lean back against ma as I do, your eyes closed and your breathing growing more and more labored. Harder, You say. I comply, applying a bit more pressure, but not too much. I didnt want to hurt you†¦ just make your feel good. I watch you slide your other hand beneath the soft red fabric, and move it toward your pussy. Your hands begin to move quickly, one massaging your clit, the other working in and out of your pussy. I am spellbound just watching you†¦ but my handsShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. If you are one of these writers, who have run out of short story ideas, and the deadline you have for coming up with a short story is running out, the short story writing prompts below will surely help you. Additionally, if you are being tormented by the blank Microsoft Word document staring at you because you are not able to come up with the best short story idea, youRead MoreShort Story1804 Words   |  8 PagesShort story: Definition and History. A  short story  like any other term does not have only one definition, it has many definitions, but all of them are similar in a general idea. According to The World Book Encyclopedia (1994, Vol. 12, L-354), â€Å"the short story is a short work of fiction that usually centers around a single incident. Because of its shorter length, the characters and situations are fewer and less complicated than those of a novel.† In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s DictionaryRead MoreShort Stories648 Words   |  3 Pageswhat the title to the short story is. The short story theme I am going conduct on is â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ by James Thurber (1973). In this short story the literary elements being used is plot and symbols and the theme being full of distractions and disruption. The narrator is giving a third person point of view in sharing the thoughts of the characters. Walter Mitty the daydreamer is very humorous in the different plots of his dr ifting off. In the start of the story the plot, symbols,Read MoreShort Stories1125 Words   |  5 PagesThe themes of short stories are often relevant to real life? To what extent do you agree with this view? In the short stories â€Å"Miss Brill† and â€Å"Frau Brechenmacher attends a wedding† written by Katherine Mansfield, the themes which are relevant to real life in Miss Brill are isolation and appearance versus reality. Likewise Frau Brechenmacher suffers through isolation throughout the story and also male dominance is one of the major themes that are highlighted in the story. These themes areRead MoreShort Story and People1473 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Title: Story Of An Hour Author: Kate Chopin I. On The Elements / Literary Concepts The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the time where Mrs. Mallard died with joy. And with thatRead MoreShort Story Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesA short story concentrates on creating a single dynamic effect and is limited in character and situation. It is a language of maximum yet economical effect. Every word must do a job, sometimes several jobs. Short stories are filled with numerous language and sound devices. These language and sound devices create a stronger image of the scenario or the characters within the text, which contribute to the overall pre-designed effect.As it is shown in the metaphor lipstick bleeding gently in CinnamonRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 W ords   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. This story would be considered a gothic short story because of its use of setting, theme, symbolism, and literary devices used to portray the horror of a missing six-year-old girl. Plot is the literal chronological development of the story, the sequence of eventsRead MoreRacism in the Short Stories1837 Words   |  7 PagesOften we read stories that tell stories of mixing the grouping may not always be what is legal or what people consider moral at the time. The things that you can learn from someone who is not like you is amazing if people took the time to consider this before judging someone the world as we know it would be a completely different place. The notion to overlook someone because they are not the same race, gender, creed, religion seems to be the way of the world for a long time. Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intr uding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narrator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. In

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Modern Education Changing for the Future Essay Thesis Example For Students

Modern Education: Changing for the Future Essay Thesis During the past few decades we have seen a shift from Industrial work to Information technology work. Recently our country has just recovered from an economic depression. This depression was a wake up call for many people, as they saw highly educated professionals loosing their jobs. Why, were these educated people loosing their jobs?-Did they break the rules, not get along with their bosses, or loose their cool? No, they did not have the flexibility, versatility, and cooperative skills that are needed in business for a changing economy. They were educated in a time when liberal art educations, and individualized work skills were taught at colleges. Layoffs were also due in part to the globilization of the economy. Cheaper labor can be found in other countries, which results in the closing of American factories or a drastic cut in pay for workers. Corporate downsizing, atomization, and an aging population have also contributed to this change in the type of work available (Rifkin 177). As most Americans used to be in the same economic bracket regardless of their line of work, today a workers real competitive position in the world economy depends on what kind of job they have (Jacobus 253). Education is the key to creating the workers demanded from businesses today.In aviation and other workplaces today, employers are not only looking for highly skilled workers, but for people who are flexible, work well with others and have good problem solving skills. Colleges must implement new teaching approaches and offer specialized degrees now, to prepare students for the needs of employers in the information-technology age. A workers must be flexible to be able to change and grow with the economy and the needs of employers is very important in todays job market. With corporate downsizing and restructuring so prevalent, employers are demanding more of their employees. They must be more versatile and multi-task oriented (Schmiedl 29). Employees must be able to move from one job to another, and learn new tasks quickly. The more education they have the easier it is to adapt to these changes (Carnoy 123). Continuing education is also becoming more prevalent for todays workers. To stay at the top of their fields in knowledge and technology, employees must constantly be up-dating their education (Schmiedl 29). Flexibility also ties in with the skill of working well with other people. To listen and interact with others in your profession, you must be flexible or open minded to their opinions, ideas and insights. Interaction with other employees and being a people person enforces cooperative skills. These cooperative skills can benefit the company as a whole, just as the Nobel Prize winner James Watson said Nothing new that is really interesting comes with out collaboration (qtd. in Johnson 26). These cooperative skills once taught only to management, now must be integrated to the employees, as many management positions have been eliminated. Workers must now possess a management mentality, so that they can co-exist and work beneficially together (Carnoy 123). Problem solving skills are a necessity for even the simplest of jobs. A high order of problem solving skills are needed for more advanced positions jobs such as in aviation (pilots), and in computers and other technical jobs. Having the ability to work through problems to come up with a positive end result can be a long and arduous task. The people who have these problems solving skills can organize more learning, and help others to succeed in solving problems (Carnoy 123). Group cooperation heightens and speeds up the time in which it takes to solve problems. .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 , .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .postImageUrl , .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 , .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:hover , .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:visited , .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:active { border:0!important; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:active , .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0 .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u0012bda57929592d337fba2489cbf4a0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Road Not Taken Essay It makes for an easier and more efficient approach to problem solving.As you can see the three main qualities of flexibility, working well with others and problem solving are very closely linked. Workers must be flexible to work well with others, which is important in having better problems solving skills. Missing just one of these qualities dampens the ability of a worker to be the productive employee, which employers are looking for. These skills are not inherent and are difficult to learn. That is why they must be implemented early on in college.For years colleges have been ignoring the power of teamwork and the achievements that could not have been made with out it (Johnson 26). The problem lies itself within the faculty. It is their job to implement cooperative learning into classes, and make it work. This is not an easy task, which is why many professors have opted to stick with lecturing. Lorenn Walker president of Business Learning Strategies Inc, says, Every time I am at school or attending training seminars, I am struck by how inactive students are expected to be. Most of the time students simply sit, while the teacher lectures them (27). It is much easier for students to experience the learning rather than having the answers told to them. Cooperative learning is the heart of problem based learning (Johnson 26). Group work allows students to network their thoughts and ideas, which than can be expanded with-in the group. They motivate each other by sharing their ideas and findings. The flexible gr! oup which works together can find solutions to problems quickly and efficiently, which is key in todays workplaces.Specialized degrees and education provide students with the expert skills needed in todays top jobs. Businesses and companies do not want people with general liberal arts degrees they want specialist in their field. A pilot needs special skills to fly an airplane that he/she can not get through a liberal art degree. Employers are only going to hire a pilot with the most and best qualifications. This is true in most all jobs that require a college degree employers want only the best.Some may argue that group work is not good because some people do the work and others take the easy road doing little. This can sometimes be true in college classes, but in the work environment, it is rare. Professionals are not going to carry the load for the whole group, and likewise most responsible adult will not let others do all the work. Professional adults do not have enough time to let their co-workers not do their share of the work, they will take action by speaking with the boss. To combat these problems in colleges, professors must set the parameters for the group: The professor must ensure that the student knows he/she is linked with others in the group, so that he/she cannot succeed unless the others do. Individual accountability however will be judged by tests and teacher observation of the group. The professor will teach the students how to socially interact with each other. Students will have to help others, contribute their own ideas and offer suppor! tive advice. Lastly and very importantly is teaching the group to engage in group processing. This exercise will help the students to find ways to improve their group efforts (Johnson 26). Being taught these group problem solving skills during college better prepares students for the type of work they will have to do in the workplace.To prepare workers for the information-technology age the starting point will have to be colleges. Colleges educate the school teachers and college professors. The sooner colleges begin to use cooperative learning the sooner it will trickle down into elementary and secondary schools. .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c , .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .postImageUrl , .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c , .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:hover , .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:visited , .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:active { border:0!important; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:active , .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u91523da70140a2a03f3372ee3edd318c:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Bhavesh.Amin Essay Thus making cooperative learning a part of students lives earlier, so they will sooner adjust to its style. College professors must implement cooperative learning now, to teach flexibility and working well with others. This change is imperative not only to the success of workers but the entire economy. Workers with out these skills are at a serious disadvantage in getting jobs, and keeping them. Works CitedCarnoy, Martin. The Changing World of Work in the Information Age. New Political Economy 3.1 (1998): 123-129Jacobus, Lee. Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer. A World of Ideas. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 251-267.Johnson, David Johnson, Roger Smith, Karal. Cooperative Learning returns to College Change 30.4 (1998): 26-36Rifkin, Jeremy. A Civil Education for the Twenty-first Century: Preparing Students for a Three Sector Society. National Civic Review. 87.2 (1998): 177-182Schmidl, Joe. Changing the Face of Higher Education Pacific Business News 35.19 (1997): 29Walker, Lorenn. Hands-On Learning will Produce better Problem Solvers Pacific Business News 33.20 (1995): 27