Isaac Asimov, Mind of a Child Essay

My virtual child’s name is Dominic. He is a white male of average height and weight with blonde hair, green eyes and pale skin. Cognitively he seems younger than his chronological age up until sixth grade. Physically Dominic has always seemed older than his chronological age. The first few months of Dominic’s life were rough at times. I decided from the beginning to feed with formula, and I would respond to different types of cries. At three months he would cry after each bottle and have frequent diarrhea, we then decided to switch to a different formula rather than introducing food (My Virtual Child).

The animals ranged from horses to rhinos, and even cave lions. The drawings were detailed enough to allow scientists to decipher the paintings and learn what they were witnessing at that period of time. Along with the paintings of the animals, bones were found in the cave and that also revealed more about the life in the cave other than just the cavemen and women. Using all of this information given to them, the scientists were able to learn not only how the cavemen and women lived but how animals lived during this time. The drawings in the cave in Southern France seemed to be quite anatomically correct to the animals roaming Earth today. The drawings are so detailed that there is not much hesitation on what type of animal they could have been drawing, it is obvious what their intent was. A surprise regarding the animal paintings was the lack of anything other than mammals. Throughout the cave there were a handful of paintings depicting insects such as butterflies and the one sole drawing of a human, but besides that they animals were mammals.

MU 2.9 1.1 Explain why working in partnership with others is important for children and young people

There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, tells a story about the family of LaJoe and Paul Rivers. The book focuses on Lafayette and Pharaoh, two of the younger children in the family, and their interactions with each other, the neighborhood, their family, their friends, and the police. Following the family over three years shows the importance of neighborhood factors when it comes to crime. According to Sampson and Groves (1989), social disorganization refers to “the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls”. Many aspects in the book exemplify how neighborhood factors, social controls, and community factors have impacts on crime. The book exemplifies how neighborhood disadvantage can lead to informal social controls, which in turn produces crime. Due to these factors, social disorganization is the best theory to explain the crime that occurs in There are No Children Here.

A Child Called “It” is a powerful book written by Dave Pelzer about his childhood and the hardships he encountered with his family, peers, and community. Middle childhood can be a life altering point in a young child’s life, which many theorist have studied over the years. This paper will review a few of those theorist thoughts, and how their theories apply to young David’s childhood. The theorist work that will be covered will be Bronfenbrenner and his ecological systems model, Piaget’s theory of development, and lastly Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. It is important to understand what was going through David’s mind as he dealt with this trauma and how he was able to survive it.

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz tells the harrowing story of the Rivers family and their shocking experiences living in an underserved Chicago public housing project. The story focuses on Lafayette, a middle school aged boy discovering his identity, Pharoah, an elementary school aged boy with high ambition and goals, and their resilient mother LaJoe. Matza’s Techniques of Neutralization discuss how people can create rationalizations to justify delinquencies and crimes. Specifically applicable to There Are No Children Here is the theory of Denial of Responsibility which occurs when the perpetrator of an offense claims the situation was out of their control, they did not know the law, they were a victim of circumstance, or they were acted upon by outside forces rather than acting themselves. The second theory applicable to There Are No Children Here is Becker’s theory of Master Status. The theory of Master Status states that labels can take on a “master status” and can have an enormous influence and once you’ve been labeled, then define you. These theories aid in understanding how the pattern of violence and destruction is perpetuated in the projects of Chicago and the misfortune in the Rivers family.

“Mrs. Pelzer, this is Officer Smith from Daly City Police Department. Your son David will not be coming home today. He will be in custody of the San Mateo Juvenile Department.” –A child Called “It”

The book I read is called A Child Called It. It is written by Dave Pelzer. The theme of this book is to keep hope alive. You should have faith and dreams to have something to look forward to in your future especially when you feel you can’t go on any more. Like Dave, he felt trapped as if he was never going to be free. He used his dreams and illusions every time he was hurting to help him get away from the pain. This is what kept this little boy alive. He had something to reach for and never quit.

‘Free the Children’ was written by Nancy Gibbs, a professor at Princeton University. The author finished her studies from Yale and Oxford universities. ‘Free the Children’ was first published in July 2003 in Time Magazine. This thought-provoking essay talks about letting the children enjoy their free time in the summer and burden them with extra work. It also talks about the possible consequences of overburdening them and the dangers of letting them free.

“I’ve been balled up in the cave thinking about hieroglyphics. Or, I guess, pictographs. On one of our day hikes last we, the jailers took us to a secret place where Native Americans had drawn things on a cave wall. [...] The pictographs were faded, barely even there, but John pointed them out, one by one. There was a circle, big X’s, a bird, fire, a man with wavy arms, and rain clouds. [...] He also explained that some wall art dated back to 7000 BC and said that we were in the presence of “America’s earliest storytelling documents. He said that the pictographs were painted by mixing natural minerals with plant and animal oils to make colored paints, which were then put on the walls with fingers or brushes made out of animal hair or yucca leaves.” (Van Draanen)

Ray Bradbury was a very successful and influential Sci-Fi writer from the 20th and 21st centuries. His life and his career as a writer were both long and extraordinary. Numerous awards have been given to his hundreds of books and short stories. Perhaps more important than his work was his lasting effect on society. He was without a doubt one of the greatest science fiction writers of the past century.

They were usually centered around things such as horses, cattle, antelope, and deer. They would use charcoal to make these drawings. However, unlike sand paintings, they were not usually a ritualistic exercise. They were often drawn by sheep herders or children. People that had a lot of free time on their hands and were often bored.

As early as kids join school, negligence is a very repetitive mistake made my parents. The topic of Latchkey Children, which are the children who return to empty houses after school and whom are left alone until parents arrive from work, is very delicate because it raises the risks of danger to the child. Not only is the child not equipped with the means to survive on his own, but also the risks of education as there is no reinforcer or anything to make sure the child applies himself to his schoolwork. As the Latchkey Child is left unattended they could spend extensive hours watching tv and not getting enough help with their homework, which would later motivate them to not do the homework at all. Luckily, there are solutions to these problems.

Isaac Asimov thrills the reader with his story-telling ability in "I, Robot".  Of course, many of Asimov's ideas provide a ploy to add suspense to the story.  However, when the plot completely disagree with the laws which he himself has written, the story becomes confusing.  On the surface, it appears that his stories make legitimate and logical sense, as well as entertaining the audience in a magnificent way.  However, any deeper analysis of the story will prove that there are several significant flaws in the work.  This can best be shown in one of Asimov's earlier stories, "Reason."  In this story, the first and second of the three laws of robotics are broken.  It is never explained how it would be

Let children be children, is not only a popular phrase heard in education, but it is also my motto. Yes, it is true, today’s children are tomorrow’s future; but how we choose to raise our children determines the outcome of our future. Many believe academics should be stressed more in schools, taking away from children’s playtime. I feel that play is what molds a child. Play allows not only a child’s imagination to run freely, but builds and strengthens children’s motor, language, cognitive, and social emotional development skills. I believe that play; along with parental involvement forms a child’s identity. Play is what makes children: tomorrow’s future.