Roles in ESL Education :: essays research papers

Article Review Discourse and Real-Life Roles in the ESL Classroom   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Suggestions have been made (DiPietro, as cited in DiPietro J. R., 1981) as to how the ESL/EFL teacher can provide diverse learner personalities with strategically oriented material. Students get the chance to practice discourses in classroom settings but not always in the same way that the learners will use in real-life interactions. This article proposes a categorization for different roles of English learners in the classroom. The author established three types of roles: social, emotive, and maturational. He believes that through a multidimensional model of dialogue, some exercises can be developed and implemented in the classroom to lead these second language learners to role play in simulated natural setting while acquiring knowledge of the grammatical structure of English.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author points out three main ways to incorporate role-playing in the classroom; social, emotive, and maturational. What he means by this is that as English learners children must also learn the many different roles they will come across once they are ‘mainstreamed’. A social role for example would be that of vendor/customer, employer/employee, or taxi driver/customer, just to name a few. An example of an emotive role would be that of a friend or rival, a role that could potentially be sensitive or touchy. Finally, maturational would define those roles that we learn as we grow up or mature. Some examples of maturational roles are mother/daughter, adult/adult, or child/child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author’s main point is that â€Å"We teachers should provide our students with enough English (a) to recognize the role-intentions of others, and (b) either to complement those roles or to counter them with personally-desired ones†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many possible ways to incorporate these role-playing ideas into the classroom. One idea that came to mind would be to do what I call ‘ Script Mix Up’. The idea is to write up a type of script in social, emotive, or maturational style. Then mix what the characters are saying around on a sheet of paper that will be passed out to students. Have them come up to the board and write these in the correct order. This activity not only makes them have to interact with one another to come up with the right choice, but it will make students have to think about what is the right order of conversation in different situations. Another possible activity that the author states is interactional games.

Psycho :: essays research papers

In about 2 or 3 pages discuss the significance of this piece of dialogue and tell how this scene encapsulates one of the pervading themes of the film. In Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, the conversation between Marion and Norman has shown extreme importance to both the plot and the themes of the movie. As the movie shown Norman’s psychotic mind, we but give great evidence of how the environment had influence on him. With the comparison of other character’s personalities, audiences are actually persuaded back to see the similarity of his mind to normal people’s. Traps are also discussed in this significant dialogue, to show his logical thinking of his situation. As scenes of logics shown from Norman comes up one by one, Norman’s rational process of thinking give as a big question ‘Is he really a Psycho or just the smartest murderer?’ In comparison from Norman Bates’ psychotic mind to Marion Crane and Sam Loomis’s, they are very similar as shown in one of the example in the dialogue. In the dialogue, Norman’s logical explanation of his situation has shown his rational mind, as normal as any other people. He explained to Marion his loyalty to his mother which if her mother really is like described, he is the best boy a mother can have. In comparison to Marion, the psycho has actually even more logically than she is - a normal person, as he point out she can’t hide from the traps once she choose to step on them. ‘I think that we’re all in our private traps-clamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. We- we scratch for all of it but we never budge an inch.’ The logic of his mind can even explain and redirect a normal person, and therefore, the dialogue is very significant in the proving of Norman Bates is actually a very clever person. Even, after their conversation, the murder of Marion to Norman’s personality is a symbol of sexual act or rape in his psychotic mind. In comparison to Marion and Sam, his sexual desire is similar to their unrespectable affairs in hotel rooms. These shows the complication of Norman Bates mind is actually going the same way as any other normal people’s mind, but in a more extreme level. The abnormal behaviours of normal people in some time of their life are shown to be even more irrational than a so-called psycho.

Henry David Thoreau Was a Fool :: Henry David Thoreau Essays

Lincoln has been credited as being a person that fought for equality between races, when he himself believed that African Americans were inferior, the image people give him is unreal, propaganda by the Radical Republicans in the reconstruction era. Many people have ideas that do not hold up when put to the test, or even their own reasoning. Henry David Thoreau’s ideas and ideals do not hold up when compared to reality. Thoreau believed that if a man did less work, the better it would be for the man and his community. He set out to accomplish this task, and accomplished not working, but failed to prove his point. He died at age forty-five, younger then most people in his time, and although he did benefit his community, doing little labor only shortened his life, and proved no better for the community. Not only does reality disprove Thoreau’s theology, but his own words contradict him. He proclaimed â€Å"the government that governs least is the best,† (Civil Disobedience pg. 222 paragraph 1) and then says that, â€Å"We have had to agree on a certain set of rules†¦ to make this frequent meeting tolerable†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Solitude pg. 95 paragraph 3). His contradiction is evident, what is government but on how the people conduct their meetings, lacking the laws of the government, the society would collapse. He also criticizes the government for not being virtuous (Ponds pg. 119 last paragraph). The American government is controlled by the people, if he wants a government that is virtuous, he should either get elected, or try to get the non-virtuous people out of office. Further, politicians who made their name elsewhere have said things to the effect of, â€Å"either you already have a name for yourself, or somewhere along the line you sell your soul†¦Ã¢â‚¬  essentially saying that virtue and politics don’t work together. Thoreau further shows how he cannot support his own ideas when he says that he spent two years â€Å"alone, in the woods,†(Economy pg. 7, 1st sentence). He did not spend two years â€Å"alone† and a great period of the time which he was there was not â€Å"in the woods.† In fact, he had as many as thirty guests at a time (Visitors pg. 97 last line). He tries to show how he had few visitors in the winter saying, â€Å"†¦no visitor ventured near my house for a week or a fortnight at a time,† (Winter Visitors pg. Henry David Thoreau Was a Fool :: Henry David Thoreau Essays Lincoln has been credited as being a person that fought for equality between races, when he himself believed that African Americans were inferior, the image people give him is unreal, propaganda by the Radical Republicans in the reconstruction era. Many people have ideas that do not hold up when put to the test, or even their own reasoning. Henry David Thoreau’s ideas and ideals do not hold up when compared to reality. Thoreau believed that if a man did less work, the better it would be for the man and his community. He set out to accomplish this task, and accomplished not working, but failed to prove his point. He died at age forty-five, younger then most people in his time, and although he did benefit his community, doing little labor only shortened his life, and proved no better for the community. Not only does reality disprove Thoreau’s theology, but his own words contradict him. He proclaimed â€Å"the government that governs least is the best,† (Civil Disobedience pg. 222 paragraph 1) and then says that, â€Å"We have had to agree on a certain set of rules†¦ to make this frequent meeting tolerable†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Solitude pg. 95 paragraph 3). His contradiction is evident, what is government but on how the people conduct their meetings, lacking the laws of the government, the society would collapse. He also criticizes the government for not being virtuous (Ponds pg. 119 last paragraph). The American government is controlled by the people, if he wants a government that is virtuous, he should either get elected, or try to get the non-virtuous people out of office. Further, politicians who made their name elsewhere have said things to the effect of, â€Å"either you already have a name for yourself, or somewhere along the line you sell your soul†¦Ã¢â‚¬  essentially saying that virtue and politics don’t work together. Thoreau further shows how he cannot support his own ideas when he says that he spent two years â€Å"alone, in the woods,†(Economy pg. 7, 1st sentence). He did not spend two years â€Å"alone† and a great period of the time which he was there was not â€Å"in the woods.† In fact, he had as many as thirty guests at a time (Visitors pg. 97 last line). He tries to show how he had few visitors in the winter saying, â€Å"†¦no visitor ventured near my house for a week or a fortnight at a time,† (Winter Visitors pg.

Process Costing

A process costing system is a costing system in which the cost of a product or service is obtained by assigning costs to masses of like or similar units. Unit costs are then calculated on an average basis. Process costing systems are used in industries that produce like or similar units which are often mass produced. In these industries, products are manufactured in a very similar way. The companies usually use the same amount of direct materials, direct manufacturing labor costs and manufacturing overhead costs (CliffNotes Study Guide, 1999).Industries that use process costing systems are for example: chemical processing, oil refining, pharmaceuticals, plastics, brick and tile manufacturing, semiconductor chips, beverages and breakfast cereals. The  job order cost system  is used when products are made based on specific customer orders. Each product produced is considered a job. Costs are tracked by job. Services rendered can also be considered a job. Service companies consider the creation of a financial plan by a certified financial planner, or of an estate plan by an attorney, unique jobs.The job order cost system must capture and track by job the costs of producing each job, which includes materials, labor, and overhead in a manufacturing environment (Willkommen, 2000). The difference between job costing and process costing is the extent of averaging used to compute unit costs of product and services. The cost object in job costing is a job that constitutes a distinctly identifiable product or service. The quantity of manufacturing resources is different in any job. It would be incorrect to cost each job at the same average manufacturing cost.So, when like or similar units are mass produced, process costing averages manufacturing costs over all units produced (CliffNotes Study Guide, 1999). The costs of a product are important for inventory calculations, pricing decisions and product profitability analysis. It’s also important for measuring how well the management is done and if costs are reduced effectively. A company I worked for used a hybrid system that used mostly a process costing system and certain aspects of the job order cost system. The system broke down separate material costs, overhead and labor.The system was fairly accurate and helped us maintain a healthy profit and adjust certain aspects of the business as needed. References Accounting Principles II: Job Order Cost System . (1999). CliffsNotes Study Guides . Retrieved July 21, 2012, from http://www. cliffsnotes. com/study_guide/Job-Order-Cost-System. topicArticleId-21248,articleId-21222. html Process Costing Systems. (2000). Willkommen in Ralf KA ¶nigs Netzbehausung. Retrieved July 21, 2012, from http://www. koenig-aalen. de/vorstellung/present/pcs. php

Clostridium Difficle Infection In Health-Care Workers Essay

According to Bouza (2005), Clostridium Difficile is a bacillus that is gram positive and forms spores. Its main mode of distribution is the environment whereby it also colonizes 3-5% of all healthy adults without causing any symptoms that can be noticed. At infancy, clostridium difficile colonizes between 2% and 70%, but the rates decrease with advancement in age and falling to about 6% when the infant grows to two years. Above the age of two, the rate of clostridium difficile is much similar to that of an adult, around 3% (APIC, 2008). The strains responsible for the production of clostridium difficile are characterized by their ability in the production of both toxins A and B. The most common and rampant symptom of CDI is diarrhea that is not always bloody, but can range from the soft and unformed stools to the watery and mucoid stools. Other outstanding symptoms include abdominal pains and fever and cramping in others. Clostridium difficile spores are highly resistant to destruction by most of the environmental agents and conditions. Their resistance can go as far as resisting some of the chemicals used in disinfection (Zanotti-Cavazzoni, 165). Therefore, this gives clostridium difficile the ability to survive for months or longer in the environment and even in healthcare facilities and the surrounding community. Mainly, the spread of clostridium difficile is through the transfer of spores from a contaminated environment to the patient, or perhaps through the hands of health care givers who do not follow proper hygiene and gloving practices. The only proper control measure that can be adopted is the thorough disinfection and cleaning of the patient’s environment and also through the physical removal of the spores. In recent decades, there has been a recorded increase in the number of reported rates of clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD). There has also been a recording in the increase in the number of outbreaks accompanied by severe disease and also an increase in mortality. The increase in CDAD is mainly characterized by the following; changes in the use of antibiotics, a change in infection control practices or the emergence of new strains of clostridium difficile that have increased virulence or antimicrobial. It is also important to comprehend the life cycle of clostridium difficile in order to understand how to control it and if possible, prevent it. Its life cycle begins in the spore form whereby they are because they are resistant to heat, antibiotics or even acid. In a hospital setting, clostridium difficile can be found in bedding, medical equipment, and furniture and on the caregivers. Upon ingestion, the spores pass through to the intestines whereby they germinate and later colonize the colon. Studies have indicated that this bacterium colonized about 21% of patients who are in the process of receiving antibiotics and at the same time admitted to a general hospital. Through the release of both toxins A and B, clostridium difficile later induces diarrhea and colitis. However, the major risk factors associated with clostridium difficile are advancement in age, hospitalization, and antimicrobials. There are two major reservoirs of clostridium difficile in the healthcare setting, which are humans (asymptomatic and symptomatic) and inanimate objects (medical equipment and furniture). The level of environmental contamination depends primarily on the severity of the disease of the patient. However the asymptomatic colonized patients should be regarded as the potential primary source of the contamination. Clostridium difficile infection is more rampant among the elderly in the society. The main reasons for this are not fully, but it can be attributed to the fact that the elderly patients have a much less effective barrier to infection. The importance of having age as a risk factor is characterized by the age distribution in lab reports as was received by CDSC during the research period of 1990-1992. Results showed that there was a bias for adults over the age of 65 and they were more susceptible to having severe cases of clostridium difficile infections. There have also been suggestions that clostridium difficile is endemic in facilities that are considered long-stay for the elderly. However, other studies indicate that the difference in the endemic nature of clostridium difficile may be as a result of case mix whereby patients are from other facilities whereby the infection rate was high. Also, clostridium difficile is endemic in many of the long-stay facilities because the elderly t end to stay longer in the acute wards than the other younger generations. Therefore, their increased risk of infection is attributed to the increased exposure to antibiotics and nosocomial pathogens. There are several patient care activities that provide a rife opportunity for the fecal-oral transmission of clostridium difficile (CDC). Such activities include; sharing of electronic thermometers that have been used for measuring rectal temperatures, oral care or suctioning whereby the hands or equipment have been contaminated, administration of contaminated food, medication or with contaminated hands and emergency procedures like intubation. Other factors like poor hand hygiene, improper environmental and equipment cleaning and disinfection have also been reported as a cause for infection and spreading of clostridium difficile. It has been rubber stamped that the environment is the major medium of spreading for clostridium difficile whereby it has been spread so widely that that it is impossible to point out a single location that has not been contaminated. However, the environment of the infected patients is rifest with clostridium difficile, for instance, the toilets, floors, si nks and linen. Despite disinfection, clostridium difficile spores are found to exist longer than five months. Prevention and control of clostridium difficile is the responsibility of every individual who is aware of its existence. Therefore, prevention measures must be endorsed by everyone, and especially in care giving facilities whereby individuals are more likely to spread the infection. Standard precautions refer to those practices at work that are applied to every person regardless of their confirmed or perceived infectious status. Standard precautions are the front line in the war against clostridium difficile. They help control the rate of infection from person to person, even in the most prolific risk scenarios. They include; hand hygiene before and after contact with the patient, the safe use as well as disposal of sharps, the use of protective equipment and the processing of reusable medical equipment. The proper handling of linen, safety in the management of waste as well as aseptic non-touch technique should also be in the standard precautions to be implemented in hospital facili ties. However, when the first line of defense does not seem to work efficiently, there should be a backup plan in place. Thus, when standard precautions do not seem to do the job, transmission based precautions should be implemented. These are additional work practices for individually identifiable situations that are put in place to interrupt the transmission of clostridium difficile. These precautions are tailored to specific infections and their mode of transmission. They include; continued implementation of standard precautions, having patient dedicated equipment, proper handling of equipment, enhanced cleaning and disinfection of the patient’s environment and the restriction of patients within the facilities. Since healthcare settings differ greatly in terms of their day-to-day functioning, it is hard to come up with a management proposal that would fit all facilities. Therefore, all healthcare facilities should conduct infection prevention risk assessment on a regular basis alongside adoption of detailed protocols and processes for infection control. In acute care setting, personal protective equipment should be provided for nurses and visitors outside the room of a patient who has confirmed clostridium difficile infection. Healthcare givers should use gloves and gowns in order to prevent further spread of infection. Conducting effective hand hygiene is necessary for limiting the spread of clostridium difficile. They should be performed frequently and with the following considerations; should be performed using the Four Moments of Hand Hygiene, should be performed at the point-of-care using a dedicated staff sink or the use of hand wipes that have been impregnated with antimicrobials or alcohol and soap. In acute care setting, especially where the elderly are residing proper care has to be considered primarily because they are more susceptible to infection (Rupnik, 2007). One such measure of preventing clostridium difficile infection is placing the suspected or confirmed patients with CDI in a confined room that has dedicated toilets, sinks and personal equipment. Moreover, there is little need for special treatment for linen in an acute setting for both confirmed and suspected patients. Linen for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients should be in the same way. The soiled linen should be carefully. For example, it should be placed in a no-touch receptacle in order to avoid contamination of both the environment and the persons around. In cases of outbreaks, routine infection control measures are of grave importance in order to prevent the spread of the clostridium difficile infection to patients who have not yet been affected. The antibiotic policies have to be monitored as well as their compliance in order to successfully control the spread of infection. Hand washing procedures should be followed to the latter by any person who is in contact with infected patients such as doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and students. Nurses present challenges in combating clostridium difficile outbreaks especially because of the necessity to create a homely environment for the patients. This means that they have to constantly check in with the patients and therefore they become constantly at risk of infection themselves in proper precaution is not taken. For patients in the elderly acute care wards, the surroundings are also tailored to ensure a comfortable stay in the hospital. Therefore, their soft furnishings and carpeted floors provide a challenge in cases of outbreaks. For instances like this, preventive methods of combating the spread of clostridium difficile have to be implemented. One such measure that should be used during cleaning is steam. Although the heat does not kill the pathogen, it helps in the containment of its spread. Patients are also susceptible to contracting infection from the care devices used in the hospital. Such devices include electronic thermometers or glucose measuring devices. These devices are in constant use and may be used by a variety of patients. These devices are with pathogens derived from body fluids. Thus it is important to have measures in place to sterilize these devices especially more thoroughly in times of outbreaks. Another piece of communal apparatus used in wards is the linen, clothing, uniforms, lab coats and isolation gowns. Because clostridium difficile is commonly in the environment and can last for more than five months, these pieces of clothing are always in contact and possible contaminations are likely (Dubberke, 17). However indirect contact of such clothing comes from bedpans, toilets and sinks of patients who are either suspected or confirmed to be infected. The presence of soiled linen is also an area of importance that should be looked into carefully. Because bed linen is in hospitals and wards, they should be cleaned and sanitized before they can be issued to a different patient. In order to help combat the spread of clostridium difficile, the CDC has come up with the Spaulding classification system, which identifies three risk levels that are associated with surgical and medical instruments (Michel, 1095). These levels are; critical, semi-critical and noncritical. Critical items include needles, indwelling urinary catheters and intravenous catheters. These are the items that normally enter the sterile tissue, the vascular tissue or through which blood flows. Based on one of the accepted sterilization procedures, the equipment has to be sterile before penetrating any tissue. Semi-critical items include thermometers, electric razors and podiatry equipment and they are as those that touch mucous or skin which is not intact. They require meticulous cleaning and thereafter followed by high-level disinfection. Disinfection is done using a chemo sterilizer agent that is approved by the FDA. In conclusion, clostridium difficile has been on the rise in recent decades and it is only through proper prevention and control measures that it can be. Since it can live in an environment in spore form for up to five months, it poses a challenge in terms of containment. On the other hand, the elderly are more susceptible to clostridium difficile primarily because of their low immunity and their prolonged stay in hospitals. However, with proper care, chances of outbreaks can be kept at a minimum and more lives can be through prevention instead of cures. References DelmÃÆ' ©e, Michel. â€Å"Clostridium Difficle Infection In Health-Care Workers.†Ã‚  The Lancet  334.8671 (1989): 1095. Print. Dubberke, Erik. â€Å"Strategies for prevention of Clostridium difficile infection.†Ã‚  Journal of Hospital Medicine  7.S3 (2012): S14-S17. Print. â€Å"Patient Cloth Chairs and Clostridium difficile Outbreak.†Ã‚  American Journal of Infection Control  37.5 (2009): E102-E103. Print. Rupnik, Maja.  Abstract book: Clostridium difficile : organism, disease, control & prevention. s.l.: [Organizing committee ICDS], 2007. Print. Zanotti-Cavazzoni, S.l.. â€Å"Analysis of an outbreak of Clostridium difficile infection controlled with enhanced infection control measures.†Yearbook of Critical Care Medicine  2010 (2010): 164-166. Print. â€Å"clostridium difficle.†Ã‚  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 Mar. 2013. Web.  30 Apr. 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cdiff/Cdiff_infect.html Source document

Middle Childhood and Adolescences

Human growth development theory is an organized statement of values and generalization that provides an outline for understanding how and why people change as they grow from infant to adulthood. Theorist tries to make sense out of observations and construct a story of the human journey from infancy through childhood or adulthood (P. H. Miller, 2002, p. 2). The theories link proofs with patterns, merging the details of life into a meaningful complete picture of human growth development. Freud and Erickson state that human beings, starting at infancy through adulthood pass a series of psychosexual and psychosocial stages of development.The stages that will be discussed will be a combination of Freud and Erickson oral, identify vs. role of confusion, and phallic stages. There are six stages that Freud elaborated on but the first six years occurs in three stages each characterized by psychosexual pleasure center on difference parts of the body. However, Erikson’s stages differ sig nificantly from Freud’s in that they emphasize family and culture, not sexual urges. He called his theory epigenetic, partly to stress that the expression of genes, as of biological impulses, is powerfully influenced by the social environment (Berger, p. 9, 2010). According to, Freud during the first stage of personality development with is the oral stage from birth to one year, the infant’s tongue, and gums are the focus of pleasurable sensations in the baby’s body, sucking, and feeding are the most stimulating actives. The mouth is an important source for feeding and eating. In addition this allows the infant to develop gratification with pleasure from oral stimulation through activities such as tasting and sucking. Therefore, the infant is completely dependent on its parent or guardian that is responsible for feeding and nurturing the infant.Freud also stated that the oral stimulation could lead to oral dependencies later in life. For example oral personaliti es such as thumb sucking, nail biting, and smoking. These behaviors are exhibit when an individual is under stress (McLeod, S. A. 2008). Phallic Stage is another stage of human growth development. According to, Freud this stage starts at three though six years of age. This stage is when children become aware of their body organs. In additional, adolescences are also aware of their parents and other children that are around them. This pleasure switches between the oral nd anal stage to the phallic stage. The pleasure is not emphasized on the genitals. Freud has stated that the male develops an unconscious desire for the mother. Therefore, the male become in conflict with the adult male or caregiver seeing him as competition for the mother affection. This fixation gives the male an Oedipus complex, which is Freud psychoanalytic theory. This theory is the desire for sexual involvement with parent of opposite sex and a sense of rivalry with the parent of the same sex; a crucial stage in the normal developmental process.Girls have been known to have an attraction for their father. This is known as the Electra Complex, but Freud strongly disagreed with this theory (Britannica. com). According to Freud, because strong competition with the male figures the male eventually decide to identify with the father rather than come in conflict with him. Because of this the boy develops masculine characteristics and identifies himself as a male, and represses his sexual feelings toward his mother. A fixation at this stage could result in unacceptable sexual behavior and confused sexual identity according to psychoanalysts (McLeod, S.A. 2008). Identity vs. role confusion is the Erikson six stage of human development. This stage takes place between the ages of 13-18. This is an important stage of development for adolescence because this is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Adolescents try to figure out â€Å"who am I? † They establish sexual, political, and vocat ional identities or are confused about what role to play (Berger, p. 19). This stage of human development allows the adolescent to identify what role he will occupy as an adult.In this role the adolescents will re-examine his identify to try to figure out â€Å"Who am I? † Erickson suggests that two identities are involved. These identities involve the sexual an occupational. According to (Bee, 1992) at the end of this stage â€Å"a reintegrate sense of self, or what one wants to do or be, and of one’s appropriate sex role. † During the six stages the body image of the adolescent began to change. This stages is also were the adolescent start to feel uncomfortable about their body for a while until they can adapt and change into their new image.Based upon the outcome of their adapting the adolescent can start to begin to form their own identity. Nevertheless, the adolescent can also start to become confuse about themselves, such as what is their place in the worl d and what they want to be when that grow up. In evaluating Freud Erikson human development theories it has been learned that both saw personality developing throughout a lifecycle of each individual. Each looks at and identified the crises at each stage in development.In addition difference psychologist believe that different phases are more important than other phases, but what most psychologist do agree on it that one stage leads to the next stage. Reference Berger, K. , & S, . (2010). Invitation of the life span. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. McLeod, S. A. (2008). Psychosexual Stages Retrieve from simplypsychology. org/psychosexual from http://www. simplypsychology. org/psychosexual. html Bee, H. L. (1992). The developing child. London: HarperCollins. www. britannica. com

The United States Supreme Court and Public Opinion

The United States Supreme Court is a unique American institution. It is unique because, unlike the individuals serving in the executive and the legislative branches of government, the nine justices serving at the highest level of the United States Supreme Court are insulated in significant ways from the public they are sworn to serve. Most significantly, the justices are provided lifetime terms following nomination and confirmation. Unlike presidents or members of Congress, for example, the justices do not have to endure initial public elections or prepare for reelection campaigns.In effect, in many ways, the members of the United States Supreme Court are insulated from the public that they serve in extraordinary and unique ways. This very insulation, in turn, has generated fierce debates among legal scholars, political scholars, and historians regarding the proper characterization of the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion and the consequences of different characterizations.This essay will argue that the justices of the United States Supreme Court are not nearly as isolated as conventional wisdom and scholarship too frequently assume, that public opinion affects the justices in a myriad of deeply significant ways, and that adopting a majoritarian model better explains the United States Supreme Court as well as better serving important public policy objectives.In order to support the argument that majoritarian framework is the preferable model, this essay will explain why analytical frameworks are especially important in this context, the consequences of the different approaches, and why a majoritarian approach is the better framework for analyzing and discussing the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion. B. Why Analytical Frameworks MatterThis debate is particularly important because these justices, serving for life terms, are elevated to the United States Supreme Court as a result of politi cal decisions rather than intellectual merit or the possession of a neutrally objective judicial philosophy. Indeed, it is commonly agreed by scholars that Judges and scholars perpetuate the myth of merit. The reality, however, is that every appointment is political.Merit competes with other political considerations, like personal and ideological compatibility, with the forces of support or opposition in Congress and the White House, and with demands for representative appointments on the bases of geography, religion, race, gender, and ethnicity. (O'Brien 33) It is this political connection that makes the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and the American citizenry such an important issue.This is because certain assumptions may encourage special interests to pursue political appointments to the Supreme Court in an effort to circumvent public opinion. For those whom subscribe to the countermajoritarian school of thought, which holds that the Supreme Court is largel y immune to public opinion and hardly influenced by public opinion, the belief is that once a nominated justice is confirmed that he or she will be able to issue rulings unhindered by the pressures of public opinion (Davis 4).As a result, this approach encourages deeply political appointments because there is a belief that minority interests can be advanced or otherwise protected by a public institution shielded from public opinion; this, in turn, encourages potential justices to refrain from expressing their intellect or their opinions honestly in order to minimize political problems.One scholar has described this dumbing down of a candidate’s merits thusly: â€Å"A fictive discourse of appointments has thus emerged: a nominee's advocates make his case in the ideologically neutral language of merit, as if the candidate's views had no bearing on his selection,† (Greenberg, n. p. ) That prospective justices of the United States Supreme Court are compelled to engage in a â€Å"fictive discourse† is both disturbing and contrary to the American ideal of open and free discourse.The confirmation battle involving Robert Bork was illustrative of this type of political battle; indeed, rather than focusing on Bork’s intellectual abilities or merits the confirmation hearings devolved into perhaps the most contentious confirmation battle in modern history. Indeed, as one leading scholar of the Bork proceedings has noted, highlighting the aforementioned dangers associated with the countermajoritarian framework,Because few knowledgeable observers questioned Judge Bork's professional qualifications, opposition to Bork quickly focused on his judicial philosophy. The focus on ideology raised a crucial issue as to whether it was proper for the Senate to reject for ideological reasons an otherwise qualified nominee. (Vieira, and Gross vii)On the other hand, for those whom subscribe to the majoritarian school of thought, an increasingly influential app roach to the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion, the belief is that the justices are not only not insulated from public opinion but that public opinion affects the justices intimately in terms of the types of cases they choose to decide each year (O'Brien 165), what legal justifications that justices choose to rely on when deciding particularly contentious cases (Waltenburg, and Swinford 242), and whether to uphold or overturn longstanding legal precedents (Norrander, and Wilcox 707).Such assumptions, that public opinion does matter and that it matters significantly, have several significant implications if they are true. First, selecting politics over merit when deciding whom to nominate to the United States Supreme Court may be overrated; more specifically, justices will ultimately be more sensitive to public opinion than the political alliances that earned them the nomination in the first place.They will, after all, be freed of the need to sus tain the political alliances after confirmation as a result of their lifetime tenure whereas they will always be judged by public opinion. A case in point was the Republican nomination of Warren Burger. He was known to have been a conservative with a strict construction approach to the interpretation of the United States Constitution. In short, from a countermajoritarian point of view, Burger had seemed an extraordinarily safe political choice for the United States Supreme Court.The reality, however, was that as the 15th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Burger began to rule in ways that shocked his initial supporters. Rather than shunning public opinion, as his supporters wanted on issues such as race, he has since become known as one of the more activist Chief Judges in the history of the United States Supreme Court. The countermajoritarian school of thought cannot account for such a shift in judicial behavior, and this is a major flaw in this particular analytical framework.Burger is much better understood, as is the United States Supreme Court more generally, by employing a majoritarian framework that accounts for public opinion in addition to underlying political alliances or political philosophies. Second, if these assumptions are true, then public opinion matters. That means that studying the United States Supreme Court in isolation, rather than in conjunction with other related social factors such as public opinion, is a flawed approach.The better analytical framework is the majoritarian approach which, though a minority approach, accomplishes two important objectives. Initially, by accounting for and analyzing more carefully the relationship between public opinion and the United States Supreme Court, courts like Burger’s can be better understood and better explained; in addition, the majoritarian approach legitimizes public opinion as a part of the national debate with respect to legal issues of public interest rather than confi ning these issues to nine distant justices in a mysterious ivory tower.If one of the main functions of the justices is to safeguard the legitimacy of the American constitution, a document conceived of and designed to protect the public generally, then sound policy demands public participation and influence. There are two main questions to be resolved. First, does the countermajoritarian or the majoritarian framework better explain how the United States Supreme Court functions? Second, and related to the first issue, which model better contributes to the legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court and its legal decisions.C. Main Questions 1. Countermajoritarian or Majoritarian: A Threshold Issue Although the United States Supreme Court is one of the most heavily studied American institutions, there remain significant differences of opinion regarding the nature of the relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion. One of the more fundamental debates among legal scholars, political scientists, and historians centers on whether the United States Supreme Court is in essence a countermajoritarian institution or a majoritarian institution.This debate has important implications. Those that believe that the countermajoritarian model best characterizes the actual function and operation of the United States Supreme Court also tend to view the Supreme Court as being largely insulated from public opinion; on the other hand those that believe that the majoritarian framework best characterizes the Supreme Court tend to believe that public opinion, to some extant, affects the function, operations, and the ultimate legal decisions of the Supreme Court.How one resolves this debate, therefore, pervasively affects American jurisprudence; indeed, â€Å"Much constitutional discourse is predicated on the assumption that the United States Supreme Court is a counter-majoritarian institution, and normative theories supporting the exercise of judicial review are seen, by some, as having to accommodate that fact.† (Solimine, and Walker n. p). Should this fundamental assumption be proven to be incorrect, and there is a growing body of research that suggests that it may be incorrect, then the constitutional discourse and the normative theories that have flowed from the traditional countermajoritarian characterization of the Supreme Court may be similarly flawed and incorrect.In short, a threshold determination needs to be made. This threshold question, as is relevant to the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and public opinion, is whether the Supreme Court is in fact a countermajoritarian institution as scholars have traditionally assumed or a majoritarian institution as some modern scholars argue. 2. Supreme Court as Arbiter of LegitimacyIn addition and intimately related to the aforementioned characterization debate, scholars have also examined the relationship of the United States Supreme Court and public opinion in terms of legitimacy; more specifically, scholars have debated whether and to what extant Supreme Court decisions resolve contentious legal issues legitimately so far as public opinion is concerned and whether and to what extant legitimacy instead results from public opinion affecting the Supreme Court either directly or indirectly.In short, is the ultimate source of legitimacy regarding contentious legal issues the Supreme Court, public opinion, or the interplay between the two? This source of legitimacy debate is made more difficult by the fact that public opinion tends to be more responsive to a narrow range of legal issues or what has otherwise been referred to in the literature as landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, Roe V. Wade, and, more recently, Bush v.Gore. If this assumption is correct, that public opinion is only concerned with landmark cases, then the scope of academic inquiry must be significantly narrowed; to this end, one scholar has noted that â€Å"if we assu me that only the huge national landmark cases affect public opinion, in essence, we are saying that the remainder of the Court's work is inconsequential, at least in terms of public opinion. † (Hoekstra 3).An additional set of threshold questions, therefore, needs to address the more precise relationship between different types of Supreme Court cases and public opinion. Is the relationship relevant only with respect to national landmark cases? Does the relationship differ between landmark and non-landmark cases? This, in turn, demands an analysis which examines both the national and local effects of Supreme Court decisions. Indeed, acknowledging that â€Å"Using national data, it may be possible to connect cases such as Bush v.Gore to changes in public opinion and support for the Court† (Hoekstra 3) one scholar has argued for engaging in a more nuanced analysis that examines localized effects as well by suggesting that beneath the noise may actually be systematic effect s–ones not easily detectable or the same for all citizens–but systematic nonetheless. If citizens learn about different Court decisions based on information available and salient to them, then looking for uniform national level effects is misguided. This does not mean that Court decisions are without national effect.If the Court's effect is more localized–either in terms of geography or some other process–we might still see the effect of Court decisions on public opinion and that Court decisions might affect support for the Court on a national level. The process is just more subtle and possibly more gradual. Another reason to look at local public opinion is that Court decisions frequently require active implementation, oftentimes by local officials. If the Court can change public opinion on the issues, or at least cast legitimacy on the policy under review, the probability of successful implementation is greatly enhanced (Hoekstra 3)Thus, in short, a seco nd threshold set of questions addresses the extant to which scholars assume that relationships between the Supreme Court and public opinion are limited to national landmark cases or whether the relationship can be extended according to local effects and conditions. C. Benefits of a Majoritarian Approach The first benefit of a majoritarian approach is rather intuitive; more specifically, because legal issues affect the public then the public’s opinion ought to be considered.Although this essay also argues that public opinion is relevant in disputes that may not be considered landmark cases, the evidence strongly supports the proposition that public opinion particularly affects national landmark cases and that landmark cases decided by the United States Supreme Court tend to affect public opinion. What complicates a proper characterization of the court derives from different historical relationships between the court and the United States Supreme Court. Traditionally, the Ameri can public did view the justices as enlightened individuals whom didn’t require public input.This sort of public trust justified, in the past, the countermajoritarian approach; indeed, with respect to general public opinion, the justices were significantly insulated. One leading scholar, writing in 1957, stated that Until recently, the attitude of Americans toward the Supreme Court recalled with singular fidelity that with which, according to Burke, Englishmen of a century and a half ago should have looked upon the institutions of their country: â€Å"We ought to understand it according to our measure; and to venerate where we are not able to understand.† (Schwartz iii). This veneration, this assumption that the public can no longer understand the legal issues presented to the United States Supreme Court, is no longer an accurate description of the American public; quite the contrary, the public regularly criticizes Supreme Court decisions, it more carefully follows po tential and actual nominations to the highest court in the land, and through a variety of groups and organization it attempts to influence the court by presenting friend of the court legal briefs on virtually every type of imaginable case.What has emerged more recently is a United States Supreme Court that is besieged by rather than isolated from public opinion; one scholar has noted that even presidents attempt to influence the justices, stating that â€Å"presidents can influence the Supreme Court beyond the appointments process. † (Martinek, n. p. ). From the unemployed mother interested in an abortion issue to competing presidential candidates seeking a favorable ruling the United States Supreme Court has become, for better or worse, America’s arbiter of last resort.This change in the way the public perceives and interacts with the United States Supreme Court is the first reason why the countermajoritarian framework is no longer the best approach for analyzing the justices or the relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion. The detached veneration of the public is a relic of the past and has been replaced by a greater public awareness. This greater public awareness, however, cannot be overstated; to be sure, though â€Å"Shifting majorities of the public do disagree with many decisions, to the extent they perceive them, or are simply ignorant of the great mass of the Court's jurisprudence.† (Solimine, and Walker, n. p. ) There are, therefore, gaps in the public’s knowledge about the nature of the Supreme Court’s power and the underlying issues. This imperfect knowledge, however, does not render public opinion marginal or irrelevant. It simply suggests that public opinion may at times be somewhat irrational; both a rational and an irrational public opinion can affect the Supreme Court and the majoritarian approach can be adapted to account for an idealized public which possesses an advanced understanding of c omplex legal issues and an imperfect public which sometimes reacts in less than informed ways.In short, the majoritarian approach is better able to incorporate the complex interactions between the United States Supreme Court than the rigidly outdated countermajoritarian model. In addition to the fact that public perceptions and demands have changed over time, it is also evident that legal precedents have been modified or overturned in response to public opinion. Some of the more well-known cases illustrating this fact have involved controversial issues dealing with racial segregation, abortion, and civil rights more generally.A countermajoritarian framework would assume that the justices would be significantly isolated from the public in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. Had these justices been insulated, it is entirely plausible that these cases would never have reached the United States Supreme Court, and if they had, that they would have been decided diff erently. The majoritarian model, on the other, admits that these issues were, to some extant, forced upon the United States Supreme Court and that the justices accommodated public opinion by resolving important national issues.This framework further contributes to an ultimate type of legitimacy with respect to the judicial decisions, even if the legitimacy remains challenged by some members of the public, because it treats the decision as a sort of cooperative effort between the United States Supreme Court and the American public. These decisions, in turn affected public opinion. More people accepted racial integration, more people accepted abortion, and more people came to believe that George W. Bush was entitled to the highest office in the land. In Brown v. Board of Education, for instance, the public was badly divided regarding issues of racial segregation.While it is true that the modern trend was toward integration the sad fact was that many members of the public, including st ates, resisted attempts to integrate the races more completely; as a result, pressure was brought to bear on the United States Supreme Court. On the one hand, there was a notion that the federal government shouldn’t interfere too much in state affairs; on the other hand, there was also a growing public recognition that only a decision by the United States Supreme Court, and not any actions by the executive or legislative branches alone, would settle the issues legitimately across the country (Klarman 348).A countermajoritarian framework would instead assume, and incorrectly so, that the justices themselves suddenly decided that racial segregation was unconstitutional rather than attributing a great deal of credit to the American public. 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