The American Civil War Essays (1577 words) -

The American Civil War The American Civil War The Civil War was a brutal war between the North and South of America over the issue of slavery, which was spurred on by the secession of the southern states from the Union of a America. At the time slavery was one of the main issues in America that caused a disagreement between the north and south and these disagreements about humanity and slaves added to the tension that would finally lead to the out break of war. Slavery was almost totally abolished in the northern states after 1787 when the Constitution was drafted at the Philadelphia Convention and slavery was looked upon as the peculiar institution of the southern states, by the north. The southern states looked upon slavery as a way of life and were in no way prepared to give up what they felt was there property and a very important part of their cotton and farming production. Another implication that caused great tension between the north and south over the issue of slavery was that even though their were anti-slavery supporters in the south; some of the abolitionists of the north would write notices and say that all southerners were evil and cruel slave owners, who would treat their slaves badly. This angered the southerners who felt that the northerners were just being hypocrites and didnt know what they were talking about, which turned pro anti-slavery southerners into stronger supporters of the south. It was thought by some anti-slavery groups in America that slavery would die out because America had in 1808 stopped the participation in the international slave trade, which meant no supplies of new slaves would be coming in. But this theory proved wrong because slavery in the south began to expand due to the great demand of raw cotton from cotton mills of the Industrial revolution from overseas places like Britain. Also the cotton-based expansion of slavery came due to the invention of the cotton gin, by Eli Whitney in 1793, which cleaned the cotton plant and refined it on a mass scale. The south started more tension over slavery when they decided they had to expand their territory westwards and gain more states because other wise they would be out voted in congress and slavery would be abolished completely, also they needed new land to replace all the over used farming land in the other southern states. The Abolitionists were another factor that came into the tension point of slavery. People such as William Lloyd Garrison who published the newspaper, The Liberator, which attacked southern slave owners. Making them and the slave traders out to be criminals. He and followers of his such as Wendell Phillips used these accusations against the southerners based on the fact that they said that slavery was a sin in the Christian religion and was in general, immoral. Another abolitionist that fought hard for the abolishment of slavery was Fredrick Douglass, an ex-slave who escaped from slavery and urged other black people to do so. Douglass became the station-master and conductor of the Underground Railroad in Rochester, New York which helped fugitive slaves escape to the north since the southerners had congress pass the Fugitive Slaves Act in 1850. This act meant that all American citizens had to help recapture fugitive slaves and that all Negroes were assumed slaves unless they could prov e they were free. Douglass also established the abolitionist newspaper North Star, which he edited until 1860. Books such as Harriet Beecher Stowes novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, which was published 1852 helped to strengthen the anti-slavery feeling in the North. Finally as one historian described the figure, that was the single most important factor on bringing on the war, was the most extreme abolitionist, John Brown. Brown believed that he was an agent of God and dedicated his life to the abolishment of slavery and believed the way to achieve it was by using force. He was a member of the radicals, who tried to abolish slavery by defying the law and not a member of the gradualists who tried to abolish slavery through legal means. Brown and his sons went to Kansas to fight against the pro-slavery terrorists there and finally his

The National Numeracy Strategy Essay Example

The National Numeracy Strategy Essay Example The National Numeracy Strategy Essay The National Numeracy Strategy Essay The National Numeracy Strategy (DfEE 1999: part 1, p.12) requires teachers to identify mistakes, using them as positive teaching points by talking about them and any misconceptions that led to them. When dealing with a childs errors in their work it is not enough to simply mark them as wrong, the child must be given the opportunity to develop a greater level of understanding through correction. This may not simply be re-calculating a sum, but revising their ideas and concepts of the particular topic area. According to Skemp (1989) by the process of understanding, that which began as an error becomes a contribution to knowledge p.200. As identified in Pollard Tann (1993) it is also true that if a child is allowed to continuously make errors in the same subject or on the same topic the child can be caught in a vicious circle in which failure leads to anxiety which leads to further failure p. 68. Children too, experience frustration when they cannot reach their goals and repeated failure may result in loss of confidence and self-esteem. Teachers must provide the opportunity for the child to attain their targets. Once the teacher realises the necessity to identify the misconstrued knowledge/concepts, they must discover underlying problems in the most accurate way. To simply study the childs work shows a self-important belief that the teacher can understand what the child is thinking. It is only by discussing with the child their ideas and perceptions that the true reasons for the misconceptions become evident. Alice states that multiplication makes numbers larger and division makes numbers smaller. Alices statements will be accurate when applied to the contexts of multiplication and division that she is most likely to be familiar with, for example positive integers. When children are first introduced to multiplication in school, they become familiar with the terms lots of and sets of, this then leads to an understanding of multiplication as repeated addition, which is often one of the first strategies introduced to children to tackle multiplication questions. One example of this is identified in Suggate et al (1998): Again the assumption could be made that because subtraction makes numbers smaller so too will division. So closely linking these four operations and not distinguishing the differences will map properties of one onto the other. Skemp (1989) identifies how introducing multiplication as repeated addition can lead to further problems, this [repeated addition] works well for the counting numbers, but it does not apply to multiplication of the other kinds of number which children will subsequently encounter; so to teach it this way is making difficulties for the future p.144. He goes on to identify the multiplication of negative numbers and fractions as being an area where children will develop problems. This thinking is reinforced by the Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science (CSMS) project where whole number computations and extensions to fractions and decimals were considered (Hart 1981); conclusions note that many children are still only groping towards ideas of multiplication a nd division. Alices teacher would need to discuss, with her, all the ideas and concepts she holds about multiplication and division. Only by exploring the childs understanding of underlying concepts and principles will the reason for the misconceptions become apparent. As already mentioned the teachers assessment of the reason for a childs errors may not be accurate purely by studying their work.  A starting point to rectify the misconception would be to identify in the NNS (DfEE 1999) what understanding Alice should have acquired by her age. Children, according to the NNS (DfEE 1999), do not encounter multiplication or division until year 2, and confirms my previous thinking that children are to understand the two operations as repeated addition and subtraction. It is not until year 4 that children multiply and divide decimals and fractions and examine related theory, such as the commutative law. Alice needs to be taught that multiplication and division are more than just complicated forms of addition and subtraction. There is more to multiplication and division than just computing sums. According to Nunes Bryant (1996) The child must learn about and understand an entirely new set of number meanings and a new set of invariants, all of which are related to multiplication and division, but not to addition and subtraction p.144. Research conducted by Hoyles, Noss Sutherland in 1992 showed an ingenious method to enable children to see that multiplication does not always make numbers bigger. The children were asked to reach a target number (e.g. 100) from a starting point (e.g. 13) through successive multiplications. The pupils easily overshot the target and therefore had to face the question: how do you make numbers smaller by multiplying them? The research identified this as a significant question, which helps pupils see the discontinuity between addition and multiplication. This type of activity along with one related to division could be used in school to highlight concepts children may not have realised. By addressing difficulties within topics early on children are prevented from forming certain misconceptions. The next stage for the teacher would be to decide how to prevent these sorts of misconceptions occurring in following years. It is apparent that Alices previous teaching has not allowed her to access the topic in a way that she can understand it. Teachers must consider both their teaching styles and childrens learning styles when approaching areas that children can easily misconstrue. The following years class should be given the opportunity to explore the concepts and theory behind multiplication and division, this may not be in line with the NNS (DfEE 1999)) order, but may provide those children with a greater comprehension of the operations they are carrying out. Once they are confident with the reasoning their manipulation and computation of numbers should be secure due to their underlying understanding. Emilys work shows four calculations with vulgar fractions. It is apparent that she is working horizontally to complete the sums either adding or subtracting the two numerators and the two denominators. The NNS (DfEE 1999) identifies that children from year 4 upwards should recognise the equivalence between fractions and at year 5 should be able to recognise from practical work simple relationships between fractions part 6 p.23. It appears from Emilys work that she does not understand the relationships. In the first question (shown below) she has to add two fractions with the same denominator.