Charles Perraults Puss in Boots Essay examples -- Charles Perrault Pu

Charles Perrault's Puss in Boots Charles Perrault's version "Puss in Boots" is a simple enough tale, in which the cleverness of the small prevails over the merits of size and strength and the lowly thirdborn son of a miller transcends his own expectations to achieve personal success. A major part of the tale is the archetypes used within, those easily recognisable symbols of common association and subconscious significance. Among these are symbols standing for the boy's transformation into self-determined adulthood, others associated with the miller's son's growth and achievement, and Puss himself, by whose characteristics and machinations the boy achieves his success. Like so many other fairy tales, "Puss in Boots" recounts the progression from one stage of life to another, in this case from a child's dependence on his parents for shelter and guidance to a separate existence as a self-sufficient adult away from the childhood home. This development is reflected in the archetypes found in the story, which at points draw attention to and accentuate the changes the miller's son undergoes. To begin with, the very identity of the hero's father - a miller - is an indication of where the boy starts out. Millers grind flour to be made into bread, bread being a common symbol of childhood, and the son has no need to begin his progression toward independence until his father dies, effectively cutting off his source of that childhood standby. This lack of bread means, from another perspective, that he cannot eat and as the act of eating is an archetype indicating transformation, it's notable in its absence - he is not yet ready for that next stage of life. So, the miller's son turns to the cat to form a whole new relationship of ... ...tainment value, if nothing else. It is all these aspects which the boy must be able to draw on to succeed, all neatly condensed into a small, furry body. Though "Puss in Boots" is about the miller's son's movement from childhood to a mature, adult societal role, it is Puss who steals the spotlight. The boy is pushed into the background in favour of his more flamboyant and active servant, and though he achieves his transformation, it cannot happen without the cat's use and manipulation of what is already present inside him. As such, Puss embodies what the miller's son needs most following his loss of adult shelter to push into the adult world himself, becoming the principal archetype of all used within the tale. Perrault, Charles. "Puss in Boots." Folk & Fairy Tales Comp. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 1996. 94-97.

Henry James, Principled Realism :: Henry James

Henry James, Principled Realism I read a critical essay by Michael Kearns entitled, "Henry James, Principled Realism, and the Practice of Critical Reading." In it, Kearns invents the terms "principled reality" and "naà ¯ve reality" and how to apply these perspectives when reading Washington Square. As Kearns explores these two types of realities, he states that the readers should take a stance of "principled realism" which he defines as follows: "principled realism, like pragmatism, is a method which holds that no objective truths or transcendentally privileged perspective can be found but that we can understand enough about a situation or event to be able to act responsibly towards all persons involved." We can achieve this, according to Kearns, by understanding that the characters are fully dimensional. We must look at their strong points, their positions on certain issues, and we might speculate what their downfall might be. Although Kearns thinks that we who read Washington Square with a principled realistic perspective should remain ethically neutral, he does urge that we also become emotionally involved. He states: " Principled realism recognizes the importance of emotional as well as rational responses; to the extent that readers come to care about the novel's characters, they are in a position to perceive and share the fundamental ethical stance of James's fiction." On the other hand, Kearns defines his term "naà ¯ve realism" as characteristic of "someone who mistakenly elevates socially constructed and verbalized knowledge over the individual and inarticulate rather than accepting both as valuable." Kearns believes that Dr. Sloper and the narrator both practice naà ¯ve realism and this, he contends, is dangerous thinking. He continues: " Sloper's naà ¯ve realism manifests itself in his belief that he can build a valid theory on facts†¦he has reduced to propositions." Kearns implies that James creates fictional characters (such as Dr. Sloper) to help his readers form the correct ethical judgement about the novel. The doctor is so cold, so calculating, the readers naturally would want to take the opposing position. He is not the only one that Kearns believes uses naà ¯ve realism. The narrator does as well: "as the story develops and Catherine's experience expands, the narrator remains superior; in particular, he grants the young woman no depth of inner life.

Do Political Campaign Contributions Impact the Outcome of Elections? :: essays research papers

Do Political Campaign Contributions Impact the Outcome of Elections? In the process of searching for a research question that has the possibility of gaining positive results one must find a dependent variable in addition to several independent variables that might be a direct cause or a factor in the dependent variable. In observing major political elections throughout my life I have noticed a recurring trend. In many elections one candidate outspends their opponent in an attempt to gain victory. I intend to set up a research design to determine whether independent variables concerning campaign contributions have an effect on the outcome of elections.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As campaign finance reform remains a hot topic in congress with legislation such as the McCain-Feinghold Bill, it is important to determine if campaign spending affects the outcome of elections. If the results this question indicate a direct relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable then legislative restrictions might necessary. If campaign spending does not factor in on the outcome of elections, then maybe there is nothing wrong with a candidate outspending their opponent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Several articles and books have been written on this subject that I have found useful. According to Ruth S. Jones(1981) â€Å"These sentiments are often supplemented by a belief that the only way a minority party can win is by outspending opponents.† Throughout the article Jones focuses in on this trend. If this assumption is true it would indicate that outspending an incumbent is necessary to gain office.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Committee for Economic Development found similar results(1968), â€Å"Candidates with access to vast personal or family fortunes have a substantial advantage in the pursuit of high office.† This means that a wealthy candidate can in essence buy a victory in an election. This committee’s research has provided several facts toward my research plan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the contrary, in an article by Gary C. Jacobsen(1978),†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦spending by challengers has a substantial impact on election outcomes, whereas spending by incumbents has relatively little effect.† These findings add another Wrinkle in the process of framing my research design by forcing me to differentiate if spending by incumbents and challengers has a different impact. This article refers to a number of recent studies that found that there is a relationship between how much money is spent and how well a candidate does on election day.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the twentieth century events have occurred that indicate that campaign spending in some instances factored in on the results of elections. Do Political Campaign Contributions Impact the Outcome of Elections? :: essays research papers Do Political Campaign Contributions Impact the Outcome of Elections? In the process of searching for a research question that has the possibility of gaining positive results one must find a dependent variable in addition to several independent variables that might be a direct cause or a factor in the dependent variable. In observing major political elections throughout my life I have noticed a recurring trend. In many elections one candidate outspends their opponent in an attempt to gain victory. I intend to set up a research design to determine whether independent variables concerning campaign contributions have an effect on the outcome of elections.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As campaign finance reform remains a hot topic in congress with legislation such as the McCain-Feinghold Bill, it is important to determine if campaign spending affects the outcome of elections. If the results this question indicate a direct relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable then legislative restrictions might necessary. If campaign spending does not factor in on the outcome of elections, then maybe there is nothing wrong with a candidate outspending their opponent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Several articles and books have been written on this subject that I have found useful. According to Ruth S. Jones(1981) â€Å"These sentiments are often supplemented by a belief that the only way a minority party can win is by outspending opponents.† Throughout the article Jones focuses in on this trend. If this assumption is true it would indicate that outspending an incumbent is necessary to gain office.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Committee for Economic Development found similar results(1968), â€Å"Candidates with access to vast personal or family fortunes have a substantial advantage in the pursuit of high office.† This means that a wealthy candidate can in essence buy a victory in an election. This committee’s research has provided several facts toward my research plan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the contrary, in an article by Gary C. Jacobsen(1978),†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦spending by challengers has a substantial impact on election outcomes, whereas spending by incumbents has relatively little effect.† These findings add another Wrinkle in the process of framing my research design by forcing me to differentiate if spending by incumbents and challengers has a different impact. This article refers to a number of recent studies that found that there is a relationship between how much money is spent and how well a candidate does on election day.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the twentieth century events have occurred that indicate that campaign spending in some instances factored in on the results of elections.

Qualitative Research Methodologies Essay

Veal (2000) has described research a â€Å"systematic and careful inquiry ands search for the truth† or an investigation into a subject to discover facts. Research is collection of methods, tools and techniques for acquiring knowledge. The nature of research is to discover and explain and answer the unanswered questions. Qualitative methodology focuses on â€Å"quality† a term referring to the essence or ambience of something (Anastas, 1999). Qualitative methods are used to understand complex social phenomena. They are suitable to seek knowledge about the fundamental characteristics of a phenomenon under study. Types of Qualitative Methodologies Case-Study Research Methodology Case study as a â€Å"realistic† methodology, which deals with solid and specific questions. Case study translates research question into more researchable problems, and provides rich examples, which are easy to comprehend. The significance of case studies is its revealing meaning of a phenomenon. Observation Research Methodology Scott (2001) has described observation an effective way of finding out about people in their particular environment. Observational research method provides understanding of interaction between marketers and users, exploring members interaction in an organisation and understanding norms in a community. Ethnographic Research Methodology According to Garson (1998) ethnography is the study of cultural groupings. It concentrates on close field observation of socio-cultural phenomena. Ethnographic research is a holistic approach that tries to understand a culture through the members of given culture. Quantitative Research Methodologies Quantitative research is gathering data in quantity. The goal of the quantitative research approach is to find out the truth by using statistical procedure. Hara (1995) has pointed out that quantitative methodology allows readers to understand facts easily by looking at charts and graphs. The use of statistics reduces contradictions, which may exist in research. Morgan (2000) has mentioned that â€Å"quantification† allows accuracy of statements by providing facts and figures with precision. Absence of one will make the other incomprehensible. It is assumed that quantitative methodologies are more logical and more comprehensible than qualitative methodology for this reason. descriptive, experimental, quasi-experimental Methodologies. Data Collection However for this research the most appropriate method for this study is case study as this study is comparison of these two cities based on the data and facts obtained from different libraries, books, journals, newspapers and census department to answer the questions below. †¢ How history and geographical location influence their development? †¢ What are the current economic figures of the cities? †¢ How much progress these cities have made in trade, commerce health education and sanitation systems? †¢ What is the role of geography and location in the development of urban cities?

Bureaucratic Practices In Educational Institutes

Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to adhocracy, it is represented by standardized procedure (rule-following) that dictates the execution of most or all processes within the body, formal division of powers, hierarchy, and relationships. In practice the interpretation and execution of policy can lead to informal influence.Of the most famous political persons responsible for the making of bureaucracy, and its effects on society would be Max Weber, the German sociologist who set the course of the field in foundations of Administration and Politics. Weber established there were three different types of authority which helped to set the stage of public administration and helped to direct the forms of government which exist today. The three types of authority that dominate the governmental and societal settings of the present are traditional, charismatic, and legal rational.The third ty pe of authority is the type which we are most familiar with. Legal rational authority dominates the modern world, and can easily be thought of as a closed system of regulations and rules forming a bureaucracy. This authority is purely devoted to impersonal and functional purposes, thus giving the perfect stage for bureaucracy, where all focuses are impersonal and functional alone. â€Å"†¦ the bureaucratic system of organization is primarily characterized by the existence of a series of relatively stable vicious circles that stem from centralizations and impersonality† (Crozier, 1964, p 193)Bureaucracy in Educational Organizations Bureaucracy manifests itself in schools in the several ways. One key feature of a bureaucratic organization is presence of a formal hierarchical structure. Each level in a bureaucracy controls the level below and is controlled by the level above. A formal hierarchy is the basis of central planning and centralized decision making. In the school setting, the school head teacher tops the hierarchy, followed by his deputy. The teachers come next, then the prefect. The students lie at the bottom of the hierarchy.A bureaucracy runs by some well defined rules. Controlling by rules allows decisions made at high levels to be executed consistently by all lower levels. In the school, there are certain rules that students are supposed to abide by. The teachers also have a general code of conduct which they are supposed to observe. In a school, there is functional specialty. Every teacher has a special subject that he/she teaches, and is not expected to venture into other subjects. This is another key feature of a bureaucracy.Another characteristic of a bureaucracy is purposeful impersonality, whereby the idea is to treat all employees equally and customers equally, and not be influenced by individual differences. In the school, a school head is not supposed to talk to his children, who attend the school, about family matters. He is s upposed to act like he does not know them in any other way apart from that they are his students. A school can therefore be said to be a typical bureaucracy. During volunteer work at Thika Primary school, I noted several cases in which bureaucratic tendencies of the school, led to compromised resultsHow Bureaucracy Causes Poor Results In Schools Bureaucracy has been hailed as an excellent system of management in the organizations. In fact, no single system of administration has been adopted more widely that the bureaucratic system. Unfortunately, the system has largely failed to impress in education institutions, especially the academic institutions. During the course of volunteer work, this fact was manifested in a number of cases. Bureaucracy in school leads to a situation whereby students find it extremely difficult to secure audience with the head teacher.This is because, for a student to report a problem to the head teacher, he has first to report to the class prefect, who info rms the teacher. The teacher informs the deputy head teacher, who consequently forwards the issue to the head teacher. In this case, addressing the problem takes a painstakingly long period of time. If the issue required fast action, the intervention might come too late. The student ends up bearing the brunt of a bureaucratic system, which reflects negatively on his academic performance.This case was evident in Thika Primary School, whereby several children admitted to have sought audience with the head teacher, with little success. Another negative consequence of bureaucracy notable is in the procurement of learning resources. The process of purchasing books for the school takes too long, since approval must be sought from the head teacher, who takes the issue to the board of governors for a final decision on whether to place a tender. The tender is advertised and awarded to a book distributor.This whole process can take more than one school term, delaying the time that the student s have to interact with the books. This consequently leads to poor results. At the time of volunteer work, several story books had been ordered for purchase, but the process was taking too long. Bureaucratic practices in academic institutions also dent school student performance, whereby students are given insufficient feedback of their performance in a term. Here, the rules oblige the head teacher to write his feedback on the student’s performance, in the report form.However, due to the large numbers of students, he is not able to follow up the individual performance of each student. What he does to fulfill his obligation is fill all the report forms with the same comment, for example, ‘fair’. The student ends up not well guided on how well or bad he has performed. In such a case, he does not know whether he is faring poorly and needs to improve, or is performing well and needs to improve. This leads to bad grades in the subsequent terms. Conclusion It is import ant that schools abandon bureaucratic tendencies that lead to poor academic performance of the students.The head teacher must ensure that he is approachable, not seated in some hierarchically elevated seat. Process of purchasing learning resources must be made faster and simpler. Once such steps have been taken to streamline how schools run, the performance of the schools will improve, and the students will be able to achieve their academic goals and career ambitions References Bureaucracy. Anti Essays. Retrieved October 23, 2008, from the World Wide Web: Crozier, M. The Bureaucratic Phenomenon . 1964. London: Tavistock Publications. http://www. antiessays. com/free-essays/1895. html www. wikipedia. org/bureaucracy

Mentoring Programs for At-Risk Youth

The word mentor derives its origin from a character in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. When Odysseus, King of Ithaca, went to fight in the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his Kingdom to Mentor. Mentor served as the teacher and overseer of Odysseuss’ son, Telemachus.1 In our society today, mentors generally are volunteers who are committed to helping students or youth identified as â€Å"at-risk† and/or as a potential dropout get back on track—academically, socially, mentally and physically. The specific roles of mentors are multifaceted and varied. Mentors are big brothers/sisters, role models, friends and confidantes. Their goal is to make a connection and then, using that connection, convey a positive message to their mentee. Mentors build self-esteem, motivate and help young persons set goals and work toward accomplishing those goals. There is little doubt of the importance of mentoring programs and the benefits they yield. Studies of existing programs indicate that youth who participate in mentoring relationships have better attendance and attitude toward school; less drug and alcohol use; improved social attitudes and relationships; more trusting relationships and better communication with their parents; and a better chance of going on to higher education.2 Unfortunately, all those who could be benefiting from having a mentor are not. According to Mentoring in America 2005: A Snapshot of the Current State of Mentoring, â€Å"Of the 17.6 million young people who could especially benefit from having a mentor, only 2.5 million were in formal, one-on-one mentoring relationships.† 3 In the state of Connecticut, over 160,000 children—or 25 % of Connecticut’s youth—are in life situations that place them at risk for personal and academic failure.4  These situations include poverty, inadequate early childhood experiences and preparation for school, family drug use, violence, involvement in the criminal justice system and lack of access to needed social and mental health services. Government, community and civic groups and individuals are trying to change that; trying to make a difference. Since 1989, The Governor’s Prevention Partnership has worked with the State of Connecticut, Connecticut's corporate and business communities and other public, private and community organizations to provide the leadership and resources to assist 387 schools, 249 community organizations and 93 businesses in efforts to keep the children of the state safe, successful and drug-free.5 This is being accomplished, in part, through the following programs. The Connecticut Mentoring Partnership Created in 1977, The Connecticut Mentoring Partnership (CMP) challenges business leaders to help create a statewide mentoring initiative as a prevention strategy to protect youth from drug use, school failure and other related problems. The program provides leadership, resources and training to schools, businesses, community and faith-based organizations throughout the state in an effort to increase mentoring partnerships and promote safe, quality mentoring programs. The Partnership also works to: Raise public awareness: CMP has partnerships with NBC30, CBS Radio, Buckley Radio and others, a statewide media campaign recruits mentors during National Mentoring Month in January. Raising awareness of the importance of mentoring is also done year-round. A toll-free number, 1-877-CT-MENTOR, provides information on mentoring and ties into a statewide database of mentoring programs. Recruit and refer mentors: Business and community groups are assisted in recruiting their workforce or members to serve as mentors. Develop new mentoring resources, including public and private funding; advocate and promote public policies and legislation that strengthen mentoring; and collect and track data. Activities and services of the CMP include: The Mentoring Training Institute; technical assistance and support on Connecticut Quality Standards for mentoring programs and assistance on program design; resources and mentor recruitment, screening, training and program design; Regional Mentoring Networks for program providers; mentor recruitment and a toll-free Mentor Referral Line; annual mentoring showcase conference and workshops; The Mentoring Corporate Honor Roll and Corporate Mentoring Round Table that promotes, supports and recognizes corporate involvement; and program evaluation tools and resources. Since 1997, CMP has created over 200 new programs and more than 3,000 new mentoring relationships. Since 2001, 70 schools and businesses have joined the Partnership’s School Business Mentoring Alliance and 90 companies have been recognized through the 2005 Mentoring Corporate Honor Roll.6 The Urban Mentoring Initiative The Urban Mentoring Imitative (UMI) was created in 2005 in partnership with the state of Connecticut. Over the next two years—2006-2007—the CMP will initiate a mentoring expansion effort in Hartford, Waterbury, Norwich, Bridgeport, New Haven, New Britain and Windham. During that time, The UMI will be responsible for attempting to significantly increase the number of mentors for at-risk children in those communities. This will be done by increasing the capacity of existing mentoring programs to reach more children; developing new mentoring programs and models to address existing gaps; and identifying and accessing additional resources. The two-year funding appropriated by the State legislature will be matched by corporate and private sector monies secured by The Governor’s Prevention Partnership. Project Choice Mentoring Program Project Choice Mentoring Program (PCMP) is dedicated to helping the youth of the City of Hartford. Its mission is to empower committed delinquent youth to make positive life choices that will enable them to maximize their personal potential and be successful in their community. â€Å"The program provides caring mentors who are fully trained and supported by the professional staff of Project Choice and Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters,† according to Eddie Perez, Mayor of Hartford, CT. â€Å"Project Choice mentors strive to be a positive support system to the youth as well as to the family by forming a relationship based on trust and respect. This allows Project Choice mentors to advocate for the youth in academic, community and family settings while opening doors of opportunity that otherwise would not be available to them.†7 Project Choice started as an idea of David Norman in August 2001 at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS). Norman took on the challenge of becoming a positive role model for one â€Å"in need† youth. Over time, the youngster responded to Norman’s efforts with improved behavior, causing others to notice the change. As a result, the idea of role model became more widely accepted and the term was gradually changed to mentor. This acceptance allowed Norman and others to work with more youth at the CJTS facility and Project Choice was born. Project Choice works with Connecticut’s Juvenile Justice and â€Å"at-risk† youth between the ages of 11 and 21. The program operates on a â€Å"buy-in† premise. It is completely youth-driven, ensuring that the youth have the option to â€Å"buy-in† (or participate). No participant is forced, mandated or court ordered to be part of the mentoring process. In 2003, Project Choice partnered with Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters (NBBBS). Today, PCMP also is partnered with Boys ; Girls Clubs of America and together with NBBBS, work under the umbrella of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, Bureau of Adolescent and Transitional Services. Project Choice also is networked with the One-on-One Mentoring Program. Project Choice again expanded its resources by establishing a formal collaboration with Project Connect. Project Connect specializes in presenting alternative choices to youth and reinforcing the belief that positive behavior yields positive rewards. Youth Fair Chance, Inc. This national project is funded by the Department of Labor. Established on a case-management basis, this Connecticut program targets individuals between the ages of 14 and 25. Focus is on computer, job and life skills training; tutoring, which is conducted four times a week; and informal mentoring. There are no specific project guidelines for the mentoring program, which currently operates on an as-needed basis. Set up within a peer-to-peer mentor atmosphere, Yale University students occasionally provide assistance. Other services offered by Youth Fair Chance include day care, summer employment assistance, support groups, high school diploma equivalency classes and recreational activities. Four youth program areas are presently being developed that will focus on gender-specific prevention programs for female youth. During the 2005-2006 academic school year a follow-up evaluation of the school-based mentoring program was conducted by the Connecticut Mentoring Partnership. One hundred and ninety mentored youth from seven school systems were evaluated.8 The evaluation was viewed as a pilot or exploratory study that would serve as a stepping stone for future evaluations and mentoring research. Overall, the results were positive. The state’s mentoring programs seem to be reaching those individuals who are somewhat academically at-risk and are subsequently able to sustain or improve their academic performance during the course of a mentoring relationship. Footnotes 1Reh, F. John. Mentors and Mentoring: What Is a Mentor? Retrieved December 1, 2006, from http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/mentoring.htm. 2Mentoring in America 2005: A Snapshot of the Current State of Mentoring. Results of a poll on mentoring commissioned by MENTOR. Retrieved December 1, 2006, from http://www.mentoring.org/leaders/partnerships/index.php?s=CT. 3http://www.mentoring.org/leaders/partnerships/index.php?s=CT. 4The Governor’s Partnership Program; Connecticut Mentoring Program. Retrieved on December 1, 2006, from http://www.preventionworksct.org/mentor.html. 5http://www.preventionworksct.org/mentor.html. 6http://www.preventionworksct.org/mentor.html. 7Project Choice Mentoring Program. Received from http://www.projectchoicementor.org/index.htm. 8Connecticut Mentoring Partnership 2005-2006 Evaluation Results Executive Summary. Received December 1, 2006, from http://www.preventionworksct.org.

Confessions of the Worlds Worst Parent

The essay written by Jerri Cook titled Confessions of the World’s Worst Parent, is based on the book Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry written by author Lenore Skenazy (Cook). Cook provides similarities about raising her son and uses Skenazy’s experiences as they both point out the feeling of being judged by â€Å"good† parents because they gave their children the freedom to explore life without constant supervision. Cook shows the struggles between raising children the way she was raised and the way society wants them to be raised today.Cook explains to the audience in a humorous fashion the questions that all parents deal with, children and their freedom to explore and the paranoia that they will be hurt or taken. Presently the planet is dealing with the age of too much information, along with this comes misinformation and overinflated imaginations. Cook mentions that life for children was different when she w as a child; children were left to their own devices and the parents trusted them to do the right thing and it did not do any harm (Cook). Cook explains throughout her that society may be producing a planet filled with paranoid parents and children  that cannot fend for themselves.Should parents give their children more responsibility and trust to explore and acquire life skills on their own? The method that Cook uses to make her point to the audience throughout her essay is an anecdotal technique. She uses examples from her own life raising her son and quotes from Skenazy’s book to find a personal common ground with parents raising children. Cook points out the criticisms that Skenazy faced when opening her personal life to the media and sharing her child rearing skills.The use of Cook’s anecdotal technique allows the readers to find a common ground with the author that is familiar and comforting. The humorous way that Cook invites the reader into her life can appeal to parents that might think they are alone with their child rearing fears about not being a good enough parent; this style of writing could comfort a parent to make them feel they are not alone. Cook uses her research to find valid reasons to why parents today are too overprotective and paranoid and shares this interesting information with the audience.To begin with, Cook gives the audience an example of how her son â€Å"Josh told a classmate about throwing rocks at some beavers, and a teacher overheard† the school was â€Å"concerned that the children were 1) being made to work too hard in the garden and 2) that they weren’t being properly supervised† (Cook). Cook mentions that she was confused by the concern, and wondered if she was expected to â€Å"get in the car and go get them? † (Cook). Unfortunately for Cook and her children, the experience left a lasting impression of guilt and that Cook never wanted to be seen as â€Å"the â€Å"bad† p arent† again (Cook).From that point on Cook was â€Å"constantly at their side† (Cook) even though it caused some distress to her and her family. Similarly, Cook mentions that Skenazy â€Å"was nearly devoured by the media and other parents† because â€Å"she let her nine year old son ride the New York subway alone† (Cook). Skenazy wrote a column about her son’s adventure for the â€Å"New York Sun† (Cook) and it had caused her to be â€Å"criticized by every child safety â€Å"expert† (Cook) which in turn initiated an investigation of neglect for her son.Cook uses this example to show the different methods of parenting that exist and that some parents still feel that their children are fully capable and intelligent enough to make good choices. On the other hand Cook explains the paranoid state of affairs that the â€Å"good parents† (Cook) are inflicting on their children. As a result, Cook mentions that Skenazy started her ow n investigation into the actual facts and statistics about children and safety. Through Cook’s description of Skenazy’s investigations she learned that â€Å"Not only is the fear irrational, according to the statisticians Skenazy interviewed, it’s based solely on perception.† (Cook).This â€Å"perception† (Cook) can also be altered by the â€Å"issue of parent peer pressure† (Cook). Cook quotes Skenazy by writing, â€Å"Hell hath no fury like a self-righteous parent† (Cook). Furthermore, Cook explains Skenazy’s idea of the â€Å"helicopter parent† (Cook) that hover over their children â€Å"wasting their time, responding to threats that don’t exist† (Cook). Cook illustrates the idea about the old question of â€Å"how many cases have there been of children being injured or killed by tainted Halloween candy? † (Cook).After doing some research and asking questions the answer to the question turned out to be â€Å"none† (Cook). An â€Å"urban legend† (Cook) that unfortunately began with a horrible incident involving â€Å"relatives, in attempt to save their sorry selves, sprinkled some of the drug on the dead child’s Halloween candy after a child got into a relative’s stash of heroin and died† (Cook). This unfortunate incident has caused panic and concern for parents during Halloween for decades and to the dismay of children when a large portion of their candy was put in the garbage because it looked tampered with.In conclusion, Cook wrote this essay to humorously explain with anecdotes the trivial nonsense guilt that the â€Å"good parents† inflict on other parents that do not have the same views on the supervision of children. Cook tries to ease some of the guilt and inadequacy of being a â€Å"bad parent†. Cook makes light about not following parental peer pressure and raising their children as they feel comfortable and in the be st interest of their children.