A CRITIQUE OF THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS essays

A CRITIQUE OF THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS essays Samuel P. Huntingtons article The Clash Of Civilizations was a rare foresight in the time it was written. One must agree that his analytical skills have proven him mostly right, up to this point. Even though his warnings on this clash of civilizations has not been taken into account by the western especially the most dominant of them the USA powers and have deepened hatred among the different values (and even managed to create a barrier among the so called same values as well). The conflicts listed in 1993 are thus almost all relevant. The article supports its thesis that the new world order of a dominant western value will end up against the rest of the world for many reasons; He names six. To begin with Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition, and religion. In fact that is true and it has been that way for centuries. He goes on to say that the world is becoming a smaller place thus the interactions are more frequent and exposed mostly by the wealthy; the west. Everywhere one goes today around the world he/she is faced with western and more precisely American influence. Thus, spreading and exposing younger generations with these popular values. It also brings the reality of other cultures closer to the west through those who choose it to over their own country. As it is the case with Frances Muslims and Germanys Turks. Civilizations mix and point toward a universal diversity maybe that is why it is a probl em for the author that in fact Jose CAN see! There are weak points listed by Huntington; the process of economic modernization and social change throughout the world are separating people from longstanding local identities and the growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced by the dual role of the West. He is writing this at a time where the collapse of the Soviet Union and its ideology &ndash...

Fate, Cant Live With It, Cant Get Away From It essays

Fate, Cant Live With It, Cant Get Away From It essays Oedipus Rex, a play by Sophocles, is about a king named Oedipus, who tries to escape his fate. When Oedipus hears the story of the previous kings death, it seems familiar somehow. After time and investigation Oedipus realizes that fate has finally found him. In Oedipus feudal attempt to escape fate, he had only made the outcome harder to bare. When Oedipus was young, the Oracle of Delphi said that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus, trying to escape his fate, left his home so he would not fall victim to it. The Greeks believed that your fate was decided at the beginning of your life, and you could not escape it. Oedipus should have known this and just stayed where he was. He only made it worse for himself by leaving. Shortly after Oedipus left he ran into a group of people. Harsh words were exchanged, and Oedipus ended up killing them all. Oedipus believed he was killing in self defense, so he did not think about it much, and certainly did not think he just killed his father. Oedipus was probably afraid that the group of people was going to kill him, because thieves usually hid in the forests to ambush unsuspecting travelers. When Oedipus heard that he was going to kill his father and marry his mother he had left home. Oedipus, thinking that the prophesy meant he was going to kill his adopted father and marry his adopted mother, left home and without realizing it killed his father, then later married his mother to become king. If Oedipus would have just stayed at home he would have at least known that his fate was inevitable, but leaving just made it harder for him later on. Oedipus probably would have not stabbed out his eyes, and exiled himself because he would have known when fate had caught up with him. When Oedipus found his true heritage, he was not pleased with the results. Oedipus had tried to escape his fate, but he should have known that is impossible. Oedipus, a respe ...

Business Ethics - Hiring, Firing, and Discrimination (U4DB) Essay

Business Ethics - Hiring, Firing, and Discrimination (U4DB) - Essay Example This pictures employers recruiting people to join in their companies. Employers open their doors to women and minorities for them to use their skills and education, and maintain their status without pressuring them to compete with males and the majorities in terms of capabilities, ethnicity, education, religion, and social status. These remedies go with the three moral philosophies based on consequences, rights, and duties. Employers must be well aware that people need to be given equal opportunities to work. It is immoral if discrimination in the workplace still exists because it hinders job applicants to land in jobs, and be productive. Every individual has his own right to be respected by others. This coincides with the rights philosophy that by respecting the rights of women and minorities, the moral act is being practiced as well. In relation to the rights philosophy, employers must faithfully adhere with the policies against discrimination by considering the remedies mentioned above. This is their duty as employers in hiring applicants. In conclusion, women and minorities have many things to offer beyond their education. They have incomparable skills that will fit into jobs in the market today. All they need are chances. The three moral philosophies are consistent with the remedies established by various organizations to address discrimination. They seem to be appropriate forms of remedy against discrimination with women and minorities trying to find a living to support their families. Policies established by various organizations aim to protect the rights of every woman, and any member of the minority

Experiment 6 Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Experiment 6 - Lab Report Example The small cost of iron nanoparticles and their ability to reduce toxic contaminants into non-toxic iron hydroxide products make iron nanoparticles application techniques preferential. I addition their installation are simple and require minimal maintenance and react with a diverse range of contaminants. The delivery method of these nanoparticle based applications are also diverse in nature and therefore can be used in dealing with many forms of contaminants either of differing concentrations or chemical and physical characteristics. From previous research, it has been observed that iron nanoparticles cause a significant reduction in the concentration of contaminants. The aim of this experiment is to analyze the change in concentration of indigo carmine dye in its reaction with iron nanoparticles. Dyes are common pollutants though not frequently recognized. From figure 1, the concentration of indigo carmine dye is observed to be relatively constant before the addition of iron nanoparticles. There is little or rather insignificant change in the concentration of indigo carmine dye before nanoparticles are introduced into the solution. From the first analysis, it was determined that the rate of change in concentration of dye in the first 60 seconds can be calculated as 0.00591 M/s. The overall change in concentration is 0.35443M. The second analysis using 0.105nm of iron nanoparticle gave a rate of change in dye concentration of0.0091M/s in the first minute with an overall change in concentration of 0.548M. Figure 2 shows a negative correlation between the changes in concentration of dye with time on addition of iron nanoparticles. The same observation was made in figure 3 where 0.42nm iron nanoparticles were used. From table 1, it is observed that the fastest rate (0.0091) in removal of dye from the solution was obtained with 0. 105 nm of iron nanoparticles. This could be contrary to expectations as 0.04nm iron particles should have

Distorted picture Essay Example for Free

Distorted picture Essay Some people regard science as the supreme form of knowledge, because science provides facts. People tend to see science as true, justified, reliable, precise and objective. However there is a significant difference between natural and social sciences. Natural sciences use the basic scientific method to find the facts about the world we live in, the natural events and processes that take place in our world. The basic scientific method or nai ve inductivism follows five stages which include observation, information, generalization, theory and explanation and prediction. However though the basic scientific method seems perfectly reliable, there may be some problems which could challenge science as the supreme form of knowledge. Social sciences study human behaviour, relationships and society. These are very subjective and very difficult to measure. The results can be distorted by the scientists because completely objective observation is even more difficult in natural sciences because seeing what you want to see gives a distorted picture. The famous philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) who was a very radical empiricist and sceptic was concerned with limits to knowledge. According to his theories science cannot give us accurate knowledge and thus should not have such a high status. The problems of natural sciences, basic scientific method and Humes theory of causation that challenges science as the supreme form of knowledge is going to be discussed further in this essay. The social sciences study human behaviour and their relationships. There are several fields of social sciences including anthropology, political science, psychology, sociology and economics. However it is important to note that human behaviour is so inconsistent and influenced by so many variables that it is impossible to measure it precisely. The problem lies also in the social scientists themselves because they are humans as well as the subjects of their attention. It is virtually impossible for them to give a completely objective observation. Firstly they are studying things that cant be measured in human behaviour such as concentration or motivation. Secondly there is the problem that if the subject of their study knows he or she is being watched, he or she can consciously or unconsciously behave in a different way than they would otherwise. Also if the person hears the prediction of the results of the experiments, they might deliberately behave in such a way either to fulfil it or not. That means that social scientists prediction can influence human behaviour. Simply being seen by the unhidden scientist distorts what is seen. Another problem of social scientists is that they see what they want to see. They cannot separate their wishes, what they want to see, from what they see in the reality. Therefore social sciences are very imprecise and unreliable. The natural sciences use the basic scientific method which contains five stages that help the scientists to come to a conclusion. Firstly, they observe through their senses a particular set of events, they record the observation that they have made and after that they make certain generalisations which form a theory. The theory helps to form prediction for the future. Natural sciences are regarded as much more reliable than social sciences because their theories can be tested more easily and the tests can be repeated several times under identical conditions. It is not so easy for the natural scientists to distort the results as for the social scientists. However, there are certain problems with this method that make it seem unreliable too. Firstly, it has to be mentioned that observation comes through our senses. Unfortunately, our senses can be quite easily deceived. It is impossible to make our senses completely objective. We often see what we believe we should see or what we want to see or our hearing can be again influenced by our belief or a wish. This means that we cannot trust our senses completely. Secondly, science as an activity that is supposed to be detached from emotional content, however the scientists doing the experiments and the observations are humans an they cannot detach from their nature. Simply they can observe things that they want to observe because of many reasons such as political, financial, practical and also personal motives. And thirdly there is the problem of the observational statement which means that the scientists have to put their observations into words, which can influence the effect that the observation makes on people. Then there is the problem of the way we treat and use our knowledge. The process of inductive reasoning that we use in our everyday life follows this pattern: the experience or the observation comes first and based on it a prediction for the future or a general statement is made. There is a big strength about this way of reasoning. Firstly, science is based on this kind of reasoning and most of the people regard science as the supreme form of knowledge. Secondly it is quite obvious that the human race couldnt function without inductive reasoning because most or even all of our thinking processes follow the rules of inductive reasoning. If inductive reasoning was wrong, then human beings couldnt be classed as rational beings. However, there are weaknesses in this inductive reasoning that really raise doubts about human beings as rational beings. It is important to see that there is no necessary connection between the past and the future and also that the observation made could have been mistaken. The unconnected past and future can be very well expressed in Bertrand Russellstory about an inductivist turkey1. This story explains that we cannot make predictions or statements based on our past experience and observations because they are absolutely independent from what will happen in the future. This flaw of inductive reasoning seriously challenges the knowledge obtained through science because science is based on past observations. But if inductive reasoning is really wrong then science is based on very uncertain grounds. The philosopher David Hume created a theory which challenged the idea of causation. Causation means one event causing another, But can we really say that one event caused another? Usually when we see event A and then event B which followed event A, we tend to say that event B was caused by event A. But actually we observed just event A followed by event B, we didnt observe the cause the link between A and B. So to say that event B happened because of event A is not the same as to say that event A happened and then event B happened. We never experience the cause. An example can be day followed by night. In the past, the day was always followed by night and yet the day is not the cause of night. Day and night are both caused by something else (rotation of the earth on its axis as it goes around the Sun). So the connection between these two things can be invariant without either of them being the cause of the other. If this all is right, then science is again put into a very strange position and it seems to be based on very uncertain foundations and we can never talk about anything with absolute certainty. According to Hume, just the reason that we believe that the sun will rise every morning is based on our past experience and though it may be true that the sun has risen every morning of our lives, this is not enough evidence to guarantee the truth of the thesis that the sun will always rise. In social sciences the major problem is the inconsistency of human behaviour. If people regard social sciences as the supreme form of knowledge, they misunderstand the way social sciences work. It is impossible to rely completely on social sciences because there are too many variables that can influence the results. However if people regard natural sciences as the supreme form of knowledge, they misunderstand knowledge very much because there are so many problems and mistakes in human reasoning and the way they process information and deduce conclusions from information that was processed in a wrong way or was inadequate to support the conclusion. This theory can be very much supported by the theory of David Hume, a famous philosopher, who challenged science very much by his laws of causation. 1The turkey found that, on his first morning at the turkey farm, that he was fed at 9 a. m. Being a good inductivist turkey he did not jump to conclusions. He waited until he collected a large number of observations that he was fed at 9 a. m. and made these observations under a wide range of circumstances, on Wednesdays, on Thursdays, on cold days, on warm days. Each day he added another observation statement to his list. Finally he was satisfied that he had collected a number of observation statements to inductively infer that I am always fed at 9 a. m. However on the morning of Christmas eve he was not fed but instead had his throat cut. http://marr. bsee. swin. edu. au/~dtl/het704/lecture3/logfals/node6. html, 20th September 2004

Stop and Search Controversy

Stop and Search Controversy The power to stop and search has been a prominent policing tool since the Vagrancy Act of 1824. The briefing, Series 2, Edition 3 March 2012 , it has come under regular legal, political and societal scrutiny because of its broad and discretionary use by its police officers. However has also been praised as it has not only combated crime however prevented criminal acts happening as police can stop and search anyone who they have reasonable suspicion are carrying weapons, stolen goods or going equipped for stealing. Stop and search is extremely subjective in the view that we must trust the officers views are wholly unbiased and prejudice and there is no untoward intent of the officer when using stop and search legislation. Since the very onset of the enactment of legislation in this area of police discretion, there has been controversy because of the subjectiveness afforded to police officers; the controversy being this discretion may be abused. Also the broad term of reasonable suspicion and what is seen as reasonable. There are also fundamental human rights breaches that have been evident in much of the case law. Stop and Search is now governed by 2 statutes; stop and search with arrest situates under the police and criminal evidence act 1984 whilst a stop and search without an arrest comes under section 60 of the criminal justice and public order act. Section 60 of the 1994 criminal justice and public Order Act was introduced to originally tackle people going to illegal raves which were a major problem in the 1980s and early 90s. It gave police the power, if they feared violence or disorder, to stop and search suspects at a specific time and place. I will further be discussing the controversies surrounding Police stop and search and concluding with my own views on this subject. Before the introduction of the police and criminal evidence act in 1984, the police stopped and searched individuals under what was called the sus law. This being because the police only had to have suspicion on their part in order to stop and search an individual, it did not need to be reasonable. The only national stop and search legislation was for the pursuit of drugs and firearms, unlike now with the introduction of the Terrorism act and Sporting event act. Eventually the Brixton riots in 1981 brought a stop to the use of the sus provisions due to the negative relationship it caused between the police and the public, in particular, ethnic minorities. Lord Scarmans Inquiry into the Brixton riots acknowledged that stop and search was a necessary tool to combat street crime and petty crime but expressed genuine concerns over the extent to which the sus laws were used in regards to the police officers own prejudices and views. In 1999 Stop and search came under scrutiny yet again du ring the Steven Lawrence murder enquiry, when Lord Macpherson revealed the shocking disproportionate amount of stop and searches in ethnic minorities, which in turn led on to accusing the police of holding prejudices and being institutionally racist. Lord Macpherson called for stop and searches, whether or not they resulted in an arrest to be recorded so that officers could be monitored and held accountable for if any racially aggravated stop and searches were made. Police work and especially stop and search works on the provision of reasonable suspicion and discretion. Discretion, although many may disagree, is not doing as you please. Discretion is bound by norms, thus including; professional norms, correct community norms, legal norms, and moral norms. Philosophers such as Ronald Dworkin and H.L.A. Hart have cleverly referred to discretion in the police force as the hole in the doughnut ; doughnut theory of discretion, Dworkin described discretion as a donut because it is not free-standing but part of a process. Discretion, like the hole in the doughnut, does not exist except as an area left open by a surrounding belt of restriction. Discretion is not outside the law but internal to the law  [1]  and where the law runs out; natural law theory. Thus meaning unwritten law that is more or less the same for everyone everywhere, based on customary behaviour. In other words Unwritten law is the body of morals and principles everybody obeys and lives by. This idea refers to discretion as the empty area in the middle of a ring consisting of policies and procedures. It is an empty space inside of the law surrounded by statues and rules. Police discretion and the way it operates can be explained by 3 broad terms; individualistic cultural and structural. Individualistic explanation states that police work and the macho image of the police attracts people with authoritarian personalities, research however carried out by Waddington (1999a) does in fact not support this view and states that police recruits are not more authoritarian then normal civilians. Brown and Willis (1985) and Fielding (1988) explained how the training process for these new recruits has a temporary liberalizing effect however exposure to permanent practical police work leads to an authoritarian perspective and outlook. The work of Zimbardo may give some explanation as to the sudden behaviour change in these new police recruits. Zimbardo (1973) conducted the Stanford prison experiment as he wanted to study conformity and was interested in finding out whether the rough treatment reported among guards in American prisons was due to the authoritarian personalities of the guards or had more to do with the prison environment. He took a group of 75 volunteers whom he tested for psychological normalitys, and assigned them to either the role of the prisoner or prison guard. For every 9 prisoners they had 3 guards. They put them in a prison environment and watched as each volunteer began adapting to their roles. The findings were phenomenal, Within hours of starting the experiment the prison guards began to act in a sadistic manner, dehumanizing the prisoners and some even began tormenting and bullying them and alongside this the prisoners began conforming to their newly established roles by taking the rules very seriously and become depressed and telling tales on their fellow inmates. Perhaps this experiment and its findings can give an explanation on the alleged view that police recruits adopt an authoritarian perspective perhaps due to its macho nature and the control they have suddenly been ascribed. Zimbardo concluded after the experiment that people will readily conform to the roles they have been ascribed, especially when they are strongly stereotyped. Canteen Culture could also give an understanding of the individualistic explanation and racism. The police must work as a united front to not only protect the public however to also protect each other so therefore, therefore due to the close proximity of the officers in the police force it is only inevitable officers will begin to conform to certain beliefs and values held by their colleagues, especially if they are outspoken about these. Canteen Culture, Ike Eze-anyika, Faber and Faber (20 Mar 2000). Police sub-culture ( Canteen Culture) is often portrayed as a pervasive, malign and potent influence on the behavior of officers. The grounds for this portrayal are, however, insubstantial and appear to rely more upon the condemnatory potential of the concept than its explanatory power. The cultural explanation of police discretion as said by Skolnick talked about this in a different way by identifying 3 main aspects of police culture and discretion, there is a suspiciousness which they have against certain groups of potential criminals that they treat with prejudice, there is the internal solidarity and social isolation which I believe both internal and support each other; solidarity in which the police must remain a force which supports each other as police individuals against danger in the streets and also the social isolation in terms of because of this solidarity the police have it creates more of a rift in society between the protectors and the protected. This creates citizens feeling like they are just stereotypes viewed by the police and they cannot complain about the police because of this solidarity they have or that they are just merely subjects without autonomy.   New research from the official human rights body reveals racial disproportionality in the amount of Stop and searched being made. Police forces are still more likely to use stop-and-search powers against black people than white people, stopping black people up to 28 times more and therefore may be breaking the law due to breaching their powers and wasting police time. The police force has been accused of being predominantly occupied by white middle class males with old fashioned work practices and whos face fits. A report by the equality and human rights commission reviewed the police force 10 years after the Steven Lawrence inquiry, in which Lord Macpherson branded the Police and Its Officers as institutionally racist. The report found a huge amount of black men on the national DNA database as appose to other ethnicities. The power is used most by the Metropolitan police, which carried out three-quarters of the stops between 2008- 2011, almost 258,000 in total. Although they could hold the largest amount due to the population size in the metropolitan districts. The next heaviest user of these powers was Merseyside with 40,940 stops.   Due to these extortionate figures it was established that something must be done and also perhaps that many of the people they stop may not be educated in this subject and may not necessarily know their rights. A mobile application was introduced early 2012 to inform the users of their rights when being stop and searched. Many people may be unaware that The police have to follow the correct code of conduct when stop and searching an individual; An officer should tell you their name, the reason why you have been stopped and the power that you are being stopped under. They should also give you their badge number, the name of the police station and provide you with a receipt at the end. This app tells the user their rights when being stop and searched. This could be either a blessing or a curse. Perhaps if the user of the mobile application was aware of their rights they could stop any mistreatment or exploitation, However on the other hand if there is a large amount of clued up young p eople then when they do get stop and searched they may feel very confident and start telling the police how to do their jobs and maybe even state that the police did not follow one of the rules even when done so just to get out of an arrest or fine etc. h Although the police force have been branded institutionally racist It could be argued that the police get these racist perceptions from the media. If one crime has been reported, eg- a mugging, the media have been known to blow this story out of proportion and create a societal panic. Pearson was writing in the 1970s, during the time when muggings and the moral panic surrounding it was rife. The word mugging was an invented word to describe a theft against a person, the media stated that muggings were spiralling out of control and were a new dangerous crime.   The media were also highly racist and said the crime was committed most by young black males thus resulting in the police using their stop and search powers more and especially on young black males, which in turn led to the police recovering more illegal articles and led to more arrests. This only because the police stop and searched more people. With these new figures young black males were then labelled as thugs and deviant and therefore left people and also the police with a negative perception towards young black males. This has also been seen lately with the knife crime moral panic and also the London riots as the media stated that working class undeducated young males from broken families decided to revo The police force is stereotypically renown for being a macho profession, and there perception of their job role should be on the streets searching for true criminals; murderers, rapists etc, however they are on the streets stop and searching individuals for petty crimes in most cases. They therefore perhaps to gain some job satisfaction feel they have to find prohibited articles or make an arrest and fight crime therefore they want to find criminals instead of being satisfied that there are no criminals which could result in a high amount of stop and searches. They have work pressures that determine their career on the basis of how many arrest they make and illegal articles they find. They therefore obtain their job satisfaction by finding criminals, by stop and search, rather than being satisfied that they live in a society where there are no criminals. On the other hand with the higher volume of stop and searches results in a higher amount of arrests which shows that justice is bei ng done and therefore heightens the morale of the police officers who are fighting the more every day street level crime.   Along with lord Macpheresons statement he released during the enquiry into the steven Lawrence case and also Lord Scarmans statement during the Brixton riots in which he claimed that the police abuse their powers yet again Stop-and-search powers have come under criticism again when they were ruled illegal by the European court of Human rights in January 2010. The Strasbourg court has been recently hearing a case involving two civilians who were stopped near an arms fair in London in 2003. The court heard the case of Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton who had been stopped outside the Defence Systems and Equipment International exhibition at the Excel Centre in London Docklands in 2003, Both individuals were held for twenty to thirty minutes. The court stated that their right to respect for a private and family life was violated. The European Court of Human Rights also said their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 gives power to the home secretary; Theresa May, to authorise the police force to make random searches in certain circumstances, but The court said the stop and search powers were not sufficiently circumscribed and there were not adequate legal safeguards against abuse. Subsequently both individuals were awarded 33,850 euros ( £30,400) to cover legal costs. Lord Carlile; the governments independent reviewer of anti- terrorist legislation stated, In my view, section 44 is being used far too often on a random basis without any reasoning behind its useThe fundamental point that the court is making is that it increases the possibility of random interference with the legitimate liberties of the citizenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦On the other hand, we have to be safe against terrorism. There is therefore a very difficult balancing exercise to be done and Im sure Section 44 will come under intelligent scrutiny in the coming months. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s The World At One, Ms Quinton said Its not about saying that theres no need for stop and search. What were really saying is people have a right to privacy and there needs to be a balance between police powers to ensure our safety but also our rights to a private life. To conclude; the police force and more specifically the stop and search powers they hold have come under regular scrutiny by many different proffessionals; Lord Scarman, Lord Macphereson and the European court of human rights, to name just a few. The Police force works mainly on discretion and they are trusted upon to make the right decisions, act subjectively and have reasonable suspicion however it is hard to define what is reasonable. This term is too broad and vague and a police officers perception of what is reasonable may differ from his colleagues. Another important point to remember is that each police officer has his own views and prejudices and even if they do not consciously work upon these prejudices they are still engrained into the officer and this may change or dim their view on certain individuals. I believe police should work with discretion to not only to protect the public however also themselves against any foreseeable danger. Police officers get into numerous situations daily and therefore too many laws would be needed to govern every situation in which discretion is used. On the other hand, the stop and search figures brought to the publics attention over the last two decade do indicate levels of racism in the police force however with more and more ethnic minorities and also women beginning to occupy the force there is no room for racism or sexism. Society is rapidly changing alongside peoples perceptions of other races. Finally, I strongly believe that stop and search over the past years has caused a lot of controversy. The concept of stop and search; stop anybody whom you believe to be reasonably suspicious, does seem to work on paper however in practice the officers deeply engrained morals and prejudices seem to subconsciously effect their work which is evident in past figures. Further along Stop and Search does also need reforming due to the very public way in which the individual is stopped which leads to labelling by passing people, even if the individual is completely innocent.

Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood Essay

Personal interest: My first awareness of racial identity and diversity occurred when I was in Year 3. Having being raised acknowledging acceptance of people of racial or cultural difference my thoughts of children of colour were positive and impartial. However, one day a boy in my class of Sri Lankan descent got into trouble with another student, but only the Sri Lankan boy was asked to go to the principal’s office. During our lunch break he came over to a group of us and told us that he thought he was the one that got into trouble ‘because he was ‘black’’. I remember thinking to myself, ‘why would he get into trouble just because he was black? ’ It was in fact that both boys went to the principal’s office, just on separate occasions. This was my first memory of someone thinking that they were being singled out or getting into trouble due to belief of skin colour dissimilarity and racial stereotypes. I’ve been aware of racial diversity ever since. Now that I have an opportunity to be a part of children’s learning and development I want to learn more about diversity and make a difference in children’s perspectives of themselves and others. Discussion: As educators in early childhood, it is crucial that we acknowledge and respect that children’s personal, family and cultural histories shape their learning and development. The increase in racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in educational centres is reflected in many early childhood classrooms. Although the diverse composition of early childhood classrooms may bring challenges, it also introduces many opportunities for educators, parents, and children as we need to value and appreciate difference and variety as a positive attribute in all educational and social environments (Ashman and Elkins 2008). As adults, being ‘different’ is a decision to make a personal statement; such as deciding to change a hairstyle, get a tattoo or by wearing alternative clothing. It is one thing to be different by choice, and another for a child to discern themselves as being different based on their physical features, cultural of religious differences. One of the most stimulating aspects of early education is observing and supporting young children as they develop their individual identities. This development takes place within different social contexts where issues relating to human diversity and difference impact significantly on children’s understandings and ways of being in the world. Arguably, our education begins when we are first able to detect causes and consequences, and continue to form the basis of our identity, behaviours and knowledge of the world around us. Glover (1991) in the early 1990s found that as 2-3 year old children became aware of difference they simultaneously develop positive and negative feelings about the differences they observe. For example, racial awareness impacts on their perceptions of skin colour and on their preferences in the social relationships they initiate and foster with other children. An Australian study conducted by Palmer (1990) exemplifies how preschool children were able to make negative judgements based on racial characteristics of young Aboriginal children. Children were reportedly saying ‘You’re the colour of poo†¦ Did your mum drop you in the poo? ’ This observation suggests that children as young as 2 years old are becoming aware of diversity and differences of others, and these judgements children are making are often affecting their ability to make sound judgements of others as their perceptions of reality are distorted. Although Palmers study was conducted in 1990, there has been a significant increase in racial awareness since the 1980s of the importance of early childhood education policies, practices and curriculum aiming to positively reflect the diverse cultural identities of children and their families. Today, the embracing of children’s lives is a central focus of the different philosophies which foster early childhood education in Western society, such as the ‘anti-bias curriculum’ which emerged from the United States (Derman-Sparks and the A. B. C. Task Force, stated in Robinson 2006 p 2) and also in the perspectives of Reggio Emilia. In Australia there has been a broadening of cultural influences which has been referred to by Ashman (2008) as ‘the cultural mosaic’, which refers to those who have migrated maintain their homeland traditions while embracing the new norms, values and practices within the country. Furthermore data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) show that around 25% of Australians were born in other countries, nearly half the population has direct links with relatives born overseas, and over 2. 5 million people speak a language other than English at home, which should clearly illustrate to educators that learning developmental experiences need to be appropriate for multicultural children to be involved in. As stated by Robinson (2006), the early childhood years are fundamental years in the growth and development of a child’s cognition, language, social, emotional and physical competence. Early childhood educators are in an ideal position to make a positive difference in the lives of children and their families. My emerging philosophy would be to teach children to be critical thinkers specifically about prejudice and discrimination to encourage children to develop the skills to identify when something they have said or done is unfair of hurtful to another. Also to model the behaviours and attitudes I would want children to develop, particularly in situations that can either promote prejudice or inhibit a child’s openness to diversity. Furthermore, I would aim to expose children to role models from their own culture as well as to those from other cultures to encourage appreciation of their own cultural identity, as well as different cultures. As professionals who work with families, our willingness to talk openly about identity and to help foster a positive sense of self in children can make an enormous difference in affirming the rich diversity within our community and help children form bridges across cultures and traditions. The more that children have a solid grounding and understanding about who they are and where they came from, the more they learn to value differences of cultures different from their own, and the closer we get to building a world of respect of multicultural differences. Ashman, A F, Elkins J 2008, ‘Education for Inclusion and Diversity’, 3rd edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW. Davis, B M 2009, ‘The Biracial and Multicultural Student Experience: a journey to racial literacy’, Corwin, Sage Ltd, USA. Glover, A 1991, ‘Young children and race: a report of a study of two and three year olds’, Australian Catholic University, Sydney. Pulido-Tobiassen, D, Gonzalez-Mena, J 2005, ‘Learning to Appreciate Differences’, Early Childhood Today, vol. 20, issue 3, viewed 2 April 2011, retrieved from Victoria University Database. Robinson, K 2006, ‘Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood Education’, Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow, viewed 1 April 2011, retrieved from Ebrary database.