Abigail Adams Chapter Guide

Haley Young Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams Reading Journal Chapter 1: A Minister’s Daughter * Abigail was born to Reverend William Smith and his wife Elizabeth in Weymouth parsonage in Massachusetts. * She has two sisters, Mary and Betsey. The main point of this chapter was to showcase the religious, family-oriented background that Abigail was raised in. It explains why she is so focused on her family and John later in her life. It also explains her penname â€Å"Diana† and her love for literature and being involved in politics, after being taught to read at a young age.Chapter 2: John * Abigail and John were married on October 25, 1764. The maim point of this chapter is to show the love developing between John and Abigail. The way they were not attracted to each other at first explains why they work together so well. They have different views on things so they balance each other out. Their love for each other also sets up their depression during their separati on later in their lives. Chapter 3: Wife and Mother * Abigail and John had six children: Abigail, John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, and Elizabeth (stillborn).The main point of this chapter is to show the Adams family growing. Abigail’s deep connection to her kids at such a young age explains her sadness later on in her life when they are no longer with her, especially when her sons begin to leave home with their father to help with his politics and see the world. It also explains her connection to Nabby, since after Susanna and Elizabeth died young; Nabby was the only Adams daughter. Chapter 4: Politics * John elected representative to Massachusetts legislature, then later chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Chapter 5: War Abigail had to raise her kids and deal with the family farm buy herself while John was away in Philadelphia. Chapter 6: Independence * Abigail used her influence over John to fight for women’s’ rights and representation duri ng the drafting of the Constitution. * John was elected commissioner to France. Chapter 7: A Woman’s Sacrifice * While John was away in Europe, Abigail once again had to run her household on her own, which put her into a depression. Chapter 8: The Long Separation * After his commission to France, John was elected minister plenipotentiary which extended his stay in Europe.Chapter 9: Years of Decision * While John was in Europe, Abigail couldn’t decide whether or not to join him, but when he was commissioned to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, she and Nabby decided to go and join him in Europe. * Nabby fell in love with Royall Tyler so the trip was also to see if their love would last. Chapter 10: Europe * Abigail liked London because of the class but disliked Paris because she thought it was dirty and the people were rude. * The servants did less in Europe, so it was more expensive to run a household ,which frustrated Abigail. John was then appointed m inister to London by congress. Chapter 11: â€Å"The Ambassadress† * Abigail was overwhelmed by the wealth of the royal court in London. * She and John were not used to the expenses of clothing, servants, and hosting dinners for other dignitaries. This was made even worse by the low salary John was being paid by Congress. Chapter 12: A Homesick American * In London, Abigail continued to miss American and her easy-going life in the countryside because she felt confined in the city in London.Chapter 13: The Vice President’s Lady * After Europe, Abigail was sure that she wanted her husband to continue his political career. * In March of 1779, John was elected Vice President, so the whole Adams family moved to New York to serve with George and Martha Washington, the new president and first lady. * Once again, like London, Abigail had many social obligations to fulfill as the second lady of the United States. * Congress then moved the capital city to Philadelphia, so once a gain the Adams family had to move.Chapter 14: An Interlude at Quincy * For John’s second term as Vice President, Abigail spent most of her time back in Braintree running the farm. * After her health scare while moving to Philadelphia, The Adams family didn’t want to risk her getting even more sick. * In 1796, George Washington announced he would not serve a third term as president, which made people speculate that John would succeed him. John would have to run against Thomas Jefferson in order to do so. Chapter 15: Mrs. President * John’s election made Abigail nervous.John was not as widely supported as Washington. * Abigail played a huge role in John’s presidency by expressing her opinions in politics, which was uncommon for a woman of the time. * While living in Philadelphia for John’s presidency, Abigail grew to enjoy the city. Chapter 16: â€Å"The Federal City†: * When John’s political career ended, Abigail returned to Quincy to a busy home full of her family. * Abigail soon set out for Washington, the new capital city, but when John was not reelected, they both returned.Chapter 17: The Matriarch of Peacefield * With both John and Abigail back in Quincy, Abigail took right back to being the matriarch of the house and taking care of her numerous grandchildren. * Abigail enjoyed having her husband always with her, and helping to raise her small grandchildren while in retirement. Chapter 18: The Curtain Falls * On October 28, 1817, Abigail died after falling ill with typhoid fever, at age 73. * Abigail was able to die peacefully with most of her family around her.

The Poor American Child

The Poor American Child Free Online Research Papers Child poverty is an alarming problem in the United States that affects every person in the United States, regardless of economic status, age, race, or gender. In 2001, 11.7 million children, or 16.3 % of children in the United States were poor. Children represent an inconsistent percentage of the poor population in America. They make up 35.7 percent of the poor, but only account for 25.6 percent of the general population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003). It is imperative to give attention to the problem of poverty among children since they are the future of the country, and they are not receiving the support, resources, or encouragement to know they deserve better. â€Å"The industrial countries in the world have a higher standard of living than at any time in history, but within the wealthy countries, there are still a number of children who live in poverty. The United States, which is the wealthiest country of six studied, had the highest poverty rate among children and the second highest poverty rate among families with children† (Smeeding, 1988). The focus population of this analysis of child poverty is children in the United States under 18 years of age. This analysis will discuss the definition, history, trends, and policy responses of child poverty, as well as the nature and extent of how child poverty is affecting the United States. Unlike single adults, who are defined as poor when their income falls below a certain level, children, those individuals under age 18, are poor when their families are poor. The Census Bureau maintains the official U.S. definition of poverty: a family is poor when their money income falls below an established threshold. Poverty thresholds are updated yearly and different thresholds apply depending on the total family size and number of children. In 2002, a family of two adults and two children was considered poor if their income falls below $18,244 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003). It is not difficult to document that poor children suffer a disproportionate share of deprivation, hardship, and bad outcomes. Not only do poor children have access to fewer material goods than rich or middle-class children, but also they are more likely to experience poor health and to die during childhood. In school, they score lower on standardized tests and are more likely to be retained in grade and to drop out. Poor teens are more likely to have out-of-wedlock births and to experience violent crime. Finally, persistently poor children are more likely to end up as poor adults. Public concern for poor children has focused both on their material well-being and on the relationship between poverty and important child outcomes that the public values such as success in school. However, accurately measuring the effects of poverty on many important child outcomes is a challenge. Despite the evidence that poor children experience undesirable outcomes across a wide variety of signs, many studies lack the precision needed to untangle the effects on children of the array of factors other than low income associated with poverty. For example, poor families are more likely to be headed by a parent who is young, single, has low educational attainment, is unemployed, and has low earnings potential. These parental attributes, separately or in combination, may account for some of the observed negative consequences of poverty for children. In addition, the population of poor families is a mix of families who are temporarily poor and families who have experienced chronic hardship. Although the majority of poor families are only temporarily poor, the experiences of the persistently poor fit better the stereotype of an underclass trapped in concentrated poverty neighborhoods, beset by high crime rates, poor schools, substance abuse, and other social pathologies. Failure to take account of the differences in the duration of poverty children experience may lead to either an under- or overestimate of the effects of poverty on children. Understanding the relationships among income, other parental characteristics, community factors, and environmental hazards and child outcomes is important to designing effective policies to ameliorate the problems of poor children. Programs that alter family income may not have intended benefits for children if the importance of family income has been misinterpreted. Public policy for poor families with children is currently unstable. As a result of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), commonly called â€Å"welfare,† is being replaced by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a new cash assistance program. From 1935 through 1996, AFDC was the main cash assistance program for children under age 18 and their parents or caretaker relatives. AFDC assisted more than nine million children annually in recent years. AFDC targeted children who lacked financial support because one parent was absent from home, incapacitated, dead, or unemployed. AFDC was an entitlement: all families who met eligibility rules received benefits. PRWORA ended entitlement to welfare and gave each state more flexibility in designing eligibility rules and benefit packages. TANF benefits are time-limited (five years is the lifetime maximum time for which an adult may receive federally financed benefits, with 20% of the caseload in each state exempt from that maximum), and require recipients to work after two years. (States are, however, free to impose shorter time limits and to provide more than five years of benefits if they use their own funds.) Benefits to unmarried parents under age 18 are restricted, and benefits for most legal immigrants are eliminated. The publicly avowed purpose of PRWORA was to reform U.S. welfare policy so as to break what was seen as a cycle of dependency on welfare by poor single-parent families and to encourage parents in these families to find jobs, take more responsibility for their children, and gain increased independence and self-reliance. Taken in historical context, the current effort to â€Å"end welfare as we know it† is only the latest in a series of shifts in U.S. public policy toward the poor. One explanation for the cause of shifts in poverty policy over time is that American public opinion swings between alternative perspectives on the underlying source of disadvantage for poor children. These perspectives have also found expression in the research on the effects of poverty on children and child outcomes. One viewpoint holds that parents poor characters, or limited physical and mental capacities, lead to both poverty and problems for their children. The other perspective emphasizes the adverse impact on children of material deprivation and parental stress caused by poverty. In the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the former view led to such policies as almshouses, orphan asylums, foster care placements, and intrusive and strict supervision of single mothers who received public support to take c are of their own children in their own homes. In response to the widespread unemployment and deep poverty experienced during the Great Depression, emphasis shifted away from shielding children from the behavior of their parents to improving the material well-being of families and children by providing direct cash assistance. From the 1930s to the late 1960s, restrictions on the availability of cash support to poor families (especially single-parent, female-headed ones) were reduced, and AFDC caseloads grew from 162,000 families in 1936 to 1,875,000 families in 1969. Attitudes toward poor families with children have changed again in the past 30 years. The large increase in the proportion of married mothers who work contributed to the view that employment was acceptable and expected behavior for mothers. This change in social norms, coupled with concerns that welfare discouraged work and encouraged sloth and dependency, led to a decline in support for cash welfare programs. As support for cash welfare programs eroded over the past 30 years, a set of programs to provide for the basic needs of the poor through in-kind rather than cash benefits evolved. The largest of these programs focused on families are the Food Stamp Program, federally subsidized housing programs, Medicaid, the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Head Start. The latter three programs can provide benefits directly to children without providing for their parents as do the school lunch and breakfast programs. The problems of poverty in the United States have proven to be persistent and difficult to solve. This analysis has focused on policies that have the potential to improve, but not necessarily eliminate, the problems of poverty for a large number of children in the United States. Where children are involved, it is hard to overestimate the value of short-run solutions. Five years is a long time in the development of a young child. More could be done over a longer time horizon for poor children and their parents, and to address the conditions that lead to child poverty. For example, single-parenthood and declining wages for poorly educated adults, key factors in the growth in child poverty in recent years, have been hard problems to solve. Policies to reduce childbearing among single young women and to upgrade the job skills of working-age adults might reverse or, at least, slow the upward trend in child poverty. Similarly, programs to improve parenting skills and the home environment, boost the quality of child care and schools, and assure safe environments would benefit poor children. â€Å"Lifting all of Americas children securely from poverty will require more vigilance, and more funding, than the nation now invests. It will also require extending income supplements and incentives for parents to work. To move from welfare to work, parents need support services such as child care, job training, and transportationservices that traditional welfare recipients do not need. Fortunately, thanks to unexpectedly healthy economies in most states, along with federal funding that remains frozen at each states pre-1996 level, unused money for this purpose abounds for now, and good models for rescuing children from poverty are not hard to find† (Sherman, 1999). Although there may be some truth to the old adage that â€Å"the poor will always be with us,† the evidence suggests that the problems of poor children can be made tractable. It will be necessary to move steadily ahead but also to take time to evaluate progress and modify the course as warranted by the evidence. In the face of fiscal constraints, it may be necessary to set priorities. Prioritization may also be a reasonable strategy. This would suggest a focus on subsidized child care and expanded health insurance to support welfare reform and attention to strengthening the safety net. Finally, expectations should be kept realistic, if not modest, particularly if only a limited child poverty policy agenda can be attempted. Observation of the current political scene suggests that distrust in government and the feeling that nothing works are reactions to unrealistic expectations created by the overselling of previous programs by their promoters and an overemphasis on their shortcomings by those who advocate change. References Handsnet. (14 August 1995). U.S. poor are among world’s poorest. The New York Times. Retrieved Saturday, October 6, 2007 from http://pangaea.org/street_children/americas/poor.htm Sherman, A. (Winter 1999). Childrens poverty in America. Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, 14, 4. p.68. Retrieved Sunday, October 07, 2007, from General OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS Smeeding, T. Torrey, B. (Nov 11, 1988). Poor children in rich countries. Science, 242, n4880. p.873(5). Retrieved Saturday, October 06, 2007, from General OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS U.S. Census Bureau. (2003). Poverty thresholds. Retrieved Saturday, October 06, 2007 from census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/thresh03.html Research Papers on The Poor American ChildInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyPETSTEL analysis of IndiaThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenStandardized Testing19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraHip-Hop is ArtRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito

Autobiography of a Yogi: Summary Essay

quite different from his or her own. The journey to assimilation is portrayed uniquely by Okada as he writes his character in ways different from other writers of whom are portraying Asian Americans at this time. In an article, written by Mr. Stan Yogi, ‘You had to be One or the Other: Oppositions and Reconciliation in John Okada’s No-no Boy,’ it is stated that Asian Americans are often portrayed as ‘docile, patient’ peoples. Many of Okada’s characters do not feature these qualities; they are often†¦ and now he’ll shrivel up like a prune if you let him. With any luck, I’ll have him holding his own fishing pole by this spring, and I’ve already got my eyes on a little pair of water skis. Who knows, maybe 20 years from now, he’ll be writing an autobiography about how growing up on the water help shape his life too.†¦ been his way of showing that you go out with a fight because of the way he ends his Autobiography. Franklin showed his successful stand against the proprietary estate holders against the tax law. Most men would not end their autobiography on the terms of a won fight like this unless they were boasting; even if a little. Conclusion The life carved out for Benjamin Franklin through the words of his autobiography is a portrait of a man who started out with self-acclaim and pridefulness that all†¦ Wherever There’s a Fight by Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, is a book that narrows down the struggles of man and woman of all colors to protect and extend their civil rights liberties. It provides stories of events in history that marked the lives of many people.The stories described in the book show how many people were being discriminated for the way they looked, the disability they had, their sexualaty for being black, latino, or Japanese. It gives the reader an image of all the injustices and†¦ Bam, Quay, Dino, and Yogi rode through the city for hours searching for the Hurst and eventually they gave up in order to get some rest. Intoxicated and tired, Bam drove everyone to the apartment and that’s where they crashed until the sun rose. Nessa and Olivia had stayed up worried sick about them and finally they could put their mind at rest. Now, for a chance, everyone in the house had finally fallen asleep. Nessa slept on the lounge chair as usual. Quay, Yogi, and Dino fell asleep on the floor†¦ race, gender or beliefs. Gandhi: An Autobiography and The Help portray multiple insights of the world in the 1900’s compared to modern day society. Social justice is a major theme in The Help and Gandhi: An Autobiography. In these two books we see how society can be a cruel mistress. How people of different races are treated throughout time and how the main characters never give up on hope for a better future in our community. In Gandhi: An Autobiography and The Help, the social aspect of†¦ Sexual Autobiography Shaping my sexual behavior was generally influenced by my mom. I learned to be dependent on men and use safe sex through media. Gender sex roles also placed me to be secretive with my sex life and nurturing. My body image makes me insecure when it comes to intimacy. There were no specific sexual guidelines that my family made me follow. I was raised in a family where I was able to explore and have my own opinions about sexual situations. Not having guidelines or a path made†¦ worth writing and then wrote about it in his autobiography. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin is a different beast in its literature. Unlike most books, and possibly most autobiographies as well, Franklin’s autobiography does not have a smooth flow between his three sections. These abrupt transition could be accounted for by the many years of break Franklin took in between each section. The overall theme for Franklin’s autobiography is for one to become self developing. As Franklin†¦ The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was not an easy book to read. Writing styles have changed tremendously since the 1700’s. Despite the cultural differences I learned a lot about the man and the time. Benjamin Franklin was a remarkable man. He was a printer, author, politician and an inventor. He was one of fifteen children in his family. Because he was from such a large family he was sent out to work at a very early age. He only had a few years†¦ From an Electrician to a Teacher: An Autobiography â€Å"The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, and gives you a sense of joy, meaning and passion.† – Angel Chernoof* I firmly believe that to be successful and flourish in education and childhood learning, your heart must lead you to this passion – as my heart did a year ago. Coming out of high school, my dreams were far beyond teaching and spending a lifetime discovering†¦

Juvenile Justice System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Juvenile Justice System - Essay Example The most important facet of all this is the "best interest of the child" theory that guided the courts lingers in the purpose clauses of juvenile codes throughout the world.4 However, it seems to have failed to address the concerns raised by victims or communities about the juvenile justice system. The therapeutic intervention and punishment models of justice also appear to be incomplete. If these two models coexist in a jurisdiction, they are in constant conflict. However, if either one of these exists by itself, it fails to serve all stakeholders in the system. There are further studies according to the framers of the code that is the balanced consideration of community protection, offender accountability and competency development. This could bring clarity and reason to juvenile system issues. Through this comprehensive philosophy it will deal with every aspect of delinquency, punishment, treatment and prevention. With the concept of these three principles, if fully implemented, it could create a juvenile system that truly operates in the best interest of the child and the community.5 In all the instances when a dual or multi-diagnosis of several problems result, experts recommend that sources of treatment if not available at the moment, should be developed and reflect the developmental needs of juveniles in conflict with the law and are not merely replications of service delivery systems originally designed for adults. According to the recommendations of specialists, useful interventions for juveniles must ensure a close match between risk of re-offending, nature, level, duration of intervention. They must employ practitioners whose teaching approaches correspond to the learning capacities of children and use material tailored for a certain juvenile. It must be community-based and closely connected to the youth's home environment than like an institution. A drawn range of methods must be developed to cover anger management, social skills training and problem solving.6 Furthermore, many practitioners suggest that a continuum of care and a set of protocols must be established to determine who will provide services to the youth. There must be a case manager whose selection will be based