A Critique of Tess Onwueme’s Tell It to Women Essay Example for Free

A Critique of Tess Onwueme’s Tell It to Women Essay ? To Women, we travel back to a Nigerian village in postcolonial Africa. The story enlightens the audience about the dichotomy of traditionalism versus modernism and the ways in which different cultures interact. It ends by revealing the true meaning of culture; the real quality in a society that arises from a passion for what is excellent in arts, manners, and customs. Overall, the play discusses the role of women within this Nigerian village and largely examines the conflict of whether it is better to advance with the rest of the world, or to hold on to the traditions that truly make a society independent and beautiful. The play begins with Yemoja, the most important woman in the village, in a house with Daisy and Ruth, two feminist western-educated scholars. They are the primary antagonists in the play. At this early stage, we see that Daisy and Ruth are not fond of Yemoja. Daisy and Ruth are leaders of the â€Å"Better Life for Rural Women† campaign, which inspires women to believe that they are not only equal to men in many ways, but are even superior in others. The two of them select Yemoja as the mediator between the village and the western world that they are so desperate to force upon the women. The movement causes a great disturbance in the village between the men and women, and especially with Yemoja’s husband and father. Back in Daisy’s home, she has been getting into many disagreements with her family. Her husband Okei, disagrees with her passion about the feminist movement and they frequently fight about it. Her mother-in-law, Sherifat, still encourages Yemoja to participate in the village’s traditional tribal rituals. Sherifat expresses that it would a terrible fate if Yemoja attempts to assimilate to the modern culture and loses her roots. As the story goes on, Daisy becomes estranged from her daughter Bose, as Bose is beginning to understand more and more the culture of the village and becomes closer to Yemoja and Sherifat. Towards the end of the play, the villagers organize a march, for which Daisy gives Yemoja steps to teach to the rest of the women. It becomes clear to Yemoja at that point that western culture is not for them. Daisy and Ruth’s superior arrives to enlighten the women about her ideas of feminism. She is the one that will decide whether or not the movement has succeeded or not. When it is time for Yemoja to perform the dance, however, she and Sherifat perform one of the Idu rituals instead. Bose even joins in the dancing. Ruth falls and becomes extremely injured while Daisy is thrust into the middle of the action. The play ends here in a beautifully tragic scene as Ruth chokes to death while the rest of the villagers celebrate having revitalized their culture. Tess Onwueme’s play was delightfully written and captivating to any audience. The story was intriguing and definitely matched it’s title. Now I see that, Tell It To Women, is a statement on how the women of the village are always being told to do or be something. Whether it is by Daisy and Ruth or by their husbands, the women never really find their own voice until the very end. We see in the first movement, Sherifat telling the chorus of women that being a wife is â€Å"meaning that a wife deserves to be treated like a daughter and not something that you possess. † Yet, throughout much of the story, we see the women being treated like servants and as subhuman to Daisy and Ruth, the village men, and western civilization as a whole. However, I believe that even as a woman, the author was at times, very objective in her portrayal of feminism. She was able to write a play that showed both the positives and negatives of modernism, while advancing the ideals of traditionalism. She does all this without losing sight of what is most important to women of a small village like that. At one part she even has Ruth say â€Å"these rural women are very gullible, you know. All you need to do is make them feel they are important†¦ we need them anyway, maybe even more than they need us. † The author is commenting here on the passive-aggressive attempts of Daisy and Ruth but also shows that the village women do not actually need to be modernized. Perhaps here, the author is a little biased because she is making Daisy and Ruth out to be selfish and slightly cruel. To a western reader, the play was not very easy to read. The names of the villagers were at times tongue tying and I found myself changing opinions about a character because I in fact, thought they were another. Onwueme also does not really explain the native African dialect and proverbial expressions that are used, which was slightly confusing as well. Many play-writes include footnotes at the bottom of the page to explain vernacular that is not known to the reader and that would have been very helpful here. That being said, the true meaning of the play was present the entire time. The clash of cultures and the lingering pains of colonialism in Africa come through wonderfully in the author’s interpretation. In one eloquent line we see that colonialism left its mark of the villagers. Sherifat says to Daisy that â€Å"it’s easier for those who inflict the pain on others to forget. † Tell It To Women, while at times was hard to follow, beautifully captured the struggle of traditionalism versus modernism and is a true mark of feminism. Overall, I thought that the play was well written and captivating. Even as a man, when sometimes it is hard to understand the desires of women, let alone women of another culture, I was able to grasp the true value of this play. It enlightened me about African culture and the roles of men and women in society. I believe Onwueme did a tremendous job in exposing the struggles of postcolonial Africa in an artful representation. A Critique of Tess Onwueme’s Tell It to Women. (2018, Nov 12).

Critical Review Accountability and Data Collection, including Reward Article

Critical Review Accountability and Data Collection, including Reward and Challenge Schools - Article Example The reform rightly undertakes the method of identifying the schools and districts with the maximum progress and recognizing them as Reward schools; this would encourage the functioning of the schools and thereby enhance their performance. Though I agree that the identification of the Challenge School and then helping them in specific ways is an innovative way to solve the problem, as all the schools may not lack in the same sphere, yet I also think that a problem might arise here with respect to correct identification of the challenged schools and the reward schools as no school will have everything bad or good in it, hence the process involved in the collection of data for recognizing and categorizing the schools needs to be clearly mentioned. According to me the reform should specify what benchmarks and parameters would be used for the identification of the categories. School Turn Around Models In my opinion, the method proposed for school remodeling might be criticized on the foll owing grounds. The idea of Challenge schools undergoing a turnaround and transformation model where the governing body of the school gets replaced and strengthened might not ensure better performance always according to me. This is because replacing an experienced authority with a new one might pose new problems as the newcomer might take time to adjust to the ambience before bringing on changes. Rehiring of the 50 percent of the old staff and filling up the rest with new staffs may initiate non-cooperation among the staffs and hence their productivity can go down and this is therefore not a very sound idea. I also think that closing the school and transferring the students into higher performing school may end up being a problem as the students would suddenly find themselves under greater pressure than what they have been exposed to (12). Effective Teachers and Leaders - state and district level data systems and evaluations With respect to the area of ‘Effective Teachers and Leaders-state and district level data systems and evaluations’ I observe that the development and implementation of meaningful educators and principal evaluation system by the State and the District is a positive step in providing quality education (15-16). I agree that the published data at the state and the district level about the performance of the principals and the teachers will put them under a constant pressure of doing well. The grants for the school on their better performance in building up better and effective teachers are also a good idea to work towards encouragement. Yet I find one negative aspect with respect to the transfer of the effective teachers to the high needs schools. Thought this is likely to act as a blessing for the schools in need, yet at the same time it can act adversely against the interest of the students who sometimes become accustomed to a specific way of teaching and might find it a problem to adapt to the change. I would recommend here the inclusion of how these changes would be implemented and what psychological changes the students would need to undergo. English Language Learners The provision of significant formula grants to aid the schools at the district and the state level for implementing elevated quality language instructions in educational programs is definitely a constructive move undertaken by the reforms (20). I also find he language proficiency assessment to determine the eligibility of the learner quite recommendable because it is likely to enhance the quality of the education. However, in that way many learners who wish to study the language will be exempted from doing so. Hence I suggest that by initiating innovative programs in the schools to impart language education the State itself can take a step in coming up with

College Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

College - Math Problem Example Hi! It is simple, though unusual. Vectors differ from many other mathematical notions because a vector is determined by both numerical value and vector's direction. So, vector is not only a number. You can imagine a vector as an arrow of certain length. Exactly! You can compare it with buses that have the same route but go in the opposite direction. If you stand at a bus stop waiting for the bus to go to the nearby town, it does not help you if exactly the same minute the bus leaves the town of your destination and heads the other way. Although it is the same bus, you can not ride it as it goes in the different direction. The straight-line movement of the bus can be characterized by a vector. To determine whether it is better to use elimination or substitution method to solve a system of equations, first of all, it is advisable to examine closely the coefficients in the equations of the original system. If the coefficients before one of the variables in two of the equations are the same, but have the opposite sign (or have the same sign - then one of the equations should be simply multiplied by -1) then it would be more practical to use the elimination method. This method is also handy for solving bigger systems that contain three or more variables.