Cross cultural language differences Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cross cultural language differences - Assignment Example It is the aim of this essay to assess the types of curricular and related activities that can be used to increase awareness of cross-cultural language differences among teachers and among children. In the American schooling system, the percentage of white teachers is by a large degree greater than that of teachers from ethnic minorities. In most cases, this leads to less interaction among teachers from diverse ethnic backgrounds. However, in urban schools, the interaction between these teachers becomes increasingly common, attributable to the multiculturalism of urban areas. Sometimes, the teachers may not know how to treat their colleagues who are from different cultural groups and who speak different languages. As a way of bridging the cultural differences, teachers should use some aspects of the curriculum to familiarize themselves with different cultures. For example, teachers can hold discussions amongst themselves and review how different their histories are, while also acknowl edging the similarities in their cultures. Teachers with ability to speak multiple languages should also act as bridges and translate information for their colleagues. Teachers may also engage in other activities such as giving each other cultural souvenirs to facilitate cultural awareness and interaction. Once teachers are able to exist harmoniously with each other despite their cultural and language differences, it then becomes easier to teach learners who speak different languages and who have different cultural origins. The curriculum should be one of the tools used to promote cultural and lingual differences among learners. A good curriculum is one which emphasizes on the benefits of cultural diversity and teaches learners to embrace their cultural and language differences. For example, the curriculum should ensure that learners are taught different histories, languages and cultures. This type of education teaches learners to respect each other’s culture and shun racism and discrimination. According to Hill the classroom should be treated like a public place, where slurry comments should not be entertained lest such comments end up hurting an individual’s pride and identity (201). As Hill states, it is the responsibility of a censurer to ensure that speakers do not make racist or culturally offensive statements all in the name of â€Å"light talk† (203). In the school setting, this role of censorship should be taken up by the teacher. By treating all cultures with respect, the teacher acts as a role model for students to do the same. In designing the curriculum, experts should be very careful in choosing the most appropriate language of instruction, bearing in mind the diverse cultures represented by learners. The language of instruction according to Fought plays a key role in the educational development of a child (185). Although the instructional or standard language in most schools is English, the teacher should enhance learner und erstanding by asking students to give the equivalents in their native language or mother tongue, of words used in the instructional language. However, the use of coded language and slang should be discouraged from the school setting. The use of slang African-American slang sometimes brings about conflicts. The same goes for coded language where for example, American children know that whenever an English word contains the Spanish â€Å"

Internet Makes Life Better Essay Example for Free

Internet Makes Life Better Essay Nowadays, with the development of the Internet, our life becomes more convenient than any time in the past. With the click of the mouse, you can find everything on the Internet including shopping, communication, entertainment, study, and so on. Do you know how many percent of people on the Earth have access into the Internet? 21% In the United States, 74% of American adults use the Internet. 94% of students in the US are using the Internet. 60% of American adults use broadband connections at home. 55% of American adults connect to the internet wirelessly, either through a WiFi or WiMax connection via their laptops or through a handheld device like a smart phone. Because of the Internet, we can do shopping without going to the store which is located far away. Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. It is a form of electronic commerce. We can talk with a people who are away 10,000 miles with high quality of voice and images. Brought us closer to people those are in another part of the world: video calls with Skype, Online support calls so I don’t have to drive 2 hours to a client site. Telephone: Voice over IP or VOIP Besides, we can find tons of information by one click on Google.com, Yahoo.com, and so on. Other conveniences of the Internet: Online banking. Driving Directions .We can work or study from anywhere in the world. In conclusion, I believe the Internet makes life better. I cannot live one day happily without Internet.

Gender Inequality in the 1970s Essay -- women, solutions, stereotype, g

There is no upper limit to the risks men are willing to take in order to succeed, and if there is an upper limit for women, they will succeed less.† (Clay Shirky, 202) Shirky, the author of â€Å"A Rant about Women† argues that women must become more aggressive and demanding to ultimately achieve their goals. No matter how society reacts, men take on any action, bypassing the â€Å"Golden Rule† to achieve their goals and desires. On the other hand, women lack this procedure in their search for self-promotion, as Shirky argues. However, in Chisholm’s speech â€Å"Equal Rights for Women†, Chisholm argues that the undeniable reason for gender inequality in the 1970’s, was the lack of opportunities women were given in the workplace. Chisholm’s viewpoint includes the reason women weren’t treated with equal respect as men, was because women weren’t given the chance. Both authors battle the reason for gender inequality equally de monstrating how this social problem existed; only differentiating on the reasons. In this essay I will argue that Shirky’s position on gender inequality is stronger based on the anecdotes he provides of women asserting themselves to become more successful; additionally providing a solution for women to become more aggressive. In the 1970’s, when a woman walked into an interview, she was questioned if she can type. This occurs because of the stereotype that women usually occupy the lower standard jobs; the less important ones, in other words. The positions women usually occupy include: secretaries, librarians, and teachers, because women are viewed as incapable of withholding job options such as managers, administrators, doctors, lawyers, and Members of Congress. As Shirley Chisholm declares in her speech, â€Å"The unspoken assump... ...unately still exists today. Both Shirky and Chisholm work at publicizing this issue to society, however represent different reasons for why this issue exists. Shirky believes women are not as aggressive in demanding self-promotion as well as equality, while Shirley believes the root of gender inequality is the low amount of opportunities women are given in the workplace in comparison to men. While I consider Shirky’s argument stronger, I still agree with Chisholm’s argument based off of the job position evidence she provides. Based off both articles, women need to become more arrogant and selfish to rightfully demand what is theirs, no matter what the consequence. Men can do it, so why can’t women? Works Cited Chisholm, Shirley. â€Å"Equal Rights for Women†. Washington D.C., May 21, 1969 Shirky, Clay. â€Å"A Rant about Women†. Shirky.com. Clay Shirky Blog, January 2010

Be human or victorias secret

Victorians Secret is a famous company of lingerie and beauty products, which was founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond n Ohio, United States. The company's slogan is the sale Of beauty, being sexy, fabulous and perfect. Since 1995, in the last weeks of November the company Victorians Secret presents the Victorians Secret Fashion Show in which it presents the new collections for the year. Famous singers will attend this show as well as the supermodels of the company, who are called Angels. Victorians Secret Angels are selected supermodels for the company's campaigns.All angels are extremely beautiful and fit a mannequin size 36. In November 2014, in GLAMOUR magazine showed that Victorians Secret munched the newest bra campaign â€Å"Body by Victoria Secret† the advertising picture has 10 of the most beautiful Angels models, including models with blonde, brunette and black hair. All Angels are using the new collection of lingerie with possession, confidence and sexy poses. The slogan i n the picture is the â€Å"Perfect Body. Perfect Fit. Perfect Comfort. Perfectly SOFT. † In addiction at the end has â€Å"Explore the Collection† followed with the names of the new ten types of bras.GLAMOUR is a women's magazine focusing on fashion, beauty, relationship, sex, lifestyle and services. The magazine targets women teen the ages of 18 and 40, both single and married. These women may be at any stage of their lives, such as going to college, working in jobs full time or part time, caring for a family. Health and fitness, in search of beauty and well-being are also involved. The target audience is women who are focused itself, and on the world, blobs and internet. These tend to speak of the hottest issues and show all the new trends emerging for the female consumer.The primary ads are new patterns and fashions that come soon. The Perfect Body is a new line of bra Victorians Secret afford to its customers in a huge variety: Rasa and push-up, perfect shape, new perfect comfort deem push up, and others. The variety that most consumers appreciate is the opportunity to choose the best type of bras that fit them. Another purpose of this campaign is that with new bras Victorians Secret you get â€Å"The Perfect Body', Perfect Fit, perfect Comfort and Perfectly Soft. † In reality does everything come together with just a bra?How not to buy? The advertisement for this seems a little be promising with all this perfection in just a bra, we can see clearly the marketing game in the advertisement. The word â€Å"perfect† is ones of racketing games that misleads consumers, and make them purchase the product in search of the perfect. Because consumers are always seeking the best and perfect, and this propaganda ends up attracting them. For example, this new collection of the bra names is the â€Å"PERFECT SHAPE†; can you have the perfect shape with this new bra?Does â€Å"perfect† by Victorians Secret is perfect? It is one o f the facts that everyone would have to examine in advertisements. Another word used in advertising is â€Å"NEW. † Why does everyone want what is new? Just because it is new, is it means better? We now that many times what is new is not better than old, but we live in a consumer's world. We just want what is new, just to keep with the developments and commercial growth. Another type of marketing used to attract consumers are the BEA dutiful models that are confirming the proposal of the campaign.All of them are posing and showing confidence, resourcefulness, and are still being sexy and powerful with panties and bras. What looks interesting in the first time, but which captures the majority of consumers. Who does not Want to feel confident and powerful using only panties and bra? I think that everyone wants to feel good wearing only panties and bras because it is virtually impossible. That is what the companies like Victorians Secret presents and convinces consumers, using i n advertising to reach consumers and have succeed in their new collections.Victorians Secret does not just sell lingerie and beauty products it sells sensuality set, power and the female's fabulous side. In the new campaign â€Å"Body by Victorians Secrets†, 10 angels are positioned as a front line ready for battle, as an army battalion ready to fight. However, battle in this direction is different; he battle is against the consumer. They are showing that this is the body of Victorians Secretes, perfect and ready. When you look yourself and see the new collection and the Angels, you already feel lost and out Of context, and see the need for the new product.This is how propaganda â€Å"Body by Victorians Secret† appeal to the emotional side of marketing, showing that with the new products you can purchase the â€Å"Perfect Body. † Another way that advertising eludes the side emotionally are the features that the models are shown. The Angels are pictured are sexy, confident, uninhibited and happy. Something that appeals to the popular side, people living standards indicated by the media, and to see an advertisement like this in GLAMOUR magazine very consumers believe this is the key to all problems. Furthermore, these advertisements often end up backfiring on a population.Advertisements as this â€Å"The Perfect Body† causes many consumers to rebel by not fit the pattern that company shows. Victorians Secret shows a variety of ethnicity in the photo templates, but has not done the same in the body shapes. This makes many consumers give up the product and even the company. The emotional did ‘Body by Victorians Secret† can take depends on the consumer, and the success of this new collection can be committed only for fit in Angels' size by Victorians Secret. Victorians Secret Angels use their campaigns to attract attention and consumers.The Angels of Victorians Secret are the top models in the fashion world, as Giggles Bunche d, the Brazilian model that is one of the top on the fashion world and well paid, was an Angel. The benefit and aim to have them as Angels is very marketing. Because having the best models in the world fashion wearing Victorians Secrets products, not only attracts nonusers, but also magazines, reports and all media. It is a fact that some consumers will only purchase the products Victorians Secret, because they are the top models in the fashion world.In addition, many news companies will only show advertisements for having the hottest Angels. Victorians Secret is a company that sells dreams and achievements, where the products promise to transform the buyer on being sexy, fabulous, charming and perfect. One of the companies is liable to generalize, by imposing a standard of beauty. The advertisement â€Å"Body by Victorians Secret† with the slogan â€Å"The Perfect Body† s one of the advertisements that would never come through the media. I wonder what the company Vict orians Secret wins to continue with advertisements and campaigns that link to a â€Å"perfect model†.Of course it has its consumers â€Å"perfect model†, which still make a profit. In a developing world in which we live, we must take action against companies imply that standard, a standard that does not involve half the world's population. We all should stop dreaming about the promises that Victorians Secrets presents. Each has its life; each has its shape, size, color, and so on. Everything is different; we deed to have something perfect to follow? Who said that the perfect is The Perfect by Victorians Secret?

Intro to Rh Bill

Humans are naturally born governed with laws and that’s what we call the natural law. And as we, humans grow to become more intellectual, we generated our own laws and rules to govern our lives for better quality and discipline. But sometimes, there are laws or proponents that have gained different viewpoints among us as to its necessity, value, and morality. One of these is the Reproductive Health Bill. Almost over a decade has passed since the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippines was for the first time proposed, now that the pursuance of the bill has gained its rebirth, still it has become a part of the national debate bringing about a wider division. The Reproductive Health Bill, popularly known as the RH Bill, is a Philippine bill aiming to guarantee universal access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. While there is general agreement about its provisions on maternal and child health, there is great debate on its key proposal that the Filipino taxpayer and the private sector will fund and undertake widespread distribution of family planning devices furthermore, 81% Filipinos are Catholics, the Catholic Church exerts a strong influence in public life. Its staunch of opposition to the bill has drawn the ire of non-Catholics and Catholics alike who support the bill, and they invoke the principle of separation of church and state to stop the church. Passage or non-passage of the bill has negative implications depending on the views.

The 3-Step Change Management Process That Will Boost Your Career

The 3-Step Change Management Process That Will Boost Your Career Over the course of 40 years, Dr. John Kotter developed an 8-step change management process. Its scope is incredible. And its worked in organizations big and small for decades. Do you want to lead change in your team, your company, or even in your own life? If so, theres huge value there. As marketers, though, we can take a leaner approach and apply it even faster even by the time youre done reading this post. This post is for you if you want to: Lead lasting change in your marketing team, Transform the way you (and your team) work, And become more productive than ever. The 3-Step Change Management Process That Will Boost Your Career by @jordan_loftis via @The 3-Step Change Management Process That Will Boost Your Career You will learn three simple steps to leading (and sustaining) change. Create a sense of urgency. Take action and find quick wins. Go back through the loop to sustain momentum. As youll see, each step is directly driven by your teams goal. At , we talk a lot about goals why? Theyre incredibly important. In fact, our own research shows marketers who set goals are 429% more likely to be successful than those who dont. Im not talking about fluffy New Years resolutions, either. (^^^ After all, the University of Scranton found that 92% of people who make those resolutions dont hit them.) Instead, were tackling specific and challenging goals, which the classic study, Goal Setting And Task Performance, found was a linchpin of success. Specific means there is a number and a deadline on your calendar. Challenging means it will achieve significant growth in your team, organization, or personal career. For example, you may want to leverage this change management process to revolutionize the way your team works. Leverage this change management process to revolutionize the way your team works.The Specific And Challenging Goal To Fuel Your Change Management Process We work with thousands of marketers in over 100 countries. Our customers range from companies like Microsoft to agencies and lean marketing teams. One thing unites them all: they are done with the old, outmoded, crappy way marketing works. Theyre sick of endless spreadsheets Theyre over confusing email threads Theyve had it with single-function tools that werent built for marketers in the first place We call the old way of doing things  makeshift marketing. And it refers to mashing disconnected tools into one martech stack. And thousands of smart marketers are sick of letting it gobble up their budgets and productivity. While thousands have defeated this ugly beast its taken a dead-serious approach to do so. In this case, setting the specific and challenging goal of  transforming from the old way things worked, to the new way. You have to overcome the reality of change aversion. This is our natural inclination to resist change and even to reject a new solution as bad because its different. You have to fight this in your team - and even in yourself. Setting a specific and challenging goal is your first step. It might look something like this: We will refine all of our marketing processes for maximum efficiency by July 1, 2018. Your goal specifically outlines the change youre after AND puts a date on the calendar. This is the focusing force of your new change management process: Create a sense of urgency around accomplishing your goal. Enable action toward your goal by racking up quick wins. Sustain positive momentum even after your goal is accomplished. Step One: Create A Sense Of Urgency First up, lets talk urgency. Recently, I met with my boss, our head of demand generation. Id been working on a project with a pretty important goal. And while I was working hard, my progress didnt have quite the velocity we needed it to. So we had a frank conversation. He told me, Were accelerating the timeline. Were hitting your goal this week, not next month. Thats right my roadmap had a few weeks left to make the project successful. After this conversation, there was just five days! Thankfully, Nathan didnt simply dump an impossible deadline on my shoulders. He offered to go shoulder to shoulder and help accelerate growth. And in just five days, we accomplished what Id planned on achieving in weeks. How did we do this? Urgency. Urgency is a force or impulse that impels or constrains. And its a productive marketers secret weapon. It makes you focus, prioritize, and then act. Urgency makes you focus, prioritize, and then act.How To Create A Sense Of Urgency With Loss Aversion Now, what is your goal? There are many levers to pull to increase urgency in accomplishing it but the most powerful is loss aversion. Research has shown: For human beings â€Å"losses loom larger than gainsand the pain of losing is psychologically about twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. (Kahneman Tversky, 1979) If youve ever done any conversion copywriting, you understand this. People prefer to avoid loss rather than acquiring equivalent gains. For example, whats more compelling to you not losing $100 you have? or gaining $100 you dont have? Psychologically, we work harder to avoid loss than to make gains. This is the first lever you can pull to create a sense of urgency. Ask yourself: What will I lose if I dont meet [your goal] by [specific date]? The bigger the goal, the more you have to lose by not hitting it. As depressing as this may sound, its actually invigorating to see whats really at stake if you (and your team) do not change. Step Two: Enable Action With Minimum Viable Marketing (MVM) Next in our change management process, take action and get to quick wins with minimum viable marketing. It helps you quickly test ideas to learn what works - and what doesnt - before you heavily invest into marketing campaigns or projects destined for failure. In Garrett Moons new book,  10x Marketing Formula, he devotes an entire chapter to Minimum Viable Marketing (MVM). He explains: The MVM concept stems from the minimum viable product (MVP) methodology, which was popularized in the world of startups by Eric Ries in a book called The Lean Startup. At their essence, MVPs are a way of quickly validating business ideas by producing the minimum number of features to satisfy early customer or audience needs. The MVP process decreases risk by testing assumptions against reality. For our simple change management process, MVM is the perfect framework for action. First, because it enables you and your team to rack up quick wins that get fast results and build momentum. Second, because it actually allows you to decrease long-term risk by testing ideas in small before you roll them out in large. Heres an excellent example Garrett cites in  10x Marketing Formula: Use A Minimum Viable Project Mentality In 1981 American Airlines was in dire financial straits. They were low on cash and high on expenses. This is never a good place to be. To pull themselves from the money pit, they cooked up what seemed a clever, homerun of a marketing campaign. To get millions dripping into their coffers, they offered  unlimited first-class travel for life  for $250,000. To most of us, a quarter-million bucks sounds steep (and it’s roughly $600,000 in today’s dollars). However, to the consumers who spend as much time in the air as they do on the ground, this was an incredibly good deal. A  Los Angeles Times interview  recounts one of the frequent flyers who took advantage of this deal: â€Å"We thought originally it would be something that firms would buy for top employees,† said Bob Crandall, American’s chairman and chief executive from 1985 to 1998. â€Å"It soon became apparent that the public was smarter than we were.† The unlimited passes were bought mostly by wealthy individuals, including baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays, America’s Cup skipper Dennis Conner and computer magnate Michael Dell. Mike Joyce of Chicago bought his in 1994 after winning a $4.25-million settlement after a car accident. In one 25-day span this year, Joyce flew round trip to London 16 times, flights that would retail for more than $125,000. He didn’t pay a dime. â€Å"I love Rome, I love Sydney, I love Athens,† Joyce said by phone from the Admirals Club at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. â€Å"I love Vegas and Frisco.† American Airlines soon went upside down on this big bet- and they still kept it going for nearly ten years! Oops. This historic marketing blunder is a good lesson for us 10x marketers. Because this story is far from an isolated incident. Here’s how it goes. A giant X-factor company puts loads of money into a big campaign. Problem is, this campaign does more harm than good. And whether money is lost from lack of sales, or poorly projected financial impact, the big bet goes belly up. So, test your assumptions by building in stages to learn as quickly as possible. Use MVM In 3 Steps With The Lean Feedback Loop This method of MVM capitalizes on what startups call a â€Å"lean feedback loop.† It works in three stages: Build it. What projects or ideas will do you believe will help you quickly reach your goal? What lean version of this idea can you launch to test it and get quick results? Measure it. Is the idea working? What key data points who if youre toward your goal, remaining stagnant, or even shrinking? Learn from it. Based on key metrics is the idea working, and therefore worth investing more time, energy, and resources into? By working the change management process in this way, youll notice you are concerned with learning as much as winning. Learning is winning. Lets look at some example projects Launching A Podcast With A Lean Loop Build: Smartphone recording of pilot podcast episode shared as a key blog post. Measure: Measure traffic, number of listens or downloads, and listen to comments. Learn: Will a podcast be a viable marketing channel between us and our target audience at this stage? Timeline: One week. Rebranding With A Lean Loop Build: Start with core positioning statements, value propositions, and key messaging. Measure: Present the messaging to sales and target customers on calls for one week to gauge resonance. Record all calls for the marketing team to review. Learn: If the messaging is clear and relevant, continue to the next stages. But repeat this process of testing each major element before investing further. Timeline: One week. Adopting New Marketing Strategy, Processes, Or Tools Build:  Get a free demo of the software with a real person. Ask questions specifically about how it would work for your team. Then,  hold a kickoff meeting with your team to introduce them to the new tool. Measure: Set benchmarks for success. What results are you working for? What numbers will tell you if your new tool is growing them? Learn: Look at the data and make the call. Does your team like the process? Has your tool made your life easier? Are you getting closer to your goals? Timeline: Two weeks. Step Three: Sustain The Momentum Of Your Change Management Process Now that youve gotten results, its time to sustain the momentum youve created. There are tons of amazing books to help you get better marketing results There are game-changing marketing strategies you can adopt There are clever ways to 10x your ROI in short order but the truth is, none of it matters if you dont maintain the results youre getting. This third step is the most important. Why? If you rest on yesterdays success, you will be tomorrows failure. Thankfully, this can be the easiest part of the process. To sustain momentum, propel your team back into the process of urgency and action.

Democracy in Ancient Athens and Democracy Today

Democracy in Ancient Athens and Democracy Today While wars today are fought in the name of democracy as if democracy were a moral ideal as well as an easily identifiable government style, it is not really that black and white. The inventors of democracy were the Greeks who lived in small city-states called poleis. Contact with the wide world was slower. Life lacked modern conveniences. Voting machines were primitive, at best. The people the ones who put the demo- in democracy were intimately involved in decisions that affected them and would be appalled that bills to be voted on now require reading through thousand-page tomes. They might be even more aghast that people actually vote on those bills without doing the reading. What Do We Call Democracy? The world was stunned when Bush was first named the winner of the U.S. presidential race, even after more U.S. voters had cast ballots for Gore. How could the U.S. call itself a democracy, yet not select its officials on the basis of majority rule? Well, part of the answer is that the U.S. was not established as a pure democracy, but as a republic where voters elect representatives and electors. Whether there has ever been anything close to a pure and total democracy is debatable. There has never been universal suffrage and Im not talking about voters disenfranchised by corruption or improper balloting and tallying. In ancient Athens, you had to be a citizen to vote. That left out more than half the population. Introduction Democracy [demos ~ the people; cracy kratos strength/rule, so democracy rule by the people] is considered an invention of the ancient Athenian Greeks. This page on Greek democracy brings together articles on the stages democracy went through in Greece, as well as the controversy Greek democracy caused, with passages from period thinkers on the institution of democracy and its alternatives.​ Democracy Helped Solve Ancient Greek Problems The ancient Athenian Greeks are credited with inventing the institution of democracy. Their governmental system wasnt designed for the enormous, spread-out, and diverse populations of modern industrialized countries, but even in their small communities [see Social Order of Athens], there were problems, and the problems led to inventive solutions. The following are roughly chronological problems and solutions leading to what we think of as Greek democracy: The Four Tribes of Athens: The ancient tribal kings were too weak financially and the uniform material simplicity of life enforced the idea that all tribesmen had rights. Society was divided into two social classes, the upper of which sat with the king in council for major problems.Conflict Between Farmers and Aristocrats: With the rise of the hoplite, non-equestrian, non-aristocratic army, ordinary citizens of Athens could become valued members of society if they had enough wealth to provide themselves the body armor needed to fight in the phalanx.Draco, the Draconian Law-Giver: The privileged few in Athens had been making all the decisions for long enough. By 621 B.C. the rest of the Athenians were no longer willing to accept arbitrary, oral rules of those who lay down the law and judges. Draco was appointed to write down the laws.Solons Constitution: Solon redefined citizenship so as to create the foundations of democracy. Before Solon, the aristocrats had a monopoly on the govern ment by virtue of their birth. Solon replaced the hereditary aristocracy with one based on wealth.city,coast, andinland. Cleisthenes and the 10 Tribes of Athens: When Cleisthenes became a chief magistrate, he had to face the problems Solon had created 50 years earlier through his compromising democratic reforms foremost among which was the allegiance of citizens to their clans. In order to break such loyalties, Cleisthenes divided the 140-200 demes (natural divisions of Attica and the basis of the word democracy) into 3 regions: Cleisthenes is credited with instituting moderate democracy. The Challenge - Is Democracy an Efficient System of Government? In ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, not only were children denied the vote (an exception we still consider acceptable), but so were women, foreigners, and slaves. People of power or influence werent concerned with the rights of such non-citizens. What mattered was whether or not the unusual system was any good. Was it working for itself or for the community? Would it be better to have an intelligent, virtuous, benevolent ruling class or a society dominated by a mob seeking material comfort for itself? In contrast with the law-based democracy of the Athenians, monarchy/tyranny (rule by one) and aristocracy/oligarchy (rule by the few) were practiced by neighboring Hellenes and Persians. All eyes turned to the Athenian experiment, and few liked what they saw. Beneficiaries of Democracy Endorse It On the following pages, youll find passages on democracy from some of the philosophers, orators, and historians of the time, many neutral to unfavorable. Then as now, whoever benefits from a given system tends to support it. One of the most positive positions Thucydides puts into the mouth of a leading beneficiary of the Athenian democratic system, Pericles.