Can you explain why child psychology is an important subject for preschool teachers?

Child psychology is a sub-field of psychology which focuses on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of children and the underlying mental processes that result in these outward manifestations. It's important for a preschool teacher to study child psychology so that they can appropriately teach to and socialize with their students. Preschool teachers may work with children between the ages of one and six years, and this period of early childhood involves many significant changes in...

Child psychology is a sub-field of psychology which focuses on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of children and the underlying mental processes that result in these outward manifestations. It's important for a preschool teacher to study child psychology so that they can appropriately teach to and socialize with their students. Preschool teachers may work with children between the ages of one and six years, and this period of early childhood involves many significant changes in the brain. Not only are these the peak years of language acquisition, children are also beginning to develop their social skills during this time. 

It is important for early childhood educators to have a thorough understanding of the development of the young brain. Some mental capabilities, like the understanding of object permanence, develop in early childhood. Trying to teach content that is based upon object permanence to a child who is not yet capable of understanding the concept will not go well. Teachers who understand the developmental changes occurring in early childhood are better able to tailor appropriate lessons for their students. Children can also be quite sensitive to new information because everything is relatively quite new to them. Preschool teachers can make sure that their experiences with the world are not as shocking or damaging as they might otherwise be. Children need to hear things in words that they can understand, and often this differs from the way we might explain something to an adult.

I suppose that it isn't really necessary for a preschool teacher to have training in developmental psychology, but if they want to be a good teacher, it would behoove them to study it.

Do you see any positivity in Night that foreshadows Wiesel's willingness to fight for peace, or did he turn cruel during his experience?

The "positivity" in Night is seen in Eliezer's sensitivity to human suffering.

There is much in Night that can foreshadow Wiesel's future commitment to human rights.  Throughout Night, Eliezer shows a high level of sensitivity to the pain that people experience.  As a result, we see someone who pays attention to the cries of human suffering, something that Elie Wiesel did throughout his adult life.

Eliezer pays very close attention to how people suffer...

The "positivity" in Night is seen in Eliezer's sensitivity to human suffering.

There is much in Night that can foreshadow Wiesel's future commitment to human rights.  Throughout Night, Eliezer shows a high level of sensitivity to the pain that people experience.  As a result, we see someone who pays attention to the cries of human suffering, something that Elie Wiesel did throughout his adult life.

Eliezer pays very close attention to how people suffer in Night.  He is direct in describing how Moshe the Beadle wept because no one listened to him. He is pointed in recreating the night that Madame Schachter was beaten on the train because she kept on screaming that she saw "fire."  In both of these situations, Eliezer pays attention to how people suffer and the indifferent reactions others have to such pain.

When Eliezer enters Auschwitz-Birkenau, he is aware of what he sees around him.  In the poem, "Never Shall I Forget," Eliezer bears witness to his first night in the camp.  His sensitivity to what he experienced can be seen in lines such as "Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky" and "Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes."  Eliezer's attention to how human cruelty can personally transform the the individual is another example of how he displays a sensitivity.  It is a quality that foreshadows the advocacy that was so much a part of his adult life.

Eliezer's sensitivity to life in the camps prevents him from being indifferent. He displays this when he talks about the hanging of a five year old boy or in how Rabbi Eliahu's son betrayed his father.  When he speaks of how people forgot to recite the Kaddish for Akiba Drumer or when he details how the son lied about his father so he could steal his bread, Eliezer speaks for those who lost their voices because of Nazi cruelty.  Eliezer applies this to himself when he speaks of his father's death:  "No prayers were said over his tomb. No candle lit in his memory. His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered."  Eliezer displays a wide scope of emotional understanding.  Through his example, morally acceptable behavior is rooted in an insistence on speaking for as many voices as possible and accepting responsibility when that standard is not reached.  This is a part of the narrative that foreshadowed what he would do once he left the camps.

Eliezer is not cruel in Night.  He does not take the form of the barbarism around him.  It is very difficult to suggest that his drive for survival makes him a bad person. Rather, in Night, we see that Eliezer pays attention to the pain that other people experience.  He displays a heightened sense of care towards other peoples' narratives.  He recognizes that validation of voice is the only way one can counter a reality based upon the exertion of cruelty and infliction of human suffering. These qualities foreshadow the man that Eliezer would become, a towering paragon of defending and preserving human rights around the world.

Describe the storm that hits Timothy and Phillip's island in The Cay.

In Chapter 15, a brutal storm hits Timothy and Phillip's island. The hurricane winds and driving rain are relentless. Although the initial storm eventually calms down, it does not do so for long before it returns again with violent fury.

Phillip tells us that the icy raindrops pelt them so savagely that they feel like they have been assaulted by "punches of a nail" or "thousands of hard berries blown from air guns." With hurricane...

In Chapter 15, a brutal storm hits Timothy and Phillip's island. The hurricane winds and driving rain are relentless. Although the initial storm eventually calms down, it does not do so for long before it returns again with violent fury.

Phillip tells us that the icy raindrops pelt them so savagely that they feel like they have been assaulted by "punches of a nail" or "thousands of hard berries blown from air guns." With hurricane winds blowing at great speeds, plants like the sea grape are effortlessly uprooted and carried away. Meanwhile, the waves have been whipped up to white-capped peaks of forty feet high. These waves are so high that they reach the hilltop where Timothy and Phillip are sheltering.

Eventually, their hut is blown away, and both have to tie themselves to a palm tree in order to stay alive. Alas, when the storm ebbs, Phillip discovers that his faithful friend has died. Timothy's body has been flayed by pelting raindrops that drove tiny grains of sand into his back and legs.

Where exactly does Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels describe the eventual demise (or implosion?) of capitalism?

The inevitability of capitalism's destruction is prevalent in much of Marx's writing.  However, its direct mention can be seen in the opening chapter of Marx's and Engels's The Communist Manifesto.

An essential component of Marx's thesis is the inevitability or dialectical materialism.  He argues that history progresses in this unstoppable unfolding that allows the conditions for change to take place. Essentially, this means, that capitalism will eventually disappear.  Marx opens The Communist Manifestowith...

The inevitability of capitalism's destruction is prevalent in much of Marx's writing.  However, its direct mention can be seen in the opening chapter of Marx's and Engels's The Communist Manifesto.

An essential component of Marx's thesis is the inevitability or dialectical materialism.  He argues that history progresses in this unstoppable unfolding that allows the conditions for change to take place. Essentially, this means, that capitalism will eventually disappear.  Marx opens The Communist Manifesto with such an idea.  He believes that capitalism is progressing with so much speed that a breakdown is bound to happen:

Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them.

Marx sees capitalism as a "runaway train."  The industrialists' desire for wealth has created a world of "too much industry."  Marx sees this unfettered desire for wealth as unsustainable.  Eventually, a world of "too much commerce" will run out, creating the conditions for its eventual destruction.

At the same time, Marx sees capitalism's destruction in the consolidation of the people who suffer the most under it.  Marx believes that for every industrialist benefitting from capitalism, there are many more who do not.  When these individuals unify, Marx sees the implosion of capitalism as inevitable:

The lower strata of the middle class — the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partly because their specialised skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.

The recruitment of the proletariat from "all classes of the population" is why Marx feels that capitalism is doomed. He believes that once all of those toiling under capitalism realize they are not alone and pull together as one, they will be an unstoppable force.  Marx goes on to explain that "what the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers."  Each success the wealthy experience means hardship for more people.  Marx believes that the proletariat will not suffer in silence, but rather consolidate as one entity.  They will be united in their shared disdain for capitalism and resoundingly call for change.  This is the reason why capitalism's "fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable."

Do you believe the poem If by Rudyard Kipling reflects a bitter vision of the world?

The poem If by Rudyard Kipling provides a cynical view of the world as it gives advice on how to overcome the treacherous world.  Although the poem views the world in a bitter light, Kipling offers hope.  By understanding the dangers that lay ahead in the world it is easier to prepare to overcome the obstacles.

Kipling's cynicism is seen throughout each stanza.  In the opening lines he states people will lose their heads and blame...

The poem If by Rudyard Kipling provides a cynical view of the world as it gives advice on how to overcome the treacherous world.  Although the poem views the world in a bitter light, Kipling offers hope.  By understanding the dangers that lay ahead in the world it is easier to prepare to overcome the obstacles.

Kipling's cynicism is seen throughout each stanza.  In the opening lines he states people will lose their heads and blame it on you.  He is implying people will make mistakes or poor choices and blame their misfortunes on you.  He goes on to claim people will lie, hate, twist your words and try to hurt you.  Further, Kipling refers to the finite nature of time as the "unforgiving minute" which demonstrates his adversarial approach to the world.

Despite the bitter characteristics Kipling gives the world, the poem is also about hope.  The hope to conquer the world by understanding it is not always a nice place.  He provides a pep talk when he challenges you to hold on when you think you having nothing left "Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'".  In closing Kipling notes that anyone who heeds his advice will conquer the world.

What would Junior from Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian think of a cultural outsider?

In order to answer this question, we have to think of Junior within his own cultural context. As a Native American, Junior is surrounded by many different cultural phenomena for which the "white man" is in large part to blame. In his own family, he has experienced crippling alcoholism, death, and diminished opportunity for success. He is very aware of the challenges that he faces specifically because he is Native American. He even witnesses his best friend, Rowdy, being beaten by his own father, and takes part in a few fights himself. Violence, addiction, and death are a very large part of the world that he lives in, but he is also very proud of his heritage and recognizes the many beautiful things that fill his life: the warm smell of fry bread, his grandmother and her old school ways, and the pow-wows that he sometimes attends. The Rez is also very beautiful and home to many colorful characters who are important to him, and whom he would defend against outsiders, because when you're an oppressed person like Junior is, you realize that you need to stick with the people who defend and support you. 

Having said that, I think it's safe to say that Junior would feel weary of outsiders at the very least, and even more likely is that he would outright not trust them. There is an understanding among Native Americans who live on reservations that you just don't really trust a white person, because you can't, given the history. And on Junior's reservation, it's no different. When the white millionaire comes, lugging the heavy beaded dance outfit that he believes belonged to Junior's grandmother, everyone looked at him with awe first, before they realized that he was full of it. Still, they didn't like being scrutinized and examined for their culture. They felt like this guy was treating them like a novelty and he was, essentially, though he didn't see it that way.

So even though everyone was respectful enough to hear him out, they felt uncomfortable and disliked him being there. They were even confused about the old white hippies who liked to hang out on the reservation. Junior realizes, as they all do, that there is a cognitive dissonance that goes along with ignoring their oppression, but pretending to appreciate their culture. When you can ignore the many ills that befall Native Americans, but use your knowledge of their culture as a status symbol, or come to "hang out" with them because they are a novelty, you become a person that Junior simply cannot trust. It follows that he would treat someone like that with a healthy dose of skepticism. 

Is the overall tone in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream humor or irony?

Tone is a somewhat subjective topic when referring to plays. Certainly tone can be found in language, but theatrical texts also derive a great deal of tone from the specific elements of production. A theatrical production is usually mounted under the supervision of one person's vision (the director or an artistic director), and that person's artistic interpretation of the text can go a long way toward influencing the tone of the production.

With this particular play, one of Shakespeare's most well-loved comedies, the tone can be very light-hearted, or very dark, or somewhere in between. I have seen two productions of it, one in the United States (at the Hartford Stage Company), and one at Stratford in England, and the overall tone of both productions was markedly different.

The Stratford production certainly played up the laughs; the fairies had fake prosthetic ears and were all dressed in ill-fitting public school uniforms; they acted like bratty adolescents. The production design was very eclectic, taking design cues from several eras, including the 1930s and the Edwardian era. The lovers all dressed in comfortable Edwardian style summer clothes and Doc Marten boots. Puck was portrayed as a sort of wise-cracking Big Man on Campus that the other fairies admired. These eclectic elements gave the production a very fresh and humorous tone.

But the Hartford production, done with contemporary costumes and settings, often had a melancholy tone; the music chosen for the scene where the lovers are charmed with fairy dust was "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel, and it was used again when the lovers are reunited, which lent a very romantic air to the production. The melancholy felt by Titania and Oberon at the beginning (as Titania stared into a huge cracked mirror wearing a wedding gown) was echoed at the end when the lovers switch partners while dancing; there is hint of the confusion and love spells that took place earlier. Audiences can interpret this as a commentary on love and marriage in general, as if we might as well all be under the manipulative magic of fairies. This could be said to be an ironic interpretation.