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Wagner College Forum for
Undergraduate Research
Spring 2004
Volume II, Number 2
Wagner College Press
Staten Island, New York City
��EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
This edition of the Wagner Forum for Undergraduate Research is a special issue devoted
entirely to the Senior Program. Unlike previous issues it is separated into five sections
corresponding to each of the major divisions. All papers are representative of work
performed in conjunction with the 2003 Senior Reflective Tutorial or associated capstone
course(s). They show the enthusiasm of our students and progress made through the
Wagner Plan.
From the sciences, is a paper by Janette Lebron on an extremely rare genetic disease that
causes children to age prematurely. Then, in the social science section, Claire Lippmann
investigates through a case study how a two-year-old adjusts to being away from mommy
and familiar surroundings for the first time. Also, be sure not to miss an examination of a
20th century composer’s early works and a first for the journal – a paper written entirely
in Spanish.
Read on and enjoy!
Gregory Falabella and Richard Brower, Editors
��Section I: The Sciences
2 Too Young to Be Old: The Cause of Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria
Syndrome
Janette Lebron
15 Bots
Sean Munson
Section II: The Social Sciences
30 Case Study of a Two-Year Old Girl’s Emotional Adjustment in a
Private Day Care Setting
Claire Lippmann
38 A Reflection of the Little Steps Treatment Program
Josephine Vitale
46 Internship at Bay Ridge Preparatory School
Lindsay Schwartz
Section III: Performing and Visual Arts
68 Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Suite for Small Orchestra: An American
Twentieth-Century Musical Composition
Kelly Parker
�
Section IV: The Humanities
82 El Antiracionalismo en El Túnel y La Resistencia, de Ernesto Sábato
Susan Altman
Section V: Professional Programs
88 Commodities Futures Markets
Rich Barbiera
99 Why Diversification is Necessary in Long Term Portfolio Planning
John Roberts
��Section I: The Sciences
�Too Young to Be Old: The Cause of
Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome
Janette Lebron1 (Biology)
I. Introduction
Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is an extremely rare genetic
disease. HGPS causes children to age prematurely. The reported birth incidence is about
one in eight million. It is characterized by dwarfism, baldness, pinched nose, small face
and small jaw, delayed tooth formation, wrinkled skin, diminution of subcutaneous fat,
stiff joints, and premature arteriosclerosis. Death occurs on average at age 12, usually
from myocardial infarction (heart attack) or stroke.
In 2003, the cause of HGPS was discovered as a de novo mutation in the LMNA
gene on chromosome 1 during spermatogenesis. The LMNA gene codes for A-type
lamin proteins, which are important for normal function of the nuclear envelope in the
cell. This discovery has supported the long time argument that the mode of inheritance
for HGPS is sporadic autosomal dominant mutation due to paternal age effect (Brown,
1992). This discovery also adds HGPS to long list of laminopathies. Laminopathies are
diseases caused by mutations in the LMNA gene. Other laminopathies include EmeryDreifuss Muscular Dystrophy, types 2 and 3; Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, type 1B;
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, type 2B1; Dunnigan type of familial partial
lipodystrophy; Mandibuloacral dysplasia; familial form of dilated cardiomyopathy; and a
subset form of Werner’s Syndrome.
II. Historical Background
Johnathan Hutchinson first reported this syndrome in 1886 as a case of
“congential absence of hair and its appendages.” Hutchinson published a report in 1895
about a second patient with similar characteristics. Hastings Gilford described these two
patients further in 1897 and 1904. Gilford named the syndrome “progeria.” The word
progeria has Greek roots meaning “before old age” (DeBusk, 1972)
During the 1900s, close to one hundred cases of classical Hutchinson-Gilford
Progeria Syndrome have been reported. Today, there are about forty known cases of
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Ammini Moorthy (Biological Sciences)
2
�progeria in the world. Chances are there are certainly more cases, but they are not
reported or diagnosed correctly.
III. Clinical Features
Individuals with HGPS generally appear normal at birth, but by 1 year of age,
severe growth retardation is observed. Generally, individuals are of short stature and the
weight to height ratio is low. Complete sexual maturation is absent. The skin appears
dry and wrinkled. Prominent superficial veins are seen. There is widespread loss of
subcutaneous fat tissue. Characteristic head features include craniofacial disproportion,
micrognathia, alopecia, scalp veins and eyes are prominent, and a “plucked-bird”
appearance. Eyebrows and eyelashes are absent. Dentition is delayed and is abnormal.
The voice is thin and high-pitched. Thin limbs, stiff joints, coxa valga, and “horseriding” stance are all observed (DeBusk, 1972).
Individuals with progeria have a normal to above-average intelligence. The
average age of death is 12 years of age. Almost all deaths are due to myocardial
infarctions or congestive heart failure. Atherosclerosis, with interstitial fibrosis of the
heart, is usually seen in autopsy reports (Brown, 1992).
HGPS is known as a segmented progeroid syndrome. Not all systems of the
individual’s body show signs of advanced aging. Some of the features often associated
with normal aging such as tumors, cataracts, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia are not usually
present.
IV. Psychosocial Aspects of HGPS
The death of a child is one of the most devastating experiences a family can
encounter. The family puts all its energy and attention on the ill child. During this time,
changes occur in family members’ emotional, spiritual, and cognitive states (Livneh et al,
1995).
The parents of the child have an enormous emotional and spiritual reaction to
the death of the child. Emotional reactions usually include those of anxiety, denial,
depression, guilt, overprotection, and anger. Parents have an overwhelming fear of losing
their child and feel helpless and powerless. They experience separation anxiety when
most of the control over the child is given to medical personnel. Parents may experience
denial of the reality of the disease and have unrealistic hope. Anger is another reaction
often observed in parents of dying children. Anger may be displaced toward external
sources, for example caregivers and God (Livneh et al, 1995).
3
�Parents often experience spiritual unrest. They feel the world is unjust and
search for meaning during their time of pain. Their child’s death serves as a catastrophic
blow to their future hopes and dreams (Livneh et al, 1995).
Siblings of the ill child have unique reactions to the child’s death. Children and
adolescents proceed to grieve more rapidly for the dead sibling, compared with their
parents. Siblings generally keep their grief private. Behavioral problems may begin at
school as a result of not outwardly expressing their grief. As a result of the death of their
sibling, children become more aware of threats to life and of the finality of death (Livneh
et al, 1995).
V. Biochemistry Involved with HGPS
Eukaryotic cells have nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments that are separated
by the nuclear envelope. The nuclear envelope is a large intricate structure made up of
outer and inner lipid bilayer membranes, nuclear pore complexes, nuclear lamina, and
chromatin. The outer nuclear membrane is continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum
and is covered by ribosomes. The two membranes are 20-40nm apart and connected at
the nuclear pore complexes. The nuclear pore complexes are large protein structures that
allow transport of macromolecules between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. The nuclear
lamina is a proteinaceous meshwork of intermediate filaments (IF) associated with the
inner nuclear membrane through interactions with integral membrane proteins (Goldberg
et al, 1999; Hutchison et al, 2001).
The inner nuclear membrane and the nuclear lamina (Fig. 1) are involved in
several biological functions, including: regulation of the nuclear envelope shape and
structure; disassembly and reassembly of the nuclear envelope during mitosis; providing
anchoring sites for chromatin and affecting higher order chromatin organization; lamins
are needed for the elongation phase of DNA replication; lamins are important for
initializing and completing apoptosis and lamins interlink adjacent nuclear pore
complexes (Goldberg et al, 1999).
Nuclear lamins are the major components of the lamina. Lamins associated with
the nuclear lamina are classified as type V IFs. They share a common primary sequence
consisting of globular N-terminal (amino end) and C-terminal (carboxyl end) domains
and a central alpha-helical rod domain. The rod domain can be divided into four alphahelical segements, coil 1a, coil 1b, coil 2a, and coil 2b, which are separated by non-alphahelical linker sequences (Fig. 2). Lamins are classified as either A-type or B-type,
depending on their primary sequence, behavior at mitosis and tissue-specific expression
patterns (Hutchison, 2001).
Type B lamins are expressed in all somatic cells and remain associated with
membrane vesicles during mitosis. The B-type lamins include B1 and B2, which are the
4
�products of two separate genes, LMNB1 and LMNB2 respectively. Type A lamins are
expressed in differentiated cells and are soluble during mitosis. The A-type lamins,
lamin A and lamin C, are products of one alternatively spliced gene, LMNA gene
(Goldberg et al, 1999).
Type A Lamins
The lamin A/C gene (LMNA gene) maps to chromosome 1q21.2-21.3. The
LMNA gene has 12 exons. The genes measure to be 57.6kb (Lamin A/C, 2003). Lamin
A is coded by exons 1-12 and lamin C by exons 1-10. Precursor messenger RNA
(mRNA) has internal sequences that interrupt the protein-encoding sequence. The
internal sequences which are removed are called “introns” and the sequences that remain
in the processed mRNA are called “exons.” A splice site within exon 10, located just
upstream of the stop codon for lamin C, splices together with exons 11 and 12 to code for
lamin A (Eriksson et al, 2003).
Lamin A is 664 amino acid protein with a molecular weight of 70 kDa (Lamin
A/C, 2003). A nuclear-localization signal (NLS) is located close to the alpha-helical rod
domain. The NLS is necessary for nuclear import. The C-terminal end of lamin A
contains a sequence motif CaaX (C, cysteine; a, any alipathic amino acid; X, any amino
acid). The motif is modified by farnesylation of the C-terminal cysteine residue (a single
nucleotide in a nucleic acid). A farnesyl group is attached to the C-terminal motif CaaX
and is a membrane attachment device. That is followed by cleavage of the three Nterminal residues and carboxy-methylation of the cysteine. After nuclear import, the Cterminal 15 residues of lamin A are removed by proteolytic cleavage to yield mature
lamin A (Hutchison et al, 2001). Lamin C is a 572 amino acid protein. It differs from
lamin A in that it lacks the final 82 amino acids, including the CaaX motif. Lamin C is
not modified throughout its lifetime (Lamin A/C, 2003).
VI. Progeria Genetics
The mode of inheritance for HGPS is sporadic autosomal dominant. A de novo
mutation occurs in the LMNA gene during spermatogenesis. HGPS is only known to be
paternal in origin (Eriksson et al, 2003).
The most common HGPS mutation is a C (cytosine) to T (thymine) in the
context of a CpG dinucleotide. Cytosine is the most mutable base in the vertebrate
genome, as a methylated C can be deaminated to T and miscopied. The mutation on
codon 608, G608G (GGC>GGT) is a silent mutation because these two codons encode
for G (glycine). A codon is a section of DNA, three nucleotide pairs long, that encodes
for an amino acid. Another mutation in the same codon G608S (GGC>AGC) results in a
5
�substitution of serine for glycine. These mutations activate a cryptic splice site (Eriksson
et al, 2003).
Lamin A is normally synthesized as a precursor molecule, prelamin A. The
codon 11 HGPS mutations and consequent abnormal splicing would produce a prelamin
A that has the CaaX motif, but is missing the site of endoproteolytic cleavage. Also, cellcycle-dependent phosporylation of lamin A is important for its normal function, and one
site for phosphorylation is deleted in the abnormal HGPS protein. The incompletely
processed prelamin A acts as dominant negative, because mature lamin A is never
received by the nuclear lamina to perform normal functions (Eriksson et al, 2003).
Why are muscle and skeletal cells affected the most?
The nuclear envelope is vulnerable to damage in contractile tissues such as
skeletal and cardiac muscle. The nuclear envelope in these cells is more vulnerable
because B-type lamins are expressed at reduced levels. Mutations in lamina proteins
destabilize the association of lamins to the nuclear envelope. The lamina as a whole
would become less effective as a load-bearing structure, particularly in muscle.
Ultimately, this general fragility translates into physical damage leading to cell death and
tissue damage. The nuclear envelope in these cells is fractured and there is leakage of
lamins and chromatin into the cytoplasm. The damage is limited in skelelal muscle
because the muscle fibers are a syncitium, and not all nuclei will be damaged within a
single muscle fiber. A syncitium is a mass of multinucleated cytoplasm without division
into separate cells. Unfortunately, in cardiac muscle, loss of individual cardiomycotes
will be cumulative and will eventually lead to conduction blocks (Hutchison et al, 2001).
VII. Treatments
Low Dose Aspirin Treatment and HGPS
Children with HGPS are at high risk for heart attacks and thrombotic strokes.
Studies in adults show that the benefits of low dose aspirin therapy increase with
increasing cardiovascular risk. Low dose aspirin may help to prevent atherothrombotic
events, by inhibiting platelet aggregation (Gordon et al, 2002).
Nutritional Supplements and HGPS
Nutrition is a difficult daily aspect of HGPS because these children often have
poor appetites. Improved caloric intake may result in better skin and nail health and
improved energy level and mood. Some children with HGPS have high cholesterol, and
all children with HGPS develop heart disease. Nutritional supplements help provide
6
�balanced nutrition including carbohydrates and fats. Some products that can be bought
for extra nutrition are Pediasure, Ensure, Boost, and Enlive! (Harten, 2002).
Emotional Support
The Sunshine Foundation is a wish granting organization founded in 1976. The
foundation helps seriously ill, physically challenged, and abused children by taking all
responsibilities to make their wishes come true. Most of the funding is in the form of
donations. One of the main events that the Sunshine Foundation does annually is a
reunion for all known children who suffer from HGPS. Sunshine has sponsored 21
Annual Progeria Reunions to date. For one week, the children enjoy the company of
other children like themselves (Sunshine Foundation, 2003-2004).
The Progeria Research Foundation was created in early 1999 by Dr. Leslie
Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns. They organized PRF some time after they were given the
news that their son was diagnosed with HGPS. PRF is the only non-profit- organization
in the world dedicated to progeria research. PRF runs the Cell and Tissue Bank and
Medical Database for children with progeria and their families. PRF played an important
role, along with the National Institute of Health, in the discovery of the gene, LMNA
gene, that causes HGPS. All researchers and staff working for PRF volunteer their time
and energy to find a cure for HGPS. (Progeria Research Foundation, 2003).
RNA interference
The genome inside every cell contains thousands of genes. If the cell left itself
unchecked every gene would be transcribed simultaneously. To allow the cell to function
normally, generally, a gene’s DNA code is transcribed to messenger RNA (mRNA) only
if a particular protein assemblage has docked on the promoter region in the gene.
Some genes are so dangerous to the cell, that it should never be expressed. One
way for the cell’s systems to censor gene expression is called RNA interferene (RNAi).
When a threatening gene is expressed, the RNAi machinery silences it by intercepting
and destroying only that particular gene’s mRNA, without disturbing the messages of
other genes. This censoring system is seen in many different organisms, like plants,
nematodes, Drosophila, and humans (Lau et al, 2003).
Scientists are looking into ways of using RNAi as therapy to treat cancer, viral
infections, and certain dominant genetic disorders and other diseases that could be
controlled by preventing selected genes from giving rise to illness-causing proteins( Lau
et al, 2003).
7
�VIII. Literature Cited
Brown WT, 1992. Progeria: a human-disease model of accelerated aging. Am J Clin Natr
55:1222S-4S
DeBusk FL, 1972. The Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. Journal of Pediatrics
80,14 part(2) 697-721
Eriksson M et al, 2003. Recurrent de novo point mutations in lamin A cause HutchinsonGilford progeria syndrome. Nature 423: 293-298
Goldberg M et al, 1999. Functional organization of the nuclear lamina. Gene Ther Mol
Biol 4:143-159
Hutchison C, 2001. Lamins in disease: why do ubiquitously expressed nuclear envelope
proteins give rise to tissue-specific disease phenotypes?. Journal of Cell Science 114:919
--- Lamin A/C (LMNA) http://www.dmd.nl/lmna_home.html
Accessed November 3, 2003
Lau NC et al, 2003. Censors of the Genome. Sci Amer 289,2:34-41
Livneh H, 1995. Progeria: Medical Aspects, Psychosocial Perspectives, and Intervention
Guidelines. Death Studies 19:433-452
---Online Mendelian Inheritance of Man. http://wwwncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim
Accessed November 3, 2003
---Progeria Research Foundation. http://www.progeriaresearch.org/
Accessed November 3, 2003
---Sunshine Foundation. http://wwwsunshinefoundation.org/progeria.html
Accessed November 3, 2003
8
�Appendix A: Clinical features of other laminopathies
Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy, type 2 (OMIM 181350)
Myopathy intermediate between limb-girdle and scapuloperoneal atrophy; late onset
cardiomyopathy; arrhythmia; early contractures; neck stiffness
Emery-Dreifuss Muscular Dystrophy, type 3 (OMIM 604929)
Spinal rigidity; contractures; diffuse muscle wasting; pelvic girdle muscle weakness;
difficulty walking; muscular dystrophy
Limb-girdle Muscular Dystrophy, type 1B (OMIM 159001)
Atrioventricular conduction disturbances; bradycardia; dilated cardiomyopathy; sudden
cardiac death; mild joint contractures; hip girdle muscle weakness; shoulder girdle
muscle weakness; myopathic changes
Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disorder, type 2B1 (OMIM 605588)
Kyphoscoliosis; pes cavus; foot deformities; distal limb muscle weakness; distal limb
muscle atrophy; 'steppage' gait; foot drop; distal sensory impairment; hyporeflexia;
areflexia; axonal degeneration/regeneration on nerve biopsy; decreased number of
myelinated fibers may be found
Dunnigan type of familial partial lipodystrophy (OMIM 151660)
Symmetirc lipoatrophy of trunks and limbs; fat sparing at the neck; buffalo hump area;
tuberoeruptive xanthomata; acanthosis nigricans; lean muscular limbs; phlebectasia;
rounded and full face
Mandibuloacral dysplasia (OMIM 248370)
Hypoplastic mandible; severe dental crowding; wide cranial sutures; acroosteolysis; stiff
joints; hypoplastic clavicles; atrophy over head and feet; alopecia; short stature;
hematemesis
9
�Familial form of dilated cardiomyopathy (OMIM 115200)
Congestive cardiomyopathy; conduction defects; atrial fibrillation; ventricular
arrhythmia; congestive heart failure; pericardial effusion; Adam-Stokes attacks
Subset of Werner’s Syndrome (OMIM 277700)
Short stature; stocky trunk; prematurely aged face; cataracts; retinal degeneration; beaked
nose; premature arteriosclerosis; osteoporosis; slender limbs; scleroderma-like skin;
subcutaneous calcification; thin, sparse, gray hair; premature balding; diabetes mellitus;
hypogonadism, Osteosarcoma and meningioma in about 10% of sufferers.
10
�Figure 1: Nuclear Lamina. The inner nuclear membrane and the nuclear lamina are
involved in several biological functions, including: regulation of the nuclear envelope
shape and structure; disassembly and reassembly of the nuclear envelope during mitosis;
providing anchoring sites for chromatin and affecting higher order chromatin
organization; lamins are needed for the elongation phase of DNA replication; lamins are
important for initializing and completing apoptosis and lamins interlink adjacent nuclear
pore complexes.
11
�Figure 2: Lamins. Lamins B1 and B2 are expressed by LMNAB1 and LMNAB2
respectively. Lamin A and lamin C are the products of alternative splicing of the LMNA
gene.
12
�Photos of Children with Progeria
13
�14
�Bots
1
Sean Munson (Computer Science)
I. Introduction
Bots have become a commonly used attribute of the Internet. What is a bot, you
may ask? A general definition of a bot can be considered to be a program that is meant to
be left alone while in operation to interact with the Internet. The two types of bots are
spiders and intelligent agents. Spiders , otherwise known as web crawlers are bots “that
index and map specific web sites (Pallmann, page 4)” all across the Internet. In contrast,
intelligent agents have some complexity in their designs, they make decisions without the
aid of interaction and therefore are able to perform tasks. For instance, an intelligent
agent could notify a person via email once an occurrence has taken place on the Internet.
Examples of spiders are those that are used for search engines. The search
engine spider traverses the web in order to keep the databases of its search engine current
and up to date. The search engine can be broken up nicely into two diagrams, one is
called the “front end (Pallmann, page 4)” and the other is called the “back end (Pallmann,
page 5)”. The diagram for the “front end (Pallmann, page 4)” is shown in Figure 1.
On the front end a user types into a web browser the search terms that describe
what he or she is looking for. That is then sent to the search engine’s web server, which
translates the search terms into a database query and sends the database query to a
database of indexed web sites. The database of indexed web sites then sends records that
match the database query back to the search engine web server. The search engine’s web
server then sends a results page back to the web browser for the user to read.
The other half of the search engine, the “back end (Pallmann, page 5)” is “the
program that scours the Internet and updates the database (Pallmann, page 5).” The
spider is vital to the search engine’s existence, the “spider is just as essential as the search
engine’s front end (Pallmann, page 5)”. If the spider did not exist then the information
that is displayed on the web browser would quickly become old and of no need to the
user of the search engine. The diagram of the search engine’s “back end (Pallmann, page
5)” is shown in Figure 2.
A spider continuously searches through the Internet and as it does so, it indexes
each site. Once a spider comes to a web site’s home page, the spider must then go to
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Adrian Ionescu (Computer Science)
15
�Web Browser
Search
Terms
Results
Page
Search Engine
Web Server
Database
Query
Matching
Records
Database of
Indexed
Web Sites
Figure 1: The Front End
Database of Indexed
Web Sites
Records
Spider
Robot
Response
Pages
URLs
Web
Sites
Figure 2: The Back End
16
�every link that is on that web page. This is “a process called crawling (Pallmann, page
5).”
The other type of bot that can perform certain tasks is the intelligent agent.
Intelligent agents can “work unattended (in the background) (Pallmann, page 5).” An
example of an intelligent agent is a “news bot (Pallmann, page 5).” The diagram for a
“news bot (Pallmann, page 5)” is shown in Figure 3.
User
Instructions
News Bot
Data
News Source #1
Web Site
Notification
Data
Data
News Source #3
Web Site
News Source #2
Web Site
Figure 3: News Bot Example
The user gives the news bot instructions for it to perform. The news bot then
goes out to the specific news source web sites to perform the instructions. Perhaps the
news bot is waiting for certain events or news to take place and be displayed on the news
source web site. Then the news bot may gathers the data that has been sent to it by the
news source web site and then sends the user of the news bot some sort of notification.
The notification could be an on screen display, it could be a sound that is played through
the computers speakers, it could be an email, or it could be all three.
17
�Spider and Intelligent Agent
The spider and the intelligent agent are two very different types of bots. The
spider that is used by many search engines is “nearly invisible (Pallmann, page 6).”
Contrastingly, because of the notification and instructions that are involved, spiders will
cause the users to see intelligent agents. Another major difference is spiders usually run
on servers and intelligent agents usually run on personal computers.
II. Programming Bots
When writing the programming code for a bot one needs to be aware of the
fundamentals of bots. First of all, bots are meant to run on their own. And secondly,
they are meant to run for a long period of time. Therefore, a programmer must include
good code that reports significant errors when attention is needed. Also the programmer
must write code that is efficient with the systems memory resources.
On the Internet there are web sites that do not want or like bot interaction.
“Hammering (Pallmann, page 15)” is what web site management does not like about
bots. Hammering is when a program accesses a web site many times in a row, which in
turn can slow down the web sites performance. Most web sites want people to be able to
access them and if a bot compromises this, then they have the option of participating in
“The Internet Robot Exclusion Standard (Pallmann, page 15).” The Exclusion Standard
incorporates a text file that has to be named robots.txt. The robots.txt file is specific to
each web site but only if the web site has implemented its use.
For example, cnn.com’s robots.txt file (see Appendix I) does not allow
all bots to enter certain areas of its web site. When viewing a robots.txt file, the text
following the ‘#’ symbol is ignored or commented out. The ‘*’ symbol represents any
and all bots. The portions following ‘Disallow’ are the areas of the web sites that are
off limits for the bots that are specified by ‘User-agent:’. Then for more specific
instructions pertaining to certain bots, instead of ‘*’, the name of the bot is used.
Although bots have demonstrated their usefulness for an Internet user, this
programmer was interested in testing their purported usefulness for the Internet.
Therefore, the purpose of this project was to integrate robots for Internet use, and to test
their efficiency for Internet users and their interaction with the Internet.
In this project there were two C++ source files that were added,
CRobotInternet and CRobotMail. The CRobotInternet class can be used to
retrieve information from the web. The data that can be extracted can be strings or
integers or any other type of standard data type. CRobotInternet also has the
capability to communicate with web servers. The other class, CRobotMail gives the
18
�programmer general e-mail control and capabilities. More specifically, it “allows one to
read all messages from the inbox, including new ones, and to send a message, with or
without a file attachment (page 78).”
For this project, I designed my robot to go to a specified web site and notify the
user when a certain string has been posted on the web site. The user must first enter the
strings or phrases into the robots interface. Then the robot can search and wait on the
web site to refresh. Once the web site has been refreshed with the appropriate string, the
robot will then notify the user. Also the user must enter the e-mail address that he/she
wants the robot to notify them at.
For this project, my first step was to get the Microsoft Developer Studio
running. Then, I created a dialog based MFC application. The Microsoft Developer
Studio makes creating the robot a lot simpler than if writing the program from scratch.
The studio has the ability to generate code for the programmer. While creating the MFC
application, I accepted all the default options. I named the MFC application
stockHeadline. Then I added the following classes to the project:
CRobotInternet.h, CRobot.h, CRobotMail.h,
CRobotInternet.cpp, and CRobotMail.cpp. These files make creating the
project a lot simpler by using their available functions. Next, at the top of the
stockHeadline.cpp file, I added the following header files:
#include “CRobot.h”
#include “CRobotInternet.h”
#include “CRobotMail.h”
The above lines enable the project to access the functions that are in CRobotMail and
CRobotInternet.
The next step is to open the main dialog resource and to add the necessary
controls. There needs to be an e-mail address edit box, a phrases edit box, a display box
for all the phrases that have been added to the list, and a group of buttons consisting of
hide, close, add, and remove. The hide button minimizes the robots interface. The close
button terminates the application. The add button adds a phrase to the list of phrases and
the remove button removes the highlighted phrase.
To simplify the creation of the dialog box I added member variables to the
member variables section of the class wizard. The class wizard is a tool in the Microsoft
Developer Studio that breaks down and gives one more control of the classes used in
projects. In the class wizard, I added variables and gave them appropriate Resource ID’s.
The following is what I added:
19
�Variable Name
Resource ID
m_mail
IDC_MAIL
m_words
IDC_WORDS
m_words_ctl
IDC_WORDS
Next, I created a context menu. A context menu displays the options once a user
clicks on the icon that is in the system tray. Normally one gets options when he or she
right clicks on icons that are in the system tray. To create the context menu for the
project I went to the ResourceView tab in Microsoft’s Developer Studio. Once there I
was able to create a new menu resource. Then I was able to define the menu items with
the following resource IDs:
Caption
Resource ID
&Update
IDC_UPDATE
&Configure
IDC_CONFIGURE
E&xit
IDC_EXIT
The ampersand makes the character after it a shortcut for that command. If the
menu is activated and the options are visible then pressing the letter x on the keyboard
will cause the program to exit, the letter u on the keyboard will cause the program to
update itself, and the letter c on the keyboard will cause to program to re-configure itself.
The icon in the system tray has the ability to change states. By pressing the
ResourceView tab I was able to draw icons that will be displayed when the program takes
a certain state. There are three different icons to be created:
Icon
Description of Icon
Idle
The letter ‘I’ that stands for Idle.
Active
The hourglass was used for this icon in order to represent that
the program is busy.
Error
The letter ‘X’ was used to depict that something is wrong with
the program.
Now the icon on the system tray nearly has the ability to display its state to its
user. Next I defined the class variables and constants that I put in the stockHeadline.h
file. The following are the function titles that I added:
void SetTray (int nWhichIcon, CString sStatus) ;
void LoadWords ( ) ;
20
�void SaveWords ( ) ;
void ScanForStockHeadlines ( ) ;
void OnMenuUpdate ( ) ;
void OnMenuConfigure ( ) ;
void OnMenuExit ( ) ;
Each function is related to the buttons that were added to the dialog box or are
related to the options after right clicking on the system tray icon except for
‘ScanForStockHeadlines’ which gives the program the ability to know when the
appropriate phrase has been found.
Next I added the appropriate message handlers in the IDC_WORDS combo box,
which can be found in the class wizard. The first message handler to be added is ‘add’.
One of the things to know is if there is any phrase to add to the list of phrases. The
following checks to see if the entry line is blank:
if ( m_words = = “” )
{
MessageBox ( “ Please enter a phrase. “,
“A phrase is required”,
MB_EXCLAMATION ) ;
return ;
} // end if
In the if statement, ‘m_words’ checks to see if the line is blank and if it is then
an error message will be reported. The other message handlers that needed to be added
were OnRemove, OnInitdialog, OnOk, and OnTimer. OnRemove is the
code for the ‘remove’ button on the dialog box. Once the errors were checked for the
word it could then be removed, the code for the removal of a phrase from the dialog box
is as follows: m_words_ctl.DeleteString( m_words_ctl.GetCurSel (
);
The OnInitdialog message handler puts the intelligent agent in the
Windows system tray. The OnOk message handler responds to the click of the hide
button and respectively hides the intelligent agents interface. Lastly the OnTimer
21
�message handler will execute the intelligent agent on a set interval. This function gives
the agent the ability to make routine check-ups of the web.
Next I wrote the scanForStockHeadline function which retrieves the
appropriate and requested web page and determines whether the web page has the correct
and matching phrase. To determine if the web page is accessible the following line of
code was used:
if ( internet.httpGet ( “//* web page address *// “,
sHTML, nResult, sErrMsg )) ;
After this function is complete the code for the intelligent agent is concretely
finished. All that is left to do is use the finished application.
III. Conclusion
Robots have proven to be a highly useful tool for the internet. In conclusion, my
project supports their usefulness in conjunction with the internet. For today’s fast paced
information needs, the applications of robots and the internet are seemingly endless.
With the growth of the internet today, the programmer’s job will be a challenging one to
meet the demands for tools to manage, navigate and gather information from the web. As
the use of the Internet increases, robots or even more efficient tools will need to be
designed. Thus the programmer’s challenge for the future will be to supply users with
tools such as robots that are functional and user friendly to maximize their Internet time.
IV. Bibliography
Pallmann, David. Programming Bots, Spiders, and Intelligent Agents in Visual C++.
Redmond, Washington: 1999.
22
�Appendix A
The following is the robots.txt file taken from www.cnn.com on November 17, 2003.
# Robots, scram
User-agent:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
*
/cgi-bin
/TRANSCRIPTS
/development
/third
/beta
/java
/shockwave
/JOBS
/pr
/Interactive
/alt_index.html
/webmaster_logs
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
User-agent:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Mozilla/3.01 (hotwired-test/0.1)
/cgi-bin
/TRANSCRIPTS
/development
/third
/beta
/java
/shockwave
/JOBS
/pr
/Interactive
/alt_index.html
/webmaster_logs
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
User-agent: Slurp
Disallow:
/cgi-bin
23
�Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
/TRANSCRIPTS
/development
/third
/beta
/java
/shockwave
/JOBS
/pr
/Interactive
/alt_index.html
/webmaster_logs
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
User-agent:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Scooter
/cgi-bin
/TRANSCRIPTS
/development
/third
/beta
/java
/shockwave
/JOBS
/pr
/Interactive
/alt_index.html
/webmaster_logs
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
User-agent:
Disallow:
#Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Ultraseek
/cgi-bin
/TRANSCRIPTS
/development
/third
/beta
/java
/shockwave
/JOBS
/pr
24
�Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
/Interactive
/alt_index.html
/webmaster_logs
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
User-agent:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
smallbear
/cgi-bin
/java
/images
/development
/third
/beta
/webmaster_logs
/virtual
/shockwave
/TRANSCRIPTS
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
/alt_index.html
User-agent:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
Disallow:
GoogleBot
/cgi-bin
/java
/images
/development
/third
/beta
/webmaster_logs
/virtual
/shockwave
/TRANSCRIPTS
/newscenter
/virtual
/DIGEST
/QUICKNEWS
/SEARCH
/alt_index.html
25
�Appendix B
The following is stockHeadline.cpp
// stockHeadline.cpp : Defines the class behaviors for the
application.
//
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "stockHeadline.h"
#include "stockHeadlineDlg.h"
#ifdef _DEBUG
#define new DEBUG_NEW
#undef THIS_FILE
static char THIS_FILE[] = __FILE__;
#endif
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////
// CStockHeadlineApp
BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CStockHeadlineApp, CWinApp)
//{{AFX_MSG_MAP(CStockHeadlineApp)
// NOTE - the ClassWizard will add and remove
mapping macros here.
//
DO NOT EDIT what you see in these blocks
of generated code!
//}}AFX_MSG
ON_COMMAND(ID_HELP, CWinApp::OnHelp)
END_MESSAGE_MAP()
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////
// CStockHeadlineApp construction
CStockHeadlineApp::CStockHeadlineApp()
{
// TODO: add construction code here,
// Place all significant initialization in
InitInstance
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////
26
�// The one and only CStockHeadlineApp object
CStockHeadlineApp theApp;
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////
// CStockHeadlineApp initialization
BOOL CStockHeadlineApp::InitInstance()
{
AfxEnableControlContainer();
// Standard initialization
// If you are not using these features and wish to
reduce the size
// of your final executable, you should remove from
the following
// the specific initialization routines you do not
need.
#ifdef _AFXDLL
Enable3dControls();
using MFC in a shared DLL
#else
Enable3dControlsStatic();
linking to MFC statically
#endif
// Call this when
// Call this when
CStockHeadlineDlg dlg;
m_pMainWnd = &dlg;
int nResponse = dlg.DoModal();
if (nResponse == IDOK)
{
// TODO: Place code here to handle when the
dialog is
// dismissed with OK
}
else if (nResponse == IDCANCEL)
{
// TODO: Place code here to handle when the
dialog is
// dismissed with Cancel
}
// Since the dialog has been closed, return FALSE so
that we exit the
27
�// application, rather than start the application's
message pump.
return FALSE;
}
28
�Section II:
The Social Sciences
�Case Study of a Two-Year-Old Girl's Emotional
Adjustment in a Private Day Care Setting Case
Claire Lippmann1 (Psychology)
Being away from home and mommy for most of the day can be difficult when
experienced for the first time. In accordance with this, Watamura, Donzella, Alwin, and
Gunnary (2003) found that most infants and toddlers show signs of physiological stress when
placed in day care. What seems troubling to most parents is the fact that young infants cannot
express their feelings or thoughts through language. Instead, parents must be able to read the
child's actions and behavior, which is not always easy. While spending time at Wagner
College's Early Childhood Center, I chose to focus on one particular child's emotional
adjustment to the day care: Samantha, two years old, the youngest of the 14 children in her
class. Using Erik Erikson's and Jean Piaget's models of childhood development, as well as
other authors discussing childhood research and theories, Samantha's observed behavior will
be compared and consequently, the theories will be discussed and re-examined in a modern
context. In addition, an emphasis will be brought on the quality verses the quantity of child
care, demonstrating that the quality of a day care should matter most to parents who worry
about their child's behavioral, psychological, and physiological well being when placed in
such an environment.
One would think that the smaller the child the more difficult it is to adapt to the new
child care environment. Samantha, however, adjusted particularly well to the day care center,
especially in comparison to her slightly older classmates. As will be discussed more in depth
later on, Samantha revealed no or few signs of separation anxiety, and showed an overall
positive attitude towards her peers and teachers. She attended the Early Childhood Center
five days a week, often arriving earlier than her classmates in the morning and staying late in
the afternoons. Samantha developed strong bonds with her teachers, picking out her favorite
ones and shadowing them for most of the day. During the first few weeks of school she
engaged mostly in solitary play, staying away from the group play being engaged by her
peers. Due to her age, towards the beginning of the school year, Samantha still required a lot
of personal attention and affection. As time went by, however, Samantha grew slightly more
independent, needing less time with teachers and spending more time playing with her peers.
When ill she was very lethargic, tired and weary, and made her needs and wants known
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Miles Groth (Psychology)
30
�through the use of crying. Even though she was in poor health, and in no shape to participate
actively in the day care's activities, her parents dropped her off nonetheless. Although during
that time she never directly asked for her mother, I am almost certain that she would have
felt sentimentally better if with her mother.
Before going on, it is necessary to talk a bit about the Early Childhood Center itself
to establish a background. Lamb (1998) accumulated evidence suggesting that the quality of
child care is important for children's development, furthermore stating that higher quality
care is associated with increased development of cognitive and language skills. Luckily for
Samantha and her classmates, the Early Childhood Center is a high quality, private child care
center. Children coming from upper and middle socioeconomic backgrounds attend this
facility. Its teachers' high devotion to each child is what makes it a quality place for children.
The classroom consists of four teachers and 14 children. Of the four teachers, one has been
teaching for 15 years, two are graduate assistants who plan on being teachers themselves,
and one, myself, remains an undergraduate student. I believe this diverse aspect of the
classroom brings an enormous advantage to the children, because they are looked after by
people who truly care and love children, and whose motivation is not related to money (since
the two assistants and I were not getting paid).
Interestingly enough, current findings have shown that extensive early experience
in child care can be associated with behavior problems developed later on, but that the actual
quality of care can balance the risks linked with the time spent in child care (Love, Harrison,
Sagi-Schwartz, Ijzendoorn, Ross, Ungerer, Raikes, Brady-Smith, Boiler, Brooks-Gunn,
Constantine, Kisker, Paulsell, & Chazan-Cohen, 2003). Children attending the Early
Childhood Center obtain most of the personal attention they need, although as we shall see,
this may not be enough on the part of the educator, whom even with the best intentions
cannot bring the same kind of emotional feedback to the child as the mother. On the one
hand, this can be explained by the fact that teachers must attend to several children's needs at
once, which can sometimes be troublesome. On the other hand, it can also be explained by
the well-known fact that teachers tend to stimulate children intellectually, whereas parents
tend to be more sensitive to their child's emotional equilibrium. Furthermore, the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, 2003) reports that the more
time spent in non-maternal care in the first four and one half years of life may be associated
with more externalizing problems and conflicts in kindergarten. Above all, it is important to
realize that quality of child care matters just as much as quantity of child care when it comes
to children's social-emotional development (Love et al, 2003).
Samantha shows no negative behavior traits; she is cooperative, attentive, and even
quite talkative when asked simple questions that she comprehends. Throughout the first few
weeks of school, Samantha showed hardly any signs of separation anxiety, as though she
somewhat understood that her mother was not abandoning her, but would soon return.
31
�Agreeing with this, Selma H. Fraiberg (1959) writes, "In the second year we find that the
infant can tolerate small amounts of discomfort and anxiety without being reduced to
helplessness and panic". Samantha reduced her anxiety by clinging to and shadowing her
teachers. This behavior reminds us of Margaret Mahler's concept of emotional refueling,
except that instead of it occurring with the mother, Samantha obtained emotional refueling
from the teachers she felt closest to and spent the most time with. Accordingly, Fraiberg
(1959) reminds us that "Babies who do not suffer with excessive anxiety seem to develop
their own methods of overcoming such fears".
Although Samantha, or any infant at this stage, does not fully grasp the concept of
object permanence, she understands the concept when applied to people she knows such as
her mother, brother, or favorite teacher. In other words, Samantha believes her mother
‘disappears’ but frequently returns. What is, in her view, a magical phenomenon, suffices for
common, everyday situations in reducing anxiety. The same explanation fits the way
Samantha talks about her brother. Every day Samantha and one of her parents drop off her
brother (age 5) at the school bus stop. As a result, when asked about her brother, Samantha
ensures me he is on the school bus - proving she does not realize her brother's school bus
takes him to school, where he spends the day in a classroom rather than on the bus. This sort
of dialogue shows some aspects of object permanence have been mastered by the child, but
not yet to its full capacity.
When attempting to tap into a child's emotional life and psychosocial development,
Erikson's model of childhood development appears among the most powerful and influential
theories. It suggests a total of eight developmental stages, for which a crisis must be resolved
in each stage in order for a person to develop psychosocially without hauling issues attached
to the previous crisis. Erikson differed from his precursors by believing that "conflict arises
not from the internal forces of the person, but rather the person's interaction with his or her
environment" (Cross, 2001). In other words, Erikson viewed culture as an extremely
important aspect of a person's development, therefore suggesting that depending on the
child's developmental age, stages may occur earlier or later than stated in his model.
Erikson suggests that during the first year of a child's life the child must master the
crisis of trust versus mistrust. In this stage parents play a primary role because "Food, shelter,
and proactive efforts at comforting the infant lead it to hold a basic trust about the world"
(Cross, 2001). Samantha's behavior shows that she has mastered her primary crisis, yet, she
still has not been toilet trained, and therefore has not been subjected to the next crisis of
autonomy versus shame and doubt. Another feature of this stage of development is the need
to explore: the child experiences increased physical movement ability, and consequently
feels the need to explore the world. This stage can be extremely tiring for parents and may
lead them to discourage their child's explorations. Such a restraint may lead the child to
develop self-doubt and shame. Once again, when following Erikson's model, Samantha does
32
�not seem to have reached the toddler stage yet, however she seems to be on the route of a
healthy psychosocial development, considering that she is only two years and three months
old. In the day care she explores when she chooses to, and soils in a diaper, but does not
exhibit feelings of doubt or shame, or any particular signs of autonomy that are usually
applied to two and a half and three year olds. This is in accordance to her age and
environment, taking in account the fact that her parents have not yet presented her the task of
toilet training, one of the most fundamental aspects of Erikson's toddler phase.
When focusing on a child's cognitive development, Piaget's theory was also
tremendously influential, as well as comprehensive. Piaget was interested in understanding
how it is that children become rational, and wanted to understand not only how children
think but also how they learn to think. Piaget's model of cognitive development worked
similarly to Erikson's model of childhood development because both proposed the idea that
one stage precedes another and consequently lead to an individual's well being and balance
with his or her environment (Piaget, 1972). In Piaget's view, a two-year-old's development
corresponds to the preoperational stage, whose major accomplishments are language and
conceptual development. During this stage, children show signs of centration, "a tendency to
focus on only one especially noticeable aspect of a complicated object or situation"
(Sternberg, 2003). This tendency can be seen in Samantha's behavior when she works on
puzzles, as she focuses on a single dimension: finding where the puzzle piece goes,
sometimes without taking into account that the piece she holds belongs to a different puzzle
than the one she is working on.
In addition, Piaget believed that the affective, social and cognitive aspects of
behavior are inseparable, because neither one can function without the other. To explain this
aspect of behavior, Piaget presents us with the idea of children's development of mental
images, believing this developmental process "results in the formation of new affects in the
form of lasting sympathies or antipathies toward other people" (Piaget, 1969). This view
shows Samantha has reached the preoperational stage and has developed certain mental
images about her environment, which in turn permit her to make new friendships, and as a
result increase the richness of her surroundings. Piaget also stressed this stage as critical for
language development, thus indirectly supporting Love and Ahnert's findings which suggest
that children in day care are associated with higher cognitive and language scores at 24 and
36 months (2003,2003). Since in Piaget's view, language at this stage is set as a major goal,
and that according to Love et al. (2003), children placed in child care are more prone to
communication, both theories come together and seem to support one another. Interestingly
enough, although Piaget focused primarily on children's cognitive development, he perceived
children's private speech as irrelevant to children's cognitive development, not realizing the
fundamental link existing between the two.
33
�Lev S. Vygotsky, a well-known and outstanding Russian psychologist from the
1930's, was the first to realize the importance of children's private speech. Up to the 1960's
Western psychologists and educators had been persuaded by Piaget that private speech
played no constructive part in normal cognitive development. However, Vygotsky saw a
strong connection between social experience, speech and learning, and furthermore believed
that "early social communication precipitates private speech...social communication gives
rise to all uniquely human, higher cognitive processes" (Berk, 1994). Even though the speech
produced by children lacks structure, as well as vocabulary, they manage to state the aspects
that seem the most confusing to them. As the tasks they take on become more common and
well practiced, this private speech becomes internalized and remains with us throughout our
entire lives. Berk (1994) suggests, along with many other researchers, that "self-guidance is
the central function of private speech", and that "although children are often rebuked for
talking to themselves out loud, doing so helps them control their behavior and master new
skills." After all, if this aspect of childhood behavior is so universal, the need to recognize its
purpose seems understandable. When observing Samantha individually, I asked her to
complete a few cognitive operations, mainly consisting of recognizing certain objects from
the classroom and matching them with drawings in a picture book. Whenever the object's
presence was a bit harder to establish, she would start mumbling as though going through the
motions in her head. The experience was repeated with puzzles, and in accordance with
Vygotsky's findings, the more challenging the puzzles were, the more Samantha felt the need
to express her thoughts out loud. In addition, her cooperative behavior may be explained by
her frequent use of private speech, which serves the purpose of a regulator of frustration and
anxiety.
Vygotsky also studied children's imagination and creativity, which he viewed as
extremely central to a child's general development. He proposes, "Already at an early age,
children have creative processes, which are expressed in their play" (1967). Moreover,
Vygotsky (1967) believed "The child's play activity is not simply a recollection of past
experience, but a creative reworking that combines impressions and constructs from the new
realities addressing the needs of the child”. This view is similar to Piaget's notion of the child
inventing the world as he or she experiences it. From both these points of view, play has a
fundamental role in a child's development, teaching children to simulate adult situations, and
therefore teaching them little by little how to fit into society. Nevertheless, play can also be
extremely creative; children continually invent games with rules evoking immense
imagination and creativity.
The child care setting represents an encouraging play environment by providing
excessive amounts of toys and activities the child can actively participate in. After all,
"creativity is a necessary force of existence" (Vygotsky, 1967) and a quality child care offers
a nearly perfect environment for children to "practice" life. Samantha plays an average of six
34
�to seven different games (with no rules) and participates in five to six diverse classroom or
individual activities per day. In other words, Samantha has the opportunity to grow up in a
rich, socially interactive environment, where play is encouraged, and private speech is not
looked down upon. She spends her day in a positive learning and caring environment where
many aspects of her behavior can be enhanced and developed in a healthy manner. Perhaps
Samantha's adjustment to the child care center may not have been so easy under different
circumstances, or in a less privileged setting.
The Early Childhood Center accommodates children in a very welcoming fashion.
It is a place where children are listened to, respected, valued as individuals, and due to the
ratio of children per teacher, are given lots of personal attention to meet up to their emotional
needs. However, not all children are so fortunate. Alice Miller attempts to bring to light the
dangerous impacts and devastating effects childhood traumatization can have on adults, and
consequently on society. From her discoveries she reaches the conclusion that human beings
are not inherently destructive, that they are made that way because of ignorance, abuse, and
neglect, and more so if no trustworthy figure can stand by their side. Miller's theory (1988)
furthermore suggests that it is only by confronting the truth that has been avoided time and
time again, that individuals can be saved from self-destruction, as well as blindly destroying
others. Miller also stresses that children, whose vital needs are violated by being exploited,
beaten, punished, manipulated, neglected, or taken advantage of, will be permanently
harmed, and that since, for these children, it is forbidden to express feelings of anger or pain,
"they are compelled to suppress their feelings, repress all memory of the trauma, and idealize
those guilty of the abuse" (Miller, 1988). This dissociation from the original cause invites
them to express their feelings of despair, anger, helplessness, and pain in destructive acts
against others or against themselves. If these individuals turn out to be parents themselves,
their children become scapegoats that the parents beat in order to escape the feelings coming
from the way they were treated as children by their own parents. However, if these
mistreated individuals manage to find emotional support and tenderness, instead of getting
blamed for being at fault, the slate may be cleaned and the cycle broken (Miller, 1988).
Miller (1988) writes, "People whose integrity has not been damaged in childhood, who were
protected, respected, and treated with honesty by their parents, will be - both in their youth
and adulthood - intelligent, responsive, empathetic, and highly sensitive."
Samantha's environment is highly conducive to the positive behavior and personal
integrity Miller writes about. Like Miller, I strongly believe that "a child responds to and
learns both tenderness and cruelty from the very beginning," that parents and educators must
be compassionate and respectful towards children no matter what the situation at hand may
be, because children learn to love from the love they receive.
35
�Samantha's cooperative, responsive and intelligent behavior shows she is brought
up in a supportive environment, and explains why her adjustment to child care occurred with
such ease. Although opinions vary on the advantages and disadvantages of placing a child in
child care, one thing remains certain, that the quality of the child care should be carefully
examined in order to confirm the positive outcomes the school setting will have on the child.
As we now know, childhood trauma is easy to come across but its effects are everlastingly
distressing.
References
Ahnert, L., & Lamb, M. E. (2003). Shared care: Establishing a balance between home and
child care settings. Child Development, 74(4), 1044-1049.
Berk, L. E. (1994, November). Why Children Talk to Themselves. Scientific American, 7883.
Cross, T. L. (2001). Gifted Children and Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development.
Gifted Children Today, 24, 54-57.
Fraiberg, S. H. (1959). The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of
Early Childhood. New York: Fireside.
Lamb, M.E. (1998). Non-parental Child Care: Context, Quality, Correlates, and
Consequences. Handbook of Child Psychology, 4, 73-133.
Love et. al (2003). Child Care Quality Matters: How Conclusions May Vary with Context.
Child Development, 74(4), 1021-1033.
Miller, A. (1988). The Untouched Key: Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and
Destructiveness. New York: Doubleday.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research
Network (2003). Does Amount of Time Spent in Child Care Predict Socio-emotional
Adjustment during the Transition to Kindergarten? Child Development, 74 (4), 976-1005.
Piaget, J. (1972). The Psychology of Intelligence. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams.
Piaget, J. & Inhelder B. (1969). The Psychology of the Child. New York: Basis Books.
36
�Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive Development. Cognitive Psychology, 3rd edition. 443482. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1967). Imagination and Creativity in Childhood (Translated by Francine
Smolucha). Prosveshchenie, 84-96.
Watamura, S. E., Donzella, B., Alwin, J., & Gunnary, M. R. (2003). Morning-toAfternoon Increases in Cortisol Concentrations for Infants and Toddlers at Child
Care: Age Differences and Behavioral Correlates. Child Development, 74, 10061020.
37
�A Reflection of the Little Steps Treatment Program
Josephine Vitale1 (Psychology)
I. Introduction
Codependency, of alcoholism and addiction, in children is a disease in much of
the same way that it is a disease for their parents. It is caused by an integration of
biological, social, and psychological factors that have influenced the child.
Codependency can originate at anytime during an individual's lifetime, especially during
early childhood. Therefore, early intervention is crucial for the prevention of chemical
dependency and further codependency (YMCA Pamphlet).
In a family with a substance-abusing parent, life is often unstable and chaotic.
Children have an increased risk of physical and emotional illness. Some of the common
problems that are experienced by these children include truancy, hyperactivity, substance
abuse, aggressiveness, anxiety, and depression as well as may others (Gadol, 2000).
Children from chemically dependent families share feelings of responsibility for their
families, they feel they are "unlovable" and they have mixed emotions due to the
unpredictability of their families. These children are at higher risk of developing
dysfunctional behaviors including substance abuse problems. The goals of prevention for
these children should include educating them about the disease of chemical dependency,
understanding how chemical dependency has affected their family life, strategies to resist
using alcohol and drugs and an opportunity to identify with a positive adult role model.
The Little Steps program occurs in a weekly group psychotherapy session,
which is scheduled in repeatable 6-week cycles. The program is structured to meet the
developmental needs of each child in the program. It is divided into 3 specific age
groups. The Little Steps group is age appropriate for children between the ages of 4 and
9. This group includes story time, art therapy and a discussion. The activities allow the
children to identify and express various feelings, including anger, sadness and fear, in a
constructive manner. The Stepping Stones group is age-appropriate for children between
the ages of 10 and 12. This group utilizes a mix of art activities, therapeutic games and
discussion. Counselors in this group assist children in handling their increased awareness
of chemical dependency. Clients, ages 12 through 14, take part in the Stepping Out
group. A great deal of discussion and expressive activities are used to help the clients
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Richard Brower (Psychology)
38
�understand the disease of addiction and its impact on the lives of the adolescent.
Additionally, the Little Steps program provides their clients with further services such as
parent support groups, individual counseling, family conferences, and other
extracurricular activities provided by the YMCA.
The Little Steps program promotes a number of goals for their clients. The
primary goal is to have the children achieve an understanding that they are not the cause of
their parents' problems with chemical dependency and that they do not have the ability to
make them stop. It is also important for the children to understand that chemical
dependency is a disease. As a result of the participation in the program, children learn how
to identify feelings and express those feelings in positive way. Additionally, they learn how
to speak honestly, be assertive, make decisions, make friends, and believe in themselves.
As a result of deciding to take part in this internship, my hypothesis is that after
treatment in the Little Steps program for a time period of over 6 months, clients will be
more aware of their feelings, better able to express them and have a better understanding
of chemical dependency.
II. Methods
As I began my internship at the Little Steps Treatment Program I believed that I
would be limited in the number of services I could take part in. My experience was, in
fact, the opposite of my belief. During my 100 hours of field experience, I took part in
every service that is provided by Little Steps. This includes the Little Steps, Stepping
Stones, Parent, and family group as well as staff trainings, intakes and individual
counseling.
In the Stepping Stones, the group included an average of 5 children, one head
counselor and myself. Every session opened up by allowing any child to discuss some
issue that they wanted to talk about. This often included the events that had occurred
since the child was last in group. If no child was willing to discuss any events then some
sort of icebreaker was used in order to allow the children to open up. Following this,
there was a discussion on the topic that was planned for the day. Various topics included
anger management, feelings, self-esteem and chemical dependency. The topic was
usually accompanied by a related activity that utilized art or writing in order for the
children to express themselves. When the activity was completed the children discussed
what they had done and their feelings about it. Group was concluded by distributing an
affirmation statement, which offered a positive message to each child. The average length
of each group was 1 hour and 15 minutes. After all the children were gone, the head
counselor and myself wrote clinical notes on each child in the group. These notes
included my observation of how the child reacted to the activity and any significant
concern the child might have suggested.
39
�March 18, 2003: Self-esteem
The children first discussed what self-esteem is and some things that people may
say to them that hurt their feelings. Every child was given a sheet of blank paper. They
each had a turn to discuss hurtful things. Each time they mentioned something that was
critical or hurtful they were required to tear a piece of the paper in order to symbolize
how hurtful words can tear away at a person's self-esteem. Many children mentioned
such things as being yelled at, being made fun of, and being ignored as things that have
hurt their self-esteem. After each child had completed this section, the counselors
demonstrated that the individual's self-esteem could be built up again after being hurt by
using words that are positive. Each child took turns saying nice things to the other
children in the group. When the child received a compliment they wrote it down on a torn
piece of paper and they put the pieces back together on a mural. This was continued until
each child's self-esteem was put back together. At the end of the group, the children
discussed whether the "new" self-esteem was different than the original. The children
gave many positive responses to this activity. They enjoyed doing it and they
communicated about many of their feelings. One child mentioned that she would like to
do this at home when she is feeling down and I encouraged each child to do this when
they felt that their self-esteem had been hurt.
The Parent group is much less structured than the other groups in the Little Steps
program. On the average, the group consists of 10 individuals, one lead counselor and
myself. These individuals are either the substance abuser in recovery or the spouse of the
substance abuser. At times, the group may also include grandparents, legal guardians, and
foster parents. The group's activities vary on a week-to-week basis according to what the
clients suggest to do. Most of the time one parent will begin discussing one of their
concerns and the rest of the group contributes to the conversation with their inputs. The
parents give each other advice and guidance while the counselors attempt to stir the path
of the discussion. On occasion, the lead counselor or myself would choose a passage or
quote to read and discuss, or we would choose an activity that may be in conjunction to
what the children in the other groups are doing. Usually, the counselors try to discuss
some aspect of what the children are doing in their group but they do not go into it in too
much depth due to confidentiality issues. Some common topics that are discussed in
Parent group include custody issues, addiction, divorce, and concern about their children.
At the end of group, I normally wrote out a brief clinical note regarding the events of
group.
40
�March 13,2003: Discussion by Parent Group
Regarding the Activity of the Little Steps Group
This activity focused on imagining that the characters of Winnie the Pooh were
part of a dysfunctional family with a member who was chemically dependent. They
pretended that Winnie the Pooh was the individual with a problem with chemical
dependency. The purpose of the activity was to identify the roles of each family member
and to be able to identify the traits of each role. We told the parents that the role of Pooh
was the alcoholic and Rabbit was the chief enabler. Christopher Robin was the perfect
child, Tigger was the rebel, Piglet was the clown, and Eeyore was the lost child. The
parents then tried to identify what role they played in their family of origin and what role
they now play. They also tried to identify what role each of their children was playing.
There was some controversy over this activity because some people disagreed that these
roles should be classified only for families with chemical dependency. Many parents
agreed that these roles could be played out in any normal family. The purpose of this
activity was to have the parents be aware of the role that they have in the family and to be
aware of their children's roles.
Individual counseling is the least structured of all the services provided by the
Little Steps program. It is based entirely on the client's needs. The client and the
counselor spend 45 minutes, one-on-one with each other once a week. They are able to
build a trusting relationship so that the client feels comfortable enough to share whatever
they would like to. Clients usually receive this service after requesting it and choosing a
counselor that they feel comfortable with. I began individual counseling with J****, who
is a 7 year old boy from the Little Steps groups, during the last few weeks of the
internship. J**** 's mother suggested that he has a problem with managing his anger and
he is confused about his father's chemical dependency and his role in the family. She
suggested that I work on these issues with him during our time together. During my first
session with the client, he was timid and nice. We tried to get better acquainted with each
other so we discussed school, sports and his family. During the second session, we played
a feelings game and J**** was able to open up more about himself and his feelings. For
our next meetings, I plan on giving the client options on what he would like to do with
our time together.
During my internship at the Little Steps program, I have completed
approximately 7 intakes on my own. At the beginning, I familiarize the new clients to the
Little Steps program. We discuss the rules, activities and goals of the treatment program
as well as give them a brief tour of the vicinity. All paperwork, assessment, goal setting,
and registration take place at this time.
41
�III. Discussion
When I began the internship at the Little Steps program I knew that I wanted to
get the maximum amount of clinical experience from the work I would be doing. I
believe that in my 100 hours at Little Steps I have accomplished that goal. I have
successfully learned the basic practice of conducting group therapy and individual
counseling and I feel confident enough to perform these services on my own. I had
become familiarized with the overall organization and goals of treatment agencies as well
as the methods in which intakes and paperwork are completed. I have learned how to
identify and cope with the needs of every individual client. The skills I have acquired
from this internship can be applied to virtually any agency in which I chose to work for in
the future. As a result of my dedication to this experience, the YMCA Counseling Service
has offered me a position as counselor for the Little Steps program. I have decided to
accept this offer so that I can further my experience in a clinical treatment agency.
The purpose of the Little Steps treatment program is to have the clients
understand that they are not the cause of their parent's chemical dependency problem and
to believe that they are important and special children. There is a great deal of focus on
this goal. I believe that this is a slow process but the Little Steps program has been
effective in accomplishing this. Little Steps has additionally been effective in teaching
the client how to express their feelings, that chemical dependency is a disease and more
importantly that they are children and should be having fun and making friends instead of
worrying about their families.
One of the most important aspects of this program is that it allows the children
to recognize that they are not alone in their family struggles. They learn that the other
children in the program experience similar problems and feelings. This helps the children
better deal with their family life. For 75 minutes each week, the children can come to
group knowing that they will not be judged or criticized by their peers but instead they
will find understanding and reassurance by the other children in the group. This allows
the children to feel more positive about themselves.
An additional positive component of the Little Steps program is that it gives the
children an opportunity to identify with a healthy adult role model, which is often their
counselor. Many of the children may not have any other positive adult role models in
their lives therefore; all counselors make an effort to be a positive part of every child's
life. As a result, I have witnessed the strong relationships and bonds that have been
formed between the counselor and the client. Most of the children in the Little Steps
program do not participate out of their free will. They are forced to be there by the courts
or their families. At times, this causes the clients to be resistant and hostile to counseling.
This occurs more often in the older children and the young adolescents because they
refuse to accept that have a problem. These individuals often feel responsible for their
42
�families and refuse any help. As a result, the treatment program is less effective to those
who object getting the treatment. It is difficult to get these individuals involved but once
they do they realize the importance of sharing their concerns with the group.
On the other hand, I have witnessed first-hand how effective Little Steps could
be if the children are open to this experience. I believe that the program is most effective
when the children start participating at an early age. This allows them to experience the
differences among each group and it allows the children to grow with every group they
step into. Before a child can move up into another group they must first meet all the
criteria of the Little Steps program followed by a graduation ceremony. This process is
extremely effective because the children are publicly recognized for their
accomplishments and they receive a great deal of satisfaction from it. This encourages the
children to continue to participate and succeed in the next group.
The experience I have obtained from this internship will be memorable. I have
learned a great deal from the counselors, supervisors, social workers and psychologists.
Most of all, I have learned from the children who participate in the program. They have
taught me more about life than any textbook ever could. This internship has reassured my
belief that I want to make a career out of helping children and that I am more effective
when working with children rather than any other population.
IV. References
Anonymous. (2001). "Tanya talks about chemical dependency in the family”. Issues
Affecting Children From Chemically Dependent Families, " 30-32. Retrieved on April 8,
2003 from the YMCA counseling center.
Gadol, A. (2000). Coping with an alcoholic or drug-abusing parent. The Family
Forum Library. 4-10. Retrieved on April 8, 2003 from the YMCA counseling center.
"Little Steps is for children. A Treatment Program for Juvenile Codependency."
Retrieved on April 8, 2003 from the YMCA counseling center.
43
�Appendix A: RFT Internship Log
Date
Hours
Program
Description
Notes
12/19/2002
3
Little Steps
Christmas Party; included the entire family, food arts
and craft. All of the children made ornaments and had
a good time.
1/02/2003
3
Meeting & Intake
Discussion of the planned activities for the next seven
week cycle.
1/07/2003
3
Stepping Stones
1/09/2003
3
Parent Group
First parent group, extremely emotional and intense.
Parents were understanding of each other’s feelings.
1/14/2003
3
Stepping Stones
Mi*** was the only child to show up to group. We
discussed her issues about possibly going into foster
care.
1/17/2003
3
Parent
The group discussed whether alcoholism is genetic.
Joe was concerned with why he fell into alcoholism
and drug abuse but not the rest of his family.
1/21/2003
3
Stepping Stones
The activity consisted of inventing tools that may be
useful in families with substance abuse problems.
1/23/2003
3
Parent
1/28/2003
3
Stepping Stones
Children completed an acronym activity about their
name.
1/30/2003
3
Parent
Parent discussed another quote and M*** admitted
that she has a problem with control and perfection.
2/04/2003
3
Stepping Stones
We played the feelings game. D*** was upset about
fighting with his brother.
2/11/2003
3
Stepping Stones:
Family Group
Both C*** and D*** families were not getting along with
each other.
2/13/2003
3
Parent:
Family Group
2/25/2003
4
Meeting &
Stepping Stones
2/27/2003
3
Parent
Parents interpreted a quote about responsibility.
Only a few people showed up to a group.
Discussed activities for the new cycle. The head
Counselor for the Stepping Stones group was
switched to Danny. D*** reacted very well to having a
male counselor.
He opened up a bit more in
discussions.
Counseled the group as my own
44
�3/4/2003
3
Stepping Stones
The activity was a code letter in which the children
wrote to a person that they were angry with. The
children agreed that it was a good way to express
anger without trouble.
3/6/2003
4
Parent & Intake
3/11/2003
3
Stepping Stones
D**** was the only client to come to group. We played
with the stress ball.
3/13/2003
3
Parent
We discussed the roles of Winnie the Pooh, which was
the activity in Little Steps.
3/18/2003
4
Stepping Stones
& Treatment Plan
meeting
Self-esteem activity- Children discussed things that
have hurt their self-esteem and what they could do to
build it up. Staff was trained in completing treatment
planning for their clients.
3/20/2003
4
Parent & Intake
Counseled the group on my own. Parents discussed
issues about war and divorce.
3/25/2003
3
Stepping Stones
Anger activity- children discussed the difference
between the negative and positive ways to express
anger. They learned alternative ways to express
anger.
3/28/2003
4
Parent & Intake
Counseled group on my own. We discussed legal
issues regarding divorce.
4/3/2003
3
Parent
4/8/2003
3
Stepping Stones:
Family
Easter Egg game- each family spoke about their loves
to become familiar to the rest of the group.
4/11/2003
4
Intake & Individual
Counseling
First individual with 7 year old J*****. We tried to get to
know each other and we discussed the confidentiality
rule.
4/15/2003
3
Meeting
Case conference about the P**** family. We decided
to locate outside resources to help the family.
4/17/2003
4
Intake & Individual
Client was much more comfortable in counseling. He
opened up more about himself. We played a
communication game.
4/22/2003
4
Meeting & Intake
At the meeting we discussed the activities for the next
cycle.
4/29/2003
3
Stepping Stones
Ice Breaker: Collage
5/1/2003
4
Parent & Individual
Spirituality was discussed.
Ice Breaker
45
�Internship at Bay Ridge Preparatory School
Lindsay S. Schwartz1 (Psychology)
I. Introduction
A learning disability (LD) is a neurological disorder that affects the brain's
ability to receive, process, store and respond to information. The term learning disability
is used to describe the seemingly unexplained difficulty a person of at least average
intelligence has in acquiring basic academic skills. These skills are essential for success
at school and work, and for coping with life in general. LD is not a single disorder. It is a
term that refers to a group of disorders (National Research Council, 2001). Learning
disabilities are different in everyone, however in most, they are usually lifelong
conditions. Some individuals may have several overlapping learning disabilities, and still
others have only one isolated learning problem that has little impact on their lives
(NlNDS, 2003).
There was a time when educators did not know much about learning disabilities.
They thought if a student was not doing well, they must not have been trying hard enough
or they were not able to comprehend the material being taught; in other words, they were
stupid. Nowadays, educators are taught how to deal with this population, whether it is in
a special education classroom or in a "mainstream" classroom with support staff.
Teachers learning how to deal with these students have made huge improvements on the
students learning and self esteem. Special-education enrollment has grown 65 percent
since the inception in the mid 1970s, to about 6.1 million students in the 1999-2000
school year. By far the biggest growth has been in the percentage of children classified as
learning disabled -- which was 21 percent when the law was passed, but 46 percent in
1998 (Ladner, 2002).
II. Method
In trying to find out more about learning disabilities and the services provided, I
conducted an interview with the Director of Support Services at Bay Ridge Preparatory
School, Dr. Mayring, and asked her a few things about her position in the school. Dr.
Mayring said, "I am involved in teaching people how to work with the remediation of
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Richard Brower (Psychology)
46
�learning disabled students. I have been the Director of Support Services for the past two
years, and I train interns, and staff, on what strategies are effective in remediating deficits
in reading, math, and general study skills." Dr. Mayring also told me that she finds the
most important thing for beginning teachers to know is that they are role models for the
students. The philosophy of Bay Ridge Prep is to treat the students with respect; this
means that teachers do not yell at students or demean them. There is faith that given the
correct structure, students will be motivated to learn and improve themselves (Mayring,
personal communication, February 10, 2003).
After finding out about learning disabilities and visiting Bay Ridge Prep, I
decided to conduct my internship there. But before anything could begin at the school, I
had to attend an orientation to affiliate myself with the school. This entailed learning
about the school and their rules of conduct. Mainly I spent the day observing different
classes in the lower school to try to decide where I would most benefit the school and my
educational experience. It was decided that I should mainly observe the learning disabled
classes while also spending some time with the mainstream classes to observe some of
the differences. This was a very valuable day; I was shown many different classes and got
to see how different this school really is. Bay Ridge Prep is a small private school with a
very different philosophy. The main thing that I noticed right away at this school was the
fact that the teachers are very patient, polite, and respectful of the students. Showing the
students respect makes them feel excellent and important. There is no yelling or
embarrassment of the students, if they do not understand something, it is explained again,
they are not made to feel inadequate. For these reasons and many others, this school is
very unique and special in my opinion. Below is a list of my hours and of my journal
entries for each given day.
Table 1: Psychology Internship Schedule
Monday
Wednesday
2nd Period: Language Arts (LD students)
2nd Period: Kindergarten
3rd Period: Language Arts (LD students)
3rd Period: Speech Group (LD)
4th Period: Speech Group (LD students)
4th Period: 2nd/3rd Grade
5th Period: 2nd/3rd Grade
5th Period: Kindergarten
6th Period: 2nd/3rd Grade
6th Period: 2nd/3rd Grade
47
�III. Results
January 13, 2003
2nd Period
Today is my first day doing my psychology internship. I will be working with different
populations within a school. This period (2nd), I am working with learning disabled children
who are getting help with their speech. The speech teacher takes a group of children during
scheduled class time throughout the day.
3rd Period
This group is a language arts group. They are working on plurals. They find this task
difficult. They are adding "S" and "ES" to the ends of different words to make them plural.
4th Period
Another speech group enters the room. They find it interesting that I am here and many
questions arise. I explained politely to the students that I was doing what is called an
internship to further my education. This group was a little more difficult. The group
consisted of all boys from about age 12 to 14. Two of the boys were in all the same classes
and had a hard time focusing on the work; they were laughing almost the entire class. There
was only one boy who was quiet and wanted to get some work done so the teacher had him
sit in another room where it was quiet and he could concentrate. I found it a shame that the
boy who wanted to do the work was the one that had to leave the room. The boys in this
class were Zack, Jamere, Sage, Sekou, and John; for further reference.
6th Period
This is when the children eat lunch. My supervisor asked me to work with one of the kids,
Jack who was having social difficulty in his classes. He just wanted me to get to know the
boy and talk with him, be a mentor. It has been found that this will work with a child like
Jack, if he has a mentor and he is having difficulty in his class, he knows he can come out for
a few minutes and talk about what it is that is bothering him.
January 22, 2003
Today I spent the day with the youngest group in the school, the pre-k. This group was very
interesting; they had a very different way of playing and looking at things. They ask many
questions, most of which start with why. They have to know everything. You can actually
see them learning as they ask questions. They are putting it all together. They like to play
48
�with you as well as playing alone. One of the girls wanted me to play with her favorite doll
house; then later on she was content going into a separate area and playing alone, while I
supervised from afar. This group was enjoyable, mostly I think because they are so carefree,
they don't have any worries, they just want to know why things happen.
January 27, 2003
Today during language arts I worked with a boy named Matthew. Matthew is in a special
education class and has difficulty with certain tasks. One main task that he has trouble with is
copying notes from the board. He needs individualized attention while attempting this task to
make sure he gets it done. If there is not someone sitting near him to make sure he does it, he
won't. This particular boy is better at writing sentences that are dictated to him rather than
copying them from the board.
4th Period
During this period I sat in on the 2nd and 3rd grade. Ms. Selkowe, the teacher played a game
of math bingo with the kids. There were three children playing. Michael was winning. A new
girl from the class had finished up what she was working on and asked if she could join the
game. When she did, she started winning and Michael had a very hard time accepting that.
He felt that it was the new player's fault that he was not winning anymore, which was not the
case because it was a game of bingo and it is really a game of luck, if you have the correct
piece on your board then you win. Michael started crying and he did not want to play
anymore. This happened towards the end of the period and nothing was really resolved
because of that. By the time the next period came about, Michael was feeling better and
started settling in for the next class.
5th Period
This class was the second and third grade literature. Ms. Selkowe started reading and then
took volunteers to read aloud. It took a few minutes for the kids to get settled and start
reading. There are two teachers in this class, they walk around and help the kids when
needed. There are many different levels in this class and it makes it very difficult to teach.
One of the girls in the class cannot read very well and needs constant reminding of where the
class is up to in the book. There is criticism from the kids towards each other as soon as they
make a mistake. They don't really correct each other nicely, they get very upset and most
times, the one getting criticized gets even more upset. This class works on a point system, in
which they get points for settling in well and transitioning well from one class to the next.
49
�6th Period
During this period, I sat with the kindergarten, first, second, third, and fourth grade classes
while they had lunch. I observed the social dynamics of the children and how they interacted
with each other. They each have their own spots in the cafeteria to eat. Some interact with
each other very nicely and as expected others have difficulty and are still learning how to
make and keep friends.
January 29, 2003
The first hour of my day was spent with the kindergarten and first grade class. They went on
a treasure hunt to practice their map making skills. They each drew their own maps of the
classroom and hid a penny somewhere for another student to find. The kids had trouble
understanding that if someone found their map it was a good thing. They wanted to be
secretive and not have anyone find their penny. The teacher, Ms. Small was trying to explain
that it was a good thing and that if someone found their penny it meant they were good map
makers and they succeeded at their task. The only way Ms. Small could convince the kids
that it was a good idea that the others find their pennies was when she told them they would
get a prize if their pennies were found. At the end of the exercise, Ms. Small asked for
comments from each child stating what they thought of the treasure hunt. She wanted to
know if it was easy or hard to find the penny and if the map was detailed enough. Of course
some said easy and still others said it was hard.
The next class I observed was the second/third grade class. It was time for math and they
were practicing word problems. An example of a word problem they were working on was,
"Jenny bought a hat for $12.00 and a pennant for $3.00. She paid with a $20.00 bill, how
much change did she get back?” It was interesting to see the process that the children go
through in order to reach their answers. One of the children in this particular class is
advanced, but not so much that he is ready to move up to the fourth grade class, so one of the
teachers in the room works with him individually during math class. What I have noticed
today is that it is very hard to get and hold the attention of the whole class. Later in the day, it
was time to read aloud. Ms. Selkowe read a story and the kids had to pay attention so that
they could answer any questions that came about. Some of the kids have a hard time sitting
in their seats, especially when they cannot speak. One girl in particular is always jumping up
out of her seat and the teachers constantly have to tell her to sit and to raise her hand if she
would like to speak.
50
�February 3, 2003
Second and third period this morning I sat in on a learning disabled language arts class.
They were working on idioms, auditory processing, grammar, and the book 20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea. This class does pretty well in terms of behavior. Some of the children have
trouble raising their hands and being nice to each other. Many of these children have trouble
reading and writing. Ms. Swoboda, the teacher made up a contest for the kids to try and
make it more enjoyable for them. The children had to read a page in their books, there could
be two winners. One of the winners would be for the person who reads the fastest and the
other would be for the person with the least errors. The children then had to do a fill in the
blank worksheet which they had trouble with. The words were in a word bank and they still
could not figure out which word goes with which sentence.
Next was math with the second and third grade class. Settling in is usually hard for this class.
It takes them a few minutes, Ms. Selkowe counts down in order for them to realize she is
waiting for them to settle down and start to work. Some of the kids get very upset because
they don't think they will be ready by the time the countdown is over. Once the count is over,
the kids settle into the topic and the class continues. The topic for today was subtracting
money. In this exercise, the kids each got a $5.00 bill to buy something from a make-believe
store, and they had to find out what their correct change would be. The kids had trouble
realizing that this was a fake toy store; they said they did not want anything that the store had
to offer. This stopped them from doing the exercise for a while and it delayed the class. I am
wondering how you do work with some kids and get the others to do the assignment quietly?
Later on I observed an evaluation. This evaluation was with a first grader named Erin. There
were two tests used, one was the CELF 3, which is the Clinical Evaluation of Language
Fundamentals. This test is for expressive and receptive language skills. The other test is
called the LACT, which tests more for auditory discrimination. A pre-check was being done
to see if Erin had the skills yet to pick out similarities and differences. The LACT used
blocks, she had to put out different colored blocks or the same colored blocks based on
whether the sounds, letters, or names are the same or different. Erin had more trouble putting
sounds together rather than naming them separately. She was able to discriminate the sound
for I, she was also able to put that together with P so that she got IP, she could not however,
switch the letters around to make the sound PI. When she was asked to do this, she added
another color block to represent another sound instead of just switching the two she had
around. I also observed her listen to a story and try to ask questions related to the story. She
did much better at this task than the previous one. She was able to answer all the questions
and relate the story back to the tester. When Erin was finished with these tasks she was able
51
�to play an educational game on the computer. It is called "Earobics" and it teaches listening
skills for speech and language development and academic success. There are different games
within this program, some of which include a rhyming game and a listening game where you
match sounds with pictures and matching words with their pictures as well.
I asked my supervisor what this all meant for Erin and he said that she is a candidate for
speech and language therapy and should be tested further. She is slightly behind for her age
and speech would improve her marks greatly.
February 5, 2003
When I got in this morning one of my first jobs was to go over to the high school division of
this school and pick up one of the 5th graders who is advanced for his age and is taking high
school math. The reason I went to pick him up is because he is only in 5th grade and cannot
walk there himself however, he is advanced enough to sit in on the high school math class.
They wanted someone who would have a meaningful conversation with him on the way
back. We spoke about what he liked and what he disliked and had a very nice walk back to
the school.
Next, I sat in on the learning disabled class while they had speech. Matthew, Sam, and Sylvia
are in this class. Matthew and Sylvia have learning disabilities and social problems as well as
Sam, however; Sam is the only one of the group that had brain trauma when he was a child.
They are nonetheless, very nice children and a very nice group together. This period they
worked on idioms and they were read stories or situations, in which they had to tell if the
person acted appropriately or inappropriately. This sounded very basic to me when I first
heard what they were going to do. I was surprised to find out they had trouble with this
exercise. They had difficulty with the work but mostly they had trouble staying on topic.
They would start telling stories about themselves and situations that they have been in, but
the stories were not on topic even though they thought they were.
The next part of my day, was spent with the 2nd/3rd grade doing math. This class time was
to be taken up with a review for their test coming up on Friday. I have found while observing
this group that the kids have trouble interacting when one is doing something they don't like.
Michael, who tends to have a lot of social difficulties, was kicking the chair. Instead of
asking him to stop, Melissa and Paige yelled his name and expected him to stop and of
course he did not stop. I tried asking the girls if they thought they could ask him a little bit
nicer and they tried and he stopped. Michael is very extreme about things. Before the
incident with the chair, he was bringing his books to the other room for their lesson and the
52
�books almost fell. Instead of asking for help or putting them down and getting a better grip
on them, he panicked and yelled, "Somebody help me, help me, my book is falling, help!"
During 5th period, I went to visit the first grade class. I have found that they have trouble
settling in and starting their subject, I attribute this to them being so young, but I have also
found that the older kids have trouble with this as well. I have also noticed, at this age you
cannot give them a choice about what they would like to do. If you do this, there is always
someone who doesn't want to do the activity that the rest do and they cannot "bounce back"
and join the activity even if it's not really what they want to do. The older kids have an easier
time adjusting to a situation like this. At the first grade level the children are very much
interested in what they want to do, it is very much centered on "me".
February 10,2003
This morning was spent with the learning disabled class. They were reading the book 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea. Ms. Swoboda had the students practice their reading skills aloud;
each child took a turn, some having more trouble than others. There were fewer children in
the class today and it was noticeably more peaceful. Ms. Swoboda asks the kids many
questions about things that they have just read to make sure they comprehend what they have
read. After reading, some kids went into the computer room and others were to practice their
fluency builder skills. This means that the children have a page full of words that are very
similar and they have to read them as fast as they can while getting the words correct. They
have one minute to do this and the score is based on how many words were read and how
many errors there were. Ms. Swoboda let me do the fluency builders with two of the children
for experience. I did this with Matthew and John. John had trouble with the sh sounds, he
would say s instead. For example, if the word was brash, he would say brass. Matthew did
well, he got a few errors but I think that was because he was trying to rush through it and
read fast so that his score would be better.
The next class that came into the classroom included Zack, Sage, John, Michael (who was
not supposed to be in the class but Ms. Swoboda let him stay), and Sekou. This group was
very hard to control and keep on topic. They are five middle school boys who spend the
entire day together and they laugh and joke the whole time instead of doing the required
work. The class worked on homophones and strategies to help them remember things in
class. They laugh the whole time they are in class. I think they need ways to help them
control themselves. Ms. Swoboda does a token economy with the kids in which she gives
them "speech bucks" for doing well in the class and when they save enough money, she
treats them to lunch. This is a great idea and it helps to focus the kids however, she does not
53
�do this consistently and so the kids are not consistently behaved. After these classes, I spent
time talking with Ms. Swoboda about the different kids and their disorders and/or
disabilities.
February 12, 2003
This morning I spent time with the first grade class while they were doing mapping. The end
goal of this project is to map out the path from their homes to the school. The first part of this
was to draw their homes and their schools and they will fill in the rest later. One of the girls
was talking to another and said, "My mother talks about penis at home." I was wondering
how the teacher was going to handle this. She just told her that she should talk about that at
home with her mom but that it was not really school conversation. I thought this was a great
way to handle the problem because the girl did not walk away feeling badly or embarrassed.
Next, I spent time with the learning disabled class while they had speech. Sam and Sylvia
were in this group. They were working on opposites and it was very interesting to see what
they had trouble with and what they found very easy. Sam had a hard time with opposites
like everyone and no one while he found words like guilty and innocent very easy and he
knew them right away. This group works well together, they are not hard to control and they
pay attention most of the class. The hardest part was to keep Sam from rushing, all he
wanted to do was skip ahead and finish right away. Everything in the class was going well
and then out of nowhere, Sam started saying things like he doesn't belong on this planet and
how odd he is. He was telling us how many scars he had and all about his go - cart accident
which he has brain damage from. He did say however, that God gave him a gift of singing.
Sylvia then chimed in and said that God gave her a gift also; he gave her the gift to see into
the future. Sam proceeded to say that they should prove their talents, he would sing if she
would tell him something that was going to happen in the future. She thought for a moment
and said, "Sometimes I need to have the vision in a dream, I cannot just do it." So Sam sang
anyway.
The next class was spent with the second and third grade class. They are working on
multiplication. At the beginning of class they get points for transitioning well into their next
class. One girl did not get ready fast enough so she did not get the points and she was very
upset about it. She did not get in trouble for not being ready; she just didn't get any points.
She started crying and was very upset. She also would not go to math until the teacher finally
came in and got her. After math was over, the class played a game of jeopardy to review for
their social studies test on China.
54
�The next class started with conflict resolution. What the teacher has them do is try to resolve
their conflicts by telling each other what they felt bad about and what they can do to change
that feeling. This time, Christine felt that Erin and Stacy did not want her to play in their
game during gym. It took quite a few minutes of class time to try to resolve this and in the
end, Christine still felt badly. When reading finally got started, they were working on nouns.
The exercise for this was to look at a picture and try to name all the nouns they could find.
They first did this as a group to make sure the exercise was understood and then they each
got their own different picture and had to try to name the nouns themselves.
February 19,2003
Today I spent the morning with the first grade class while they had their writers' workshop.
This is the time of day when they learn their sounds and letters and then practice writing
them. It was interesting to see how Ms. Small went about teaching them this technique. She
begins with the letters on a picture card. She has each of them say the letter on the card, say
what the picture on the card is, and say the sound the letter makes. Then she gives them a
worksheet to work on their own with the new letter that they have learned that day. Today
they had a picture of a rainbow on their worksheet because they learned the letter "R". Then
they had to circle everything on the page that starts with the letter "R". After they worked
really hard, it was snack time.
The next group I spent time with was the speech group which included Sam, Sylvia, and
Matthew. This period the kids worked on categories and why it is important to put things
into categories in the first place. It always amazes me, what I find to be a simple task they
have so much trouble with. Their answers are so logical to them, but they are usually not
correct. For example, when asked why door and umbrella are similar or are put into the same
category, Sam replied, "Because when it rains, you need to put the umbrella in the door when
you are done with it", instead of the correct answer which was that they both open and close.
Next the second and third grade continued with their multiplication. Ms. Selkowe uses the
idea of putting things into groups to teach them this skill. It seems to be working rather well.
They got to color ice cream cones today. It was explained to them that each time they learn a
new multiplication table they will get to add another scoop to their ice cream and write on it
which table they learned. The kids seemed very motivated to do this and quickly began to
color. I learned today that one of the children in Ms. Selkowe's class has a behavioral report
that must be filled out each day and is checked by his mother and a psychologist that works
with him and the school to improve his behavior. The report must be filled out each day and
it has sections on it labeled "Got ready and packed his bag with no more than 2 warnings"
55
�and “Participated and paid attention without being reminded". It is always interesting to find
out what difficulties certain kids have and what you can do to help make them have a better
school experience.
After the math class with the second and third grade I went back to the first grade to help out
during their reading time. It is a great experience to try and help a child who is first learning
how to read. I got to sit with some of the kids and read with them, I read some of the page
and then they read the rest. Some of the kids have more trouble than others, but they are all
learning well. They are all good kids and are well behaved for their age.
February 24, 2003
This morning I observed the second and third grade class. During this period they were
writing poems about anything they wanted. They were shape poems in which they picked
any shape they wanted like a sport, heart, music, etc. and wrote about it. One of the boys,
Michael, had a fit about not wanting to go to school anymore. He thinks he has learned
enough (after only second grade) and he doesn't need to go anymore. He refuses to do work
and says he is bored. At this point I have seen the teachers cater to him, they talk to him and
it doesn't resolve anything so they let him sit for a while but he doesn't get any work done
this way. I am curious to see how they will try to resolve this issue.
During the next period I was with the speech and language group. This group worked on
fluency builder, spelling, grammar, nouns, verbs, etc. The kids have a hard time interacting
with each other and sharing things, they do not help each other often. They saw me writing
and asked what I was doing. One of the kids asked if I was writing about how bad they are. I,
of course, said no.
The next period was a review of the 2 and 3 times tables. Then they moved on to the 5 times
tables. Each child got a chance to go up to the board and solve a problem. They were doing
very well. Ms. Selkowe told them there was going to be a surprise. Once everyone learned
and memorized their 6 times tables they were going to have an ice cream party. Michael was
still having trouble. He now said that he doesn't want to do anything and he doesn't want to
be near anyone. He now doesn't like the boy next to him because he considers him to be a
gambler. When the teacher asked him if he knew what a gambler was he said it is someone
who does work for prizes. This class works on a point system where if they do well then they
get points and after a certain number of points they get prizes. Therefore, he considers this
boy a gambler because he follows this system. He doesn't want anything to do with the point
system anymore and he says he will bring it down and whoever created it will go down too.
56
�After this I spent time with some of the older kids in 6th grade. They had math. They were
working on integers, specifically adding integers. They went over the homework and then
went over some new material on adding integers. The teacher gave them all rules for doing
this and then they went over some problems together so they would understand their
homework.
February 26, 2003
It took the kids a very long time to get settled today. They all were hungry and had to have
snack, then when they were going to get started they all needed to use the bathroom. They
did not get started until about 25 minutes into the period. When they eventually got started,
they practiced reading and singing a song they are going to be presenting to the other classes.
Then they learned what the difference is between real and make-believe. One of the students
Ben had a hard time sitting still, this went on for most of the class. He kept going ahead of
the other students and distracting them while they were singing. Eventually, Ms. Small asked
him to go read at the table by himself because he was distracting everyone. He was calm
when he came back to the group.
Next, I spent time with the learning disabled speech and language group. They worked on
comparisons. Things like schools have desks and churches have pews, teachers have students
and dentists have patients. A big challenge for this group aside from the actual work is
staying on topic, they like to talk about themselves a lot and tell stories. They all did well
with this exercise and got a lot of "speech bucks". The second and third grade was working
on math when I got there. Someone spilled their drink and it was handled extremely well.
Typically, a teacher would yell and flip out in a situation like this; Ms. Selkowe on the other
hand handled it really well. She told the girl where the paper towels were so she could clean
it up. Some of the other girls came to help and it was forgotten instead of being blown out of
proportion. They covered the 1 times tables and the 0 times tables. The first grade class was
working with watercolors. They spent the period doing paintings for their upcoming show,
Down by the Bay.
Then I was able to observe a first grader being tested individually. Her first task was to tell
which words and pictures were the same and which are different. Then she was presented
with a word, for example pig. She was read a list of four other words and had to tell which
word ended like pig. In this case, pig matched with dog because they had the same ending
sound. The tester had to teach the girl how to do this which took a while and then she had her
try it on her own. The girl had a hard time with this; she kept saying the first sound instead of
57
�the last. So if the word was pig and the choices were house, pen, dog, and ran, she would say
the answer was pen because it started with p. She was not grasping that the word should end
the same way, not start the same way.
March 10, 2003
Since it is a Monday morning, the speech and language group is having a difficult time
settling into their assignments. Ms. Swoboda is talking over them. She is being forced to
speak so loudly because they are very noisy. Since the boys were not listening they did not
know what to do. Ms. Swoboda had to explain the directions over again to them while
everyone else was working. The others already knew the directions because they were
listening when she explained them the first time. Some of them seem to have a lot of trouble
with this exercise. It was putting a verb into a list of three words. For example, Popcorn,
Balloons, and Firecrackers all Pop. They could not grasp this.
Next they worked on plurals and apostrophes. Example, the crab's legs or the bricks were
stacked. They needed to know where the apostrophe goes or if it was just plural and all you
needed to do was add an s. They also had a lot of trouble with this. They need more practice
before the midterm.
Next, there was a speech group which included John, Zack, Sekou, and Sage. The exercise
they were working on was reading paragraphs and answering specific questions. This group
is still very hard to control. One boy had to be walked back to class because he was not
trusted to get their on his own. After they worked on this speech exercise, they reviewed for
an upcoming science test. The group was still having trouble. When the one boy left who
was acting like the class clown another took over his position. He had a lot of trouble sitting
still and paying attention to the assignment. He touches things and grabs things out of
peoples' hands. Ms. Swoboda had to talk to him after class and explain to him why he
shouldn't do that. He actually didn't understand why what he did was wrong. She had to
explain it to him. She asked him if he knew he shouldn't grab things out of people's hands
and he said that he wouldn't mind if it was done to him. She said, “Really, you wouldn't mind
if someone grabbed a pen out of your hands?” He said if it was a friend he wouldn't mind but
if it was someone he didn't like, he would just punch them in the face. I thought that was an
interesting comment, not one you hear everyday.
Next, the second and third grade had math. Everyone was out of their seats and not very
settled. They were, however, getting their work done. Then they worked on presenting their
last few projects for black history month. They are still very unsettled. The kids presented
58
�well and most asked intelligent questions. One of the girls is very quiet and had a hard time
presenting in front of the class. Ms. Selkowe helped her by asking her questions that
prompted her to speak.
March 12, 2003
The first grade class was working on math this morning. They were making change with
coins. They were trying to see how many ways they could make 10 cents using pennies,
nickels, and dimes. Stacy, who is young for the group had a hard time with this exercise. All
she was doing was coloring on the paper they were supposed to be writing their answers on.
Ms. Small tried to help her make 10 cents. She wanted her to find at least one way to do this
before the period was over. It didn't happen. Matthew, who is Stacy's age, is advanced. He
didn't have any difficulty doing this exercise. In fact, he did a better job than most of the kids
in the class, even the ones that are older than he is. Ms. Small left for a minute to use the
bathroom and it was interesting to try and manage the class on my own. It was snack time so
it wasn't really a structured activity and they were all out of their seats. I tried to get them
back in their seats because that's where Ms. Small wants them when they are eating. One of
the girls started saying she doesn't like girls; only boys. She told this to another girl,
Christine. Christine of course got upset because she was basically saying she didn't like her,
because she is a girl. She asked how can you not like girls? The reply was I only like boys,
so Christine said fine then we will just leave (and she named all the girls in the room) and
leave you with all the boys. The interesting part about this is that the girl who said she
doesn't like girls has a mother who is a lesbian. Even at this young age, she is picking up on
the differences between the sexes. I think the fact that she said she doesn't like girls has to do
with her mother(s).
During the second/third grade math class they were working on word problems. They started
with the homework from the night before and moved on to today's work. They started a
worksheet together and the kids worked in groups of two to figure out the answers to the rest
of the sheet. This group lesson went well but it takes a lot to get the class quiet and have
them pay attention. The ones who know the answer call out and the others get upset because
they took their turn. The ones who called out get upset because the teacher doesn't call on
them; they don't realize that it's someone else's turn. When the kids have to work alone the
classroom is very loud and not much work gets done. The kids only work when a teacher
comes over and helps them. Most of them say they need help and this is because they weren't
listening when the teacher did the first two problems with them.
59
�The next period all the grades from kindergarten through fourth grade got together to hear
the poems that the second and third grade wrote. They called it a publishing party and had
cookies and juice. They read their poems and the people that they read them to had to write
comments about the poem. This went very well. It was coordinated between the classes,
everyone had fun, and their was nothing but positive comments being made which made the
students feel great.
March 26, 2003
I spent first period with the kindergarten/first grade class. One of the kids showed a scrap
book from his trip on spring break. This was my first experience with this class by myself. It
was interesting. I had to think creatively to get them to participate in what I was doing. First,
I took out a book that the teacher gave me to read to them. They are used to reading with her
so they knew what to do. Before reading the story, she has them look at the cover and say
what they think the book is about. Then she goes through the book without reading it, she
just looks at the pictures and asks them what they think. Then we actually read and look at
the pictures. I did all of this but when I was done I didn't know what to do with them.
Luckily, they said can we draw pictures about the book? So, I said sure. That took up most of
the time. I had to stall a little until the teacher came back because they said they were done
and I didn't really have anything else for them to do. I had them trade markers and color the
pictures but that didn't turn out too well because they all wanted markers someone else had.
They eventually finished and Ms. Small came back in time. It was a great experience but I
know I need so much more experience in getting their attention and having them participate
in what I am doing.
Next was the speech class. Ms. Swoboda asked everyone to sound out some words and tell
the first letter, last letter, and middle sounds and blends. Some of the kids had trouble
removing a letter from a word. For example, the word club, if you take out the L, the word
becomes cub. They did better when they had to take away the first letter like spun and take
away the S instead of taking away a letter in the middle. The kids were doing well in this
class; they were all listening and cooperating. Now they are starting their homework which is
to answer questions in their books because tonight they are studying for a spelling test.
Next class was the second and third grade. They were finishing math when I first came in.
Some of the kids are still working on their multiplication tables so that they can have their
ice cream party that Ms. Selkowe promised them. Next, they moved on to social studies. At
first, everyone was participating in the lesson. They were talking a lot so Ms. Rosenberg
60
�stopped and waited for their attention. They were complaining about the assignment, not
wanting to do what the teacher was doing. Ms. Rosenberg had to wait a lot during this class.
March 31, 2003
Second and third grade science
When I first got in, I was supposed to go to speech but Ms. Selkowe said that one of the kids
was having a difficult day and he needed some support. So, I went to her class. It turned out
that by the time the student got back to the class after music, he was doing much better. He
stayed in the class with Ms. Selkowe and she gave him some extra attention. They did
science. They had a talk about how compasses work. Most of the class were saying what
compasses do but not how they work. They are going to continue the discussion tomorrow.
Language Arts with the sixth, seventh and eighth grade class
They were very interested in me this period. They were asking what I was writing and why.
Why I was there and what grade I am in. I explained to them a little about what an internship
is and a little about the notes I take. I think they felt better when I told them what I was
writing about. They always think its something about them; something bad about them. They
are working on their grammar; doing their work individually.
Speech group
This group played a game called brainopoly, which is similar to monopoly but they have to
answer questions for points. They need a lot of social training, they are not very nice to each
other, they insult each other, they are very quick to say someone is wrong, and they are very
competitive and don't play games well together. One of the kids said very loud when no one
was speaking, "Shut up!" to one of the other kids and Ms. Swoboda said nothing. She lets
way too many things go and picks on the small things. Throughout the class, they are even
more insulting to each other and all Ms. Swoboda says is guys... or she will tell them to get
out and never follow through with it and they know it. All she does is threaten them. If they
are not doing what she wants she says she is going to send them to the principal's office or
she is going to give them a worksheet to do because she knows they don't like that. So they
stop for a minute but then do it again because there is no real punishment.
2nd/3rd grade literature
One of the boys forgot his book and said I guess my mother forgot to put it in my bag I
should slap her in the face. I thought that was a very strange comment. Ms. Rosenberg was
61
�having a very hard time controlling her group. She raised her voice at one of the girls
because she wasn't listening; it didn't do anything because the girl kept doing what she was
doing.
April 2, 2003
I spent the first period with the kindergarten/first grade class. They continued reading and
analyzing Jaspers Beanstalk (a book they have been reading). They tried to remember
everything that happened on each day in the book. Then it was off to speech and language
with Sam, Sylvia, and Matthew. This group is doing well. Matthew is on new medication
and from what I hear; it is helping him in school. This period they tried to explain simple
concepts to people; like what a desk is, or what a ring is.
Next I went downstairs to spend time with the second/third grade. When I got down there
one of the girls that I know was having a hard time. She was having a fight with one of her
friends in the class. We went for a walk to talk about it. She opened up to me without me
even probing for information about what was wrong. She told me all about a fight that they
had in gym. We spoke about some different ways she could handle it one of which being that
she could talk to the girl and that is the resolution she chose. She asked if I would stay with
her when she did it and I said of course; we decided we would do this at lunch.
The kindergarten/first grade class was working on math when I got there. Ms. Small had
them playing a game with coins. They had to roll the dice and see what number they came
up with, and then they would take out pennies to represent that number on the dice. The
object was to be the first person to get up to 25 cents. They also had to try to exchange their
pennies for some bigger coins like nickels and dimes. Every time they had five cents in
pennies, they would change it for a nickel and eventually when they had 10 cents in pennies,
they would change them for a dime.
April 7, 2003
The language arts group worked on diagraphs, consonants, and blends this class. Diagraphs
as they learned it are two consonant letters that represent one sound. Consonants are two of
the same letter that represent one sound, and blends are two consonant sounds next to each
other that represent two different sounds but blend together. They also read the book Holes.
The next group was the speech group. They worked on comprehension for their lesson. Ms.
Swoboda read a story and asked questions about it. Some of the kids did well but many of
them have difficulty with this skill. Some of them did not do well because they were talking
62
�through the story so they didn't hear it and couldn't answer the questions. I asked Ms.
Swoboda if she considered giving reinforcements for good behavior instead of just for
answering questions (which is what she does now). She said she tried but it didn't work with
the "speech bucks", which is what she uses to reinforce them for answering questions
correctly. I asked her if she tried anything besides the "bucks" and she said that nothing
works with them. I think she should try something else maybe a different reward for good
behavior. It works with answering questions so it may work with behavior if a creative
alternative is tried. The reason I kept asking Ms. Swoboda this is that this group really needs
something to control them. They do not behave well for her and I think she really needs to do
something about it because they walk all over her.
Next, I went to the second and third grade who was working on literature. They are reading
Helen Keller so the teacher, Ms. Rosenberg decided to teach them a little bit of sign language
so that they might get to feel a little bit of how Helen Keller felt everyday. They were to only
talk using sign language, however that didn't work. Ms. Rosenberg asked if I knew any sign
language and when I told her I knew a little she asked me to help her act out a skit of sign
language so the kids could get into what she was trying to do. At first she tried to teach them
the whole alphabet but they were talking out loud and were not very interested. When she
told the kids to learn the letters of their names and they could learn how to sign their names
they were much more interested. They learned their names and how to say I'm very happy to
meet you. They enjoyed what they were learning and the lesson went well. The only down
side to this was that the kids were not very well behaved. They were not doing anything
wrong but they were very loud and when Ms. Rosenberg tried to get their attention, no one
would listen to her. She seems nervous in front of them; she even asked me the other day
what I thought of a certain situation that went on in the classroom because she didn't know
how to solve it. She is still a new teacher and is learning how to do different things in the
classroom.
April 9, 2003
Ms. Small showed the kindergarten/first grade class a picture of blocks and they had real
blocks in front of them to make the picture she showed them. First, she showed them a
picture and let them look and copy it, then she showed them a picture and put it away and
they had to put their blocks together from memory. Most of the kids did really well with this.
The speech and language group was reviewing for science. Ms. Swoboda worked on making
note cards with them. This will help them with their study skills, which many of the students
63
�need much help with. Then I went downstairs to help one of the teachers. She needed two of
her students to take a make-up math test; I stayed with them.
Next, the language arts class met and did some reading with their reading text books. This
book is used to practice reading and comprehension. There are questions at the end of each
chapter to see if they understood what they read. They each take turns reading paragraphs in
the chapter. Then they started their homework because they have a lot to do. They are
answering the questions in the back of the book. Some of them have trouble writing
complete sentences. I worked with one boy specifically who had a lot of trouble with this
task. He had no trouble with answering the questions so that meant that his comprehension
was on track, however, he did not know how to answer in a complete sentence. He would
answer all of his questions starting with because and when I explained it to him it made a
little bit more sense, but he still needed my help. He was motivated to finish his work when
he had the help, if he was left alone, however, he did not complete his work. He would talk
to the kids next to him and not really care about the work. I saw a dramatic change in his
motivation when he received the help. He got right on track, answered the questions, asked
me questions on how to do the work, and he even wanted to keep going when the teacher
said that the time was up.
When I saw the kindergarten/first grade class in the afternoon, their behavior changed. The
kids who are normally bouncing off the wall were quiet and the kids who are usually quiet
were bouncing off the walls. It was strange, but Ms. Small handled it very well. She always
knows how to talk to the kids to keep them in control while still making them feel good, no
one walks away feeling badly. Ms. Small had a game for the kids to play to help their
reading skills. One person stood up in front of the class and Ms. Small gave them word
endings to hang around their necks on an index card (Ex: in). Each other student had a letter
to go in front of the ending (Ex: P, W, F) and someone else wrote the word that was made on
the card on the board. Everyone got a turn and everyone sounded out their words and letters.
It was a great idea for them to play and learn at the same time.
April 14, 2003
This morning I went to the language arts class. They were trying to finish the book Holes
because the movie is coming out and they are going to take the class to see it but they have to
finish the book first. The question came up about race in the book; it takes place over 100
years ago. A white woman likes a black man and Ms. Swoboda asked what the kids think is
going to happen. They said it won't be accepted because they are different. Then they started
asking questions about what a baby would look like from an inter-racial couple (not in those
words). It was a tricky topic as Ms. Swoboda tried to explain. Next I went to the second and
64
�third grade class. They were working on math and continuing to learn their multiplication
tables. The students are doing very well with this. I think it was a great idea for Ms. Selkowe
to tell the kids they will get an ice cream party when they learn at least six of their
multiplication tables. This highly motivated them and they are working like crazy to get that
ice cream!
Next I went to the kindergarten/first grade class where they were also doing math. They were
continuing their game with the coins. This game has been great for them. They love to play
and they are learning how to count change in the process. I have noticed great improvement
in the kids. They went from not knowing which coin is which to not only discriminating
between coins but also making change of their own.
April 16, 2003
Today is my last day of interning at Bay Ridge Prep. I am going to visit all of the classes and
say goodbye. I thanked all of the teachers who helped me and my supervisor. They were all
great and said that I was a lot of help in their classes and I told them how much I learned
from them. This internship was a very valuable experience.
IV. Discussion
This past semester has taught me a great deal. Each situation that I encountered
was unique in its own way. Each student is also unique in their own way. There were
many times in which I had no idea what to do in the classroom. I spoke to my supervisor
and to the teachers of the classes I sat in on and I received some excellent advice. I
realize that there are many times in a classroom in which you will not know what to do,
but if you follow your instincts and you have the students’ best interests in mind, then
you will do the right thing. By talking with others you can really learn a lot. You can
listen to their past experiences because they have been in the field much longer.
When working with learning disabled students, it is important to remember that
they do not learn or comprehend information the same way that others would; you must
be patient with them. You have to think of new and creative ways to teach because the
traditional ways do not always work with these students. There were situations when I
first started going to the school in which I watched the teacher teach and I wondered why
she had to repeat herself so many times. Then I realized that they were simply not
understanding her. I took for granted the way that I learn new information; when I hear it
I either understand it right away or by asking questions about the material I can grasp it
better. These students not only did not understand the information given, but they did not
know how to ask questions to further their knowledge.
65
�They also have very poor study skills. These are students that are getting ready
to enter high school and they did not even know how to take notes or copy down their
homework. The teacher would have them take out their homework notebooks and write
down the homework. If she did not tell them to do this, they wouldn’t. They also had to
have their parents sign their homework and all of their tests. These are tasks that you
would normally give a lower school student so they learn how to manage themselves.
These students were like lower school students in middle school students’ bodies. They
have been taught these study skill techniques and note taking techniques before, however,
they do not comprehend them. These are some of the main differences between the
learning disabled population and the mainstream population and the mainstream students.
If we give them that extra time, they will succeed.
This was a great experience for me because I was trying to decide what direction
to take after graduation from college. After I spent time with the learning disabled
classes and the mainstream classes, it was easier to make a decision about what I would
like to do in the future. I enjoyed working in the mainstream classrooms more than the
learning disabled classrooms but with the experience I have had this past semester, I
would consider working with both populations.
I have learned a great deal from the past semester’s internship at Bay Ridge
Preparatory School. I have learned how each student is different in their own way and
we should embrace that instead of shying away or trying to make everyone learn the
same way. Students will never comprehend the same way and I have learned that you
must come up with challenging strategies to overcome this obstacle. Through our class
discussions and the experiential learning aspect of this class, it has been a valuable
learning experience and has made me ready to go out and start my career and my life.
V. References
Ladner, M. (2002). Stop writing off African Americans as learning disabled. Retrieved
April 26, 2003, from www.detnews.com.
National Research Council. (2001). What is a learning disability? Retrieved April 26,
2003, from www.ld.org.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stoke. (2003). What is the prognosis for
learning disabilities? Retrieved April 26, 2003, from www.ninds.nih.gov.
66
�Section III: Performing
and Visual Arts
�Ruth Crawford Seeger's Suite for Small Orchestra:
An American Twentieth-Century Musical Composition
Kelly Parker1 (Music)
Ruth Crawford Seeger was a very important American composer of the 20th Century.
Her work was innovative and was influenced by composers such as Adolf Weidig, Dane
Rudhyar, and Henry Cowell. This paper examines one of Seeger’s earlier works, Suite
for Small Orchestra, written in 1926. I found this piece particularly intriguing because
of the polyrhythmic ostinato figures found throughout the first movement. Crawford
created interest in this piece through the utilization of complex rhythms rather than
through its melodic content. It was very refreshing to research such an accomplished yet
relatively unknown American composer, and to gain insight into a woman that was able
to leave her mark on 20th Century music.
Ruth Crawford was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, on July 3, 1901 to Clark and
Clara Crawford. She was born to upper-middle class parents, and had one older sibling,
Carl. Both Clark and Clara were well educated individuals that tended to be well
respected members of the community. Clark was a Methodist minister, and thus was
often reassigned to different towns across the country. Before Clark’s death in 1912, the
Crawford family had lived in Liverpool, Ohio; Akron, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri, Muncie
and Bluffton, Indiana; and finally Jacksonville, Florida, where the family remained after
their father had passed on. Even in the face of raising two children alone, Clara Crawford
showed her poise and determination by purchasing a three story home in Jacksonville,
and renting extra rooms to outsiders while still providing a home for her children.
Clara’s love of the arts, devotion to a cause, and determination to achieve her goals
against all odds were all traits that were passed on to her daughter, and we see evidence
of the first when Ruth Crawford began taking piano lessons not long after the family
settled in Florida.2
Crawford began her piano training at the School of Musical Art in Jacksonville,
where she studied with Bertha Foster and Valborg Collett, a Leipzig trained Norwegian
woman that made Crawford more self-conscious and pushed her to strive for perfection.
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. David Schulenberg (Music)
Matilda Gaume, Ruth Crawford Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music (Metuchen, N.J.:
The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986), 8.
2
68
�Upon Crawford’s graduation from high school, Foster offered her a teaching position at
the School of Musical Art, hoping that she would use this time to bring her musical
abilities to a higher level. While studying with Madame Collett, Crawford found it at
times difficult to keep up with the demands of her teacher. This resulted not from of a
lack of enthusiasm, but from a muscle-cramping issue that would plague her throughout
her career. Though she sought both osteopathic and electrical treatments, Crawford was
never able to get past this debilitating problem and in college realized that she could
never have a career as a concert pianist.
During the three years that followed her high school graduation, Ruth Crawford
continued to take and give piano lessons. She also took a few harmony lessons while she
saved her money to pay for her collegiate level training, either in New York or Chicago.
Crawford chose to attend the American Conservatory in Chicago and began her studies in
fall 1921. Crawford came to the Conservatory with the idea of pursuing advanced study
in music and of receiving training as a pianist.3 She intended to stay for only one year and
thus was expected to take both the first and second years of harmony at the same time.
She adjusted very well to these circumstances and at the same time became very
interested in harmony. At the beginning of her second semester at the Conservatory,
Crawford showed her piece Elf Dance (composed several years earlier while still in
Jacksonville) to one of her harmony professors, Adolf Weidig. Weidig thought it showed
distinct talent and became Crawford’s first mentor in her compositional endeavors.4
While she was discovering success in her study of harmony, Crawford found her
muscle problems to be detrimental to her advancement in piano. In a letter to her mother,
Crawford proclaimed “I cannot practice! My left arm has gone on strike!”5 By the end of
her first year at the Conservatory, her piano teacher Henoit Levy encouraged Crawford to
continue her studies in Chicago and made her aware of a position teaching piano on the
south side of Chicago. Crawford accepted the position and ended up staying at the
Conservatory until 1927, when she graduated with her master’s degree in composition.
Crawford did not begin studying composition formally until her third year at the
Conservatory, but a few manuscripts survive that Crawford dated as early as 1922. These
pieces include many small piano studies that she most likely used in teaching lessons:
Little Waltz (1922), Caprice (1922), and other small exercises that focus on trills and
triplet studies. Two songs, To One Away and Return, are dated 1923, as are Nocturne for
violin and piano, Theme and Variations for piano, and the first movement of a piano
3
Ibid, 21
Ruth Crawford. Letter to her mother, October 16, 1921 found in Ruth Crawford
Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986)
5
Ibid
4
69
�sonata.6 Crawford’s Kaleidoscopic Changes on an Original Theme, Ending with a Fugue
(1924), her most ambitious piece to date that is romantic in style, yet it has its share of
dissonances with Scriabinesque harmonies.7
Crawford’s 1926 Suite for Small Orchestra (now also referred to as “Music for
Small Orchestra”) was written while she was still in Chicago working on her Master’s
degree. As she matured as a young woman and composer, she found her own voice and
new influences on her career. Yet because of the hard work she had put in with her
instructor, Crawford spoke of Weidig later in life by saying “Sprinkling sevenths and
ninths plentifully and insistently, and observing or breaking the solemn rules of harmony
with equal regularity, I was guided with great understanding during the next years by
Adolf Weidig…who seems to me to have had an unusual balance between necessary
discipline and necessary allowance of individuality.” 8
In 1924, Crawford began taking piano lessons with Djane Lavoie Herz, a
musical socialite who had come to Chicago in 1923 when her pupil, Gitta Gradova, made
a “somewhat sensational New York debut and was accorded lavish praise by the critics.”9
Madame Herz was French Canadian but moved to England when she was 16 to study at
the Royal Academy. After some time there she moved to Paris and then to Berlin, where
she studied with Arthur Schnabel and was introduced to Alexander Scriabin, whose pupil
she became for the next two years. As a result of this exposure, the hand of Scriabin lies
heavy on Ruth’s works dating from 1924 to 1929. Crawford admired his philosophical
ideas and used techniques such as atonality, extensive use of dissonance, clearly marked
dynamics, ostinato, and having a high degree of organization within the music while
having it sound improvised. When examining the Suite for Small Orchestra for these
similarities, one notices that the first movement works its way to two dynamic climaxes,
which are further enhanced by a textural increase towards these two high points.10
The movement opens with only the piano playing f’ (Figure 1) on the off-beats
but gradually gains depth through the addition of polyrhythmic ostinato patterns and short
solo passages that are often written in the extreme ranges of the particular instrument. At
rehearsal letter C, the piano continues to play on the off-beats in the right hand while
playing four-pitch chords in the left (Figure 2). The cello continues with the quintuplet
6
Matilda Gaume, Ruth Crawford Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music (Metuchen, N.J.:
The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986), 133.
7
Ibid
8
Ruth Crawford, letter to Nicolas Slonimsky, January 29, 1933 found in Ruth Crawford
Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986)
9
The Musical Courier (October 30, 1924), p.23
10
Matilda Gaume, Ruth Crawford Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music (Metuchen, N.J.:
The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986), 140.
70
�ostinato it has been playing since rehearsal letter A, against the bassoon solo line
containing triplets. The rhythmic texture at rehearsal letter F is the densest in that all
instruments (except clarinet) are playing, and, more importantly, there are five
polyrhythmic lines sounding against each other. The flute has triplets, the bassoon has
duplets, violin I and II has sextuplets, cello I has quadruplets, and the right hand of the
piano has quintuplets in octaves. The left hand of the piano still has a four-pitch chord in
the left hand, while the violin III and IV and cello I have whole and dotted half notes
respectively to add more depth to the music (Figure 3).
Harmonically, this piece is atonal, but that does not take away from the
deliberate organization employed by Crawford as demonstrated by the gradual addition
of instruments and polyrhythmic figures. This piece is not serial, but there are several
instances where all twelve pitch classes are heard within a measure. In discussing the
Suite in her book, Ruth Crawford Seeger: Memoirs, Music, Memories, Matilda Gaume
wrote: “Both movements show the use of layered rhythmic and melodic ostinati and tone
clusters, which became characteristic of her style.”11 Gaume was incorrect in calling the
pitches in the piece tone clusters because there are repeated pitches in different octaves
and they are not in close position. Crawford liked to experiment with wide ranges of the
instruments; I would classify the notes as pitch collections (Figure 4).
Herz also introduced Crawford to Dane Rudhyar, a French composer who was
also very attracted to the ideas of Alexander Scriabin. Rudhyar shared his interest in the
music from “long ago and the far away and exotic lands.”12 Rudhyar’s affinity for block
chords and his interest in the moment rather than the forward motion of the music had
some influence on Crawford’s approach to rhythm. In the Suite she uses a four pitch
chord in the bass of the piano throughout most of the first movement. Crawford
demonstrates use of polyrhythmic patterns and melodic lines that begin on the upbeat as
well as her interest in creating a piece that was rhythmically diverse. Judith Tick explains
that the manner in which Crawford chooses to open the Suite, a single f’ reiterated nine
times in off-beat patterns on the piano (m. 1-2), further illustrates Rudhyar’s interest in
mysticism and his theory of the single tone as a spiritual nucleus (Figure 1).13 In
Rudhyar’s The Rebirth of Hindu Music, he explains: “Concentrate on a tone and in it, you
11
Ibid
Ibid, 144.
13
Ruth Crawford Seeger, Music for small orchestra (1926); Suite no. 2 for four strings
and piano (1929) / Ruth Crawford; edited by Judith Tick and Wayne Schneider, 2nd ed.
(Madison, Wis.: Published for the American Musicological Society by A-R Editions,
1996), xiii.
12
71
�may discover the secret of being and find Ishwata, the Christ within.”14 The f’ persists
unchanged for the first twenty-one measures of the Suite; Crawford was demonstrating
her interest in mysticism and the symbolism that is conveyed through one repeated tone.
In the same letter in which she praised the guidance of Weidig, Crawford also
wrote: “Contact in 1925 with Djane Lavoie Herz, with whom I studied piano, and with
Dane Rudhyar, and later with Henry Cowell, established a definite turning-point in my
work, and enabled me to see far along the way toward which my numerous student
compositions I had been groping.”15 Cowell not only gave Crawford the “courage” to be
experimental, but also afforded her the opportunity to have these new works published in
Cowell’s own New Music. Based out of his New Music Society of California, Cowell
gave new composers that he deemed worthy of being published, yet still had little chance
of doing so, a chance to have their scores seen by the public.
Cowell was not only an advocate for Crawford and other American composers
but a composer with his own ideas on the direction of music in the world. Cowell began
studying music at the University of California at Berkeley with Charles Seeger, Ruth
Crawford’s husband to-be, “who encouraged him to develop a more systematic approach
to composition.”16 In 1919 Cowell wrote a new treatise on composition, New Musical
Resources, which focused around the idea that there is a “physical identity between
rhythm and harmony.”17 Cowell states that both rhythm and harmony can be reduced to
simple mathematical ratios, and that one can translate these ratios from one group to the
other, thus utilizing this systematic approach. He also explores issues of dissonant
counterpoint, quartal harmony, and tone clusters, but emphasizes what new possibilities
lay within various rhythmic combinations.
Examining his Quartet Romantic (1917), Cowell demonstrates how one takes
the mathematical ratios produced by C major chord, and then converts those intervallic
relationships into rhythmic patterns. Cowell explains that the frequencies of c and c’ are
in the ratio of 2:4, those of c’ and e’ in the ratio 4:5 and those of e’ and g’ in the ration of
5:6. Thus, the music is written with groupings of 6 notes against 5 notes against 4 notes
and finally against 2 notes, all sounding at once (Figure 5). At the time, Cowell deemed
the music unplayable, and even asked the French inventor Lev Terman to build a
14
Dane Rudhyar, The Rebirth of Hindu Music (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1928, 1972),
18.
15
Ruth Crawford, letter to Nicolas Slonimsky, January 29, 1933, found in Ruth Crawford
Seeger: Memoirs, Memories, Music (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1986)
16
Robert P. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1991), 299.
17
Ibid
72
�machine that could play such complex rhythms.18 Yet while this music was labeled
“impossible,” this did not stop Ruth Crawford from doing her own experimenting with
polyrhythms in the first movement of her Suite for Small Orchestra. Beginning at m. 6
we see a grouping of five quarter notes in the cello I part set against the single pitch f’,
which has been playing on the upbeats of the measures since the beginning of the piece.
As the ostinato figure continues, Crawford adds additional “simple” whole, half, and
quarter note lines in the flute, bassoon, cello II and piano parts but does not place another
bracketed pattern of pitches (a group of three) against the group of five until measure
fourteen. Moving ahead to m. 26, Crawford ambitiously composes groups of three half
notes (flute) against two half notes in the bassoon, against six quarter notes in violin I and
II, against four quarter notes in cello I, against five quarter notes (in octaves) in the piano
(Figure 6). As this was composed in 1926, when Crawford was still a young and rather
inexperienced composer, it is doubtful that she was able to hear this piece performed.
Crawford had only the sight of Cowell’s music and the ideas of the still unpublished New
Musical Resource (it remained as such until 1930) to go by when composing this suite. It
is even more remarkable that Crawford dared to use a larger ensemble; Cowell’s piece
was written for string quartet rather than a ten-part orchestra.
In 1929 Ruth Crawford left Chicago for New York on Cowell’s
recommendation. His intention was for Crawford to begin studying with his former
teacher, Charles Seeger, in composition. Seeger was apprehensive about accepting
Crawford as his student because he was at that point not completely convinced that a
woman should hold a worthy position in the world of musical composition. Cowell was
able to convince Seeger to take Crawford on as a student, and his influence became
evident in the revision of her Suite for Five Wind Instruments and her four Diaphonic
suites. These suites utilize Seeger’s ideas of the dissonating (making dissonant) of a
single melody as long as possible.19 Other pieces that demonstrated Crawford’s adoption
of Seeger’s dissonant tendencies include her last work for piano, Piano Study in Mixed
Accents (1930), and Three Songs for Contralto, Oboe, Piano, and Percussion (19301932).
In 1930 Crawford was the first woman to be awarded a Guggenheim Foundation
fellowship for European study in composition. While there, Crawford wrote her String
Quartet (1931), the most distinguished of her works. It was first performed in 1933.
Charles Seeger described the third movement as a study in “dynamic counterpoint,” as
each of the four parts has an ever changing dynamic pattern, and the final movement as
an example of total organization of pitch, rests, rhythm, dynamics, tempo,
18
19
Ibid, 300.
Charles Seeger, “On Dissonant Counterpoint,” Modern Music, 7 (1930): 25-31.
73
�instrumentation and form.20 Crawford returned to the United States in November 1931,
and in 1932 she married Charles Seeger. The marriage to her former teacher changed
Crawford’s life both musically and personally, in that upon the birth of their first child
Michael, her focus shifted from her career in composition to raising a family.
While Ruth Crawford Seeger seemed suddenly to “give up” her music in
exchange of her tending to her growing family in the early 1930’s, she did not abandon
the art so much as change focus from composing modern pieces to reflect 1930’s radical
politic as well as Seeger’s work as an ethnomusicologist. The Great Depression had an
impact on the Seeger family income, and Ruth and her husband Charles began to
consider how music could a provide “voice” to express the nation’s social, political and
economic troubles. Once again in 1932 Henry Cowell entered the Seeger family’s life
and introduced them to a group of musicians in New York known as the Composers’
Collective. Charles Seeger recalled that the purpose of the group was “to connect music
somehow or other with the economic situation.”21 Crawford Seeger wrote only two
original compositions for the Composers’ Collective, Sacco Vanzetti, and Chinaman,
Laundryman. While these pieces were written with the intention of impacting those most
severely affected by the Depression, both Ruth and Charles realized that people were
looking for something familiar in a time of such distress and uncertainty. Thus,
Crawford’s focus changed again, from writing new songs to express the status of society
to bringing new life to America’s folk music.
As a result, both Ruth and Charles began an intense study of the “true music of
the people” by researching Anglo-American folk music and finding many discrepancies
between the published and recorded versions of many of these works. While living in
New York, the two forged a lasting friendship with John and Alan Lomax, who soon
asked Crawford Seeger to write the musical transcriptions for their new anthology, Our
Singing Country. She accepted the offer, and also provided the Lomaxes with insightful
remarks at the beginning of the book on how one should go about performing folk music.
In 1935 Crawford Seeger and her still growing family moved from New York to
Washington D.C., where both she and Charles became more immersed in folk music.
Charles had earned a position working with the Resettlement Administration and later
with the Federal Music project.22 Ruth gained access to the Archives of American Folk
Music in the Library of Congress while she was working on Our Singing Country and
also used these resources to write her second and final essay for orchestra, Rissolty,
20
Jane Bowers, Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950 (Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1986), 377.
21
Charles Seeger. Taped interview for Matilda Gaume. London, July 1967.
22
Jane Bowers, Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950 (Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1986), 380.
74
�Rossolty.23 This work was commissioned by CBS and was based on three folk songs
transcribed from the Library of Congress. “Had she lived longer, she probably would
have written other original compositions using folk materials.”24
In the 1940’s Crawford Seeger spent much of her time teaching music in nursery
schools in the Washington D.C. area. She had great capability in the classroom, as she
was patient and empathetic with the young children that she worked with. During this
time Crawford Seeger also became one of the leaders of the group of women who
organized the cooperative Silver Spring (Maryland) Nursery School, in the Washington
D.C. suburb where the Seegers were living.25 Even while she was teaching Ruth
continued her work with folk music by compiling three books of folk songs for voice and
piano: American Folk Songs for Children (1948), Animal Folk Songs for Children (1950),
and Christmas Folk Songs for Children (1953).
Ruth Crawford Seeger’s final completed work before her death in 1953 was
Suite for Wind Quintet (1952), which was written more in her early modern style than in
the folk style that she had adopted over the previous fifteen years. While she wrote fewer
than thirty original works overall, Crawford’s impact on twentieth-century music and
American music history has been firmly established as a result of her perseverance and
dedication to what she loved. Crawford’s compositional abilities were recognized and
encouraged by the leading musical minds in Chicago, New York, and throughout her
studies in Europe as a result of her Guggenheim Fellowship. While she did put aside her
career in composition to nurture her growing family, Crawford found a new passion
through the analysis and transcription of folk music, and helped reunite Americans with
traditional music that provided comfort during the unstable times of the Great
Depression. Crawford’s collections of folk music also provided music teachers with a
great resource in their classrooms, and her work with the music programs in nursery
schools around Washington D.C. should be remembered and admired by future music
educators. Ruth Crawford Seeger was a dynamic woman who achieved success in two
different musical careers as well as in her family life, something that so many women still
find difficult to do today, and thus is a wonderful role model for those of us that wish to
do so as well.
23
Ibid
Charles Seeger. Taped interview for Matilda Gaume. London, July 1967.
25
Peggy Seeger. Taped recollections for Matilda Gaume. Kent, England, July 22 1977.
24
75
�Figure 1 taken from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s
Suite for Small Orchestra, 1926.26
26
Figure 2 taken from Ruth
Crawford Seeger’s Suite for
for Small Orchestra, 1926.27
Ruth Crawford Seeger, Music for small orchestra (1926); Suite no. 2 for four strings
and piano (1929) / Ruth Crawford; edited by Judith Tick and Wayne Schneider, 2nd ed.
(Madison, Wis.: Published for the American Musicological Society by A-R Editions,
1996)
27
Ibid
76
�Figure 3: Crawford’s use of polyrhythmic
figures in her Suite for Small Orchestra
(1926).28
28
29
Figure 4: Crawford’s use of pitch
collections, not clusters, in that the
notes are not in close position, and
that the pitch classes c, e, a, and b
are notated twice.29
Ibid
Ibid
77
�Figure 5: Cowell’s derivation of polyrhythmic texture in his
New Musical Resources and Quartet Romantic (1917).30
30
Robert P. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
1991), 299.
78
�Figure 6: Suite for Small Orchestra picture indicating that
Crawford’s use of polyrhythmic texture is similar to Cowell’s.31
31
Ruth Crawford Seeger, Music for small orchestra (1926); Suite no. 2 for four strings
and piano (1929) / Ruth Crawford; edited by Judith Tick and Wayne Schneider, 2nd ed.
(Madison, Wis.: Published for the American Musicological Society by A-R Editions,
1996)
79
��Section IV: The Humanities
�El antiracionalismo en El túnel y
La resistencia, de Ernesto Sábato
(Anti-Rationalism in Ernesto Sábato’s
Resistance and The Tunnel)
Susan Altman1,2 (Spanish)
Argentinian writer Ernesto Sábato has criticized the dangers of rationalism throughout
most of his literary career. El túnel (The Tunnel), published in 1948, is a novel in which
Sábato’s philosophical views are clearly defined. More recently in La resistencia (2000)
(Resistance), a non-fiction text, the author turns his philosophical preoccupations to
today's society. In The Tunnel, the main protagonist kills the woman with whom he is in
love when he thinks she has betrayed him; tension has resulted from his attempt to
rationalize love. Although there is no literal death in La resistencia, Sábato examines
the death of humanity on a different level. Here he warns us that we live in a society in
which globalization is turning us into clones, and that our interest in advanced
technology, rather than people, will ultimately lead us to our extinction. For Sábato, a
human being must be able to accept the illogical and the unexplainable in order to exist.
El antiracionalismo en La resistencia y El túnel, de Ernesto Sábato
El autor argentino Ernesto Sábato ha escrito dos obras, El túnel (1948) y La resistencia
(2000), que critican el racionalismo. La resistencia es una clara reflexión de su filosofía,
mientras El túnel es un texto ficticio en el cual se vislumbra de forma más sutíl. Sábato
pide "una vida más humana" al criticar el hecho de que vivimos en una sociedad donde se
les da más importancia a las cosas que a las personas. Perdemos nuestra humanidad
cuando sucumbimos a la tecnología y a la producción. Pasamos tiempo absortos en
productos electrónicos en vez de interactuar con otras personas, o con la naturaleza. Por
lo tanto, la búsqueda del objeto se considera más importante que resolver el problema de
la pobreza. Los que no producen, no son importantes. Esta tesis antiracional se percibe a
su vez en El túnel, aunque en este texto ficticio el escritor se enfoca en maneras de
1
2
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Katica Urbanc (Languages).
Dr. Margarita Sánchez (Languages) reviewed paper as a second reader.
82
�pensar, mostrándonos la mentalidad hiperconsciente y lógica de Juan Pablo Castel y la
mentalidad más intuitiva de María Iribarne Hunter.
En La resistencia Sábato trae a colación la posibilidad de llevar "una vida más
humana" y pide que sus lectores consideren la vida de otra manera. Según Sabato,
pasamos mucho tiempo con la televisión, las películas, el teléfono, y la computadora; sin
embargo, en su lugar, uno debería concentrarse en el arte de la conversación, apreciar la
vida cotidiana, y gozar de los paisajes naturales. Siente que un resultado de este estilo de
vida es que los niños no ven más que violencia y destrucción en la televisión y en los
juegos. Opina que al vivir así, los seres humanos pueden llegar a extinguirse como se
extinguieron los reptiles. También, según Sábato tenemos que cuidar la tierra de la cual
dependemos tanto; si no cuidamos de la tierra, se puede perjudicar toda vida futura.
Sábato siente que "... nuestra «sociedad avanzada» deja de lado a quienes no
producen" (64); vivimos en una sociedad inquieta por la "idolatría de tecnología" y
la«explotación» (83) puesto que las personas harían cualquier cosa por dinero. El autor
opina que el poder mundial está concentrado en manos de veinte o treinta empresas y
que vivimos en un mundo donde a pesar de la alta tecnología, todavía existe la pobreza.
Siente que la masificación ha traído una pérdida de originalidad a causa de la
globalización, y que la gente está asustada de tomar sus propias decisiones por temor a
perder sus puestos.
Para Sábato, la democracia, que trae justicia social y libertad, es buena. Opina
que el ser humano y la originalidad son necesarias para la democracia. Sábato cita a Lord
Acton: "El poder corrompe, pero el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente" (84). El
autor comparte con nosotros sus ideas existencialistas. "Si vivimos como autómatas
seremos ciegos a las huellas que los hombres nos van dejando […]", nos dice (19).
Según Sábato, si se pierden las relaciones humanas, las cosas tomarán poder sobre
nosotros. El alma humana anima el cuerpo humano, al igual que el ser humano anima el
objeto. La presencia de un hombre es detectada en acciones y objetos.
Es interesante notar que mucho antes de escribir La resistencia, el autor expuso
algunas de estas preocupaciones filosoficas en El túnel. El protagonista de esta novela,
Juan Pablo Castel, opina que la vanidad contibuye al progreso de la humanidad. Sin
embargo a Mimí, otro personaje, no le gusta que la gente tenga mucho éxito. Para ella, la
grandeza y el dramatismo son demasiado agresivos y el artista no debe llamar la atención
sobre sí mismo. En su opinión no es cortés mostrar originalidad, pues esto manifiesta la
mediocridad de los demás. Sin embargo el apunte filosófico principal en esta novela es el
antiracionalismo. Aquí, el autor no critica la tecnología, sino la mentalidad lógica en un
solo hombre, Juan Pablo Castel. Juan Pablo, un artista, se enamora de María Iribarne
Hunter porque cree que es la única persona que entiende su arte. Cuando cree descubrir
que ella lo ha traicionado con otro amante, la mata.
83
�Juan Pablo busca agresivamente a María. Es un ser hiperconsciente y racional,
aunque su lógica no da resultado (Holzapfel 440). No es capaz de aceptar reacciones por
las cuales no hay motivos aparentes, o a lo mejor, motivos oscuros. Necesita absolutos y
necesita evitar tomar decisiones porque sabe que será incorrecta puesto que le faltan
datos (Francis y Adams 22). Cuando mata a María, la única persona con quien se siente
conectado, destruye la posibilidad de futura comunicación y amor. La historia termina en
un sistema cerrado circular. El protagonista ha intentado imponer una estructura racional
sobre un universo inexplicable, y su fracaso de aceptar lo ilógico y lo inexplicable lo
encerrará en una prisión (Francis y Adams 27). El personaje de Juan Pablo se encuentra
existencialmente aislado. Sufre una inhabilidad de comunicar con otros, especialmente
con seres queridos.
El personaje de María se opone claramente al de Juan Pablo. Es callada y
reservada. Es intuitiva. Acepta una visión relativa e inexplicable del universo. Para
María, la elección correcta es sin importancia porque no hay absolutos y todo es igual.
María se enfrenta bien con lo relativo y filtra cuidadosamente todo lo que no cabe dentro
de su comprensión. Claramente, se adapta a las situaciones que ofrece el mundo (Adams
y Francis 22). La novela presenta por lo tanto un conflicto entre lo racional, Juan Pablo,
y lo irracional, María. Este conflicto se extiende a la psique de Juan Pablo; según Francis
y Adams, el protagonista siente tanto amor rationalista como emocional por María. Es
interesante observar que la idea de «crisis de consciencia» que se vislumbra en el siglo
diecinueve fue una reacción contra la confianza científica en la racionalidad y la
perfeccion del hombre (Holzapfel 441). En El túnel, percibimos una extensión de esta
filosofía en el siglo veinte con su mecanización de la vida (Holapfel 441). El arte brinda
un escape y un camino a la salvación en un mundo dominado por la tecnología y la
ciencia. El título es apropiado, pues el túnel representa el aislamiento del hombre
moderno y su profunda enajenación (Holzapfel 440 y Márquez 361). María dice que ella
«no es nadie» y piensa que como artista Juan Pablo no la necesita. Juan Pablo, al
contrario, piensa que ella le da un sentido a su arte. No piensa que los críticos sepan
nada porque no supieron entender la verdad hallada en sus cuadros.
Sábato señala en El túnel que viveremos todos en un túnel si no aceptamos lo
ilógico y lo inexplicable de la vida. En La resistencia, el autor advierte que la obsesión
de nuestra sociedad con la tecnología puede llevarnos a la extinción. También lo puede
hacer la globalización, ya que nos convierte en clones. Esta pauta que fija el fin de los
humanos se vislumbra a su vez en El túnel, donde la inhabilidad de aceptar lo irracional
conduce a la muerte.
84
�Bibliography
Francis, Nathan T. and William F. Adams. “The Limits of Rationalism in Sábato’s ‘El
Túnel.’” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. 13 (1979): 21-7.
García, Eligio Márquez. “Un anarquista de la existencia: Ernesto Sábato.” Revista de
Occidente. 31 (1970): 358-66.
Holzapfel, Tamara. “Dostoevsky’s ‘Notes from the Underground’ and Sábato’s ‘El
Túnel.’” Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Interests of the Teaching of Spanish
and Portuguese. 51(1968): 440-50.
Nigoyo, Gonzalo Díaz. “El optimismo de ‘El túnel,’ de E. Sábato. Cuadernos
Hispanoamericanos: Revista Mensual de Cultura Hispánica. 359 (1980): 440-50.
Sábato, Ernesto. El túnel. 1948. Barcelona: Biblioteca de Bolsillo, 1997.
,
85
��Section V:
Professional Programs
�Commodities Futures Markets
Rich Barbiera1 (Business)
Topic: Why should or would companies hedge into the commodities futures markets?
My paper will entail information behind commodities. I intend to cover the
history behind commodities. I will answer questions such as: What is the significance of
trading a commodity you own in the market? There will also be many other questions I
will be analyzing and explaining about the market that date back to the first floor a
commodity was traded on. Using examples I will show the different types of hedges and
trades. How external factors affect the price market, which in turn affects trading.
I will cover hedging and the ‘basis’. Why do companies hedge or contain
hedging programs with which they enter certain markets with their products or
commodities? I intend to explain about hedging. What is a hedge? This is both the most
basic, and the most important term that I will delve into. Next I will show how
commercial hedging is important for firms to interact in because it can play a big
differential between the total net loss and net profit a company reaches at the end of each
year. Finally comparing hedging to just the basic concept of using one’s knowledge about
the price market to trade for oneself and make some money.
Commodities, in their original form as agricultural products, reflect one of the
earliest industries, farming. Around the time of the Civil War, the farmer usually took the
brunt of market fluctuations. If he was ready to sell after the harvest, so was everyone
else. There was an excess of supplies, even more so than the amount required by
consumers, resulting in depressed price levels. Farmers had several alternatives: accept
whatever price that could be derived from the already oversupplied market, put their
crops back into storage in the hope prices would improve, or haul their crops back home
(Horn 1984).
The situation reversed itself toward the end of the harvest season. Unsold grain
became in shorter supply as the season's crop was consumed. This scarcity resulted in
much higher and unwanted prices. Grain merchants were forced to buy the
the year's supply, which was much more than they could utilize, during the harvest
period. If not, they had to pay inflated prices late in the marketing year, before the next
harvesting season, in order to keep their mills running while manufacturers competed for
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Mary Lo Re (Business)
88
�the availability of whatever amount of the supply was left, or in stock. In the case of
oversupply of the crop, goods had to be sold at fire-sale prices. (Horn 1984) Fire-sale
prices are like selling at the lowest price possible, practically giving the crop or
commodity away. At this stage of the game farmers are even willing to accept offers
made by the consumers.
To protect themselves against such seasonal fluctuations, producers and
consumers of commodities, such as crops, began to buy and sell for forward delivery.
Such transactions, or as we know them as to-arrive contracts, involved a binding
transaction between say a farmer and someone looking to purchase what the farmer is
offering, consumer. A contract is formed for a certain amount of a commodity to be
delivered at a certain price in a certain amount of days. Arrival of the commodity could
be ten, thirty, or even sixty days later. However, this deferred delivery did not eliminate
all of the risk involved. Risk still lay upon the buyer and/or seller's shoulders. An
example of this would be: "A miller agrees on April 1 to buy 5,000 bushels of corn from
a farmer for $2.20 per bushel. The corn is to be delivered on June 1. The buyer and seller
both agree on a price for a product ‘to arrive’ two months later." (Horn, 5)
This agreement or bound contract does not solve the problem of market risk.
The seller takes a risk estimating the return of the crop before harvest and need only
worry about its production. Here the seller can lose, however, if say the price per bushel
rises by .40 cent to $2.60 by June 1. The seller loses an additional profit of .20 cent. The
buyer need only fear a price decrease by the delivery month. Say the price per bushel
drops to $2.00, the buyer just suffered a .20 cent loss per bushel.
Commodities are traded in the future markets for reasons such as perceived risk,
profitability, and to hedge products against fluctuating prices. Firms will either place
orders or hedge their products into these commodity futures markets. In doing so they are
looking to achieve some profit in the process or to simply save their industry some
money in future production and distribution. Is it positive financially for a firm to take on
such a risk, whereby hedging into the futures markets? Does trading benefit any
individuals in particular who take on the risk and if so can they also be scrutinized for
such actions?
Firms are looking to protect themselves from the fluctuation of prices, which
basically results from the economy. When looking to either enter a commodity into the
futures market or just merely enter the market an individual, such as a speculator, firm, or
client, must be aware of events taking place around the world, such as a drought,
affecting the commodity causing the prices to fluctuate. Then there are the simple terms
of supply and demand for the commodity. Does the desire for the commodity outweigh
the supply of it or does the amount of the commodity outweigh the desire? If you know
the answers to these questions you can predict the price fluctuations. Reading and
89
�understanding external factors and events that occur in the economy can and most likely
will give you an edge in the futures market.
For instance, on the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange), three weeks
ago oil was trading as low as $28 dollars in April because news from Iraq portrayed
information that U.S soldiers claimed control of a few of the oil fields. On top of that, the
Department of Energy (DOE), which calculates the amount of oil and other natural
resources, lists the supply circulating in millions of barrels. Three weeks ago that number
of supply was positive, meaning there was an excess of barrels in stock, so prices
decreased due to less demand of the natural resource of crude oil. However, the news
now of a much longer anticipated war caused panic on the floor of NYMEX driving
prices back up to approximately $31-$32 dollars in April.
The key to understanding and forecasting where prices will come in, either
lower or higher the previous day, is to be able to read the economy and be able to apply
the laws of supply and demand toward the futures markets. The economy can be one
infinite roller coaster and firms such as ones in the airline industry have to "be ahead of
the game". Firms in the airline industry face very low profits to none at all compared to
the price per ticket and the price for fuel. So they try to save money on something like
fuel by hedging into the futures market to "hopefully" protect themselves against
fluctuating prices.
Traders represent commercial firms who use the market for hedging. There can
be no serious exceptions to the statement that, "futures trading depends on hedging."
(Tweles, 25) Hedgers must find it rewarding to continue to use these markets. Brown
states, "Certain propositions can be developed about the price behavior of hedge assets
and of fairweather goods."(Brown, 30) The higher the level of hedging the higher the
level of the futures business will be. The risk-elimination view of hedging usually begins
with the naive illustration of the two kinds of a hedge.
"A processor holds 100,000 bushels of cash wheat at $2.00 a bushel and its
fearful of a decline in price. He immediately sells 100,000 bushels of future
contracts at $2.00 and is thereby short hedged (because he sold, but didn't
buy back). If the fear decline materializes and wheat drops to $1.85 a bushel,
the profit on the short sale of futures offsets the loss on the inventory."
(Tweles, 33)
The other kind of hedge would be a long hedge where the processor a commercial
business has a commitment to sell 100,000 bushels of wheat at a specific time and price
in the future, which he has not contracted to buy. He can protect himself and the business
by buying a futures position equal in amount to the forward sale and thereby fix its
forward cost. Thus through selling short and buying long to offset the loss or flatten a
90
�position the hedging process is said to eliminate the risk of price fluctuation. (Teweless
1974)
Hedging has to have a basis. The basis is different from area to area and when a
hedger refers to basis, he means, "his basis," or the basis of his local area. The basis "is
the difference between the cash price at any location and the futures price in any futures
exchange."(Angell, 99) It is the change in the basis, rather than the absolute price level,
that will determine a hedger's success. A basis may be said to be either "weak" or
"strong." A "weak" basis will have a wide difference between futures and cash. A
"strong" basis will have only a narrow difference between the two. Whether you have a
strong or weak basis depends on a number of factors, among which are the following:
"the overall supply and demand of the commodity, how much supply is circulating
around the economy and is the demand high enough to support a strong basis; the overall
supply and demand of substitute commodities and comparable prices, are there enough
substitute commodities out there with prices equal to or less than the one that you are
pursing to make money off of; geographic disparities in supply and demand, basically
casualties hurricanes, tornadoes, and other ruining say a harvest period or season
affecting the supply and quality of the commodity; transportation considerations, is
transportation of the commodity cheap and reliable or will you have to worry about
incurring a loss from transportation; available storage space, is there enough storage
space for you to purchase excess commodities and use them further for your own
profitability ."(Angell 1979) The basis also may be strong or weak depending on the type
of hedge you are risking to take a position into, whether it be the futures and/or cash
markets.
You have the selling hedge, individuals or firms who own the cash commodity,
such as farmers. They look to sell the commodity into the futures market and, by
definition, become hedged. Having placed this hedge the farmer will then be long cash
and short futures. The farmer will have bought more contracts than he has sold in the
cash market, where he would be losing money now. Compared to the futures market
where he sold more contracts than he bought, where he would be gaining money in the
future or date of delivery. Along with this he is looking to take some risk off his back by
placing some of the risk into the ring on the floor of the exchange. This speculator is a
trader in the pit on one of the many regulated commodity futures markets floors. The
speculator is in it for the mere profit not the physical product. The speculator will help
the farmer for a commission. Now the farmer has a good season, however, he needs 40
cents to make a profit. He also derives that his basis is about one-half cent below the
Chicago futures. If the Chicago futures are selling at 40.5 cents, the local price will be 40
cents, the price he wants for his production. To lock in that price, he sells short in the
futures market. Now the price drops 5 cents during the time he is hedged. He has offset
91
�his position because the cash market loss is compensated by the gain on the futures
position. If you are an analyst of the futures market you see that the farmer gained back
the 5 cents he lost in the cash market by selling a forward or futures contract of his
product at 40 cents, avoiding the loss before it drops 5 cents. (Angell 1979)
The farmer could keep hedging into a position, instead of offsetting, until he
gains a profit from it, however, he could incur a loss at the same time from continuous
hedging, that is the risk. Farmers, as well as other producers of vast commodities, usually
pay close attention to all the farm products flowing around in the economy. They have a
good idea how much supply there is and therefore can predict what kind of demand exists
driving the day-to-day prices to hedge themselves into a successful position. What they
don't know is what kind of season they will be graced with.
The buying hedge, buyers look to hedge into a position of a short cash position
and a long futures position. Buyers, such as elevator operators, processors,
manufacturers, and exporters, take the opposite role of the sellers. A flour miller, who
requires wheat in his milling operations, will place a buying hedge to establish his cost
objective. The hedge protects him against the possibility of an increase in the price of
wheat. On September 1 the flour miller decides he needs 5,000 bushels of wheat at a
price of $3.15, and his basis is 10 cents under Chicago. He assumes the basis will remain
the same, so he will look for 10 cents higher at a price of $3.25 Chicago wheat to meet
his price objective. He needs the wheat in December, because he will be looking to make
profits outside the harvesting season. He instructs his speculator to buy December
Chicago wheat at $3.25. Next he sees wheat rose 20 cents in both the cash market and the
futures market by December 1. The flour miller buys 5,000 bushels of cash wheat on
December 1 at $3.35 in the cash market, due to the 20 cents inflation. Next he sells 5,000
bushels in the futures market of December wheat at $3.65. Apparently the futures market
rises faster than the cash market so the flour miller comes out with a net profit of $500.
He lost $1000 in the cash market but because of the quicker rise of 30 cents in the futures
market, he gained $1500. (Angell 1979) The flour miller not only reduced some risk, but
also made some futures market. All types of firms are willing to face this risk as well as
the adversity, because it is possible to make a sufficient profit on a mere 10-20 cents
price change in the fluctuation of the futures market.
Future prices reflect the basis of a hedge and whether you should get yourself
out of a position, the selling hedge, or place yourself into one, the buying hedge.
Knowing this it is valuable to know what the basis will be at some time in the future,
aiding you in a possible prediction of future prices. The futures price for any commodity
for any given time reflects in what Angell states, "consensus judgment of that
commodity's worth formed by every hedger and speculator participating in the market."
(Angell, 1979) Additional buying will push prices higher as well as additional selling will
92
�push prices lower. You must recognize that a sudden change in this "consensus" can
occur at any moment. However, why do different futures months trade at different levels?
Why would wheat trade at one price in say September, however trade at a very different
price in November? "There is a reason and the reason behind the pricing structure
reason’s why basis changes are apt to be much more predictable than price level
changes."(Angell, 1979) Each successive commodity month will sell at a slightly higher
price than the nearer month. Angell states, "These higher prices reflect the expenses of
storage, insurance, interest, and on the invested capital. All the things of that sort of
nature." (Angell, 1979)
There is of course an inverted market, reflecting a short supply. Here distant
months sell at a discount to nearby months. You see this in spreads, the trading of two
different months at a strike price, same volume and commodity. Because of the short
supply situation traders bid up the price of the nearby months and will decrease with each
following month. The cash price reflects the supply and demand theory. Who is willing to
buy or sell? Is there a surplus or shortage in the economy for a specific commodity or
natural resource?
Arbitrage, or what spread trading is sometimes called, is possible when logical
price relationships do not exist.
"When market premiums or discounts are different from product values,
differential arbitrage potential exists. Traders look for price differentials,
which exceed the cost of transportation between two market locations. The
essence of financial markets involves using the discrepancy between
borrowing money at a cheaper rate while acquiring an asset that pays a higher
rate or has a lower price. The result is arbitrage profit."(Leuthold, 1989)
Arbitrage activity can also be faced if there is any differential between implied rates and
quoted futures prices above transaction costs. When a premium or discount is identified
speculators will focus on an arbitrage trade because product values differ unless
transaction costs are below price differentials, such as implied rates. (Leuthold, 67)
Spreads are a good way to make a quick profit. They are less risky, although
they have smaller potential for large gains. These contracts are for different delivery
months of the same commodity, but sometimes involve different commodities or the
same commodities on different exchanges. These are interdelivery, intercommodity, ~and
intermarket spreads. Interdelivery is where a trader purchases contracts of one delivery
month while selling another delivery month simultaneously. Intercommodity involves the
buying and selling of two totally different commodities, also known as crack spreads.
Finally intermarket spreads deal with two totally different markets like NYMEX and
COMEX.
93
�If spreads were not different for each pair of delivery months and did not vary
from hour to hour, there would be no reason for futures markets to exist. For futures
markets to exist for many commodities, something must be special to the spreads for
each. Let's look at a natural resource like copper for example. To see the importance of
variable spreads to futures markets, consider the simple situation where a competitive
economy can consume a finite stock like copper. Suppose it is costless to store the
copper. According to well- established models of natural resources, in this world of
perfect certainty the equilibrium array of prices at any moment in time, and the realized
path of the spot price as well, would be such that the prices for later delivery dates would
increase at the rate of interest. If the rate of interest is zero percent per annum, the price
of copper for delivery tomorrow would equal that for delivery six days, thirty days, or ten
years hence. By simple calculation, the spreads between pairs of futures prices would
also be the same, namely zero. (Williams,20)
The two legs of the spread might consist of positions in contracts for different
securities or different maturities on the same instrument. Here we can look at interest rate
futures; commercial paper interest rates and how they move faster and farther than the
interest rates on T-bills of the same maturity during the latter stages of the cyclical trend.
Under such circumstances, a spread such as an intercommodity spread during the final
months of a cyclical uptrend, as borne out by the experience of the latter half of 1978,
would have been to go long both T-bill and commercial paper futures, just as short
positions in both contracts would be in order as rates approach the trough of a cyclical
downturn. (Loosigian 1980)
A long 90-day T-bill -long 90-day commercial paper spread might have been
initiated on June 5, at a 90 basis-point yield premium, commercial paper over T-bills. By
November 20, the spread had opened up to 237 basis points, accruing a profit of 147
basis points. Assuming the spread was initiated and "unwound" on those two rates, the
profit calculation would have appeared as follows. (Loosigian, 362)
T-Bill and Commercial Paper Spread
June 5, 1978 Commercial Paper Over T-Bills
Buy 1 Dec. 1978 T-Bills
at 92.28 (7.72% discount)
Buy 1 Dec. 1978 commercial
paper at 8.62% discount
90 basis points
Sell 1 Dec. 1978 T-Bills
Sell 1 Dec. 1978 commercial
at 91.17 (8.83% discount)
paper at 11.20% discount
227 basis points
_______________________________________________________________________
94
�Loss $2,775 (111x$25x1)
Profit $6,450 (258x$25x1)
Spread Profit $3,675
(147x$25x1)
Risk Shifting
Another major function of interest rate futures is risk shifting. "'A futures market
allows the separation of the risk of price change from risk arising from other normal
business functions similar to the separation of theft or fire risk from other business
risks."(Powers, 8) Separating these risks allows them to be "packaged" in special ways
and transferred from those who have them but may not want them (hedgers) to those who
do want them (speculators). (Powers 1984)
We see through various forms of hedging that the positive outweighs the
negative risk factors. Firms, speculators, or even your everyday average traders cannot go
wrong entering the futures market or entering a commodity or resource into the futures
market and taking that perceived risk. Why take that chance? As you can see knowledge
of the external factors, which in turn affect the price fluctuations, which in turn gives you
a good idea of where prices may fall, is the key to ultimate profit.
Why buy a contract at a higher price now when you could buy it in the future for
a lower price? Why sell a contract at a lower price now when you can make more on a
future contract? "There exists one substantial risk, however, for which no commercial
insurance: the risk of adverse price change on raw and processed commodities."(Kroll,
303) This is why farmers in the past as well as other producer's of vast commodities
hedge themselves into a futures market. There are so many risks, mainly external, but
internal as well, so take some risk off, enter a commodity futures market, and plan ahead
of the game. I have given several examples of outright trades in the commodities future
markets as well as an example of spreads on interest futures showing you why proprietors
such as farmers hedged into markets and why firms sometimes will do the same. The
commodities market is a hidden one that many people don’t know about and don’t know
how effective it can be for various firms.
References
Angell, George. 1979. Winning in the Commodities Market. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Brendan, Brown. 1982. A Theory of Hedge Investment. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Horn, Frederick F. 1984. Trading in Commodity Futures. New York: New York Institute
of Finance.
Kroll, Stanley. 1972. “Commodity Hedging For Insurance and Profit”. The CPA Journal,
(April): 303-307.
95
�Leuthold, Raymond M., Junkus, Joan C. and Cordier, Jean E. 1989. The Theory and
Practices of Future Markets. Lexington, Massachusetts/Toronto: Lexington Books.
Loosigian, Allan M. 1980. Interest Rate Futures. Homewood, Illinois: Dow Jones-Irwin.
Murphy, John J. 1986. Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets: A Comprehensive
Guide to Trading Methods and Applications. New York: New York Institute of Finance.
Powers, Mark and Vogel, David. 1984. Inside the Financial Futures Markets. New
York: John Wiley & Sons.
Teweless, Richard J., Harlow, Charles V. and Stone, Herbert L. 1974. The Commodity
Futures Game: Who Wins? Who Loses? Why? New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
Williams, Jeffrey. 1986. The Economic Function of Futures Markets. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Yahoo.com. Finance. Gold. http://finance.yahoo.com
(8.83% discount)Yahoo.com. Finance. Crude Oil. http://finance.yahoo.com
96
�97
�98
�Why Diversification is Necessary
in Long Term Portfolio Planning
John Roberts1 (Business)
I. Introduction
When planning out a long-term portfolio, in order to reduce risk one should keep
a well-diversified portfolio. For example, the saying of putting all your eggs in one basket
is just the opposite of this. Profit maximization and risk reduction are the main goals of
most investors, even though some people may invest for other reasons. In order to
accomplish this you need proper diversification and I plan to discuss throughout this
paper the ideas behind diversification and long term planning and why the two together
can lead to optimal portfolio performance.
II. The Reasoning Behind Diversification
Diversification is the idea of spreading assets out among different asset classes,
such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and physical commodities (Gastineau
1992, 91). This can be taken one step further by even spreading them out over
international boundaries within these categories. By spreading out assets over many
different categories and industries one reduces the risk of instability within his/her
portfolio. For example, imagine if you take two portfolios A and B. Portfolio A consists
of two stocks in the car industry and portfolio B consist of one stock in the car industry
and one in the airlines industry. Obviously, if the car industry is not doing well, neither
will portfolio A. Portfolio B will still not do as well, but because it was diversified and
uses more than one industry, the risk was reduced and the airline industry stock contained
in Portfolio B will help balance the portfolio. That is why diversification is a key when
investing.
III. Pro's and Con's of Diversification
The idea of diversification can have its positive and negative effects when
dealing with investments. The good thing about diversification is that it allows one to
reduce risk and still have room for profit at the same time. When a company or industry
1
Research performed under the direction of Dr. Mary Lo Re (Business)
99
�is having tough times and stock prices begin to fall, diversification serves as protection
for investors (Sheimo 1999,343). If used properly one may not even notice the decline in
a major industry because of the protection provided by spreading out your assets.
On the other hand, diversification does have its setbacks. First, if there is an
overall market decline, diversification cannot help. If all stocks are performing poorly
there is nothing that can help to fix a declining market. Next, when compared to selecting
carefully for value, diversification may water down returns. When one spreads out his/her
risk, they also may be spreading out their return. The idea of having one stock and
praying for the big jump in stock price is risky and short-term thinking. The payoff may
be much nicer if you have all your eggs in one basket, but the risk of losing everything is
much greater if that price jump was a decline.
IV. Asset Allocation
Asset allocation is a commonly used technique in the investment of funds
(Butrimovitz 1999,2). The International Encyclopedia of the Stock Market states that the
term asset allocation is nothing more but dividing money and placing it into different
types of investments (Sheimo 1999, 185). The basic principle behind this is that asset
classes are nothing more than a group of securities that share a common ground. An
example of this would be taking 35% of your money and placing it in the money market,
taking 40% and placing it in fixed incomes such as bonds, and taking the remaining 25%
and placing it in common shares. By dividing ones investments and placing them in
different markets, one is providing him/herself with proper diversification also. Studies
taken have come up with the following data to show the importance of asset allocation
(Reilly, Norton 1999, 55). 85%-95% of overall investment returns come from the first
and second decisions, which are the long-term allocation decisions (Reilly, Norton 1999,
55). This shows that with proper asset allocation in the beginning stages one may gain the
majority of their returns. Another study was conducted to find out if asset allocation was
any better than just "throwing darts" to pick out stocks. The study reported that through
asset allocation one does produce better risk adjusted returns than if they were to just
select any random set of investments (Butrimovitz 1999, 10).
To show how asset allocation can really work for ones portfolio, we will look at
a period of time from Jan. 1988 to Dec. 2000. The table below shows the data that was
collected at the Investor Index site. One would have earned on average an annual return
of 13.83% per year and a standard deviation of 9.99 if their portfolio consisted of 60% in
a broad U.S. equity index fund, and 40% in a broad U.S. bond index fund (Investor Index
2003, 1). Standard deviation measures the degree of uncertainty in a stock (Gallagher,
Andrew 2000, 151). Now add in international equities, non-U.S. bonds, and commodities,
three more asset classes into the picture. Ones portfolio return goes up to 14.57% while
100
�the risk stays the same. By taking it one step further and dividing the international
equities into European equities, Pacific equities, and Emerging Market equities, and by
adding high yield U.S. bonds, one could have raised an average annual return to 14.64 %,
while still taking on no more risk(Investor Index 2003, 1). Over time this asset allocation
strategy generated a much larger return than the original two-asset portfolio while
managing to keep the same amount of risk. This may not seem much now, but over time
it could make a very big difference in ones portfolio. Also, by reallocating over time and
adding in profits made, these numbers could change even more for the better.
Table 1: An Example of Asset Allocation
Expected Return
Standard
Deviation
2 Asset Portfolio
13.83
9.99
Adding I.E, Non-US Bonds and Commodities
14.57
9.99
Adding 3 different types of International Equity
14.64
9.99
V. Long Term Investment Planning
In order to perform the proper asset allocation one must understand what exactly
a long-term investment plan is and how it will benefit. First, one has to look at the words
long term. This refers to a plan length and most long-term plans are over 1 year in length.
Some plans are for longer time periods but, to be on the same page we will use one year
plus. Next, when thinking about asset allocation and planning, there is a four- step
portfolio management process that should be modeled when trying to decide on the best
investment decisions for oneself (Reily, Norton 1999,37).
The process starts by having the individual investor make a policy statement,
which acts as a road map for all decision making. The investor's goals and objectives,
constraints, and guidelines should all be mentioned in the policy statement. Being that
different investors have different needs throughout their life, one should base his plan
around his age, financial status, future plans, and needs (Reily, Norton 1999,37). When
creating a financial plan (FP for short), one of the first things needed is insurance. The
insurance is there for not only accidents and “just in case”, but it provides protection
against uncertainty along with adding diversification to ones set of assets. No serious
investment plan should be started without having the proper coverage of living expenses
and any unexpected events (Reily, Norton 1999, 37). On top of having insurance to cover
101
�the various reasons that our life needs (disability, car, home, health, etc.), one should also
keep a cash reserve that is enough to cover any emergencies. This does not have to be
money in the bank, but could be invested in liquid assets in case cash is needed quickly.
In making a policy statement, one must next look at in what stage of the
investment life cycle is the investor in to help understand the type of individual they are
dealing with and the decisions they will make (Reily, Norton 1999,38). A person in the
Accumulation Phase is in his/her early to middle years and is more likely to take
moderate to high-risk investments. They most likely have a heavy load of bills, from car
payments to school loans, and want to accumulate assets to help build a solid ground for
the rest of their life.
The Consolidation Phase frequently arises in the latter half of ones life when
earnings exceed expenses. One is still thinking long term about their children's college
bills and even retirement, but ones investments will not be as risky as in the accumulation
phase because one does not want to put everything that he/she has earned into jeopardy
(Reily, Norton 1999,38).
The Spending and Gifting stages are pretty much the same in that they both
occur later in life, around the time of retirement. Living expenses should be paid for
through employee pension plans, and most people are in to the preservation of their
capitol. They may want to think about estate planning and possible inflation so they will
have some riskier investments even though their overall portfolio will be more
conservative than it was during the consolidation phase (Reily, Norton 1999,38).
Besides looking at the various stages of life for an investor, one should also take
into account the personality type of the investor. Some researchers say that type of
occupation influences the way one invests. Certain personality types tend to attract
certain jobs, which in turn will affect the way a person may invest (Stalla 1990, 7). These
personality types are broken down into two sections, passive and active investors.
Passive investors tend to be people who inherited or risk the capital of others.
They did not earn the money and hence tend to have a low tolerance for risk. One can
find this personality type in many occupations such as corporate executives, lawyers in
large firms, medical and dental non-surgeons, politicians, bankers, and journalist (Stalla
1990, 7). Many middle and lower socioeconomic classes are passive investors. Passive
investors usually make the best clients for financial advisors because they are risk
adverse and prefer diversification. They, however, tend to be trend followers which could
have a positive or negative effect (Stalla 1990, 7).
At the other end of the spectrum there are active investors. These are people
who have a high tolerance for risk and want to play a major part in their financial destiny.
These people have earned their own wealth and when they are not in control their risk
levels drop (Stalla 1990, 7). Active investors are found in certain occupations also. They
102
�include small business owners who have started their own business, medical and dental
surgeons, independent lawyers, entrepreneurs, and self-employed advisors and non
college graduates. Active investors play the role of a financial advisor themselves and
tend to follow a focused strategy instead of a diversification strategy like passive
investors (Stalla 1990, 7).
Another way to classify investors is by his/her personality type. This actually
looks at the type of person the individual is. By knowing this one can further help to
determine the risk level of the individual and break them up into one of the four groups
(Stalla 1990, 7). The first type of personality looked at is the Adventurer class. People in
this class are strong willed and tend to be entrepreneurial. They like to make their own
investment decisions and have a high tolerance for risk. Also, they tend to concentrate
their investments more instead of diversifying their portfolios. This class is one that
financial advisors have difficulty working with unless they find a way to show the
individual that a cavalier style is not the way one should run core portfolio (Stalla 1990,
7). Celebrities would be the next type of personality individuals can be classified in. They
like action and tend to be fashion followers. This carries over to their investment
decisions because many of the moves they make are trendy, meaning others do it so I
should to. They make impulsive decisions, which is why a financial advisor is necessary
to keep this type of individual away form making rash investments. They also tend to
make easy prey for maximum turnover brokers.
The third personality type is called the Individualist (Stalla 1990, 8). These also
are strong willed and confident people but they are not impulsive. They do their own
research but make excellent prospects for financial advisors because they tend to be too
busy with work to manage their assets. Once work is over and retirement sets in they get
more involved with their assets and many times take the place of their financial advisors
themselves (Stalla 1990, 8). The final type of personality would be the Guardians. This is
the more conservative type of person who is not as confident in his or her own money
management. They are very careful when it comes to choosing a financial advisor, but
remain loyal to them as long as no radical changes occur. This type of personality is
made up of people who haven't earned their money but received an inheritance or lump
sum of money (Stalla 1990, 8).
There is one more way to help understand how much risk an individual can take
when investing. By looking at ones goals, one can further assess the decision making of
an individual because certain goals tend to drive ones investment decisions. Near-term
high priority goals would include the purchase of a house or payments of college
education. Such goals are very important (Stalla 1990, 8). They can be classified as
emotional priorities and would attract investments in the safest securities. Long-term high
priority goals such as having a comfortable retirement in 20 to 30 years can be obtained
103
�over a longer time span (Stalla 1990, 8). This allows the investor to make more
aggressive decisions because of the longer time frame and it is not as important as a
house payment or college payment that must be made either immediately or shortly down
the road. Lower priority goals are those that if one does not succeed at, it doesn't really
matter. An example of this would be trying to invest to go on a cruise. It is not a
necessity, so not achieving this would not end ones world. These goals normally are
achieved by aggressive investments (Stalla 1990, 8).
Entrepreneurial Goals are the final group of goal levels that use a focus strategy
to achieve the goal. A focus strategy would be investing all of ones stock in one company
such as the firrn one may work at. No diversification is used in this strategy. Now that
one knows the type of investor they are dealing with and can create their policy
statement, one can move on to step two. This consists of being up-to-date on the market
and its conditions, the world economy, and future trends in business. By knowing this
information and combining it with his policy statement, the investor may go to stage
three and implement his plan by constructing a portfolio.
VI. Financial Planners
Many people who invest really don't have the knowledge to make an investment
plan and construct a portfolio without a little guided help. CFP's or certified financial
planners have the knowledge and background to assist one while they invest. The
planners take a comprehensive, client-centered approach when planning, and believe they
can really improve people's investment lives (Lee 2001, 2). It’s important when choosing
a CFP that one knows the different types and what they offer (Lee 2001,3). Mark
DiGiovanni states in the article, “What is financial planning anyway?” If someone asked
five different CFP about an issue, one would probably get five different answers showing
that not all CFP think exactly the same (Lee 2001,3). CFPs must go beyond minimum
and find out exactly what clients want, what they need, and how they want it to happen
(Dilberto, Anthony 2002, 1). They can give them advice, but what may seem right for the
CFP may not be right for the individual, so they want to know as much about who they
are working with as possible.
VII. Why Diversification is Necessary for Financial Planning
In creating an optimal portfolio, the most famous method used today would be
the Markowitz Portfolio Theory. This theory states that high return dominates low return
and low risk dominates high risk. Now the Markowitz theory does not just give one the
set of stocks that are needed to make ones optimal portfolio, but it determines the best
104
�combinations of assets for a given risk level or a given return level (Maosenzhog 2003,
2). The best combination for a given level is displayed on the efficient frontier.
The graph above is just an example that shows the efficient frontier as arc AB. A
risk adverse investor wants to minimize risk as much as possible, so points A and E
would be suitable for that type of investor. Point A represents the portfolio with the
lowest possible risk on the efficient frontier (Maosenzhog 2003, 4).
Now this example also shows the efficient frontier but added in now are the
individuals satisfaction (utility) levels which show if a person is more or less risk
adverse. On the optimal portfolio set point C would be the risk adverse investor and
point D represents an investor who would prefer a higher return.
VIII. Merrill Lynch’s Strategies
Given the basic idea behind the Markowitz model, Merrill Lynch came up with
a group of US private investor profiles, which gave a graduated risk/return tradeoff
depending on investor preference (Merrill Lynch 2003, 2). The five profile types are:
capitol preservation, income, income for growth, growth and aggressive growth. Table 2
105
�shows Merrill Lynch’s asset allocation percentages depending on the type of profile one
would fall under.
Table 2: Merrill Lynch US Investor Profiles-2003
Capital preservation refers to the risk adverse investor who wants a safe steady gain and
accomplishes this by placing the majority of his or her investments in bonds and cash.
The opposite of the five profile types would be the aggressive growth, which
characterizes an investor placing the majority of his or her investments in stocks to get a
larger return. The graph below shows that proper diversification of assets can lead to
steady growth on one’s portfolio. It is based on 52 years of market research which verify
that stocks and bonds rarely both produce negative returns. In actuality it only happened
1.3% of the time during the period in question (Merrill Lynch 2003, 3). Also, it was
reported that positive year on year returns happened 97% of the time for investment
profile capital preservation and 80% of the time for aggressive growth (Merrill Lynch
2003, 3). The data above also shows that diversification of assets and proper asset
allocation lead to building and preservation of capital and at the same time lower
portfolio risk in all investor profiles.
Annual Rolling Returns of ML Investor Profile Models
106
�Too much exposure to one specific stock can also be just as bad as improper
asset allocation. Merrill Lynch ran a test where they selected the four largest stocks from
each of the ten sectors of the S&P 500 (Merrill Lynch 2003, 13). By doing this, they
created a portfolio of forty equities and listed the historical risk and return for each of
them. The purpose of the experiment was to show that its not a good idea to have all of
ones eggs in one basket, in other words they wanted to show the single security risk.
Table 3 located at the end of this paper shows the forty equities, their risk, return, and
stock price. Table 4 shows as the concentration of the stock increased how the Sharpe
ratio compares to it. The Sharpe ratio, which was conceived by Nobel Laureate William
Sharp, relates an investments return to its risk. It implies that the higher the Sharpe ratio
is, the more an investor is compensated for per a given risk level. Out of the 40 stocks
that were analyzed, only eight of them had a Sharpe ratio that increase as the
concentration of the stock increased (Merrill Lynch 2003, 17). The other 32 stocks
proved that a diversified portfolio is superior to a single stock portfolio.
IX. Conditions in the Bad Years
In times where our market is susceptible to other types of shocks in the world,
such as the war in which we are experiencing right now, one would say that
diversification could only be a positive for those who take their money and invest. A
wide range of market strategist suggests that we be aware of the past lesson that wars are
generally a bad thing for US equities (Rosenberg 2002, 2).
To show the shakiness of the market, I looked at three different sectors of the
market and what people thought about each. Oil, defense, and consumer staples all
though to be growth opportunities even showed instability which is why diversification is
necessary, especially in times of need. Oil prices, now around $26 a barrel, was estimated
that it could rise to about $40 a barrel before and during the war, driving up the stock of
major companies (Rosenberg 2002, 2). A swift end to the war could send the price
dropping just as fast though (Rosenberg 2002, 2). Defense is one of the more positive
picks and is thought to climb from $334 billion in 2002 to $409 billion in 2005, a 7%
annual growth rate (Rosenberg 2002, 2). Consumer staples were looked at and said to be
a safety investment for wartime investors. The amount of toothpaste and soda sold will
not change no matter what happens with the war (Rosenberg 2002, 3). As one can see,
wartime investments call for diversification because of the instability of the market.
Some products such as consumer staples may be on the rise, but many products such as
oil may decline in the tougher times. Diversification helps one position him/herself so
one will not do badly if either outcome happens, good or bad (Lehmann 2003, 1).
107
�X. Conclusion
Diversification is the idea of spreading assets out among different asset classes,
such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and physical commodities. When
planning out a long-term portfolio, in order to reduce risk one should keep a welldiversified portfolio. Merrill Lynch summed it up with the statement out of their
Investment Policy handout which stated that it is essential to adapt and maintain a well
diversified exposure to the major asset classes relative to a client's risk tolerance, return
expectations, and investment objective (17). They also state that no matter the financial
technique used, as long a the resulting portfolio has proper diversification at all levels and
the objectives of income generation or long-term growth are fulfilled, then whoever
follows this has done a correct job (Merrill Lynch 200317). The benefits of
diversification are well documented and reasonably understood, and holding a broad
range of asset classes can lower overall portfolio risk and lead to more stable returns,
which is a positive in long-term planning (Merrill Lynch 2003, 1). Besides learning the
above stated, I also learned that holding a concentrated portfolio could lead one to
smaller returns than compared to a diversified portfolio. Table 2 on the back shows us
that the Sharpe ratio and annual returns were negative for the majority of the time on the
concentrated portfolios. When the well-diversified 40 stock portfolio was analyzed, it
(Sharp ratio and annual return) turned out positive. In conclusion, I feel that once a
person figures out the stage of investing they are in, their personality and type, one can
come up with a successful plan to create a well-diversified portfolio that would minimize
risk along with collecting stable and steady returns.
XI. Works Cited
Butrimovitz, Gerald. 1999. "Asset Allocation, Portfolio Optimization: Better RiskAdjusted Performance." Journal of Financial Planning 12 (7):80-87.
Dilberto, Roy, and Mitch, Anthony. 2002. "Financial Life Planning." Journal of
Financial Financial Planning 15 (11):42-44.
Gastineau, Gary L. 1992. Dictionary of Financial Risk Management. Chicago: Probust.
Investor Index. Com. "Determining the Asset Allocation That's Right for You".
<http://www.assetallocation.orgiFree/sense.html>.
Lee, Shelley A. 2001. "What is Financial Planning Anyway?" Journal of Financial
Planning 14 (12): 36-46.
108
�Lehmann, Richard. 2003. "Wartime Investing." Forbes, 31 March, 114.
Maosenzhong. "Lecture 6: Markowitz Portfolio Theory an CAPM."
<http://ntmain.utb.edu/maosenzhong/teachingiFINA4382/lecture6.pdf>.
Merrill Lynch Global Securities Research & Economic Group, Global Investment
Strategy Department. 2003. "Managing Your Wealth: A Primer on Asset Allocation and
Portfolio Management." 21 January, 1-17.
Reilly, Frank R., and Edgar A.Norton. 1999. Investments: Fifth Edition. Orlando.
Harcourt.
Rosenberg, Yuval. 2002. "Would a War Kill Your Stocks?" Fortune, 25 November, 185187.
Sheimo, Michael, Ed. 1999. International Encyclopedia of the Stock Market: Vol. 1.
Chicago. Fitzroy. 1.
Stalla, Robert J, Ph.D, CFA.1990."The 1990 CFA Review Course Outline, Volume II."
Ohio. Stalla Seminars Inc.
109
�110
�Table 4: Concentrated Stock Portfolios: Risk & Return Characteristics
_______________________________________________________
111
�
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Volume 2, Number 2
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Section I: The Sciences -- 2 Too Young to Be Old: The Cause of Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome / Janette Lebron -- 15 Bots / Sean Munson -- Section II: The Social Sciences -- 30 Case Study of a Two-Year Old Girl’s Emotional Adjustment in a Private Day Care Setting / Claire Lippmann -- 38 A Reflection of the Little Steps Treatment Program / Josephine Vitale -- 46 Internship at Bay Ridge Preparatory School / Lindsay Schwartz -- Section III: Performing and Visual Arts -- 68 Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Suite for Small Orchestra: An American Twentieth-Century Musical Composition / Kelly Parker -- Section IV: The Humanities -- 82 El Antiracionalismo en El Túnel y La Resistencia, de Ernesto Sábato / Susan Altman -- Section V: Professional Programs -- 88 Commodities Futures Markets / Rich Barbiera -- 99 Why Diversification is Necessary in Long Term Portfolio Planning / John Roberts
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