Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a...

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a program that helps struggling parents with children become more independent by getting more work experience and training while getting cash benefits, and eventually getting a paying job without as many cash benefits. The main goal of TANF is to help poor families stop relying on welfare benefits so they can become integrated into the workforce and economy. However, TANF is a very controversial subject because it has not been as effective in practice as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the welfare program that TANF replaced. This change in program effectiveness is significant to the United States as well as it’s economy because TANF is not helping as many people as the†¦show more content†¦Participants in TANF are also only allowed â€Å" a maximum of 60 months (5 years) of TANF assistance benefits† (Department of Health and Human Services) within their lifetime. The requirements that are a p art of the TANF program make it very difficult for states to use their allocated TANF resources to their full potential. For example, according to Liz Schott, â€Å"States must require recipients to engage in work activities and must impose sanctions (by reducing or terminating benefits) if an individual refuses to participate.† These work requirements depend on the structure of the individual family, however it averages around 20-30 hours of work related activities per week. Schott makes the point that the requirements to obtain cash assistance from TANF are strict, and may be difficult for people who are not able to work to meet. For example, those who have severe disabilities, medical illnesses, or who must take care of children or family members may not be able to meet these work requirements. These strict requirements are important in the implementation of TANF because they decrease the amount of people who can get help from TANF, which means that TANF’s performan ce is not living up to it’s full potential. Additionally, states must also meet certain requirements as a whole, and if they don’t succeed in meeting this they could face a fine. This is called the work participation rate. In order to not receive theShow MoreRelatedJohn F. Kennedy983 Words   |  4 PagesThe first Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, fought through many hardships. Becoming the president at the age of 43, he went through many difficult trials to get that role due to his religion and health. Although he died early, he still managed to go beyond his presidential duties and accomplished a lot during his short term. John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. Ever since he was little, he has had very poor health. He suffered from a variety of diseasesRead MoreJohn F. 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Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner, psychologist and behaviorist, was born in Susquhanna, Pennsylvania in 1904 to William Skinner and Grace Burrhus. His father was a lawywer and his mother was a naturally bright woman. Skinner had only one sibling; his brother died at the age of sixteen. Skinner lived most of his life in Susquhanna. He did not leave the house he was born in until he left to go to college. He was raised very close to his grandparents, who had a major impact on his early lifeRead MoreThe Legacy Of John F. Kennedy1176 Words   |  5 PagesJohn F. Kennedy did a lot for our country although his presidential term was cut short. He had a certain allure to him that Americans liked. Kennedy knew what to do to gain the votes of all different types of voters no matter their age, race, or religion. His campaign and presidency have inspired even today’s presidents and presidential candidates in multiple ways. John F. 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Marxism in The Chimney Sweeper Essay examples - 1927 Words

In his poem, The Chimney Sweeper, William Blake displays the despondent urban life of a young chimney sweeper during the coming of the industrial revolution in order to emphasize the theme of innocence through Marxism and to inform people of the harsh working conditions during the times of child labor promoting political reform. William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757, to James and Catherine Blake. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions. He learned to read and write at home. Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. One of Blakes assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a†¦show more content†¦During the latter part of the 18th century and early 19th century, owners of cotton mills collected orphans and children of poor parents throughout the country, obtaining their services merely for the cost of maintaining them . In some cases children five and six years of age were forced to work from 13 to 16 hours a day. A Royal Commission investigated how children from the bottom of the social class ladder were forced to work in mines and collieries. The commission discovered that children began working in their very early years of life; however, most children began working at the ages of 5 and 7. The coal burning chimneys were so small that only young children could fit inside them. Starting around 5 years old, they had to learn to knee and elbow their way up the insides of these chimneys, always sore and bleeding until they formed protective callouses. Their heads were shaved to make it easier to get up and down, but many still got stuck and suffocated. They were even sent up lighted chimneys. By the time they were 12 or so they were useless to the master and to anyone else. Occupational hazards were bone-softening diseases, bowlegs from malnutrition and carrying heavy bags, and cancer of the scrotum . Many children were often critically injured, contaminated with serious illnessesShow MoreRelatedSociological Criticism of William Blake’s Poetry Essay1506 Words   |  7 PagesSociological criticism analyzes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature. To examine literature from the perspective of Marxist social theory is a quintessential form of sociological criticism, as Marxism primarily deals with political and economic ideas of communism and social inequality. William Blake, a Romantic poet, frequently wrote on the topic of class oppression and his opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preferenceRead MoreWilliam Blake: a Marxist Before Marxism1941 Words   |  8 PagesIn his poem, The Chimney Sweeper, William Blake displays the despondent urban life of a young chimney sweeper during the coming of the industrial revolution in order to emphasize the theme of innocence through Marxism and to inf orm people of the harsh working conditions during the times of child labor promoting political reform. William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757, to James and Catherine Blake. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions. He learned to read and write at

UPS Business Strategy Free Essays

string(81) " on existing equity and splitting the remaining capital on debt and liabilities\." The United Parcel Service has been in business since 1907. Over 100 years of delivery services must be a result of a certain method of management and business that has allowed them such success over time. What type of structure do they use within the workplace to manage the flow of packages? What promotion system do they use and how does it affect employees’ commitment to work? What type of organizational design does UPS use to manage its employees? These are all questions I would like to answer in terms of UPS’ management structure to determine how they eve been successful for so long. We will write a custom essay sample on UPS: Business Strategy or any similar topic only for you Order Now Table of Contents 1. Title Page – Page 1 2. Abstract – Page 2 3. Table of Contents – Page 3 4. Section 1: UPS Enterprise – Page 4 5. Section 2: Management Functions – Page 6 6. Section 3: Analysis – Page 12 7. References – Page 13 8. References (Count. ) – Page 14 Section 1: UPS Enterprise Starting as a small messenger company in 1907, UPS, short for United Parcel Service, has grown into a massive publicly traded company today. Their management structure today consists of a management committee to oversee the entire company. The committee consists of the usual CEO, SCOFF, and COO (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Operating Officer). Beneath each of them is a tree of management. UPS employs a Human Relations department which deals with ethical decisions for the company and how employees will be treated. They also employ engineering department which determines the flow of packages every day (UPS, 2014). They determine what the manning needs to be for each building to run efficiently every night. They also determine how many packages each building needs to process every day in order to run efficiently and effectively. The operations management section is clearly the muscle of the operation. They are the ones who determine how they are going to get the plan set by the engineering department completed. The operations department has many tiers of management stretching all the way down to the front line of package handlers. UPS also practices hiring from within as many of UPS’ Coo’s have started all the way from the bottom of the company. Some logistics regarding the company begin with the fact that UPS employs approximately 407,000 people across the world, with 348,000 of them within the United States (Statistics Brain, 2014). UPS has grown to offer many different methods of package shipment. Today they offer services such as Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air, Ground and even Sonic Air. Next Day Air being their primary source of revenue among the other methods of shipment. Sonic Air is a method not known to many because of its extremely high cost. Sonic Air allows you to ship to anywhere in the fastest time possible at an extremely high cost. UPS has gained a very large share of the market with approximately 7. 9 million customers using their services daily to ship over 15 million packages daily across the world. UPS has developed new improvements frequently with their $53. Billion revenue every year. UPS’ world headquarters is in Atlanta, Georgia, with many other regional headquarters around the world in each of the major continents (UPS, 2014). UPS has created a operational layout which resembles their management layout. They use major hubs across the world to process the majority of the packages, which are then loaded onto trucks and distributed to smaller hubs to be delivered to the communities. UPS and Feeds are strong competitors, both ruling the courier service industry. The companies do have their differences though, as Feeds is not a unionized company. UPS is a larger company, although Feeds does operate through the air far more than UPS, but UPS has a stronger ground presence. According to revenue statistics, UPS brings in about $53. 1 billion per year compared to Feeder’s $42. Billion, which translates to $5. 9 and $3. 7 billion in profits respectively. Feeds also employs approximately 100,000 people less than UPS yearly, which factors into the profits. Overall, UPS has the higher market share, holding a 46%-50% share of the entire domestic market, compared to Feeder’s 49% market share on express packages only. In essence, Feeds specializes in express shipments to make a profit , while UPS does everything to include ground and air shipments (Differ, 2013). UPS focuses heavily on businesses as primary clients. UPS actually has a program for all employees which allows workers to get contracts from any businesses around to use UPS’ services. Gaining a contract makes UPS money and is an incentive for employees because UPS will pay them a portion of the contract. Overall, UPS is the most dominating force in the courier services industry in the world, making them a very successful business. Section 2: Management Planning is of the utmost importance at UPS, it is the difference between a failing company and success. The United Parcel Service employs industrial engineers at every hub across the world. Their Job is the do all the behind the scenes work to maximize profit and create the most efficient workplace possible. They also incorporate other departments within the company which all account for certain aspects of the success the company has had. Departments such as Finance, Marketing, Industrial Engineering, Operations, and Human Resources are some of the primary reasons for the company’s continued success. Financially, UPS is one of the more successful companies in America, and is the most successful in the courier services industry. Financial analysts with UPS have made the company very â€Å"liquid†, meaning they have high flexibility. They are gaining working capital and assets faster as they continue to pay off debt. This working capital goes towards the development of innovations to better the progress and efficiency of the company. From 2005 to 2010, UPS was gaining working capital at a gaining rate of 28% per year. According the financial model, UPS is running a system hat focuses on runs largely on existing equity and splitting the remaining capital on debt and liabilities. You read "UPS: Business Strategy" in category "Papers" They continue to invest profits on working capital to better the company as a whole (Shah, 2010). UPS does focus on marketing in some regards, although they let their products do the marketing for them the majority of the time. UPS does more than Just ship packages, they also develop products such as Barbados scanning systems which get the UPS name out. They have made themselves accessible across almost any medium possible. You can reach UPS via phone, internet, in-person, through UPS drivers, at strutting centers, and retail locations. Having the company so readily accessible really promotes the use of the company for shipping needs. They price competitively, which gives them an advantage with consumers because they are so easily accessible compared to competitors (Shah, 2010). Industrial Engineering is the brain of the operational side of UPS. Millions and millions of packages come through UPS’ hubs every day, without Industrial Engineers working behind the scenes it would be nothing more than a giant flow of packages. This department analyzes the intake of packages for each of their respective hubs. They allocate how many workers need to work on each shift for the hub to be efficient and come out positive based on how many expected packages. They also plan for the expected amount of packages for each shift. They have to take into account all of the factors in this determination. Holiday times are the toughest for this department. Often they have to hire â€Å"seasonal† employees to add additional man hours for the holiday flow, called â€Å"peak season†. In 2013, UPS had a major strategic planning failure during the holiday season due to lack of man power. The engineers at the head of he company failed to make correct predictions about the flow of packages that would be coming through the system that holiday season. UPS planned to hire an additional 55,000 employees that holiday season, while also leasing an additional 23 airplanes to accommodate next day air shipments in order to make â€Å"before Christmas day’ delivery promises (Leonard, 2013). Clearly this was under planned as Christmas day rolled around and many packages were still stalled in the hubs across America forcing managers of the hubs to work hours on Christmas day and Christmas Eve, which are normally holidays for UPS employees (Banker, 2013). This goes to show how important the Industrial Engineers in UPS actually are to the company. They are paid to make the overall operations plan every day of the year, which are then carried out by the operations managers. The operations side of UPS is the muscle of the entire organization. This the department that has to perform in order for the company to be successful. These are the workers that consumers deal with on a daily basis. Planning for this department is done mostly by the Industrial Engineering department, although they can deviate from the plan as necessary. One thing the operations depart works on with planning s how many managers they think they will need in order to get the most from their hourly work force. Integrating airline, ground, and warehouse operations is key to the success of the mission of UPS. Customer service is the greatest advertising tool that UPS has, and the operations department is in control of this as they are the ones out and about working on the front lines. Finally, UPS utilizes a Human Resources department for planning that deals with hiring employees. With UPS’ vast network of employees, it is the HER department that is key to keeping these employees happy and satisfied enough to continue to work art for the company and keep the turnover rate low. Once the II department determines how many employees will need to be hired for peak seasons, it’s the HER department that is in charge of hiring those employees in time for the season. Planning for the HER department is integral for the happiness and productivity of employees. Organization I think UPS has done a brilliant Job in the way they have designed the company to manage itself. Instead of having one large chain of command, UPS has one CEO, but many different departments and many different levels. UPS has its large hubs, which all compete against each other. Hubs like Chicago and Louisville are some of the largest. These hubs flow millions of packages through them every single day, but they wouldn’t be able to do that if they didn’t have smaller hubs throughout the country. The design allows for the packages to flow into the major hubs throughout the country, and then they distribute them by freight to the smaller hubs, which then load them on to package cars and deliver them out to houses. UPS also utilizes a Human Relations department which takes care of all their recruitment procedures as well as other areas such as safety. Finally, they use an engineering department which goes all the behind the scenes work for UPS (Drake, 2012). They project how many packages each building will receive that day and take all things into account such as holidays and what not. They also determine how many people need to be hired to maintain efficiency and effective working methods. These three departments work as their own entities, but collaborate to reach the main goal. When working with the design of the company managers need to consider the fluidity of their design. Because UPS focuses largely on timeliness, their organization for the company needs to also maintain a fluid design which allows for the packages o easily flow through the system. I think UPS has maintained this type of design through the departments which they have installed in the organization. All departments work together but separate, which allows them to do their own work but unloads some of the work from other areas and allows each area to put more focus into what they do. Knowing someone who used to work for UPS, I can tell you they are very precise and fluid with their design. He worked in the management side of operations. Every day the engineers would show up in the morning to plan the day for the afternoon shifts. High level managers for the afternoon shifts would come in after lunch and begin to put the plans into action. Following them, the lower level managers would come in to prepare for the day after being briefed by their managers. Hourly employees were given a specific â€Å"start time† for each day when they would show up to work. They also had a â€Å"downtime† which dictates when the building should be completely done sorting packages into their correct destinations. If everything worked correctly, the building would be efficient for that night. The fluid motions of the company are what keep them successful and efficient. One thing I thought was interesting is that the department who plans out the routes for the delivery drivers try to plan routes that use as many right turns as possible, eliminating the wait at stop lights as much as possible. This kind of planning and organization is key to the success of the company. Leadership UPS practices promotion from within to maintain motivated employees. One longstanding principal within UPS management is that promoting the workers that are already within your company is the way to keep the company in good standing. It always gives employees something to strive for and look forward to. The current CEO, Scott Davis, was originally absorbed by UPS when they bought out his previous company. He worked his way up to being a UPS CEO, although he did not start all the way at the bottom like many leaders within the company. One thing UPS does to push employees to stay with them is they offer health insurance to all part time employees who have been with them for over a year. In this day and age, something like that is extremely hard to come across. They also offer $1 5,000 in tuition assistance for part time employees, thus encouraging student to get their degree. All of this is the season they choose to promote from within. They invest a lot of time and money into their lower level employees so that they can get their education and begin to move up the UPS employment ladder. They strongly believe in filling gaps in upper management with employees who already know the system and have been at the level of those guys beneath them (UPS Earn Learn, 2014). Motivating current employees to do better creates a sense of pride within the company, which in turn creates better leaders. Communication between the leaders of the company comes once again from the management committee that UPS uses. Orders start from the top of the organization and trickle down through the management structure until it reaches the front lines. One issue that UPS has with conflict resolution is that the company is highly unionized. UPS uses a system of â€Å"write-ups† for hourly employees. Safety has developed a set of rules that need to be followed by each employee while working, and if those rules are not followed, the manager of that employee must right the person up. The issue with this is that the union can almost always get that persons job back if they end up getting fired because of unsafe working. Directly from a UPS manager, I know that the only thing a person can be fired for and not brought back is fighting or stealing. Above this, disciplinary action becomes more regulated by UPS than unions. Managers are not part of the union and therefore cannot get their Job back if fired from misconduct or poor management. UPS and Teamsters consistently work out collective bargaining agreements for hourly employees which state the terms of raises and the guidelines of employment. For example, if an employee is fired by UPS management, they have 10 days to file a grievance with the union to get heir Job back or the termination becomes final and there is nothing the union can do anymore. This type of disciplinary action for hourly employees can cause issues in the workplace, as many employees know they have a very slim chance of losing their job no matter their performance. Control Control is something that every department in the company has to be aware of because they all work separately but together as a whole. Human resources controls the morale of the employees, while operations looks to control the efficiency and work ethic of the work force. Some control tools which UPS utilizes is the advantage of am work. One department can take an issue and pass it on to another department to work on. This allows work to remain focused on the right topic rather than dealing with something that is not commonly dealt with in that specific department. Section Ill: Analysis In summary, UPS as a whole uses a structured departmentally system to govern their company. They believe in promoting leadership from within and encouraging new employees to better themselves so they can progress with the company. It seems that UPS has created a system that is concurrent with their massive success over time. I believe UPS will continue to stay in business for a long time if they continue to treat their employee’s right and manage the way they do now. Keeping things separate but working together seems to be a working concept as each of the hubs function as their own entity in the big picture of things. I cannot think of any recommendations for the company to use at this time, as I believe they are doing things right. One thing that I do believe is an issue is the unionized workforce that can really lag their production because of employee’s mindset. However, I know this is something that cannot be taken away by UPS management and cannot be fixed easily, so I think they have done a great Job of working around it. How to cite UPS: Business Strategy, Papers

Integrating the Arts Essay Thesis Example For Students

Integrating the Arts Essay Thesis As reforms have been implemented and assessed, educational leaders have begun to appear to be ready to entertain new and broader definitions of vat constitutes intelligence and cognition and what contributes to their development in children. Many who are actively involved in educational reform movements have called for a deduction in their systems reliance on standardized tests, written examinations, and other traditional assessment strategies as the most viable way to measure such complex educational outcomes as knowledge and cognitive growth in an individual. When broader notions of what the human intellect comprises are the design of the curriculum, the practice of teaching, and the training and retraining of teachers and school administrators must also be examined. Opportunities to increase the role the arts play in educating our youth then become apparent. If these opportunities are to be realized, we deed new approaches and strategies. Change becomes the order of the day. Educators have encapsulated their approaches by coining such catch phrases as interdisciplinary curriculum, infusing the arts, and integrating the curriculum, The Arts and General Education The general educational curriculum, as we know it, tends to be fragmented and compartmentalized, and, until now, transepts to develop significant linkages from one subject area to another have been rare. Therefore, schooling can be seen, at some levels, more as a series of discrete learning experiences than as a synthesis f related learning from a wide variety of academic disciplines. The issues we face as educators and, more specifically, as art(s) educators, are more varied and perhaps more critical that any issues art(s) educators have had to face in our countrys history. Increasing levels Of cultural diversity, socioeconomic disparity, and gender issues place many of our students in the at risk (of dropping out) category in terms Of public education. Often wonder how many Of our students have dropped out mentally, even though they still attend school. There can be little doubt that many Of the issues that currently face art(s) education also halogen the entire educational system. Interestingly enough. These issues often seem almost diametrically opposed to or mutually exclusive of each other, and, as yet, there seem to be no clear answers. The most pressing of these issues involves the increasing level of cultural diversity exhibited by LIST. Dents. This is followed closely by such related issues as designing curricula that are gender neutral; deciding whether a national curriculum is desirable, let alone achievable, and creating and implementing culturally unbiased assessment measures that provide an accurate measure to academic achievement. With ACH passing day, our nation becomes more culturally diverse, the verbal and visual languages spoken in our schools multiply, and the cultural values of our students become more and more disparate. The image of the United States as a vast cultural melting pot has yielded to a truer analogue-that of the United States as a cultural tossed salad. Todays teachers face huge educational problems when they attempt to design experiences that allow our students to cherish and build upon the cultural values of their own heritage while learning tolerance for the values of others and then to develop the shared beliefs that re necessary for Our nation to maintain its purpose and identity. Even achieving gender equitystructuring educational experiences to accommodate the learning styles Of both males and females, and turning away from educational stereotypes that limit the aspirations of students because of their genderseems almost impossible for the traditional school system to address successfully. In the arts, the move from one era, modernism, to the next set of artistic constructs and beliefs, postmodernism, is also causing many of us to restructure what we teach and how we seek to teach it. Ethical issues relating to the role that teachers would play in the emotional and moral development of their students can be contrasted with issues of academic freedom revolving around censorship. A major concern is to find ways to balance programmatic content that may be seen as controversial, or even radial, with values that may, or may not, he held by a majority of ones community members. In attempts to address the issues and concerns mentioned above, two separate approaches have emerged as possible vehicles tort making the arts an equal partner in general education. While these approaches share the goal of strengthening the role the arts play in making schooling more relevant to our children, they differ drastically in how this goal is realized. These strategies can be labeled the interdisciplinary-arts approach and the integrating-the-arts approach. The Interdisciplinary-Arts Approach The interdisciplinary-arts approach crosses traditional subject matter boundaries by combining them. It requires the creation of a new breed of teachera renaissance teachertrained to create and deliver interdisciplinary learning experiences in multiple art forms to children. This, according the Lengthener, marks the emergence of what could become a new paradigm for teacher reparation in arts education. On the surface, the creation off viable cadre of interdisciplinary arts teachers seems like an important way to infuse the arts into education. After all, as an forms, dance, art, music, and theatre share many common concerns. Elementary school teachers, Who teach in self-contained classrooms, are expected to prepare lessons and teach up to thirteen different subjects each day. Couldnt we create their equivalent-a group Of generalist arts teachers who have the skills and knowledge to share the arts with students in an interdisciplinary fashion? While the idea of creating linkages between ND among the arts is important, the notion of training large numbers of interdisciplinary teachers who can teach the arts as one unified, holistic subject in our schools, or of training elementary generalists to attempt this mission, is problematic for several important reasons. Chief among these reasons is the role of the arts teacher. This approach reverses most, if not all, of the reforms we have undertaken in education during the last twelve years. Much to the reform movement in education has been fueled by the conclusions of the Holmes Group, the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the College Entrance Examination Board, and upcoming reports and recommendations by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. LS] In the arts, reform also has been stimulated by publications from working groups comprised of members of the professional arts education associations and the Getty Center for Education in the Arts and by the recent publication of parallel national standards for the teaching of each of the Without exception, each Of the major reports coming from these independent groups calls for more subject-matter knowledge on the part of teachers. In fact, the Holmes Report and A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century from the Carnegie Foundation have helped spawn a proliferation of five- year programs in teacher education that are predicated on allowing prospective teachers to attain a bachelors degree in a specialized subject area before they spend a fifth year acquiring the pedagogical skills they need to communicate that knowledge in their classrooms. 171 In essence, the thrust of these and many other calls for reform lies in intensifying rather than diluting the content of education by strengthening and adding focus to the subject area knowledge or expertise of teachers. While each of us can think of examples of individuals who possess proclivities in more than one art form, most of those in the arts find that their talents lie in one specific art form, and indeed may lie in one medium or category of that art form, To expect large numbers of individuals to function as multivalent arts teachers who can sing dance, play instruments, read music, choreograph dances, conduct, draw, paint, sculpt, and delve into interactive media is simply beyond the scope of human capability. The Persian Empire EssayIn Other words, as a pragmatist, propose change that, because minimizes increases in costs, is acceptable to education decision makers not only during a period Of educational reform, when funding for such initiatives is temporarily available, but also during those long years between periods Of reform. First, this integrated arts program must be based on a team-teaching approach that utilizes the expertise of trained pacifists in art, music, dance, and theatre education. Currently, middle schools in virtually all states employ specialists in art, music, and physical education. Many physical education majors have strong backgrounds in movement or dance, At some point in the not-too-distant future, teacher certification in dance may become more common. But until then, we should seek to make use of the expertise currently offered by our physical education instructors. Theatre, also, is not adequately represented at the elementary and middle school levels, but until there are more theatre specialists, creative writing could be substituted or theatre, particularly it significant time is spent in the class studying, writing and performing plays. How would such a program be organized? Instead of attending art classes every day for six to nine weeks and then switching to music every day for six to nine weeks, then to theatre, and finally to dance, block scheduling students would allow them to attend art, music, dance, and theatre for a double period on four successive days each week of an entire semester and then to meet together with all four arts teachers in a large group on the fifth day of the cycle for the semester (see table I). As you can see, the total length Of the program remains the sameone semester-and the staffing, with the exception Of theatre or creative writing, is also the same. The major differences lie in the team-teaching approach, which allows the arts teachers to plan together and reinforce the students learning experiences in the arts program. For the first time in the history of arts education, opportunities for developing the abilities to respond, produce or perform, appreciate, value, and create a cultural/historical context for all the arts become attainable. The content for the integrated arts aerogram would be drawn from the four artistic disciplines and sequenced so that the themes, concepts, styles, cultures, and periods covered in each of the visual arts would also be covered and reinforced in the others. The cultural, critical, social, historical, and aesthetic implications of such in-depth study are enormous compared to the piecemeal way in which we currently cover the arts. At present, we can only guess at how much more powerful and efficient our arts programs would be. But the thought to middle school students studying the works, mastering the techniques, and examining the aesthetic beliefs of he impressionist painters while listening to and performing the music that was being played, seeing and dancing the ballets and folk dances that were being performed, and reading and performing excerpts from the literature and theatre of Western Europe at that time is more than a bit enticing. Indeed, how much more relevant would schooling become if an equal amount of time and effort was spent in exploring the culture of native Americans or African Americans through an in-depth examination of their art works, while listening to and performing the music they played, seeing and dancing the tribal and folk dances that ere part of the everyday lives of their ancestors, and reading and performing excerpts from the Oral histories that have been passed down from generation to generation by members of these or many other American and non-western cultures? Arts programs in our schools hue been based on gifted and talented models of education. Traditionally, as children passed through our educational system, eve have tended to encourage those Who could produce or perform and discourage those who appeared to be less physically or overtly dexterous. In short, we have tended to concentrate on developing the gifts of a talented minority rather than creating generations of connoisseurs of the arts. Our programs have suffered accordingly. Integrating the arts with each other could well begin to reverse this trend by providing multiple opportunities for achieving success while studying the arts. How many new avenues for success in studying the arts could be uncovered in addition to producing or performing is an open question that begs to be investigated. Finally, you may think that my vision tort an integrated arts program is overly broad, lacking clarity or definition, In part, must agree. These musings are meant to stimulate, not prescribe. There is no en right way to achieve the kinds of aims have placed before you in this brief article. One cannot and should not attempt to teacher-proof a curriculum by creating a curricular cookbook bursting with cant-fail teaching recipes. Teachers must tailor their curricular, and their pedagogical, efforts to meet the needs of their students, and the approach outlined here is an attempt to encourage the kind of unified thinking and curricular bridge building that we so desperately need in our educational system. If we can integrate the arts with each other, we can accomplish two vital goals. We can once again serve as a model for the est.. Of the curriculum (as we are currently doing in the areas Of evaluation and assessment), and we can make it possible for arts educators to participate significantly in the restructuring Of general education With the arts at its core. Integrating the Arts with the Rest of the Curriculum Historically, eve have failed to carve out a niche for the arts in education that makes us equal partners in the educational process. Perhaps the leap from frill to essential, from fluff to requirement, was simply too great a vault for any field to make. However, once the arts have been successfully integrated with each other, here is a very real possibility that they may be able to document their academic relevance and intellectual discipline to prove that they merit full partnership in the educational system. The question for us as individual teachers of the arts and as teachers in related fields, therefore, is not simply, How do we get better at doing what we do? Rather, we should ask, What must we do to move our titles into the educational mainstream? As efforts to refine and strengthen the general school curriculum continue, infusing the arts into general education is a goal we must accomplish. This goal, however, will not be realized through the creation of new breed of interdisciplinary arts teachers who, fear, could never hope to do justice to the art forms they seek to teach A more reasoned approach to making the arts more central to education is to eliminate the isolation that arts teachers encounter in their teaching situation and to make it possible for arts teachers to work together, to exchange ideas, and to plan in teams as we look to guarantee the future of the arts in educational] The goal of integrating the arts with each other and then with general education certainly merits serious exploration.