Introduction
The April 13th Rally for Quality Higher Education was organized and took place on April 13th, 2011. It was a part of Sac State Coalition from the University of California State, Sacramento. The rally was a form of a peaceful demonstration over several issues that are affecting their CSU Unit. The coalition says that the ministry keeps shortening the lectures and unpredictably creating extra tuition. They also keep on increasing the class size in the university and this made the students bitter. For this reason, the students decided to demonstrate to sensitize the administration on how they felt, because they claimed that they were fighting for their education, their future and they wouldn’t bow down at any cost, until their requirements were met.
The rally
From the file, several critical things that are very crucial and critical can be pointed out. For example, there are insufficient funds in the CSU system since the budget for the 2011-12 academic year has been cut by $500 million. This is what is leading to larger-size classrooms, increasing tuition, and reduction of classes. For this reason, staff such as the lecturers are facing layoffs, and consequently a disorganized CSU system.
From the students’ and the teachers’ perspectives, education is very important to them and their future, and this is why they are disturbed about the CSU’s current situation. In their opinion, the Californian education system was very effective until the introduction of Proposition 13, a law that made it difficult to collect revenue, to fund the school system in the schools run by these funds.
What I have learned
Throughout the child development coursework, I have learned some things. To start with, I have learned the child’s developmental stages, from conception to adolescence. I have also in this course work learned and understood the normal growth, development and abnormalities/ disorders that affect and change a child’s development. I also studied gender identity, its stages of development and child abuse. Through this, I have been able to understand why children behave in a certain way at a certain period of their growth and consequently their developmental characteristics, which they develop at certain times in growth. I have also learned the processes and changes that take place during growth, when they occur, how, and why.
I also learned the challenges that a child faces at every developmental level, and in relation to this, I also learned about Down syndrome. I also learned the consequences of violence and what impact it has on the development of a child’s brain. In the coursework, I have learned the different approaches in areas concerning child development. I critically looked at the safety, health, nutrition and hygiene of a child in relation to his development, as this is one vital area to be looked at for the physical fitness’ sake of the child.
In areas to do with the mental fitness of a child, I have learned how brain growth and development will help the child to cope with various experiences in their life. With the brain’s development, I also learned that a child starts looking at life and everything in general as his brain develops, and as he learns new things. This is acquired knowledge.