Great Ages Essays - Comparative Mythology, Jungian Archetypes

Great Ages November 7th, 1997 World Art History 1010 The Great Ages When we think of history we dont often think of art. We dont realize how the history of art can help us learn more about the people, the cultures, and the belief systems of those who lived hundreds and thousands of years before us. Art has developed, influenced, and contributed starting from the great Stone Age to the present day. Art gives an insight into the changes and evolution that man and culture have gone through to become what is today. Art is culture, art is the essence of the people who make it and the best way to appreciate art is to look at the history of it and its evolvement through time. The Great Ages consists of four distinct ages: The Old Stone Age, The New Stone Age, The Bronze Age, and The Iron Age. These four Great Ages is the complete history of art from the beginning to the present day. Each age is named characteristically for the type of material used for that time. Stone was used in the Old and New Stone age, bronze in the Bronze Age, and iron in the Iron Age. The Great Ages began with The Old Stone Age starting at 100,000 BCE. The people lived in tribes and clans and often moved from place to place, hunting and gathering to live. They believed all life was sacred and all beings were divine, including animals. The tribal teachings taught that man and nature are one. Hunting and gathering was a sacred ritual because they would often believe they were at one with the animal being hunted. Shamens and shamenesses, spiritual healers and seers between the people and spirits of animals, would often lead hunts and call forth the spirit of the animal to which they would ask the animal to offer their life willingly for a successful hunt. An illustration in Art Through The Ages, 1-4, (Hall of the Bulls found in Lasacux, c 15,000-13,000 b.c. Largest bull approx. 116 long) a beautiful cave painting of Bulls. It shows how sacred these animals were to the people. The painter took the time not only to paint such a true to nature image but also purposely put it in a remote location hundreds of feet above the entrance. The location of the painting suggest that it was used as a spiritual image that perhaps shamans would use to communicate with the spirit of the animal. The Shamans were necessary to the tribe, not only for healing and for favorable hunts but also for communing with the Great Goddess, who represents all forms of life. The Great Goddess is the pivotal figure among the tribal people. She is worshiped and prayed to in hopes that she is fertile and fruitful for, She is the lone creator of all that is. She is female in all aspects, but yet she has male powers. Many consider the Great Goddess to be an androgyne because she is self-created, self-fertilizing, and self-existent. She is both male and female. An Androgyne was thought to have achieved balance of reason and intuition, of wisdom and compassion; they are supreme beings. She is the creator of the universe, of life and of death and special rituals would be carried out to insure that she would continue to create. One of the first images of the Great Goddess is represented in Illustration 1-8 (Venus of Willendorf (Australia), c 28,000-23,000 b.c. Limestone, approx. 4? high. Naturhistorisches museum, Vienna). She is only 4 inches tall, but a very sacred piece of sculpture. Her body is significantly voluptuous, representing fertility. She appears to be pregnant and her breasts heavy with milk. She is faceless, emphasizing that She is everything. She has no particularity, no image, because she is beyond particularization, she is everything known to man in the universe. As 10,000 BCE came around so came about the starting of the New Stone Age and the end of the Old. In the Old Stone Age, the Great Goddess, alone made the universe, but as the New Stone Age emerged, it was thought that she needed a male partner. This is one of the significant differences between the Old and New Stone

Free Essays on Alternative Teacher Certificationâ€An Overview

Alternative Teacher Certification- An Overview A sad and daunting reality became apparent to our society in the early 1980s. A reality that our founding fathers would have probably never dreamed of- a dangerous shortage of teachers. Our predecessors may very well have thought that their new American Nation would be a land of high intelligence in both children and adults alike and that there would always be an ample supply of educators. To be a teacher in the early days of this great nation was to hold a position of prestige and importance for the future was in the hands of the teachers. Now, over 200 years later, we are faced with the burden of educating our future. Except for this time, the burden is extremely heavy because of tougher standards, lower pay, and disrespect from students and parents. To offset the decline of new teachers entering the profession, a new type of certification was devised. If successful, this new concept would help more people become teachers in less time. Unfortunately, this certification was extremely controversial because it was simply shortcutting, which would later give it a bad name. To be proactive, many states devised other routes of teacher certification so that people in specialized fields, in the military, people with a certain skill, and former teachers wanting to get back in the game would be able to do so with relative ease. This new trend proved to be fast growing. By 1997, 41 states, plus the District of Columbia, report having at least some type of alternative certification program. These states have made up 117 programs (collectively) and some 75,000 new teachers have been birthed as a result to these programs. However, 17 of the states have reported a mild decrease in participation, while 25 states report an increase. This increase is very promising; especially since the National Center of Education Statistics, as well as many others, states that we will need 2 million more teac... Free Essays on Alternative Teacher Certification—An Overview Free Essays on Alternative Teacher Certification- An Overview Alternative Teacher Certification- An Overview A sad and daunting reality became apparent to our society in the early 1980s. A reality that our founding fathers would have probably never dreamed of- a dangerous shortage of teachers. Our predecessors may very well have thought that their new American Nation would be a land of high intelligence in both children and adults alike and that there would always be an ample supply of educators. To be a teacher in the early days of this great nation was to hold a position of prestige and importance for the future was in the hands of the teachers. Now, over 200 years later, we are faced with the burden of educating our future. Except for this time, the burden is extremely heavy because of tougher standards, lower pay, and disrespect from students and parents. To offset the decline of new teachers entering the profession, a new type of certification was devised. If successful, this new concept would help more people become teachers in less time. Unfortunately, this certification was extremely controversial because it was simply shortcutting, which would later give it a bad name. To be proactive, many states devised other routes of teacher certification so that people in specialized fields, in the military, people with a certain skill, and former teachers wanting to get back in the game would be able to do so with relative ease. This new trend proved to be fast growing. By 1997, 41 states, plus the District of Columbia, report having at least some type of alternative certification program. These states have made up 117 programs (collectively) and some 75,000 new teachers have been birthed as a result to these programs. However, 17 of the states have reported a mild decrease in participation, while 25 states report an increase. This increase is very promising; especially since the National Center of Education Statistics, as well as many others, states that we will need 2 million more teac...