#and presumably the current students have access to the same resources

[apleasurableillusion]

A grand total of one viable candidate applied to be our articling student this year which is insane. Like aren’t there supposed to be too many law students and no one is going to get a job???

[gascon-en-exil]

Three Houses 100% Completion: The Joys of Spreadsheets

The idea that someone like me would ever write a gameplay guide to any Fire Emblem title is somewhat ludicrous on the surface. While I’ve finished nearly every mainline game in the series I also freely confess to being a filthy casual except ironically I ignore Casual mode because resetting/rewinding after death was ingrained in me back in the GBA era who only plays these games on their lowest difficulties, ostensibly because I find the lower challenge to allow for more flexibility in how I pick and develop units. This is of course entirely true, although it’s also no surprise that from a completionist perspective FE is much more approachable when you can make it as easy as possible. For most of the games 100% completion is nothing more than filling out a support log, music library, and other features of an Extras menu, and while there are certainly some tedious times to be had with that - I hope you like popping out the same kids over a dozen times for that many generic parent-child supports in Awakening and Fates - none of it is what anyone would call challenging. Shadows of Valentia has in-game achievements, but the worst of those involves weapons with low drop rates so it’s otherwise a manageable endeavor to get them all.

Three Houses, however, is something else altogether. In a stroke of brilliance that may presumably not be attributed to the developers who expected most people to only play through the game one time, this is the first in the series with a New Game+ feature. This allows you to carry over much of your units’ development over multiple playthroughs, and to catch up instantly where you left off by spending Renown to buy skills, supports, class masteries, etc. that you’ve obtained in previous runs. Thus it is possible to build up a NG+ file over many runs in which all of the game’s forty playable characters have all of their skill ranks maxed out and all their available classes mastered - or at least available for purchase. That’s how I’m defining 100% completion here, and I’m delighting in a very nerdy way to report that not since The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask has a game so tickled my love of efficient scheduling and careful management of available resources to achieve such a substantial goal. I wouldn’t call it hard per se, not in the same way as the built-in difficulty of Maddening or any number of self-imposed challenge runs, but there’s a lot of planning that goes into something like this - to say nothing of how well you need to know the relevant mechanics.

EDIT: After a lot of playtesting I’ve made quite a few updates to this guide, so some of the information here may now be outdated (or less efficient, more like). See here for the updates.

Parameters

New Game+ saves your units’ progress over multiple runs in its journal, although as this is limited - you can only see the progress of units currently in your army, and because of how availability works in this game you’ll never be able to see them all at once - I strongly recommend keeping a separate log of your own. Other than that the only other way the game records your investment is the timestamp on save files, and while that might be helpful if you’re interested in speedrunning this it’ll probably take around 300 hours minimum though so why bother I find it more useful to keep track of how many times you’ve run through the game. The least number of runs needed to fulfill this achievement, and therefore the number to shoot for as a goal, is 29. Why 29? That’s the number of characters who can be dancers, and of course you can only have one dancer per run.

29 runs sounds long but generous on paper. After all, when I did this more or less blind over the course of a year and with the DLC coming out progressively during that time I finished it in 35 runs which isn’t that much higher. It’s a tighter requirement than you might think however, particularly as I’m not accounting for the grinding on infinite skirmish maps that Normal allows for. I feel like the challenge, such as it is, of something like this comes in the form of plotting everything out and knowing how to use the limited time and resources the game gives you as effectively as possible, and grinding throws that out the window. I admit that during my first time doing this I did have to grind out some stubborn skill ranks with skirmishes in the last chapter, but optimally that shouldn’t be necessary and you should be able to work to avoid that.

I’m not including the support log, music library, or event library (i.e. the Goddess Tower events) as points of consideration. Strange as it sounds to exclude what is often the only draw FE presents for completionists, all of those save to the cartridge and not to individual files and are therefore irrelevant to the concept of building up a “perfect” NG+ file. None of them are particularly difficult as it stands - most S ranks can be bought with Renown after you’ve filled characters with enough furtive gay thoughts for the same-gender Byleth, the Goddess Tower can be save scummed, and for the soundtrack you just have to remember to switch the audio to Japanese at a few points to get every track - so I’m going to overlook them. I am however assuming DLC content, and that you already have a completed file of Cindered Shadows on the cartridge. Most notably this allows you to recruit the Ashen Wolves and access the DLC classes, but it has a very important third benefit I’ll get into a bit later.

Also, a final note on difficulty: this guide obviously assumes Normal (Classic vs. Casual is basically irrelevant with Divine Pulse). You might be able to do something like this on Hard, although I’m not going to attempt it. Maddening is completely out of the question, as you have to level every single character through suboptimal skill ranks and classes, both for themselves and in general.

Routes

Regardless of what you might think of all the controversial discourse surrounding it, Crimson Flower is by far the worst route for unit development. It’s a full three/four chapters and three/four calendar months plus one week and weekend (contrast CF Chapter 13 vs. non-CF Chapter 12) shorter than the others. Of the remaining three, Verdant Wind marginally edges out Azure Moon as the longest route as it has one extra instruction week and free weekend in the last chapter...because Dimitri and Edelgard take that entire week for their parley in AM. Silver Snow’s last chapter is as long as VW’s - but it infamously skips out on an entire calendar month (four free weekends, three instruction weeks, and the Gronder rematch) because your army is off having a drug orgy or something equally unproductive. 

Still, despite this objective evaluation running through VW 29 times isn’t a possibility. This is mostly because all of the routes except SS have exclusive units who have to be accounted for, and also because other units have small but significant availability advantages on certain routes. On top of the perk of not having to spend Renown to recruit them, students in a route’s affiliated house get to appear in Chapter 1 (the mock battle) and non-CF Chapter 13 (the infamous bandit hunt map right after the timeskip). Seteth slightly favors SS as he appears in Chapter 13 in place of your house leader, while conversely Hilda, Catherine, and Cyril should be avoided on SS as they’re not available until much later than they are in VW and AM. Then there are, again, the route-exclusives: Claude for VW; Dimitri, Dedue, and Gilbert for AM; and for CF Edelgard, Hubert, and....ugh.

Do you hate Jeritza for his weird voice acting, terrible characterization that spills over onto all of his support partners, and the same tone problems from which all of CF suffers? Prepare to hate him all over again as a unit, because Jeritza single-handedly makes 100% completion in a timely fashion much harder. Not only does he have the worst availability in the game at a mere six chapters and essentially four calendar months, unlike his fellow Part 2 exclusive Gilbert he has skill weaknesses - and one of them is in authority, which as I’ll get to later is even more annoying. Compounding this, Jeritza being locked to CF means you have to run CF far more than you’d like, giving him a disproportionate share of time and resources in Part 2 at the expense of whoever’s being used alongside him. This is why a Gotoh unit just doesn’t work in conjunction with FE16′s core design philosophy.

With this in mind, my theoretical plan - and note that some of this guide is indeed still theoretical, and I’m plotting it out as I go along based on my first time through - for a 29 run 100% is 8 runs of CF and 7 of each of the other routes. This sounds counterintuitive in light of the objective ranking of route length, but Jeritza really is that much of a headache.

Cross-Run Planning and Renown

One of the most important points to maximizing efficiency for 100% is knowing what carries over between runs and what does not - or in other words, thinking more in terms of the overall goal of maxing out your units than of the individual needs of each run beyond what’s needed to finish the game with no deaths. This being Normal mode of course that’s not a high bar to clear, but it’s still worth noting that many of the traditional parameters used to measure the development of your army in FE outright do not matter in the grand scheme of things. This includes your units’ levels and stats, money, and your inventory. 

Money isn’t too hard to come by particularly with auxiliary battles, increased earlygame money with auto-leveled professor rank (see below), and other sources. Stats only matter to the point that you have enough of them to finish the game, and standard leveling, certifications, and the +1 stat booster drops from auxiliary battles will take care of that for the most part. Getting specialized weapons and equipment can occasionally be useful, but it shouldn’t be a priority especially lategame when you’re not going to have much time to use what you get. In any case the quick pace of these runs means it’s unlikely that you’ll have much material for forging/repairing beyond the basic buyable ores, so forged silvers are usually the way to go unless you feel like breaking out a brave weapon or Relic or something similar if you need a really powerful hit. As for levels, other than the stat boosts they only matter insofar as different class tiers have different benchmarks for certification. The highest of these is 30, so after that point levels are all about the stats. That said however, with Normal experience being as high as it is your units will likely end the game in the 40s or even 50s, especially with the EXP boosts from the saint statues.

This brings me to Renown. Renown is the main resource for 100% completion, and is in fact what makes it possible in the first place. In a new game you can only spend Renown on restoring the saint statues, and while this is very important to do in your first two or three runs for the boosts it adds to EXP gain, skill points gained during instruction, and most crucially of all class mastery EXP (by far the top priority - drop 2000 Renown on the Saint Cethleann statue for this as soon as the statues become available in Chapter 5 of your first run) later runs allow you to spend Renown on the journal in Byleth’s room. This is how you save and continue progress on skill ranks, as well as how you can instantly max out your professor rank at the start of the game which is crucial for getting the most out of the monastery. 

Now for some numbers...and here’s where that Cindered Shadows file comes into play. With a completed run of CS you unlock a reward that appears at the start of each run including 10000 Renown (as well as the very useful Chalice of Beginnings accessory - sword and gauntlet users love this thing earlygame). Each NG+ run starts you off with 10000 Renown multiplied by how many times you’ve completed the game, and each run you can get the CS reward again on top of however much Renown you had unspent from the previous run(s). You also get a small amount of Renown for completing battles and quests around the monastery, although this is minor compared to starting your second run with a minimum of 20000 Renown, your third with 30000, etc. By the last few runs you can expect to hit the cap of 999999 Renown, which is more than you could ever reasonably use at a time. So what to spend it on?

The saint statues: Each has a one-time cost of 10000 Renown to fully restore and can be done incrementally. This costs 40000 total and should be finished no later than your third run, because as mentioned almost all of the bonuses granted by these statues are absolute necessities for a fast 100%.

Professor rank: On the first free day after choosing your house, complete Sylvain’s quest to eat in the dining hall to instantly level up from E to E+ professor rank. After that it takes 4000 Renown to max out your rank at A+, easily manageable from your second run onward with the CS reward. This gives you ten activity points in exploration, seven instruction sessions, three points on battle weekends, the ability to assign up to three adjutants in battle, more flexible dining hall options (both neutral and liked dishes will restore full motivation), and access to master classes and high-end forging as soon as you unlock their other requirements. It’s an essential expense for every run.

Skill ranks: The value here is obvious, but as it costs 500 Renown per rank it’s important to be sparing and only spend on what you’ll actually be using in a particular run. The exception here is Byleth - see their section.

Supports: Mostly unimportant unless you’re recruiting a student from another house (just make sure to get these Byleth/student supports in a previous run first) or if you’re running CF and not using either Byleth or Edelgard in which case you’ll need to buy the Edeleth C(+). Supports cost 400 Renown per rank which is fairly cheap, although if you’re doing cross-house recruits it’s best to spend 1200 to get their A in which case they’ll always agree to join your house when asked. Note that non-student characters whose recruitment is dependent on Byleth’s level can have that requirement lowered with supports, but this is unnecessary - again, see Byleth’s section.

Class masteries and Crests: Ignore these. While the gameplay bonuses can be nice none of them are worth spending Renown on, especially in earlier runs. The class mastery menu is however what you’ll use to keep track of which classes units still need to complete, so bear that in mind. Incidentally, unlike the skill ranks menu the classes don’t update until you clear the game, so you’ll have to check your units’ status screens to see which classes they’ve mastered on the run you’re currently doing.

Abyss: Finally, Abyss has a few one-time Renown costs for its various facilities, similar to the saint statues. It’s only 8000 Renown to unlock everything (although for some of them you’ll have to wait until Part 2), but honestly only the pagan altar really matters at all so it’s not a huge priority. Generally speaking the weapons and equipment purchasable at the altar aren’t worth the Renown cost until you get multiple runs under your belt and have resources to burn, but Master Seals and Abyssian Exam Passes may be an exception as they’re limited in availability otherwise. Optimally though you should plot out your classes such that you shouldn’t have to spend Renown on seals.

Last but not least, a word on battalions. Battalions do carry over in NG+, as do their levels. It’s therefore important to build up a guild of strong max level battalions early on, mostly by completing paralogues. Assigning these to units in the earlygame gives them massive stat boosts, to an even greater extent than equipping silver weapons or high-level spells - which unsurprisingly come with serious weight issues early on, so best to stack with battalions for more OHKOs and better defensive parameters.

Building Your Army: Active vs. Classroom Units

It’s common knowledge for the games in the series (except FE5, because Fatigue is weird like that) that it’s rarely worth it to use all the deployment slots available to you, and that concentrating your resources into a smaller number of units will yield better results. This is true of FE16 as well, and I’ve determined that the best active army size for 100% completion runs is 5-6 units. This allows space for everyone you’re training to get the attention they need at the monastery and in the classroom, and it also dovetails nicely with how many runs it will reasonably take for each unit to master all of their classes. As I’ll go into in more detail later, it’s best to split each unit’s classes into four groups, and 40 characters x 4 = 160 which when divided by 29 runs works out to 5 active unit slots for about half of the runs and 6 for the other half. As regards composition, a core of two or three of the route’s house units and/or Byleth is important for Chapters 1 and non-CF 13, with the remaining slots free for the Wolves, non-students, and if absolutely necessary cross-house recruits although these are not optimal owing to the support costs. Recruitment should always be done as early as possible; this isn’t Maddening where it’s important to consider that auto-leveled growths sometimes make units better if you wait to recruit them. For the Wolves and students from other houses (except Hilda in SS, but don’t use her there) that means Chapter 2, with the non-students coming in at various points up through Chapter 13.

As is the case with every FE though you’re also going to have units in your army who you’re not using. I recommend recruiting everyone you can on each run except for cross-house students, for this reason: units not in your active army, hereafter called classroom units, can still be trained...in the classroom. Simply setting their goals appropriately when you first get them is all the effort you’ll need to put into them passively gaining valuable skill experience that can be put toward runs where you will use them, and between skill ranks and classes the former are going to take considerably more time and effort overall to max out. This is because class certification never asks for anything higher than A in a skill, but there are three additional ranks beyond that. Also, skill weaknesses are a thing, and while they cease to matter to class mastery once a unit is certified they’ll continue to be a problem on the long slog to S+. The thought of individually assigning classroom units goals may seem daunting, but in practice there’s a priority to skills that helps out considerably, as follows:

Authority: top priority for several reasons - it grants access to high level battalions which as mentioned makes earlygame a joke, it’s the only skill that can’t be leveled as an adjutant meaning that once a unit maxes it out they can be comfortably leveled in the back full-time, and it’s the skill that matters least to the class system so maxing it out won’t lead to any awkward situations, ex. a unit with S+ bows still needing to master sniper

Authority can be comfortably pushed to S+ solely in the classroom and rarely needs to be focused on as a goal by active units (Jeritza being a notable exception). The skills below however should only be raised up to A, A+, or S to allow room for some active training, and should be switched once a unit has reached a benchmark around that point so as to have more skills worked on overall. Also worth pointing out - it’s generally easier and more efficient for classroom units to train only one skill at a time.

Heavy armor: everyone who isn’t Edelgard only has three classes that boost it, and of these classes (including Edelgard’s) the only one without terrible movement is great knight

Flying for male units: except for Claude they have just two flying classes, although since wyvern rider and wyvern lord are pretty much the best physical classes in the game this isn’t as much of a hindrance as it is with heavy armor

Brawling for female units: there are only three unisex classes that boost brawling apart from f!Byleth’s enlightened one, and two of these (fighter and brigand) only give +1 putting a lot of pressure on war cleric to compensate

Skill weaknesses: this is where it gets more individualized, but as weaknesses slow down a unit’s progress in both the classroom and on the battlefield it’s very helpful to build up a good base when they’re not being actively used

To use Dimitri as an example, on AM runs where I’m not using him I would first max his authority, then boost up his flying or heavy armor (these two, or brawling and heavy armor for females, are about equal in priority and should be attended to with skill weaknesses/proficiencies in mind), then the other one, then either axes or reason as those are his weaknesses. If you want to really break it down bows, brawling (for males)/flying (for females), and riding take precedence over the remaining skills for having fewer classes, and faith is slightly more important than reason for the same, er, reason, but realistically classroom units aren’t going to be getting that far without much more substantial active growth taken into account.

Active units on the other hand can afford to be much more dynamic in what they learn during instruction, especially as they’ll be motivated to receive private instruction. Ahem. One thing to note is that if an active unit is working on a budding talent it should always be instructed enough to unlock as soon as possible, even if you plan on leveling the skill passively/in battle afterward. Gaining a proficiency really does pay dividends, and sometimes the ability is useful too. Group tasks are also important to keep in mind, and ideally you should plan each run to have at least two active units training the same movement skill to take advantage of the weekly boost.

On Byleth

Byleth is in many respects a special case. I frequently rail on their defects as a flat self-insert who makes every story they’re in worse because it has to accommodate their wooden presence, but here I’ve really only got good things to say. It should be pointed out that the journal treats Byleth as one character despite the gender difference, which is good as the male and female versions do not have to be worked on separately. Byleth can’t gain skill experience from instruction, but instead they gain it from faculty training which costs activity points but is on the whole a faster process. As noted below faculty training is the primary way of dumping excess activity points during exploration, because maxing out Byleth’s skill ranks is very high priority. Units receiving instruction get an extra +2 to their base skill growth if Byleth has a higher rank in the skill, hence it’s in everyone’s best interest for Byleth to max out their skills first. This is also the big exception to the rule about spending Renown only on skills you’ll be using in a run; Byleth’s ranks should always be topped out as high as you’ve gotten them at the start of the game, to give this bonus as often as possible. Admittedly you won’t be able to do this earlier on as it costs a hefty amount of Renown to get all of a unit’s skills up to S+, but in later runs it will pay off considerably.

Something else to consider about Byleth is their level. There are three reasons to level up Byleth even if they’re not an active unit in a run: recruiting non-student characters, the Proper Conduct Tournament, and making them less likely to die instantly if they get attacked in battle lategame since they’re force-deployed on every chapter map and paralogue. The highest level required to recruit anyone is 15 (if in AM or VW doing so in Chapter 4 gets you Catherine, but this might be unfeasible and it’s not a big deal if you have to wait a chapter for her), but you should aim for 20 by Chapter 8 in order to win the tournament. These levels are entirely manageable with Byleth soloing the Prologue and then spending the rest of the time as an adjutant, or playing a minor support role when they’re force-deployed (I favor giving them the Stride gambit personally). For the tournament I recommend certifying them as a fortress knight first for the massive DEF boost and then certifying and changing to swordmaster because they’re required to use a sword and therefore appreciate that class’s abilities. Winning gets you the usual quest rewards as well as a free brave weapon, not to mention the inherent humor of the game itself mocking people clutching their pearls over the teacher/student relationships. 

What Matters and What Doesn’t at the Monastery

Learning how to streamline exploration is a key component to keeping these runs fast-paced and cutting down on real time spent. Bluntly, a fair bit of what goes on at Garreg Mach is irrelevant when you’re thinking on a cross-run level. Here’s what actually does:

Quests: should be done all the time as they increase Renown by small amounts, award resources and some inventory items, and in some cases unlock monastery facilities or other features like the White Heron Cup. Most of them also don’t take very long to complete, and once you’ve run this game enough you’ll develop a good rhythm for the quests in each chapter. Quest battles are also worth doing - see the calendar section.

Dining hall: the best way to increase your units’ motivation for instruction. Fishing and the greenhouse are for the most part wastes of time since you don’t need to manually grind out professor rank (important note: except on your first run, where it’s probably better to do them) and the rewards from them are either negligible or, in the case of the greenhouse’s stat boosters, can be replicated with auxiliary battles. However, you should get enough resources for meals from quests and such to be able to carry you through a run without much trouble, and if you do start to run out note that you can also buy poultry and wild game from one of the vendors.

Choir practice: comparable to group tasks for the faith skill, and as with those you should preferably plan to have two active units leveling faith each run to take the most advantage of this. Byleth also gains both faith and authority from choir practice, so you can make use of that as well.

Lost items: usually more trouble than they’re worth to remember where they are and when they appear, but technically they function as one-time liked gifts if you want to restore motivation without eating or spending money on regular gifts.

Faculty training: how Byleth raises their skills outside of battle. This is the main dump for activity points in earlier runs once the dining hall and sauna are taken care of, but it’s important to note which characters increase which skills and to spread your training out accordingly. This is a major reason why you should recruit non-student characters even if you don’t plan on using them, because they’re more reliable sources of this training than the student characters even into Part 2. Obviously once Byleth has maxed all their skills this can be dropped from your task list completely.

Special vendors: unrelated to activity points, but once you do the quests to unlock the NPC vendors and Anna’s secret shop at the monastery it’s important to stock up whenever you’re exploring since you can’t buy this stuff from other menus. Important items are gifts if you lack the activity points to feed your active units, Smithing Stones for basic forges and repairs, Arcane Crystals lategame for magic weapons if you’re using any, meat if you’re running low on dining hall provisions as mentioned, and Master Seals from Anna once you’ve exhausted the free one plus the five you can buy from the regular shop menu.

Saint Statues: see the above section on Renown.

Sauna: also starting in Chapter 5, provides an important boost to skill gained during instruction or faculty training that month: +2 for refreshed or +4 for very refreshed. Getting very refreshed is more a matter of RNG than anything as there’s only so much skill involved in this minigame, but most of the time you can at least aim for +2 on all your active units. This should always be done the first free weekend of the month, but if the sauna decides to be finicky with a unit and deny them a boost you can try again on a later weekend.

Mark Your Calendars

You’d think that the in-game calendar would be the centerpiece of my mania for scheduling and thus this entire guide, but in actuality it’s quite simple. Events like saints’ days and special meals cost you nothing to attend, but who joins you is totally random from among your current party so there’s no guarantee the associated boosts will go to characters you care about. Birthdays are negligible, but if you just have to have teatime for whatever reason it’s more efficient to do so in honor of a character’s special day than by wasting an activity point on a weekend.

I find that the most efficient way to spend your free weekends is that all but the last of each month should be used for exploration, to pick up and complete quests, recruit new characters, raise motivation for instruction each week, and do the sauna on the first weekend. The last weekend, the one before the chapter battle, should be used for battling. What kinds of battles depends on what’s available:

Quest battles should be gotten out of the way, especially those that bring new vendors to the monastery, but they scale poorly with your units’ levels and are generally very easy. A prominent exception exclusive to CF is a quest battle where you can only deploy Byleth and Jeritza, which Jeritza should always solo because he needs all the favoritism he can get.

Paralogues are hit or miss overall. Some are absolutely necessary - Sothis’s for a Knowledge Gem (see below), Dedue’s unless you’re completely finished with him and are also a heartless monster - but for the most part it’s up to your discretion. Some offer very good rewards and some have very good battalions to add to your guild, but on the flip side some paralogues are more annoying than others thanks to odd initial positioning, more level scaling issues, and/or fog of war. The cutscenes before each paralogue are also unskippable, so they cut into real time as well. Still, paralogues do have one benefit over every other type of battle available on weekends in that they restore full motivation to their non-Byleth MVPs, just like story battles. It’s therefore possible that if you have a bunch of paralogues available at once (common late in Part 1) you can do three of them on one weekend in place of exploration and come out of it with some extra combat experience as well as three characters with full motivation for the next week of instruction.

Auxiliary battles are DLC-exclusive and are distinguished by a yellow exclamation point on the menu. Compared to regular or red exclamation point skirmishes the enemies in them scale much better with your army (making them the best battles for grinding your units up to 30 for master classes), and they offer bonus gold and stat boosters that can sustain your army in the absence of facilities like fishing and the greenhouse. There are also only about half a dozen of them overall and each follows a quickly recognizable pattern of enemy placement, so they are by far the best source of regular, reliable unit development outside of story content.

Apart from Chapter 2′s month which is structured like a tutorial there is only one major hiccup to how you plan your weekends. If you’re planning to go CF then in Chapter 11 you’ll have to watch Edelgard’s coronation, but doing so takes up all the rest of the month up to the story battle. In order to skip the least amount of content you’ll therefore have to either forego a battle weekend entirely or else do one earlier in the month and accept that not all of your active units will be motivated the following week.

And Now for Some Actual Standard FE Gameplay

Skills may be the focus for long-term goals and development over multiple runs both in active armies and in the classroom, but it’s class progression that frames a unit’s development in a given run and is, relatively speaking, easier to plot out and manage. I say that...but the reality is rather messier than that, which I will prove with a live demonstration.

Before that though, the numbers: each unit can access 35-42 of the 52 total playable classes. As before mentioned four active runs is the number to aim for based on optimal army size, and that number of classes divided by four means that units will be expected to master 8-10 classes per run. One of the advantages to a four-way division is that it allows you to split up classes approximately according to the four beginner classes: each unit will have a myrmidon run, a soldier run, etc. As shown below however, these are very loose descriptions and are better thought of as a framework to aid development than as a set formula.

With regard to class and skill EXP gained in battle, the formulas are a lot more set in stone. Every time a unit engages or is engaged in combat, uses white magic or a gambit, or dances they gain 1 class EXP, increased to 2 with the bonus from the Saint Cethleann statue which you should definitely unlock early in your first run. There are two ways to increase this number further. The first is by equipping a Knowledge Gem, undoubtedly the most important item to 100% completion. You get one in a chest in Sothis’s paralogue, which should be obtained your first battle of Chapter 8 when it’s first available, and another after Chapter 11 provided you don’t let any enemies escape with Crest Stones. Equipping this item doubles the amount of class EXP gained, so 4 after the statue bonus. The second way to increase this the Mastermind ability, Lysithea’s personal ability as well as one in Jeritza’s starting list that he must equip in order to use. It has the same effect as a Knowledge Gem on its own, and if the two are combined they stack additively for a maximum of 6 EXP at a time.

Skill EXP has a few more parameters but is similarly straightforward. When dealing damage or using white magic units will gain skill EXP with the weapon/magic type they used, their movement type if their class boosts one (and they’re mounted in the case of riding or flying), and authority if they have a battalion equipped - and as mentioned, all of these except authority also apply to adjutants. The base depends on the unit’s proficiency in the skills in questions: 3 for strong, 2 for neutral, and 1 for weak. The Knowledge Gem and Mastermind work in the same way to increase this base: 6/4/2 using one of them and 9/6/3 using both. Then class boosts are added to this, with each class boosting affiliated skills by +1 to +3. Putting this all together, the most skill EXP that can be gained at one time is 12, if Lysithea or Jeritza w/ Mastermind equips a Knowledge Gem and raises a skill they are strong in in a class that grants +3 to that skill. Gremory!Lysithea with a battalion and a Knowledge Gem using her favorite meme Dark Spikes on Jeritza’s obnoxious serial killer ass would give her 6 class EXP, 9 authority EXP, and 12 reason EXP - and this is why Lysithea levels so fast.

Now then, to build some class sets. I’ll be using Hubert for this example, and for a different reason other than shameless favoritism mostly.

Logically a unit’s first run should play to their strengths as much as possible, to ease them into development with skills they’re naturally inclined toward. Hubert is a default magic user, so his monk run should be his first. To start:

Noble (this or commoner should always be a unit’s first mastered class because it’s so quick to get out of the way)

Monk

Mage

Dark Mage

...And here’s the first problem. As is contractually required for CF exclusives Hubert is an edgy atheist and is weak in faith, making the expected combination of a monk run difficult to pull off without prior investment as a classroom unit. But wait - Hubert has a budding talent in lances that a therapist could have a field day with, and his most feasible master class is easily dark knight. This encourages something like so:

Noble

Monk

Mage

Dark Mage

Cavalier

Warlock

Dark Bishop

Paladin

Dark Knight

There we go, nine classes which is entirely reasonable for Hubert’s total of 37. For his first run he can focus on reason, lances, and riding, safe in the knowledge that he doesn’t have to max any of those skills here as there are other classes that require them. Looking ahead to his second run, soldier might seem like a logical second pick...but if he spent some time working on his faith as a classroom unit there’s a better run of classes to knock out.

Myrmidon

Mercenary

Thief

Priest

Swordmaster

Assassin

Bishop

Trickster

Mortal Savant

Holy Knight

After this he’ll be done with all reason-boosting classes and should be comfortably finished with that skill, along with having high ranks in swords, lances, faith, and riding as well as with authority probably maxed out as he’s strong in it. Assassin might seem like an odd stretch here, but note that he’s strong in bows so it shouldn’t be hard for him to reach. With his third run it’s finally time to go back for soldier.

Soldier

Armored Knight

Archer

Dancer

Hero

Fortress Knight

Sniper

Bow Knight

Great Knight

Lances and bows frequently pair well together as they converge at the end at bow knight, and bows don’t have many classes overall and pair less with axes or brawling than those two do with each other. Axes are one of Hubert’s weaknesses, but at this point he should have built up his rank in them and in heavy armor to make this more manageable - but since these are far from the only axe classes heavy armor is the bigger priority along with lances, bows, and riding. Dancer seems rather random here, but I looked ahead to which run needed an extra and it’s a pretty flexible class anyway requiring effectively only 8 CHA (or 13 in some cases that will never apply to Hubert). Consider it one last chance along with hero for him to work on swords. And now for the last one.

Fighter

Brigand

Brawler

Warrior

Grappler

Wyvern Rider

War Monk

Wyvern Lord

War Master

Flying is Hubert’s other weakness, but as with axes he shouldn’t be starting from scratch with them. He might be with brawling, but he’s neutral in that skill and has lots of opportunities here to work on punching people to death. I wouldn’t recommend war monk/cleric to do any more work with his faith however, as both it and trickster have halved spell uses which makes them highly inefficient for raising magic levels.

That, by the way, is just one way to go about building these class sets. I went back and forth on a few of my own choices as I was writing that up. The thing about classes in Three Houses is that they don’t flow smoothly into one another, so there’s a lot of room for experimentation with different paths and a lot of variance based on each unit’s strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, a note on adjutants. Smart use of adjutants substantially increases overall unit development as it effectively doubles the amount of skill and class EXP your army can gain from each battle. Units who have 1) maxed authority and 2) are not in danger of falling behind the pre-30 leveling curve (units receive less regular EXP in the back) are prime candidates to be adjutants, and in later runs as more units finish authority it will become more common to have characters who’ll spend the majority of their time in the back. Of course you’ll always need two or three solid frontliners to actually complete the battles, but this is a useful way to play around annoyances like the bad movement of armors or the limited spell lists of most physically-oriented characters.

So About Those Spreadsheets

I know this is a ton of information to handle, and the game offers only the bare minimum for cross-run organization. This is where developing your own system comes into play if you’re aiming for a quick 100%. Personally I decide which set of units I’m going to be actively using on a given run, then plot out and write down which classes each is going to master and which skills they’re going to work on. I also note what skills classroom units will be building, and I keep separate track on overall maxed skills and mastered classes so I’m not dependent on the in-game journal to do that for me.

How rewarding is all this? That depends on how much you enjoy breaking down a game like this and really wringing the most of its mechanics to reach entirely personal goals. Just writing this guide has inspired me to attempt a 29 run 100% sometime in the near future, and it would be interesting if anyone else were to take on this excessive, overly meticulous process. I know there are other ways of approaching this concept, and even some things I could afford to improve myself especially for earlier runs as the first time I did this I was still getting a feel for the game and wasn’t playing at anywhere near as optimal a level. All the better for all the plot and characterization discourse I’ve gotten involved in over the past year, naturally, but there’s room to better my game.

And with that I am done...hmm, do Tumblr text posts have character limits? Only one way to find out, I suppose.

[bluewatsons]

Maria Fernanda Laus et al., Body image and the role of romantic relationships, 5  Cogent Psychol (2018)

Abstract

A variety of sociocultural factors have been recognized as important influences on appearance-related issues but little research has examined the intersection between romantic relationships and body image among adults. This study examined whether self-evaluative and motivational investment in appearance, overweight preoccupation, and body satisfaction differ between men and women who were involved (or not) in a romantic relationship. Moreover, we investigated the associations between relationship experiences (relationship type, relationship length, commitment, passion, and intimacy) and body image. To that, 423 men (Mage = 45.32 ± 13.86 years) and 505 women (Mage = 43.52 ± 13.07 years) completed an online survey through the SurveyMonkey Audience database in the United States, including several measures of body image and relationship functioning. Our results demonstrated that the importance given to appearance was lower among uninvolved (“single”) participants; overweight preoccupation did not differ between men and women who were involved or not in a romantic relationship; and that single men and women were more dissatisfied with their overall appearance than adults who were romantically involved but not currently cohabitating. For men and women, romantic involvement plays a pivotal role in promoting and maintaining a less negative body image. The type of relationship and its functioning are also important aspects related to body image. This study provides some context for understanding the importance of romantic situation on one’s body image.

1. Introduction

A variety of sociocultural factors have been recognized as important influences on appearance-related issues, and there is little debate that family, peers, and the media play an important role on the development of children and adolescents’ body image (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2003; Vincent & McCabe, 2000). However, as they transition into adulthood, individuals tend to seek/maintain a romantic partner, and it is surprising that little research has examined the intersection between romantic relationships and body image among adults.

In the present study, we examined whether psychological investment in appearance, weight concerns, and body dissatisfaction differ between men and women who were involved in a romantic relationship and those who were not romantically involved. We included more nuanced romantic relationship categories (e.g. non-cohabitation, cohabitation, and marriage) compared with prior research and we also investigated the association between body image and relationship characteristics and functioning (relationship length, relationship satisfaction, commitment, passion, and intimacy). The empirical basis of this study is guided by two important theories: the “selection hypothesis” of marriage and the “marriage market” theory.

1.1. Theoretical background

There is an extensive literature suggesting the existence of a marriage selection hypothesis (Horwitz & White, 1991; Horwitz, White, & Howell-White, 1996; Lee, 2015; Mastekaasa, 1992; Stutzer & Frey, 2006), which suggests that healthier people may be more likely to be selected into marriage, and the criteria to select a mate includes physical attractiveness and aspects related to mental and physical health (Goldman, 1993). In line with this assumption, Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972) asked participants to estimate the likelihood that physically attractive and unattractive people, both males and females, would marry early or marry at all. Results from this study demonstrated that attractive individuals were expected to marry earlier and to be less likely to remain single.

It has long been argued that men value physical attractiveness in potential mates more than women do, while women value a potential mate’s earning capacity more so than men (Buss, 1989; Stewart, Stinnett, & Rosenfeld, 2000). Several studies, however, have been demonstrating that this might not always be true. Eastwick’s works, for example, indicate that men and women have identical tendencies to associate physical attractiveness with the concept of an ideal romantic partner (Eastwick, Eagly, Finkel, & Johnson, 2011; Eastwick, Luchies, Finkel, & Hunt, 2014). Walster, Aronson, Abrahams, and Rottman (1966) conducted a classic study in which first-year college students were randomly paired with another at a dance, and answered questions about their attraction to their date, how interested they were in perusing a second date with their partner, and investigated, a few months later, who actually pursued a second date. Their results demonstrated that personality, self-esteem, and intelligence were unrelated to couple compatibility. The largest determinant of romantic interest was how attractive the participant’s date was. Further, a meta-analysis performed by Langlois and colleagues (2000) tested the prediction that attractiveness should be more important in how men judge and treat women than in how women judge and treat men. Their findings, however, did not support these predictions for either judgment or treatment—no gender difference was found in the importance of attractiveness. Finally, Buss, Shackelford, Kirkpatrick, and Larsen (2001) evaluated the cultural evolution of mate preferences over 57 years and found that both sexes increased the importance they attach to physical attractiveness in a mate. In sum, these data support the universal importance of attractiveness for partner preferences among men and women.

Studies that investigate attraction in the context of speed dating and online dating have also been demonstrating that self-reported mate preferences deviate markedly from actual mate choices (e.g. Eastwick & Finkel, 2008; Todd, Penke, Fasolo, & Lenton, 2007). That is, both men and women, in their actual partner choices, prefer more physically attractive partners to the same extent. For example, Kurzban and Weeden (2005) investigated the choices that people make in dating partners using data provided by a commercial dating service, and found that choices made by both men and women derived almost exclusively from physically observable attributes like attractiveness, body mass index (BMI), height, and age, while their choices were unrelated to other attributes such as education, religion, sociosexuality, having children, or desiring future children. Another study has also concluded that the strongest predictor of initial attraction in a speed-dating context was partner’s physical attractiveness, and, most importantly, men and women showed an extremely similar pattern (Luo & Zhang, 2009).

A second theoretical perspective from which our study was drawn relies on the competition established as people seek a partner, which presumably creates a “marriage market” (Becker, 1974). The success rate of attracting a mate is dependent on the individual’s own value in this market and it has been suggested that the incentives to make health/attractiveness investments to gain a high value on the marriage market vary with marital status (Lundborg, Nystedt, & Lindgren, 2007). For example, a qualitative study of newly married couples found that participants, once in a committed romantic relationship, became less concerned about gaining weight or being overweight (Bove & Sobal, 2011), possibly because they see themselves out of the “marriage market” and no longer need to attract an intimate partner (Dinour, Leung, Tripicchio, Khan, & Yeh, 2012). In this direction, studies have shown that intrasexual competition (ISC), which refers to rivalry amongst members of the same sex for access to mates, is strongly associated with drive for thinness and disordered eating behavior in women (Abed et al., 2012; Faer, Hendriks, Abed, & Figueredo, 2005). Thus, it is plausible that non-partnered individuals will invest more attention and resources to become more attractive to prospective partners.

It is noteworthy that people with high amounts of desired characteristics are more likely to couple with others of equally high value (e.g. social status, intellect), and individuals with lower value will pair with similarly “poor” others (Regan, 1998). In fact, because most people in America eventually marry (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015), less desirable physical characteristics, such as overweight or obesity, does not appear to prevent marriage but it may influence partner selection and mate quality (Averett, Sikora, & Argys, 2008). In light of this body of knowledge, body image concerns and investment in the physical self could be viewed as an adaptive way of securing and maintaining romantic relationships (Sanchez & Kwang, 2007).

1.2. Body image and romantic relationships

Body image is a multidimensional construct that includes self-perceptions of one´s physical appearance and attitudes about the body (Cash, 2012). Body image attitudes are classified into four components: body satisfaction, feelings (e.g. affect, emotions, anxiety, stress, discomfort), cognition (e.g. thoughts, social comparisons, investment in appearance, internalization of beauty ideals), and behavior (e.g. avoidance, body-checking) (Menzel, Krawczyk, & Thompson, 2011). Even though it is widely recognized that body image has several dimensions, a great deal of researchers use only one measure to assess the construct, commonly body dissatisfaction (Smolak & Cash, 2011). While this is an important aspect of body image, several others are also relevant to consider in the context of romantic relationships.

One dimension of special interest to the present study is the psychological investment in physical appearance, which has been neglected by researchers worldwide. Appearance investment represents the psychological importance of appearance in individual’s life (Cash, 2003), including the centrality of appearance to one’s sense of self (Cash, Melnyk, & Hrabosky, 2004). As reported by Thomas F. Cash in several occasions (i.e. Cash, 2003, 2012), there are two different forms of appearance investment, namely self-evaluative and motivational. Self-evaluative investment reflects the extent to which individuals define or measure themselves by their physical appearance, which they judge essential in their daily experiences. Motivational investment refers to the importance of having or maintaining an attractive appearance. It reflects the extent to which individuals engage in behaviors to manage their appearance. Importantly, self-evaluative investment is more dysfunctional than motivational investment (Cash, 2012). While the first is more predictive of negative body image, the second is thought to be relatively benign.

As already mentioned elsewhere, the influence exerted by family, peers, and the media on one’s body image is widely studied, but much less is known about how romantic relationships relate to various components of body image, especially at midlife. Here, the term “romantic relationships” will be used to indicate relationships in general (non-cohabitation, cohabitation, or marriage), unless otherwise specified.

We were able to find three studies that compared body dissatisfaction between married and single individuals. Friedman, Dixon, Brownell, Whisman, and Wilfley (1999) interviewed 16,377 men and women and investigated whether married individuals have comparable body image disturbance to non-married individuals. Results demonstrated that marital status was not significantly related to body dissatisfaction, but low marital satisfaction was significantly related to greater body dissatisfaction. Hoyt and Kogan (2001) examined body image and relationship satisfaction in 101 male and 187 female college students. The authors concluded that single, engaged, and married participants were equally satisfied with their appearance and physical attractiveness, but individuals who had less satisfying dating situations and sex lives were less satisfied with their overall appearance. Interestingly, those most dissatisfied with both their dating situations and sex lives were those who were not currently engaged in a dating relationship. Finally, Tom, Chen, Liao, and Shao (2005) investigated the importance of body image dissatisfaction as a function of marital status in 141 married couples and 274 single people. Body image dissatisfaction was observed in both married and single people at comparable levels, but single women rated it more important that they strive to change to reach the ideal body than did married women. The authors concluded that marriage decreases the importance of the ideal, thin, body and makes the impact of the unattainable body less powerful. Importantly, participants in their study reported high levels of marital satisfaction, leading the authors to speculate that relationship quality may be necessary to the mitigation of the importance of the ideal body image.

In this direction, Juarez and Pritchard (2012) examined the effect of three measures of relationship quality on body dissatisfaction in 256 women and 170 men. Results demonstrated a negative correlation between body dissatisfaction and trust and support in men and women, but relationship commitment was not related to body dissatisfaction. In a study conducted by Juda, Campbell, and Crawford (2004), 100 heterosexual women currently involved in a romantic relationship responded to three subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory: Body Dissatisfaction, Drive for Thinness, and Maturity Fears; questions measuring perceived parental readiness, and perceptions of social support from their partners, family, and friends. The authors reported that higher levels of dieting symptomatology were uniquely associated with perceptions of relatively low levels of available support from romantic partners.

Some researchers included both partners in their studies to evaluate the influence of relationship functioning on body image. Markey and Markey (2006) examined young women’s satisfaction with their own bodies, their perceptions of their significant others’ satisfaction with their bodies, and their significant others’ actual satisfaction with their bodies. Ninety-five heterosexual couples completed a figure rating scale, a measure of relationship love and harmony, and informed the length or duration of couples’ relationships. None of the correlations between relationship quality and body satisfaction were significant, but relationship length was negatively associated with women’s perceived partners’ satisfaction. The study conducted by Morrison, Doss, and Perez (2009) with 88 heterosexual couples explored the relations between eating, weight, and shape concerns and relationship functioning (i.e. global relationship quality and negative relationship events) among men and women and did not find significant associations between the measures. Lastly, Goins, Markey, and Gillen (2012) examined men’s body image in the context of their romantic relationships and found that they expressed greater body satisfaction when there was a relatively high degree of sexual intimacy in the relationship.

As could be noticed in some studies cited above (Juda et al., 2004; Morrison et al., 2009), another important variable linked to body image and romantic relationships is weight concerns. Preoccupation on being overweight includes worries about being or becoming fat, consciousness of small changes in weight, and diet practices (Cash, 2000). In fact, some researchers have demonstrated that dieting behaviors can be associated to relationship status and relationship quality. For example, Markey, Markey, and Birch (2001) examined the relations between couples’ marital quality and dieting behavior. One hundred and eighty-seven married couples’ dieting behaviors, marital quality, BMI, weight concerns, depression, and self-esteem were evaluated, and the authors concluded that marital discord predicted unhealthy dieting behaviors among wives, even after wives’ BMI, weight concerns, self-esteem, and depression were controlled for.

In another study, Sheets and Ajmere (2005) explored the importance of weight in college students’ dating relationships and the expression of weight-related concerns between dating romantic partners. Five hundred and fifty-four undergraduates were interviewed, and results demonstrated that overweight women were less likely to be dating than their peers, and that weight was positively correlated with relationship satisfaction in men, but negatively correlated with satisfaction in women. Finally, Boyes, Fletcher, and Latner (2007) investigated unhealthy dieting (e.g. skipping meals, vomiting), healthy dieting (e.g. reducing calories, reducing, or eliminating snacks), and body satisfaction in intimate relationships in 57 predominantly unmarried couples. Results demonstrated that intimate relationships are linked in important ways with dieting and body image but that related psychological processes operate differently for men and for women. Women who dieted more and had more negative body image had partners who were less satisfied with their relationships,

Altogether, these studies demonstrate the necessity of clearly establishing which characteristics of relationships act as a positive influence on one’s body image. In this sense, several theories can be applied to determine which aspect of love is important to be considered. One of the most cited theory is the Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love (Sternberg, 1986), which deals both with the nature of love and with loves in various kinds of relationships. The theory holds that love can be understood in terms of three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. These three components are somewhat intercorrelated and have appeared in various other theories of love (Aron & Westbay, 1996).

In addition, little is known about body image in the context of different types of relationships. For example, there are several differences between marriage and cohabitation, whether the latter is thought as an alternative or a precursor to marriage. In general, cohabiting relationships are shorter and entail less commitment and investment than marriage (French, Popovici, Robins, & Homer, 2014). On the other hand, cohabitation resembles marriage in several respects, providing individuals security to a greater extent than non-cohabitation. Thus, one might postulate that body image experiences may vary according to relationship arrangements.

In sum, further research exploring the connections between romantic relationships and body image is still needed. As negative body image is associated with poor psychosocial functioning (e.g. perfectionism, low self-esteem, and eating disturbance) (Cash et al., 2004), the investigation of factors that might influence appearance-related issues is essential for establishing and improving intervention strategies. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate if the importance given to appearance (namely psychological investment in appearance), overweight concerns, and body dissatisfaction differ between men and women who were involved (or not) in a romantic relationship. Moreover, we investigated the association between relationship experiences (type of relationship, relationship length, commitment, passion, and intimacy) and body image. We extended prior research by investigating several components of body image (e.g. investment in appearance and overweight concerns), including more nuanced romantic relationship categories (e.g. non-cohabitation, cohabitation, and marriage), and exploring the association between measures of body image and relationship quality that have not yet been investigated (e.g. intimacy and passion).

1.3. Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: Single men and women will report higher levels of self-evaluative and motivational investment in appearance, will be more concerned about their weight, and will be more dissatisfied with their overall appearance than their romantically involved counterparts.

Hypothesis 2: The longer men and women are single, the higher their self-evaluative and motivational investment in appearance, weight concerns, and body dissatisfaction.

Hypothesis 3: Among romantically involved adults, relationship duration, relationship satisfaction, and higher levels of commitment, intimacy, and passion will be negatively associated with self-evaluative and motivational investment in appearance, weight concerns, and body dissatisfaction.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

Participants included 423 men and 505 women who were members of the SurveyMonkey Audience database in the United States (https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/audience/our-survey-respondents/). Participants were excluded from the study if they were younger than 18 years old; currently or recently pregnant (within the past 12 months); had any medical condition that may affect their physical appearance (e.g. AIDS, cancer, severe burns); or if they recently had or were seeking weight loss surgery. On average, men were 45.32 years of age (SD = 13.86, ranging from 18 to 67 years) and women were 43.52 years of age (SD = 13.07, ranging from 18 to 72). The majority of the sample included white (men = 69.3%; women = 76.6%) and heterosexual (men = 87.0%; women = 85.9%) adults. Forty-two percent of men and 44.8% of women had attained at least a bachelor’s degree. About 29.3% of men were normal weight and 69.7% were overweight or obese. Among women, 39.2% were normal weight and 56.4% were overweight or obese. Mean BMI was 27.70 kg/m2 (SD = 5.47) for men and 26.98 kg/m2 (SD = 6.53) for women. Forty-two percent of men were single (i.e. not dating; divorced, separated, or widowed, but not currently involved in a close romantic relationship) and 58.4% were romantically involved: 11.1% were not cohabitating, 9.9% were cohabitating, and 37.4% were married. Twenty-seven percent of women were single and 73% were romantically involved: 10.3% were not cohabitating, 16.8% were cohabitating, and 45.7% were married.

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. Sociodemographic variables

Participants self-reported their age, height, weight race/ethnicity, educational level, sexual orientation, romantic relationship status—(1) not involved (single, casually dating one or more persons, divorced, separated, or widowed, but not currently involved in a close romantic relationship) or (2) involved (exclusively dating one person and not living together, exclusively dating one person and living together, engaged to be married and not living together, engaged to be married and living together or married), duration of non-attachment, and current relationship duration.

2.2.2. Body image

Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised (ASI-R) (Cash, 2003): The ASI-R was used to evaluate psychological investment in appearance. It assesses beliefs or assumptions about the importance, significance, and influence of appearance through 20 items divided into two factors: (1) Self-Evaluative Salience, which taps a dysfunctional type of investment and reflects the intensity to which beliefs about appearance influence the social and personal life; and (2) Motivational Salience, which reflects the intensity of concern about people’s appearance and how individuals adopt behaviors to control it. Participants were asked to respond each item based on the four weeks prior to the study. All items were rated on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree) and subscale scores were obtained by calculating the means of the constituent items. The instrument demonstrated good internal consistency for men and women in the current sample (men α = .80—.85; women α = .85—.87).

Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire—Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS) (Cash, 2000): The MBSRQ-AS includes 34 items grouped into 5 subscales, 2 of which were used in this study: Overweight Preoccupation (OWPREOC; 4 items), which assesses fat anxiety, weight vigilance, dieting, and eating restraint; and Appearance Evaluation (APPEVAL; 7 items), which measures feelings of physical attractiveness and satisfaction with one’s looks. Participants were asked to respond to each item based on the four weeks prior to the study. All items were rated on a 5-point scale (1 = definitely disagree and 5 = definitely agree), and subscales scores were determined by obtaining the average of the constituent items. The instrument demonstrated good internal consistency for men and women in the current sample (men α = .77—.83; women α = .73—.87).

2.2.3. Romantic relationship characteristics

Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) (Hendrick, Dicke, & Hendrick, 1998): The RAS was used to assess overall relationship satisfaction. This is a single factor scale with 7 items rated on a 5-point scale (e.g. 1 = never and 5 = very often) and averaged to obtain an overall score. The reliability of the RAS in the current sample was .88 for men and .93 for women.

Triangular Love Scale (TLS) (Lemieux & Hale, 2000): The TLS includes 20 items divided into 3 subscales: Intimacy (refers to feelings of closeness and connectedness to one’s romantic partner), Commitment (indicates one’s willingness to remain with their partner, encompasses the decision to love and maintain a potential long-term relationship, and the likelihood of seeking other partners), and Passion (consists of items associated with attraction and sexual activity and focused on the infatuation and sexual excitement associated with one’s partner). All items were assessed using a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree) and subscales scores were calculated as the means of the constituent items. The instrument demonstrated good internal consistency for men and women in the current sample (men α = .72–.94; women α = .78–.96).

2.3. Procedures

The study was approved by the University Institutional Review Board and data were collected using a web-based survey provider, SurveyMonkey. Participants were randomly recruited from their member site called SurveyMonkey Contribute, and those who were eligible to complete the study were provided with a link to the online survey where they first read the informed consent, provided their consent, and then moved on to the questionnaires. Participants did not receive any direct compensation from the researchers, but SurveyMonkey made a $0.50 donation to the charity of their choice along with a chance to win $100. All analyses were conducted using SPSS 22.0 and the alpha value was set to .05. Data were screened for outliers and missing data was handled using listwise deletion. Unequal group sizes were accounted for in the analyses using regression formulations (Slinker & Glantz, 1988).

3. Results

The mean and standard deviation for all study variables are presented in Table 1. Pearson’s correlation analyses were conducted between age, BMI, and body image subscales, because they are often shown to be related (Fallon, Harris, & Johnson, 2014; Green & Pritchard, 2003; McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2004; Pingitore, Spring, & Garfieldt, 1997; Tiggemann & Lynch, 2001; Tiggemann & McCourt, 2013) (Table 2). All correlations among the body image subscales were significant for men and women. Additionally, for men and women, age was negatively correlated to self-evaluative investment and overweight preoccupation; while BMI was negatively correlated to motivational investment and appearance evaluation, and positively correlated to overweight preoccupation.

Table 1. Means and standard deviations of all study constructs investigated, by sex and relationship status (N = 928)

Table 2. Correlations among age, BMI, and body image subscales (N = 928)

Separate multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to test if romantic involvement (involved or not-involved) predict each body image component, beyond the variance explained by age and BMI (H1). Scores on body image subscales served as dependent variables (DVs) for the regression analyses. Each analysis included two control variables in Step 1: age and BMI. Relationship categories were dummy coded and entered in Step 2 of the regressions as independent variables (IVs); single participants served as the reference group. It is important to highlight that multiple regression is a statistical technique that allows the researcher to assess the relationship between one DV and several IVs. The term regression is used when the intention is to assess the best predictor of a DV but not however to determine causation (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007).

As shown in Table 3, single men were less motivationally invested and more dissatisfied with their overall appearance than their non-cohabiters peers. Among women, single participants reported lower levels of self-evaluative investment than cohabiters and married women, were less motivationally invested than non-cohabiters and married participants, and were more dissatisfied with their overall appearance than their non-cohabiters peers. These results partially confirm Hypothesis 1.

Table 3. Multiple linear regression analyses with romantic relationship status predicting body image components, controlling for age, and BMI (N = 928)

Hypothesis 2 was tested by evaluating the partial correlations between the mean time uninvolved in a romantic relationship and each body image component, including age and BMI as control variables. The mean time not involved in a stable romantic relationship was 7.62 years (SD = 9.30) among men and 7.15 years (SD = 7.12) among women. For men, length of romantic non-involvement was significantly negatively correlated with self-evaluative investment (r = −0.18; p < .01), motivational investment (r = −0.27; p < .001), overweight concerns (r = −0.16; p < .05) and appearance evaluation (r = −0.16; p < .05). For women, length of romantic non-involvement was significantly negatively correlated with motivational investment (r = −0.22 p < .05) and overweight concerns (women: r = −0.26; p < .01). These results contradict Hypothesis 2 and suggest that the importance given to appearance, concerns about weight and overall body satisfaction decreased over time of non-attachment.

Separate multiple linear regression analyses were used to determine how relationship length and relationship functioning predicted each body image component, beyond the variance explained by participants’ age and BMI (H3). Scores on each body image subscale served as dependent variables. Again, each analysis included two control variables in Step 1—age and BMI. In Step 2, length of relationship and the four measures of relationship functioning were entered. Each of the significant correlates maintained sufficient tolerance (Variance Inflation Factor—VIF < 10 and tolerance > .10) to be nonredundant with the other correlates in the model (Montgomery, Peck, & Vining, 2012), thus, presented no problems with multicollinearity.

For romantically involved men and women, the associations between relationship characteristics and body image varied somewhat between the sexes. For men, longer relationships emerged as a significant predictor of body dissatisfaction; higher relationship satisfaction significantly predicted lower self-evaluative investment and overweight preoccupation; and higher levels of passion emerged as a predictor of weight concerns and body satisfaction (Table 4). Among women, relationship functioning emerged as a significant predictor of appearance evaluation only. Contrary to our expectations, greater body dissatisfaction was predicted by longer relationships, higher levels of commitment and lower levels of intimacy and passion (Table 4). Therefore, relationship functioning seems to influence men’s body image in a wider range of components compared with women.

Table 4. Multiple linear regression analyses with romantic functioning variables predicting body image components, while controlling for age and BMI (N = 928)

4. Discussion

We evaluated if the importance given to appearance (namely psychological investment in appearance), overweight concerns, and body dissatisfaction differed between men and women who were involved (or not) in a romantic relationship. Contradicting our supposition, self-evaluative investment was lower among single women compared to cohabiting and married participants. Self-evaluative investment essentially means “the extent to which individuals believe that their appearance is important to their sense of self-worth” (Cash et al., 2004, p. 312). It seems that, in our sample, appearance played a more central role in women’s lives when they were living with a romantic partner, refusing our assumption that romantic relationships might act as a barrier against dysfunctional psychological investment in appearance.

Additionally, results also demonstrated that single men were less motivationally invested than their non-cohabiters peers, and that single women reported lower motivational investment than non-cohabiters and married participants. Motivational investment reflects the extent to which individuals attend to their appearance and engage in appearance-management behaviors (e.g. spending time trying to be physically attractive) (Cash, 2003; Cash et al., 2004). If one is following a long-term mating strategy, retaining a mate is as important as attracting one, which might elucidate why non-cohabiting men and women reported the highest levels of motivational investment in appearance. Alternatively, it is known that married people in societies where divorce risks are high are more inclined to invest in their outer appearance (Lundborg et al., 2007). Thus, it is reasonable to consider that some married people—particularly those in lower quality relationships—may prepare for a potential divorce and future return to the marriage market by investing in their physical appearance. This might be especially true for middle-age people in the United States, where the divorce rates have doubled between 1990 and 2008 among persons over age 35 (Kennedy & Ruggles, 2014).

Single men and women were more dissatisfied with their overall appearance than their non-cohabiting peers. It is relevant to notice, however, that even though body dissatisfaction was higher among single participants, appearance was less important to them. In fact, it has been argued that dissatisfaction in a particular domain has an impact on one’s life to the extent that the domain is important in the person’s self-definition (Webster & Tiggemann, 2003). These results clearly demonstrate the necessity of evaluate body image as the multidimensional construct that it is.

Results also demonstrated that, although romantic relationships may enhance women’s body affirmation (Ambwani & Strauss, 2007), non-cohabitation was associated to higher motivational investment and lower body dissatisfaction for both men and women. These findings corroborate, in a certain way, the conclusions from Friedman and colleagues (1999) that simply being in a stable relationship does not protect individuals from experiencing body dissatisfaction. A potential explanation for our results relies on the dynamic of non-cohabitation among middle-aged people. At this age, a relationship without cohabitation could offer only the benefits of having a partner, buffering them against the daily problems faced by a coresidential relationship. In that way, non-cohabitation could provide more space and time to experience the support produced by a romantic relationship.

Contradicting our second hypothesis, investment in appearance (both self-evaluative and motivational), overweight concerns, and satisfaction with appearance were, for men, negatively correlated to the period of time non-involved in a romantic relationship. In addition, appearance-management behaviors and overweight preoccupation decreased over time of non-attachment for women. As far as we are aware, no study investigated the role of “singleness” on body image, but our results demonstrated that, as time passes by, single people may become less preoccupied with enhancing their attractiveness. One possible explanation for this finding is that in the absence of a partner for longer periods of time, people may shift their focus to other arenas of life, valuing more their friends, family, and work. On the other hand, it is possible that individuals at this age, especially women, are single by choice (e.g. Brown & Shinohara, 2013; Fileborn, Thorpe, Hawkes, Minichiello, & Pitts, 2015); thus, appearance may become of lesser concern if they see themselves as not fully participating in the “marriage market.”

It is known that high romantic relationship quality is associated with lower body dissatisfaction for men and women (Friedman et al., 1999; Goins et al., 2012; Juarez & Pritchard, 2012). In our study, several aspects of the relationship have shown to influence one’s body image. First, relationship length emerged as a significant predictor of higher body dissatisfaction in both sexes. This result was not found by past research (Goins et al., 2012; Markey & Markey, 2006) and contradict our hypothesis, but it is possible that, as their relationships progress, individuals gradually start to receive less positive feedback about their appearance from their partners, which could result in increased body dissatisfaction (Markey & Markey, 2006). Second, relationship satisfaction predicted lower self-evaluative investment and overweight preoccupation, but only for men. Because studies have shown that successful intimate relationships may provide women with a psychological buffer against societal pressures to attain a slim appearance (e.g. Boyes et al., 2007), we expected to find the same for women. Third, body satisfaction was predicted by intimacy in women, suggesting that feelings of closeness and connectedness increase positive aspects of body image. Fourth, commitment emerged as a predictor of body dissatisfaction in women. This result was unexpected. We hypothesized that individuals in a highly committed relationship would present lower body dissatisfaction because commitment can be seen as a form of acceptance. Lastly, passion predicted body satisfaction in both sexes. This result was anticipated because aspects related to attraction and sexual activity is an indicative of a person’s desirability, likely favoring one’s body image. Taken together, these findings suggest that some characteristics of romantic relationships are indeed tied to a more favorable body image, while others seem to be detrimental.

4.1. Limitations

Although this study expands on the existing literature in a number of ways, it also has important limitations. First, our sample was composed primarily of white, heterosexual, married, and overweight or obese individuals. Thus, precautions must be taken regarding the generalization of the results. Second, given that this was a cross-sectional study, causality and relationship direction cannot be ascertained. Finally, we did not investigate propensity to enter long-term relationships in individuals who were single, which could exacerbate appearance worries. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that body image is influenced by a number of variables not taken into account in the present study; therefore, intimate relationships might be though as part of the puzzle. Moreover, relationship status might interact with other variables such as thin-ideal internalization (Ramirez, Perez, & Taylor, 2012), self-objectification (Sanchez & Broccoli, 2008), or even self-esteem that may come as a result of both positive and negative aspects of relationships.

5. Conclusion

With research suggesting that negative body image is associated with poor psychosocial functioning (Cash et al., 2004), the investigation of factors that might influence appearance-related issues is essential for establishing and improving intervention strategies. The present study extended prior research by evaluating several components of body image, including more intimate relationship categories, and exploring measures of relationship quality that have not yet been investigated in the context of body image research. Our results demonstrated that intimate relationship is an important influence on one’s body image and, therefore, should be taken into account in the design and implementation of education and intervention efforts that address the development of a more positive body image and decreased weight concerns.

References

Abed, R., Mehta, S., Figueredo, A. J., Aldridge, S., Balson, H., Meyer, C., & Palmer, R. (2012). Eating disorders and intrasexual competition: Testing an evolutionary hypothesis among young women. The Scientific World Journal, 2012, Article ID 290813 8. doi:10.1100/2012/290813.

Ambwani, S., & Strauss, J. (2007). Love thyself before loving others? A qualitative and quantitative analysis of gender differences in body image and romantic love. Sex Roles, 56(1–2), 13–21. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9143-7

Aron, A., & Westbay, L. (1996). Dimensions of the prototype of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 535–551. doi:10.1037/0022- 3514.70.3.535

Averett, S. L., Sikora, A., & Argys, L. M. (2008). For better or worse: Relationship status and body mass index. Economics and Human Biology, 6(3), 330–349. doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2008.07.003

Becker, G. S. (1974). A theory of marriage. In T. W. Schultz (Ed.), Economics of the family: Marriage, children, and human capital (pp. 299–351). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bove, C. F., & Sobal, J. (2011). Body weight relationships in early marriage. Weight relevance, weight comparisons, and weight talk. Appetite, 57(3), 729–742. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2011.08.007

Boyes, A. D., Fletcher, G. J., & Latner, J. D. (2007). Male and female body image and dieting in the context of intimate relationships. Journal of Family Psychology,21(4), 764–768. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.21.4.764

Brown, S. L., & Shinohara, S. K. (2013). Dating relatioships in older adulthood: A national portrait. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75(5), 1194–1202. doi:10.1111/jomf.12065

Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 culgures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12(1), 1–14. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00023992

Buss, D. M., Shackelford, T. K., Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Larsen, R. J. (2001). A half century of mate preferences: The cultural evolution of values. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(2), 491–503. doi:10.1111/j.1741- 3737.2001.00491.x

Cash, T. F. (2000). Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ). Norfolk, VA: Author.

Cash, T. F. (2003). Brief manual for the appearance sche- mas inventory–revised. Norfolk, VA: Author.

Cash, T. F. (2012). Cognitive-behavioral perspectives on body image. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of body image and human appearance (pp. 334–342). Oxford: Elsevier.

Cash, T. F., Melnyk, S. E., & Hrabosky, J. I. (2004). The assessment of body image investment: An extensive revision of the appearance schemas inventory. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 35(3), 305– 316. doi:10.1002/eat.10264

Dinour, L., Leung, M. M., Tripicchio, G., Khan, S., & Yeh, M. C. (2012). The association between marital transitions, body mass index, and weight: A review of the literature. Journal of Obesity, 2012, 16. doi:10.1155/ 2012/294974. Article ID 294974

Dion, K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24(3), 285–290. doi:10.1037/h0033731

Eastwick, P. W., Eagly, A. H., Finkel, E. J., & Johnson, S. E. (2011). Implicit and explicit preferences for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner: A double dissociation in predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(5), 993–1011. doi:10.1037/a0024061

Eastwick, P. W., & Finkel, E. J. (2008). Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: Do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(2), 245–264. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.2.245

Eastwick, P. W., Luchies, L. B., Finkel, E. J., & Hunt, L. L. (2014). The predictive validity of ideal partner preferences: A review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(3), 623–665. doi:10.1037/a0032432

Faer, L. M., Hendriks, A., Abed, R. T., & Figueredo, A. J. (2005). The evolutionary psychology of eating disor- ders: Female competition for mates or for status? Psychology and Psychotherapy, 78(3), 397–417. doi:10.1348/147608305x42929

Page 14 of 16

Laus et al., Cogent Psychology (2018), 5: 1496986 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2018.1496986

Fallon, E. A., Harris, B. S., & Johnson, P. (2014). Prevalence of body dissatisfaction among a United States adult sample. Eating Behaviors, 15(1), 151–158. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2013.11.007

Fileborn, B., Thorpe, R., Hawkes, G., Minichiello, V., & Pitts, M. (2015). Sex and the (older) single girl: Experiences of sex and dating in later life. Journal of Aging Studies, 33, 67–75. doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2015.02.002

French, M. T., Popovici, I., Robins, P. K., & Homer, J. F. (2014). Personal traits, cohabitation, and marriage. Social Science Research, 45, 184–199. doi:10.1016/j. ssresearch.2014.01.002

Friedman, M. A., Dixon, A. E., Brownell, K. D., Whisman, M. A., & Wilfley, D. E. (1999). Marital status, marital satisfaction, and body image dissatisfaction. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 26(1), 81– 85. doi:10.1002/(sici)1098-108x(199907)26:1<81:: aid-eat10>3.3.co;2-m

Goins, L. B., Markey, C. N., & Gillen, M. M. (2012). Understanding men’s body image in the context of their romantic relationships. American Journal of Men’s Health, 6(3), 240–248. doi:10.1177/ 1557988311431007

Goldman, N. (1993). Marriage selection and mortality patterns: Inferences and fallacies. Demography, 30 (2), 189–208. doi:10.2307/2061837

Green, S. P., & Pritchard, M. E. (2003). Predictors of body image dissatisfaction in adult men and women. Social Behavior and Personality, 31(3), 215–222. doi:10.2224/sbp.2003.31.3.215

Hendrick, S. S., Dicke, A., & Hendrick, C. (1998). The relationship assessment scale. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15(1), 137–142. doi:10.1177/ 0265407598151009

Horwitz, A. V., & White, H. R. (1991). Becoming married, depression, and alcohol problems among young adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32(3), 221–237. doi:10.2307/2136805

Horwitz, A. V., White, H. R., & Howell-White, S. (1996). Becoming married and mental health: A longitudinal study of a cohort of young adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 58(4), 895–907. doi:10.2307/353978

Hoyt, W. D., & Kogan, L. R. (2001). Satisfaction with body image and peer relationships for males and females in a college environment. Sex Roles, 45(3–4), 199– 215. doi:10.1023/a:1013501827550

Juarez, L., & Pritchard, M. (2012). Body dissatisfaction: Commitment, support, and trust in romantic relationships. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 22(2), 188–200. doi:10.1080/10911359.2012.647478

Juda, M. N., Campbell, L., & Crawford, C. B. (2004). Dieting symptomatology in women and perceptions of social support: An evolutionary approach. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25(3), 200–208. doi:10.1016/j.dvolhumbehav.2004.02.001

Kennedy, S., & Ruggles, S. (2014). Breaking up is hard to count: The rise of divorce in the United States, 1980–2010. Demography, 51(2), 587–598. doi:10.1007/s13524-013-0270-9

Kurzban, R., & Weeden, J. (2005). Hurry date: Mate pre- ferences in action. Evolution and Human Behavior, 26 (3), 227–244. doi:10.1016/j. evolhumbehav.2004.08.012

Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M., & Smoot, M. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 126(3), 390–423. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.126.3.390

Lee, G. R. (2015). The limits of marriage: Why getting everyone married won’t solve all our problems. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Lemieux, R., & Hale, J. L. (2000). Intimacy, passion, and commitment among married individuals: Further testing of the triangular theory of love. Psychological Reports, 87(3 Pt 1), 941–948. doi:10.2466/pr0.2000.87.3.941

Lundborg, P., Nystedt, P., & Lindgren, B. (2007). Getting ready for the marriage market? The association between divorce risks and investments in attractive body mass among married Europeans. Journal of Biosocial Science, 39(4), 531–544. doi:10.1017/s0021932006001611

Luo, S., & Zhang, G. (2009). What leads to romantic attraction: Similarity, reciprocity, security, or beauty? Evidence from a speed-dating study. Journal of Personality, 77(4), 933–964. doi:10.1111/j.14676494.2009.00570.x

Markey, C. N., & Markey, P. M. (2006). Romantic relation- ships and body satisfaction among young women. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(2), 256–264. doi:10.1007/s10964-005-9013-6

Markey, C. N., Markey, P. M., & Birch, L. L. (2001). Interpersonal predictors of dieting practices among married couples. Journal of Family Psychology, 15(3), 464. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.15.3.464

Mastekaasa, A. (1992). Marriage and psychological well- being: Some evidence on selection into marriage. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54(4), 901–911. doi:10.2307/353171

McCabe, M. P., & Ricciardelli, L. A. (2003). Sociocultural influences on body image and body changes among adolescent boys and girls. The Journal of Social Psychology, 143(1), 5–26. doi:10.1080/00224540309598428

McCabe, M. P., & Ricciardelli, L. A. (2004). Body image dissatisfaction among males across the lifespan: A review of past literature. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 56(6), 675–685. doi:10.1016/s0022-3999 (03)00129-6

Menzel, J. E., Krawczyk, R., & Thompson, J. K. (2011). Attitudinal assessment of body image for adolecents and adults. In T. F. Cash & L. Smolak (Eds.), Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (pp. 154–169). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Montgomery, D. C, Peck, E. A, & Vining, G. G. (2012). Introduction to linear regression analysis (5th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Morrison, K. R., Doss, B. D., & Perez, M. (2009). Body image and disordered eating in romantic relationships. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28(3), 281– 306. doi:10.1521/jscp.2009.28.3.281

Pingitore, R., Spring, B., & Garfieldt, D. (1997). Gender differences in body satisfaction. Obesity Research, 5(5), 402–409. doi:10.1002/j.1550-8528.1997.tb00662.x

Ramirez, A. L., Perez, M., & Taylor, A. (2012). Preliminary examination of a couple-based eating disorder pre- vention program. Body Image, 9(3), 324–333. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.04.006

Regan, P. C. (1998). What if you can’t get what you want? Willingness to compromise ideal mate selection standards as a function of sex, mate value, and relationship context. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(12), 1294–1303. doi:10.1177/01461672982412004

Sanchez, D. T., & Broccoli, T. L. (2008). The romance of self-objectification: Does priming romantic relationships induce states of self-objectification among women? Sex Roles, 59(7–8), 545–554. doi:10.1007/s11199-008-9451-1

Sanchez, D. T., & Kwang, T. (2007). When the relationship becomes her: Revisiting women’s body concerns from a relationship contingency perspective. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 31(4), 401–414. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2007.00389.x

Sheets, V., & Ajmere, K. (2005). Are romantic partners a source of college students’ weight concern? Eating Behaviors, 6(1), 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2004.08.008

Slinker, B. K., & Glantz, S. A. (1988). Multiple linear regres- sion is a useful alternative to traditional analyses of variance. American Journal of Physiology Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 255(3), R353– R367. doi:10.1152/ajpregu.1988.255.3.R353

Smolak, L., & Cash, T. F. (2011). Future challenges for body image science, practice, and prevention. In T. F. Cash & L. Smolak (Eds.), Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (pp. 471–478). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Sternberg, R. J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93(2), 119. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.93.2.119

Stewart, S., Stinnett, H., & Rosenfeld, L. B. (2000). Sex differences in desired characteristics of short-term and long-term relationship partners. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 17(6), 843–853. doi:10.1177/0265407500176008

Stutzer, A., & Frey, B. S. (2006). Does marriage make people happy, or do happy people get married? The Journal of Socio-Economics, 35(2), 326–347. doi:10.1016/j.socec.2005.11.043

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/ Pearson Education.

Tiggemann, M., & Lynch, J. E. (2001). Body image across the life span in adult women: The role of self-objectification. Developmental Psychology, 37(2), 243–253. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.37.2.243

Tiggemann, M., & McCourt, A. (2013). Body appreciation in adult women: Relationships with age and body satisfaction. Body Image, 10(4), 624–627. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.07.003

Todd, P. M., Penke, L., Fasolo, B., & Lenton, A. P. (2007). Different cognitive processes underlie human mate choices and mate preferences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(38), 15011– 15016. doi:10.1073/pnas.0705290104

Tom, G., Chen, A., Liao, H., & Shao, J. (2005). Body image, relationships, and time. Journal of Psychology, 139(5), 458–468.

United States Census Bureau. (2015). America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2015/demo/families/cps-2015.html

Vincent, M. A., & McCabe, M. P. (2000). Gender differences among adolescents in family, and peer influences on body dissatisfaction, weight loss, and binge eating behaviors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29(2), 205–221. doi:10.1023/a:1005156616173

Walster, E., Aronson, V., Abrahams, D., & Rottman, L. (1966). Importance of physical attractiveness in dating behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(5), 508–516. doi:10.1037/h0021188

Webster, J., & Tiggemann, M. (2003). The relationship between women’s body satisfaction and self-image across the life span: The role of cognitive control. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 164(2), 241–252. doi:10.1080/00221320309597980

[etadiscu-blog]

Fridays for Future

One day, it won’t be individuals, tribes or countries fighting for more power, more rights or more resources - it will be children fighting to be able to continue living a life within a stable nature, without the constant fear of new catastrophes to occur and parents, fighting for everything to stay the way it is to be able to continue a lifestyle they are accustomed to not dealing with problems that won’t affect them anymore. A lifestyle which they and their parents have significantly shaped and made possible with the achievements of their generations. A lifestyle which is truly worth fighting for, even with just a remotely dangerous threat of change appearing on the horizon - sometimes in the form of a wind turbine. What sounds as the plot of a third-class Hollywood-movie has actually become reality: people living now in their 30′s and above hardly will suffer severely from climate change and therefore have no incentive to change their behavior while people under 20 will almost surely suffer from the consequences of climate change and will be required to find solutions and implement them rather now than later. And the youngsters do not only see the horror coming - they have started to protest - and presumably won’t stop until the course has been set to change.

Picture: Markus Distelrath / pixabay.com

Some students have now realized that their future is in danger - and request a drastic reduction of CO₂ emissions, which are causal for the climate change according to prevailing scientific opinion. [1]

Critique towards the activist students reaches from trivial 

“Staying away from school is helping nobody - if the discussion was only about the climate change and not an excuse for not going to school they would have Saturdays for future!”

over practical 

“How do they expect us to change something?”

to more substantial

“Who says we as humans have an influence at all?”

But what to do about it? Are the current measures sufficient? What is there, we can do more? And should we do more at all?

We know, that CO₂ facilitates the greenhouse-effect in our atmosphere. We also know, that our climate is changing and that this change will affect how we live dramatically in a negative manner. Already now we can observe the consequences of changing climate: We are exposed to increasingly more and more natural catastrophes. We measure rising ocean levels. We see the shrinkage of permafrost. But given our lifestyle - how realistic is it, that we drastically change our behavior? What exactly would need to change and how practical or unpractical are the different possibilities we have at hand right now? What consequences would the changes impose?

The discussion to what degree mankind has an influence on world climate by emission of CO₂ is surely interesting. But not only that the scientific community has answered this question already quite clearly, it is not a discussion we as the civilization have the time to have in depth. The fact, that there is an effect is not negligible. So the question is rather what effective measures would be and not if we have to take measures at all. Whenever we see that something is degrading, whenever we see, that things are falling apart, whenever we see that something is not working as it should be - it is our obligation to act. Not just for society, not for our neighbor, not people on different continents but simply for ourselves. Our grandchildren will ask us: What did you do against climate change? I am sure, most of us will not leave the discussion satisfied is we have to answer “Nothing”. Only very little people have the courage to face the truth and sacrificing comfort in the present in favor of someone else’s future. It is a lot to ask for. Who would be willing to sacrifice the very tangible comfort of a car ride to work, the beauty of exploring different cultures on different continents by using an intercontinental flight or the pleasure consuming a juicy steak for an abstract thing such as the world climate? Not many people will be willing to do it no matter what the consequence might be - at least until the climate change also becomes less abstract and more tangible yet more impairing to our lifestyle. But then it probably is already too late, the die is cast. On the other hand side there are people reacting with negligence and doubt when confronted with the consequences of not changing behavior might have. Facing the truth and acting egoistically is equally simple as just hiding from the truth, acting as if it wouldn’t make a difference anyway or simply neglecting the problem entirely. It is a nihilistic approach, not contributing any good at all and leading to nothing but destruction and chaos. And even if you do not contribute any good actively through action - which I could not even blame you for - you might want to try to not contribute in any bad. Being informed, building an opinion and participating in discussions is probably the most important indirect contribution we as individuals can provide. At scale, it probably even will have a far larger effect, than giving up steak or using the bike (while I’m not saying that this wouldn’t contribute, too). But just sitting there, casting doubt without providing any answers or suggestions is not helping anyone. It is the bad contribution that sets us behind in discussion, wasting energy and time dealing with questions that might not even are important. It a nihilistic path, denying the truth while putting obstacles in the way of people looking for actual solutions. 

The psychological and sociological factor in this discussion around climate change is often underrated. Not only is it a conflict of generations - it is a conflict of societies, too. While in western civilizations one could argue with people of older generations that they probably do not want their children to suffer - the discussion is far more complicated looking towards emerging countries. People living there usually have other priorities than the world climate. Everyone who thinks that they just should stop burning so much fossil fuel should ask their self if they would be so interested in climate change if the question whether there is food on tomorrow’s table is not answered today. The higher a nation’s GDP - the more it’s population is interested in the effects of climate change. While western civilizations already began to release CO₂ in vast amounts more than 100 years ago, emerging countries only started 30-40 years ago to do so. They request their other 60 years - or at least they request the right to emit CO₂ until the living standard has adjusted to a western level. It is easy to discredit this request as narrow minded and short sighted. But without question we will have to deal with these opinions - and if we are proposing an effective solution, emerging countries need to be an integral part of it and a solution must not be to their disadvantage. 

In summary a solution is practicable, if it has little effect on our societies. It is practicable if no or only little contribution of each individual is required. People might find this view appalling and rather tend to try to force people to change - but force will not work for this matter. Applying force is already hard in one country. How are we supposed to apply force globally? Are we going to start a war for climate? What good would that be? It is not something we are wanting to engage in. Reasonable change comes through dialogue. We will have to accept the fact, that change happens slower than we would desire. We will have to accept the fact, that we will emit CO₂ many many more years and that this behavior is only changing very slowly. But we also will have a plan for the future. Changing things slowly with reasonable and little adjustments is not the same thing as having no plan and just accepting destiny. In the same way, flipping things over and starting from scratch not only often requires utilization of force in the very form of violence when it comes to geopolitical questions - it also leads to chaos. As bad as the status quo might seem - wanting it to change right now and without looking at the consequences will surely lead to an even less desirable state. Having said this - the main question remains - what can we do to emit less CO₂ while maintaining our lifestyle and allowing emerging countries to grow just as western civilizations were allowed to grow? Where do we actually produce the most CO₂ ?

The drivers of CO₂ level

Looking at the data, the largest part of man-made CO₂ emissions seems to be caused by transportation and energy production (56.9%) followed by agriculture, deforestation and land use (23.55%). [2]

While it is very unlikely that we will be able to convince the majority of people to switch to a vegetarian lifestyle in favor of less CO₂ emissions, it is worth looking at the technological possibilities we have in reduction of CO₂ in energy production and transportation.

Ways out of misery - A pragmatic approach 

Whenever we talk about climate change, the topic of renewable energy sources rapidly is brought forward. And how we could benefit if there only was a source of energy, which is easy to access, available anywhere in the right amount at the right time! Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Obviously the sun only shines at day, in different regions of the world in different intensities and is heavily dependent on weather conditions. Wind on the other hand is dependent on weather conditions, too but not so much on the day/night cycle. But wind unfortunately is not available anywhere in the same intensity. Most renewable energy resources have one property in common, they are intermittent, meaning, they are simply not available all the time. But even if they can be regulated relatively precisely, for example in a dam, dams are usually located in comparably remote locations. Partially we are trying to solve the geographical component by using modern transportation methods such as high voltage direct current power lines, but for the timing issue, the answer is yet to find. 

But not only changing and often also not very predictable supply is an issue with renewable sources. In addition, there are high changes in demand during one day. While fossil power plants can be regulated very precisely depending on the very demand in a certain period and nuclear power plants do a good job in constantly providing the required energy to serve basic demand, the same is a lot harder with renewable energy sources, which are mainly regulated by nature and therefore often only can be throttled and not powered up. In consequence, providing solutions with renewable energy is often more costly and less economically efficient than just using fossil fuel because complex energy storage technology is required - or - as some scientists now suggest - heavy bricks [11].

Even if we would be able to solve the timing issue with storage systems - the geographical component not automatically is solved easily. It is not done by only installing a few more power lines or install distributed systems. Using the surroundings of our power consumption hot spots is also no real solution, mostly because there simply is not enough space or - like in many countries in Europe and the US - the land is needed farmland. Also solar power often simply is not as efficient as it would be under ideal circumstances with high radiation. The World Bank’s Global Solar Atlas (https://globalsolaratlas.info/) shows us, that most radiation is available in areas which are less densely populated. In Europe for example, we reach around 1,500 kWh/m² p.a. (southern Spain ~2,200 kWh/m² p.a., central Germany ~1,200 kWh/m² p.a. northern Scotland ~950 kWh/m² p.a.). This is significantly less than the reachable ~ 2,600 kWh/m² p.a. in southern Libya. Moreover Libya (4.42 inhabitants per km²) is far from being as densely populated as for example Germany (229.13 inhabitants per km²)  [3]. Meaning that Libya simply has a lot more unused land which could be used purely for solar production. 

Comparing the energy consumption of middle Europe to the energy consumption to north Africa, it becomes quite obvious, that Europe requires far more energy than Libya, Algeria, or Egypt. Looking at the energy the sun provides in this region per square meter in this region compared to Europe it becomes obvious, that using solar power would be far more effective in north Africa than it is in middle Europe. Moreover, north Africa is by far less densely populated than Europe and has a lot less farmland or even potential farmland which could be used for agriculture. So why not use this space? We easily could provide the technology and infrastructure for this. And surely the northern African countries would also have an economical interest in this: just like oil producing states heavily profit from their natural resources, northern African could benefit from their natural resource: the high intensity of solar radiation. This procedure could be repeated in many parts of the world. And who knows - maybe the solution for climate change is eventually also one for the many conflicts we have in our world.

Solar power plants need to be placed  where it is economically sensible while consuming power wherever it is needed needs to be possible. This requires a storage mechanism, which is reliable, safe and cheap. While batteries are reliable and comparably safe - they are far from being cheap. And energy transportation with batteries would be very costly it itself, since the energy density of batteries is around 100 times lower than the density of fossil fuel [4]. Moreover batteries take their time to get loaded. This might be no issue in large scale energy production but surely is an issue if you want to use batteries for transportation. It is the reason why electric cars can only serve a niche. They are only a solution for people who are driving short distances and are able to recharge their car over night. The latter will hardly become available for people living in the city rapidly. And even if - how is the energy wandering transferred into the car’s battery at night, when the owner is sleeping and the sun is not shining going to be produced? For a long time, the answer will probably be “from a nuclear power plant” or “from a coal power plant”. 

Economy and Moral

It is often assumed - and I did assume this as well several times in this article already - that a solution for our energy problem lies only in a economically sensible solution. This though, surely is not obvious or self-evident. I don’t even claim it to be the truth. But if a solution is possible that also is an economically preferable option - this makes things a lot easier. Because then we as society are not required to find consensus about what our values are. We don’t need to find compromises for all the different stakeholders. And we don’t loose a lot of time doing so. Having the discussion leads to the ultimate question of prioritization. What is more important for us - having relatively cheap and comfortable transportation? Or preventing the sea levels to rise? Is it more important to be able to afford at least the food you like - even if the times are tough - or is it more important that people in other regions of the world don’t die from starvation due to the horrible effects of climate change for their agriculture? Is it more important to lead a good life now or is it more important to make a good life four your children and grandchildren possible?

Tax systems are not only very complex in itself, they also have direct impact on people’s lives. Applying change by force, for example by increasing the tax for CO₂ emissions, comes always with the risk of not only decreasing comfort but changing society disruptively. A single action, such as raising CO₂ emission tax is no solution – and also not very popular due to increasing consumer prices. While it is no problem for people in well-paid jobs to spend 2% more on consumer goods, this is a very significant increase for a middle class family. Therefore, to keep the tax system in balance, it would be necessary, do adjust other taxes. 

An argument pro- CO₂ taxes often raised by activists is, that Sweden is raising a CO₂ emission tax since 1991 and their economy grew since then. In this discussion it is often overseen, that Sweden introduced a large-scale tax reform at the same time, reducing or terminating property taxes, capital taxes and income taxes [12]. Since then, the tax structure in Sweden changed significantly: people with lower incomes were taxed inadequately high and people and corporations with high incomes inadequately low. As consequence, despite Sweden being still one of the most equal OECD countries, the surge of income inequality since the early 1990′s was the largest among all OECD countries [14]. It could be concluded, that the reform was just a camouflage for neo-liberalist ideas. Whether this is true or not, seeing the result of the reform, the conclusion cannot be, that a general GDP increase always leads to a proportional increase in wealth of the majority of the population. This leads to the question, whether GDP is actually a proper indicator of wealth for a country. But this question I want to reserve for another article. Countries are very different in their economies so that only because a CO₂ worked for Sweden, this doesn’t mean, that this model is applicable for any other country - especially since countries such as Germany already have implemented the neo-liberal ideas in the early 2000’s [16] and there is not so much room for creating even more inequality without raising social problems. 

Speaking about Germany: another thing they tried were subsidies. If you would build a wind turbine, you’d get a guaranteed energy price, high above the market level. But there is one caveat: The subsidy expires for many facility in 2021. But the great subsidies lead to not only enormous costs for network operators, who are forced to connect every plant as fast as possible, also customers have to pay an additional price in form of an energy tax. Plants were built in places, where it is economically complete nonsense: the maintenance cost is often higher than the regular (non-subsidized) market price could cover. This leads to the situation that fully functioning turbines are facing their end in 2021 - torn down only after a few years of operation. This is a perfect example of how such a thing as subsidies can go sideways if nobody properly things through it - or people who think through it only think about themselves. Subsides are no bad thing per se - but they require a lot of foresight and precaution to be established in a way they do any good at all. If established without precaution, they in fact do a lot more harm than good.

Societies are complex things you don’t want to change disruptively without completely understanding what implications it might have. Pulling one string and hoping the best, watching what happens seems to be not the cleverest idea given, that the system that is played with holds people who try to live within it. Changes must be applied with caution and slowly enough for society to adopt to them and also to watch for side-effects and possibly required course-corrections. Lowering the living standard drastically can only be the last-resort option since it would destabilize society and probably do more harm than good. However, if no economically sensible solution can be found and technological options turn out to be exhausted something like a significant CO₂ emission tax, which exceeds the positive effect of lowered other taxes, is on the table - but not without thoroughly looking at the side-effects this might have.

LOHC, Cyanobacteria and solar-thermal plants - The Future?

A few years ago one technology seemed to make the race: Hydrogen. Hydrogen has an enormous energy density of 120 MJ/Kg, which is around 2.5 times as much as gasoline [4][5], is easy to produce and burning it just emits vaporized water. What a solution! Unfortunately Hydrogen is also terribly hard to store. It can only be stored under very high pressure or under very low temperature, while tank insulation needs to be as good as possible and permanent cooling is required, consuming energy constantly just for storage. While the effect of vaporization of liquid Hydrogen can be used in Hydrogen transportation, for example in vessels carrying the Hydrogen while using the vaporizing Hydrogen as fuel, this behavior is rather undesirable in semi-permanent or buffer storage.  Also storing compressed Hydrogen comes with its own flaws: producing the high pressure required for storage requires a lot of energy in itself. Compressed Hydrogen requires around 2.1% of the energy content [6]. In addition, the energy of Hydrogen density by volume is a lot lower than the density of gasoline.

Another argument against Hydrogen is often its explosiveness. And indeed, Hydrogen and Oxygen are a very explosive mixture. But assuming, that a Hydrogen tank leaks (for whatever reason) or is ruptured, for example in an accident, and the leaking gas ignites, a hydrogen flame would burn out relatively quickly and also, very contrary from ignition of fossil fuel, relatively far from the tank itself. Car manufacturers as Toyota have exercised several tests and extensive studies, coming to the conclusion, that Hydrogen is not more or less dangerous than any other power source (this also includes Lithium batteries, which impose a risk, too, since they are highly flammable and ignite in contact with Oxygen). In addition, the U.S. National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration have performed their own studies and find: 

Hydrogen-fueled vehicles (HFVs) offer the promise of providing safe, clean, and efficient transportation in a setting of rising fuel prices and tightening environmental regulations. 

Analysis of Published Hydrogen Vehicle Safety Research, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration,  DOT HS 811 267,  February 2010

But despite the fact, that Hydrogen in itself and with traditional technology is already a promising solution, scientists were able to improve it significantly. Not only did they solve the storage issue, they also managed to make Hydrogen hardly inflammable. This is done by storing the Hydrogen in some kind of chemical “carrier” liquid. Among other solutions, this technique, called Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC), seems to be one of the most promising currently researched solutions. Another solution, which is in very early development state and rather costly could be a nano material. This is especially interesting for aviation, because airplanes rely on being a lot lighter at landing than at departure - where LOHC would be a problem, since it would not change it’s weight significantly while Hydrogen is extracted and consumed.

Not only is solar cell technology advancing rapidly, with increasingly higher efficiency and lower production cost [7], there also are other promising other approaches on the rise, which include using bacteria [8] or thermo-solar power plants [9] to produce Hydrogen directly.

There is just one little caveat, that needs to be resolved: Hydrogen cannot be simply produced by the Sun’s radiation. Water is required to extract the Hydrogen molecules from it. And while aforementioned countries are well-known for their nice weather, they surely are not blessed with easily-accessible, limitless amounts of water. This is why a reasonable solution can only include the usage of Ocean-Water - while the facility needs to be designed in a way it can deal with the salt within Ocean Water without the need of desalination. Ideally, engineers would find a way derive Hydrogen directly from salt water. And indeed, researchers of Stanford University seem to have found a way, at least for the traditional way of producing Hydrogen indirectly via electrolysis, tackling the problem of corrosion via  for tackling corrosion [10].

This however does not mean, that LOHC, the Perowskit cell, Cyanobacteria or solar-thermal power plants are the ONLY solutions for the challenges we’re facing. It rather are possible fits for the missing pieces in the puzzle of future energy solutions. While we know pretty well, how we can serve the base level of power demand with renewable sources, the question always was how to deal with peak demand, demand in remote regions or demand in transportation. For all these questions, Hydrogen, possibly in combination with storage technology such as LOHC, is a very promising answer.

Summary & Conclusion

Thinking about the next steps required, the topic becomes a little bit more complex, since it is not only about CO₂ and climate, but rather about which ways we go as societies. But unfortunately, just pulling one string and hoping for the best is not going to work, so significant change (though implemented step-wise and thoroughly thought-through) is necessary to go with sufficient pace in the climate issue. I’m touching very complex topics, where each probably is worth its own article and I might will write some in the future. But I want to end with an overview of the challenges we face – and the opportunity we have.

Countries should...

 Create a sensible (and simple!) system of taxation of CO₂ while lowering other taxes (or rather bringing them back to their original pre-neo-liberalism-level). Preferably this would be consumption taxes such as VAT for consumers and power taxes for companies and ideally this would be done on an international level. In addition, increasing property and capital taxes (or implement the much discussed and always prevented financial transaction tax, which would have even other positive effects) would be necessary to close the tax gap

Invest in

Power grid infrastructure (privatized grid infrastructure should in this step be taken back by the government, since there is simply no way private companies could do this fast enough or without abusing gaps and mistakes in laws intending to incentive them)

Research of future technology

Negotiate with countries with enough natural resources (such as solar radiation) and start working globally together with companies and universities to create a working model of energy production and transportation

Prohibit construction of fossil or nuclear power plants in the future

References

[1] “CO2 as a primary driver of Phanerozoic climate" -- D. Royer et. al., GSA Today, March 2004 - https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/14/3/pdf/i1052-5173-14-3-4.pdf

[2] "CO₂ and other Greenhouse Gas Emissions" -- Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, 2019 - https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions

[3] "World Population Growth" -- Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, 2019 - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population-density-3?time=1500..2100&country=DEU+LBY

[4] “Has the Battery Bubble Burst?” --  Fred Schlachter, September 2012 - https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201208/backpage.cfm

[5] http://brucelin.ca/scooters/thumb.html

[6] “Prospects for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” --  International Energy Agency, 2005 -- https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264109582-en

[7] “Water photolysis at 12.3% efficiency via perovskite photovoltaics and Earth-abundant catalysts” -- Luo et. al. Science, 26 Sep 2014 - Vol. 345, Issue 6204, pp. 1593-1596 DOI: 10.1126/science.1258307

[8] “Recombinant cyanobacteria as tools for asymmetric C=C bond reduction fueled by biocatalytic water oxidation“ -- K. Köninger et. al., Angewandte Chemie, 2016 - DOI: 10.1002/anie.201601200R201601201

[9] “ HYDROSOL-PLANT” -- https://www.dlr.de/sf/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-9315/22259_read-51105/

[10] “Researchers create hydrogen fuel from seawater“ -- Stanford University, ScienceDaily, 18 March 2019 - www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190318151726.htm

[11] https://energyvault.ch/

[14] "OECD Income inequality data update: Sweden” -- OECD, January 2015 - https://www.oecd.org/sweden/OECD-Income-Inequality-Sweden.pdf

[16] “Explaining Rising Income Inequality in Germany” --  Kai Schmid and Ulrike Stein, September 2013 - SOEPpaper No. 592. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2339128 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2339128 

[atas8wrld]

Week 3: Future Thinking Tool Kit & Storytelling with Data

What global misconceptions did you have that were false or true?

The last of eighteen questions based on common misconceptions about The United Nations goals related to the total amount of raw materials used across the world annually, since 2000. I assumed that it stayed about the same but actually it has increased to about 70%. Over half of the people who took this survey got this question wrong. Thus, this alludes to the concern that presumably, most people are probably completely unaware of how bad the worlds state of consumption really is. The resource furthers this concern as the increase of consumption is not due to increasing population but that more people are becoming richer. Research shows that the increase is 3 times higher than the population growth over the past 20years. Ironically said, it seems as if when one problem solves itself, another is created. Which makes me think about my own motives to be wealthy as well as to be more conscious about my own styles of consumption. Ultimately, it is the misconception in itself and trends like buying more from Amazon or places like K-Mart (as a personal example) that are cushioning the major issue like a soft blanket. Not to be naïve, a massive part of the problem is that we think we can’t trust the data when in fact we can (derived from a UN report Gapminder, n.d.), that we don’t know enough or don’t care. The reality is that our current reuse, recycle and reduce or presumable circular economy is way past falling short – by 20 years and at an increased 70% to be exact.

At this rate we’ll run out of natural resources and in doing so, destroy many natural habitats. So, we can say goodbye to our beautiful environmental makeup and say hello to more ‘stuff’.

Not enough people are taking this personally; people should be taking this issue personally. This calls for a lifestyle makeover and not only makes minimalism that much more appealing but then puts the concept of business as the lifeforce of consumption into question. In a quote I read today it said that businesses should never be about making money but that it should be about serving it’s people or else it shouldn’t even exist. I wonder what the future of business would look like in the next 30 years; picture the revitalisation of indigenous concepts of business, less desire for stuff and a fully propelled circular economy. It sounds good but that’s nothing short of a utopia. However, the whole point of this was to become aware and to take this particular issue personally.

#whatisyournewstyleofconsumptiongoingtolooklike?

#makeityourown.

#makeitpersonal.

Introduction to Data and Storytelling:

Data Visualisation is the graphic representations of data that makes complex information more visible, better accessible, and easier to interpret. We can understand trends, relationships, and patterns between data in more compelling ways when we can visualise it than if we were to view it as a report or in plain writing. Unlike traditional approaches such as report writing, data visualisations primarily use colours, shapes as well as language cues to share information. The cruciality between simplifying or condensing large and complex data is the capability to correctly inform than to mislead. Moreover, the data literacy skillset encourages communicators as well as information receivers to critically assess data sources by combining better reading and understanding with smarter use and communication.

 Introduction to the Futures Thinking Toolkit.

The Futures of Thinking Toolkit is interesting because it promotes a way of thinking about the future. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) uses such design concepts along with a list of others to think about the future of New Zealand. Moreover, in the classroom, it can be a structured way to develop student’s futures thinking skills. This can be used in conjunction with system thinking approaches by observing and speculating mental models for the purpose of understanding past and present behaviours. Essentially, the toolkit supports analysis by offering prompt questions related to the creation of possible, probable, and preferable futures, whilst factoring in wild possibilities, drivers, trends and into the present of a given situation. Due to the fundamental tie and the interconnectedness of arguably all social and environmental problems my team and I chose to base our research on Sustainability and Climate Change in New Zealand. We will do this by first using elements of The Futures Thinking toolkit such as existing Situation, trends, and drivers to analyse impartial futures over the next 30 years.

Provide a documentation of your research issue on Sustainability and Climate Change; categorise your research on, Existing Situation, Trends and Drivers from the Futures Thinking Toolkit.

Existing Situation:

How NZ practices sustainability 

https://theculturetrip.com/pacific/new-zealand/articles/100-pure-how-new-zealand-practices-sustainability-to-remain-one-of-the-worlds-least-polluted-countries/

Climate Change Impact in NZ

https://www.environment.govt.nz/assets/Publications/Files/impacts-report-jun01.pdf

Fossil Fuels explained

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/fossil-fuels

Auckland Climate Change Plan

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/plans-projects-policies-reports-bylaws/our-plans-strategies/Pages/te-taruke-a-tawhiri-ACP.aspx#:~:text=Auckland's%20climate%20is%20changing.,events%20and%20sea%20level%20rise.&text=In%20December%202020%2C%20the%20government,also%20declared%20a%20climate%20emergency.

Trends:

Auckland Plan in 2050

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/plans-projects-policies-reports-bylaws/our-plans-strategies/auckland-plan/Pages/default.aspx 

Sustainability goals nz 

https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/peace-rights-and-security/our-work-with-the-un/sustainable-development-goals/ 

Auckland Region Climate Change Projection

https://knowledgeauckland.org.nz/media/1171/tr2017-031-2-auckland-region-climate-change-projections-and-impacts-summary-revised-jan-2018.pdf

Drivers:

Auckland Plan 2050 Monitoring Framework

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/plans-projects-policies-reports-bylaws/our-plans-strategies/auckland-plan/about-the-auckland-plan/Documents/fe-monitoring-framework.PDF

CHALLENGES FACING AUCKLAND BUSINESSES AND USING RECOVERY TO BUILD RESILIENCE

https://www.aucklandnz.com/sites/build_auckland/files/media-library/documents/Auckland-Economic-Insights-Series-ECCRA-Final.pdf

How the world thinks about climate change

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/09/17/how-does-everyone-feel-about-climate-change/?sh=17dbf3694051

What causes the Earth's climate to change?

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/climate-change/what-causes-the-earths-climate-to-change/ 

Climate change in New Zealand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_New_Zealand#:~:text=The%20combined%20effects%20of%20climate,sea%20levels%20and%20higher%20temperatures.

References

Gapminder. (n.d.). 70% of people get this question wrong. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://upgrader.gapminder.org/t/sdg-world-un-goals/58/explanation/

Science Learning Hub. (n.d.). Futures thinking toolkit. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2439-futures-thinking-toolkit

The Guardian. (2019, March 7). Big data: why should you care? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji18sDbWI_k&t=2s

[admissionsmadness]

Unconventional College Fair Questions to Ask

These are the questions I would ask elite universities that claim to value diversity yet enroll a predominantly wealthy student body. If you have the courage, give some of them a try on your next college tour or Zoom information session. Some may be more applicable than others, depending on the context:

Why does your institution enroll so few transfer students, and the ones you do admit, why do they come primarily from four-year universities?

How can you claim to have sincere concerns for decreasing the wealth gap when you admit students through legacy, early decision, development cases, and professors’ children, among others?

Do you think deferrals and waitlists are in the best interests of the mental health of your applicants?

Why do you maintain the same number of enrollment spaces despite great strides in technology aiding the delivery of educational services? I’ve heard the enrolling class has been the same for over a hundred years. Can’t you expand enrollment some without diluting the quality of your university?

Do you publish the demographics of your student populations in full and make it easy for me to find your admissions statistics, or is this something I’m going to have to hunt down?

Do you require any essays beyond the Common Application? If so, what role do they play in your process? Are those additional essay requirements part of your commitment to college access?

Did you offer refunds or waivers for students whose semesters were disrupted due to COVID and therefore couldn’t continue living on campus or pursuing their courses?

What percentage of your applicants are admitted or denied during the “shaping” process?

Does your marketing and recruitment CRM systems factor into how many scholarships I may or may not receive? Does my opening your emails or attending official events in any way impact how I’m evaluated, beyond a rigid definition of “demonstrated interest?”

How does offering multiple applications such as the Common and Coalition applications and one unique to your institution make this process clearer and more transparent? It just seems more confusing.

I read your institution’s commitment to diversity. I agree that an exchange of ideas and having beliefs challenged is a net benefit. Do students across the political or religious spectrum feel welcome on your campus?

Since we agree that Black Lives Matter, why don’t I see any black people on your admissions staff or as student tour guides?

How can I know your holistic review process is fair?

I notice that the application has essay requirements that aren’t published anywhere on your website. What accounts for this discrepancy?

When you offer first-year scholarships, presumably to convince us to enroll, do you provide reasonable pathways to renew that aid in subsequent years?

Do you think recommendation letters and interviews increase access to your institution or reinforce perceptions that it’s an exclusive club where only students with the best resources have a chance of getting in?

If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the admissions process as practiced, what would you reform?

I’ve been deferred. Do you think it serves the interests of my mental health to require a letter of continued interest? What can you possibly hope to gain by yet another essay and piece of information? Would it be compelling to write about the lack of equity and access that such a requirement entails? I see that your university has a commitment to social justice, after all.

I understand college applications are reviewed quickly and rapidly. How does holistic review allow you to “get to know me?” Aren’t most applications largely the same, anyway?

I see that your admissions rate is 10 percent. How many applicants are admitted for “hooks” such as athletes and legacies, and how many are “unhooked?” Even an approximate ratio would be helpful.

I see that you brag about how many nationalities are represented on your campus. Does your university primarily recruit international students because they pay full tuition or because they bring diversity?

Everyone wants to go to your university. Why did we just listen to a sales pitch?

Asking questions that demonstrate critical thinking, if articulated thoughtfully and tactically, may provide an added admissions advantage by leaving a memorable impression on the admissions counselor.

In my book Surviving the College Admissions Madness, I present the many ways that the college admissions system is so thoroughly broken as to constitute a public emergency. Some teenagers commit suicide each year due to the pressures borne from holistic review admissions. Most elite university counselors and administrations shrug their shoulders and carry on with business as usual.

Critics who push back on these suggestions and the reforms I propose and questions that I ask have the burden of justifying how our current admissions madness status quo is both more reasonable and better than any alternatives.

[rpritchardjournal]

New Contemporaries: Archives & Identities - Part 1: Discussion Panel (03/03/21)

I signed up for two events hosted by New Contemporaries; the Archives & Identities Discussion Panel with Duncan Campbell, Althea Greenan, Sunil Gupta, and hosted by Jo Melvin on the 3rd of March , and the Sunil Gupta Workshop on the 4th of March.

(Screenshot from New Contemporaries Website)

I was drawn to these events as themes of archives and identities are ones that I think, even when my work isn’t explicitly dealing with, underpin much of the meaning of my work. The notion that we, as artists, are creating with our artwork archives for the future is one that to many queer and minority artists is really important; our archives often being limited as the archive is the legacy of the dominant culture. These were themes I dealt with heavily in my dissertation last trimester and Sunil Gupta is an artist who I did a considerable amount of research into while reading around the topic, so I was very interested in attending these events and learning more from his perspective.

The first event; the panel discussion was held via Zoom on the evening of the 3rd of March. IT was really interesting to hear the different artists present their perspectives on the use of archives within their work, and it made me reflect on the different forms an archive can take, and the different roles of archives within artistic practices.

The first speaker Duncan Campell, winner of the 2014 Turner Prize, predominantly discussed his 2008 video piece Bernadett, a 40 minute exploration of the life of  Irish dissident and political activist, Bernadette Devlin.

(Image from Duncan Campbell’s Bernadette, 2008) 

It was really insightful to hear Campell speak on the process of producing this film and working with archive footage. He discussed the process of researching the archive and finding that it didn’t hold everything he expected; the image the archive has built through omittance was different to what he understood. He discussed the bias of archives; something that developed on the discussion of archives had by Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley and Ebun Sodipo in their artist talk together. He reflected on the way archival footage is framed in archives without explanation, and the fact that Devlin wasn’t the victor in her story, she was obscured in the archive. This reflection on inclusion and exclusion is something that I find really interesting- and hearing Campell discuss how he reflected this in his own work was really interesting; the process of reframing the footage for a present that wants something from the past.

He finished his discussion with a really thought provoking suggestion, that resonated with me and much of my own thinking about archives and how they record the past, saying that in the archive you can’t find the whole picture - only calcified glimpses. Reflecting on he archive, and why certain material gets preserved, who does the preservation, and what that material supports in its inclusion is something that I often explore within my own work and this notion that we are only afforded ‘calcified glimpses’ back to a past we long to connect to is one that I think is very pertinent.

The second speaker, Dr Althea Greenan, is the facilitator of Archives at Goldsmiths, and she discussed the artistit lead activist project the Women’s Art Library which was gifted to Goldsmiths in the 1970s.

The Women’s Art library encouraged self-identifying female artists to document their artwork work; forming a collection of 46,400 35mm slides. Through this process of documenting and sharing, these artists were made visible to each other and able to spread information. This original college creates a huge archive of artwork by women, particularly women of colour,  who in the 1970s, had much less opportunity to exhibit work and be conscious in the public eye. It is archives like this that reveal this critical - often otherwise undocumented - histories of people working in ways that do not uphold the values of the dominant culture.

(Image from Barbican Young Curators visit to the Women’s Art Library in 2019) 

Greenan is particularly interested in preserving these archives, and how they continue to be valuable, particularly as technology becomes redundant. It was really interesting to hear Greenan discuss how she tackles presenting this archive while preserving the activist identity and integrity of it’s form. She reflects on the form of the documentation, the slides themselves with their metadata and evidence of labour, as being half of the archive themselves - more than just the images, and that to remove these components would be to remove the artist; directly contradicting the archive’s original purpose.

She argues that the process of digitization detracts from the labour and love these pieces hold and represent- yet keeping the archive hidden away in boxes at Goldsmiths too, is keeping the archive from serving its purpose as a legacy of the creativity of often subjugated women. I think this conversation is particularly interesting in this context; where the archive in discussion is predominantly a working class, black women’s archive, and now it is only made accessible within Goldsmiths; an institution, which therefore is subject to institutional issues of racism and structural discrimination.

She discussed the various ways she had explored this process of making the archive available without sacrificing it’s integrity, through presentations, certain digital documentations; not just projecting the artwork but performing it- the slides being preserved not just as images but digital objects.

Overall I thought this was a really interesting discussion about the purpose and legacies of archives, and what happens to them when the technology they are recorded with becomes redundant.

Sunil Gupta spoke next, discussing in particular his work with the Gay Switchboard which until recently hasn’t been publicly presented.

The Gay Switchboard began above Housemans bookshop near Kings Cross in 1974, and served a resource for LGBTQ+ individuals after coming out, and as a way of locating safe spaces, developing in the 80s into a critical resource for the dissemination of information surrounding HIV and AIDS.

As a student in 1980, Gupta spent time documenting the work of the Gay Switchboard and wider ‘scene’ in London that the switchboard connected callers too. This work was presented as a tape-slide work with audio, and upon showing the Switchboard their material, it did not receive approval and it was shelved. Recently however there has been curatorial interest in the work, and the work was shown in 2014 at Tate Liverpool as part of Keywords: Art, Culture and Society in 1980s Britain.

This raises interesting questions about the importance and legacy of archives, while at the time the value of Gupta’s work couldn’t be fully realized- this archive of gay life in th early 1980s is extremely valuble now that images and documentation of LGBTQ+ lives in the 1980s are predominantly concerned with the AIDS crisis or otherwise lacking.

In the Q&A portion of the panel, discussion predominantly turned to ‘gaps & glimpses’, with the panelists discussing the context in which archives are consumed and how this impacts the perception of them. The discussion was really insightful, considering the nuance of documentation, the process of fictionalising and the potential of fiction, as well as the way gaps in archives inform the archives themselves.

I left the discussion thinking about the positive potential of archives and their pull, as well as reflecting on the archives we create now - we all document so much of our lives each day online- in many ways our art instagrams serve the same purpose as the Women’s Art Library - and presumably one day, instagram too with be defunct and what will happen then to the archives created and shared there. Furthermore, the pandemic has shown us firsthand the way things can dramatically change in the blink of an eye- and now, looking back at photographs of nights out, clubbing, crowds of people, even just being in the studios with friends, these serve as an archive and a portal of something we can currently no longer access- these documents now having a weight and a purpose that couldn’t have been predicted.

https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/exhibitions-and-events/events/-archives-identities-panel-discussion https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/current/archives-identities-workshops#:~:text=Archives%20%26%20Identities%20is%20an%20online,arts%20practice%20to%20explore%20identities. https://www.southlondongallery.org/events/archives-identities-workshops/ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/01/turner-prize-2014-duncan-campbell-wins https://lux.org.uk/work/bernadette https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/duncan-campbell-12393 https://www.gold.ac.uk/make/artistsdocs/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/10/goldsmiths-university-to-tackle-racism-after-damning-report https://www.gold.ac.uk/make/collection/ https://switchboard.lgbt/about-us/ https://muse.jhu.edu/article/777711 https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/keywords-art-culture-and-society-1980s-britain

[shirlleycoyle]

Students Have To Jump Through Absurd Hoops To Use Exam Monitoring Software

Last month, as students at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Ontario, Canada, began studying for their midterm exams, many of them had to memorize not just the content on their tests, but a complex set of instructions for how to take them.

The school has a student body of nearly 18,500 undergraduates, and is one of many universities that have increasingly turned to exam proctoring software to catch supposed cheaters. It has a contract with Respondus, one of the many exam proctoring companies offering software designed to monitor students while they take tests by tracking head and eye movements, mouse clicks, and more. This type of surveillance has become the new norm for tens of thousands of students around the world, who—forced to study remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, often while paying full tuition—are subjected to programs that a growing body of critics say are discriminatory and highly invasive.

Like its competitors in the exam surveillance industry, Respondus uses a combination of facial detection, eye tracking, and algorithms that measure “anomalies” in metrics like head movement, mouse clicks, and scrolling rates to flag students exhibiting behavior that differs from the class norm. These programs also often require students to do 360-degree webcam scans of the rooms in which they’re testing to ensure they don’t have any illicit learning material in sight. 

Some of the requirements for Wilfrid Laurier students went even further.

In exam instructions distributed to students, one WLU professor wrote that anyone who wished to use foam noise-cancelling ear plugs must “in plain view of your webcam … place the ear plugs on your desk and use a hard object to hit each ear plug before putting it in your ear—if they are indeed just foam ear plugs they will not be harmed.”

Other instructors required students to buy hand mirrors and hold them up to their webcams prior to beginning a test to ensure they hadn’t written anything on the webcam. Another professor told students, “DO NOT allow others in your home to use the internet while you are completing your test,” presumably because proctoring software can be a nightmare for students without reliable high-speed internet access. That same exam guide also said that students should not sit in front of pictures or posters that contain animal faces because the software might flag them as suspicious for having another person in the room—not a reassuring requirement, given that one of the chief criticisms of exam proctoring software is that they often fail to recognize students with darker skin tones. 

There has been a fierce backlash against Respondus at WLU. Petitions demanding that the school administration ban the software from campus or change its proctoring policies have collected thousands of signatures. Similar petitions have spread across scores of universities.

Wilfrid Laurier is not the only school where students must comply with complex, and often bizarre, remote exam requirements. At Arkansas Tech University, some students were sent a long list of instructions for taking tests through the exam-monitoring software ProctorU. Before beginning an exam, students were required to hold a mirror or their phone's front-facing camera to reflect the computer screen, and then adjust the webcam so the instructor can "see your face, both hands, your scratch paper, calculator, and the surface of your desk," according to an email obtained by Motherboard.

"I must be able to see these at all times while testing. If you have a webcamera built into your computer, you will need to move your computer back from you to fit all of this in," the instructor wrote in the email, which detailed instructions for taking exams with ProctorU. "If I cannot see all of this, I will have to set your exam score to 0%."

An email sent to students at Arkansas Tech University outlining remote exam requirements while using ProctorU.

Administrators at most universities have chosen not to set standards for how instructors should use proctoring software. As a result, campuses that use the programs are increasingly seeing students voice their anger not just with the programs themselves, but with how individual professors use them.

The website ratemyprofessors.com, which allows students to anonymously comment on courses and rank teachers on a scale of one to five, is filling up with negative reviews tied to proctoring programs like Respondus, Proctorio, and ProctorU.

“For the PHYS 205 EC course over the summer, over 60 students received an F because the proctorio software didn’t register their exams, and Abinader juat (sic) said that he couldn’t do anything,” a student wrote in a one-out-of-five review for a Concordia University professor.

“Terrible with COVID, switched to ProctorU examinations and she did not care that ProctorU shut off on me half way through the exam and submitted it, she just said ‘I will grade what ProctorU submitted.’ Bad class,” an Austin Community College student wrote in another review.

The WLU student government has met with administrators to share student complaints about the software, and the university has already been forced to backtrack on a department policy that would have required all students taking a math class to purchase an external webcam and tripod—something the department head himself acknowledged would be difficult given the pandemic-induced webcam shortage.

In a public statement, university officials said they will “be working with faculties and instructors to collaborate in developing solutions to concerns about test/exam requirements.” University spokesman Graham Mitchell declined to provide any details to Motherboard about what those solutions might entail. 

WLU began using the webcam-monitoring version of Respondus in 2015, albeit at a lower rate than during the current pandemic. When asked whether the decision to adopt it was driven by research, faculty requests, or high incidents of cheating, Mitchell did not provide a direct answer. He also said the university does not track rates of academic dishonesty or how often Respondus flags suspicious behavior.

WLU did provide guidance and resources to faculty members to help them set remote exam policies, Mitchell said. When asked whether the university supports some of the policies shared by students, specifically the direction that no one else in a student’s house should be allowed to use the internet during a test, Mitchell wrote: “We know that students are doing their best to adapt to the new and challenging online learning environments required in the pandemic. These were not university policies. In some cases, to help answer student questions about remotely proctored exams, instructors provided very thorough information to anticipate and address questions from students, especially for those students who may be taking an exam remotely for the first time.” 

Students at WLU seem to have little faith in their administration, and they aren’t accepting the excuse universities and the companies who sell proctoring software often make when confronted with complaints: that professors decide how to use the tools, so they’re the ones responsible for the harms they cause.

One third-year WLU computer science student, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation, told Motherboard that by abdicating responsibility, the administration has encouraged professors to institute progressively punitive policies. “When I did use [Respondus] before the pandemic it was nothing like this,” the student said. “It was tame in comparison, in terms of seeing what professors require you to do.”  

Students Have To Jump Through Absurd Hoops To Use Exam Monitoring Software syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[dbgidehradun]

The Top Ten Benefits of the Engineering Career!

It is a notable and recognized fact that the path of turning into an engineer could be a long one for an aspirant. Beginning from picking the best engineering school to fighting hard to keep the college grades up, to attempting to engage in the engineering network and keeping up a public activity, every last bit of it tends to be exceptionally extreme. It may now and again be hard to see the excellent, encouraging finish to the present course of action.

To keep you on the accurate profession way, here is an expanded rundown of the apparent multitude of incredible things about engineering careers. Starting from having the perfect most remarkable pay rates to being competent to work anyplace on the planet, aspiring engineers have a lot of occupation advantages to getting after those difficult undergrad years.

There are a lot of alternatives and vast amounts of specialized disciplines in the engineering field, which gives all students an extraordinary number of choices while picking a lifelong way. Yet, it should begin with first choosing the best engineering college in Dehradun. Alternatives in the specializations include engineering work in the mechanical domain, software field, or the latest ones such as chemical, environmental, biomedical, and electrical specializations.

Having countless options, it is undoubtedly sure that you will create a section or space that is only appropriate for you. Hopeful engineers ordinarily get unique preparation, expand coaching, and rigorous onboarding to ensure that they get started on the correct foot.

With this as a base, newly employed engineers will have the ability and aptitudes alongside the convenience of assets expected to climb the vocation stepping stool effectively. Engineering companies make sure to spend this kind of effort into newly selected graduates as they wish to see them grow successful, particularly within the company.

Location

Engineers could fundamentally work anyplace and are additionally required wherever everywhere all over the world. Just anyplace you take a look at the world, there is an interest, need, and an open door for the profound and active engineers, and thus the field is undoubtedly not limited or confined to a particular area.

Competitive Salary

The salary, which joins a career in engineering is sheer and a definite plus point to pursue engineering. Turning into an engineer, as a rule, takes a significant level of expertise and determined enduring devotion, so it bodes well that an engineering salary is supported by the activity undertakings, obligations and the endeavors put in the duties. As per current engineering salary surveys, new graduates enrolling the engineering industry are amongst some of the excessively paid career achievers and this number only goes on growing!

In-Demand Career Option

With consistent industry development and a nonstop maturing workforce, there is no presumable the deficit of engineering jobs on the horizon. There's loads of big and forceful rivalry; however, on the off chance that one invests vital energy into the pursuit of employment and expertise sharpening measure, there undoubtedly are numerous important professional openings that are accessible in each turn.

Unique and Different

Engineers are not people who will consistently have a 9:00 am to 5:00 pm dormant way of life. Engineers work in various sorts of situations which won't just cause the days to pass by faster, yet additionally keep the assortment, challenge, and good variety in work-life alive.

Work Benefits Society

A phenomenal aspect concerning being an engineer is that your tasks will like this profit the general public around the globe. This won't just guard networks; however, like these engineers will likewise create advancements that are extraordinary for everyone included.

Proficient workplace

Engineers must stay up with the most advanced comprehensive range of preparing, guidelines notwithstanding, instruction update, enrollments, and changing industry information. This is because seldom you don't work in an office situation, so this sort of flexibility is essential to prevail refreshed and for being dynamic.

Scope for scientific and technological discovery

There are various sorts of scholarships, etc. which permits engineers to seek after their research or doctorate further throughout everyday life, along these lines, this leaves a complete degree for supplementary investigations, progress, and advancement.

Creativity

An engineer is capable of showcasing his artistic or creative abilities and potential through extended use of varied resources to investigate, discover, and also create through acquiring new ideas.

Satisfactory Jobs

The employment scenario of the engineers is perfect when one considers the salary received is comparatively high when the hours invested are just the same when compared to corporate and IT jobs.

Intellectually stimulating

A profession in the engineering domain offers an expansive extension to practice the mental quality and use them for a lot of errands and difficulties or obstacles that come in the way of the aspirants. These scholarly aptitudes likewise support one with striking up perception and balance inside the field.

These are a few essential benefits and the reasons because of which engineering has been the most popular and lucrative option among the students. If you desire to become an engineer, then opting for a good engineering college is the initial stepping stone. Hence make sure you are opting for the best engineering college in Uttarakhand which along with the broad knowledge base also provides you with the best future; thus, the placement opportunities.

[californiaprelawland]

ICE’s (Now Rescinded) Regulation Would Have Been Detrimental To America

By Terry Li, University of California, San Diego Class of 2021

July 29, 2020

On July 6, 2020, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that foreign students on student visas will be barred from entering the United States or forced to leave the country, if their educational institution were to operate on a fully remote basis this coming fall semester. Meanwhile, international students attending educational institutions offering hybrid models must attend at least one in-person class to maintain an active visa status. [1] This came as a shock to the 1.1 million international students currently holding active student visas, [2] and alarmed many educational institutions with prior plans to operate on a fully remote basis in the fall, including Harvard University [3].

This policy was presumably introduced to reinforce pressures exerted by the Trump administration on schools to reopen in the fall. In the same week ICE announced its regulation, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that are not resuming in-person classes this fall in a tweet, citing the successes in “Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries” where “SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS”. [4] This was met with outrage from educators, doctors, and legislators alike. In a joint statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AASA, and The School Superintendents Association, Trump’s threat was described to be “a misguided approach” that placed “already financially strapped schools in an impossible position that would threaten the health of students and teachers”. [5] Yet, even with tremendous pushback from different parties, and record-breaking surges in the number of coronavirus cases in various states, the Trump administration has continued pressuring schools to reopen in the fall.

So what exactly would this regulation have meant for international students?

Thousands of foreign students who are currently in the United States would have faced the difficult choice of either having to leave the country immediately, or having to attend in-person classes in the midst of a worsening pandemic. Should they fail to do either, they could face drastic legal consequences, including deportation. Having to grapple with this tough decision is more difficult than one might imagine, however, for the former option has been rendered largely impossible due to pre-existing travel bans between the United States and other countries. Moreover, forcing international students to continue with their studies in their home countries presents them with a host of other problems, including time zone differences, internet (in)accessibility, and (un)availability of resources such as textbooks and course materials.

In the bigger picture, this policy would also be detrimental to the United States as a whole. Not only do international students contribute to maintaining a diverse student population, and serve as a robust source of funding to many educational institutions around the country, they have also proven to be indispensable to the American economy. According to the Department of Commerce and NAFSA, international students contribute over $44 billion a year to the economy, and create more than 458,000 jobs in the country, either directly or indirectly. They are also known to be a crucial source of talent for many American companies, particularly in cutting-edge fields, including those closely related to STEM disciplines. [6] In fact, more than half of American tech unicorns [7] and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies [8] were started by first or second-generation immigrants, many of whom were former international students at American colleges.

In periods of high unemployment such as that currently faced by the United States, alongside other economies in the world, these companies prove to be all the more vital in helping the country recover from a global recession. They create high-paying jobs, improve productivity, and positively transform the consumer experience for all American citizens and those residing in America. [9] Many American universities have realized this as well, publicly voicing their dissent with ICE's new regulation. On July 8, 2020, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became the first colleges to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration [10], with the University of California (UC) following suit shortly after. [11] In no time, representatives from other colleges, such as President Christina Paxson of Brown University, have also publicly rebuked the new regulation and expressed their solidarity with international students. In a statement supporting the Harvard and MIT lawsuit, Paxson deemed the rule to be “nothing short of cruel”, saying that she would work with faculty to minimize the chances of students having to leave the country. [12]

Brown University President Christina Paxson’s statement, extracted from Brown’s website [13]

A few days after ICE’s new regulation was announced, close to 100 Democrats signed a letter urging the Secretary of Homeland Security to rescind the new policy. “This new policy would effectively punish international students at colleges, universities, and other institutions that have decided to move their courses online in order to protect their communities from COVID-19.” the letter reads. [14] 98 other Democrats have also joined Senator Elizabeth Warren in calling ICE’s new regulation xenophobic. In a tweet on July 10, Warren wrote that “[t]hreatening to deport international students and using them as a pawn to coerce colleges to reopen this fall is cruel, senseless, and xenophobic. Nearly 100 senate and House members joined me in urging @ICEgov and @DHSgov to withdraw this dangerous proposal”. [15]Noting the immense contribution that international students bring to the country, many lawmakers around the country have similarly warned against the irresponsible and forcible removal of international students.

As of writing, ICE’s regulation has since been rescinded by the Trump administration. Even with the reversal, however, the number of international students coming to America this fall might be lower than before, partly because of the global pandemic, and also due to various factors unrelated to administration policy [16]. Ultimately, the United States stands to lose thousands of jobs, millions of talented individuals, and billions of dollars with policies like this one. While the regulation itself was only targeted at the upcoming fall semester, its xenophobic undertones would likely have had lasting impacts. It could potentially deter international students from pursuing their studies in higher education in the United States, and discourage foreigners from immigrating into the country. As a country which prides itself in having a diverse and inclusive population, as well as robust opportunities for all to realize their dreams, policies as such should not be the way forward.

________________________________________________________________

[1] https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/sevp-modifies-temporary-exemptions-nonimmigrant-students-taking-online-courses-during

[2] https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/sevis-data-mapping-tool/january-2020-sevis-data-mapping-tool-data

[3] https://www.wbur.org/edify/2020/07/06/harvard-undergraduate-fall-reopening-plan

[4] https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/trump-schools-reopening-federal-funding-352311

[5] https://services.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/pediatricians-educators-and-superintendents-urge-a-safe-return-to-school-this-fall/

[6] https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2019/11/19/new-international-student-enrollment-in-us-has-fallen-10-since-2015/#3838024e1ae9

[7] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/24/unicorns-with-immigrant-founders-include-uber-spacex-wework-palantir.html

[8] https://www.newsweek.com/immigrant-founded-fortune-500-companies-us-gdp-1450498

[9] https://www.forbes.com/sites/rajshreeagarwal/2020/07/06/us-consumers-and-producers-need-immigration-in-the-post-covid-world/#63eec9986d45

[10] https://www.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/content/sevp_filing.pdf?referringSource=articleShare

[11] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/09/uc-will-sue-the-trump-administration-over-international-student-ban-joining-harvard-mit.html

[12] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/harvard-mit-sue-block-ice-rule-international-students-71670205

[13] https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-07-08/international

[14] https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020.07.09%20Letter%20to%20ICE%20and%20DHS%20re.%20international%20students%20taking%20online%20classes%20being%20able%20to%20stay%20in%20U.S_3.pdf

[15] https://www.theepochtimes.com/99-democrats-demand-ice-rescind-new-visa-policy-for-international-students_3420287.html

[16] https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-07-14/trump-administration-rescinds-rule-on-foreign-students

[khalilhumam]

How Congress can equitably allocate COVID-19 education aid to states

Register at https://mignation.com The Only Social Network for Migrants. #Immigration, #Migration, #Mignation ---

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/how-congress-can-equitably-allocate-covid-19-education-aid-to-states/

How Congress can equitably allocate COVID-19 education aid to states

By Sarah Reber, Nora Gordon In this series, we have explained why elementary and secondary education needs a large infusion of federal aid to protect students and promote economic recovery—and why Congress should not use existing formulas like Title I to distribute aid. One reason is that actual or perceived restrictions associated with existing programs could undermine states’ and school districts’ ability to spend federal aid flexibly, in turn undermining their ability to best meet varying and changing needs. In this post, we discuss how Congress can instead choose a simple new formula to allocate a fiscal stabilization fund to states. Lawmakers will also need to decide how funds should be allocated within states to school districts; as prior stabilization packages have demonstrated, they need not use the same approach. We will discuss how funds should be allocated across school districts within states in the next installment to this series.

Congress should direct more aid to poorer states

Lawmakers should design a new formula that sends more money per pupil to states with higher child-poverty rates. Even absent a pandemic, more resources are needed to provide equitable educational opportunities for poor children. The current economic and public health crises only exacerbate this pattern by hitting the poor the hardest. And while we don’t know what the coming school year will hold, distance learning will almost certainly continue for some students or parts of the year. Poor children disproportionately face barriers to accessing distance learning, and public investments could help. Some districts may pursue hybrid approaches—involving some distance learning but also in-person instruction for some students, at some times, in new configurations. As districts explore what this would require, some are reporting the costs of meeting in person with appropriate public health measures in place are prohibitive. In-person school will be particularly important for the children of essential workers—many of whom have low wages—and need a place for their children to learn safely. Despite the greater resource needs of poor students, per-pupil school spending is already lower in states with higher child-poverty rates. While much of the school finance policy discussion focuses on what states do, only the federal government can redistribute spending across state lines—and inequality in spending across states is indeed large. Figure 1 shows the strong pattern of lower school spending in higher-poverty states. Throughout this post, we define the poverty rate as the formula count for Title I (nearly entirely based on poor children) divided by the number of children aged 5-17. For example, current expenditure per-pupil in Arizona ($8,750) is roughly half the level in Massachusetts ($19,300).

All states are affected by the current crisis and the federal government needs to invest in all students. But higher-poverty states have less capacity to withstand these circumstances and need more federal support.

Title I formulas are progressive, but depend on factors other than child poverty

If Congress wants to distribute more aid to poor states, why not expand the main federal compensatory aid program, Title I, or distribute stabilization funds proportional to Title I allocations, as in the CARES Act ESSER Fund? As we have discussed, using Title I undermines local flexibility and creates confusion about the permissible use of funding. But there’s another important reason: Title I allocations do depend on child poverty but also vary considerably for other reasons. Congress can use the number of poor children, rather than Title I allocations, as the key input into the formula determining how much stabilization aid each state receives to more effectively and transparently allocate additional aid to states with more poor children. Figure 2 shows how allocations based on Title I would differ from alternative (hypothetical) approaches that use child poverty directly. Each panel shows the state child-poverty rate on the horizontal axis plotted against the (hypothetical) per-child aid a state would receive for each $10 billion of federal aid under different formulas for allocating fiscal stabilization funds to states. We are not recommending any of the specific approaches in Figure 2, but rather show these to illustrate how Title I allocations differ from per-poor-child allocations.

Panel A illustrates how Title I formulas direct more money per child to poorer states on average, while incorporating other factors as well. States’ shares of Title I and child poverty are not the same. For example, among states with similar child poverty rates (ranging from 11.6% to 12.3%) we see wide variance in allocations proportional to Title I: $104 per child in Colorado, $163 per child in Maryland, and $280 per child in Vermont. Title I formulas depart from straightforward per-poor-child grants for a number of reasons; we discuss only the key differences driving variation across states here. First, Title I formulas incorporate state per-pupil expenditure (SPPE)—the average spending per pupil in the state in recent years, excluding federal funds. States that spend less get less Title I per eligible child; states that spend more get more. Panels B and C of Figure 2 show state-level allocations if $10 billion of federal aid were allocated based on child poverty, rather than Title I. Panel B includes an adjustment for SPPE (but no other components of the Title I formula), and Panel C makes no adjustments, relying solely on child poverty. Comparing Panels A and B shows that the SPPE adjustment alone explains most of the difference between allocations based on Title I (Panel A) and per-poor-child allocations (Panel B). For example, the SPPE adjustment explains why Colorado receives less Title I funding per pupil than Maryland, despite having similar child-poverty rates; Colorado spent significantly less from state and local revenue than Maryland in previous years, so it had a lower SPPE. Title I’s “small state minimum” drives the most noticeable variation—aside from intentional variation due to SPPE, so also present in Panel B—that is visible in Panel A. The small state minimum is why states including Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Alaska have such high per-child grants relative to their child-poverty rates under a Title-I based allocation (Panel A) compared to an allocation based on the number of poor-children adjusted for SPPE (Panel B). These departures from using only child poverty in Title I are not random, but they are not necessarily desirable for stabilization purposes. For example, the SPPE adjustment is meant to address potential differences in the cost of education across states (assuming that states that spend a lot do so in part because prices, such as teacher salaries, are higher in some places than others). But because poorer states are lower spending on average (see Figure 1), the adjustment makes the allocation of aid less progressive. Small state minimums and hold harmless provisions are the result of years of political wrangling in a decades-old program. A new fiscal stabilization fund does not need to—and should not—carry all this baggage with it.

How has Congress allocated stabilization aid in the past?

We discuss Title I because the CARES Act allocated the bulk of education aid proportional to Title I funding, presumably because Congress wanted to send more money to poorer places and the Title I program is associated with poverty. Other stabilization funds have allocated aid using simpler formulas that assign weights—in different configurations—to states’ shares of the total population, the population aged 5-24, and the population of poor children aged 5-17. Congress has combined stabilization funding for elementary and secondary and higher education; hence, the use of the population aged 5-24. These approaches are summarized in Table 1. The choice of what age group to consider (total population, population ages 5-17, or population aged 5-24) matters much less than the weight put on the number of poor children.

Table 1. How federal funds are awarded to states in federal fiscal stabilization funds

Percent of funding distributed according to state share of … Population aged 5-24 Poor Children aged 5-17 Title I Allocation Total Population Sum May 12 Proposed HEROES Act 61% 39% 0 0 100% 2020 CARES Act Governor’s Fund 60% 40% 0 0 100%

2020 CARES Act Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund

0 0 100% 0 100% 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act’s (ARRA) State Fiscal Stabilization Fund 61% 0 0 39% 100%

Figure 3 shows how much each state would get per $10 billion of federal aid using each of the (non-Title I) approaches in Table 1, plotted against its child-poverty rate. The fiscal stabilization package will need to be much larger than $10 billion to fill funding shortfalls; we use $10 billion to illustrate the differences across states.

Both the CARES Act GEER fund (Panel B) and the proposed HEROES fund (Panel C) allocate more aid per child to poorer places, without relying on Title I allocations. By contrast, the SFSF in ARRA distributed funds uniformly based solely on the state’s total population (39%) and its population age 5-24 (61%). Like CARES ESSER (and unlike ARRA), the CARES GEER/HEROES approach directs more federal aid to poorer states. And in marked contrast to ESSER (and like ARRA), it promotes flexibility in how funds are used and avoids incorporating variation in funding based on other aspects of the Title I formulas that are arbitrary, irrelevant, or actively undesirable for stabilization purposes. The CARES GEER/HEROES approach therefore captures the best of both worlds. Because of the specific weights on child poverty and population in CARES GEER and HEROES, the grant amount per child increases less with state-level child-poverty rates with these funding mechanisms than under ESSER. (This is why the slope in Figures 3B and 3C is flatter than that in Figure 1A). If Congress wishes to make federal funds more progressive, it can increase the share of funds allocated based on child poverty rather than child population, while retaining the same basic structure and avoiding use of Title I.

What should the new formula look like?

We recommend a new simple formula similar to those used to allocate the CARES GEER fund and proposed fiscal stabilization fund in HEROES: a weighted function of the number of school-aged children and the number of poor school-aged children who live in the state. Congress needs to choose the weights, and the definition of “school-aged.” In the legislation summarized in Table 1, the formulas use ages 5-24 for the population and 5-17 for the poor population. When one formula covers higher education as well as elementary and secondary, it makes sense to include young adults; in practice, however, the decision to include 18-24 year-olds in the population count makes little difference. The key question is how much weight to put on child poverty versus school-aged population. To illustrate this, we simulated the per-child allocations of aid using the GEER/HEROES approach—using states’ shares of population ages 5-24 and poor kids ages 5-17—to allocate aid, varying the weights put on each. Figure 4 shows how Congress can make the allocation of aid more progressive by putting more weight on the share of poor children in this simple formula. States are ranked from highest to lowest poverty rate. The left panel plots the child-poverty rates, and the right panel plots the per-child allocation the state would receive as the weight put on the share of poor children varies from 0 to 100 (with the remaining weight on the population 5-25). The distribution of aid could be made more or less progressive by adjusting those weights, as the (moving) panel on the right shows. When the weight on child poverty is 0 (so all the weight is on population 5-24), the distribution of aid across states is essentially uniform; it only varies because some states have more 18-24 year-olds relative to the count of poor 5-17 year-olds. When 100% of the funds are allocated according to the number of poor children, poor states receive much larger per-child allocations than lower-poverty states.

Support states with simple, progressive aid

Congress should follow the example of the CARES Act GEER funds to direct money to states based on their share of the school-aged population and school-aged poor population, rather than based on Title I allocations, which is an imperfect proxy for the number of poor children. Because this approach incorporates child poverty in the formula used to allocate aid, this would be an improvement on the approach taken in ARRA’s SFSF. This framework allows for negotiation over how much more aid Congress wishes to direct to poorer states without incorporating aspects of Title I formulas that are ill-suited to the current situation. Stabilization aid for education should be part of a broader package of federal aid to state and local governments, which is necessary to offset major budget shortfalls. Aid should also continue as long as the recession lasts; Congress should provide several years of stabilization aid for education. And including automatic stabilizers in other programs, for example, by tying the federal matching rate for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to state unemployment rates, would also help ensure federal support for states lasts long enough. This will improve the fiscal position of states and help protect all of the services funded by state governments, including education. The authors did not receive financial support from any firm or person for this article or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. The authors are not currently officers, directors, or board members of any organization with a financial or political interest in this article.

[luxe-pauvre]

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing something so raw and personal. First of all, I'm glad you made it through the sickness and the breakdowns and the "rules." If i may be so bold, I can definitely relate, I almost think it's a right of passage for 20 somethings to experience that uncertainty of "what do iI want to be when I grow up?" I have started and stopped college many times ( 27 y/o American here). The first due to being thrown out in the real world at 19. The second from a breakdown [1]

continued… from a late night breakdown of realizing that I did not want to pursue childhood education. I was living with my mom and the time who had encouraged me to go back to school and to “pick something.” I was almost afraid of telling her that I wanted to quit as I was on continuing on with something I didn’t feel a passion to do. I finally told her, dropped out of that degree, and I was told to “pick something and stick with it” by my mom. I chose a medical administrative degree this time. Two years later, I also quit that degree path for communications at another university. I lasted a semester. I’m now back to pursuing Health Information Management and after taking a health terminology class (or rather cheating my way through it to an A because I knew there was no way in hell that I would remember, let alone learn all of the thousand terms in 18 chapters) I knew that I didn’t want to pursue this anymore either. I asked about fashion journalism because that was my intention of pursuing communications. Fashion is truly a passion. And yes, I’m rolling my eyes as I reread that cliche back. I am however always coming up with excuses for not pursuing it. 1. it isn’t offered online, I’m 27 I can’t go on campus again. 2. it won’t pay well, I’m already struggling. etc. Maybe I figured if you can’t do it then I can’t either. I have only recently arrived at the idea that taking broad classes like you’ve suggested is the way to go. How will I know what interests me if i don’t? Thank you once again for sharing your story. I hope I haven’t bored you with mine.

That’s quite a predicament you find yourself in. I’m not a careers advisor and have little to no knowledge of the US university system or job market, so if you have access to a careers service I would definitely solicit their advice.

(To specify, in case some UK/US wires were crossed in my last answer, by ‘school’ I mean ages 12-16, by ‘college’ or ‘A-Levels’ I mean ages 16-18, and by ‘university’ I mean 18+ where you do a degree: college ≠ university in the UK. I’m presuming your use of college here is my definition of university.)

Being told to just “pick something” never works, but at the same time the opposite “follow your dreams and ignore the haters” advice is dreadful and misguided. Sections of this quote explain better than I ever could why people pursue unrealistic career dreams and how this is backed up by never hearing stories of failed ones. Most people are not in a position, financially or otherwise, where they can just study and do what they want until they find their calling. I want to clarify for those who read yesterdays ask that ‘changing your mind is okay’ should come with the caveat that it must be well thought out and have a solid explanation that will be accepted by future admissions tutors/employers. There is an element of ‘sticking something out’ - you can’t leave a job or a degree programme after a few weeks without giving it a real try or it will look like the problem is you as a person, rather than that you have learnt and developed skills/perspectives that have led you to decide on a different career path.

How long would you have to remain in your current degree to have something to show for it? You have to think about how this will look on an academic record/CV/resume. There has been a lot of time invested, but what has been gained in the concrete terms of a CV? If it’s a few more months or a year it would be sensible to finish the degree.

Why can’t you go back to campus? If it’s for practical or financial reasons then that’s sensible and understandable. But if the reason is you think you’re “too old” I would disagree. There are people at my university, and on my programme, of all ages and that makes the student experience interesting. Yes, most students are 18/19, but that shouldn’t stop you from pursuing something that’s worthwhile to you.

I chose a different career path from fashion journalism, but that definitely shouldn’t affect the decision of what you chose to do. I would argue there’s very few people who ‘can’t’ do journalism: research and writing are skills that can be developed, some will have a natural flare for it, but they will come with practice. However, at this point I wouldn’t do a degree in it. I remember having a conversation at a dinner with an art director and editor of two magazines who said that they usually don’t recruit people who’ve studied fashion courses. They preferred individuals with a solid degree, from a good university, in language and/or literature who had ample work experience and by-lines.

They were not above admitting that both the fashion and media industries are not about academic merit. They are about who you know. People hire people that get recommended to them by those they trust without sparing much thought for what they scored in a module five years ago. I got my internships this way, though I got the attention of the programme director who recommended me for them through academic merit, but that alone would have done nothing for me. Essentially the purpose of the degree I was doing at LCF, and I realised this before applying, wasn’t the ‘doing of the degree’ and what I would learn, it was about who I would meet. Those contacts would be how I got a job. Employment opportunities wouldn’t be reflective of my actual ability.

You are right in saying a career in fashion journalism is unlikely to pay well. Without knowing someone in the industry you may have to lower your expectations as to where you’ll end up working. From what I remember of the last contact I had with anyone on the degree programme I left, many ended up as copywriters for department stores, weekly lifestyle magazines, and celebrity gossip magazines; some had the resources to become full time bloggers; others completely retrained, one as a lawyer.

You don’t necessarily need to take classes to find out what interests you, particularly if they’re costing you financially. There are lots of talks/lectures/courses available for free online, and even more ‘popular’ books on all kinds of subjects. As for how will you know what interests you/what you want to do, I’m not sure how to answer that other than to choose a few options and experience them. I mentally could picture myself working in the fashion industry, but when I actually did I realised it wasn’t for me. People often have an idea of what a job is and find that when they do it it’s not like that idea at all. Read widely (I would throughly recommend Derren Brown’s ‘Happy’ for you and anyone in a situation where they feel stuck and/or unsure of what they want to do or where they are in their life), gain as much work experience as possible, and hope that you’ll know when you know.

[credit0010]

Why Everything You Know About Best No Annual Fee Credit Cards Is A Lie

Hey, what's up, individuals? Today? We're mosting likely to be discussing the very best credit cards with no annual charges for individuals with no debt or limited Credit score Currently. I understand a great deal of individuals that might have challenging credit history or they do not have any type of credit and also they don't understand where to begin at. So today's video clip. I'm going to show you the most effective method to start. Additionally. I'm mosting likely to show you a method that could perhaps aid you increase your credit limits. Like I claimed these A strategy hacks that I've used as well as I want to show you so it can potentially assist you. Yet the very first charge card we wish to speak about is the Patel cashback Visa now Patel cashback. These a great deal of people are not aware of them. However at the same time, this firm is beginning to make noise with people that don't have any type of credit report or they begin to restore your credit score. Okay, as well as the great thing about him. As I stated is they don't have No yearly costs. No international purchase costs. They don't bill any type of charges for using their card. And so their limits start between 500 approximately 10,000 right? And so I presume to get to that 10,000 you can possibly an immigrant something or you might be a private you have a great deal of earnings but you just never had credit rating. So the paper towel forgive me if I'm mispronouncing at the Patel the paddle credit card I should A is what most likely one of your ideal options? Okay. Currently let's talk about the reserve now deserve it's a card that's for if you do not have any type of credit rating if your Immigrant this is the card for you. You don't not only not being an immigrant, yet simply a person that's attempting to construct your credit history or trying to start with credit history and every little thing. This is a card. You might really intend to look into due to the fact that like As I said, it is likewise a trainee charge card, yet that doesn't suggest you have to be a pupil so as to get accessibility to the card. Yet the reason I like this right here is worthy of a vehicle. It's since you don't have to have a Social Security number. So if you are a foreigner entering into this nation as well as things, you do not need to have a Social Security number to get authorized for this bank card. Currently, what do they desire it they possibly want you to have a ticket ID. Simply some Recognition to reveal that you are whatever but you don't need to have a social so as to get this below credit card and also they give up to $5,000 so which is extremely awesome for a great deal of people that specifically they might be foreigners as well as things that want to accumulate their credit and also things, yet they don't understand where to start. So the should have automobile may be a terrific alternative for you even as a student or none trainee. Okay. Currently ones that the majority of us recognize with. Irwin is to Funding One the capital went platinum card. Okay. And so with the Funding One Platinum automobile once more, you can have no credit report or endless credit scores since Funding One is one of those extremely adaptable sorts of credit card business of stuff to the understanding of dealing with individuals that are just beginning their credit or rebuilding their credit scores. So especially with individuals that want a card yet don't wish to be paying those extra and also you, He's just to have the cars and truck and so after five months, they'll boost your credit line. All right, and they begin at $300. Now again, if you have the greater your income the more possibility, you have to obtain a higher line of credit debt Inc . A rise in your credit report exactly on your line of credit Scuse me. All right. Now let's speak about the Resources One Journey card. As well as obviously, it's created straight for pupils as well as personnel. So using about if you have the credit scores or no credit, that's not what this is for people that actually focus on their beginning don't have any credit and it really helps them as well as they provide you a $300 credit limit beginning now and again, depending on your revenue. You may be an individual that never had As well as it's funny because it's a lot of people in America that have never ever had credit scores. They a great deal of individuals that make a lot of money. They do not also believe in debt and also stuff like that. However at the same time if you're aiming to begin as well as you are an university student or you pupil or individual over the age of 18 that starting to wish to develop credit scores and also every little thing. Then the Funding One Journey card might be a wonderful option for you. Okay? Now I do desire a couple protected cards right here. And the factor that I did that is that you might have bad credit history ok, or once more. You might not have any credit. But you wish to attempt to visit a lot of your huge Financial institutions you wish to build a relationship with a lot of your big Financial institutions. So among the large financial institutions that I like, it's a Citibank, so obtaining a Citibank secured card. Now, below's things about it. That's Energy I was telling you about. You may have restricted credit. Okay, as well as the consider it with the security card with Citibank. As I stated, they want you to at the very least put $200 down. You can't have it can not have actually submitted insolvency for a minimum of two years. If you don't have a Social Security number like a nail, except your ticket and also ID, yet you in fact have to go into a bridge for that if you had a social you can do it online, today below's things concerning it.

[ralexmiller-blog]

Critique 2: eLC Login Button/System

What is the objective of the design?

eLC is a frequent part of most (if not all) students at UGA and presumably for faculty as well. It provides access to a number of services but because of legitimate security concerns it quite often requires users to sign back in if they’ve spent any significant portion of idle or away. Because of this security need as well as the frequent need to access the site for previously mentioned reasons, users often need to sign into eLC several times a day. To do this currently they must visit the login page in the first picture. There they are prompted to click another button to go to the real sign-in page. The button is designed to quickly and easily allow students to login into ELC so that they can access all kinds of academic resources and assignments.

What elements of the design are related to the objective?

The button is large and red with bold white text. This provides both a large space to click as well as an easily legible label indicating the purpose of the button.

Are those elements effective in achieving the objective?

They are currently not effectively achieving their objective because of a seemingly basic error in the websites coding. As the button currently works you can only login if you click on the text "UGA MyID Login". If you click any of the red portion of the button, which is significantly more than the text of the button. Then nothing will happen, repeated clicks serving only to highlight the text as if you were clicking on unhyperlinked text. This problem could be easily solved if the anchor circled in the third picture was moved out of the paragraph and instead to a div for the whole button. On that point it looks like the way the site is currently organized their is no such div as the button does not have its own div but is instead in the same div that contains the bolded text above the button as well as the explanatory text below the button. 

Going further than these simple changes, UGA might also consider defaulting to the CAS UGA MyID login screen shown in the final picture instead of the current system which provides multiple login options. Since the vast majority of students will soon be (if they aren't already) using this newer system saving the one click (and apparently a well-aimed one at that) several times a day could lead to a not insignificant time savings when applied across the entire university population. Adding an option to go to the current multi-login page  instead would serve those who need alternative options for signing in while overall saving the faculty and student population a significant portion of time.

[tefltraininginstitute]

Technology in Language Education Part I - The Future? (with Ray Davila)

We invite back our friend, teacher trainer and materials developer, Ray Davila to talk about technology in the classroom, a fad or the future. In the first of two parts, we discuss all that is good about technology, before being as cynical as possible in part two.

Technology in Language Education Part I Future (with Ray Davila) - Transcript

Ross Thorburn:  Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This week we have our friend on again.

Tracy:  Ray.

Ross:  Davila.

Tracy:  Davila.

dRay Davila:  Hi, guys.

Ross:  Ray, you've switched jobs since last time. Do you want to tell us what you're doing now?

Ray:  Oh yeah! I'm currently a development editor working in product development. I look at the academic quality of lesson plans, educational books, songs, movies, and seeing how they can be implemented as materials in lesson plans.

Ross:  If I'm not incorrect the name of the department you work for is called Ed Tech. Is it?

Ray:  Yes, yes.

Ross:  I thought that was so interesting. An education company. That's the name for the team that makes the teaching materials.

Ray:  We're trying to focus a little bit more on how we can use technology in the learning process.

Ross:  This week we're going to try something that I don't think...I remember we've only did it once before which is to do like a two‑parter. The first half, we're going to talk about some of the advantages of technology in English language education. Then in the second part of the podcast, next episode, we'll talk about some of the disadvantages.

Ray, you had a catchy name for this that you've thought of, right?

Ray:  Oh yeah. It's something like, technology in the classroom, fad or future in education?

Ross:  Well done. That's...

Tracy:  That's a great name.

Ross:  You make [inaudible: 1:46] .

[laughter]

[music]

Ross:  I guess all of us use technology quite a bit. Tracy and I have worked, at least, for the last year in online teaching, mainly and used technology. What are some of the benefits you guys think of technology in education?

Tracy:  The first thing I would say is fascinating actually you have a lot of class recordings, and you can definitely go back and watch those lessons. Either you are doing material development, you are focusing on like a teacher training or even just the teacher themselves. They can go back and see which area really what tallies in my class and which one didn't.

It's definitely big advantage for having the technology in the classroom because either really in the traditional offline classes, I think it's quite difficult for people to do that.

Ross:  I presume it's the same. Maybe it's also true for the students, that students might be able to use that technology. Not quite now, I'm not sure if we're on that stage yet. In future, presumably, soon have the ability to literally listen back to what you were saying in class three months ago or six months ago and compare that with what you are doing now.

It seem to be very objective way of helping students visualize or see what their progress has been.

Ray:  Using or having those recordings are also a great opportunity for us to take a step back and look at things that we would never have realized it could be a potential issue in our teaching or in just the students learning and just having that as a tool to reflect on. Or even I think that for teachers of young learners, it's also something they can use when they're sitting down with the parents.

Tracy:  I also wanted to mention something, at least in China, I think a lot of public schools from what I heard, like my university classmates and they're teaching in public school how they assign homework. They don't really use the way that when we were in school anymore. I think they also having like an app.

You can log in, then you can see the homework, you can do that, and you can submit it. The teacher can check your homework or provide you the answers or suggested answers to compare with. Everything will be tracked in the app or maybe some other programs.

I think that's a massive change because when I was a teacher in public school, you really have to check every single student's homework book. I needed to take them back home sometimes, and it's really heavy, but now...

[laughter]

Tracy:  ...it's really light, you just need a phone or you need a pad, and you can just do all of this work.

Ross:  I think here we're getting into the idea as well of personalizing things very easily that if you have technology you can personalize things a little more easily for your students. That you could give, for example, quite easily every student individual homework, individual exercises. You can have algorithms to make sure that you figure out where people are struggling, and what they're advantages and disadvantages are.

I think really it has that opportunity to individualize learning and get everything just to the right level where you're helping everyone learn because I think ultimately that's one of the most important things in education, is figuring out where your students are, and then teaching them accordingly. I think technology can help with both sides of that equation.

Tracy:  Yeah.

Ray:  Personalization, is a huge thing. You were mentioning one of the main things with algorithms. How you can, example, giving a test or giving homework, and then that can for you, instead of the teacher doing it, it can assess what a student is having difficulty with.

Then from there, it could suggest other alternatives, more activities for them to do in a particular grammar points or them being able to do this.

I think that one of the things about how this benefits education is that, yes, we have personalization, but then at the same time we have a lack at the moment of educational professionals currently at the disposal of helping students to get to where they need to be.

Maybe either because there's just a lack of resources, there are not as many instructors as there were before. Also, there are not as many instructors with as much experience or as much passion as there were before. I think that now, we're turning toward technology where it's picking up the slack. I think that we, on the human end, we've fallen a little bit short.

Ross:  Not just that. Also, it can help you get resources to places where those resources are lacking. For example, if you're in a highly developed western country it is easy to get access to probably a good education. If you're not, then it's more difficult. It really depends on where you are in the world.

Technology, I think, at least, all online classes and things you can now have probably a class with just about a teacher anywhere in the world, that's one thing. The other thing that it does is there's so much access to...If we're talking about English, English now, like any students can go on to YouTube or to read newspapers or whatever.

I remember even as a new teacher back in 2006, how difficult it was just to get a newspaper clipping or something and photocopy that for your students, but just think now there's so much English out there.

[music]

Tracy:  Recent years we're talking about 21st century skills. I think technology is great platform to provide people these chances to explore the culture differences and that also the soft skills is not just about critical thinking, but also being more tolerant, to understand other people, beliefs, religion.

That's a great way actually to make sure our students or people, they have the opportunity to have a chance to open their mind.

Ross:  I definitely feel that about online classes. It's amazing that you can pull a lot of people in America, Britain, wherever, they actually know people in China, right? When they see China in the news, whatever, they're not just immediately thinking something negative about it. They have some understanding and some relationship with some students here.

It's the same for children here with teachers abroad and obviously, that cause across in a hundred different countries to probably hundreds of thousands of different people that there's all this extra understanding. In this current era that we're in of nationalism, it's developed maybe over the last decade or so but that's a really wonderful thing.

Ray:  I think that's just it. That language learning, big language learning classroom, is not just about communication. It's about also cultural awareness. We can have a platform where a student in one country, in South America being in the same classroom virtually with a student from Asia. It's part of that age of globalization.

Tracy:  We've been talking about this in this podcast for a film, and it's ready, but I still think not really many people, for example, like the parents, they are aware of this. It's not just a way for your kid to learn a language is just like...Yeah, changing their mindset, their beliefs and also how they view the world, view people.

These are a lot of soft skills where it's quite difficult to evaluate from the parents who are maybe these teachers or schools. It's very difficult for them to evaluate, to see the result because that's the long‑term goal or long‑term results.

I also think that technology for teaching lately, the massive topic is about AI or AR. Having an AI teacher, there are a lot of debate and discussion about it. Do you think that AI teachers is going to replace a real teacher? There's something really interesting about AI because they definitely can track or catch the student's behavior sometimes.

I remember I went to a conference, and they were actually showing on the screen there were maybe 40 students, and each student, AI technology can catch everyone's facial expression, and it also gives a report about the student's talk time in this class. It probably can help you see the student interaction.

Also, I don't know, based on the temperature or something, and see how much they are mentally evolving in this learning process. These things are so difficult to see from the surface level and just judging from how they look like. I think that AI, all this technology they can help us to analyze this.

Ray:  It's funny that you've mentioned AR. I recently came back from Macau where I participated in a little VR thing.

[laughter]

Ray:  I don't even know what to call it. Pretty much we have these harnesses on with headphones, helmet with goggles and stuff. We were put into a room. That was not very big. It was very, very bare. There was nothing in it. It was just like a concrete floor, concert wall. There was nothing inside except for a handful of us. There were like eight of us.

Then we were told to put on our goggles, put on our headphones, and then we have like this gun. Out of nowhere, we were in an entirely new world. We had to walk around in this world. We were walking around, we had to shoot robots, and things like that.

I just remember my heart pounding when we were doing certain things like having to cross this crosswalk which obviously your brain knows that we know that we're in a concrete room. For some reason, my mind was playing tricks with me. Out of nowhere, I was refusing to go over this crosswalk because I was looking down, it was stories up and my actual legs were shaking.

It's this amazing...It was the first time I ever realized that our minds can have such an impact on the way our body reacts, the way that we think in general. Most people know what VR is but AR, I don't know if many people are quite familiar with AR.

Ross:  Can we pause you there for a second?

Ray:  Oh sorry, yes.

Ross:  That's an amazing story. This is huge potential there, isn't there? In a class of like, "Yeah, you pretend to be the shopkeeper. You pretend to be this person." Stick on your goggles. No, let's pretend we're in a restaurant. It's like boom! You're in a restaurant or something much more interesting than being in a restaurant.

Tracy:  One of my favorite activity actually using the AR technology it's quite similar to the selfie app. The students, they can really try to be another character. Like if now I'm just having a conversation asking for directions in a foreign country, and then they probably can change how they look. Now, I try to be an old person, and that's how they look.

Also, on the flight, I try to be the passenger, and the flight attendant having a conversation. It's just so interesting. You can see their face it's actually replacing on the screen. The student's face is actually there. They can feel they're in that context.

Ross:  You think about how much of language learning is role plays and pretending to be people in certain situations? Obviously, the more I think we do in general in class to help students understand those situation through setting context, moving the seats around, and bringing in props, the better. Obviously, what we're talking about just takes that to another level entirely.

[music]

Ross:  Tune in again next time, and we will talk about the disadvantages of technology.

Tracy:  Thank you for listening.

Ross:  Thanks, Ray. We'll see you next week.

[laughter]

Tracy:  See you soon.

Ray:  See you, guys.

Tracy:  Bye.

[theflynnstitute]

An Open Letter: Marriage Equality and MSHS

Dear Kerry and all Staff at Manjimup SHS,

I hope this letter finds you well. For those who may not recognise my name, I am an alumnus of MSHS, past Dux of School ‘09, Head Boy 2009, student representative on the School Board 2008-2009, and all round advocate for the quality public schooling that MSHS provides its students. I certainly would not be where I am today without the investment that MSHS and its superb teaching and support staff placed in me during my time there. And where is that? I’m currently completing my Doctor of Medicine and Masters of Public Health at the Melbourne Medical School and University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health, with a view to practicing medicine in rural and remote Australia. However, I am not writing to you to tell of the 8-year adventure that has been my life following graduation from your fine institution. Rather, I am writing to express my concern over the current debate that is occurring on the issue of same-sex marriage, and the effect that this debate may be having on current MSHS students. I appreciate that this is a contentious issue for many people, and I respect that there will be a range of opinions within the MSHS community on this topic. While I will be sharing some personal anecdotes to illustrate how I have reached my own stance on this issue, my primary objective is the well-being and support of all students at Manji High. I moved to Manjimup just before the end of my 5th year in primary school. I distinctly remember my first recess break at Manji Primary, sitting with a group of new classmates as a nervous city-slicker kid, who had moved to the country to start a new chapter. Not even 2 hours into my first day at school, and I was called a ‘poofter’ by a boisterous young classmate, much to the enjoyment of the rest of the boys in the group. I didn’t even know what a poofter was, and so laughed along with the joke that was my presumed sexuality. I soon learnt that poofter was not something I wanted to be called… and so began a decade long journey of suppression and denial, the ramifications of which I still deal with today. I do not wish to portray Manjimup or MSHS as a particularly homophobic place, or community. Overall, I think that my experience growing up in Manji was a good one, and certainly has contributed in a positive way, to shaping me into the man I am today. However, like many towns across rural and regional Australia, homophobia in Manjimup was present, and was something that I had to deal with growing up in that place. More pertinent to the objectives of this letter however, are my experiences as a young, closeted, queer student at MSHS. Academically, the level of support I received at MSHS was outstanding and served as a superb foundation for both my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. However, lying behind the narrative of good academic achievement I experienced at MSHS lies a more insidious story of homophobic abuse that I experienced at the hands of my peers. “Faggot”, “poofter”, “pansy”, “homo”, “gay-boy”, “pillow-biter” were all terms that were occasionally used to refer to me in the school-yard. I was told to perform lewd homosexual acts by some of my male classmates, and on several occasions I was intimidated physically, even with teachers present in the room. Needless to say, there were numerous occasions where I did not feel safe at MSHS. While I have little doubt that these experiences contributed to the anxiety that I deal with today, I consider myself lucky to say that I survived high school relatively psychologically unscathed. The friendships that I formed at MSHS served as my haven, and it was these individuals who accepted me for the person who I was without question or suspicion, and supported me and shared in my high school journey. Of course, there were social support resources available at the school during my time there, and perhaps people will criticize me for not accessing these resources. The reality is, I did not feel safe, nor justified in accessing support from the school counsellor or chaplain. I existed in an environment that told me that what I was, was abnormal, and the treatment I was experiencing was simply a natural consequence of the ‘affliction’ I was suffering from, and something that I had to endure in silence. In some ways, I feel my devotion to my academic studies was a compensatory mechanism for the supposed homosexual flaw in my underlying character. Over the course of my university studies, I have become increasingly concerned with social justice, and in particular how it relates to health. My decision to undertake a masters of public health is emblematic of this. Public health is a discipline of health science that is concerned with the prevention of disease, disability and suffering through interventions that occur at a population level. Many who work in the public health arena speak of taking an “upstream” approach, where one assesses the broader social, political, and economic determinants that have contributed to whatever health issue Is being examined. Mental Health and suicide is an important health issue for all of Australian society, but is also one that disproportionately affects the LGBTIQA+ community. LGBTI Australians aged 16 years and over are 5-11 times more likely to attempt suicide; 16-18 times more likely to experience suicidal ideation; 2-6 times more likely to self-harm; and twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition, when compared to the general Australian population[1]. And what is fueling these disastrous outcomes? Homophobia. Be it personal, interpersonal, institutional, or cultural, homophobia creates environments where queer individuals (and even people who are simply perceived to be queer) are attacked physically and verbally, are made to question and defend their own validity, and are expected to see themselves as second class, and less deserving of the rights and privileges that are attached to being heterosexual. While personal and interpersonal homophobia is damaging and should be called out and dealt with, particularly in our schools, these acts are often the product of underlying institutional and cultural homophobia. And as a student of public health, I know that fighting this more insidious form of prejudice is where the real money is, if we have any hope of progressing Australia towards the more inclusive, “fair go” society that it professes itself to be. Policy and law, must play an important role in shaping cultural and institutional perceptions of what is acceptable and unacceptable in our secular society. In doing so, they in-turn function to mold individual perceptions, particularly for our young people. This is why the marriage equality debate is so important to me, and why I will be voting YES for marriage equality. As a young person growing up in a rural community, the concept of even being in a same-sex relationship was not something I was privy to. It wasn’t until I reached undergraduate studies at UWA that I began to explore concepts outside heteronormativity, and even then, it was a number of years until I decided to come out to my friends and family. Having marriage equality will allow young, closeted and openly-queer teenagers to see that there are options for them to have their love and relationships celebrated in the same way that their straight friends and family members do. It will help to fuel a culture of acceptance, that embraces diversity and values the collective strength of a diverse nation. While I do think that marriage equality is an inevitable legislative end, it in no way justifies the means by which our current Federal Government is using to achieve it. Using a $122 million, non-binding, non-representative postal survey to inform government policy is unprecedented, and is an example of the institutional homophobia I mentioned earlier. Homophobia that expects myself and other queer individuals to sit by while the rest of the country ”respectfully debates” the validity of our relationships, and whether we should be granted the same rights under Australian law. Because make no mistake, the campaign for same-sex marriage is not just about the label of “Marriage”. Our illustrious former PM Mr. Abbott would have us believe that same-sex couples already have the same rights under civil union legislation, however it only takes a quick google search to find the flaws in that argument. Same-sex couples experience a deficiency in rights in all manner of ways from carer-rights, Medicare and the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, to tax concessions, employee rights and superannuation [2]. The fight for same-sex marriage is a fight for these rights. The debate that has been occurring on this issue has been undeniably toxic. The ‘Honorable’ Mr. Turnbull continues to harp on about the ability of the Australian public to have a respectful debate, yet seems blind to reality of what is actually occurring. While I acknowledge that majority of Australians are capable of having a perfectly civil discussion around this issue, thanks to social media and the current speed of the media cycle, much of the content we are seeing relating to this debate is extreme, vitriolic, and often uninformed. And while I do not purport to say that the NO campaign hold exclusive claim over the extreme views seen in this debate, I do believe that it is these extreme views that sell newspapers and website clicks, and ultimately hinder our ability to have civil discussion. It is these extreme, and widely publicised views that have real ramifications for the queer community. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the past 12 months has been the most concentrated period of homophobia that I have experienced in my (relatively short) life. Not direct homophobia, although I have been accused of spreading hate speech simply for expressing my support of same-sex marriage, but more indirect homophobia. Having to see nasty and vitriolic comments on social media, listening to hateful and ill-informed rhetoric on national news bulletins, watching TV ads that tell me I am advocating for pedophilia and radical gender theory in classrooms. This all has power. Words have power, and we (the queers) of all people know the power of words. I have seen many colleagues withdraw from social media over the course of this campaign to protect themselves from the hateful vitriol. I myself have decided to remain engaged, but have also felt the need to seek professional support during this period. And if I am finding it tough to deal with the day to day commentary that is happening in this debate, imagine what our queer youth are going through. I believe that school should be a safe haven. Not necessarily apolitical, as I believe that our youth are our dreamers and visionaries, capable of imagining a future that is better than the present, and politics is an important part of this. However, growing up these days is difficult enough without the added pressure of dealing with this ongoing debate. And it’s not just queer youth we should be concerned about. Many straight-identifying young people also support same-sex marriage, have friends that identify as queer and are having an equally distressing time having to deal with the ongoing commentary that is occurring in homes, playgrounds and other spaces around the country. I really do urge the MSHS community to draw together during this time to support all its students. While I cannot attest to the current socio-political atmosphere of MSHS or the broader Manjimup community, I do strongly urge all individuals to call out homophobia, or any other type of prejudice or discrimination as completely unacceptable. Acknowledge the divisiveness of this debate and the effects it may be having on individuals, especially our queer youth. Give people the space to express their feelings openly, and if there must be debate within the school environment, ensure that it is respectful and factually informed. Student support systems must be proactive in addressing this issue and ensuring that MSHS strives towards being an environment that is respectful and inclusive of all individuals, regardless of sexuality, race, gender, social status, physical or intellectual ability. I would love to hear what initiatives MSHS has put in place to support LGBTIQA+ students, and to hear how the school community is going in general. I am also more than happy to be contacted by any staff or students who are seeking support around this issue, or would simply like to discuss the topic or share their insight. I hope this letter has been relevant and informative to the MSHS experience, and I hope that it contributes in a constructive way to the progression of a discussion around how MSHS can best support all its students and strive towards a culture of respect, diversity and inclusion.

Sincerely yours,

Sebastian Kirby MSHS Fan-boy

[1]

The Statistics at a Glance: The Mental Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex People in Australia Accessible at [http://lgbtihealth.org.au/statistics/]

[2] Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Report, Australian Human Rights Commission  available at [https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/same-sex-same-entitlements-executive-summary]