The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Essay Example He never had the opportunity to see his mother as she died soon after his birth. His father, Mr. Thomas Button, horrified by his elderly features, abandoned him right away at the doorsteps of a retirement home. A kindhearted black woman, Queenie, then took the responsibility and raised him all along. He soon realized that instead of growing older, he was aging in the opposite direction. He met a beautiful little girl, Daisy, who later becomes the love of his life. At times, several events break them apart. He went to Murmansk where he had an affair with a married woman, Elizabeth Abbott. He also had the opportunity to witness war when on the Chelsea ship crew. Later on, Thomas Button revealed that he was Benjamin’s real father, and left him all his possessions upon death. Growing through age in the opposite directions, Benjamin and Daisy meet up again in their forties. It was then when Daisy gave birth to a girl named Caroline. Soon after her birth, Benjamin realized that she needs a father who would age with her and leaves them. However, he visited them after a long time when he had grown up into a boy. He later dies as an infant in Daisy’s lap. The ending of the film depicts the replacement of the clock at railway station (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). ... He managed to get a decent job on the ship and had an affair with a beautiful woman. He survived war and had a beautiful daughter like other normal people. Another major theme was the desire of man to reverse time without realizing the consequences. The depiction of a backward running clock at the very beginning of the film was a beautiful illustration of this concept. He witnessed more and more deaths, as he grew younger with time. It was not possible for him to share the joys of life with his only daughter, Caroline. Through his narrative, Benjamin also tries to tell that no matter how hard the circumstances, a person can be what he wants to be. The scene portraying abandoning of Benjamin by his father due to ugly appearance reveals the darker side of human nature. Everyone dies eventually. Though he was born different, his aging in the opposite direction never favored him to overcome time. Barsam and Monahan have noted the commonality of a narrative as, â€Å"even those narrative films bearing an overt ideological message or a dark theme are designed to engage an audience with a story† (65). As this film is a narration of a life story, all these themes including many other experiences of joy and sadness succeeded in keeping the audience captured. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a fantasy drama employing a narrative structure. According to Barsam and Monahan, a narrative is, â€Å"structured into acts that establish, develop, and resolve character conflict† (28). Although multifaceted storytelling over limited course of time is quite complicated, the director made an excellent effort to maintain conformity in the story structure. The sequence of events in the movie aimed to keep intrigue and

Human Resources Turnover Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Human Resources Turnover - Essay Example Employee turnover can be good or bad its good when voluntary and involuntary terminations involve non-performers whose resignation will be in the interest of the organization. It is bad when a good performer leaves the organization for some reason to begin the search for replacement. Searching of talented employees and training them for the job is very expensive for an organization. It is called turnover cost in this case employee turn over is bad for their smooth working. â€Å"The average cost of labor turnover in 2002 for the UK is  £4,301 per leaver. The costs of turnover are highest for managers ( £6,807), followed by professionals ( £5,864). For Ireland, the average cost of staff turnover is  £4,927.† Experienced and skilled employees can get a good job easily. But a loss of this type of employees is bad for an organization It is obvious that a talented and experienced employee, it not compensated well in terms of salary and career growth, will quit him position and seek another job. Therefore turn over is inevitable. In the case of voluntary turnover, it is manageable. â€Å"Retention of skilled employees is expensive getting the right people in every position will increase retention expenditure.† When labor turnover becomes good for an organization when a bad performer is sacked from the organization’s view in competitive work environment a low-level performer is a liability and he needs expensive training. It involves lots of overheads to the organization. HR turnover becomes a costly affair for companies in terms of the expenditure and recruitment, training etc.

The Optical Time Domain Reflectometer Essay Example for Free

The Optical Time Domain Reflectometer Essay In fiber optic networks, OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) is an opto-electronic instrument used to characterize an optical fiber. Unlike power meters OTDR does not measure loss, but instead implies it by looking at the backscatter signature of the fiber. Generally, OTDR are used to determine the loss of any part of a system, the length of the fiber and the distance between any points of interest. Most of the light which is sent to the fiber can be detected at the other end, but a part of it is always absorbed or scattered. Absorption and scattering are caused by imperfections of fiber, small grains of dirt, for instance. Scattering means that light is not absorbed but it is just sent in different angle after it hits small particles in optical fiber (Figure 1). Some of the light is scattered to the direction it came from. This is called backscattering. Backscattering forms the basis to the use of the optical time domain reflectometry. Figure 1 Rayleigh –scattering in optical fiber Optical time domain reflectometry is based on scattering and reflections. OTDR sends an optical pulse to the fiber and measures the received backscattering. The signal which is received consists naturally only of scattering and reflections of pulse which was sent. By interpreting signal as a function of time OTDR can draw an attenuation of a fiber as a function of distance. Theory of the OTDR Optical time domain reflectometry measures backscattering as a function of time and graph is then drawn as a function of distance (Figure 2). The graph represents the power of signal which the detector of the OTDR receives. The graph of fiber probed by OTDR consists of two spikes with gradually decreasing line between them. The line between spikes is decreasing because the received signal is decreased as a function of distance in accordance with attenuation coefficient of fiber. At the both ends of fiber reflection is large (Fresnel reflection) which creates spikes to the graph. Length of the fiber can therefore be measured from the width of the graph. Figure 2 OTDR signal as a function of distance An OTDR trace is a graphical representation of optical changes or events on a fiber. An event could be a splice, optical connector, a bend, a break, or just normal backscattered light from the fiber itself. In the OTDR trace faults for instance, are shown as a drop in the power of received signal (Figure 3). Size of a drop depends on an amount of power that is lost due to the component. The lost power represents of course the attenuation of component. Components and faults in fiber are either reflective or nonreflective. Reflective components create a spike to the graph of OTDR the same way as the both ends of fiber do. With nonreflective components there are no spikes because no excess light is reflected back. In most cases reflective attenuation is caused by connectors or other passive components and nonreflective attenuation is usually caused by fusion splice or similar fault in fiber. Figure 3 Attenuation of different faults Figure 4 OTDR Trace Information The slope of the OTDR trace shows the attenuation coefficient of the fiber and is calibrated in dB/km by the OTDR (Figure 4). Whereby, The height of that peak will indicate the amount of reflection at the event, unless it is so large that it saturates the OTDR receiver. Then the peak will have a flat top and tail on the far end, indicating the receiver was overloaded. Sometimes, the loss of a good fusion splice will be too small to be seen by the OTDR. Thats good for the system but can be confusing to the operator. It is very important to know the lengths of all fiber in the network so that the operator is not confused by unusual events. Reflective pulses show the resolution of the OTDR. Two events which are closer than the pulse width cannot be seen. Generally longer pulse widths are used to be able to see farther along the cable plant and narrower pulses are used when high resolution is needed, although it limits the distance the OTDR can see. The Dead Zone Dead zones originate from reflective events (connectors, mechanical splices, etc.) along the link, and they affect the OTDR’s ability to accurately measure attenuation on shorter links and differentiate closely spaced events, such as connectors in patch panels, etc. When the strong optical reflection from such an event reaches the OTDR, its detection circuit becomes saturated for a specific amount of time (converted to distance in the OTDR) until it recovers and can once again measure backscattering accurately. As a result of this saturation, there is a part of the fiber link following the reflective event that can not be â€Å"seen† by the OTDR. Analyzing the dead zone is very important to ensure the whole link is measured. Two types of dead zones are usually specified: 1. Event dead zone: This refers to the minimum distance required for consecutive reflective events to be â€Å"resolved†, i.e., to be differentiated from each other. If a reflective event is within the event dead zone of the preceding event, it will not be detected and measured correctly. Industry standard values range from 0.8 m to 5 m for this specification. Figure 5 Common OTDR with 3 m event dead zone 2. Attenuation dead zone: This refers to the minimum distance required, after a reflective event, for the OTDR to measure a reflective or non-reflective event loss. To measure short links and to characterize or find faults in patchcords and leads, the shortest possible attenuation dead zone is best. Industry standard values range from 3 m to 10 m for this specification. To overcome the problem of dead zones, usually a patchcord of about 100 m is added at the beginning of the system. As a result, all lauch dead zone problems have finished before the fiber (which is to be tested) is reached. Ghosts When testing short cables with highly reflective connectors, it is likely to encounter ghosts like in Figure 6. These are caused by the reflected light from the far end connector reflecting back and forth in the fiber until it is attenuated to the noise level. Ghosts are very confusing, as they seem to be real reflective events like connectors, but will not show any loss. If a reflective event in the trace is found at a point where there is not supposed to be any connection, but the connection from the launch cable to the cable under test is highly reflective, look for ghosts at multiples of the length of the launch cable. Figure 6 OTDR Ghosts Resolution of the OTDR Consider that light travels 1 m every 5 ns in the fiber, so a pulsewidth of 100 ns would extend for a distance of 20 m. When the light reaches an event, such as a connector, the light is reflected. The reflection appears to be a 20 m pulse on the OTDR. However, if two events are separated by a distance of 10 m or less (Figure 7), the two reflections will overlap and join up in returning to the OTDR. Figure 7 Thus the OTDR will display the two events as one event and the loss at each event is not detected, instead the sum of losses at both events will be shown on the OTDR. Choosing a shorter pulsewidth may give a better resolution but in turn resulting a low energy content (causing shorter detection range). Besides using a shorter pulse which will provide the required range, a tool that is called a â€Å"visual fault locator† can help too. The visual fault locator injects a bright red laser light into the fiber to find faults. If there is a high loss, such as a bad splice, connector or tight bend stressing the fiber, the light lost may be visible to the naked eye. This will resolve event which is close to the OTDR or close to another event that are not resolvable to the OTDR. The limitation of this tool is about 4 km.

An Introduction To Toyota Motor Corporation Marketing Essay

An Introduction To Toyota Motor Corporation Marketing Essay In 1933 company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda. In 1934 department of Toyota industries manufactured first product the product called Type A engine and its first passenger car AA in 1936. Toyota bought some other companies also and own and operates Lexus, Scion, Daihatsu and Hino Motors and shareholdings in Fuji heavy industry, Isuzu, Yamaha, and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. All these and some other in total includes around 522 subsidiaries. Toyota is headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi and in Tokyo. Instead of automobile Toyota also provides financial services through its division Toyota Financial Services and also builds robots for different industries. Toyota Motor Corporation its financial services and Toyota Industries all together form the bulk of the Toyota Group and one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Toyota is worldwide famous and well known company because of their high quality manufactured cars, Toyota is doing very well and growing very fast globally they have their operations, manufacturing facilities and valuable loyal customers all over the world. The new technology Hybird in Toyota cars gave a new pride to Toyota and the sales of Toyota going up day by day. In last few years Toyota became number one in automotive industry and became a number one in mostly selling their cars worldwide. Below chart shows the figures of manufactured cars in 2008 and the chart is showing other companies production also. In 2008 Toyota overtook GM and automotive industry announced Toyota the world biggest carmaker. But after that complains started arising and more customers stated blaming about the quality controls because of their rapid expansion. Due to the rapid expansion they recalled more than eight million cars in year 2009 the brake and accelerator defects and bearing, defending their selves against 98 lawsuits due to the deaths, injuries and damages happened to customer who were using their cars. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8626668.stm Toyota products were in high demand worldwide and they had a time when they felt they might not be able to meet the demand of customers but they were selling as normal routine and increase the production with huge volumes and increase the manufacturing speed. Contacted and started working with more suppliers for different parts which they are use to buy from different suppliers. Toyota Executives and Mr. Akio Toyoda had a strong feeling that working with new and more suppliers might give a bad impact for their quality and they might not be able to control well. They had very busy and high demand for their cars instead of finding good solution to cope this situation they didnt go for more alternatives like booking, reservation for cars instead of doing this they gave focus on rapid expansion. Rapid expansion met the demand of customers but on the other hand gradually they started receiving complains from their customers. In one period they were aware of the problem but they didnt recover it and took it easy which later returned back as a big problem for Toyota and did huge quantity recalls which cost a lot. Rapid expansion helped but put them in big problem also they lost the quality control and the spare parts purchased from different suppliers were the big problem also. They have basically three types of suppliers: Tier One Suppliers Tier Two Suppliers Tier Three Suppliers The car makers manufacturing system is known as Original Equipment Manufacturers, or OEM. After OEM system then they reply on Tier One Suppliers, Tier Two Suppliers and finally Tier Three Suppliers. Tier one supplier such as Bosch, Denso, Continental, Delphi, Valeo and Tenneco. These companies deliver big integrated system directly to the OEM. Tier two suppliers provides individual products to Tier one or directly to OEM. Tier three supplier make single products and deliver to Tier two suppliers. Due to the high demand of products the supplier did big mistakes and put Toyota in big problems. The unintended acceleration was problem happened because of the Tier Two Supplier. In Tier one supplier category they have few suppliers and they never faced any problem while working with them. But on Tier Two and Tier Three they have thousands of suppliers around the world which is quite hard for Toyota to control closely to all of them. OEM working smoothly closely with Tier One Suppliers but facing many problems with their thousands of Tier Two Suppliers and Tier Three Suppliers. These problems are increasing and they are losing market grip and the customers trust because of these kinds of inefficiencies and less quality control standards. Toyota Lean Production System Lean Production/Manufacturing Lean production is a model followed very well by Toyota which helped a lot to improve their working conditions and helped them to save time and money. The main concept behind this word lean is more outputs against less input in less time. The main sources of this less input are money, work force, working space, inventory and time. These wastes needs to be eliminated, in other words lean production means to minimize the waste and make easy, simple steps and speed up the working results. Toyota Production system called as lean manufacturing also because they introduced and worked on this concept of saving extra wastages. The system eliminates the overproduction, waste, useless transportation, inventory, motion, defective goods, over processing, waiting and implementation of the concepts like continuous flow and customer pull. The major areas which are very considerable and main causes are: Quality Delivery Safety Costs Morale Diagram showing components of Lean Production System Advantages of Lean Production Lean manufacturing helped Toyota to achieve many targets with the help of this system they achieved many benefits which helped them to save money, time and work force and many other factors also that indirectly strengthen the company and help their market share grow worldwide significantly. Within few years the lean production helped them to reduce wastages by around 80% which is very high for this type of big company, production costs were reduced by 50 percent and manufacturing cycle time decreased by around 50 percent also. Inventory reduction reduced significantly which helped them to save space for storing and work force decreased by 50 percent also. These reductions encourage them to increase facilities for employees and customers, improved the working environment. Friendly, comfortable working environment encourage employees and it helped to have higher quality and higher profits. They achieved many benefits through great system flexibility, more focus and good flow of shipping and billing frequencies. Below mentioned chart illustrates very clearly the different between the traditional manufacturing system and lean manufacturing system. Production system of 20th century was recognized as a mass production system of Toyota and lean production system is taken as 21st century production system. Toyota Production System (TPS) TPS based on 7 basic principles which really helped them to have good approach to meet the demand and in a good satisfied manner. The principles they followed tried their best to reduce setup time and to have better quality focused on small lot productions. Encourage and involved employees gave them job security and rights to involve and give full participation and their thoughts for improvements, quality increment and maintained the equipments with great new changes. Involvement of suppliers of all three types and the pull production is a part of those 7 basic TPS principles. http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/lean_production_main.html Toyota Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management Any company manufacture products and at the same time buy products from different suppliers and then these products sold to their customers, this procedure called supply chain. Supply chains are simple and difficult too depends on the company size and the products produced by them. There are some elements involved in supply chain which are customer, purchasing, planning, transportation, production and inventory. Those people who manage all these procedures involved in this case known as supply chain management. To make it sure that supply chain operating are efficient and producing high level of customer satisfaction and trust at low costs, companies adopted supply chain management technology and processes. The three basic activities involved which company follows which are: Operational Tactical Strategic To make it quicker companies bought and use special technology software which helps to have quicker information between customers and suppliers. ERP, SAP and Oracle are mostly used to give and take latest updates. http://logistics.about.com/od/supplychainintroduction/a/into_scm.htm http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071615490 All major automotive companies use supply chain management and lean production system. The rapid expansion gave big impact on its supply chain, when the requirement to expand the supply chain it meant they need to work with many unfamiliar and new suppliers who was not aware and dont had deep understanding of the culture of Toyota. In 2008 Toyota used parts which were not completely controlled and the chain didnt focus that much because of the rapid expansion and high demand. http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15576506 The company did a big mistake too highly depending on the supplier which are outside Japan, it would be better to have few suppliers and near and in approachable market where they can control easily. Toyota needs to have closer monitoring on supply base especially for tier two and tier three supplier. Due to the rapid expansion the supply chain also disturbed because of many reasons, its hard to work with new supplier suddenly and who are not aware well to our company structure and culture. http://forums.industryweek.com/showthread.php?t=14131 Success Lean production system, supply chain management and the concept of product life cycle which is well followed by Toyota helped Toyota to reach the highest level in automotive industry. Other inspirations within organization also make a big contribution like an internal blog, rewards, hold creativity and ideology sessions, give positive feedback and respond to suggestions, celebrate on success, encourage risks celebrate failures too, use of mind maps, mix up work teams, understand consumer behaviour and innovation links to Jobs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4015831.stm http://videos.cnet.co.uk/39042972.htm Recommendations Toyota OEM is working closely to their Tier One Supplier and having good results, few suppliers come under Tier one category they have long term relations and never faced any problem regarding quality or other related issues. But Toyota has faced many issues and still facing and having problems with their Tier two suppliers and tier three suppliers. During rapid expansion they increased the quantity of suppliers and they were not aware completely about Toyota cultures and Toyota even could not check and focused that well on their supplies. They did a big mistake to reply on new and thousands of suppliers in Tier one and Tier two categories and other big mistake was they replied on those suppliers which are outside Japan. I would say it would be great if they take extra time for deliveries give more attention on lean and supply chain. Try to decrease the number of tier two and tier three suppliers try to list them and have few which are according to the Toyota standards. Give more focus on quality controls and the team must make sure there will be no space for recall after handover the vehicles to the customers. Chapter 3: Conclusion In short Toyota is doing well in the market and going at the highest level of their successes. Enjoying being number one in the automotive industry, ranks number one in highest units selling cars worldwide. Regularly struggles and keeps trying bringing innovation to their products helped them to be number one innovative company in the world. Toyota Prius Hybrid innovation gave more value to Toyota Corporation, after introducing Prius I and II finally they introduced new Prius III with many more facilities and functions for drivers to enjoy the journey and daily life on road while travelling to jobs, offices etc. Overall if you see they are doing well but from 2008 after rapid expansion and when they took over GM after that they started facing issues and complain. They are trying their best to cope and tackle this hard time, recalling all vehicles which parts are needed to exchange and working to get quality promised parts form their tier two and tier three suppliers. List of Sources Internet: Manchester Business School [Online] (Cited 24 November 2009) Available from Paggu [Online] (Cited 28 November 2009) Available from Exeter Business School [Online] (Cited 27 November 2009) Available from Yo Goy [Online] (Cited 27 November 2009) Available from Automative Industry [Online] (Cited 22 November 2009) Available from London Government Uk [Online] (Cited 2 December 2009) Available from Working Knowledge [Online] (Cited 2 December 2009) Available from MSN Autos [Online] (Cited 30 November 2009) Available from http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071615490> All Hybrid Cars [Online] (Cited 27 November 2009) Available from BBC News [Online] (Cited 26 November 2009) Available from CNET [Online] (Cited 27 November 2009) Available from Toyota [Online] (Cited 29 November 2009) Available from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/dont_believe_everything_you_re.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE Literature: E Ghaziri, H.M (2003) Knowledge Mangement (5th Edition). Prentice Hall Harvard Business Review on Innovation. Harvard Business School Press Joe Tidd and John Bessant, (2009) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological,(4th Edition) Market and Organizational Change by Paperback April 2009. Semsar, E. (2009),Strategic Innovation Marketing 21 January 2009, London Chris Freeman Luc Soete (2005), The Economics of Industrial Innovation Chapter 8, page 197 to 204.

Sonnet 18 Essay -- essays research papers

Amazing authors can induce thoughts by a single word. The ideas that can form in our heads by a small phrase are powerful. Only the most talented and capable authors can provoke such feelings within us. Who is more than able to stir these feelings in a reader but William Shakespeare? His various plays keep us entranced and curious but it is his poetry that strikes a chord deep within us. Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare is particularly powerful. He writes about a love that cannot be compared to anything in the world because of his deep infatuation. Shakespeare wrote his sonnet when he was deeply in love with a woman. He starts off his sonnet by implanting an image in our head of a summer day. A summer day triggers a scene that flashes in our head of children playing and the sun shining,...

Having a child with a disability Essay -- essays research papers

When Andy was born I was the happiest woman on Earth. When I saw his beautiful face and his tiny body I cried, I will never forget that moment. We stayed in the hospital for three days. That first night back from the hospital Andy didn’t do anything but cry all night long. I did not know what to do, this was my first child, and I didn’t know how to calm him down. I called the Doctor and he explained to me that this was the normal behavior for a first born child, and he just needed to adjust to the new environment. I would give Andy his milk, change his diaper, hold him, sing to him, but nothing would stop Andy’s crying. We didn’t much sleep. That week my husband had to work so I had to deal with Andy by myself, which was frustrating. Finally after about a week Andy gave up some. His dad couldn’t even get close to him because he would start crying again, because Andy couldn’t be held or fed by anyone but me. I had to spend every minute of the day with him to the point that I had to put a mattress in his room so I could get some sleep. I slept in his room for a whole year. There weren’t a lot of changes in Andy’s behavior during that year. The Doctor didn’t know what was wrong with him, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. Taking care of Andy was a full time job for me. Ever since Andy was born my whole life style changed. My husband, Jack, started working long hours because he didn’t want to stay at home and deal with Andy. I couldn’t go out by myself or with my friends anymore. I had to take Andy with me everywhere I went. Basically, I didn’t have a social life anymore. My relationship with my husband was also going down the drain because we never spent any quality time together. My whole life was a big mess at that Cabarcas 2 point, but whenever I saw Andy’s face he made my heart smile. Andy was a year old and he didn’t talk much I got worried, but the Doctor told me to wait a few more months because boy’s take a little bit longer than girls to start talking, so I did. In despite of all the frustration and despair I always showed Andy a lot of love. My husband also realized that he was being selfish by leaving all the responsibility to me. He took some responsibility upon himself to take care of Andy so he could get closer to him. Andy was very aggressive sometimes and whenever his dad tried to touch him, he would get away from his dad and start run... ...ee and a half years. In the near future I want Andy to go to a specialized school for where he could learned more that what he already now until now. THE END I chose this disability because I have a friend who has an autistic child and I babysit for her sometimes. This child is a wonderful child I baby-sit him and his sister and the are so cute together I really love these kids. I don’t charge their mom any money to take care of them; I just like to spend time with them. Al l this kid likes is to go outside and play, and when he’s tired he just comes to me, takes my hand and shows me what he wants. He is talking a lot more now that what he did a year ago. He is a child that I admire because he has come such a long way and has overcome many obstacles. I really liked writing this Cabarcas 5 paper because I never put my self in that situation and it isn’t easy at all to deal with a disable child everyday of your life. That is a challenge that I don’t know if I’m ready to take. I was afraid to write this paper at the beginning because I was afraid that this could happen to me, but I leave everything in the hands of God. I say this because I’m pregnant now and anything could happen.

What Is Inclusion

What is inclusion ? Inclusive education is concerned with the education and accommodation of all children within the classroom, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, or linguistic deficits. Inclusion should also include children from disadvantaged groups, of all races and cultures as well as the gifted and the disabled (UNESCO, 2003).Inclusion tries to reduce exclusion within the education system by tackling, responding to and meeting the different needs of all learners (Booth, 1996). It involves changing the education system so that it can accommodate the unique styles and way of learning of each learner and ensure that there is quality education for all through the use of proper resources, appropriate teaching strategies and partnerships within the community (UNESCO, 2003).Inclusion will not happen instantaneously but requires careful planning and thinking, positive attitudes and behaviour and utilising the necessary specialised support, accommodations and adaptations to ensure all children become part of the school (Burstein, Sears, Wilcoxen, Cabello & Spagna, 2004), actively participate in the education system and later become fully contributing members of society (Department of Education, 2001).Inclusive education is about ensuring that schools can meet the needs of all learners. It is therefore the responsibility of an inclusive school to embrace the diversity and special needs of all its learners, (Flem, Moen & Gudmundsdottir, 2004) identify and minimise the barriers to learning (Department of Education, 2001) and create a tolerant and respectful atmosphere in which people are valued and stigmatisation is minimised (Carrington & Robinson, 2004).All children thus need to be given the support they need so they can achieve success, feel a sense of security and belong to a community (Iarskaia-Smirnova, & Loshakova, 2004; Burke & Sutherland, 2004). Inclusive education also recognises that learning occurs both at home and in the community and the refore the support of parents, family and the community is vital (Department of Education, 2001). Truly inclusive schools understand the uniqueness of every child, that all children can learn and that all children have different gifts, strengths learning styles and needs.These schools then provide the appropriate means and support through which these needs can be met (UNESO, 2003) The varying ability of children in the classroom means that in order for all to be educationally challenged, teachers should arrange activities and set learning intentions in certain ways to ensure the equal opportunities of learning for all children. By examining the work of theorists, such as Piaget (1961) and Vygotsky (1978), the importance of motivating all children by providing challenging tasks is extremely significant.Of course these tasks must be differentiated to account for the range of ability in classrooms and it is therefore vital for teachers to acknowledge the level of individual children, s o that appropriate tasks can be set to fulfil certain goals and enhance learning It is important to remember that differentiation can also be present in gender, social class, ethnicity and religion. Teachers should provide all children with equal opportunities to their right to a fair education, building and developing the child's individual needs.Planning should accommodate for the differences in ability and performance of all children, ‘including the more able and those with special educational needs' (DFES, 2004,) Teachers should provide attention and individual support to all children and when they are busy with a ‘focus group' they should return to any other children who had problems when they can (DfES, S3. 2. 4). This essay has shown how inclusive education is not a straight forward process that can be implemented overnight. Rather it requires a lot of planning, support, resources and reviewing.There is extensive research that South Africa can use to make inclusiv e education successful in South Africa. The major obstacle preventing the successful implementation of inclusion in South Africa is not our lack of resources but rather the teachers' lack of knowledge about children with special needs and how to accommodate them in regular classes. On-going intensive training, professional development and support are therefore needed so that teachers' attitudes can become positive and their willingness to promote inclusion can be maximised.Teachers thus need to change their mindset, become more willing to try new and different curricular strategies, engage in more joint planning and cooperative learning strategies and believe that all children can learn (Schmidt ; Harriman, 1998). This can only be done however if teachers are equipped with the necessary skills needed to include all learners. Inclusion can become a practical process in South Africa as long as we look at what has made it successful in other countries and build on from there. Reference List 1. Allan, J. (2003). 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