Introduction to Working with Children Essay

E1 Describe three different types of setting which provide care and education for children in your area. This must include one example from the list: statutory sector, voluntary sector and private sector. The statutory sector involves all the organisations that are set up, controlled and funded by the government or local authority for example: St. Anthony’s Catholic Primary School. This type of sector is funded by people who pay tax or national insurance. Another type of setting which provides care and education for children in my area is sure start children’s centre. This is a voluntary sector and they are run by organizations. This type of sector is not designed to make a profit. ‘’Money for voluntary organisations comes from a variety of sources that include donations, fund-raising, grants from central or local government, lottery grants and fees for the services they provide.’’ (Thornes 2008 pg4) The private sector is owned by an individual or company and aim to make a profit which people will pay for their child to attend such as: Burnham Montessori School. E2 Describe how each of the types of settings indented in E1 aims to support children and their families. St. Anthony’s Catholic Primary School is a statutory sector that aims to support children and their families by involving parents fully in their children’s learning. They also support children and their families by providing them a safe positive environment. Every child is entitled to 15 hours a week of free education and they must follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum in their day plan and etc†¦ to support children and their families. Sure start is a voluntary sector that aims to support children and their families in many different ways. The first way they aim support children and their families is by providing good quality play, learning and childcare. The second way is by giving ‘’support for children and parents with special needs.’’ (Thornes 2008 pg9) Burnham Montessori School is a private sector that aims to support children  and their families by giving them registered care facilities which offer full or part time care for children. They also support them by offering them good quality play where they can learn from it. Another thing they do to support children and their families is by offering 15 hours a week of education which is delivered by the early year’s foundation for 36 weeks a year. It also provides a solid routine with long and flexible hours. E3 Describe the main legislation in your country that supports the rights of children. E4 Describe the recognised principles and values that underpin working with children. When working with children it is important to recognise the principles and values that underpin and guide professional standards and good practice. The cash statement of value states that equal opportunities help to respect the child individually. It would therefore be important to value and respect the children you work with as I have seen the stuff do in my work placement. It also states that health and safety should be having safety from crime and anti-social behaviour in and out childcare settings. This happens in my work placement by having policies and procedures that insure children stay safe. The cash statement of values states that partnership with parents; respecting parents and other cares. Admissions policy; respecting all children and giving them their rights at the setting. The stuff will carry this out in my work placement by taking all their view and opinions into account throughout the day. E5 Explain the importance of valuing and respecting all children in the setting. E7 Describe how study skills can support your learning during your training. Recognizing my own study skills is a way that can help support my learning during my training. This will help me to complete my training successfully because I can put what I have learnt into practice. In order for me to  complete my training, I will need to manage my time effectively and be organized. By doing this I will then be able to carry on the rest of my learning during the training. I will therefore use my listening skills and any other skills that I have learnt, into practice at work placement and apply them throughout the day activities. I can then also reflect on them and take on board and act upon the feedback from my assignments and non-assessed and assessed work, to ensure that the strategies are really helping me to succeed in my training. D1 Explain why the practitioner should develop and maintain appropriate relationships with parents and other professionals. Practitioners should develop and maintain an appropriate relationship with parents and other professionals. It is important to build a relationship with parents; an easy way to do this is to make sure you have good communication with them. For example make sure that you talk to them in the appropriate language such as using manners. Other way’s that you can build relationships with parent’s are that you would have regular contact with them for the best interests of the child. It is also important when building a relationship with parents that you understand what they think is best for the child. For example if the parents wanted the child to sit at a table all day and do work. It is also as important to build a relationship with the children in order to be able to work well with the children in the setting. For example if a child is not feeling well at nursery you would know in their best interest that they may want to be left alone. The last and also important relationship they should have is with colleagues; to work well with them to ensure the needs and safety of a child are put first and it would be easier for this to happen if there is a relationship. D2 Discuss the characteristics of working in a multi-agency team. There are many different services that work in a multi-agency team such as social services. They all have many characteristics that allow and help them to work with children and their families. One characteristic that helps and allows them to work with children and their families is cooperation because  it makes everyone in the setting feel needed and engaged by working together. Every person involved in the multi-agency team should feel belonged and this is a characteristic as it will make sharing information and problems easier. Having good listening skills will also help and make everyone in the team feel respected and valued that their point is being heard. C Explain why the early year’s practitioner should listen to children’s views and value their opinions. It is important to listen to children’s views and value their opinion. This is because it builds on the child’s self-esteem and well-being. They should be listened to by valuing their needs and accepting that every child has the right to be heard. The emotions and opinions that a child expresses during play can guide practitioners to identify their likes, dislikes and activity preferences. This will then help the practitioner to plan and implement activities of varied interests and learning needs. It will also make the child feel a sense of belonging in the setting. Hannah Mortimer, 2000, author of various early years’ books and education psychologist believed that young children should be having a say and be included in decisions making when planning and the practitioner can ensure the children have equal opportunities and feel involved in their daily routine. B Explain why it is important that practitioners understand the limits and boundaries of their role when working with children. Children are very sensitive and easily influenced. Practitioners need to know their boundaries so that their actions are not misconstrued as inappropriate. Having these limits will allow children and practitioners to know what the rules are or the expectations. The boundaries give the children and practitioners the freedom they have to work within any limits. When allowing a child to have freedom within the boundaries, they can then learn to choose for themselves and have the consequences. Practitioners teaching and giving the children opportunities to make choices in early life, and allowing them to make mistakes along the way will be helping them  develop into adult life. A Reflex on the importance of child centred approach in early years settings. I used a child centred approach to teach the child about the number 6. She likes to play with Peppa Pig, so I had 6 pictures of Peppa Pig on the paper and made her count them. When she was counting the 6 pictures of Peppa Pig she was able to count all of them and repeat the number after me. This theory and research shows the idea of using children current ability to support more advanced skills where the child follows the adult. In my current setting practitioners have a child centred approach many different ways. One way I have seen this happen is when staff see children interested in certain things or activities and they then plan around these interest for next weeks work and activities in the setting. Another way practitioners do this is by doing an observation on a child and learning about them to meet their needs through various task or activities. This show that in my setting practitioners work well with the children and help improve the quality of every child interest and needs in the setting to the principles of a child-centred approach. In placement I also saw a boy was pretending to put fires out with a hose, the practitioner helped him make. Within a few minutes I had helped him set up a load of chairs (a fire engine) and set up a phone on a chair for them to receive emergency calls. By listening to his interests and observing them I was able to extend what may have lasted a few minutes into half an hours child initiated play. Reference: * Beaver. M, et al (2008) Childcare and education Cache level 3 Cheltenham: Nelson Thorns * Hyacinth .M, et al (1998) A practical guide to equal opportunities Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes * www.workingwithkids.co.uk/childrens-act.html 12th October 2011 * http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky 14th October 2011 Bibliography: * Hannah Mortimer, 2000, author of various early years’ books and education psychologist

Violence in Media Entertainment Essays

Violence in Media Entertainment Essays Violence in Media Entertainment Essay Violence in Media Entertainment Essay the ancient Egyptians entertained themselves with plays re-enacting the murder of their god Osiris and the spectacle, history tells us, led to a number of copycat killings. The ancient Romans were given to lethal spectator sports as well, and in 380 B. C. Saint Augustine lamented that his society was addicted to gladiator games and drunk with the fascination of bloodshed. Violence has always played a role in entertainment. But theres a growing consensus that, in recent years, something about media violence has changed. For one thing, theres more of it. Laval University professors Guy Paquette and Jacques de Guise studied six major Canadian television networks over a seven-year period, examining films, situation comedies, dramatic series, and childrens programming (though not cartoons). The study found that between 1993 and 2001, incidents of physical violence increased by 378 per cent. TV shows in 2001 averaged 40 acts of violence per hour. Francophone viewers experienced the greatest increase. Although physical violence on the three anglophone networks in the study increased by 183 per cent, on their francophone counterparts it increased by 540 per cent. One network, TQS, accounted for just under half (49 per cent) of all the physical violence on the networks studied. Paquette and de Guise also identified a disturbing increase in psychological violence, especially in the last two years. The study found that incidents of psychological violence remained relatively stable from 1993 to 1999, but increased 325 per cent from 1999 to 2001. Such incidents now occur more frequently than physical violence on both francophone and anglophone networks. Canadians are also heavily influenced by American programming. Paquette and de Guise found that over 80 per cent of the TV violence aired in Canada originates in the U. S. They speculate that francophone networks and stations may have a higher incidence of violence because they broadcast more movies, and this, in turn may be due to lower production budgets. Canadian-made violence is most likely to appear on private networks, which broadcast three times as many violent acts as public networks do. Overall, 87. 9 per cent of all violent acts appear before 9 p. m. , and 39 per cent air before 8 p. m. at a time when children are likely to be watching. More Graphic, More Sexual, More Sadistic Other research indicates that media violence has not just increased in quantity; it has also become much more graphic, much more sexual, and much more sadistic. Explicit pictures of slow-motion bullets exploding from peoples chests, and dead bodies surrounded by pools of blood, are now commonplace fare. Millions of viewers worldwide, many of them children, watch female World Wrestling Entertainment wrestlers try to tear out each others hair and rip off each others clothing. And one of the top-selling video games in the world, Grand Theft Auto, is programmed so players can beat prostitutes to death with baseball bats after having sex with them. The Globalization of Media Concerns about media violence have grown as television and movies have acquired a global audience. When UNESCO surveyed children in 23 countries around the world in 1998, it discovered that 91 per cent of children had a television in their home and not just in the U. S. , Canada and Europe, but also in the Arab states, Latin America, Asia and Africa. More than half (51 per cent) of boys living in war zones and high-crime areas chose action heroes as role models, ahead of any other images; and a remarkable 88 per cent of the children surveyed could identify the Arnold Schwarzenegger character from the filmTerminator. UNESCO reported that the Terminator seems to represent the characteristics that children think are necessary to cope with difficult situations. Violence Without Consequences or Moral Judgment The notion of violence as a means of problem solving is reinforced by entertainment in which both villains and heroes resort to violence on a continual basis. The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA), which has studied violence in television, movies and music videos for a decade, reports that nearly half of all violence is committed by the good guys. Less than 10 per cent of the TV shows, movies and music videos that were analyzed contextualized the violence or explored its human consequences. The violence was simply presented as justifiable, natural and inevitable the most obvious way to solve the problem. PG: Parental Guidance? Busy parents who want to protect their children from media violence have a difficult task before them. The CMPA found that violence appears on all major televis ion networks and cable stations, making it impossible for channel surfers to avoid it. Nightly news coverage has become another concern. In spite of falling crime rates across North America, disturbing images of violent crime continue to dominate news broadcasting. As news shows compete with other media for audiences, many news producers have come to rely on the maxim: If it bleeds, it leads. Violence and death, they say, keep the viewer numbers up. Good news doesnt. As well, movie ratings are becoming less and less trustworthy in terms of giving parents real guidance on shows with unsuitable content. PG-13 movies tend to make more money than R-rated films, and as a result, the industry is experiencing a ratings creep: shows that the Motion Picture Association of America would once have rated R are now being rated as PG-13, in order to increase box-office profits and rental sales. In movie theatres, there is some control over who watches what. But at home, theres little to stop children from watching a restricted movie on one of the many emerging specialty channels. Kids may also have access to adult video games at the local video store. In December 2001, the U. S. Federal Trade Commission reported that retailers allowed 78 per cent of unaccompanied minors, ages 13 to 16, to purchase video games rated mature. To make supervision even more problematic, American children often have their own entertainment equipment. According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 57 per cent of kids aged 8 to 16 have TVs in their bedrooms, and 39 per cent have gaming equipment. A Youth Subculture of Violence While many parents are concerned about the graphic violence and put-down humour in many kids shows, theres a growing subculture of violence that parental radar often misses. Music and Music Videos Music and music videos are pushing into new and increasingly violent territory. When singer Jordan Knight, formerly of the popular New Kids on the Block group, released a solo album in 1999, Canadian activists called for a boycott of the album because it included a song advocating date rape. And when the controversial rap artist Eminem came to Toronto in 2000, politicians and activists unsuccessfully called for the government to bar him from the country, on the grounds that his violent lyrics promoted hatred against women. For instance, his song Kim graphically depicts him murdering his wife; and Kill You describes how he plans to rape and murder his mother. In spite of (or perhaps because of) his promotion of violence, Eminem continues to be a commercial success. His Marshall Mathers release sold 679,567 copies in Canada in 2000, and was the years best-selling album. And The Eminem Show topped Canadian charts for months in 2002, selling, at one point, approximately 18,000 copies a week. Eminems success is not exceptional. Extremely violent lyrics have moved into the mainstream of the music industry. The Universal Music Group, the worlds largest music company, lists Eminem, Dr Dre and Limp Bizkit all of whom have been criticized for their violent and misogynist lyrics among its top-grossing artists. And Madonnas 2002 music video What It Feels Like For a Girlcontained such graphic violence that even MTV refused to air it more than once. Video Games Violence in general, and sexual violence in particular, is also a staple of the video game industry. The current trend is for players to be the bad guys, acting out criminal fantasies and earning points for attacking and killing innocent bystanders. Although these games are rated M, for mature audiences, its common knowledge that they are popular among pre-teens and teenaged boys. For example, players in Grand Theft Auto 3 (the best-selling game ever for PlayStation 2) earn points by carjacking, and stealing drugs from street people and pushers. In Carmageddon, players are rewarded for mowing down pedestrians sounds of cracking bones add to the realistic effect. The first-person shooter in Duke Nukem hones his skills by using pornographic posters of women for target practice, and earns bonus points for shooting naked and bound prostitutes and strippers who beg, Kill me. In the game Postal, players act out the part of the Postal Dude, who earns points by randomly shooting everyone who appears including people walking out of church, and members of a high school band. Postal Dude is programmed to say, Only my gun understands me. The level of violence in the gaming habits of young people is disturbingly high. In MNets 2001 study Young Canadians In A Wired World (which found that 32 per cent of kids 9 to 17 are playing video games every day or almost every day), 60 per cent cited action/combat as their favourite genre. Stephen Kline of Simon Fraser University reported similar findings in his 1998 study of over 600 B. C. teens. Twenty-five per cent of the teens he surveyed played between seven and 30 hours a week and when asked for their one favourite game, their choice was overwhelmingly in the action/adventure genre. Web Sites Virtual violence is also readily available on the World Wide Web. Children and young people can download violent lyrics (including lyrics that have been censored from retail versions of songs), and visit Web sites that feature violent images and video clips. Much of the violence is also sexual in nature. For example, the site Who Would You Kill? allows players to select real-life stars of television shows, and then describe how they would kill them off in the series. The entries frequently include bizarre acts of degradation and sexual violence. Murder is also a staple of the Web site newgrounds. com, which features a number of Flash movies showing celebrities being degraded and killed. When MNet surveyed 5,682 Canadian young people in 2001, the newgrounds site ranked twelfth in popularity among 11- and 12-year-old boys. Other popular sites such as gorezone. com and rotten. com feature real-life pictures of accident scenes, torture and mutilation. In 2000, rotten. com was investigated by the FBI for posting photographs depicting cannibalism. Many kids view these sites as the online equivalent of harmless horror movies. But their pervasive combination of violence and sexual imagery is disturbing. Gorezones front-page disclaimer describes the images on its site as sexually oriented and of an erotic nature and then warns viewers that they also contain scenes of death, mutilation and dismemberment. The disclaimer then normalizes this activity by stating, my interest in scenes of death, horrifying photos and sexual matters, which is both healthy and normal, is generally shared by adults in my community. Anecdotal evidence suggests that gore sites are well known to Canadian schoolchildren, although parents and teachers are often unaware of their existence. In MNets 2001 survey, 70 per cent of high school boys said that they had visited such sites. The presence of violence, degradation and cruelty in a range of media means that children are exposed to a continuum of violence, which ranges from the in-your-face attitude of shows like South Park to extreme depictions of misogyny and sadism. Young people generally take the lead when it comes to accessing new media but the MNet survey found that only 16 per cent of children say their parents know a great deal of what they do online. This is particularly problematic, given the results of a 1999 AOL survey which that found online activities are emerging as a central facet of family life; and that a majority of parents believe that

How to Weed - and Edit - and Work - Effectively

How to Weed - and Edit - and Work - Effectively In my newsletter last week, I wrote about weeding. The letter did not go out until Friday- a notoriously bad day to send out a newsletter- so I am expanding on the theme in a full-out blog. Weeding is an art. We all know that if you don’t weed out the roots of a plant, the plant will grow back. There are many metaphors for this phenomenon. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about today. I’m reflecting instead on the process of weeding. When I go into my garden to weed, I find I’m more effective if I choose the type of weed I’m going to pull: â€Å"Today I’m going to pull out all the grass in my garden.† â€Å"Today I’m going to pull out all the lemon balm.† When my eyes and brain are looking for one particular thing, I have a much easier time spotting it than if I were to say â€Å"I’m going to weed all types of weeds today† or â€Å"I’m going to pick tomatoes and weed as I do it.† Sometimes it can also work to weed a small area of everything that is NOT the lettuce, or the tomato, or the garlic. Again, my brain is focused on one thing, in one small space. When I’m unfocused, I miss a lot of things. Even the thought of weeding my entire garden of everything I don’t want there raises my heart rate and sends me into overwhelm. Its simply too much to do, especially when I have so many other tasks pulling for my attention! I need to take one thing at a time. Weeding is like editing. Like my experience of weeding, if I limit myself to one thing I do a better job. Looking through a document to check for periods at the end of each bullet, or to check for extra spaces, means I’m likely to catch the one thing I’m looking for. Did I overuse the word â€Å"that†? Or â€Å"just†? Or â€Å"really†? It works best to search on each of those words one at a time. Conversely, if I try to find every error, I’ll probably miss a bunch of them. [For a list of common errors to look for, see The Write Life’s 25 Editing Tips for Tightening Your Copy] Despite knowing the downsides of overcommitment in proofreading, my brain often wants to do everything at once and fix everything at once. It takes some wrangling to get myself to concentrate on one thing at a time, especially in this age of distraction. In fact, as I sat down to write this blog I went to do some research on multitasking and ended up doing something else before getting to my Google search. Then my phone rang and I took the call before finally getting back to my article. Have I lost your attention yet? Perhaps I have. I am talking about multitasking, and I have taken you along for the ride†¦ and we all know by now that our brains are not wired for multitasking! Here’s a great article, Multitasking is Killing Your Brain, that describes how multitasking lowers your work quality and productivity, harms your IQ (possibly permanently), increases stress levels, and simply exhausts you. Weeding can be an antidote to multitasking. There is practice to be had in concentrating on one thing at a time, and we could all stand to do a lot more of it. It’s time for me to get out into my garden.

The Usefulness of Websites for Historical Research Essay

The Usefulness of Websites for Historical Research - Essay Example A website may be the work of an individual, a business, or any other type of organization for that matter, which is typically dedicated to some particular topic or purpose. Websites are extremely useful in the studying of various research topics. However when it comes to historical research, there are certain values and limitations of websites for studying this history. The aim of this paper is to examine and assess these values and limitations, in order to come to a clearer and more knowledgeable understanding on how accurate and useful websites truly are for studying history. By examining six websites in particular, we can base our results on how successful the average website is when used for studying history. Basing our historical research around the Civil War, the websites which will be used in this study will be as follows: By thoroughly examining these six websites, we can come to a critical assessment of how accessible and resourceful the average website is in historical research. This is what will be dissertated in the following. The immediate content of this website was professional and direct, with the home page offering separate corresponding timelines to choose from. Information such as: Civil War experience, Civil War timeline, Civil War battles, and Civil War people were also available to choose from on the home page; giving the visitor a vast array of options to choose from. In terms of visual presentation, it was accurately appropriate for the topic, and good design allowed for easy access through this site. There was in fact even a design labeled as the 'best graphic on site' in the 'Civil War Experience' page.1 Thinkquest offered a vast exhibition of useful information in regards to the Civil War, and even offered a 'Fun Fact of the day'; random factual occurrences which relate to the Civil War. The corresponding timelines offered accurate and incredibly informational timelines on the Civil War, and were significantly useful directional tools in terms of accessing around the website. In terms of what was negative about this site, or what more could have been done, the only true factor would be in regards to the actual design layout of the page. Although all the information was easily accessible, the visible attractiveness of it could certainly be updated and laid out more efficiently. However, as a website for allocating and using resourceful information on the Civil War, it can certainly be considered overall as positive. The Civil War Home Page This website was easily the most informational, graphically pleasing, and overall positive out of the six. The home page itself contained more educational and resourceful information that might even be expected; while still remaining to be pleasing to the eye. The layout and content of the site was done so in a way most certainly methodologically in order to allow visitors an easily accessible and highly information tour through the site. The immediate presentation of the website was not the only positive element; after selecting any of the numerous offered links to

Diversity in the Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Diversity in the Workplace - Essay Example Capitalizing and maximizing on diversity in the workplace has become a very critical management issue today (Thiederman, 2008). The leadership and management teams in organizations need to recognize that workplace environment is diversifying, evolving, and changing. Management and employees must be equipped to value multicultural differences in both customers and associates in order for everyone to be handled with dignity. Considering that managing diversity remains an important organizational challenge, leaders and managers should learn the skills required in a multicultural and diverse environment (Devoe, 1999). This paper will discuss various aspects of diversity in the workplace. Generally, diversity is defined as understanding, valuing, celebrating, accepting, and acknowledging differences among people with regard to ethnicity, race, gender, spiritual practice, age, public assistance status, class, sexual orientation, and mental and physical ability (Shakhray, 2009). In the wake of globalization, diversity issues are considered fundamental and are projected to become even more critical in the coming years because if increasing differences in the populations around the world. As such, organizations are required to focus on diversity particularly within the work setting and to look for ways of becoming completely inclusive organizations since diversity has the potential of resulting to greater competitive advantages and productivity. Diversity especially in the workplace is believed to be an invaluable competitive asset that any organization cannot afford to ignore (Devoe, 1999). Valuing and managing diversity is an important component of effective people management that can go a long way in improving productivity and satisfaction in the workplace. Demographic changes such as the organizational restructurings, equal opportunity legislation, and women in the workplace will need organizations to assess and review their practices of management, as well as to de velop creative and new approaches to manage people. Such changes will increase customer service and work performance (Harvey and Allard, 2005). There is no doubt that diversity in the workplace is a reality around the world. this is not only reflected in the organizational demographic trends, but also in how issues are being addressed in the workplace including the issues of disability accommodation, flexible work arrangements, elder care and child care among others (Thiederman, 2008). Diversity is beneficial in many ways to the organizational as a whole and also to the management and employees. Even though employees are interdependent in the work environment, respecting differences of individuals can significantly increase productivity. Workplace diversity can increase marketing opportunities, business image and creativity. In the modern era when creativity and flexibility are critical to competitiveness, workplace diversity is important for the success of any organization (Lewis, 2000). Proper management of diversity in the workplace can provide a distinct advantage in this era of enhanced competitiveness. Various studies have shown that heterogeneity promotes productivity and creativity. In addition, heterogeneous groups have demonstrated to produce better solutions to challenges within a workplace

Strategic Management Plan for Middle-East Television Network Essay

Strategic Management Plan for Middle-East Television Network - Essay Example Proposed Objectives and Strategic Initiatives to help in Conquering the Middle Eastern Television Market 1). Increase marketing vehicles to at least a dozen unique vehicles within the first year of MTN rollout. Strategic Initiatives: 1a). Identify a variety of marketing vehicles (billboards, radio advertisement, youth events, and concerts) that will position and expose MTN to the target market. 1b). Engage in performing continuous advertisement of American themes, music, cultural symbols and phrases. 1c). Be able to identify the key areas that matter most towards promoting the positive image of United States in the Middle East regions. 1d). Engage in joint initiatives with the local cultures as a measure of establishing a mutual understanding between foreign and local cultures in the Middle Eastern region. 1e). Engage in both respective and effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the Middle Eastern region as means of gaining popularity and acceptance within the Arab Community. 2). Increase funding for MTN marketing to $5M within the first year Strategic Initiatives: 2a). Consider building coalitions with members of Congress. The idea is to gain their support and align the effort with the Foreign Relations Committee. 3). Increase MTN’s number of top-10 rated programs in the Middle Eastern television market by 100% within 24 months of its rollout. Strategic Initiatives: 3a). There is a need to benchmark Al-Jazeera television network’s top-rated programs that conform to MTN’s vision/mission and produce MTN versions or spinoffs. Budgetary considerations include the cost of new programming.

Mali Empire and New World Encyclopedia Essay Example for Free

Mali Empire and New World Encyclopedia Essay Timbuktu was established by the Taureg, a nomadic group, in the tenth- eleventh century along the caravan routes that were along the west coast of Africa (New World Encyclopedia 2007). Timbuktu was in a good spot for trade but not for defending against attacks, and Timbuktu was constantly attacked by Taureg raiders (New World Encyclopedia 2007). Timbuktu was never able to grow due to the raids, but Gao, Timbuktu’s neighboring city grew to be the political capital (New World Encyclopedia 2007). As Timbuktu developed and became a city that traded gold, ivory, slaves, and salt Timbuktu became immensely wealthy (New World Encyclopedia 2007). Since Timbuktu was so wealthy it was a target for many European empires seeking wealth (New World Encyclopedia 2007). It started to decline in the 16th century by the Portuguese traders choosing to send the goods upriver instead of down river (New World Encyclopedia 2007). As Timbuktu developed into a more intellectual center in the early 15th century it became known for its religious study of Islam (New World Encyclopedia 2007). While Islam was the main religion of Timbuktu, most of the rural population were non-Muslim traditionalists (New World Encyclopedia 2007). The University of Sankore, also known as the most prominent Islamic institution, was established in 1581 C. E. and taught mostly centered around the Qur’an (New World Encyclopedia 2007). In Timbuktu there were more than 120 library’s in which housed millions of books, and some of which have not been found yet (New World Encyclopedia 2007). As stories of Timbuktu’s wealth reached Europe many explorers journeyed downward into Africa to have their own taste of the wealth (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). As countless European explorers journeyed to Timbuktu and never returned The Geographic Society of Paris offered a reward to whatever explorer that could make it there and 2 back and live to tell the tale (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). The first explorer to reach Timbuktu was Gordon Laing in 1826, but he didn’t make it back alive (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). The first explorer to reach Timbuktu was Rene-Auguste Caillie in 1828, by disguising himself as an Arab traveling in a caravan (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). When Rene returned to Europe he wrote three volumes over how unimpressed he was about the city in that it being a mud-walled city, in the middle of the desert, and not having any gold (Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa 2013). Although in 1512 when Timbuktu was at its peak and Leo Africanus visited he stated: The rich king of Tombuto hath many plates and sceptres of gold, some whereof weigh 1300 pounds He hath always 3000 horsemen (and) a great store of doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men, that are bountifully maintained at the kings expense. (New World Encyclopedia 2007) Although from Shabeni’s point of view of Timbuktu in 1787 he stated: On the east side of the city of Timbuctoo, there is a large forest, in which are a great many elephants. The timber here is very large. The trees on the outside of the forest are remarkable they are of such a size that the largest cannot be girded by two men. They bear a kind of berry about the size of a walnut, in clusters consisting of from ten to twenty berries. Shabeeny cannot say what is the extent of this forest, but it is very large. (New World Encyclopedia 2007) In 1591 Timbuktu started to slowly decline due to the Morisco mercenaries armed with guns (New World Encyclopedia 2007). One of the few reasons Timbuktu is still in existence is 3 because it is a major tourist attraction that attracts people from all over the world to see the mystical city (New World Encyclopedia 2007). 4 Alistair Boddy-Evans (2013). Timbuktu: The El Dorado of Africa. [ONLINE] Available at: http://africanhistory. about. com/od/mali/p/Timbuktu. htm. [Last Accessed September 10 2013]. unknown (2007). Timbuktu. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. newworldencyclopedia. org/entry/Timbuktu. [Last Accessed September 10 2013]. unknown (2013). Sankore Madrasah. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sankore_Madrasah. [Last Accessed Sepember 10 2013].