In Los Angeles, the charter movement has gained incredible momentum as Charter Management Organizations take over troubled public schools in working class neighborhoods and communities of color. In Watts, a Latino and African American working class neighborhood, Locke High School had long stood as a troubled school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. After decades of low test scores, violence, and astronomical dropout rates, Green Dot Public Schools took over the campus and, in 2008, opened Locke as a public charter school under its management. This study examined the perceptions, experiences, and stories of five 12th-grade students at Locke whose high school was taken over. These students described the impact this charter takeover had on their social, academic, and personal lives. Using qualitative research methodology, this study utilized student-created photo essays, in-depth semistructured interviews, and a focus group. Though the media prematurely labeled the takeover a success, the students‘ views differed. They described how the takeover helped them academically, but failed to give them a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The takeover also failed to meet their social needs. These students discussed how the takeover improved the Locke campus, but failed to make ongoing improvements throughout the school. Students offered their stories and counterstories to the mainstream media, which applauded the changed atmosphere. They reminisced about the past, mourned social loss, complained of uniforms and strict compliance to rules, and hoped for additional changes. These students added personal voices to the takeover of their high school.

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En la discusión contemporánea relativa a la obra de John Locke, uno de los ejes claves de la interpretación de su obra versa sobre el papel que juega en su filosofía la ley natural. La discusión pone en debate dos posturas principales: las lecturas que sostienen que el concepto derecho natural es la noción clave en la filosofía de Locke; y por otro lado, lecturas que sostienen que la comprensión teológica de ley natural juega un rol primordial en la comprensión de la filosofía política de Locke. La presente tesis busca defender la preeminencia de la ley natural como fundamento de los derechos naturales y la constitución del Estado. Para lograr defender la preeminencia de esta en la filosofía de Locke, en primer lugar, se le dará relevancia a las consideraciones teológicas lockeanas acerca de los deberes del hombre para con Dios como elemento clave para el establecimiento de los derechos naturales. En segundo lugar, se buscará evidenciar de qué forma se encuentra la ley natural en la base de la constitución, la legitimidad, los alcances y límites del Estado. Por último, se realizará una crítica a las interpretaciones de Leo Strauss y Eric Mack, las cuales defienden la primacía de los derechos naturales respecto a la ley natural para luego analizar cómo las consideraciones lockeanas respecto a la caridad le dan un fuerte soporte a esta lectura.

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A career with Extension can be very rewarding, but also very demanding, as employees have to balance job stress and time demands with family goals and demands. The very nature of Extension work brings some tension between the job and family, and employees need to be equipped to make decisions about personal and work time. If the Extension System is to be a leader of positive change for individuals, families and communities, its employees must be able to find that balance. Previous research with 4-H agents has identified 23 job responsibilities that were stressors, with some studies showing a direct relationship between Extension work and family problems. To build on these studies and establish the current situation among Extension agents with 4-H responsibilities in the Southern Region, this correlational study examined the relationships and differences between job characteristics and marital satisfaction, how agent characteristics directed those relationships, and what coping mechanisms agents used to ameliorate negative workamily interactions. The study instrument utilized the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (LWMAT) to arrive at a global score that represented the distress level of the relationship for each agent. Demographic information and work-related information was also gathered from the agent responses to the instrument, and then used to develop relationships among variables. The findings of the study were that agents experience the stressors in similar ways and amounts, but their perceptions of those stressors and how they affect marital satisfaction differ. The group experiencing the stressors to the most detrimental level was the members of the “Sandwich Generation,” which include employees aged 35-54, and who find their careers sandwiched between raising children and caring for aging parents. They, along with other agents, need to employ numerous strategies to cope with the stresses they experience, including prioritizing, planning, and building a strong social support system as the top strategies.

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Throughout the history of European art music, the desire to portray “Other” cultures has been given voice by composers by way of exoticism. The ability to depict the exotic has, for centuries, held the fascination of listeners and composers alike. In spite of this, the identification and study of exoticism as an aesthetic trend in music has not been given nearly as much attention as it deserves. Drawing from and expanding upon the work of Ralph Locke and Jonathan Bellman, I explore and illuminate some of the deeper issues that undermine the potential study of this aesthetic trend. First, I present a discussion of the problems and difficulties inherent in the study of exoticism in music, some of which I believe are related to the relative lack of study in this area. Because of the nature of how elements of non-European cultures were historically assimilated and appropriated by the Europeans, questions of ethics and terminology are abundant and not easily answered. In some cases, the cultural “Other” is portrayed reverently, almost to be feared; in others, they are portrayed almost comically. But can this portrayal be attributed to the composer alone, or have decades and even centuries of performance traditions influenced certain attitudes towards these works? And are these original attitudes, no matter whether positive or negative, an essential part of understanding these works? How might we amend the language used in discussing this topic so that our own cultural bias (or lack thereof) does not affect it? After addressing the issue of how musical scholars have, until now, discussed these issues, I present my own method of dealing with them: the reorganization of what we have come to define as “musical exoticism” into four categories: appropriative allomimesis, approximative allomimesis, evocative exoticism, and temporally-exotic evocation. Using musical examples, I discuss how these terms might be used in place of simply the term “exotic”, hopefully paving the way for future scholarship on the topic. I believe that with more understanding of the study of the exotic in music and a more erudite manner of discussing it, a greater understanding of the aesthetic and its sociological ramifications might be achieved. By revising the language we use to discuss the exotic in Western music, I hope to provide my readers with a means toward insight into the deeper implications of composers’ choices to portray people from countries, cultures, and places other than their own. My intention is that this will allow and inspire performers and scholars to consider these implications in their studies of these works. / Music Performance