Religion In North American Towns Essays - Mormon Studies, Mormon War

Religion In North American Towns Religion has played a vital role in the settling of many pre-industrial North American towns and cities. In fact, religion proved to be one of the main reasons Europeans broke their affiliation with the dictatorial and the monarchial rule in Europe and came to settle the Americas. Generally, these particular religious settlers incorporated town-planning ideas developed in Europe and translated them into their particular beliefs. However, some specific and influential settlers broke away from the norm in a progressive attempt to invent new societies in a new land based on accumulated knowledge. John Reps, the pre-eminent American historian on town planning has this to say about those who strayed from the common ideals. "Almost from the beginning of settlement, America attracted a variety of reformers, utopians, and pariah religious sects. These dedicated... groups shunned existing cities with their temptations and distractions, preferring to create settlements in harmony with their religious, economic, or social convictions." In this paper, I will analyze and compare the influence of two different religions in the settling of their respective towns. The first will be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons, and the second is the Church of the United Brethren, also known as the Moravians. THE MORMON MISSION The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian religion that came into existence during the early 19th-century American movement of religious revivalism called the Second Great Awakening. Officially, Joseph Smith, who is recognized as a prophet in modern Mormon teachings, founded the church in 1830 after he said that God had spoken to him. In that same year, he organized his first followers in New York. From that point on, as they marched westward, he experimented in building towns that revolved around "...order, unity, and community." These values were viewed as supreme in the prophet's ideal society, and these same values were at odds with values that were characteristic of many cities and towns already existing in America at that time. It is said that his aim was to realize the Christian commonwealth that had been the ideal of John Winthrop in Puritan New England. According to one account, Winthrop at one time had said to the colonists, "Wee must be knit together in this work as one man." This one statement seems to provide the basis of Smith's convictions when he set out to form new towns in hopes of turning people on to his religion. The Law of Consecration and Stewardship was outlined by Joseph Smith in 1831, and marked the beginning of Mormon ?communitarianism.' This law "...was a prescription for transforming the highly individualistic economic order of Jacksonian America into a system characterized by economic equality, socialization of surplus incomes, freedom of enterprise, and group economic self-sufficiency." Basically, what this meant was that all members of the church and hereafter, the community, would deed all of his/her property to the bishop of the church. On top of this, the community was to farm and cultivate the land together and share equally the crops. In turn, the bishop would appropriate these assets out based on the need of an individual or family residing within the community. Doctrines of the church such as these held a paralleled relationship to the planning of the towns. By early 1831, Joseph Smith and his following had moved west to Kirtland, Ohio. Kirtland was an ideal spot for Americans seeking prosperity given its ripe location for trade as well as agriculture. The land in Ohio had richer soil than that found along the Atlantic coast, and the climate was much milder. A good reason for this can be attributed to Ohio's gentle topography. This was beneficial to the Mormon people who relied on farming and trade. The location was in close proximity to both Lake Erie, which provided the transportation to the East, and the Ohio Canal, which connected to the Ohio River and hence the entire Mississippi River system. The Mormons however did not take full advantage of this beneficial location for settlement, as they left after only a short period of time. Kirtland was a settlement where many firsts occurred in the Mormon religion, and it was a settlement that would aid Mormons in molding future settlements. The House of the Lord, also referred to as the Kirtland Temple, was the first major permanent structure for worship built by the Mormons, and it served as a pattern that was to be followed by future designs of churches in Mormon settlements. The temple served dual

Intelligence Testing for Special Education

Intelligence Testing for Special Education Individualized intelligence tests are usually part of the battery of tests a school psychologist will use to evaluate students when referred for evaluation. Intelligence Testing The two most commonly used are the WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and the Stanford-Binet. For many years the WISC has been considered the most valid measure of intelligence because it had both language and symbol based items and performance-based items. The WISC also provided diagnostic information, because the verbal part of the test could be compared to the performance items, to show a disparity between language and spatial intelligence. The Stanford Binet-Intelligence Scale, originally the Binet-Simon Test, was designed to identify students with cognitive disabilities. The scales focus on language narrowed the definition of intelligence, which has been to some extent broadened in the most recent form, the SB5. Both the Stanford-Binet and WISC are normed, comparing samples from each age group. In both cases, we have seen intelligence scores going up.  Research shows the mean increasing somewhere between 3 and 5 percent a decade.  Ã‚  It is believed the fact that the way instruction is mediated is directly related to how intelligence is measured.  We dont necessarily teach to the test so much as structure information that way the test scores.  It also means that children with severe apraxia or language difficulties because of autism may score very poorly on the Standford-Binet because of its focus on language.  They may have intellectually disabled or retarded in their diagnosis, whereas, in reality, they may really be Intellectually different, since their intelligence is not truly being evaluated. The Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, or RAIS, takes 35 minutes to administer and covers 2 verbal intelligence indexes, 2 non-verbal indexes and a comprehensive intelligence index, which measures reasoning ability and the ability to learn, among other cognitive skills. Best Known Intelligence Test The best-known product of Intelligence testing is the IQ, or Intelligence Quotient. An IQ score of 100 is meant to reflect the average (mean) score for children the same age as the child being tested. A score over 100 implies better than average intelligence, and scores below 100 (actually, 90) implies some level of cognitive difference. Group Tests Group Tests prefer to bill themselves as ability rather than intelligence tests and are usually used to identify children for gifted programs.  These are generally used for screening to identify children with either high or low intelligence.  Children who are identified for gifted programs or IEPs are often re-tested with an individual test, either the WISC or Standford Binet intelligence tests, to have a clearer picture of a childs challenges or gifts.   The CogAT or Cognitive Abilities Test consists of several sessions, from 30 minutes (kindergarten) to 60 minutes (higher levels.) The MAB or Multidimensional Aptitude Battery consists of 10 subtests scores and can be grouped in verbal and performance areas. The MAB can be administered to individuals, groups, or on the computer. It yields standard scores, percentiles or IQs. With the emphasis on state assessments and achievement, few districts are regularly administering group tests. Psychologists usually prefer one of the individual tests of intelligence to identify children for special education services.