Academic Degree and Abundant Natural Resources Essay Example for Free

Academic Degree and Abundant Natural Resources Essay When I say educated man, I do not refer to the individual who has read a thousand books and magazines, however important reading may be to the life of the mind. One of the most unfortunate things in this country is that so much is read by so many who do not know what to read. Because of cheap paper and printing, comics, pulp magazines and cheap literature have replaced the classics and the great masterpieces. As a consequence, an enormous mental garbage has been piled up beyond our collective capacity to liquidate. Writers of history a hundred years from now, in assessing the quality of education in the Philippines, may have ample reason to say that our schools have produced a vast population able to read, but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. It was Mark Twain, I believe, who said he never allowed his schooling to interfere with his education. When I use the term educated man, I do not mean the individual who has memorized a thousand facts and assembled in his mind a million data, on the basis of which he has earned a string of academic degrees. I do not mean to minimize the importance of memory, for it is stating the obvious when I say we should be able to observe, sort out and remember relevant facts so we may have a sound basis for each judgment. Of Themistocles, it has been said that he knew by heart the names of twenty thousand citizens of Athens; and Cyrus, it is recorded, knew every soldier in his huge army. Indeed, how refreshing it would be for our youth to learn by heart Jesus inimitable Sermon on the Mount, the magnificent soliloquies of Shakespeare, the unforgettable dialogue of Plato and in our own land, the lofty language of Arellano and Laurel, the trenchant outbursts of Manuel Quezon and the elegant prose of Claro M. Recto. How inspiring it would be for our young men and women to remember the historic landmarks in our struggle for freedom — from the heroism of Lapu-Lapu to the lonely battle of Del Pilar at Tirad Pass, from the field of Bagumbayan where the young Rizal met his tragic death to the dark dungeons of Fort Santiago, where the youth of the land suffered a thousand times and met a thousand deaths! Nor do I minimize the significance of degrees and diplomas in a degree-conscious society such as we have, except to emphasize the danger of mistaking a degree for intellectual worth. A college graduate has once been described as one who at the end of his studies is presented with a sheepskin to cover his intellectual nakedness. When I say educated man, I do not refer to the skilled engineer, the able trial lawyer, the talented musician, the gifted writer, or the expert surgeon. Far be it from me to underrate the importance of skills and talents. Sometime ago, I made reference to the fact that while we have abundant natural resources in this country, we do not have sufficient skills to make this country great. Japan is relatively poor in natural resources, with land scarcely enough to sustain her tremendous population, but despite a war that laid waste her towns and cities, she has recovered and come back with greater vigor because she has a people of abundant skills. But I would like to submit the proposition that one becomes a great scientist, an able lawyer, or a noted writer, only because he is first — and pre-eminently a good man. An abundant talent employed to serve an evil end is a prostitution of divine endowment. What, then, is the educated man? Is he the man who has read a lot? Partly yes, because his reading is serious and discriminate and uplifting. Is he the man who remembers many facts and events? Partly yes, because the training of memory is a wholesome discipline that requires effort and application and because one cannot make a sound judgement without respect for remembered facts. Is the educated man, then, one who because of his skill is able to provide for himself and his family? Partly yes, since education should teach us how to make a living. But there is one thing we should always remember and it is this — that far more important than the making of a living, is a living of life — a good life, a meaningful life, an abundant life. The educated man lives this kind of a life, because he has opened the windows of his mind to great thoughts and ennobling ideas; because he is not imprisoned by the printed page, but chooses to make a relentless, rigorous analysis and evaluation of everything he reads; because he is less interested in the accumulation of degrees than in the stimulation of his mind and the cultivation of a generous spirit; because his interest is less in knowing who is right but more importantly, in discerning what is right  and defending it with all the resources at his command; because he can express himself clearly and logically, with precision and grace; Because he is not awed by authority, but is humble enough to recognize that his best judgment is imperfect and may well be tainted by error or pride; because he has a deep reverence for the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, as a creature of God; because he has a healthy sense of values, a breadth of outlook and the depth of compassion which a purposeful education generates; because whenever he talks about good government he is prepared and willing to sacrifice himself for it; and because he lives a life of relevance to the world in which we live, a sharing in the problems of his time and doing whatever he can with intelligence and fairness and understanding.

The Holocaust Essay -- essays research papers

The Holocaust Experience   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The world that people lived in during the Holocaust is described by the personal experiences of the oppressed throughout the story Jack and Rochelle, written by Jack and Rochelle Sutin, and the memoir by Alexander Donat titled The Holocaust Kingdom. The horrifying mindset of the oppressors, particularly the Nazi`s, is illustrated in both books. The vicious and relentless emotional, physical, and psychological abuse the Nazi`s targeted at their victims is depicted in detail. The unspeakable cruelty received by the Jews dramatically altered their state of mind and how they lived their lives. The emotions of despair, distress, depression, hopelessness, helplessness felt by the Jews eventually turn to hate, anger, hopefulness, faith, and ultimately revenge against all oppressors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Holocaust was a traumatic and tragic time in history to say the least. Those who were victims of the mistreatment were forced to respond. In Jack and Rochelle, both families were used to some form of oppression. Growing up in Poland, Rochelle and her family were used to feeling hated. Here is an example through dialogue of how some of the Poles felt about the Jews and the Germans: â€Å"Just wait! Hitler is coming and he`ll off the heads of all you Jews.† Rochelle: â€Å"What are you so happy about? The Germans might cut off my head, but your independence will be gone. Poland won`t be Poland anymore!† â€Å"They would tell me that it was worth losing their independence just to get rid of the Jews (page 8, Jack and Rochelle).†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jack also experienced mistreatment even before the Germans came. In the town of Mir, he attended a grade school where he was singled out by the teachers: â€Å"As for school work, if we failed to complete an assignment or to pass a test, we were singled out for special criticism, well beyond what a Polish student would receive. â€Å"What`s the matter Jew?† the teacher would ask us. â€Å"Can`t keep up? (page 14, Jack and Rochelle).† They knew that they could not stay in Poland: â€Å"†¦there was no freedom, no future for us in Poland (page 16, Jack and Rochelle).† The Jews in Poland knew that they were not welcome. Here is an example of how Jack felt from early childhood growing up in Poland: â€Å"Did I have a sense that Jews were hated in Poland? You didn`t need to have a ... ...l, educated people. Finally, in April of 1945 the camps were liberated. After the liberation of the Jews, many of the Jewish inmates of the camps were too weak to move. Many of the Jews being liberated were so delusional from the continuous negligence, torture, unspeakable acts, mass killings, (basically an unrealistic experience), that they were not aware of what was happening. The Jewish prisoners were not restored to health simply by liberation. More painful than their captivity was the awakening from nightmares. When the prisoners began to improve physically, they were then able to feel and think and realize what had really happened to them. Many of the Jewish survivors described themselves as incapable of living their lives to the fullest. They often caught themselves unable to perform tasks that are considered very basic. Some felt that the war and the imprisonment had such a dramatic affect on their life that they had their spark to life that they once had. The traumatic experience of these camps has deeply scarred many of the unfortunate prisoners during the Holocaust. Let us all pray that a time like the Holocaust never comes about again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Samsung Wave-Ii Marketing Plan

[pic] Samsung Wave-II Smart Phone Marketing Plan and strategy Principles of Marketing EIB-507 Prepared By: MD. Ashif Hossain Roll-80104045 International Business, EMBA University Of Dhaka Prepared For: MD. Kamal Uddin,Ph. D Associate Professor Executive summary Mobile phone, which is defined as a high technology electronic product, is popular all over the world. Bangladesh must be one of the biggest markets for those mobile phone manufacturers. As a leader in mobile telecommunications market, Samsung has its scientific business strategy that leads to success, and pays a great attention to the market of Bangladesh. Based on the Bangladesh mobile phone market, this paper analyzes Samsung’s business strategy to show reason of Samsung’s success. The business strategy includes the strategic intent, the competitive strategy and marketing mix. The strategic concept of Samsung is to take the demand-side strategy. Samsung subdivides the whole market into several objective markets according to the researches about the partialities of different individuals. And then different types of mobile phones are put into the market aimed at attracting different consumer groups. The competitive strategy of Samsung is to improve the innovative ability to win the competitive advantage. Strong technological innovation ability makes Samsung stand in the forward position of mobile industry all the time, and characterized this brand by a special vitality. And the marketing mix of Samsung is to use the integrated marketing strategy including product, price, promotion and place. It values the construction of a brand, the orientation of its products and pays a lot of attention to technology improvement. It increases the sales through sensitive advertisement, presentation to the celebrities and large-scale entertainment. Current Market Situation Increasingly, we are observing that handsets are following the pattern of typical consumer electronics; the trend is toward phones with improved features at lower prices. Simultaneously, there are more manufacturers who will deliver cheaper handsets to capture the mass market. Multifunction cell phones, e-mail devices are increasingly popular today. Touch screen phone is very much attractive because it is Very much easy to use and people can browse the website like they browse in a laptop computer. Competition is therefore more intense. So it is easily visible that there will be massive demand for such phones in the future. To gain market share in the dynamic environment, Samsung must carefully target Specific segments with features that deliver benefits valued by each customer group. Market Description Samsung Wave II touch pad phone’s primary target consumers are young people. It is very much attractive for student because of it’s wide touch screen which could be used as a hand Held palmtop. It supports Wi-Fi technology so people can transfer their documents and other important file through this phone like a workstation. In the prospect of Bangladesh people can easily monitor the Stock market movement through its high-speed Internet technology. Other users are entrepreneurs and professionals. It is very much cheap in compare with an apple I-phone. Product Review The Samsung Wave II S8530 (or â€Å"Samsung Wave II†) is the Successor f Samsung Wave S8500 smartphone running the bada 1. 2 operating system designed by Samsung, which was commercially released on October, 2010. [1][2][3] The Wave is a slim touchscreen phone powered by Samsung's â€Å"Hummingbird† CPU (S5PC110), which includes 1  GHz ARM Cortex-8 CPU and a powerful built-in PowerVR SGX 540 graphics engine, â€Å"Super LCD† screen and 720p high-definition video capture capabilities. Our Product Samsung Wave II smart phone offers the following standard features With a bada 1. 2 operating system Hardware features Calling – The speakerphone is great. It was very loud and clear. Conference calling was also easy. Once you've placed your second call, an icon appears to conference the two calls. It can connected 20 calls at once and had no trouble swapping and dropping individuals from the conference. Design The phone is made of mostly metal alloy and is measured at 10. 9  mm thick. In terms of form factor, it is a slate style featuring only 3 physical buttons on the front: call, reject/ shutdown, and main menu button. The ergonomically designed body also makes it more comfortable to hold. Screen The screen is a 3. -inch (94  mm) capacitive touchscreen Super LCD with an anti-smudge oleophobic coating on top of the scratch-resistant tempered-glass (Gorilla Glass Display) touch panel which has been shown to be capable of resisting extreme friction (scratch-resistant). The screen resolution is 800Ãâ€"480 WVGA. [4] Processor The phone features a 1  GHz SoC,[5] which internally contains an ARM Cortex A8 CPU core that is identical t o the ARM Cortex CPU core used in Apple's A4 package on package SoC. [6][7] The Phone graphics engine is SGX 540 which is said to be capable of generating 90 million triangles per second (same as the SoC used on the Samsung Galaxy S). And 512MB RAM (same hardware as Samsung Wave S8500). Camera The phone features a 5 megapixel which supports 2592 x 1944 pixels, along with autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging, face, blink detection, image stabilization, touch focus,etc. Other than these features it has various shooting modes such as beauty shot, smile shot, continuous, panorama and vintage shot. As a camcorder it is able to shoot 720p HD recording (1280Ãâ€"720) at 30  FPS with flash. As well as this, it is also able to record slow motion video (320Ãâ€"240) at 120  FPS with flash. Other features Other feature includes A-GPS, 2  GB/8  GB of internal storage with a microSDHC slot for an additional 32  GB. It also has a magnetometer, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer, 5. 1-channel surround sound Mobile Theater, music recognition, a fake call service, smart search, Social Hub and it is the first phone to support Bluetooth version 3. 0. In addition to Bluetooth 3. 0, the phone also features Wi-Fi 802. 11 b/g/n, HSDPA 3. 2  Mbit/s and HSUPA 2  Mbit/s. This phone is available with both European/Asia 3G bandings and the North American 3G bandings. Software Features User Interface The phone is one of the few smartphone to feature the Samsung bada operating system platform. The UI is Samsung's own Touchwiz 3. 0. Touchwiz 3. 0, like the 2 predecessors (Touchwiz 2. 0 and Touchwiz), utilises widgets. The 3 most notable widgets pre-installed in Touchwiz 3. 0 are Daily Briefing (which includes all essential information such as weather, finance, AP mobile news and schedule), Feeds and Updates and Buddies now (which allows users to call, send texts to and read Facebook/Twitter feeds off their favourite contacts). Users are allowed to have up to 10 homescreens to add widgets. Applications In terms of Internet Browser, Samsung Wave is pre-installed with Dolphin Browser v2. 0 (based on WebKit). While this browser supports Flash it is disabled by default to improve page load time. By default, the phone comes with Picsel Viewer which is capable of reading . pdf and Microsoft Office file formats. Users from selected countries can buy and download Picsel Office Editor from Samsung Apps. As for Samsung apps, users can also download applications, games and widgets from the application store. Other software includes the GPS software that comes with this phone (LBS Route 66), Palringo IM, Facebook, Twitter, social hub, mini diary, daily briefing, memo, video player, FM radio, media browser, voice recorder, e-mail and pre-installed asphalt5. Media Support MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, AMR, WAV, MP4, FLAC, MPEG4, H. 263, H. 264, WMV, AVI, DivX, XviD, MK Competitive OVERVIEW Players There are currently four tiers of players in the handset market:  · Tier 1: Nokia, Samsung and Apple  · Tier 2: Motorol and Ericsson  · Tier 3: Alcatel, Siemens etc  · Tier 4: the rest Nokia swept into the market, overtaking both Motorola and Ericsson to achieve the largest handset sales during 1998. Samsung after a brief struggle against Nokia and apple finally got a large share of customer. The failure of Motorola to move from analog to digital and of Ericsson to pursue fashionable designs enabled Nokia’s market position to improve. Since then, both Motorola and Ericsson have been aggressively playing catch- up, attempting to leverage their strengths in technology and semiconductors to attack Nokia’s share in the overall world market. Tier 3 companies cater to a lower-end, lower-margin market. Relative lack of economies of scale, product range, and brand equity make market dominance or even parity a very difficult challenge for these smaller players. However, Samsung – with its new stylish design and technology – is well positioned in the emerging smart phone market, and is capable of threatening the larger two companies (nokia and apple). Compare between Samsung Wave-II and I-phone Because the large chunk of market segment who prefers Smartphone is captured by the apple’s I-phone. We should have a complete knowledge what the i-phone offers as well as Samsung wave-II [pic] |[pic] | |Features |Apple I-phone |Samsung Wave-II | |Overview |Touchscreen, Scratch Resistant Oleophobic Surface, |LCD Capacitive Touchscreen,Scratch Resistant Oleophobic| | |Multi Touch Input Method, Three Axis Gyro Sensor, |Surface,Accelerometer Sensor for Auto-rotate, | | |MicroSIM card support only, 5 MP Camera, TV-out, |Handwriting recognition,Multi-touch Input Method,5 MP | | |Audio/Video player, Data Transfer 3G, EDGE, GPS, |Camera,MP4 Player,Stereo FM | | |Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HTML Browser, Google Maps |radio,TV-Out,3G,EDGE,GPS,Bluetooth,Wi-Fi ,HTML | | | |Browser,Bada OS | |Operating System |iOS 4 (based on Mac OS) |Bada OS 1. | |Processor Speed |1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX535GPU, |ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor | | |Apple A4 chipset | | |2G network |GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 | |3G network |HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |HSDPA 900 / 2100 | |Dimensions |115. x 58. 6 x 9. 3 mm |123. 9 x 59. 8 x 11. 8 mm | |Weight |137 g |135 g | |Display Size |3. 5 inches, LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive |3. 7 inches,Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M | | |touchscreen, 16M colors |colors | |Resolution |640 x 960 pixels |480 x 800 pixels |Music Player |MP3 ,WAV,AAC, AIFF, AAC Protected, MP3 VBR,Audible |MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player | | |(formats 2-4),Apple Lossless, Music play-Up to 40 | | | |hours | | |Radio |No |Stereo FM r adio with RDS, FM recording | |Camera |5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, |5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash | | |Secondary: video calling camera over Wi-Fi only | | |Video |[email  protected], LED video light, geo-tagging,Video |[email  protected],Video | | |Player-MPEG4, H. 264, MOV |Player-MP4,MKV,H. 263,H. 64,WMV,Xvid,DivX | |Internal |16 GB storage |2 GB storage | |Slot micro sd |No |microSD up to 32GB, 2GB card included | |Battery |Standard battery, Li-Po 1420mAh |Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh | |Talk Time |Up to 14 h (2G) / Up to 7 h (3G) |Up to 13 hours | |Blue Tooth |v2. 1 with A2DP |v3. 0 with A2DP | |USB |v2. 0 |microUSB v2. 0 | |GPRS |Class 10 |Class 10 | |EDGE |Class 10 |Class 10 | |Wlan & Wifi |Wi-Fi 802. 1 b/g/n |Wi-Fi 802. 11 b/g/n | |3G |HSDPA, 7. 2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5. 76 Mbps |HSDPA 3. 6 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps | |GPS |Yes, A-GPS support |A-GPS support, Samsung Mobile Navigator | |Document viewer |Yes(don’t support Microsoft packa ge) |Yes(pdf,word,XL) | |Price per unit |BDT 55000/- |BDT 20000/- | Samsung Wave-II SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths Having the advanced technology over the competitors in the mobile phone industry – Decentralized company structure, innovative and creative employees and Charismatic strong leader – One of the best market leadership in the mobile industry – Strong brand name and company image in the global market – Has its own manufacture and network – Product innovation – Economy of scale Weaknesses – Complacency and arrogance – Few customized operator-specific handsets – Few alliances, company sticks to its standing in the market, do not want to cooperate with the operators Opportunities – The emerging market in developing countries, such as China, India, Bangladesh – The emerging market for high-end mobile phone such as business user phone Threats – Facing more new competitors, especially from Asia – Stronger buyer power from the network operators – Lost market share – Strong competition in mobile industry Objectives We have set aggressive but achievable objectives for the first and second years of market entry. †¢ First-year objectives: During the Samsung wave-II initial year on the market, we are aiming for a 40 percent share of the Bangladesh smart phone market through unit sales volume of 1,00,000 units. †¢ Second-year objectives: Our second-year objectives are to achieve a 60 percent share based on sales of two models and to achieve break-even early in this period. Market Segmentation Our target market is mainly focused on young and professional people with a attraction for technology which is available in a relatively cheap price. There is a customer profile as follows: Age: 14 – 25, 25 – 35, 35 + Gender : Male & Female Family Life Cycle: Young, single, married, married with children, older, under18. Occupation: Professional and technical, managers, officials and proprietors, clerical, sales, craftspeople, supervisor, Operatives, farmers, retired, students, homemakers, unemployed. Social Class: Lower Lowers, upper lowers, working class, middle class, upper middles, upper uppers Monthly income: Below Over10,000 Taka Size of potential market : Total population of Bangladesh. Geographical Location: Rural, Semi-Urban, and Urban User status: Potential user, first time users & regular users Usage rate: Light user, medium user & heavy user. Readiness stage: Aware, informed, interested, desirous and intending to buy Marketing Strategy Positioning In 2007 Samsung Telecommunication Business reported over 40% growth and became the second largest mobile device manufacturer in the world. [1] Its market share was 14% in Q4 2007, growing up form 11. 3% in Q4 2006. [2] In Q1 2008 Samsung strengthened its second position on the market and achieved 15. 6% world handset market share. So as per the concern regarding Bangladesh Samsung is already achieved a good market share after Nokia. Product Strategy †¢ The development of a product with global appeal †¢ Nimble movement to sell it internationally Most importantly, a commitment to learning what consumers want, without consideration of the limits of existing technology †¢ Best mobile devices for everyone regardless the price and geography †¢ Internet services on mobile devices †¢ Business mobility markets †¢ Once the superior business devices are introd uced, Corporate users will take advantage of the stability and innovation †¢ Low cost innovative devices in the emerging markets will generate revenue due to the brand loyalty †¢ Introducing the device for business solutions, superior from its competitors †¢ Giving SDK(software development kit) to the developers to develop more applications on its new OS platform †¢ Introducing low cost ,innovative, devices in the emerging markets †¢ Leading Brand Pricing strategy Samsung Wave-II smart phone will be introduced at BDT 20000/- per unit in compare with Apple-iphone, which costs BDT 55000/- per unit. Though it is not superior than I-phone but it could Outrun some function of I-phone like as we have mentioned in our previous discussion. Distribution Strategy In Bangladesh by selective distributor Samsung could promote the market and also by media Advertisement. Samsung could also promote the consumers with joint co-operation with major Carriers like Grameenphone and Banglalink. Marketing Communication Strategy †¢ At TV Advertisement †¢ At Radio Advertisement: †¢ At Outdoor Advertisement: †¢ At Press Conference: Action Program The Samsung Wave-II will introduce in February 2012. Through a series of scheduled program Samsung will carry out its marketing strategy and achieve its objectives. A monthly basis detail about these programs are given below February 2012 †¢ We will initiate a huge amount trade sales promotion ad. Campaign to educate dealers and generate excitement for the product launch. †¢ Send catalogs & brochures to 50000 likely customers †¢ Set-up showrooms †¢ Provide samples product reviewers, opinion leaders and celebrities as the part of our public relation strategy. †¢ Create own website. March 2012 †¢ Collecting marketing information. Start an integrated print/radio/TV/ Internet campaign targeting consumers. †¢ Launching Samsung Wave-II April 2012 †¢ Study consumer satisfaction and identify opportunities. Budget [pic] Total first-year revenue : Tk. 200 Core sales volume: 100,000 average wholesale price : Tk. 20000/- per unit. Variable c ost per unit : TK 2500 for units Samsung Wave-II projects sales of Tk 60 Lac on 1st quarter and consequently Tk. 60 Lac, Tk. 40 Lac and Tk. 40 Lac Estimated first-year fixed costs: TK. 170 Core Break Even calculation = TK. 1700000000 /TK. (20000-2500) = 97143 Units(approximated) Controls There should be a tight monitoring system in every level of execution from top to bottom. We will carefully monitor customer satisfaction through our product and customer service Center. Any sign of deviation will be corrected through our highly skilled manpower. Further plan has been developed in the context of severe price downgrading. CONCLUSIONS Samsung must rethink its strategies if it is to remain successful. The recent economic slowdown coupled with impending market saturation and the demand for increased functionality, is beginning to dramatically change the handset market. Samsung should take aggressive measures to resist commoditization if it is to grow and continue being profitable. We have outlined some ways that it can accomplish this. Its brand has proven to be one of its most valuable assets, and Samsung should continue building it. Samsung must also thoroughly research evolving customer needs and provide a positive impetus for brand differentiation. Finally, by forming strategic alliances with industry and service providers, Samsung can ensure and maximize its visibility to the end- user. Samsung also needs to bring new products to market, and, as the market is showing signs of saturation, shift its focus onto the replacement market. This means developing data-driven services and appropriate partnerships with content providers. There simply needs to be an incentive for existing handset owners to purchase a new Samusng handset.

How to Handle Adoption in the Family Tree

Almost every adoptee, no matter how much they love their adopted family, experiences a twinge when faced with a family tree chart. Some are unsure whether to trace their adopted family tree, their birth family, or both — and how to handle the differentiation between their multiple families. Others, who for various reasons have no access to their own personal family history prior to their adoption, find themselves haunted —Â  by the family whose names will never be documented in their genealogy, and the family tree somewhere in the world with an empty space on the branch where their name should be. While some people insist that genealogies are only meant to be genetic, most agree that the purpose of a family tree is to represent the family —Â  whatever that family might be. In the case of adoption, the ties of love are generally stronger than ties of blood, so it is absolutely appropriate for an adoptee to research and create a family tree for their adopted family. Tracing Your Adopted Family Tree Tracing the family tree of your adoptive parents works pretty much the same way as tracing any other family tree. The only real difference is that you should clearly indicate that the link is through adoption. This in no way reflects on the bond between you and your adopted parent. It just makes it clear for others who may view your family tree that it is not a bond of blood. Tracing Your Birth Family Tree If youre one of the lucky ones who knows the names and details of your birth parents, then tracing your birth family tree will follow the same path as any other family history search. If however, you do not know anything about your birth family, then you will need to consult a variety of sources — your adoptive parents, reunion registries, and court records for nonidentifying information that may be available to you. Options for Combined Family Trees Since the traditional genealogy chart does not accommodate adoptive families, many adoptees create their own variations to accommodate both their adoptive family as well as their birth family. Any way you choose to approach this is just fine, as long as you make it clear which relationship links are adoptive and which are genetic — something that can be done as simply as using different colored lines. Other options for combining your adopted family with your birth family on the same family tree include: Roots Branches - A slight variation of the typical family tree is a good choice for someone who knows little about their birth family, or who doesnt really want to trace their genetic family history. In this case, you can include the names of your birth parents (if known) as the roots, and then use the branches of the tree to represent your adopted family.Double Family Trees - A good option if you want to include both your adoptive family and your birth family in the same tree is to use one of several variations on the double family tree. One option includes a trunk where you record your name with two sets of branching tops - one for each family. Another option is the double pedigree chart, such as this Adoptive Family Tree from Family Tree Magazine. Some people also like to use a circle or wheel pedigree chart with their name in the center - using one side for the birth family and the other side for the adoptive or foster family.Classroom Alternatives for Young Children - Adoptive Families Together (ATF) has developed a series of free printable worksheets for teachers to use in place of the traditional family tree for classroom assignments. These alternative family trees are appropriate for children of all ages, and can more accurately accommodate a wide variety of family structures. The most important thing for you to keep in mind when faced with creating a family tree is that how you choose to represent your family really doesnt matter that much, as long as you make it evident whether the family links are adoptive or genetic. As for the family whose history you choose to trace - thats an entirely personal decision best left up to you.