Archive for May, 2010
Children Better In The Countryside than In A City?
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 29th, 2010
There are advantages and disadvantages to a childhood in either the country or a city. It’s hard to say which is better. Growing up in the country means a certain amount of isolation. You’re in a small town or on a armband not with a lot of people. Even more important, the people you meet everyday tend to be just like you. Most will be the same race as you, have the same background as you, and will have gone to the same school as you. In the city, the people you meet are different. There are different races and different cultures. You get a more interesting mix.
City people tend to come from a lot of different places and move around a lot. So, there isn’t the sense of community in the city that you have in the country. People in the city can live in the same apartment building for twenty years and never get to know their neighbors. In the country, everybody knows everybody. For a child, this means the country is more secure. A child can get lost or hurt in the city and have no one to turn to. In the country, everyone’s a neighbor. People in the country feel connected to each other.
A child growing up in the city has the advantages of a lot of interesting and exciting place to visit. He or she can go to the zoo, museum, art galleries and concerts. There are a lot of restaurants with different kinds of food. It’s easy to see every new movie that comes out. Child in the country don’t have a lot of these activities nearby.
All in all, I think a childhood in the city is better because it prepares you more for what real life is like.
A Private Teacher Is Necessory?
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 28th, 2010
Most of us can learn how to do something simple on our own with just a set of instructions. However, to learn about something more complex, it’s always best to have a teacher.
Teachers bring with them varied and useful backgrounds. They’ve been trained to teach individuals in different ways depending on their style. For instance, omen students learn better by discussing a topic. Others learn more by writing about it. Teachers can help students learn in the way that’s best of each student. A textbook or a manual can only give you one way of learning something. Plus they’re only as helpful as your ability to understand them. A good teacher can adapt her teaching to your needs.
Teachers help you focus on what you’re learning. If you’re learning something by yourself, it’s easy to become distracted, and go on to other activities. Teachers keep your attention on the subject. They also approach a subject logically, taking it one step at a time. On your own, it’s tempting to skip parts of the learning process you think you don’t need. That can binder your ability to really understand the subject.
Learning a subject on your own is a very narrow way of learning. You can only use the information you get from the textbook. With a teacher, you get the information in the written materials as well as the teacher’s own knowledge of the topic. Teachers can also provide extra materials to broaden the scope of what you’re learning.
There’s nothing wrong with studying on your own, and a learner can always benefit from some quiet study. For the best possible learning, though, a good teacher is the biggest help you can have.
Knowledge Is At Class?
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 24th, 2010
Some people may believe that going to classes should be optional, but I disagree. I don’t understand how university students can expect to learn anything if they don’t attend classes. Personal experience can help people learn about themselves and the world outside the classroom, but when it comes to learning about academic subjects, students need to be in class.
In class they receive the benefit of the teacher’s knowledge. The best teachers do more than just go over the material in than class textbook. They draw their students into discussion of the material. They present opposing points of view. They schedule guest speakers to come, give the students additional information, or show documentary films on the subject.
Also, attending classes on any subject teaches more than just facts. It teaches students how to learn, how to absorb information and then apply what they’ve learned to other situations. Their teacher is the best one to help them with these skills. They can’t learn them just by reading the textbook.
Going to class also teaches students how to work with the other members of the class. Many times students will be given group assignments. This is different from what they did in secondary school. Here they’re with people from different backgrounds and experiences. In this situation, they learn how to handle working with people different from themselves to achieve a common goal.
Going to class also teaches students responsibility and discipline. Having to be at a particular place at a particular time prepares them for getting a job. Being at a place on time with an assignment completed prepares them for a career.
In short, by going to class students learn more than just information from the teacher. They also learn how to learn, how to work with others, and how to work responsibly. These are not optional skills in life, so attending classes should not be optional in college.
Libraries First
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 22nd, 2010
I disagree strongly with the idea that the same amount of money should go to university sports activities as to university libraries. Although playing sports is a wonderful way to learn about teamwork, strategy and reaching your goals, it should not be the principal focus of a university education.
Students need the most up-to-date library facilities available to get the best education. Many of those facilities are very expensive to buy and maintain. These include computerized programs and access to internet research databases that students can use to find information all around the world. If a university is only offering its students resources of a decade ago, it’s depriving those students of a tremendous amount of information.
Even the book and magazine budget of universities has gone up tremendously in last decade. More is being published on every subject, and every university wants to have this information available to its students.
It also costs money for universities to keep their libraries open. Students need to have access to all the libraries’ research tools as much of time as possible. Because students are young and can stay up all night studying, many universities are starting to leave their libraries open all night during exam periods. This costs money, because the staff has to be paid extra to be there. It also costs money to run the building (electricity, heat) during that time.
Students at universities are only going to benefit from their education if they can get to all the tools they need to learn. Sports are secondary to the resources that students need from university libraries. For this reason, libraries should always be better funded than sport activities.
Television Killes Communication Between Us
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 21st, 2010
Some people believe that television has destroyed communication among friends and family. I think this is an exaggeration. In my opinion, whether or not television hurts communication depends on what type of program is being viewed. More importantly, it depends on the type of viewer.
There are empty programs and educational programs. Empty programs do not challenge people. They have just enough storyline to keep them from switching channels. There are also passive and active viewers. A passive viewer will just watch television without thinking about what be or she seeing. The combination of an empty program and a passive viewer makes communication unlikely. Passive viewers just continue to watch, actually enjoying the fact that they don’t have to think. They won’t break away to talk about programming with friends and family. Even with better programming, passive viewers still won’t think or communicate much. The probably even prefer the empty program because the better programming is too much work.
On the other hand, active viewers watching educational programming always want to share what they see with friends and family. “Educational” doesn’t necessarily mean documentaries on BBS. They could be dramas with realistic relationships or action shows with clever plotlines. When active viewers watch programs, they have ideas and talk about them with others. Good programming inspires them to change their thinking and their lives. Unlike passive viewers, they don’t want to watch more and more without thinking.
Television may destroy communication among passive viewers. Those viewers probably don’t want to communicate with friends and family much anyway. For active viewers who already enjoy communicating, television is actually helpful!
Priority Gives The Economy or The Environment?
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 20th, 2010
A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near my community. It certainly takes the advantages and disadvantages of this new influence on the whole community. Shall I support or oppose the factory?
New factories often bring many good things to a community, such as jobs and increased prosperity. However, in my opinion, the benefits of having a factory are outweighed by the risks. That is why I oppose the plan to build a factory near my community.
I believe that this city would be harmed by a large factory. In particular, a factory would destroy the quality of the air and water in town. Factories bring smog and pollution. In the long run, the environment will be hurt and people’s health will be affected. Having a factory is not worth that rise.
Of course, more jobs will be created by the factory. Our population will grow. To accommodate more workers, more homes and stores will be needed. Do we really want this much growth, so fast? If our town is going in growth, I would prefer slow growth with good planning. I don’t want to see rows of cheaply constructed townhouses. Our quality of life must be considered.
I believe that this growth will change our city too much. I love my hometown because it is a safe, small town. It is also easy to travel here. If we must expand to hold new citizens, the small-town feel will be gone. I mould miss that greatly.
A factory would be helpful in some ways. However, I feel that the dangers are greater than the benefits. I cannot support a plan to build a factory here, and hope that others feel the same way.
Parents Are The Best Teachers？
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 19th, 2010
Throughout my life, I have been lucky enough to have a very good relationship with my parents. They have supported me, given me necessary criticism, and taught me a great deal about how to live my life. Parents can be very important teachers in our lives; however, they are not always the best teachers.
Parents may be too close to their children emotionally. Sometimes they can only see their children though the eyes of a protector. For example, they may limit a child’s freedom in the name of safety. A teacher might see a trip to a big city as a valuable new experience. However, it might seem too dangerous to a parent.
Another problem is that parents may expect their children’s interests to be similar to their own. They can’t seem to separate from their children in their mind. If they love science, they may try to force their child to love science too. But what if their child’s true love is art, or writing, or car repair?
Parents are usually eager to pass on their value to their children. But should children always believe what their parents do? Maybe different generations need different ways of thinking. When children are young, they believe that their parents are always rights. But when they get older, they realize there are other views. Sometimes parents, especially older ones, can’t keep up with rapid social or technology changes. A student who has friends of all different races and backgrounds at school may find that her parents don’t really understand or value the digital revolution. Sometimes kids have to find their own ways to what they believe in.
The most important thing to realize is that we all have many teachers in our lives. Our parents teach us, our teachers teach us, and our peers teach us. Books and newspapers and television also teach us. All of them are valuable.
Striking
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 7th, 2010
Strikes are very common in Britain. They are extremely harmful to its industries. In fact, there are other countries in Western Europe that lose more working days through strikes every year than Britain. The trouble with the strikes in Britain is that they occur in essential industries. There are over 495 unions in Britain. Some unions are very small. Over 20 have more than 100,000 members. Unions do not exist only to demand higher wages. They also educate their members. They provide benefits for the sick and try to improve working conditions. Trade unioners say that we must thank the unions for the great improvement in working conditions in the last hundred years. It is now against the law for union members to go on strike without the support of their union. This kind of strike is called the unofficial strike and was common until recently. Employers feel that unofficial strikes were most harmful because they would not be predicted. However, these unofficial strikes still occur from time to time and some unions have also refused to cooperate with the law. As a result, the general picture of the relations between workers and employers in Britain has gone from bad to worse.
college education
Posted by admin in news in my view on May 6th, 2010
The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become “better” people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don’t go.
But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don’t fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other’s experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out-often encouraged by college administrators.
Some observers say the fault! Is with the young people themselves-they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that’s a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn’t explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We’ve been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can’t absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.
Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy (异端邪说) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.