hmm poor kids

Even though the Ministry of Education has decided they will no longer band schools or reveal top scorers, parents have set up a list of top students on their own in Kiasu Parents forum to find out which school produced the top scorer.

do we emulate finland or are we finished...ok ok...

Why We Can’t, and Shouldn’t, Copy Finland

A popular infographic praising Finland’s education system and beliefs has been circulating around the Internet and popular social media networks. Many commenters became self-acclaimed education experts and decided to impose the Finnish education system into the States and Canada to improve our graduation rates. Through illustrations and somewhat elaborate explanations, it will be easy to see how we cannot, and should not, adopt Finland’s system.

Let’s say you designed an Android app, but you want to earn some money from the Apple market too. You figure that the Apple market has a bigger fanbase, and that means more users would buy your app, hence you can earn more from Apple. Your Android app isn’t selling very well, but you know for sure that Apple fans would buy it like hot cakes. You press Ctrl C from your Android programming code, and you Ctrl V it into the Apple app’s programming code window. After all, you want your app to do the same function on the iOS as it did on Android systems. If you’re aiming for the same goal, why not use the same plan?

Here, you may say that they are completely different systems. The Android system functions differently from the iOS, and hence, will have different programming for each to function properly, even if it  is towards the same goal. This is the same for any social reforms.

You cannot pluck a social system from one country and Ctrl V it into another country. Social systems are created for the country it is housed in: the system Finland has created, and worked (in the sense that they scored well on PISA), targets the problems that Finland had in their previous education system. Finnish education problems are completely different from problems in Canadian or American education. To copy and paste the Finnish system into a foreign country will only incur more disappointment from the public, and further the image of education as a joke and a failure.

Some problems that North America, as a continent, is facing include: poverty, racism, language barriers, social welfare, abortion and other politics of the body, sexism, health care, and same-sex marriages, just to name a few (although the last part mostly pertains to the States). Scandinavia is very advanced in most of the above mentioned issues. Social welfare systems are elaborate and trust-based. They are very open to talk about sexuality and rights of an individual to their own body. Same-sex marriage was legalized long before it was even an issue in the States.

And what of racism and language barriers?

Finland, like other Scandinavian countries, have little to no language problems. This may sound like a utopia, but it does not come for free. Finland’s population is composed of a people (yes, a people) who look alike to each other, and have very similar beliefs and values, especially religion. Many Scandinavian people have similar physical characteristics of the Aryan type. They speak one language as the vernacular: Finnish. They do know English, but Finnish is used the most often, similar to how French is one of the two national languages in Canada, mais il n’y a pas beaucoup de personnes qui parlent en français couramment en Ontario. Finnish and Swedish are the two national languages of Finland, with Finnish being spoken almost everywhere with the exception of Âland.

And what about racism?

Some of you may notice that the picture I have chosen for this post seems to have nothing to do with Finland. He is certainly not Caucasian, nor does he have blonde hair or blue eyes.

Because Finland is ethnically and visually homogeneous for the most part, people of colour, or of any visible difference, are viewed with a more-than-sceptical eye. Although Scandinavia is very progressive in most social aspects, multiculturalism and pluralism of society are not their strong suit. Finland is notoriously known for being xenophobic, particularly the older generations. Younger generations have adopted a more open-minded view on multiple ethnicities, but there are still many under the influence of their elders. The ethnics groups that are most targeted negatively are Black Africans, particularly if they are Somali.

The thumbnail for this post is of a Somali child. This child would not be well-received. However, through my research, I have discovered that the narrow-minded Finns are usually the loudest, while the more open-minded ones are quiet. Openly hostile acts are associated with drunkenness and extremism, so Finns do know how to censor themselves in public.

The treatment of this Somali child in Finland serves as provoking food for thought.

Another implication with this infographic is the statement “Teachers in Finland are all required to have a Master’s degree. Only the top 10% of graduates are accepted into teaching programs”.

The first statement implies that all teachers are made for university and post-grad. However, a teacher who can practice his or her art excellently might only have a B.A., but does this mean that they are substandard? Many excellent, amazing teachers are not doctorates, but they are good teachers because they know the art of communicating effectively so that their audience understands the content. None of this implies that the teacher has an expensive degree in their field. Teaching is about guiding the student so that they can discover the content themselves, and to adopt a way of understanding that benefits them.

What good is a teacher who has a PhD in English, but cannot explain to his or her students their way of thinking? This is the type of system that Americans are currently using: Post-grad students are being prioritized for programs like Teach for America (TFA), but how does that mean that they can teach well? Teaching is about passion, communication, and knowledge, the former two being the most important factors. Teachers do not need to know everything about algebra to teach algebra. Teachers need to use effective communicating strategies that are inclusive to everyone in the classroom.

I am not asserting that a teacher does not need to know anything. Certainly, teachers must have at least basic knowledge in their field for their teachable. However, passion and communication obviously outrank fancy degrees.

Moreover, many people who strive for post-grad do not have teaching in mind. It is difficult to guide someone who is nearly clueless to the field (compared to you and your knowledge) through the basic steps. After all, these basic steps are mundane. Not all post-grads have the personality characteristics to be a teacher either, patience being the biggest one. People who want a post-grad are mostly pursuing the degree for their own benefit to stand out, and not so much to act as a supporter. Teachers are supporters. Teachers need to know when to step back from the action to let the student fall and learn to stand up, and to provide support when the student is unable to do so himself. Post-grad degrees don’t cover this at all.

I have said earlier that we should not copy Finland’s system and put it into Canada and America without tweaking. Each country has their own problems to work out. Canada has a good reputation in the sphere of multiculturalism: our immigration policies are welcoming, and we have many social programs to help immigrants settle and find employment. Finland does not. Many Canadian schools have teachers who promote pluralism and acceptance of other cultures in their classrooms. Finland mostly does not.

Yes, Finland may seem to be nearer the top of the social ladder, but are they? Every country’s education system has flaws, but the difference is how heavily we value these flaws and accomplishments. Canada has multiculturalism to boast of. Finland has high test scores to boast of (although personally, test scores are not the best assessors of student learning at all in my opinion). We need to embrace our achievements and stop seeing ourselves as a country wrought completely with flaws.

We can learn several things from Finland. The infographic states that teachers are as esteemed as their doctors or lawyers. Recognition for one’s work is a powerful motivator, much more than the salary. Reputations of the teaching profession in the UK and US are abysmal: teachers are seen as scum and treated like dirt. The community does not want to partner with the school, and vice versa. Administrations are trying to outdo each other in test scores. Teachers are seen as slaves who should be grateful they have a paycheque at all for teaching 30 kids for 6 hours every weekday. And when they ask for collective bargaining rights, or just their way of handling a classroom? How dare they!

Parents are worried that their child is not receiving the best. And it is true. Their children are not receiving the best because the community and school are not partners in the student’s growth and development. Both parties should sit down and discuss a growth plan that is beneficial for the students as a whole. Treating teachers as partners (rather than as the Devil’s advocates) can only deepen the students’ understanding and further their personal growth.

An interesting point to think about is the reason behind the social face of teachers. Is it because they only accept the top 10% of graduates for teaching programs? We have already discussed these problems earlier. Perhaps we need to figure out another way to boost teacher reputation in society.

Another thing we can learn from Finland, aside from recognizing teachers as partners, is to reduce the emphasis on testing, especially the idea of using tests as assessments of teaching quality. It is ironic at best that a teacher has finally earned his or her B. Ed.,they are still being questioned for their capability in the classroom, with society demanding for more testing. Do we question doctors’ abilities to cure our diseases, even knowing that they are recent graduates? Do we question the plumber working on our pipes, or do we trust them that they know what they are doing?

So why are we not trusting the teachers to know what they are doing, even after obtaining their B. Ed.? A B. Ed. is just as difficult to earn as any other degree that has a practical component, like being a M.D.

Copying Finland is not the answer. We can refer to their model, but we need to either tweak their system to the country’s context, or create a system that addresses to our problems.

After all, it seems useless to try and put an Android app on an iOS.

is education a level playing field

problem

Private education is becoming “increasingly unaffordable” for the middle-classes following a four-fold rise in school fees in little over 20 years, according to a major study.

Parents in traditionally well-paid careers such as accountancy, law, finance and academia are now less likely to afford an independent education than plumbers were in the early 90s, it emerged.

In a report, it was claimed that the rise in school fees had outstripped wages by such an extent that private schools were increasingly becoming the preserve of super-rich foreigners.

solution

However, Janette Wallis, senior editor of the Guide, said schools were “increasingly aware that if they do not want to end up with their schools stripped of British children they need to rein in fee increases”.

2013, the number of pupils recruited from Russia increased by 27 per cent, while entrants from Nigeria were up 16 per cent and Chinese admissions grew by five per cent.

“The international market may be relatively immune to fee rises, but few British families are,” she said. “No school wants to end up as a finishing school for the super-rich.”

The Guide revealed evidence of schools going to extra lengths to ensure that British parents are not excluded from independent education for financial reasons, including some actually cutting fees.

It emerged that:

• Warminster School in Wiltshire has set up a scheme – primarily aimed at families living in London and the surrounding area – to provide weekly boarding. Under the programme, parents can receive a discount of up to £9,000 off annual £25,590 boarding fees for week night accommodation, with a travel service also being provided to and from the capital;

• Milton Abbey in Dorset has taken the unusual step of actually cutting its fees for day pupils by £6,000 a year from September, making them more appealing to families who live within commuting distance of the school;

• Large numbers of schools are charging higher fees to international students, including a number of institutions that only make scholarships available to children from British families.

Mrs Wallis said: “Schools are very conscious that it is the ‘English’ nature of the top traditional schools that most families from abroad want.

“British boarding may cease to be so attractive to overseas parents if there are no British families there to rub shoulders with.”

do you appreciate your government?

 In California public education has been starved of money. Many teachers even provide their own classroom supplies

HOPE THIS IS USEFUL KIDDOS

STUDY SMART...

HOW TO STUDY SMART!

Don't just re-read your notes and readings

1 "One good technique to use instead is to read once, then quiz yourself, either using questions at the back of a textbook chapter, or making up your own questions. Retrieving that information is what actually produces more robust learning and memory.

 "And even when you can't retrieve it — when you get the questions wrong — it gives you an accurate diagnostic on what you don't know, and this tells you what you should go back and study. This helps guide your studying more effectively.

"Asking questions also helps you understand more deeply. Say you're learning about world history, and how ancient Rome and Greece were trading partners. Stop and ask yourself why they became trading partners. Why did they become shipbuilders, and learn to navigate the seas? It doesn't always have to be why — you can ask how, or what.

"In asking these questions, you're trying to explain, and in doing this, you create a better understanding, which leads to better memory and learning. So instead of just reading and skimming, stop and ask yourself things to make yourself understand the material."

2 "Another strategy is, during a second reading, to try relating the principles in the text to something you already know about. Relate new information to prior information for better learning.

"One example is if you were learning about how the neuron transmits electricity. One of the things we know if that if you have a fatty sheath surround the neuron, called a myelin sheath, it helps the neuron transmit electricity more quickly.

3 "A great strategy is making diagrams, or visual models, or flowcharts. In a beginning psychology course, you could diagram the flow of classical conditioning. Sure, you can read about classical conditioning, but to truly understand it and be able to write down and describe the different aspects of it on a test later on — condition, stimulus, and so on — it's a good idea to see if you can put it in a flowchart.

"Anything that creates active learning — generating understanding on your own — is very effective in retention. It basically means the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."

4 Flashcards are another good way of doing this. And one key to using them is actually re-testing yourself on the ones you got right.

KEEPING A CORRECT CARD IN THE DECK AND ENCOUNTERING IT AGAIN IS MORE USEFUL

"A lot of students will answer the question on a flashcard, and take it out of the deck if they get it right. But it turns out this isn't a good idea — repeating the act of memory retrieval is important. Studies show that keeping the correct item in the deck and encountering it again is useful. You might want to practice the incorrect items a little more, but repeated exposure to the ones you get right is important too.

"It's not that repetition as a whole is bad. It's that mindless repetition is bad."

5 "A lot of students cram — they wait until the last minute, then in one evening, they repeat the information again and again. But research shows this isn't good for long term memory. It may allow you to do okay on that test the next day, but then on the final, you won't retain as much information, and then the next year, when you need the information for the next level course, it won't be there.

PRACTICE A LITTLE BIT ONE DAY, THEN TWO DAYS LATER

"This often happens in statistics. Students come back for the next year, and it seems like they've forgotten everything, because they crammed for their tests.

"The better idea is to space repetition. Practice a little bit one day, then put your flashcards away, then take them out the next day, then two days later. Study after study shows that spacing is really important."

PUNCH LINE

Want to Hold On to a Memory?

A new study says it may be as simple as making a fist

APRIL 29, 2013

By Maia Szalavitz for TIME

Print

SAMI SARKIS—GETTY IMAGES

A new study says making a fist can help improve memory.

Getting a grip—literally— can boost your memory, according to a new study. Here’s how: Clench your right fist before taking in new information that you want to remember. Then clench your left fist when you want to remember it later.  

This strange trick may work because clenching your hands activates the side of the brain that handles memory. For example, in right handed people, the left side of the brain is primarily responsible for storing information while the right side of the brain is responsible for recalling memory. (If you are left-handed, the opposite applies).

Putting It to the Test

To test this idea, researchers led by Ruth Propper of Montclair State University in New Jersey studied 50 right-handed college students. Most of them were women. They were given a list of 36 words to remember. They were also given a small pink ball to clench.

One group clenched the ball twice for 45 seconds each with their right hands before memorizing the words. Then they did the same with their left hands before writing down as many words as they could remember. Another group performed the same task but reversed the order of the fists they made. Two other groups used the same hand each time, one group using the left and the other, the right. A final group didn’t clench the ball at all but held it gently in both hands each time.

JOHSUA HODGE PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES

What tricks do you use to study for tests?

The group that started with the right hand performed the best on the memory test. In doing so, they activated the left side of their brains, which helps store memory, and then clenched their left hand, activating the right side of the brain as they recalled the information.  

“The findings suggest that some simple body movements— by temporarily changing the way the brain functions— can improve memory,” Propper said in a statement describing the results, which were published in the online science journal PLoS One.

Participants recalled an average of ten words if they clenched their right hand for storing information and their left hand for recalling information. People in the group that used the opposite clenching pattern recalled an average of six words.

If you’re preparing to make fists while studying for a test or practicing a speech, the researchers say more work is needed to figure out whether this technique would actually be useful. In the meantime, however, it probably couldn’t hurt. But you would have to remember which hand to use for which step in the process.

malala goes back to school

On March 19, Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old Pakistani student and women’s-education activist, returned to the classroom on for the first time since being violently attacked by a member of the Taliban on October 9, 2012. Malala was shot on her way home from school in Mingora, Pakistan. The Taliban group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) took responsibility for the attack. The group said the attack should serve as a warning to others. TTP’s members follow a strict version of Islam and believe girls should not go to school. Malala was targeted because she is vocal about girls’ rights to education in Swat Valley, Pakistan.

AFP/GETTY IMAGES/NEWSCOM

Malala recovers from the attack at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.

After a long period of recovery, Malala is starting as a ninth-year student at Edgbaston High School. It is the oldest independent girls school in Birmingham, England. Though she has no concrete plans to return to Pakistan, Malala still speaks out as a voice for change in her country, and everywhere. “I am excited that today I have achieved my dream of going back to school. I want all girls in the world to have this basic opportunity,” Malala said in a statement. “I miss my classmates from Pakistan very much but I am looking forward to meeting my teachers and making new friends here in Birmingham.”

Malala’s Journey

Malala has been an Internet blogger, or writer, since she was 11 years old. In 2011 she was awarded Pakistan’s National Peace Award for her bravery in writing about the difficulties of life and education in the shadow of the Taliban. She has spoken publicly about children’s rights and been nominated for an international children’s peace prize.

After the attack in 2012, support for Malala poured in from around the world. The United Nations declared November 10 Malala Day. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the day honors Malala and shows the world that people of all sexes, all backgrounds and all countries stand behind her.

THE NEW FACE OF TERRORISM

The two brothers suspected of the Boston bombings, Chechens who grew up in America, fit the profile of a new generation of jihadists who are radicalized online and strike in their home countries.

 "It seems the issue here is less that they conducted training in camps or not and radicalized in Chechnya, and more that they were involved in a social media radicalization," he said prior to the arrest of Dzhokhar.

Some say  the uprooting of young people at an early age can make them more vulnerable to being radicalized in later years.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev had a YouTube page in his name, created in August 2012, where he favorited several Islamist videos in a category entitled "terrorism."
It had links to videos of a radical Australian preacher, Feiz Mohammad, and a playlist entitled "terrorists," according to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group.
Fiona Hill, a Caucasus specialist at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the conflict in Chechnya is used as a recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda.
"Videos from Chechnya are all over the Internet. They're constantly packaged as part of the Al-Qaeda network recruitment," she said.
Dzhokhar used Twitter and VKontakte -- the Russian equivalent of Facebook -- where his profile identifies "Islam" as his world view, lists information about Chechnya and Islam, and relates jokes about the unfair treatment of Muslims in the Caucasus.
Ben Wittes, an expert on terrorism and national security at Brookings, said the attack in Boston could be construed as domestic but have international resonance.


 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

1 IS IT FAIR TO BLAME THE MEDIA?
2 YOU MUST BE PRETTY GULLIBLE TO BE RADICALISED ONLINE?
3 ARE THEY ALREADY PREDISPOSED TO SUCH VIOLENCE AND HATRED?
4 WERE THE PARENTS ANTI- AMERICAN?
5 HOW IS IT THAT AN AMERICAN EDUCATION DID NOT HELP MAKE THEM MORE MODERATE?

WHO IS TO BLAME? OR SHOULD WE FOCUS OF WORKING ON HOW TO PREVENT A RECURRENCE OF SUCH A HEINOUS CRIME?

for gamers....good news

Britain is launching a new spy recruitment drive
aimed at youngsters with no university degree
but with a grasp of social media and gaming
the aim - to train the next generation of code breakers and
computer scientists to protect the country against cyber threats

suggestion for poverty reduction

When Uganda cut school fees by $16 per year (60 percent), enrollment nearly doubled, with most of the increase in enrollment being girls. Smith pointed out that research shows that educating girls increases average productivity more than does educating boys. The cost for this proposed solution is $5.4 billion per year.

Are you Oxbridge material? Here's how you can tell...

If you could attempt an answer to any of these questions then you might want to consider applying to study at Oxford or Cambridge. With nearly 29,000 students competing for 6,500 places every year competition for places at Oxford and Cambridge is intense.
• Why don't we just have one ear in the middle of our face?
• What percentage of the world's water is contained in a cow?
• Of all 19th-century politicians, who was most like Tony Blair?
• Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it. (Biological sciences, Oxford.)
• Are you cool? (Philosophy, politics and economics, Oxford.)
• At what point is a person "dead"? (Medicine, Cambridge.)
• Put a monetary value on this teapot. (Philosophy, politics and economics, Oxford.)
• Why can't you light a candle in a spaceship? (Physics, Oxford.)
Spokesman for the universities:
"Applicants should be aware that it might be in the interest of commercial companies to create the impression that the admissions interview at Oxford colleges is 'eccentric'. This is not the case. The aim of the interview is to assess each candidate's ability and potential on an individual basis," she said.
"What our admissions tutors are looking for is how well candidates can explain what they know, and whether they can apply their knowledge to a new problem or argue their position."
A Cambridge spokesman said: "There's no need to have special training for Cambridge interviews. Indeed, applicants who are 'over-rehearsed' tend to come across less well than students who are natural and spontaneous."


THIS IS REALLY FUN - IF WE ONLY WE HAD TIME - WE SHOULD CONTEMPLATE SUCH QUESTIONS DURING GP

THIS IS WHAT I WISH I COULD TELL EVERY LITTLE CHILD

BEFORE THE EDUCATION SYSTEM TELLS YOU THAT YOU ARE STUPID; CANNOT MAKE IT; NOT ACADEMICALLY INCLINED - PLEASE READ THIS......

YOU ARE A GENIUS AT SOMETHING! DO NOT LET ANYONE TELL U OTHERWISE...
AND MY PRAYER FOR YOU IS - YOU FIND THAT GENIUS IN YOU - AND DO SOMETHING RELATED TO IT... AND WORK WILL BE ONE LONG HAPPY HOLIDAY...

sounds good - shouldn't this be part of our "teach less learn more" initiative

As Budgets Are Trimmed, Time in Class Is Shortened
Published: July 5, 2011

After several years of state and local budget cuts, thousands of school districts across the nation are gutting summer-school programs, cramming classes into four-day weeks or lopping days off the school year, even though virtually everyone involved in education agrees that American students need more instruction time.

Save the Children

One in three women worldwide gives birth without expert help, a study from UK charity Save the Children suggests.

It said if a global shortage of 350,000 midwives were met, more than one million babies a year could be saved.

Some 1,000 women and 2,000 babies died every day from easily preventable birth complications - Afghanistan was the worst place to have a baby, it said.

The charity urged world leaders to show the political will to improve access to midwives and healthcare globally.
Save the Children, which is launching a campaign for more midwives, said more babies in poorer countries died from lack of oxygen at birth than from malaria.

It said women in the poorest countries were the least likely to have a skilled attendant present at delivery, were much more likely to lose their child and were the most likely to die during childbirth.
Save the children
n the UK - where there are 749,000 births a year - there are 26,825 working midwives, while in Rwanda, where 400,000 babies are born a year, there are only 46.

ONLY IN AMERICA!!!! how far would they go?

No, it wasn't a Monty Python sketch. A human sexuality class really did get a live sex show in an auditorium at Chicago's Northwestern University.

The topic of the day was bondage, swinging and other fetishes. Then, after the class was officially dismissed, students were told they could stick around for a demonstration of sex toys and the female orgasm.

About 100 students -- and apparently one of their mothers who was sitting in on the class that day -- were in the auditorium when an exhibitionist couple offered to perform.Most stayed to watch as the woman undressed on stage and her male partner brought her to orgasm with a device that looked like a machine-powered saw with a phallic object instead of a blade.

"It is probably something I will remember for the rest of my life," said student Justin Smith, 21."I can't say that about my Econ 202 class and the material that I learned there."

Once the demonstration began, Smith said, "there was a lot of covering of the mouth like 'Oh my gosh.' It was pretty quiet.... I didn't really see people take affront, but they were engaged with the experience."Faith Kroll, 25, said she had planned to simply answer questions and show off her sex toys but was game to demonstrate in the flesh after the students were shown an "absurd, clinical" video.

"One of the students asked what my specific fetish was and mine is being in front of people, having the attention and being used," she told the Chicago Sun-Times. "The students seemed really intrigued."Psychology professor John Michael Bailey said he initially hesitated, but decided to allow the public sex act.

"My hesitation concerned the likelihood that many people would find this inappropriate," he wrote in a statement. "My decision to say 'yes' reflected my inability to come up with a legitimate reason why students should not be able to watch such a demonstration."The university initially defended the risque display, with a spokesman saying in a statement that it "supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge" even though some of the topics may be "controversial."

But as the news went viral Thursday, the university's president issued a statement saying he was "troubled and disappointed by what occurred.""I feel it represented extremely poor judgment on the part of our faculty member," Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro said.

"I have directed that we investigate fully the specifics of this incident, and also clarify what constitutes appropriate pedagogy, both in this instance and in the future."

well, they have crossed the line...It is in bad taste, practically pornographic...
but then again, aren't some people getting a daily dose of this on-line? Well, that may be the case...but as far as possible, let' keep some things private...as long as we can before the tsunami of decadence and openness sweeps over us...


again i lament the loss of innocence

EDUCATION AND LIES,,,IS THIS WHAT TWAIN MEANT WHEN HE SAID LYIN SHOULD BE CULTIVATED

a list of some of the most egregious lies in textbooks around the globe. Here's some of the best propaganda:

Saudi Arabian textbooks, on the subject of religion:
"Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words (Islam, hellfire): Every religion other than _______ is false. Whoever dies outside of Islam enters _______."

Russian textbooks, on the subject of Russian history:
"[Josef Stalin] acted entirely rationally -- as the guardian of a system, as a consistent support of reshaping the country into an industrialized state."

Chinese textbooks, on the subject of World War II:
"The fundamental reason for the [Allied victory] is that the Chinese Communist Party became the core power that united the nation."

However, those of us in America probably shouldn't cast the first stone. Our Spanish textbooks and our lessons about Thanksgiving are hardly the stuff of pure objective truth.



Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/08/how-do-textbooks-around-the-world-lie-to-children/#ixzz11IQsPg7g

BULLYING AND SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES..WHATEVER IS BECOMING OF OUR YOUTH

HOW I LONG FOR HE GOOD OLD DAYS...WHEN WE LOOKED AT A BEAUTIFUL GIRL WHO HAD ALL SHE WANTED...AND JUST CURSED UNDER OUR BREATH AND BLAMED OUR KARMA

The tragedy is now a global parable: a cute Irish girl moves to a new town — South Hadley, Mass. — and starts dating a popular football player. Other girls, alpha girls, get jealous. They taunt her, cross out her picture on a student-body poster, fling abuse on Facebook. It goes on for months; her mother tries to get the school to do something. Finally, on Jan. 14, after a day when she was allegedly harassed in the library, in the hallways and on her way home from school — a canned drink thrown at her, and the words "You Irish slut, you Irish whore" — Phoebe Prince went home, picked out a scarf her sister had given her for Christmas and hanged herself in a stairwell. Her sister found her. The mean girls? They logged on and mocked her death.

TECHNOLOGY IS CERTAINLY A VISCIOUS TOOL

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1978773,00.html#ixzz11IJYnKwM

HOMOSEXUALITY, BULLYING AND SUICIDE

People were not always nice to 13-year-old Seth Walsh. Neither his valiant younger brother Shawn, nor his family could protect him from what they insist was chronic teasing. Even before Seth came out as a gay, family and friends claim that he was perpetually picked on for his mannerisms and his style of dressing. The bullying turned Seth Walsh to suicide, one of the spate of such deaths across the country in the last two weeks.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2023083,00.html#ixzz11IIj0gLo

abt reading and knowing...

THIS IS A POSSIBLE CONCLUSION...IT SHOWS A PERSONAL VOICE, AND CONVICTION...AND IT IS RELEVANT TO ALL OF US


the education that we get in PRIMARY school and college is really just the first step out of many thousands of steps that we ought to take in the lifelong process of teaching ourselves, of being educated by what other people are doing, what's happening in the world; being educated by staying intellectually alive, staying alert to everything that's going on out there. This is the imperative; this is what we should all be deeply engaged in, always.

ROLE OF THE INDIVIDUAL...WHATEVER THE ISSUE

2004 article - according to recent articles - not so common now

South Korean parents are turning to surgery to give their children a leg up in mastering the English language.

The problem for the youngsters is sorting out L and R surrounds which they find difficult to pronounce.

Now, doctors can snip the thin tissue under the tongue to make it longer and supposedly nimbler even though the government discourages the operation.

The National Human Rights Commission has made a movie to scare the public into ceasing the practice.

It shows a young mother, obsessed with her son’s pronunciation at the kindergarten’s all-English Christmas play, rushing him to the clinic.

The boy screams as the mother and nurses hold him down, the mother insisting: “It’s all for his future.”

“Many viewers close their eyes at the surgery scenes,” said director Park Jin-pyo, who used footage from a real operation. “I wanted them to see how our society tramples our children’s human rights in the name of their future.”

The English craze among pre-school children took off in 2000 when the government made English classes mandatory from third grade.

Flawless English was once ridiculed as snobbish and even unpatriotic. Now it’s a status symbol and prized by business and colleges.

“Many parents have an illusion that good English could change their children’s lives,” said Song Young-hye, who runs Wonderland, one of the thousands of English language schools that have mushroomed in South Korea’s multi-billion English-teaching industry.

The procedure called a frenulotomy is used in the West in cases where the tissue under the tongue is abnormal and causes a speech impediment. No statistics exist on how many Korean children undergo go it. While local media say it is widespread in Seoul’s wealthier districts, doctors call the reports exaggerated.

Doctors scoff at the notion that the Korean tongue is too short or too inflexible for proper English, noting that thousands of Korean-Americans speak unaccented English without surgery.

“Doing the surgery on a normal kid just for English pronunciation doesn’t make anatomical sense at all,” says Park Bom-chung at Seoul’s Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital.

The operation takes 20 to 30 minutes under local anaesthetic.