Dear Hades,
This is the last month that I will spend on earth with my mum, everything is fine so far but I still feel empty, because you are not by my side.
Although I hated you and felt scared about you when you abducted me rudely at the very beginning. But then I found you handsome, gentle, kind and considertate. Before, the underworld in my mind is a cold and pitiless world, I will no longer laugh happily and my life will be stagnant. But in fact, your humor and romance change the underworld into a sweet home for me. We can barely see plants in this underworld, but everyday, you will find a rose for me by all means. Although the flower will wither sooner in the underworld than on earth(what can we do...here is the world of death), your love make them blossom eternally in my heart.
Before I knew you, the most important person to me was my mum. And to her, I'm the apple of her eye, she can't lose me because I'm all she has. But now you came to the first in my life, the life without you makes me anxious and confused. I can't stand my mother's prattle and overindulge, she is the god of nature and she contribute all her life to make the word full of vatality, but not my world. For god's sake, I'm missing you all the time, your voice, your kiss, your hug. But I still have to stay here, because she needs me.
Well, it won't take so long that we meet again. I'm so excited about it! Take care and I'm looking foward to your reply!
Yours Persephone
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
What's wrong with our education system?
Part1 Comprehension exercise
1. Katherine Birbalsingh believes that there is a problem with UK's education system. Can you identify it within the first three minutes of the video? What is the problem?
The problem is that nowadays children have little sense of responsibility, they always find excuses and accusation and exclusive quotes are not helpful in this case. There is lack of right-wing value in UK's education system, including being responsible to themselves, not allwing children to excuse away bad behavior, holding people to accout for what they do. To improve the system, we need children to know that they are responsible for their school work and competition should be brought back.
2. Why does this problem exist according to this teacher? (from 3 min to 4 min 26 sec)
Because many people find excuses for children when they behave badly, including ADHD, difficult background and angry issues. People usually turn to find an excuse and that became a culture in the end, so we've moved away from the idea that people(both teachers and pupils) should be responsible for themselves.
3. What do the government ministers think about this problem? Who is to blame for the condition? (from 4 min 30 till about 6 min)
They think that they have made efforts to solve the problem, to support the teacher to set disciplines.
And according to their opinion, it's the complaints culture caused by making disciplines to blame for the condition.
4. Which suggestions does Katherine make to improve the system? (6-7 min)
She suggests that since we have the culture of looking after everyone for many years, it need to be more fair for all, people should be held to account for what they do, instead of having a job or having a place in school no matter what they do.
5. Which changes would Katherine make in the education system if she were given a choice? (till the end of the video)
She will let teachers and head teachers to be able to do what necessary to bring about disciplines in their schools and she appeals people to accept that the exams is getting easier now.
Part 2 The problems of the Chinese education system
First of all, I think it's very interesting that the improvements which the teacher in the vedio appeals for exist in the Chinese education system. Most of the students in China study in particular school disciplines and we have always considerable competitions in schools, so the problems is THAT'S TOO MUCH. The chinese students suffer too many disciplines and competitions, and that cause the lack of imagination and creativities. So if these two systems can share each other's strong point, that will be a great combination.
Then I will talk about two major problems in Chinese education system and present my suggestions in the end. The first problem is that chinese teenagers often have much more pressure on studies than teenagers in western countries. Today, in China, students spend most of their time on studies and the competition begins even in primary school. If you have chance to visit Shanghai, maybe you can see poor little pupils with eyeglasses doing their homeworks on the underground, and their school bags can be filled with heavy text books and failed exam papers on which their parents should sign on. And in the other parts of China, the situation can be even worse. Where the pressure comes from? To the children who come from those undeveloped region in China, their work in school can probably change their life, even the destination of the whole family. Good degrees help them to enter the top university and then they can get a well-paid job--people believed in that. And to children from metroplis like Beijing, Shanghai, the desire of fame cause the pressure. Parents and society influence the chidren by a thought that people who fail in school are shameful, they become less competitive and will be badly paid in the future. Even though many "bad students" turn out to be very successful in their jobs, that kind of prejudice still exist. To improve this stuation, I think our society should creat a more fair atmosphere and push the people to change their thought of value: education is not a tool to gain wealth and how much we earn can't decide our value. If we can't change our idea, what we do in improving education system is all in vain, because the children don't know what they really need through the education and what kind of people they want to be in the future, we just keep the poor children poor.
The second problem appears in the higher education system in China. Our campus lacks guides for students, both profession guides and moral guides. People have made an all-out effort to enter the university but they still get confused after graduation. We don't really have a career centre for students who seek a job, and we don't really have tutors who can give practical advice to students who want to further their study. Students work so hard just in order to pass the exam and get the diplom, we have too little chance to get spiritual guides. Although there are many lectures and speeches hold by successul graduates or other successful figures, they seem too far away and the majority of the students can't be really inspired. So I think that we should creat a real career center to help students to prepare for their future from the very beginning of their campus life and the teachers should take the responsibility to give students individual advice. I think students get confused, it's not because they are not active or they are too lazy to take their own responsibility, it's because most of the time, nobody gives them real advice so they have little opportunities to show their potential.
Finally, I think it's really hard to make improvement that can quickly change the reality, so we should keep trying and, step by step, we will be able to make the change and finally let education value our future!
1. Katherine Birbalsingh believes that there is a problem with UK's education system. Can you identify it within the first three minutes of the video? What is the problem?
The problem is that nowadays children have little sense of responsibility, they always find excuses and accusation and exclusive quotes are not helpful in this case. There is lack of right-wing value in UK's education system, including being responsible to themselves, not allwing children to excuse away bad behavior, holding people to accout for what they do. To improve the system, we need children to know that they are responsible for their school work and competition should be brought back.
2. Why does this problem exist according to this teacher? (from 3 min to 4 min 26 sec)
Because many people find excuses for children when they behave badly, including ADHD, difficult background and angry issues. People usually turn to find an excuse and that became a culture in the end, so we've moved away from the idea that people(both teachers and pupils) should be responsible for themselves.
3. What do the government ministers think about this problem? Who is to blame for the condition? (from 4 min 30 till about 6 min)
They think that they have made efforts to solve the problem, to support the teacher to set disciplines.
And according to their opinion, it's the complaints culture caused by making disciplines to blame for the condition.
4. Which suggestions does Katherine make to improve the system? (6-7 min)
She suggests that since we have the culture of looking after everyone for many years, it need to be more fair for all, people should be held to account for what they do, instead of having a job or having a place in school no matter what they do.
5. Which changes would Katherine make in the education system if she were given a choice? (till the end of the video)
She will let teachers and head teachers to be able to do what necessary to bring about disciplines in their schools and she appeals people to accept that the exams is getting easier now.
Part 2 The problems of the Chinese education system
First of all, I think it's very interesting that the improvements which the teacher in the vedio appeals for exist in the Chinese education system. Most of the students in China study in particular school disciplines and we have always considerable competitions in schools, so the problems is THAT'S TOO MUCH. The chinese students suffer too many disciplines and competitions, and that cause the lack of imagination and creativities. So if these two systems can share each other's strong point, that will be a great combination.
Then I will talk about two major problems in Chinese education system and present my suggestions in the end. The first problem is that chinese teenagers often have much more pressure on studies than teenagers in western countries. Today, in China, students spend most of their time on studies and the competition begins even in primary school. If you have chance to visit Shanghai, maybe you can see poor little pupils with eyeglasses doing their homeworks on the underground, and their school bags can be filled with heavy text books and failed exam papers on which their parents should sign on. And in the other parts of China, the situation can be even worse. Where the pressure comes from? To the children who come from those undeveloped region in China, their work in school can probably change their life, even the destination of the whole family. Good degrees help them to enter the top university and then they can get a well-paid job--people believed in that. And to children from metroplis like Beijing, Shanghai, the desire of fame cause the pressure. Parents and society influence the chidren by a thought that people who fail in school are shameful, they become less competitive and will be badly paid in the future. Even though many "bad students" turn out to be very successful in their jobs, that kind of prejudice still exist. To improve this stuation, I think our society should creat a more fair atmosphere and push the people to change their thought of value: education is not a tool to gain wealth and how much we earn can't decide our value. If we can't change our idea, what we do in improving education system is all in vain, because the children don't know what they really need through the education and what kind of people they want to be in the future, we just keep the poor children poor.
The second problem appears in the higher education system in China. Our campus lacks guides for students, both profession guides and moral guides. People have made an all-out effort to enter the university but they still get confused after graduation. We don't really have a career centre for students who seek a job, and we don't really have tutors who can give practical advice to students who want to further their study. Students work so hard just in order to pass the exam and get the diplom, we have too little chance to get spiritual guides. Although there are many lectures and speeches hold by successul graduates or other successful figures, they seem too far away and the majority of the students can't be really inspired. So I think that we should creat a real career center to help students to prepare for their future from the very beginning of their campus life and the teachers should take the responsibility to give students individual advice. I think students get confused, it's not because they are not active or they are too lazy to take their own responsibility, it's because most of the time, nobody gives them real advice so they have little opportunities to show their potential.
Finally, I think it's really hard to make improvement that can quickly change the reality, so we should keep trying and, step by step, we will be able to make the change and finally let education value our future!
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