Individualism at school

ĐỀ 30/7/2011

Some people think that the main purpose of schools is to teach children to become good citizens and workers, rather than benefiting them as individuals. Agree or disagree?

INDIVIDUALISM AT SCHOOL :

ADVENTAGES:

-         With no restriction, children feel relaxed and study more effectively

-         Not being affected by community, people seem to be more creative to come up with new ideas.

DISADVENTAGES:

-         Putting their own needs over others’ reduce community’s performance

-         New ideas serve minority will not be sponsored.

The mission of education children is far from easy. Some people believe that at school, the inculcation of ethical lessons in children to become useful citizens is necessary while others claim that each individual should learn to benefit himself first at school. I partly agree with the latter view for the following reasons.

First, it is argued that the priority of education of the youngsters towards their needs is psychologically conducive to their learning. It is likely that with no restriction which entails them to follow moral codes of the society, they feel relaxed and study more effectively. Is it true? Can a class achieve its high efficaciousness when each individual, because of putting their needs over others, for instance, goes to class late or forgets to do home work? Only in a disciplined environment which emphasizes their obedience to the community code can they learnt the lesson to get along with others and become confident in their work environment in the future.

The second reason in support of individualism in education at school is to encourage children to find out their inner desire. It is argued that not being affected by the herd voice, they discover what truly want in this life and come up with revolutionary inventions to change the world, like the case of Thomas Edison. However, under no circumstance can such inventions gain the support if they are only to serve the individual need of the creators and some minorities. Facts have shown that their success roots from the community purpose that is to enhance the quality of life for all. Another point is that if individualism was to be worshipped, for the sake of profit, youngsters could become businessmen without ethics or monopoly- like environment in business would take shape, leading to the prevalence of low-quality products. Also, when it comes to the solution to the global issues, say, environment, epidemics and political conflicts, can the individuals who only benefit themselves play a part?

All things considered, the purpose of education should harmonize between individual and community needs to produce citizens who can follow the moral codeto become useful citizens, and at the same time, pursue their own interest to add more color to their world.

Telecommunication means no need for going to work and learning at school ??

ĐỀ 19/3/2011

Telecommunication means no need for going to work and learning at school. Agree of disagree ?

AGREE

-         Connect people

-         Stay at home and do may work at the same time

DISAGREE

-         Disturbed by children, games

-         Multi-tasking leads to greater stress

-         Physical ills because of telecommunication

-         People become self-centered and alienated

-         School is better environment for students while technology and internet affect them adversely.

The boom of technology is conducive to diversifying our workplace than ever. It is quite a common scene that there are people making money through phone contacts and online systems, which leads some people to believe that paperless officies and schools arrive. I, however, totally disagree with this idea.

Admittedly, the appearance of telecommunication is seen as an effective way to connect people from all walks of life. Workers can stay at home, finish their tasks while baby-sitting, especially female ones who can grow more versatile by dint of applying the internet. Besides, students are able to create online conferences with their friends, debating their academic problems and receiving frequent feedbacks within seconds from their beloved teachers.

Undeniably, telecommunication is gaining its popularity, but that does not mean that it can totally replace the role of social working places. At home, it is, highly likely that workers can be disturbed by children’s crying or involved in time-wasting online games, while their work deadline is calling their name. Also, according to social studies, despite the fact that people grow multi-tasking, by virtue of telecommunication, their tasks are mixed randomly, which results in their greater stress. At the same time, an escalating number of people who undergo a series of physical ills, such as digestive problems, hypertension and insomnia are officially recorded, as a result of telecommunication overload. With the dearth of face-to-face conversations, modern people, too, become more self-centered and alienated from each other. It is believed that technology, say, telecommunication is not the first catalyst, but it actually exacerbates this connection. In this case, how could people obtain mutual sympathy to reach the zenith of work deals? Ironically, such technology is born to facilitate our work, but eventually, makes us less producive.

Students and children themselves are barely spared the ills of telecommunication-related diseases. For its optimum benefit in physically connecting people through soulless windows, students are currently having less need to go to school and bury themselves in the screen of computers, yet they are sure to find something missing in their life. What is it? It is irrefutable that school is not the single-place for students to attend lectures, rather a social destination where they can enhance other skills, for instance, communication, physical practice through sports activities and team-spirit, which can never be nurtured through the instructions of steel cables. Even worse, burying themselves in the virtual world, little children might be disoriented, injected with unfiltered information, like violence scenes, and gradually become distant to the real-world. Surveys have shown that since the burgeoning of technology, there are an increasing number of children that suffer from autism, grow aggressive and passive in thinking as well.

All in all, telecommunication flattens the world, yet ironically, can breakdown people’s connection in pieces, if abused. Schools and offices are here to stay, in accordance to their growing presence.

-         Diversify (v) đa dạng hóa

-         Versatile (adj) linh hoạt, tháo vát, đa năng

-         Alienate + from = isolate + from (v) xa lánh, cô lập

-         Exacerbate (v) làm tệ hại hơn, xấu hơn

-         Optimum (n)(adj) tối ưu, điều kiện tốt nhất, điều kiện thuận lợi nhất

-         Single-place (n) ngồi 1 chỗ

-         Irrefutable (adj) không thể bác bỏ được

-         Burgeon (n) chồi cây  (v) đâm chồi, nảy nở, phát triển nhanh

Government should free universitiy fees ??

ĐỀ 17-08-2013

In some countries, students have to pay their own college and university fees, but in other countries, government pays. Do the advantages of government spending their money on college and university fees for student outweigh the disadvantages?

Pros of freeing:

- High skilled labor

- Equal right for all

Cons:

- Waste of money

- Lack of seriousness in learning

- Hardly achieve good results

- Put more pressure on governments and teachers and schools

Other solutions

- Provide scholarships

Whether governments should be wholly responsible for university fees remains controversial. Some people think that by doing this, governments can encourage all people  to  enhance  their  education  while  others  claim  that  it  is  a  huge waste  of money  for  them.  In my view, disadvantages of freeing education outweigh advantages of this policy

First, it is claimed that education is the right of every person. Hence, he or she is entitled to reach higher level of education without payment. However, if governments free education as an equal right, all other fields like health-care will demand the same right.  Therefore, no sooner does this policy come true than all services in the society are on the house, leaving no profit for workers in each field to  earn  a  living,  let  alone  dig  deeper  into  their  fields.  In such countries where education is a service and students are obliged to pay fee, schools have enough fee to maintain facilities and hire the best teachers to educate. As a result, they can produce the most outstanding students like Havard and Yale Universities which demand high fees, but offer reputed training. 

Second, this policy is conducive to the creation of high-skilled labor. With each citizens receiving higher education like tertiary, governments are proud with their best  workers  to  produce  the  highest  quality  products  and  achieve  significant economic  growth.  Nevertheless,  because  of  being  exempt  from  education  fees, students  take  knowledge  for  granted,  which  leads  to  their  lower  academic performance. In addition, while governments are supposed to shoulder a variety of tasks  from  diseases,  defense  to  political  relationship,  it  will  be  burdensome  for them  to  be  totally  in  charge  of  education  without  sharing  of  each  citizen. Furthermore, although people claim that poor, but outstanding students may have little access to higher education, which is a disadvantage to the society in the long term,  governments  can  provide  scholarships  and  grants  for  these  special individuals.  This  means  that  being  totally  free  from  education  expense  is unnecessary.  Equally important,  for  students  who  are  responsible  for  education fees, they will be actively motivated to work part-time jobs to pay for their higher education  whereas  they  accumulate  a  variety  of  living  skills  from  economic independence, seriousness in learning to time-management. 

In  brief,  there are  more  pains  than  gains in the  policy  of emancipating students from  university  education  fees.  By  paying  fees,  not  only  do  students  become serious  in  learning,  enhance  several  skills,  but  teachers  are  also  given  higher salaries to sharpen their teaching ability and governments are less burdened with numerous social tasks.

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          To be entitled to do sth  / in’taitl/: được quyền làm gì

-         Oblige /ə'blaiʤ/ (v) : bắt buộc = compel = force =  coerce

                              (adj) obligatory = compulsory / compulsative = mandatory = imperative

-         Exempt /ig'zempt/ + from  (adj) được miễn   (v) miễn

-         Grant (n) (v) : ban , cấp, cho , trợ cấp

-         Burdensome (adj) : nặng nề, phiền toái