Saturday 30 March 2013

News Review: Teachers blame poor parenting for chaos in class- By Kay Ray

Summary:
According to recent surveys, students are more chaotic in classes due to the poor laws laid down at home. Nearly four out of five who responded pinned the blame on a lack of boundaries placed on pupils while at home. Many teachers agree there is a great rise in mental, behavioural or health issues compared to previous years. One revealed that she had been faced with "the most challenging reception pupil I have encountered in my 20 years of teaching". "He did not comply with a single instruction- even to sit on the mat for a story," she added. Other teachers complained being "cyber-bullied" by their students.

Opinion:
I think that the children are being more disruptive during lessons are partially due to their parents laying poor laws at home. Another reason is due to the games they play, whether online or video games. Or the television programmes they watch. These games may lead to the disruptive tendencies that are seen in classes. The children are henced influenced by these behaviours of characters in the video games. They may also learn the disruptive behaviour from the roles of certain actors or actresses in the programme.

Pushover parents, pampered children

Link

Summary
Parents are now easily giving in to their children, pampering them. This overprotectiveness could actually lead to them being dysfunctional in society when they grow up. Children are now adorned with the latest everything from the gadgets to fashion, anything they ask for comes true by their parents. Parents find themselves unable to decline the requests and work hard to fulfil them. In society now, there are young people who can't stick to their jobs as they were pampered so much that they knew nothing about labouring.

Opinion
I am not really surprised about this article and fully agree with the fact that parents are spoiling their children. It is true that many parents who both work, give into their children's unreasonable wishes so as to make up for the time missed with them. However, I find this reason for parents to pamper their children cowardly, and parents are guilty of it. This would led to their children having the mindset that their parents are just people who give into them and that their friends are their true "family". The original meaning of pampering children is thus backfired, children become self-absorbed and could care less about their parents. I believe that parents who overindulge in their children should stop as nothing good would come out of it.

Sunday 17 March 2013

spray-painting grass green by JOEL

Link to article
Summary:
Workers from Chengdu's municipal landscaping department were caught painting the grassy roadsides with a fluorescent green spray called "Top Green Turf Greening Agent". The landscaping department dyed the grass in an attempt to make China look beautiful amongst the smog and pollution.  The "Greening Agent" is just a green dye and has been sold to the Chengdu government for the past five to six years. The dye lasts for 10 to 14 weeks and is not washed away by the rain.
Opinion:
I am amazed at the willingness of Chinese officials to go to such extreme lengths to beautify their country. I believe that the Chinese should stop resorting painting images of themselves as a great nation and to instead take actions to change their country for the better. Instead of spending money on upgrading facilities and improving the lifestyles of the Chinese, the government has instead spent money on projecting images of a beautiful nation to tourists. The Chinese should stop making their country artificial and make efforts to improve it naturally.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Video games by CLIVEN

A German mobile game developer, HandyGames, launched a game called Clouds and Sheep. The developer decided to pair up with a Beijing-based publisher so that it would appear in the Chinese market. However, it has to be confined because players prefer the free models. This is because players have been scammed before when they paid for games so they prefer freemium. Also, China players prefer phone games than computer games so Clouds and Sheep became popular quickly and it was downloaded more than 2 million times.

Learning for life by CLARA

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Summary: Unlike Singapore, there is no such thing as tuition in Finland. Everyday after school, students immediately go out to , except for students taking their nationals. No one takes tuition there, teachers have remedial classes for those who are weaker. Finland students have a clear line between studying and free time, school is the only for studying. Even Singapore's mandatory CCAs (co-curricular activities) are treated as hobbies in Finland. Singapore and Finland's studying system are worlds apart in the way they teach and parents in the latter care for the teachers' welfare.
Opinion: After reading about how Finnish schools educate their students, I was really impressed and I hope Singapore would take after them in some aspects. Regarding CCA's I do not think that the CCA points system should be implied. CCA, as MOE (Ministry of Education) is for students to pick up skills and enjoy themselves after a hectic day at school, not to be chasing after points. It should be treated as a hobby or time when students can break free from books and learn by having fun, as it is in Finland. Finland also has a inclusive study environment for their students, Singapore should learn after them. In Singaporean schools, there is always a "best" class, where students with the same level of ability are grouped together, Finland does not. I think not having the best class in schools should be encouraged, students are able to stretch their abilities that way. Streaming students is a harsh way of teaching students, teachers are supposed to teacher every single child, not only those who excel. Having to study with students of different abilities has guided students more and those who are better can learn by teaching their peers, as according to a Finnish student.

Friday 15 March 2013

Gifted or Just Well-Prepared? by KAY RAY

Summary:
The New York City Education Department announced that it was changing part of its admissions exam for its gifted and talented programs last year. This would be changing exams in many private schools in New York City. It has now become an endless contest for administrators as they are seeking authentic measures of intelligence as companies are aiming to bring out the genius in every child. Private schools are even considering abolishing this test as some schools are corrupted. The number of children who qualified for the gifted and talented kindergarten in 2012-13 was doubled as compared to five years ago.
Opinion:
I think that the children in New York City should not be put to such tests to measure their intelligence. The children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood when they still can and when their innocent, as they may not have the chance anymore when they grow up and they have no time. They are still innocent and should be allowed to rest and play at home. The education department of New York City should too, abolish these tests though they can help children who are truly gifted to fully use their potential. But children who are not as talented would then feel bad as they, at such a tender age, would not understand and may think they are not as intelligent.

Saturday 2 March 2013

Vietnam bans online gamingby KAIYI

Summary: Vietnam's government is placing a ban on all online gaming activity from 10pm to 8 am in order to protect the addiction of youths and decrease the cases of illegal activities online.  According to the article, internet service providers have until March 3 to comply with the regulation or their services will be cut off by the Vietnamese government. 

Opinion: I think that the government in Vietnam have no choice but to impose this regulation as according to the article, "officials have tried other methods which have not proven effective". Online games can have a very bad impact on the lives of people especially teenagers. The addiction of online games can affect one’s physical and mental health. It can result in teenagers to ignore everything that happens around them, and thus resulting in little face-to-face communication and the lack of physical activities among children making them lazy and less active.Playing online games can also be risky and very dangerous as it can be a doorway to gambling problems. Apart from children, this also affect adults as they can be at a risk of getting involved in gambling activities if they are unaware about controlling themselves. Violence or crime is one of the most obvious consequences of playing and gambling, this will not only harm individuals and families but it will also have an extreme negative impact on the society. In my opinion, this is the reason why Vietnam government wants to impose this regulation to stop long hours of online gaming for youths as well as adults.    link to article

Crazy for Gold BY CLARA

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SUMMARY: China would be counted as the most prideful country, especially when it comes to sports.  Young children such as Chen Yun, are engaging in sports training at the age of fourteen. Chen Yun's goal is to become a gold medalist in the Olympics and make her country proud. They have become pawns for China in chasing gold medals, aiming to become stronger.
OPINION: After reading this article, I think China is taxing their people on sports and are brainwashing them. Aiming for good results in the Olympics needs a lot of hard work but I believe what China does to young children just to achieve that is very disturbing. Telegraph has reported just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics questioning whether sports schools in China are torturing or training them. At least 600 children from ages of 6 are being sent to sports schools, becoming serious business. The parents are willing to not the see their children in hope of China reaping impressive awards at the Olympics to come. A school has promising results of gold medalists for China however, behind all these are disgusting truths. Students in there are pushed over their limits and even abused. Doping students with stimulants was found in another sports school. The future for these Chinese athletes is also very bleak. They could either be continuously training just to win gold medals or leave without any life skills. Many become factory workers, promises of becoming police officers are often broken. In the end, they all face the suffering of chronic health problems in result of over-training. Winning pride and glory for your country is encouraged but I hope China take into consideration what the Chinese child-athletes are going through for that. Being crazy for good is not good, if you are rising your own people. The competitive level of sports in China should drop when it goes to such measures as it would not bring anything other than a "sports machine"

Friday 1 March 2013

South Korea & Gaming Addiction By Kay Ray

Summary: In South Korea, a curfew has been imposed on computer games as many youths, such as Yoon Hyuk-joo, a 16-year-old in Seoul, is addicted to computer games and his studies took the backseat. Youths, especially high-school students, have been addicted to popular online computer games such as StarCraft. Psychologists estimate that 10% of schoolchildren are showing tendencies of being addicted to computer games, thought by some psychiatrists to be one of the highest, globally. 

Opinion:
I think that more and more people in South Korea is getting addicted to computer games. The following are some cases that I read. The police discovered a 3-month-old baby who starved to death while her parents were busy nurturing their virtual baby on a game at an Internet cafĂ©. This shows that not only youths, but also parents are addicted to computer games. They rather nurture their virtual baby than their live baby at home. Not only youths are addicted to the computer games, even parents. In February, a 22-year-old Korean man was charged with murdering his mother after she pestered him to stop playing. Even adults are addicted. Another case in 2005, a 28-year old man died of cardiac arrest after playing StarCraft for 50 hours straight with a few bathroom breaks. I think South Korea should impose a strong curfew to cut off all internet throughout the whole country after office hours. The addictions got so serious that even people would rather play computer games than fulfil their daily needs like going to the bathroom, sleeping and eating. I think South Korea should build more centers to treat computer addictions as the treatment centers try to not let the patients spend too much time on computer games but other activities to keep their minds off computer games.