Sunday, December 21, 2014

Learning process

5:39 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

The rapid changes and increased complexity of today’s world present new challenges and put new demands on our education system. There has been generally a growing awareness of the necessity to change and improve the preparation of students for productive functioning in the continually changing and highly demanding environment. In confronting this challenge it is necessary to consider the complexity of the education system itself and the multitude of problems that must be addressed. Clearly, no simple, single uniform approach can be applied with the expectation that significant improvements of the system will occur.

 

Indeed, any strategy for change must contend with the diverse factors affecting the education system, the interactions of its parts, and the intricate interdependencies within it and with its environment.

 

As we consider these problems, we become increasingly cognizant of the various possibilities of using concepts and methods of the study of complex systems for providing direction and strategies to facilitate the introduction of viable and successful changes. A key insight from complex systems is that simple solutions are not likely to be effective in cases such as the education system, and that providing a balance or coexistence of what seem to be opposites may provide the greatest opportunities for successful courses of action. In the following we consider

 

Integrating the commonly polarized goals of education; i.e. the goal that focuses on transmitting knowledge with the goal that emphasizes the development of the individual student.

Adapting teaching to different student characteristics by using diverse methods of teaching. Adaptation to the ability levels, patterns of different abilities, learning styles, personality characteristics, and cultural backgrounds.

Integrating the curriculum by developing inter-disciplinary curriculum units that enable students to acquire knowledge from different disciplines through a unifying theme while having the opportunity to contribute in different and special ways to the objectives of the integrated units.

Educational Goals

The approaches to teaching can be categorized according to major educational goals that affect teaching strategies. On one hand the goal of education is viewed as the transmission of knowledge by the teachers to the students. On the other hand the goal of education is viewed as facilitating students’ autonomous learning and self expression. The former approach which converges toward the teaching of specified subject matter, may be termed ‘convergent’ teaching and the latter approach which stresses open ended self-directed learning may be termed ‘divergent’ teaching. The convergent approach is highly structured and teacher-centered; the students are passive recipients of knowledge transmitted to them and learning achievements are measured by standardized tests. The divergent approach is flexible, student-centered, where the students are active participants in the learning process and learning achievements are assessed by a variety of evaluation tools such as self-evaluation in parallel to teacher evaluation; documentation portfolios; and special projects (see also Niche Selection (link to be added soon)).

 

In the highly complex education system there may be various combinations of the different approaches to teaching and probably no ‘pure’ convergent or divergent teaching. Still, the tendency in the education system of today is toward the convergent approach. In fact, among the current suggestions for implementing educational reforms to deal with the considerable problems of the education system, there has been a strong emphasis on setting convergent goals, an aspect of which is the use of across-the-board standardized testing. Testing has been commonly viewed as a prudent way to determine the success or failure of the teaching and learning process. There has been a relatively limited use of other means of evaluation which are more complicated and more demanding in terms of application and interpretation.

 

As educators seek ways to meet the demands put upon the education system in today’s world of rapid changes and ever increasing complexity, it may be helpful to recognize that there is a need for both convergent and divergent approaches to teaching and learning. Educators who stress the importance of the acquisition of specific knowledge as a useful way to prepare the students for productive future functioning, must come to realize that even for the purpose of this goal alone, a divergent approach is needed today. With the great proliferation of knowledge and rapid changes in most fields as well as the appearance of many new fields, it is critical to develop students’ capacity for self-directed learning and self growth. On the other hand, those who emphasize the importance of autonomous growth and creative self-expression, must realize that the students need academic skills (such as reading, writing, calculating, etc.) as prerequisites for productive self expression. Since the creative process involves new ways of using existing knowledge, it is important to provide opportunities for students to acquire such knowledge (which can be acquired by convergent teaching). Hence, convergent and divergent teaching strategies are both needed and the challenging question is how to find the balance between them within the complexity of the process of teaching and learning. It is likely that the two approaches may increasingly become not mutually exclusive but interrelated and interdependent.

 

An important development is the growing awareness that academic achievement could improve by adapting teaching to students individual differences. This awareness is finding its most distinct expression in the education system’s attempts to deal with the issues of students with special needs. However, other aspects of adaptation to students’ individual differences get far less attention.

 

In general, adaptation to individual differences under convergent teaching tends to be limited. The students are all expected to strive toward one goal of learning specified required knowledge; some may attain it and others may fall by the wayside or be given some remediation with limited results. Nevertheless, there are various possibilities of effective adaptation to individual differences under convergent teaching. In addition to adaptation in the rate of learning, where each student can be allowed to work at his/her own pace, there are many possibilities of adaptation through the use of diverse methods of teaching. Even when all the students are taught the same material, teachers can use different methods, different techniques or different media, to cater to individual differences in abilities and personality characteristics. Such a ‘multi-convergent’ approach can be more effective in giving the students opportunities to use their aptitudes and inclinations for learning and attaining higher achievements. As the students experience success and consequently a sense of competence, their motivation is enhanced to pursue further learning. Such an approach has a better potential for success than the common reality of students with learning difficulties, who often struggle through remediation with a sense of inadequacy and discouraging experiences of failure.

 

Adaptation to individual differences under divergent teaching may be expected to be productive because of its emphasis on student autonomous, active, self-reliant learning. Yet, there are students who may not function well under divergent conditions because of their strong need for guidance, direction, and structure. Divergent teaching can cater to such needs by individual guidance, along with ongoing assessment and subsequent modifications. This is a ‘guided-divergent’ approach which is more structured and less flexible than the open divergent teaching but less narrow and limiting than convergent teaching.

 

Teaching Strategies and Students Characteristics

Among the most difficult problems faced by the education system are those associated with teaching effectiveness. The current preparation of teachers for specific age levels, specific subject matter, specific academic skills, etc., does not take into consideration sufficiently the complexity of factors such as students’ various characteristics. There is a strong need to train teachers to adapt instruction to the diverse student abilities, learning styles, personality traits and needs by using more differentiated teaching strategies (See also Complexity in the Classroom (link to be added soon)).

 

In addition to the preparation of teachers to more differentiated teaching, there could be more divergent use of teaching resources. Worthwhile teaching can be done with advantageous results by persons other than the traditional classroom teachers. For example, valuable teaching can be done by peers of different ages and abilities. Also, parents, grandparents, and relatives could participate in and contribute productively to the teaching process. Furthermore, teaching can be enhanced by volunteers, retirees, people with various areas of expertise from the worlds of science, business, engineering, medicine, public service, entertainment, and others. Also, high-tech resources such as multimedia technology, computer programs, telecommunication, the Internet, audio-visual techniques, and others can provide beneficial options. Student learning can be greatly enriched further by traveling - near and far; interaction with people of different cultures; different geographical areas; different occupations, different ways of life; different outlooks. Undoubtedly, many possibilities exist that are not often implemented even though they could make the teaching and learning process more effective and more beneficial by providing a variety of experiences and alternative strategies for adaptation to students’ characteristics.

 

Ability levels and patterns of different abilities. Presently, the practice in some schools is to adapt teaching to different ability levels by forming classes or groups of students of similar levels (usually based on achievement tests or psychological tests) taught by teachers who tend to treat the students as if they were in homogeneous groups. Obviously, once a group of two students is formed, it cannot be considered homogeneous. Even if the two have an identical IQ, for instance, the profile of different abilities can be quite dissimilar and many other personality characteristics add to the dissimilarity of the students’ attributes that affect their learning. The over-simplification of today’s ways of adaptation to students’ differences in abilities and other characteristics has resulted in many difficulties in the academic performance of many students. In some cases this has led to phenomena such as, “learning disabilities”, “conduct problems”, “attitude problems”, “anxiety and school phobias”. The complexity of this issue is apparent as one considers results of research studies or surveys measuring students’ performance under conditions aimed at “slow” versus “fast” learners. The differences evident in rate of learning are only one aspect of the diverse effects of students with different abilities studying under different conditions. For instance, the type and manner of teaching has differential effects: students with higher ability tend to perform better under non-directive teaching methods while those with lower ability tend to do better under directive methods.

Furthermore, the multiplicity and differentiality of mental abilities must be taken into consideration when teaching at any level of the education system. There has been a growing acknowledgement of the importance of adapting teaching to a variety of intelligences (e.g. Gardner’s work on the seven intelligences and Sternberg’s work on the triarchic dimensions of intelligence; also see Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence), as well as providing for special learning needs.

The diversity of patterns of mental abilities is well recognized today, yet little has been done to develop adequate conditions aimed at adapting teaching to this diversity. It is possible to design instructional strategies and learning materials that provide options and flexibility for matching students’ particular patterns of abilities. Thus, teaching strategies can be differentially facilitating various ability patterns. The interaction between specific aptitudes and specific teaching styles can be important in considering the various options of implementing changes in the teaching and learning process. Also, matching teachers’ styles with students’ ability patterns can have significant effects on students’ attitudes, motivation, and achievements.

Learning styles and preferences affect the way students approach any task and the way they function under different conditions and different learning environments. Learning styles such as reflectivity/impulsivity, field-dependence/field-independence, and mental self-government, as well as preferences for interactive visual or auditory presentations, or other ways of representing information have effects on students’ academic performance (See Kagan’s work on impulsive and reflective cognitive styles, Witkin’s work on field dependent style, Sternberg’s work on mental self-government styles, and the work on computer simulations preferences). Some educators have begun to acknowledge the importance of adapting teaching strategies to students different learning styles, but no earnest efforts have been devoted to this promising endeavor. The adaptation of teaching to learning styles may include not only more appropriately differentiated teaching strategies but also may add to the dependability of the evaluation measures of what students have learned. Thus, the effectiveness of teaching and the pertinence of the assessment of learning achievements can be enhanced by teachers’ adaptation of instructional strategies to students learning styles.

Personality Characteristics. To some extent there is recognition among educators that personality characteristics such as self-reliance, attitudes, anxiety, independence, emotional stability have differential effects on students learning achievements. There is some acknowledgement that attention should be paid to students personality needs and to particular aspects of students different cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless, while the effect of personality characteristics on learning is significant, very little has been done or even suggested regarding the adaptation of teaching to students different personality traits and needs. Among the reasons for that is the very large number of traits with a wide variety of tests to measure them and the problem of their lower validation than the ability tests. Also, the complexity of the interactions of personality characteristics with various other factors affecting learning seems too difficult to tackle. Many educators and educational administrators are convinced that it is very difficult to implement multi-dimensional teaching strategies in the classroom. However, it is possible to analyze the interactions between students’ and teachers’ characteristics and closely examine the resulting different learning outcomes. For example, students of higher ability levels who are also self-reliant, independent, with lower anxiety tend to do better under divergent teaching and self-directed learning conditions, while students of lower ability levels who are also dependent, and anxious, tend to do better under convergent teaching with clear structure and much direction. Such interactions need to be explored further to find more about the various factors affecting the teaching learning process. The outcomes of such exploration can be very helpful in the search for enhancing teaching effectiveness and students achievements.

In sum, the attempts to match teaching strategies with students characteristics may become critical steps toward dealing with some of the particularly difficult problems of the teaching and learning process. Admittedly, many difficulties are faced not only by teachers but also by administrators and policy makers in the endeavor to adapt instructional strategies to students characteristics, but the methods and concepts of the field of complex systems can provide ways of implementing such changes in the attempts to introduce reforms to the education system.

 

Inter-Disciplinary Curriculum

One of the most exciting developments in the world of science today is the growing involvement of researchers in interdisciplinary collaborations, and the increase in cross-fertilization of ideas and research endeavors of people in different fields of science.. The benefits for cross-disciplinary scientific work are invaluable and the various application possibilities are promising not only for science but for many aspects of daily living.

 

These developments have direct implications for the education system. The tendency in our schools is to teach bits and pieces of information related to particular disciplines. In view of the cross-disciplinary trends, the curriculum can be integrated around topics that reflect the patterns, interactions, and interdependencies of the different fields. This can provide students with ways to study and attempt to comprehend the world around them through concepts and ideas that are less disparate or disconnected.

 

The growing inter-disciplinary collaborations and cooperative sharing of information from different fields and the efforts to find pragmatic solutions to global problems have further implications for education. There are important implications for the preparation of students to function and be productive in a world with diverse populations, different economic conditions, multitudes of cultural, religious and ethnic groups, and many other different factors. Furthermore, it is highly beneficial to begin early in the educational process to organize learning around problem solving, critical thinking, and dealing with issues arising from different fields of study and different aspects of real life conditions.

 

An integrated, inter-disciplinary curriculum links a variety of learning subjects as they are related to the topics of integrated curriculum units. The emphasis on connecting and synthesizing information around topics of interest to the students provides favorable conditions for the acquisition of knowledge from different disciplines through congruous concepts and ideas. Integrated curriculum units are chosen by the students with the teacher and involve teams of students working cooperatively toward common goals. Small groups, pairs, or individuals can work on relevant tasks and materials that can be shared with the other students and yield peer-to-peer learning. Experiencing the benefits of contributing to the goals of the unit by members of the team is empowering and gratifying and is also a beneficial way of preparing them for future functioning in the world. Moreover, the opportunity given to each student to capitalize on his/her strengths can become a strong motivating factor in pursuing further learning and further giving to others.

 

In terms of teaching strategies, an integrated curriculum encourages a multi-dimensional approach to the educational process and tends to combine regularly multi-convergent and divergent strategies of teaching. There are also various options in the way teachers are assigned to classroom teaching. Individual teachers may find it difficult to implement multi-dimensional strategies in teaching any class, even when small in size, but teachers can work in teams using different teaching strategies compatible with individual teachers’ particular capabilities, cognitive styles and personality characteristics.. They can also organize various teaching experiences with the assistance of volunteers, specialists, peers and others who could contribute to the teaching process. In terms of the structure and settings adapted to different teaching and learning conditions, there can be alternative places for learning, e.g. learning centers, laboratories, libraries, outdoors, community institutions and businesses, museums, and various organizations.

 

The structure and organization of the student body can be in the form of small and large groups; study pairs; and individualized study arrangements. Social alternatives are possible in heterogeneous groups with a great deal of interchange within them and between them and other groups. Clearly, student groups may vary in age, cultural and socioeconomic background, special interests and special needs.

 

There are various alternatives in the types of learning that an integrated curriculum can include:

 

Required subjects and basic academic skills some of which are taught in a convergent way, using, in addition to teachers’ didactic presentations, programmed instruction, multi-media technologies, computer programs, videos, and other techniques involving technological innovations.

A number of required subjects and academic skills can be taught in a multi-convergent way where methods of teaching are adapted to students’ different abilities, needs and interests. For example, different intelligences may be emphasized such as, linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, and others.

A major part of the program can be devoted to integrated inter-disciplinary curriculum units chosen by teachers and students together. These units enable students to acquire knowledge and skills associated with different disciplines through congruous meaningful learning revolving around a topic of interest to the students. The work on the units is undertaken by groups of students who are encouraged to take active part in the decision-making process and focus on aspects of the units in which they can best develop their capabilities, satisfy their interests, and fulfill their needs. Each student is given the opportunity to use their strengths (academic or non-academic) to contribute to the common goals of the group. In working on these integrated units, guided divergent teaching is used as needed. At the end of a period of work on the unit, the group can celebrate with other students, parents, administrators and others involved in the school, the conclusion and accomplishments of the work on the unit. Each student in the group is encouraged to contribute whatever they can to such celebrations by presenting their work through various performances, presentations, exhibits, videos and other contributions to the festive activities. Such celebrations can become useful ways of evaluating the students’ learning achievements

Individually chosen projects where the students can work on topics they have chosen and where they could apply their strong skills and competencies, wherever they lie. Students can be encouraged to present their work on their project to the group in any way compatible with their tendencies. The students can present their work to their peers and teachers as an exhibit, as an oral presentation, as written material, as a play, a video, or any other means of communicating and disseminating information. Divergent teaching is the approach used for those individually selected, and often independently pursued, projects.

The above discussion of ways to implement various changes in the approach to teaching and learning grew out of the recognition that the current attempts at reforming the education system tend to be ineffectual. The attempts to use simple large forces (such as standardized testing, for example) in dealing with the ills of the complex education system are essentially doomed to fail. Undoubtedly, there are no simple general solutions to those multifarious complex problems.

 

The above suggestions of some different possibilities of implementing changes, stem from the conviction that such special, differentiated approaches can be very beneficial and can have significant positive effects on the teaching and learning process in our education system.

Friday, December 19, 2014

A world without religion

8:20 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

 

“God is the mind that imagines physical reality. We are each like a cell in that mind.”

—Peter Shepherd

 

The voices against religious belief are growing stronger in recent years as is to be expected in this age of information, but would there really be an idyllic world waiting in the end of this war?

Would the people susceptible to the religious doctrines really abandon illogical thinking, or will we see the various "New Age" movements get stronger with new pseudo-scientific lies that might seem like an easier path to take than the proof demanding science, as we see today from many secular people around the world?

How far are we from completely embracing knowledge and research? How do you envision such a world?

Is there a fundamental assumption being made by some of us that a world with science and logic alone cannot still have a sense of wonder, excitement, fullness and feeling of understanding? Do you need religion to live a full life? Is science the only thing left behind without religion? Are we giving religion too much credit?

Lets imagine a world without religion, how will it really look?

 

Discovering within

8:15 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

The importance of education cannot be stated enough. It is a self-enlightening process. It is crucial to the overall development of an individual and the society at large.

"He who opens a school door, closes a prison." ~ Victor Hugo

The first time we are introduced to formal education is in school. The school years are the grounding years of one's education. Schools are institutions that lay the foundation of a child's development. They play a key role in developing children into responsible citizens and good human beings. It's a school where young talent is recognized and nurtured. On leaving school, we are all set to soar high in life, and enter the real world in pursuit of our dreams.

Education provides us with knowledge about the world. It paves the way for a good career. It helps build character. It leads to enlightenment. It lays the foundation of a stronger nation. Education makes a man complete.

Kautilya, an Indian philosopher, royal adviser, and professor of economics and political science very rightly underlined the importance of education, some 2000 years ago. He has highlighted the fact that education enriches people's understanding of themselves. He has said that education is an investment in human capital, and it can have a great impact on a nation's growth and development.

So, why is Education Important?

 

It Gives Knowledge

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

A direct effect of education is knowledge gain. Education gives us knowledge of the world around. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us form opinions and develop a point of view. The information we are constantly bombarded with, cannot be converted into knowledge without the catalyst called education. Education makes us capable of interpreting things rightly and applying the gathered information in real life scenarios. Education is not limited to lessons from textbooks. Real education is obtained from the lessons taught by life.

 

It Leads To Career Progression

"An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less." - Nicholas M. Butler

Education is important because it equips us with the expertise that is needed in helping us realize our career goals. Expertise is an in-depth knowledge about a specific field and it's ought to open doors to brilliant career opportunities. Education fetches better prospects of career growth. Good education is an eligibility criterion for employment in any sector of the industry. Be it any field, education always proves to be rewarding. We are weighed in the market on the basis of our educational skills and on how well we can apply them.

 

It Builds Character

"A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

The words 'cultivate' and 'civilize' are synonymous with 'educate'. That says it all. Education is important as it teaches us the right behavior and good manners, thus making us civilized. It is the basis of culture and civilization. It is instrumental in the development of our values and virtues. Education cultivates us into mature individuals; individuals capable of planning for the future, and taking the right decisions in life. It gives us an insight into living, and teaches us to learn from experience. It makes us self-confident, and develops our abilities to think, analyze, and judge. It fosters principles of equality and socialism. It forms a support system for one to excel in life. It is the backbone of society. It won't be wrong to say that good education makes us more human.

 

It Leads To Enlightenment

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." - Socrates

Education paves the path to disillusionment. It wipes out the wrong beliefs from our minds. It helps create a clear picture of things around, and erases all the confusion. It kindles the flame of curiosity and helps awaken the abilities to question, and to reason. The more we learn, the more questions we have, and without questions, there are no answers. Education teaches us to find answers. It makes us more self-aware. It leads us to enlightenment.

 

It Helps A Nation Progress

"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource." - John F. Kennedy

Though not enlisted as one of the three basic human needs, education is equally important. For the progress of a nation, for the enrichment of society in general, education is important. A country's literate population is its asset. In today's competitive world, it won't be wise to neglect the importance of education for the development of society as a whole. Most countries have realized this. It has led to the development of many government-aided educational programs and government grants to schools and colleges. The motive behind this is fostering education in society. The future of a nation is safe in the hands of the educated. Education is important for the social development and economic growth of a nation.

Schools and other educational institutes define the basic framework of education. Schooling gives us the fundamentals. We specialize in fields of our interest during degree courses. The number of institutes offering vocational courses and those offering online education is increasing by the day. Vocational courses help earn specialized education. Online degree programs help the working class and adults pursue education even while continuing work. Distance education has proven to be of great help for many. But education is not limited to that obtained from educational institutes. Learning is a lifelong process. Rather, self-learning begins at a point where institutional education ends. The process of self-learning continues throughout one's life. This is well-supported by a speech made by US President Barack Obama. In his national address to students across the nation, he said:

"... Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide."

The process of discovering what's within never ends.

Power of 3

8:14 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

I don’t know when and how the number system started and whom started it but I find myself number 3 something quite surprising and shocking to the human race. It is the most destructive weapon ever made, literally, in the history of the mankind. This is how the number 3 is injurious to the human.

Bad luck always comes in three. Evil spirit becomes most powerful at 3’o clock. A triangle has 3 sides. If love story happens to be triangular, ending is always tragedy or even death. We know about the history of first world  war and second world war and we also know how great was the scale of destruction and loss. There is not third world war because I am afraid there will be no one on this earth to write history   about it cuz we ourselves will have been history on the pages of the earth. Everybody know the great god of Hindu, Lord Shiva. When his third eye opens, not only earth but this whole universe will be the prey. So, pray never of this ever happens.  I still remember life of my school days and I remember too I got first beaten so badly from my teacher when I was at class 3. Relationship gets violent when third person is involved. There are so many sentences to speak of but we always fear of three words sentences which are life changing. Generally, sequel of films lasts up to 3. Moreover, the number 3 is so powerful that it brings life of Lord Jesus Christ from the third day of his death. There may be many more still coming so, try to give a respect to number 3.

Say NO to drugs

8:11 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

Life is full of challenges and uncertainty. One story that I am going to write is about somebody from our own country, the guy who believed in experimenting the life. Music was his passion, and he had a local band where he was a drummer. Girls were crazy towards him. Time passed on and was on the way to the popularity among people.

He owned a fast-food restaurant in his town and he was doing good in his studies. During that time, abroad study was newly arrived trend. Life for him was experiment as a mentioned earlier, so he decided to go to Canada for the further study. Study was only a reason to show to his family but his motive was to earn more money than in his home country. Luckily, he got a good job in Canada even though he was a student and earned money. Money changed him totally and started enjoying life to fullest. He didn’t get any trouble as he had money and friends whom he supported a lot financially. He was living in present and hallucinated that future is in his pocket.

Some of his friends were using drugs and one silly reason made him use drugs to and that was “experimenting life”. He started using “drug” which ruined his life and took all the happiness away from him. As he was found using drug he was expelled from college and had to leave Canada. He had ruined his life but he didn’t regret at all because he had full faith in his friends. He thought they would figure out some way for him to stay in Canada. Unexpectedly, none of his friends even came to say good bye at airport. At airport he realized the real world with meanest people and his meanest friends whom he spend money and supported them all the time.

He was still the same energetic and courageous person who could control things. But he didn’t want to leave drug because he was deeply hurt by his friends. So, in order to get free from the pain of betray dine by friends he continued using drug, which was creating negative vibes in him. As a result, negativity, frustration, loneliness, awkwardness, increased slowly inside him. There is no helping hand he can ask for because he is afraid of society.

“Drug abuse” is not the solution of the problem but the beginning. So, please “say no to drugs”.

DRUG ADDICTION

 Someone can abuse drugs without being addicted but the opposite is not true.

Addiction is a disease. Addiction can be in any forms like gambling, prostitute, alcohol, or drugs. Addiction in there forms called as disease in 1954 by American medical institute and in 1956 world health organization proved it as disease which can’t be cure but treated. It is a fatal and progressive disease.

To treat this disease, there is no medicine. Changing life style into positive is the only medicine. Anyone                                        who suffer from  these disease have their final destination either to jail, mental hospital, rehabilitation centre or death.

Addiction facts.

Prevalence: common to everyone.

Progressive: frequency, quantity.

Primary: attract other disease.

Treatable: proper treatment

Fatal: deadly 3rd killer disease.

How people view addiction?

Normal people: lack of will power.

Law: crime

Doctor: mental illness, psychotically problem.

Religious: sin, spiritual disturbed.

Stages of drug addiction

·         Stage 1: curiosity

Out of curiosity people want to know and taste drugs.

·         Stage2: heroism

After using drugs people fees happy or excited about their involvement in new thing.

·         Stage 3: progressive

Choices of chemicals, starts using more.

·         Stage 4: dependent (addiction).

Life depends on drugs, cannot do anything without drugs.

Problems with the public school

8:08 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

Every once in a while an angry article comes out talking about how terrible the public education system is, how it's a sham, how we ought to get rid of the whole thing entirely.

The first thing that comes to mind when we think problems with the public school system is class size.  Class size makes a difference in children's education. It just makes sense.  If there are fewer students per teacher, the teacher is more able to address the needs of individual students.  Studies show that smaller classroom sizes can have long-term benefits for students as well - including fewer children being "held back a grade" and fewer discipline problems.

Things as simple as differences in learning styles or language barriers can cause huge problems in the results of a test, causing the school to look worse off than it might actually be. Additionally, a Harvard University study found that students in the bottom 10% of achievement were 33% more likely to drop out of school in states with standardized graduation tests. 

And, very simply put, just because a school has a higher test core doesn't mean that the students are learning more.  We all have experienced long periods being taken up preparing for the test. In order to reach these high test scores, teachers are having to instruct students in test-taking skills. During school time, we spent countless amounts of time reading last year's answers for standardized tests rather than learning something.

Of course, of all these under-funding is one of the biggest problems for many schools.  Schools often keep textbooks for up to a decade, meaning that their material is out of date (Here's President Obama's solution to out-of-date books: an e-textbook in every student's hand by 2017).

 

It's clear that there are improvements that need to be made to the education system, and that a lot of these problems are because of a lack of funding and general support.

You can't figure out the future

8:06 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

When you're young, the world is your oyster and opportunities seem endless, but there can be a lot of pressure to decide on a life path. How do you know what career to pursue and what to do with your future?

Even young people who have a plan (to be a doctor, lawyer, research scientist, and singer) don't really know what will happen. If they have any certainty at all, they're a bit deluded. Life doesn't go according to plan, and while a few people might do exactly what they set out to do, you never know if you're one of those. Other things come along to change you, to change your opportunities, to change the world.

YOU CAN'T FIGURE OUT THE FUTURE

So if you can't figure out the future, what do you do? Don't focus on the future. Focus on what you can do right now that will be good no matter what the future brings. Make stuff. Build stuff. Learn skills. Go on adventures. Make friends. These things will help later in any future.

I don't think that's a onetime question to decide - you may think you have it answered and maybe you do for a while, but things change and you change, thus the question reappears throughout your life. Through life, you're constantly reinventing yourself, so what you want to do also changes.