Tuition - good only if you want it

Tuition is only good if you really want to learn. Nothing can stop a passionate heart. Currently, I only have tuition in one subject, which is Chinese, one of my worse scoring subjects. This is fairly different from most of my other classmates, who have about 3 tuitions to attend each week. In my tuition class, I realised that some of the students in the tuition class do not really pay any attention.

When told to write a composition, they would only write the minimum number of pages (that's how they count it in the tuition) required. To meet the requirement, they would have a lot of paragraphs and leave a few lines after each paragraphs. It was then I realised that they only attend tuition classes to meet parents' expectations.

Is tuition really helpful? By attending more tuition classes, can a student excel in his/her studies automatically? There is a Chinese saying “耳到，眼到，心不到”, which roughly means that despite having your physical body here, you are actually not paying attention (your mind is elsewhere). This behaviour can be found in many students who are forced by their parents to attend tuition classes.

In my opinion, this does not apply to tuition only. If forced to do assessment books/exercises by their parents, children will not improve because they are not putting it the effort (due to their reluctance). The child himself must have a desire to learn and to improve for him to excel.

Here's where the problem comes in. What if the child is unable to focus and give priority to his studies? Even with failing grades, he or she still has no desire to learn. What can he/she do? This is a question that I am still unable to answer for myself. Comment please!

Home schooling - Pros and Cons

Some teens do not attend school, yet they still get an all rounded education. In this blog post, we'll be finding out what their lives are like.

Most parents of home-schoolers want their children to be free of the national school system because they think that it is too stressful and grades-driven. They also prefer their child's education to have a greater emphasis on family and moral values. However, home schooling also has its disadvantages.

Pros:

• The best teachers are parents. Parents can guide their children instead of having the child turn to their peers to solve problems, which sometimes result in trouble.
• Parents are also able to give their full attention to the child, while a teacher has to teach more than 20 pupils at once.
• Not exposed to negative influences in school (e.g. vulgarities)
• Flexible time schedule

Cons:

• No Edusave money
• Students home schooled at secondary level get no student concession for public transport.
• Some experts say that home schooling potentially limits the teen's opportunities for socialisation.

Extracts from IN article - Matthew Lim, 13, aspires to be a American Olympic gold medallist. Unlike other teen swimmers of his age group, who juggles the tough training tuition and homework, Matthew balances between both swimming and studies. Matthew is a home-schooled child, and thus has a more flexible time table to allow him to have more time to swim. Studies take up four hours each day from Monday to Friday, leaving him with plenty of time to pursue his hobbies and of course, swim.

In my opinion, home schooling is good for different children. For a child who would like to pursue academic qualifications, I believe going for the national school system is a good choice. In a case like Matthew's, he aspires to be the next Michael Phelps, as such, he will need a more flexible schedule and thus home schooling is more suited for him.

Debate on embryonic stem cell research

I believe that embryonic stem cell research is sustainable.

I will start with some background information. Embryonic stem cells are stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells. Isolating the embryoblast or inner cell mass (ICM) results in destruction of the fertilized human embryo, which raises ethical issues.

Most may be thinking that it is cruel to end a life like that just for experimental research. However, we must think, when does life actually start? Does the embryo know what is happening? Unlike abortion which is usually done much later during pregnancy, the embryo of 4-5 days old has barely developed any of its sensory organs. Besides, embryos are cultivated by in vitro culture, meaning they aren’t even placed in a parent’s womb, and it has been proven. “If the pre implantation embryo is left or maintained outside the uterus, it cannot develop into a human being.” Also, More than a third of zygotes do not implant after conception. Thus, far more embryos are lost due to chance than are proposed to be used for embryonic stem cell research or treatments.

Also, when harvesting the stem cells, consent from the involved parties is required. If all parties agree to it, why not? It is for the greater good of everyone. The stem cells can be used for research to cure people who are in need of these cells, people who are already on the verge of dying.

ES cell therapies have been proposed for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease due to its special property of being able to replicate infinitely. Diseases that could potentially be treated by these stem cells include a number of blood and immune-system related genetic diseases, cancers, and disorders; juvenile diabetes; Parkinson's; blindness and spinal cord injuries.

With all the above reasons, I believe that embryonic stem cell research is sustainable.

In this debate...

I learnt about the Lincoln-Douglas Format.

1. The Affirmative (almost always) reads a pre-written case

2. The Negative asks the Affirmative questions.

3. The Negative (almost always) reads a pre-written case and (almost always) moves on to address the Affirmative's case.

4. The Affirmative asks the Negative questions.

5. The Affirmative addresses both his/her opponent's case and his/her own. This speech is considered by many debaters to be the most difficult.

6. The Negative addresses the arguments of the previous speech and summarizes the round for the judge.

7. The Affirmative addresses the arguments of the previous speech and summarizes the round for the judge.

Holiday Reading (Book Review - Fortune's Folly)

“Fortune’s Folly” is written by Deva Fagan. This story is about a girl, Fortunata, whose mother has passed on, and she is left with her father. Her father was once a master shoemaker. However, after her mother passed on, he lost all his skills, claiming that “the fairies magic was lost”, that his tools weren’t automatically cleaned in the morning. The fairy magic turned out to be Fortunata’s mother cleaning his tools every morning before she passed on. Fortunata is left to be the only one supporting the family. She offends a military lord and she is forced to leave the city for fear he would come after her and her family. On the road, her donkey is stolen by a troupe, who denies it vehemently. She is unable to travel on; fortunately, “Alessandra the All Knowing” takes her in as an apprentice to her craft as her fortune teller. In fact, she reveals that there is no magic in fortune telling, and there is only trickery. The story progresses to tell about how Fortunata has to tell a prophecy for a prince, and if the prophecy did not come true, she and her family would be slain. It leads her to an adventure with the most unexpected results. She ends up falling for the prince in the end and they marry happily ever after.

This might seem like a classical fairy tale story but I like the way they weaved the story together, and about how Fortunata manages to trick clueless people and how she manages to make the prophecy come true in the weirdest way one would never imagine. I think that is an extremely fun and interesting book.

Holiday Reading (Book Review - In a Heartbeat)

“In a Heartbeat” is written by Loretta Ellsworth. This book is about two girls, Eagan and Amelia. They are completely unrelated. Amelia is in need of a heart transplant due to her heart condition. Eagan is a skilled and talented figure skater. Eagan dies in a figure skating competition at the start of a story, missing a triple lutz by half an inch and hitting her head on the edge of a board. Her heart is eventually donated to Amelia, on the day she is declared dead. However, after the heart transplant, Amelia feels different. Amelia begins to like and dislike different things. She talks back to her parents, just like Eagan did. She likes purple, just like Eagan did. She starts to find and interest in sports, particularly skating. As donors and receivers are meant to be anonymous, Amelia doesn’t know who donates the heart to her. By the end of the novel, she eventually finds out and she meets with Eagan’s family.

The story constantly shifts between both girls perspectives. I find this story interesting because it touches on a topic that is unknown to us. Is there life after death? What is it like to be dead, yet part of you is still living in someone else? To write this novel, she has interviewed many people and she has taken into account some real life experiences of other heart transplant patients (for example a woman who started liking beer although she never drank beer before, it was found her donor loved beer).

Holiday Reading (Book Review - In Search of Mockingbird)

“In Search of Mockingbird” is written by Loretta Ellsworth. This book is about a girl, Erin, whose mother is dead. She lives with her father and two brothers, all who totally different from her. While they excelled at sports, she was a bookish person, and would always be reading her favourite book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It was her mother’s favourite book as well, and it was her only memory of her mother, the only thing she left behind (or at least that was what she thought at the moment). Despite her mother passing away when she was very young (she has little or no memories of her), she still loves her mother. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, her father announces his engagement to his volleyball coach girlfriend, and she is presented with her mother’s diary, as a way to make up for it, and of course as a birthday gift. Erin found out that her mother was also liked writing and even wrote a letter to Harper Lee. She impulsively boards a bus from her town to Alabama to see Harper Lee, to find out the meaning of life. On her trip she meets Sedushia and Epp, two interesting people that thought her a lot about life and encouraged her dreams to meet Harper Lee. Epp even helps her get away from the police (her dad reported to the police that she was missing) so that she could meet Harper Lee. Erin goes to Harper Lee’s home, but she is not in. She writes a letter and puts it in her mailbox. However, after the whole bus trip, and meeting Sedushia and Epp, she doesn’t feel a need to meet Harper Lee anymore. She goes to a shop with Epp and they sit down to get a drink. Unknowingly, she meets Harper Lee there, but doesn’t know that the person is Harper Lee. They had a brief chat and she leaves. After coming to a realisation that she just met Harper Lee, she doesn’t feel sorry, but she is happy that she had met her.

This novel is about the idea of a teenager who would travel more than a thousand miles to meet someone, and she finds on her trip she meets two amazing people, and found the meaning to life.

Holiday Reading (Book Review - My Sister's Keeper)

Title: My Sister’s Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult

Plot: This story is about a girl, Anna, who was born a designer baby, to save her sister’s life. Kate suffers from leukaemia and she requires blood transplants and unfortunately her blood type doesn’t match with either her parents or her brother, Jesse. Anna is born so that she can provide blood and bone marrow transplants for her sister, Kate. For her whole life she has been helping her sister unquestioningly. However, there comes a point where Anna stops, when she was told that she would have to donate a kidney. Eventually, it escalates to a court case of medical emancipation, where she is against her mother, who wants her to save her sister’s life by having her donate the kidney. The novel shows the difficulties that both parties faced. The way the author does it is by telling the story in different perspectives, regularly switching among the different characters. Anna is constantly pushed aside because of Kate’s medical condition, and she has to undergo numerous medical procedures for Kate. Sara, Anna’s mother, finds it difficult to express her love for Anna due to Kate’s condition (she has to constantly give her attention to Kate). She has to constantly struggle between Kate and Anna, which puts her under great stress and she is unable to make a choice between them because they are both her daughters. It is eventually revealed that Kate convinced Anna to go to court, because she thought that she wouldn’t live long either, and she wanted Anna to have a normal life. At the end of the novel, Anna is involved in a car accident. The moment when the doctor announces that Anna is brain dead, Sara breaks down. She is told that once she turns off the machines that keep her alive, Anna will be dead. Eventually, Anna still donates the kidney to Kate.

Issues and Themes: Death, Organ Donation, Family Conflict

I would recommend this book for any teenager or adult. This is a touching novel that can spark anyone’s interest. One is able to sympathise with both sides and understand their predicament as the author has carefully balanced the struggles both faced. Anna is torn between saving her sister and saving herself. Sara is torn between saving both daughters. This book sets us thinking about what is really morally correct.