1 . Marva Collins’ journey as a teacher began in the 1960s, when she was assigned to teach at a public school in Chicago. At the time, the school was plagued (困扰) by violence, low academic standards, and a ______ of resources, and many of its students were ______ as “unteachable” or “at-risk.”

Despite these ______ , Collins was determined to make a difference. She ______ to create a classroom environment that helped to develop a love of ______ , a sense of discipline, and a belief in oneself. Collins’ teaching methods proved ______ , and her students soon began to show remarkable progress. They ______ well above average on standardized tests, and many of them went on to ______ top universities.

Collins also ______ the importance of building relationships between teachers and students. She believed that strong relationships were the foundation of effective teaching, and she ______ teachers to get to know their students as individuals and to personalize their instruction ______ .

Collins’ impact on education was recognized by educators across the world, and she was ______ to speak at conferences across the world. Today, Collins’ legacy (遗产) lives on through the many students and educators inspired by her work. Her emphasis on ______ , hard work and relationships continues to be a model for effective teaching, and her ______ in the potential of every student ______ to inspire educators to make a difference in the lives of at-risk students.

2 . “From one day to the next, our profession was wiped out. We woke up and discovered our skills were unnecessary.” This is what two successful graphic designers told me about the impact of AI. The old promise—creative workers would be better protected than others from mechanization (机械化) —ruined overnight. If visual artists can be replaced by machines, who is safe?

While there’s plenty of talk about how education might change, little has been done to equip students for a world whose conditions shift so fast. It’s not just at work that young people will confront sudden changes of state. They are also likely to witness more environmental breakdown and the collapse of certain human-made systems.

Why are we so unprepared? Why do we manage our lives so badly? Why are we so expert at material innovation, but so unskilled at creating a society in which everyone can succeed? Why do obvious lies spread like wildfire? What is lacking in our education that leaves such gap s in our lives?

The word education partly comes from Latin, meaning “to lead out”. Too often it leads us in: into old ways of thinking, into dying professions. Too seldom does it lead us out of our cognitive and emotional circles, out of a political and economic system that’s killing us.

I don’t claim to have definitive answers. But I believe the extreme demands, throughout our schooling, of tests and exams reduce the range of our thinking. The exam system creates artificial borders. The intense combined demands of the testing system leave almost no time to respond to opportunities and events, or for children to develop their own interests.

Education should be joyful and delightful, not only because joy and delight are essential to our health and happiness, but also because we are more likely to survive major changes. Schooling alone will not be enough to lead us out of the many crises and disasters we now face. But it should at least lend us a torch.

8 . At its core, social media is about advertising, but not just in terms of the products. Users are advertising themselves, making themselves look special and happy, no matter how many filters (滤镜) it takes. This can actually be damaging, especially to younger people. Because they traditionally look to their peers (同龄人) to help them determine what’s normal and who they should desire to be, and they particularly fear the social exclusion that comes from not fitting in with their peer group’s expectations.

With social media, their peers appear light years ahead in terms of wealth, beauty, and access to the kind of overall resources most of us can only dream of. The problem is that most of them achieved their fabulousness (难以置信的美好) through pure luck.

That’s why the core of our advice, for both adults and kids, begins with learning to accept what you can and can’t control, especially during those times when making things better isn’t really possible. And the one thing you can control when life sucks (令人不愉快) is knowing your standards for being a good person and living up to those standards regardless of how you feel or look or what other people think.

Being a good person isn’t about being perfect or ultra-unselfish; you don’t need to work in a soup kitchen or donate a kidney in order to qualify. In part, that’s because helping others must always come second to doing the smaller things required every day to take care of your own responsibilities and live up to your own values.

After explaining these ideas to their kids, parents can ask them to think about what they can and can’t control given how often life is just plain unfair. They can also ask their kids to think about the qualities they admire in people they believe to be good. This way, parents aren’t lecturing their kids about the importance of real values but encouraging them to make up their own minds about the values they find important. After all, people of any age are much more likely to make smart decisions if they’re asked to think through issues carefully and determine the right thing on their own, rather than being pushed in that direction.

9 . Education isn’t simply about achieving a “higher state of knowledge”; it’s about equipping students with the tools they need to go out into the world and shape it for themselves. Here is a list of how education could improve the world.

    1    .

Education brings up many environmental topics to students and encourages them to think about the ecosystems around them. Today it is becoming important to be aware of this and education allows us to consume more responsibly and take action for the care of our planet.

Education helps people develop skills.

Schools cover many topics, and as you continue through schools’ programs, more and more subjects open up to you.     2    , anyone can find their passion and do what they truly love!

Getting an education not only means learning skills like reading and writing, but also means knowing abstract concepts like teamwork, critical thinking and creativity.    3    , you become an individual who is more likely to live a greater life than someone less educated.

Education is a step toward world peace.

    4    ! Research shows that countries with secondary school enrollment rates that are 10% above the international average have a 3% lower rate of engaging in a war. It has been shown that educated people are less likely to be violent. And this holds true for all regions of the world, whether developed or developing.    5    .

Education is a pretty investment. If one extra year of school can produce such benefits, what will the world be like when universal education becomes a reality?

10 . We always put into children’s minds that learning to read is extremely important to their future success. But we don’t put that same urgency(迫切性) on adults, even though a large percentage of American adults have a low reading or writing ability.

Learning those skills requires many levels of support. Take, for example, the three hours every day in a Louisville community center.

Ardo Ahmed and Yurilia Manzanares are among the people sitting in classrooms and listening to teachers. These three hours are about learning English. Yurilia came to the United States from Mexico, and Ardo from Somalia. “Everyone is coming here to learn English, to have the same kind of support as their children,” their teacher Meagan Lamb said.

Literacy(读写能力) among adults, specifically among moms, is a concern that reaches far beyond Louisville, far beyond immigrant communities. A Barbara Bush Foundation study found fewer than half of American adults can read beyond a 6th-grade level. A study supported by the National Institutes of Health stated “a mother’s reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic(学业的) success.”

“There’s a stigma(耻辱) there,” said Felicia Cumings Smith, the new head of the National Center for Families Learning. “There’s quite a bit of funding that goes into literacy for K-12, but if students are not successful during those schooling years, that all comes to an end.”

These three hours, every day, make a difference. But they’re only possible because the community center where they take place provides childcare while the parents learn English.

The children are learning English, which creates even more stimulus for the parents to learn as well.

“The kids are speaking English in school every day,” Meagan said. “And then they go back home, and little by little Spanish doesn’t feel like their native language.” It’s why, in the last of these three hours, Yurilia and Ardo attend “Parent Time”. It’s where they practice not just the language but how to apply it.