1 . For many years we have talked about education in a changing society but have done little to educate for uncertainty. Perhaps the best insurance we can offer for this uncertainty is the presence of a good mind. To develop a good mind the student must learn how to learn and develop a taste for learning. The world of tomorrow needs flexible individuals, intelligently mobile individuals, individuals who can land on their feet when their jobs become technologically outdated, and individuals who can deal with the unexpected.

To educate for flexibility we must distinguish between training and education. To train is to emphasize immediate goals to neglect (忽视) the long-term growth. To educate, however, is to foster (培养) limitless growth to develop the good mind.

An inevitable element in education for flexibility is an attitude favorable to change. This is hard to develop. It requires faith in oneself and in the future. Then, what can the school and college do to build an attitude more favorable to change? Certainly they can and must develop the self-confidence of students, and build them up with repeated success instead of constant failure. Schools and colleges can help students admire what is admirable and provide continuing guidance in how to become a real person having faith in the future and having a good mind of his own.

To meet the striking social changes of the future, continuing education is a necessity. As Native Americans noted, you should keep on learning as long as you're ignorant. The flexibly educated person knows that today's fact may be tomorrow's misconception. So we should raise awareness of lifelong learning.

The test of a modern society capable of meeting change with accelerated (加速的) evolution instead of revolution does not lie in asking, “Is everybody learning?” To be learning is not only a condition for survival; it is also the basis for being richly alive.

2 . Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.

Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all, doing sports is essential for an adult. Teaching teens the significance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens make exercise their priority as an adult.

High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.

The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity. Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measureto encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.

Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition(PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activities each week improved their academic performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.

“Education” is generally defined as the process of learning and acquiring information. Formal learning in schools or universities     1     (be) one of the most common types, though self-teaching and so-called “life experiences” can also qualify. Communities around the world place     2     high value on educating people of all ages,     3     formally or informally. It is widely believed that constant exposure       4       new ideas and skills makes people better workers, thinkers, and societal contributors.

Most people associate education with schools and classrooms     5     trained teachers present information to students. Classroom learning generally starts when a child is     6    (relative) young. The purpose of most classroom learning is not to prepare a child for a specific job, but rather     7    (help) him or her develop critical     8     (reason) and thinking skills. Reading, writing, and math are very common lessons for young learners. As students progress in     9     (they) schooling, they often come into contact with more challenging subjects like writing, history, and advanced sciences.

Exposing students to new ideas and essential facts is only part of most educational goals. Also, students     10    (expect) to retain most, if not all, of the information that they learn in school. Teachers and professors commonly use exams and graded assignments to assess learning.

6 . Despite all the efforts students make to graduate with a science major, research has shown that most college science courses provide students with only a fragmented (碎片化的) understanding of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching method improves memorization of separate facts, proceeding from one textbook chapter to the next without necessarily making connections between them.

With that in mind, we developed a series of cross-disciplinary (跨学科的) activities. In our most recent study, we investigated how well college students could use their chemistry knowledge to explain real-world biological phenomena. To begin with, we interviewed 28 college students majoring in sciences or engineering. All had taken both introductory chemistry and biology courses. We asked them to identify connections between the content of these courses and what they believed to be the take-home messages from each course. The students responded with extensive lists of topics, concepts, and skills that they’d learned in class.

Following that, a set of cross-disciplinary activities were designed to guide students in the use of core chemistry ideas and knowledge to help explain real-world biological phenomena. One activity explored the impacts of ocean acidification (酸化) on seashells. Here, the students were asked to use basic chemistry ideas to explain how the increasing level of carbon dioxide in sea water is affecting shell-building marine animals such as corals and oysters.

Overall, the students felt confident of their chemistry knowledge. However, they had a harder time applying the same chemistry knowledge. The students in our study also reported that these activities helped them see links between the two disciplines that they wouldn’t have perceived otherwise. The ability to make these connections is important beyond the classroom as well, because it’s the basis of science literacy (素养). So we also came away with evidence that our chemistry students at least would like to have the ability to have a deeper understanding of science and how to apply it.

10 . Parents often think that their kids should be good at studies and do well in sports. That’s usually the case because parents feel that could get their children admission to top colleges. However, Melissa and Mark Wimmer think differently.

Their 14-year-old son, Mike, is a prodigy. He is a member of Mensa, which is the world’s top IQ club. He completed his high school, associate’s and bachelor’s degrees all in three years. That’s not all. He also ran two tech companies, founded a third one that works towards controlling the population of lionfish, an invasive (入侵的) species.

But the parents are proud that they were able to help Mike with his social skills along with his intellectual skills. Melissa told CNBC that people expected “Young Sheldon” before they met her son. Young Sheldon is a television show about a child talent who is an indoor man and lacks social skills. “But once they talk to Mike, they understand that he’s just a normal 14-year-old that happens to be able to do amazing things,” said Melissa.

Mark and Melissa got to know about their child’s intelligence when he entered preschool. A child psychologist told them that their son would need a different course to support his fast-track development. Many parents aren’t comfortable with putting their children with 18-year-olds, but Mike’s parents saw the value in letting their child go through it. “I wanted him to be social and be able to deal with all the different personalities in the classrooms with older children,” said Melissa.

The parents shared that they were able to do this by letting Mike find his own voice and put it to use. “We let him order food when he’s 3 or 4 from the waiter or waitress and introduce himself to people. Those kinds of things are done to encourage him to engage with everyone else and be more comfortable talking to others outside of our environment,” said Melissa.

Thanks to his parents, Mike has learned to get along with young and old alike.