【推荐1】Diverse cultures cannot be passed on to the following generations without native languages since the language is the carrier of a nation’s culture. International Mother Language Day, which was established at the initiative (倡议) of Bangladesh by UNESCO’s General Confer once in 1999, is an essential platform to promote the importance of cultural and linguistic (语言的) diversity.

UNESCO has been leading the way and advocating multilingual education based on the mother tongue from the earliest years of schooling. Research shows that education in the mother tongue is key factor for inclusion and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes and academic performance. And most importantly, multilingual education based on the mother tongue fosters understanding and respect for one another and helps preserve the wealth or cultural and traditional heritage that is embedded in every language around the world.

However, in many nations, the majority of pupils are instructed in a language other than their mother tongue, which hinders (妨碍) their capacity to learn effectively. It is estimated that 40% of the world’s people is unable to accept education in their mother tongues. Presently, around 7,000 dialects are spoken across the planet. But the diversity of languages is under threat as more and more of them are disappearing rapidly. When a language disappears, a whole cultural and intellectual heritage is lost with it.

There is progress being made worldwide in multilingual education that stresses the importance of using the mother tongue, especially in the early years of schooling, and in developing it for public life.

Through, its guidelines for language policy and education, UNESCO provides advice on effective bilingual and multilingual teaching, alongside teaching in a child s mother tongue. I works together with Member States to embed multilingual education throughout entire courses and education systems. Recently, there have been successful initiatives to encourage education based on mother tongues in Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti and Kenya.

【推荐1】Around 1886 Albert Einstein began his school career in Munich. As well as his violin lessons, which he had from age six to age thirteen. Two years later he entered the Luitpold Gymnasium and after his religious education was given at school. He studied mathematics, beginning around 1891.

In 1894 Einstein’s family moved to Milan but Einstein remained in Munich. In 1895 Einstein failed an examination that would have allowed him to study for a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Einstein gave up German citizenship in 1896 and was to be stateless for a number of years. He didn’t even apply for Swiss citizenship until 1899, citizenship being granted in 1901.

By 1909, Einstein was recognized as a leading scientific thinker. He was appointed a full professor at the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. In fact, 1911 was a very significant year for Einstein since he was able to make predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the Sun, would appear to be bent slightly, in the direction of the Sun. this would be high significant as it would lead to the first experimental evidence in favor of Einstein’s theory.

When British eclipse expeditions (日食探险队) in 1919 confirmed his predictions. Einstein was idolized (崇拜) by the popular press. The London Times ran the headline on 7 November 1919:

Revolution in science – new theory of the Universe – Newtonian ideas overthrown.

In 1920 Einstein’s lectures in Berlin were stopped by demonstrations which, although officially denied, were almost certainly anti-Jewish. Certainly there were strong feelings expressed against his works during this period which Einstein replied to in the press quoting Lorentz, Planck and Eddington as supporting his theories.

Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 but not for reality rather for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect. In fact he was not present in December 1922 to receive the prize being on a voyage to Japan. Around this time he made many international visits. He had visited Paris earlier in 1922 and during 1923 he visited Palestine. After making his last major scientific discovery on the association of waves with matter in 1924 he made further visits in 1925, this time to South America.

In 1949 Einstein became a citizen of the United States, but chose to retain his Swiss citizenship. He made many contributions to peace during his life. In 1944 he made a contribution to the war effort by hand writing his 1905 paper on special relativity and putting it up for auction (拍卖). It raised six million dollars, the manuscript today being in the Library of Congress.

By 1949 Einstein was unwell. A spell in hospital helped him recover but he began to prepare for death by drawing up his will in 1950. He left his scientific papers to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a university which he had raised funds for on his first visit to the USA, served as a governor of the university from 1925 to 1928 but he had turned down the offer of a post in 1922 as he was very critical of its administration.

One more major event was to take place in his life. After the death of the first president of Israel in 1952, the Israeli government decided to offer the post of the second president to Einstein. He refused but found the offer an embarrassment since it was hard for him to refuse without causing offence.

One week before his death Einstein signed his last letter. It was a letter to Bertrand Russell in which he agreed that his name should go on a manifesto urging all nations to give up nuclear weapons.

【推荐2】He had been a Christmas present to my second son. Brian, at six, wanted something that was his alone, something not handed down — as were his clothes and toys — from his older brother.

And so, on Christmas Day 1954, I rose early with my wife to put the tiny kitten a neighbor had given us into the stocking that Brian had carefully fastened to the mantelpiece (壁炉台) the night before. From then on, the life of the cat, Tiger, was full of love. For a sometimes fumbling child, Brian showed great gentleness with Tiger, which was amazing. Every night, when I checked on the children, I would invariably find Tiger on Brian’s bed, stretched out beside him.

One evening our next-door neighbor rang the front doorbell. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” she said when my wife answered the door, “but when I backed out of the driveway this afternoon, I’m afraid I ran over your cat. I tried to help him, but he jumped up and ran away. I don’t know where he went or how badly he was hurt.”

Four weeks passed with no sign of Tiger. Brian tried to hide his fear that his friend had crawled away to die. It was a fear we all shared. And we came to accept his death — all of us except Brian.

Every evening Brian would go to the door and call Tiger’s name. Finally, on the 28th day after the neighbor’s unwelcome announcement, he had an answer. Out from under the front porch came Tiger, his tail high, walking with the pride, behaving as if he had never been away. As he approached the door, Brian’s face was transformed with joy. But neither he nor Tiger displayed open affection in front of the family. There was a calm acceptance, an honoring by each of the other’s dignity. That night, though, when I checked Brian’s room, I saw that his cheeks were wet and a smile was on his face and his arm encircled his cat, who lay purring quietly beside him.

【推荐2】During Brandi Tuck’s junior year at the University of Florida in 2004, her spring break plans fell through and it changed the course of her life.

All of her friends were going on alternative spring break trips, which gave them an opportunity to serve a diverse set of communities and she reluctantly signed up because nobody was going to the beach with her.

There were several trips to choose from, each focused on a cause like AIDs, women’s rights or the environment. But none of them spoke to Tuck. She’ d done community service for years, but more out of just a desire to enrich her resume (简历). “I picked the homelessness and poverty trip. I thought it was the least bad of the choices,” she recalled.

That spring, she and a dozen other students headed to Atlanta, Georgia, to spend a week volunteering at homeless shelters. The experience was eye-opening. At one shelter, one young boy’s request stopped her in her tracks. He said, “Oh, I love you. Can you please not go? Stay with me.” Tuck knew they didn’t have a lot of attention because the moms were so stressed. So she stayed. In that moment, Tuck decided to continue working at the shelter.

In 2008, Tuck started a nonprofit organization, now known as Path Home, which provides shelter, support, and a host of services to families experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon. The organization has since helped more than 10,000 parents and children. She also bought an old church to create an environment that would help families recover mentally as well as physically, giving them the sense of emotional, physical, and psychological safety.

Tuck says her wish is a society where every family receives the support and compassion they need to boom, which is all that she needs to continue doing the work.