【推荐1】Traditional Chinese education required scholars to learn the Confucian classics. And they were taught certain rites (礼仪) connected with ancestor worship, but were by no means supposed to have the beliefs which the rites would seem to imply, placing no barrier in the way of free intellectual (理智的) suspicion. An easy and elegant suspicion was the attitude expected of an educated adult; anything might be discussed, but it was slightly rude to reach very positive conclusions. Chinese education produced stability and art; it failed to produce progress or science. Perhaps this may be taken as what is to be expected of suspicion.

Confucianism in Japan never produced the cultured suspicion which characterized the Chinese scholars. The aim of Japanese education is to produce citizens who shall be devoted to the national greatness through the training of their passions, and useful to it through the knowledge they have acquired. However, their religion, which must not be questioned even by university professors, involves doubtful history and, therefore, many kinds of progress are scarcely possible, and the products of Japanese education are likely to be too stubborn. Neither suspicion nor stubbornness is what education should produce. What education should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be corrected. This state of mind is rather difficult but in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, It not impossible; the stubbornness forgets the difficulty, and the suspicion denies the possibility. Both are mistaken.

Doctor Arnold’s system, which has remained in force in English public schools, had another inadequacy. The aim was to train men for positions of authority and power, whether at home or in distant parts of the Empire. The noble, if they are to survive, need certain virtues; these were to be educated at school. The product was to be energetic and physically fit, possessed of certain unchangeable beliefs, with high standards of morality, and convinced that it had an important mission in the world. However, intellect was sacrificed, because it might produce suspicion.

【推荐3】There have been assumptions about possible detrimental long-term consequences of school closures on young children and adolescents, but now a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides convincing evidence that the mental health of school children was damaged by school closures during the pandemic.

The study surveyed 907 adolescents and their parents in Germany between May and June of 2020. Depression and psychosomatic symptoms were evaluated, in addition to other aspects of mental health. Telephone call volume to German youth crisis helplines was also analyzed. Both sets of data found higher depression and psychosomatic symptoms, particularly among boys, younger children, and adolescents, especially those living in homes with limited space. The research suggests that increased pressure on families forced to adapt to new work, school, and family life situations during the pandemic school closures promoted the increase in mental health problems in school children.

Not all children suffered the effects equally. Young children suffered the most from the pressure caused by school closures. Boys coped much worse with school closures than girls. The effects were strongest in school-aged children living in homes that had limited living space. That factor supports the conclusion that family living stresses promoted the decline in mental health.

Disrupting daily routine and social interactions do damage to the mental health of school children, the researchers conclude. Given the obvious importance of wholesome daily routine in family life and the value of health y social interactions in nurturing the well-being of children, it is not surprising that kids’ mental health suffered when their schools were closed for long periods and their family life was greatly changed.

COVID-19 is not the first, nor will it be the last serious infectious disease sweeping the globe. These new findings will be valuable in deciding how best to manage such outbreaks in the future.

【推荐3】If you’re eating protein (蛋白质), you could be swallowing hundreds of tiny pieces of plastic each year, research finds.

A new study by researchers with the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy and the University of Toronto found microplastics — tiny particles ranging from one micrometer to a half-centimeter in size — in nearly 90 percent of protein food samples tested.

The researchers analyzed more than a dozen different types of common proteins that could wind up on the average American’s plate, including seafood, pork, beef, chicken, to fu and several plant-based meat alternatives. They estimated that an American adult could consume, on average, at least 11,000 microplastic pieces per year.

The study’s findings provide further evidence of the availability of small plastic particles — which have been discovered everywhere from Antarctic snow to inside human bodies — and how they can end up in the food we eat and the water we drink.

“While we still really don’t have any idea what the human health consequences of this are, if there are any at all, we need to take this seriously because this is a problem that’s not going away on its own, and it’s only going to get worse the more plastic we use and throwaway,” Leonard said. But Leonard and other experts cautioned against using the findings to draw final conclusions about how microplastics can dirty food and the amount of plastic that could be hiding in proteins.

The study’s sample size was not big enough and the researchers noted that there was high variability in microplastic concentrations in the samples. The researchers also only counted microplastic particles that were larger than or equal in size to 45 micrometers. “It just highlights that we need to do more research,” said Bianca Datta, a food scientist not involved in the new research.