【推荐1】The relationship (关系) between teachers and students is an important part of school life. An Indian movie called Hichki tells the story of a teacher who helps some bad students and makes them better people. It is popular with lots of students now.

In Hichki, the main character is Naina Mathur. She has an illness (疾病) that makes her hiccup (打嗝), she gets her dream job as a teacher. But she has to teach a class of rebellious students. They laugh at Mathur in her first class.

However, Mathur doesn’t get angry with them. She tries her best to help every student. When they cause a small explosion (爆炸) and the school asks them to leave, Mathur wins the students’ hearts. Under her care, the students start to study harder and become better and better.

From the story, we know that a good teacher doesn’t simply pass on (传授) knowledge, even if they have some kind of illness.

【推荐2】In Tanglai Hui Primary School, 12-year-old Duan Jiayang learns the skills to take care of vegetable fields. In China, many parents place a heavy focus on their children’s grades, while vocational(职业)skills have largely been ignored. “Some parents do everything for their children,” says Yan Mei, an official with the primary school, adding that many students lack the basic skills needed in their daily lives.

Since March last year, authorities(当局)have given kinds of guidelines, asking that colleges, middle schools and primary schools pay more attention to teaching students practical skills. Following the guidelines, Tanglai Hui Primary School launched an “practice base”. Students plant fruit and vegetables on each land about 0.4 hectares in size.

Before the May Day holiday, students of different grades at the school worked together to plant vegetables in the fields, says school headmaster Yang Bo. They planted watermelon, spinach and corn, among other crops. The students are preparing for the coming of May Day in their own way. May Day, also known as Labor Day, is observed on May 1 in China.

“We will ask students to take part in the whole process of the plants’ growth,” Yang says. “Life skills education is not simply about working in the fields, but also experiencing life.” The school hopes that students will develop a better understanding of just how valuable food is and the hardship their parents went through, Yang adds.

Children usually just study at home and doing housework is an unpleasant task they want to avoid, says Mrs. Zhang, the mother of one of the students in the school. “Vocational courses turn such ‘tasks’ into an interest, and finally into a life skill,” she says. “It will be a good thing for their future.”

【推荐3】Students from a Middle School, experience farming during their Labor course. Housework like cooking and washing always ends up at the bottom of many of our to-do lists. Some people even think that it should be taken care of by their parents.

However, these life skills are important and should be taught as part of labor education. On June 3, 2020, the Ministry of Education (MOE) (教育部) gave a revised (修订后的) course for high schools across the county. Labor education, also called education on the hardworking spirit, ranges from housework to school labor and community voluntary services (社会志愿服务).

“Labor education must be carried out with the aim to develop the view of the world, life and values and develop an interest in doing labor,” said Zheng Fuzhi, a Vice-Minister (副部长) of Education.

According to China Youth Daily, the labor course will take six credits—the same as foreign language and physics. Voluntary service, as a part of labor education, would take two credits. The MOE also asks schools to make sure 40 hours of voluntary service during the full three school years.

According to Xinhua, adding labor education was out of care that the country’s youngsters do too little housework and they think labor jobs aren’t important. Because of a lot of school stress, schools pay more attention to the educational course, and parents sometimes think that housework wastes their kids’ time.

According to a survey, primary and middle school students in China only spend 12 minutes a day on chores, compared to 72 minutes in the US, 42 minutes in South Korea and 30 minutes in France.

However, doing housework does not take young people’s attention away. Instead, it is necessary for developing a strong working spirit. “The earlier you start, the better…” the writer of How to Raise an Adult said.

In many countries, tattoos are in fashion （时尚）. On TV you can often see a famous actor or musician with a tattoo on his arm or foot. Many sports players have them, too. In the US, tattoos are very popular. Forty percent of Americans aged between 26 and 40 have a tattoo, and 60 percent of customers in US tattoo parlors are women. These people are often professional people like doctor, teachers and lawyers.

However, tattoos are not modern. In fact, they are very old in human history. For example, archaeologists* found a human in ice from 5,000 years ago. He had 57 tattoos on his back, ankles, legs, knees and feet. Tattoos were used for many different reasons. In ancient Egypt, people got tattoos because they were “beautiful”. But in ancient Rome, tattoos were negative and put on criminals* and prisoners. In India, tattoos were religious *.

In the 16^th and 17^th century, European sailors arrived on the islands of Polynesia. They saw tattoos for the first time. The people on the islands had tattoos on their shoulders, chests, backs and legs. Often the tattoos were of animals or natural features like a river or a mountain. The European sailors liked them and made their own tattoos, so the idea traveled to Europe. Tattoos in Polynesia are still important today. They show information about a person’s history, their island or their job.

So is there a connection between traditional tattoos and fashionable tattoos? And can you call tattoos a fashion? Chris Rainier is an expert in tattoos and his book Ancient Marks has photos of tattoos from all over the world. He thinks people in modern societies often have tattoos because they are a connection to the traditional world. But tattoos aren’t a fashion like clothes or a haircut because you can’t put them on and take them off again like a jacket or a hat. They are permanent* and for life.