1 . Women and girls already struggle with gender inequality, but when extreme weather damages a community, the UN found that inequalities worsen.

To explore the complex links between gender and climate change, CNN worked with seven women photojournalists to document the challenges women and girls face. This visual project gives a snapshot of the numerous ways climate crisis is changing their lives, but also shows how they are fighting back.

The Center for Girls’ Education runs a series of programs in Nigeria to help girls stay in school. One in every five of the world’s children who are out of school is in Nigeria, according to UNICEF, and it is girls who are impacted the most. More than 10 million children between 5 and 14 years old are absent from classrooms across Nigeria, according to UNICEF. For girls, the statistics are even bleaker: in states in the northeast and northwest of the country, fewer than half attend school.

This education crisis is the result of a tangle of factors, but against the backdrop of these individual factors is the broader context of the climate crisis. Nigeria is growing hotter and dryer, and extreme weather such as flash floods and landslides are becoming fiercer and more frequent. Climate disasters can make schools inaccessible and classrooms unsafe. Communities struggling to cope with extreme weather sometimes turn to their children to help or to earn extra money to support the family. And girls, whose attendance at school is already discouraged in some communities, are often most affected.

There are efforts to support girls’ education and equip them with the resources to cope with a fast-changing climate. The Center for Girls’ Education in the northern Nigerian city of Zaria runs programs to help girls stay in school and offers training on how to cope with the impacts of extreme weather. “I feel when we give the girls education on climate change, how to ease it, it will go a long way in helping the girls in how to support themselves in times of difficulties, and even help them prepare for it,” said Habiba Mohammed, director of the Center for Girls’ Education.

4 . 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.

5 . Teenagers need eight to ten hours of sleep per night. However, in adolescence (青春期) changes to the body’s sleep cycle make it difficult for teens to fall asleep early. Many cannot fall asleep until 10:30 p.m. or even later and most of them will feel sleepy if they have to get up too early.

Scientists recommend that both middle and high schools begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Later school start times support the natural needs of teenagers and increase their sleeping time.

Here are some other benefits of later school start times:

More time for a healthy breakfast

When running late in the mornings, students are likely to go without breakfast. With an empty stomach, one finds it difficult to focus (集中) in class. When they are always in a hurry, students may form unhealthy eating habits.

With extra time before going to school, students can eat a well-balanced breakfast and focus more on learning.

Fewer behavioral (行为的) problems

Teens experience mood changes as a common result of this special period of life. Less sleep may cause worries, stress and unhappiness.

When they get enough sleep, students are calm and peaceful and their moods do not change suddenly. They’re less likely to feel worried, unhappy or get angry. For parents, children with more sleep are easier to live with.

Better performance (表现) in study

Sleep loss hurts attention, memory and brain development. Students with less sleep have difficulty paying attention in class and are likely to have lower grades. Students with enough sleep can be more energetic during the day and more willing to learn. They are also less likely to fall asleep in class and more able to understand what they learn.

In conclusion, starting school later helps students get a better night’s sleep. It improves their chances of eating, behaving and performing better.

8 . Recently I had the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend, Chris Besse. One of the things I always admired about Chris was the way that he saw education as a mission, not a job. Chris called me last week to tell me he is CEO of a company called EdgeMakers, which is a new company that is bringing one of the missing ingredients(要素)to education: innovation.

I am always calling for changes in the way we educate our children. It is important that we prepare our children for a different economy and a different world. Employers of the future will demand creativity from their employees.

A tech company owned by a friend of mine has grown from a handful of employees to over 100 in the last seven years, and he still has 90 percent of all the employees he hired. He doesn’t pay more than other tech firms. He doesn’t have a Disney-like campus. What he does is pose interesting problems, not get involved in the solutions and allow employees to get to the solution in any way they want. His employees stay because they are motivated and interested.

This is the definition of modern industry and in many ways, the future of education. Successful employers now encourage innovation. Schools should create an innovative environment. But it appears that our current education system has a long way to go to achieve this.

The good news is that some schools are making changes. California and Texas just approved EdgeMakers’ courses for use in their high schools. According to John Kao, founder of EdgeMakers, “Creativity is inside every student, waiting to be freed. But without intentional programs in our schools, creativity is underdeveloped. We cannot allow this to continue, as our society is faced with problems that appear unsolvable unless we innovate to find solutions. Our goal with these courses is to combine students’ natural creativity with purpose, helping them develop as innovators whose work is truly meaningful and makes a difference to issues that matter.”

9 . Education is a self-enlightening process. It is an important part of life.

    1     The first thing that strikes me about education is knowledge gain. Education gives us knowledge of the world around us. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us build opinions and have points of view on things in life. Education makes us capable of explaining things rightly. It is not just about lessons in textbooks.     2    

Education is important also because it equips us with all that is needed to make our dreams come true. It opens doors to brilliant career opportunities.     3     We are weighed in the market on the basis of our educational skills and how well we can apply them.

    4     It wipes out all the wrong beliefs in our minds. It helps create a clear picture of everything around us and we no longer remain in confusion about the things we learn. It can lead us to enlightenment. It is education that builds in every individual the confidence to make decisions, to face life and to accept success and failure.

For the progress of a nation, for the enrichment of society in general, education is necessary and important. A country’s literate population is its asset(有利条件). The number of institutes offering vocational courses and colleges offering online education is increasing by the day.

Well, schools, colleges and other such educational institutes define the basic framework of education. But education does not end here.     5     Self-learning begins at a point where institutional education ends. The process of self-learning continues.

10 . In Britain all children have to go to school between the ages of 5 and 16. In the US children must go to school from the age of 6 to the ages between 14 and 16, depending on the state they live in.

Subjects

In England and Wales the subjects taught in schools are laid down by the National Curriculum, which was introduced in 1988 and sets out in detail the subjects that children should study and the levels of achievement they should reach by the ages of 7, 11, 14, and 16, when they are tested. The National Curriculum does not apply to Scotland, where each school decides what subjects it will teach.

Examinations

At 16, students in England and Wales take GCSE examinations. These examinations are taken by students of all levels of ability in any of a range of subjects, and may involve a final examination, an assessment of work done during the two-year course, or both of these things. At 18 some students take A-level examinations, usually in no more than three subjects. It is necessary to have A levels in order to go to university.

In Scotland students take the SCE examinations. A year later, they can take examinations called Highers, after which they can either go straight to a university or spend a further year at school and take the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies. In Scotland the university system is different from that in England and Wales.Courses usually last four years rather than three, and students study a large number of subjects as part of their degree.