1 . A survey of 2,000 parents of primary and secondary school children found 34 percent were out of their depth with primary school homework and unable to help their child.

Trigonometry (三角学) provided the biggest headache, with 52 percent of parents unable to help, followed by algebra (代数), which left 46 percent confused. 39 percent of parents could not calculate Pi (π) and 35 percent did not understand the periodic table. Foreign languages stumped many, with 31 percent unable to ask for directions in French. The English language also proved a struggle, with 21 percent no longer knowing the difference between a noun, verb and adjective.

As for history, 19 percent said they did not know the beginning and end dates of the world wars. On average, parents spent four hours a week attempting to tutor (辅导) their children, according to the survey by MyTutor, a company that links families with private tutors. About 73 percent ended up arguing with their children over homework and 87 percent believed schoolwork had become more challenging than the work they completed when they were at school.

Families turned to schools for extra help, with 19 percent of parents saying they had requested this from their child’s school. Thirty-nine percent said not enough support was provided. Florence Milner, a manager at MyTutor, said, “Even though most parents devote a significant amount of time weekly to helping their children with schoolwork, it’s not surprising that many find the task challenging.” Schools can use the National Tutoring Programme to support pupils they believe are most in need, but government funding has dropped this academic year from 60 to 50 percent of the cost.

Some studies have suggested that homework has little impact on a child’s progress at primary school, but helps at secondary school. The Education Endowment Foundation, which provides evidence to help improve teaching, said homework has a positive impact, particularly at secondary level, but warned that some pupils may not have a quiet space for home learning.

3 . In much of the western United States, drought and access to fresh water is a critical issue. However, recently California came up with a novel solution. The state approved regulations that allow agencies to purify wastewater for drinking. This recycled wastewater may be consumed in homes, schools, and businesses.

As the population in California has exploded in recent decades, the state has struggled to meet demands for fresh water. Recycled wastewater will allow the state to increase access to the precious resource.

Recycled wastewater is not new to the state. It has previously been used in ice hockey rinks (冰球场), for crops, and to generate artificial snow. But now, water agencies will have the option to put recycled wastewater back into pipes for drinking. California is only the second state to allow purified wastewater to be consumed. The first was Colorado in 2022.

While the idea of drinking recycled wastewater may be off-putting, regulators spent more than a decade developing rules and regulations to ensure safety. Independent panels of scientists also reviewed the state’s rules around recycled wastewater consumption. All water will be treated for pathogens (病原体) and viruses before being available for consumption.

So far, the state’s plan has been met with approval from large water agencies. Many of them have plans to construct wastewater recycling plans over the next few years. In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has set a goal aiming to produce 150 million gallons of direct and indirect recycled water per day. This water will be in the pipes of the 19 million people throughout the six counties that the agency serves.

Officials are aware that a certain amount of public convincing may still be necessary. However, they remain optimistic about the future of the project, reminding consumers that the water is safe, and that recycled water is already in use in California.

5 . Rising food prices have taken a big bite out of what Canadians are able to serve up for dinner but food economists say our ability to cope has been deteriorated by our common decline in cooking skills. “We are less able to cook than we were 30 or 40 years ago, and so it’s much more difficult for us to adapt our diet,” said Mike von Massow, an associate professor at the University of Guelph.

A 2010 federal government report called Improving Cooking and Food Preparation Skills, the most recent of its kind, said that all across the population, processed and pre-prepared foods have been permitted. “Related to this permission is the potential lack of transference of basic, traditional cooking and food preparation skills from parents to children and adolescents,” the report reads.

Moreover, the quality of pre-prepared foods in the market remains uneven, with problems related to the lack of detailed labelling on such products, as well as difficulties in logistics and distribution.

Annie Belov, a 21-year-old student, has taught herself a lot about cooking since food prices started shooting up. “When the inflation (通货膨胀) wasn’t as bad, I was constantly eating out,” said Belov. That might mean food on campus or picking up a prepared item at Safeway when the price was still around $5, she said.

Belov now often makes dishes such as Caesar salad, as well as hearty pasta salads that combine carbs with vegetables and a bit of chicken. Belov said she’s a lot more efficient in the kitchen thanks to building her skills through trial and error. “Now, definitely more than before, I can kind of look in the pantry or in the freezer and be like, ‘OK, yeah, I can make a meal quickly and easily.’”

It’s important to note, however, that cooking skills alone cannot solve the affordability problem, said Elaine Power. And in 2023, Food Banks Canada says food insecurity is rising with inflation and the high cost of living. So while cooking skills can better position people to feed themselves and their families as best they can in forced circumstances, “that doesn’t, and can’t, make up for income that is inadequate in the first place.”

6 . Smart phones provide a palm (手掌)-size window to the world, enabling us to do almost anything at the touch of a button. Smart homes look after themselves, and virtual meeting s mean that for many, time spent commuting is a thing of the past.

So we should have more free time. Time which is now spent sleeping, relaxing or simply doing nothing-right? We recently interviewed 300 people across Europe to understand how they used digital devices in day-to-day life. This research showed that people want to avoid empty periods of time in their lives, so they fill those periods performing tasks, some of which wouldn’t be possible without technology.

Whether it was waiting for a bus, waking in the morning, or lying in bed at night, our research reported that time which would previously be “empty” was now filled with brain training apps, creating lists of things they should do or try based on their social media feed, and other life admin.

On the face of it some of these tasks may seem like examples of tech saving us time. In theory, online banking should mean I have more time because I no longer need to go to the bank in my lunch break. However, our research suggests that this is not the case.

If the idea that you have more time than ever before is making you choke on your coffee, you are not alone. There is growing evidence that while digital technology may help us to save some time, we end up using that time to do more and more things. For many people, it is no longer enough to simply eat dinner, watch TV or maybe do an exercise class. Instead, in an attempt to avoid wasting time, these activities are performed while also browsing the web in search of the ingredients for a more perfect life and trying to develop a sense of achievement.

It seems that people still see going for a walk or actually being with friends as more valuable than being online. Maybe if we put down the phone a little more, we would have the time to actually cook those recipes we watch online.

9 . Flip-flops (人字拖) are the most popular type of shoe in the world. They’re comfortable, they’re easy to wear and they’re inexpensive. Unfortunately, most of them are also terrible for the environment. In Kenya, this is a huge problem, and around 90 tons of flip-flops wash up on its shores annually.

In the late 1990s, when Julie Church was working as a marine (海洋的) conservationist in Nairobi, she found an entire beach “just covered in flip-flops”. Around that time, Church also noticed children making toys out of the thousands of flip-flops that had made their way to the country’s beaches. She began working with the kids’ mothers to encourage them to not just collect the shoes, but also turn them into artworks. The families could then sell this art at local markets, providing another means of income.

The idea took off, and in 1998, Church founded Ocean Sole as a nonprofit. This year alone, the organization has upcycled more than 750,000 flip-flops and collected more than 47,000 kilos of waste. Additionally, Ocean Sole directly impacts more than 1,000 Kenyans, many of whom work as flip-flop collectors or artists, and contributes 10% to 15% of overall income to career and educational programs for residents, as well as beach cleanup and conservation efforts.

Ocean Sole is continuously growing and looking to keep waste off Kenya’s beaches and out of its water. When it comes to growing the Ocean Sole organization, Church has three “mantras (真言)”: trust to trade, trade to awareness, and awareness to protection. Church would like to put together toolkits and other resources to bring this concept to other places around the world that have similar problems. Ocean Sole is also encouraging companies to use more eco-friendly materials when making flip-flops. “I think it’s time for us to start looking for an alternative shoe, or an alternative material, to fit that kind of fashion need,” Church has said. “Our products need to develop.”

Can students bring cell phones into campus?

With the increasing popularity of smartphones, more and more students bring them to school. However, the debate over whether students should be allowed to bring phones to school continues.