Vicious cycle

Poverty to a nation is like a disease to a person.  A poor society must be a sick one with all kinds of symptoms of illness.  For instance, there will be more crime and also more social instability.  Once there are a large number of poor people in a country, their children can seldom be well educated.  When they grow up, they cannot be very competitive and therefore become poor again.  This is why the poor usually get poorer.  A vicious cycle is thus created.  And we say that poverty is inherited from generations to generations.

道德教育及國民教育

道德教育及國民教育

我認為道德教育比國民教育更重要。在我看來，道德教育是基礎教育，尤其是面對參與國家事務時的判斷。換句話說，道德教育與國民教育應該是有一個平衡能力。後者只被認為是補充能力。

     「論語」是中國的傳統知識，已超過2000年之歷史，存在於耶穌基督誕生之前，對中國人民有很大的影響。在中國歷史上，儒家的「論語」已蔓延到中國人民及他們的國王。他們遵循“尊重父母，友愛，忠誠，信任”的規則。他們基本上被接受是中國人民的優秀教育。許多中國人竭誠地遵循這些道德標準，實現他們的目標理想。

     在香港，很多學校展開道德教育。它包括德、智、體、群、美。經調查所得，我發現很多學生都喜歡有一個平衡的道德教育及國民教育課程。他們說，他們應該知道更多有關中國的歷史，尤其是中國近代史。

     然而，一些學生比較喜歡全國推行更注重道德教育的方案。他們的意見認為，如果推行及鼓勵國民教育，教師必須以正確的方式教導國民教育課程，而不是向學生們洗腦，讓後者知道歷史的真相。他們應該帶領學生有一個積極的態度來掌握國民教育。

     中國現正崛起中。國家教育包括世界各國間的兄弟情誼，民族團結，更多地了解我們的祖國，稅務，外匯事宜，實踐，文化，婚姻、經濟、對國家的歸屬感等。它們增加我們的一般知識，在這個現今世界是認為對我們有用的。

香港回歸中國，推行道德教育及國民教育是一個明顯的趨勢。具有良好的道德標準，更能導致我們的國家繁榮，有秩序和蓬勃發展，是有很多歷史真相在內的。

Mary 姐 

Moral & National Education in HK

Moral and National Education in HK

I think Moral Education is more important than National Education.  In my opinion, Moral Education is the basic education for everyone and national affairs involve judgement.  In other words, moral education is the foundation of national education.  The latter is being considered to be supplementary.

Confucian Analects, which is the Chinese traditional knowledge for over 2000 years, before the birth of Jesus Christ, has its great influence on Chinese people.  In the Chinese history, Confucian analects had been spread to The Kings and people of China.  They followed the rules of ‘respect to parents, brotherhood, loyalty, trust’.  They are basically accepted by Chinese people as the excellent moral teachings.  Many follow these moral instructions wholeheartedly and fulfill their goals.

In Hong Kong, many schools carry out the moral education.  It includes conduct, intelligence, social life education, physical education, appreciate to beauty.  Upon investigation, I discover that many students like to have a moral and national education curriculum in parallel lines.  They said that they should know more about Chinese History, especially contemporary Chinese History.

However, some students like to focus more on Morality Education than National Education.  In their opinion, National Education is being encouraged, provided that teachers should teach the curriculum in the right way, not brainwashing the students, let the latter know the truth of the history.  They should lead the students to have a positive attitude to master the National Education.

China is rising in the world nowadays.  National Education includes brotherhood among countries worldwide, national unity, knowing more about our mother country, taxation, foreign policy, codes of practice, culture, marriage, economics, people’s sense of belonging to their own country ...etc.  National education increases our general knowledge which is considered to be useful to us in this modern world.

Moral and National Education is a definite trend for students in HK nowadays because of HK's handover to China.  Having good morality can lead our country to develop well, orderly and prosperously, which has much truth in History.

Mary

The value of Maintaining Public Libraries as a Community Resource

The Value of Maintaining Public Libraries as a Community Resource

  

I fully support maintaining public libraries as a community resource.

Public libraries are assets of society.  They provide a place of study, a spot for searching information, a room for various purposes.  They are beneficial to the Hong Kong people and giving hope to the life of citizens.

The students may go to the libraries to search for additional information outside the school curriculum.  They provide books, computers to assist in their studies.  They may surf the information from the Internet.  The libraries can be reading rooms for them.  They may not be able to find some quiet places to do their homework.  As an alternative selection, the libraries do.  It is also a wonderland for the children since there are many books suitable for them.

A library is also a place of refreshment for workers other than the working time.  There are newspapers, magazines provided.  They may borrow some books from libraries to read at home.  They may help them to cultivate a good reading habit.  This will certainly widen their knowledge of this modern world.  Some libraries have additional galleries beyond the public ones, where reference materials are stored.  The reference stacks may be open to selected members of the public.  It is an improvement scheme for the industrial and economic fields of Hong Kong.

Libraries are also a symbol of a well-developed society.  There are a lot of libraries in United States of America, China, Australia, Britain…etc.  Libraries increase the dignity of a country’s government.  Hong Kong has many libraries.  It is really a well-developed and bright metropolis.

In Hong Kong, some libraries carry out extra additional activities such as seminars, talks on various subjects.  They are inspiring.  Libraries are also visited by many tourists from various countries.  These tourist spots are attractive, especially to the students overseas.

Reading books is a good form of recreation activities as well as an excellent form of entertainment.  On the whole, libraries are valuable community resources.  They must exist.  We must treasure them. 

Mary Lau