Egalitarian and elitist approaches to education.

Children’s intelligence, musical ability, physical endurance etc., vary enormously from individual to individual: some children are musical geniuses at the age of four or five, and others are what is usually called tone-deaf; there are mathematical geniuses, and children who are hopeless at maths; some girls become world swimming champions at 14, and others are always last in any race and so on.

Some “experts” claim that most of these differences are born in the child; others say that they are the result of early experiences. The most sensible attitude is that they are partly the result of heredity, and partly that of environment.

One therefore has to accept that there is a wide range of ability between different children in a large number of different skills and abilities, and one then has to decide what to do about it in the schools. Some governments believe in an egalitarian approach; others in giving special types of education to suit each different kind of ability, with especial encouragement to those who are outstanding in a particular thing. The latter is known as an elitist approach.

What is obviously right in any society which is interested in developing each child’s abilities to the full for the good of the community is to give all children equal opportunities to develop their special gifts. In a society in which some children are so underfed that their brains do not receive enough protein to develop fully; or in which some mothers are so busy earning a living that they are unable to spend time stimulating their children’s brains during the vital three years, equal opportunities for all do not exist.

A lot of things done by selecting gifted children at a very early age, and then sending then to schools in which they are given intensive training for something like ten years. Obviously, selection cannot be perfect: some children who should be at a particular type of school will have slipped through the net; and other do not go to that kind of school will drop out before the end of the course; but enough people with a particular type of skill will be produced each year for the country’s need.

An alternative is to send most children to comprehensive school, which is designed to enable everyone to pursue the subjects that they are good at, and at the same time to encourage social cohesion. But there are those who believe that the comprehensive system holds back the very bright children on whom the community will depend heavily in the years to come for the inventiveness, decision-making ability and intellectual endurance which enable a country to complete successfully in a world of advanced technology. However, there has never been any conclusive evidence that the comprehensive system does hold back the very intelligent pupils.

 

The personality of an ideal teacher.

Teaching is a very specific and responsible job. Not everyone has enough courage to accept this responsibility. Most young people prefer to choose a more rewording and better-paid job. However there are many young people who consider teaching as a career, who agree to be on stage day and night, paying special attention to the smallest details in their speech, voice, clothes, behaviour every minute.

The success of education and upbringing children depends to a great degree on the personality of a teacher, his/ her professional skills, moral principles, erudition and cultural back-ground. This noble and challenging profession demands form a teacher constant creativity, enthusiasm, understanding of children psychology and love for them, complete dedication to his course.

The teacher must be a model of competence; so he is a person who is learning as well as teaching all his life. Most jobs can be done within the usual office hours, but teacher’s work is never done and evenings are mostly spent marking exercise-books and preparing for the next lesson.

A good teacher encourages his or her pupils, keeps them interested in their subject. He/ she treats the pupils with respect and values them as individuals. He understands that each child is unique and has special talents and capabilities that’s why he educates each pupil with special attention to his/ her interests and encourages each one to be the best he/ she can be. He helps children to develop their critical and creative thinking to form their views and characters, their attitudes to life and other people. He/ she treats them to work independently and cooperatively, to be helpful and useful.

A good teacher will do his/ her best to bring up honest and considerate, patient and tactful, self-confident and self-disciplined people, able to meet many challenges of adult life in a rapidly changing world.

 

Leisure and sports in Great Britain.

Great Britain is a country governed by routine. It has fewer public holidays than any other country in Europe. Among official holiday we can mention New Year, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Labour day, Christmas and Boxing Day.

Every average employee gets four weeks paid holidays a year. There are some ways of spending it. In the 18^th century there existed the fashion for seaside holidays. Soon it became normal for families to spend a week or two in a seaside resort town. The towns have hotels and boarding houses to stay in offering bed and breakfast or full board. Stereotypically daytime entertainment in sunny weather centers around the beach. For the evenings there are amusement arcades, bingo halls, dance halls, discos, theatres and so on.

Another popular holiday destination is the holiday camp. Both the types of holiday have become less popular in the end of the 20^th century.

Caravan holidays and package holidays become popular. Nowadays the British have more opportunity to go abroad. There are also many other extraordinary types of holiday: hiking in the country, potholing, a murder weekend and a variety of so-called working holidays – fruit packing and archaeological digging.

Weekends are usually spent in British pubs. The British pub is unique. It is the only indoor place where the average person can comfortably meet others and get into prolonged conversation with them. There are some other notable aspects about pubs. At first, that is the idea of tradition (the name with old-fashioned associations). But even old good pubs have to follow up-to-date fashion to survive. So we know that they served nothing but beer and spirits. These days you can get wine, coffee and some hot food with no waiter service.

As for food it has a strange unpleasant taste, their coffee is horrible, not because they prefer it in that way but because they don’t want to go to a café for a delicious cup of coffee – people just want to eat up quickly and aren’t interested much in quality. Besides they haven’t enough time to taste the food.

Though the quality of food doesn’t play an important role in people’s lives in Britain, sport does. Millions of British people take part in some kind of sport at least once a week. Many millions more are regular spectators and follow one or more sports. The most popular sports are football, rugby, tennis, boxing, hockey, basketball and others.

The importance of participation in sport has legal recognition in Britain. Every local authority has a duty to provide and maintain playing fields and other facilities including fitness clubs for obese people and those trying to keep themselves fit and healthy.

Spectator sport is also a matter of official public control. The most famous annual sporting occasions must be available to all TV channels.

Even if they aren’t taking part or watching, the British like to be involved in sport. They can do this by placing bets on future results. Gambling is widespread throughout all social classes. There are also bookmakers or turf accountants whose business is to take bets.

 

Ethics of family relations

For centuries family was an emotional center of people’s lives, was transmitter of culture & raising children. Families gave us a sense of tradition, strength & purpose. The things we need most deeply in our lives – love, communication, respect & good relationships – always had their beginnings in the family. Friendly family includes many aspects, such as tact, responsibility, respect, tolerance, support and many others. It goes without saying that in a good family both partners help each other and try to overcome difficulties together. So they are always ready to support and to give a good piece of advice. They share housework as well as sorrow and joy. Peace in any case better than war.

Unfortunately, the family is in trouble nowadays. To our regret we can observe changes in family structure. We can see that family lost its traditional functions & purposes. The decline of the traditional family can not be denied. Divorce, cohabitation, single-parenting & birth outside marriage have all risen sharply & recently. Today people think that it’s not very important that parents should be married rather than live together; half of parents believe that a single parent can bring up children as well as a couple; the degree of conflicts between spouses has risen greatly! Another shocking thing that juvenile crime has increased enormously because of the lack of parental discipline, combined with violence on TV & easy access to drugs. If today parents can’t provide conditions in which children can be born & brought up, if parents can’t teach their children values as well as daily skills, if they also can’t teach them common practices & customs, such as respect for elders & celebrating holidays, if they can’t give emotional support & security what will be next?

I think that nobody has an answer to this difficult question. People are trying to find the solution but this process is a difficult one. People should put a lot of effort to restore the traditional family.

The traditional structure of the family - mother, father and children - continues to prevail for the most part as a new century unfolds. Yet, over the past several decades, the society has witnessed an evolution in family structure. Single parenthood, adoptive households, step-parenting, stay-at-home fathers, grandparents raising children are but a few of the newer tiles in the mosaic.

The decline in marriage comes from three main sources. First, people are delaying marriage. Second, divorces have increased. Third, people are slower to remarry than previously. Fourth cohabitation has become the norm for both men and women both as their first form of union and after divorces. The norm of the stable, two-parent family was close to becoming the exception for children rather than the rule.

Relations within a family are different now. Parents treat their children more as equals than they used to, and children have more freedom to make their own decisions.