Teaching About Alzheimer's With Buddy System by associatedpress
A pioneer 'buddy' program at Northwestern University pairs medical students with Alzheimer's patients in the early stages, giving doctors-to-be a unique insight into a devastating disease and patients an opportunity to stay socially engaged. (March 4)
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press
Better education through better teaching by euronews-en
Improving teaching is an obvious path to better education, but there can be many obstacles along the way. In this edition of Learning World we take a look at some of those in three stories from around the world. In our first we visit Chile where teaching is not highly paid and not even well regarded as a career choice.
A shortage of teachers can also reduce the quality of teaching and that is often a problem in Africa. Our second report is from Sierra Leone where teaching standards fell after appropriately qualified professionals fled the war and never returned.
Argentina is the destination for our third story, and the final destination of an eccentric and inspirational world tour by two British teachers. They traveled around the world in a tuc-tuc, on a mission to raise teaching standards and improve education in line with the UN’s goal of universal primary education by 2015.
Education plays a major role in moulding the young. As such, there is need to make education more precise and the school syllabus less tedious.
However, with the explosion of the knowledge in the modern world baffling to great proportions and the rat race in career-building, children are subjected to such mental strain that they cannot withstand it. As a result, they develop psychological problems that warp their minds. A recent survey, conducted by a non-governmental organization (NGO), Sahayog, found that 57% of adolescents suffered from depression.
The main cause of depression was found to be the pressure of schoolwork and failing to cope with studies. Children carrying big schoolbags is a common sight. The excuse for inflicting such burden on them is that acquiring a holistic knowledge in modern times requires the study of various subjects. 3 or 4 decades ago, children carried 2 or 3 textbooks and notebooks to school, usually in hand.
For a growing child, it is essential to have knowledge on development in various fields. For this, the children should cultivate the habit of reading rather than cramming all subjects under the sun. Unfortunately, the young ones find little time to read anything other than textbooks.
The second reason for depression among children is the lack of family support. The Sahyog survey showed that 44% of students had no support from home in their studies.
The parents want their children to be showpieces of excellence and those who don't make the grade are snubbed. Everyone wants his child to be first in the class or get above 90% marks. Such an attitude will lead the average child to depression.
Education has to be well planned to be wholesome and, to some extent, enjoyable for the child.
Excerpt from Woman's Era
April (Second) 2004
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A must read for all parents "Thoughts on raising our children well" by Jane Maro. Please refer to page 8 of The Guardian, Tuesday, January 24, 2006 page 8.