Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably accomplish what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.

    My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren't written until the final threat.

    I've been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master's degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a “vo-tech” student(技校学生). They're called “motorheads” by the rest of the student body.

    When a secretary in my office first called him “motorhead”, I was shocked. “Hey, he's a good kid,” I wanted to say. “And smart, really.”

    I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don't often make school honor rolls(光荣榜).

    But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don't have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. “Hey, I can fix it,” said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.

    My son ,with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts from a junkyard, and ability from vo-tech classes. The lost was $25 instead of $800.

    Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.

    These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.

    I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most important, I have learned that fathers don't need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.

    My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.

    International Children's Day is coming up on June 1st. Here we have chosen some films from around the world that are most worthy for children to see.

    E, T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

    Director: Steven Spielberg

    Country: United States of America

    Storyline: A group of aliens are visiting the Earth at night. But one of the visitors from space is left behind and finds himself all alone on a very strange planet. Fortunately, he meets Elliot, a lonely boy himself, and slowly makes friends with Elliot's older brother Michael, his sister Gertie. Meanwhile government officers work day and night to track down the little alien. Elliot and others try their best to help the alien go home.

    Children of Heaven (1997)

    Director: Majid Majidi

    Country: Iran

    Storyline: Ali takes his little sister Zahra's shoes to the shoemaker to be repaired but loses them on the way home. There is no money to buy another pair. Ali makes a plan to share his shoes: Zahra will wear them in the morning and hand them to Ali at midday so he can attend school classes. Ali then enters a children's racing competition in hopes of receiving the third prize, a new pair of shoes.

    Kes (1969)

    Director: Ken Loach

    Country: United Kingdom

    Storyline: Bullied (欺凌) at school and getting little attention at home by his mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old boy from a working-class family, finds peace in his pet falcon (猎隼), Kes. With encouragement from his English teacher, Billy eventually discovers a positive purpose to his unfortunate life, until some bad thing comes.

    Can you remember the first time you learned to ride a bike or drive a car? Learning these skills changed your life forever and opened up new horizons. Learning about computers can be like learning how to ride a bike or drive a car. Once you have invested the time to master the skills , you will never go back to the old days. The new technology is simply too convenient and too powerful.

    Technological developments through the years have enabled us to do more with less effort. We have continuously looked for better ways of doing things. Each invention and new development has allowed us to extend our capabilities. Today we see one of the most dramatic technologies ever developed—the computer. It extends the capabilities of our minds.

    Computers have saved organizations millions of dollars. Furthermore, these same computer systems have opened up new opportunities that would have gone undiscovered or neglected. The computer may multiply what we can do, and the return on investment is high. The growth of computer usage is surprising. On the other hand, the computer can do serious damage. Invasion of privacy(侵犯隐私), fraud(欺诈), and computer-related mistakes are just a few shocking examples.

    The computer is like a double-edged sword. It has the ability to cut us free from some activities, but it can also cut deep into profits, personal privacy, and our society in general. How it is used is not a function of technology. It is strictly a function of how people decide to use or misuse this new technology. The choice is yours, and only through a knowledge of computer systems will you be able to avoid the dangers while enjoying the many, many benefits of the computer age.

    My first term at MIT（麻省理工学院）was awesome—I got all A's, and I declared math as my major. My parents were expecting me to become a doctor like them so I was trying to satisfy them. But I was desperately running away from them. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. My third term, I ended up with a D in math. I didn't do that well in my other classes, either. It seemed like all my friends were doing so well, getting opportunities over the summers.

    My fifth term, I realized that I was awful at higher-level math. I had lost all confidence in myself. I went to a few classes at the beginning of the term, but after by midterm, I had totally stopped. My only relief was the dance team I was on. I would sleep all day, and then go to dance practice, and then go back to sleep. As expected, I failed in all of my classes and had to withdraw from MIT.

    I had no choice but to tell my parents. Instead of yelling or hitting me, though, they just held me and cried. The next day, my dad took a day off from work and took me to a nearby, small arts college.

    I had lost all confidence in myself. Before my first biology test, I didn't think I could pass. I did pass. Since I had so much free time, I decided to join a biology lab. I realized that was what I wanted to do! I wanted to be a scientist!

    This past May, I graduated with the highest honors, and now I have my PhD in biology. Though it ended up taking me 5 years to graduate from college, I can say now that dropping out of MIT was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I've realized that a person is not their grades. I've realized how much my parents loved me. I've finally discovered my passion（热情）in life!

    Red leaves are a symbol of autumn. Enjoying red leaves in the clear, refreshing autumn weather is indeed a good choice.

    Now let's have a look at the best red leaves around China and the beauty of autumn.

    Destination 1

    With different red colors, the Red Leaf Valley extends (延伸) more than 50 kilometers from Jiefang village in Qingling town to Yanjiang village in Songjiang town, Jilin province, Northeast China. Leaves are like different red pigments (颜料), including Chinese red, orange red, ruby red and bright red.

    Best time: October

    Destination 2

    Tachuan or Tashang village is in Huangshan city, Anhui province, East China. The beautiful autumn scenery there is known as one of the four best in China. The red leaves and clear spring add beauty to traditional houses, offering material for photography lovers.

    Best time: early to late November

    Destination 3

    As a result of low temperatures, maple leaves in areas south of the Yangtze River are like shy girls, gradually showing their beauty, turning from green to gold, gold to orange and finally to red. And as it changes slowly, different colors can be seen on the same trees called "colorful maple trees". Viewing at the mountainside is the best choice.

    Best time: October to November

    Destination 4

    For Guangdong province in South China, autumn always comes a little late and lasts longer. Through the end of January, you can see the red leaves any time you want. If you feel pity at saying good-bye to red leaves in North China, you can head to South China to view the beautiful scenery again.

    Best time: end of November to end of January

Most of the 20th century has been a development on the Industrial Revolution taken to an extreme: people now own more products than ever before; there are enough unclear weapons to destroy the earth several times over; there is hardly any forest left and pollution has got to the point where we buy water. Within a few years I predict you will be able to buy air. (There once was a time when you didn't need to buy food or shelter either.)

Important developments in the last century are the breaking down of the class structures left over from the Industrial Revolution stage, bringing with it the empowerment of the "common man": the working day is set by law to only 8 hours a day; everyone has the vote; the media has less obvious government control; people have landed on the moon, sent spacecrafts to Mars and so on. Families have also shrunk drastically (强烈地); the nuclear family came about, and especially in the last half of the 20th century, one­parent families are becoming more common. This shrinking in the size of the family shows the increased independence of people — once upon a time people had to live in large groups to survive.

As humans have "become the gods", they have realized their individuality and independence and taken their control of the world to an extreme. In many countries the land is almost completely used in the production of food and as living space and they live in small cities which are entirely human constructed, made from materials which are also entirely human constructed (concrete bricks) with hardly any remains of nature. Weeds are poisoned because they are messy; even parks have trees grown in tidy lines; grass is mowed to keep it short and so on. I think the massive drug "problem" troubling people is a result of too much of this influence, humans needing to escape the stark world they have created by entering fantasy worlds.

Over the last 100 years, the 20th century consciousness has spread throughout the world; most of Asia has been thoroughly "Westernized", and most of the Third World is being overrun by Western ways of doing things and living.