One of the most practical parts of my college education (and my entire education)was my student teaching. For six month, I gradually took over until I was completely teaching the class. It wasn't quite the same as a real teaching job. However, it was definitely a good way to get some real world experience. School should prepare students for the job market. Therefore, are our kids receiving enough practical education so they can be successful in the real world?

When teaching kids, it's important to be able to have a purpose for everything we teach. As parents and teachers, we should ask ourselves: what can this be used for when kids enter the job market? I can think about a college class I took where we had to analyze various movies. I honestly can't think of how analyzing "Rambo" benefited me. Perhaps, I would have been better off taking an auto shop class or a carpentry class. After all, I can't change a tire and I'm completely incapable when it comes to using power tools. The Guardian points out that the current generation is one of the most educated but lacks the skills to mend a hole in a shirt or put up a shelf. We have become a society that hires someone else to do these basic tasks. So how can we fix this?

    Perhaps, learning how to think is not enough. Rather than focusing on standardized tests so much, schools need to give students more practical application. Cooking is actually helpful when teaching children about fractions, measuring and multiplication. Students can learn how to double a recipe and see the relationship between 1/4 and 1/3 cup. As kids get into the upper grades, money management should be a focus. Making a budget and learning about interest rates are good ideas. I used to give my students real restaurant menus and a budged. They had to come up with what they could buy, including the tip with a set amount of money. In college, rather than only focus on the craft of writing, I wish I would have learned more about marketing and publishing my writing. Finally, internships in both high school and college should be required.

It appears that some high schools are doing a better job of preparing students for the real world. For instance, according to NBC News, in Michigan, "the Utica Center for Science and Industry uses technology to prepare students for automotive and military industry jobs." The program aims to combine students' skills with employers' needs. Students take optional courses in areas such as "multimedia, engineering or mechatronics" and also take part in activities where there isn't one right answer. For me, giving kids the opportunity to create is the key point. So far, the program is showing success.

According to a Gallup poll, fifty-seven percent of American workers say "the type of work they do generally" does not require "a bachelor's or a more advanced degree." Therefore, if a college degree isn't helping the majority of Americans at their job, then what is required? Many jobs require a skill. Electricians and contractors have specific skill that allow them to complete their jobs. Whether students go to four-year school or not, I think it's important for everyone to have a skill. After all, a Forbes article states that half of college graduates are working at jobs that don't require a degree. Clearly, being smart and qualified isn't always enough to make it in the real world.

    I'm going to encourage my kids to go to college and earn a degree. I'm also going to encourage them to think outside of the box and give them a practical education too. After all, you never know where life will take you.

    No rows of desks in this classroom, and no teacher lecturing at the front. In fact, that's something Barrie teacher Liz Collett rarely does. Instead, she's on the move, talking to students about their work, from the small group sitting on the floor playing games to others nearby figuring out a math problem.

    The children in this class do not take a spelling test all year－in fact, the school avoids all pencil-and-paper tests－nor do they get assigned homework. Instead, their teacher gives them immediate feedback（反馈）on their work throughout the day.

    Welcome to the school of the 21st century, a place where teachers and students cooperate all the time. Such advanced classrooms are trying things, which some might consider as coddling kids－letting students give a voice-recorded essay instead of a written one or even allowing teens to design their own courses.

    Though some people blame（谴责）schools for dumbing things down（降低教育标准）, others will say such changes are actually based on the newest research on how to attract today's youth and increase not only their interests, but also their achievements. Many of today's school are not holding kid's interests. And if they Ye not interested, they're not learning－and isn't that the point?

“Students today say they want their education to be useful and valuable, and don't want it to be simply repeating the facts. That's the kind of learning that be happening for many kids,” says Penny Milton, a researcher. “What we could argue is that to become good learners, they need to become thinkers.”

    Jan Olson, anther researcher, says schools have been operating the same way since the Industrial Revolution. But the digital age is bringing an education revolution. While using technology is a part of it, what's important for students is being able to use information and understand it, not just remembering it.

    Today's learner needs fewer traditional tests and more “effective” feedback, ongoing discussion with a teacher, which studies have found is the number one factor in improving achievement.

    People are less willing to rely on their knowledge and say they know something when they have access (接近) to the Internet, suggesting that our connection to the web is affecting how we think.

    Professor Evan Risko, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, led a recent study where the team asked about 100 participants (参与者) a series of general-knowledge questions, such as naming the capital of France. For half of the study, participants had access to the Internet. They had to look up the answer when they responded that they did not know the answer. In the other half of the study, participants did not have access to the Internet.

    The team found that the people who had access to the web were about 5 percent more likely to say that they did not know the answer to the question. Furthermore, in some cases, the people with access to the Internet reported feeling as though they knew less compared to the people without access.

    “With the popularity of the Internet, we are almost frequently connected to large amounts of information. And when that data is within reach, people seem less likely to rely on their own knowledge,” said Professor Risko.

    Studying the results, the researchers thought that access to the Internet might make it less acceptable to say you know something but are incorrect. It is also possible that participants were more likely to say they didn't know an answer when they had access to the web because online searching offers an opportunity to confirm their answer, and the process of finding out the answer is rewarding.

    “Our results suggest that access to the Internet affects the decisions we make about what we know and don't know,” said Risko. “We hope this research helps us understand how easy access to large amounts of information can influence our thinking and behaviour.”

    Do you often feel tired? Is it really because of the large amount of mental work you do? Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can't make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue (疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we would find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.

    So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired?

    Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional attitudes. One of England's most outstanding scientists, J.A. Hadfield, says, “The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares, “One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”

    What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction? No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated —— those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.

    "When your mother scolds you, you can look elsewhere and think about other things. Just ignore her words. But remember: such a tough attitude cannot be used often." These words are from a series of cartoons which outline skills for children to fight against their mothers. The images have created heated debate among Chinese netizens（网民）.

    Regarded as "a book for children aged 6 to 12 who are always scolded by their parents"， the cartoons, drawn by two 10-year-old Beijing girls, list over 20 skills which children can use to deal with their mothers' anger such as crying, pretending to be ashamed, fleeing into the toilet and pleasing her afterwards. Each skill is described with vivid pictures and humorous notes. The creativity of the young girls has amazed netizens, the Yangtse Evening Post reported on Thursday.

    According to one of the girls' mothers, her daughter once received a poor mark in an exam, and the mother blamed her and compared her performance with another classmate. The daughter's feelings led to her creating the cartoons. The girl's father, who first posted the pictures on his Sohu Microblog on Monday, said he hopes parents pay close attention to the pictures, allow children to feel free to develop their own characteristics and try not to criticize them so often.

    "The cartoons, although an individual case, reflect a modern phenomenon and some of the problems within Chinese family education," said Yu Qinfang, an expert on family education. According to a survey of 104 children and their parents, Yu discovered that as many as 51.9 percent of primary school students hate being urged to do things by their mothers. "Not giving children enough time and hurrying them to do things seems to be a very tiny detail within family life, but it is potentially a huge problem which can easily be ignored by parents. A mother's blame may lead to negative feelings within her child's heart," Yu said. "Parents should learn to blame less and be more patient."

    If your dog looks pleased to see you—it is probably because it loves the particular way you smell.

    The scent (气味)of a familiar human apparently lingers like perfumein the animal's brain—where it causes an instinctive emotional response, research reveals.

    Our scent acts on a part of the canine (犬科的) brain associated with reward and the strongest reactions are produced by humans that pets know best, say scientists in America.

    Gregory Bern, of Emory University in Atlanta, said, “While we might expect that dogs should be highly tuned to the smell of other dogs, it seems that the 'reward response' is reserved for their humans. When humans smell the perfume of someone they love, they may have an immediate, emotional reaction that's not necessarily cognitive (认识的). So is it in dogs. But since dogs have a more sensitive smell than humans, their responses would likely be even more powerful than the ones we might have. In our experiment, however, the owners of the dog were not physically present. The canine brain responses were being caused by something distant in space and time. It shows that dogs' brains have these mental representations of us that persist when we're not there.”

    The experiment involved 12 dogs of various kinds by brain scans while five different scents were placed in front of them. The scent samples (样本)came from the subject (接受试险者) itself, a dog the subject had never met, a dog living in the subject's household. The familiar human scent samples were taken from someone else from the house other than the handlers during the experiment, so that none of the scent donors were physically present.

    The results showed all five scents gained a similar response in parts of the dogs brains involved in detecting smells. Responses were significantly stronger for the scent of familiar humans, followed by that of familiar dogs. The findings showed dogs reacted strongest to the scent of familiar humans even when they were not there. Pets trained as help or therapy dogs showed greater brain activity than the other dogs in the test.

    Researchers say the findings could improve the way to select animals helping wounded old soldiers or disabled people.