A Blessed Teacher

    I remembered Ricky came back to see me ten years after he was in my class. He told me how I had inadvertently(不经意地) changed his life.

    Ricky often gazed out the window during one of my ninth-grade history classes early in my teaching career. He was quiet, and his good grades and mild manner were why I did not move him away from the seat by the window.

    One day, I leaned over his shoulder and quietly asked, “What are you looking at? You gaze out of this window during every class.”

    He said, “I am looking at the band.”

    According to Ricky, I said, “If you like the band so much that you have to look at them during this class every day, I want you to go down to Mr. Overby (the band teacher) and tell him that I sent you. Tell him that you want to be in the band. Now turn around and finish working before the bell rings.”

    The next day Ricky went to Mr. Overby and told him I had sent him and he wanted to be in the band. He added that he did not know how to play any instrument.

    When Ricky visited me ten years later, he thanked me for telling him to go to Mr. Over by because he fell in love with music and discovered his musical talent that had not been tapped. His musical talent resulted in him getting a scholarship to college and earning a degree that now allowed him to provide for his family. Most of all, music had brought great pleasure and satisfaction to his life.

    After Ricky thanked me, I pointed out that he did all of the hard work it took to become the wonderfully talented person that he was. I did not make him walk downstairs to join the band, practice his instrument, and get the good grades that led to his college scholarship.

    Ricky responded that I could have yelled at him for looking out the window. Instead, I gave him an alternative that changed his whole life.

    After he left, I thought about his words. I realized that I was teaching children with every word I said, every action I took, and with every decision I made. Ricky's story raised my teaching bar. Most of all, I have never forgotten the lesson Ricky taught me, a blessed teacher.

    New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes（基因）will stay there for a much longer time.

    In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16, 000 people. Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers. Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7, 000 genes of smokers had changed a number that is one-third of known human genes.

    According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes. Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like smoking.

    When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years. This means your body is trying to heal（治愈）itself of the harmful effects of smoking. But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer. They can stay for as long as 30 years. It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement（水泥）— it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

    Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer ricks.

    Researchers found that compared with young people who spent much of their free time in front of TV sets, those who were physically active often had higher self-respect, better grades and were less likely to have risky behavior like taking drugs, smoking, or drinking. The findings, based on a national survey of nearly 12, 000 middle and high school students, were published in a journal（期刊）.

    “Across the board, children who engaged in any kind of activity were better off than kids who watched a lot of TV,” said study co-author(合著者) professor Penny Gordon Larsen of the University of North Carolina.

    Other studies have linked certain content of television programs, such as violence and sex, to children's behavior. But beyond this issue, Gordon Larsen said that kids who spend hours watching TV” miss opportunities” to develop skills, learn teamwork and have other experiences that their more active peers(同辈) benefit(受益) from

    That doesn't mean, however, that kids have to be on the football team. The study found that some activities like skating and skateboard(滑板)——which adults sometimes frown upon——were also related to better self-respect and less risk-taking.

    That skaters were better behaved than TV-watchers might come as a surprise to some adults who consider these teens to be bad, according to Gordon Larsen. Skateboarding is forbidden in many public areas, and some communities(社区) disagree to build skating parks. But if kids who like to skate have nowhere to do it, “ it's a shame,” said Gordon Larsen.

    Not only should parents encourage their kids to engage（参与） in the physical activities they enjoy, she said, but schools and communities should also do more to create opportunities for children to be active.

    Five-year-old Prisilla Perez, a student at Meador Elementary School in Willis, was unhappy with her recent haircut, which resulted from a severe disease. When students in her class started calling Prisilla a boy, she felt ashamed, often crying and losing focus in school.

    Her teacher, Shannon Grimm, sympathized with her unhappiness. Grimm and Prisilla's mom were concerned, but their ideas didn't work. “We had classroom discussions about how girls have short hair and boys have long hair, and I showed them photos of movie stars with different looks,” Grimm said. “However, it wasn't sinking in.”

Grimm thought about Prisilla throughout winter break, and one morning, she had an idea: Cut off her hair — a scary thought for Grimm, who wore her hair long and took pride in it. “I've never had short hair, and I stressed about it for two weeks before making a decision,” she said. On Jan. 4, Grimm invited a hairstylist friend to her home. “I told him to keep going, even if I cried,” she said.

    The class loved their teacher's new do, especially Prisilla, who excitedly ran off the school bus that afternoon yelling, “Mom, Ms. Grimm cut her hair!” The teacher also bought matching bows for herself and the girl, so they could style their hair together.

    In February, the teacher recommended Prisilla for the school district's Student of the Month Award, but during the Monday ceremony, she received a surprise “hero medal” from the girl. “Now we have matching awards,” says Grimm.

Prisilla's mother, Maria, said that Grimm's thoughtfulness brought her to tears. “I was shocked. I was crying. I couldn't believe it — she did something I wouldn't have the bravery to do. I will never forget that.”

    What makes a building ugly? Everyone's got their own opinion, so it's hard to say. Now, let's take a look at some of the world's worst buildings.

    The Torre Velasca

    The Torre Velasca in Milan is in the centre of Milan(Italy). The tower, which went up in the 1950s, is about 100 metres tall. Its design is actually a modern representation(代表) of a traditional Lombard castle, where the lower parts were narrower than the upper parts.

    The Mirador Building

    The Mirador Building in Madrid(Spain)was created by Dutch studio MVRDV and the Spanish architect(建筑师)Blanca Lleó.The building, which is a block of flats, opened in 2005. There is a large rectangular(矩形的)hole in the upper part of it, which is used by the neighbourhood as a meeting area and playground.

    The Prague TV Tower

    The Prague TV Tower is in Prague(the capital of the Czech Republic). It stands 216 metres high and looks a bit like a tall, thin space ship. Prague is famous for its architectural beauty, so when the tower was put up in 1985 by architect Vaclav Aulicky and engineer Jiri Kozak, many felt it didn't fit in.

    The Longaberger Basket Company

    The Longaberger Basket Company building is in Newark, Ohio(USA). The office block was opened in 1997 and looks like a very large basket. It's got seven floors and two handles(把手)at the top. The handles weigh about 150 tons. It may not be the ugliest building in the world but it's certainly one of the most unusual.

    Going to university is supposed to be a mind-broadening experience. That statement is probably made in comparison to training for work straight after school. But is it actually true? Jessika Golle of the University of Tubingen, in Germany reports in Psychological Science this week that those who have been to university indeed seem to leave with broader and more curious minds than those who have spent their immediate post-school years in vocational (职业的) training for work. However, it was not the case that university broadened minds. Rather, vocational training for work seemed to have narrowed them. The result is not quite what might be expected.

    Dr. Golle came to this conclusion after she and a team of colleagues studied the early careers of 2,095 German youngsters. The team used two standardized tests to assess their volunteers' personality traits (特点) including openness, conscientiousness (认真) and so on, and attitudes such as realistic, investigative and enterprising twice, once towards the end of each volunteer's time at high school, and then again six years later. Of the original group, 382 had to make a choice between the academic and vocational routes, and it was on these that the researchers focused. University beckoned for 212 of them. The remaining 170 chose vocational training and a job.

    When it came to the second round of tests, Dr. Golle found that the personalities of both groups had not changed significantly. As for changes in altitude, again, none were noticeable in the university group. However, those who had chosen the vocational route showed marked drops in interest in tasks that are investigative and enterprising in nature. And that might restrict their choice of careers.

    The changes in attitude that the researchers recorded were more worrying. Vocational training has always been what Germany prides itself on. If Dr Golle is correct, and changes in attitude brought about by the very training are narrowing people's choices that is indeed a matter worthy of serious consideration.