In many American schools the holiday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday is used as an opportunity to teach children about his life and legacy. But in too many of those same schools, Black children's extraordinary talents are still being wasted today. Nearly three-quarters of Black fourth and eighth grade public school students cannot read or compute at grade level. Black students made up only 18 percent of students in public schools in 2009-2010 but were 40 percent of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions (暂被停学). A Black public school student is suspended every four seconds. Black students are more than twice as likely to drop out of school as White students. Each school day 763 Black high school students drop out.

    So I applaud the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice for their recent action to address harmful school discipline policies that push so many thousands of black children out of school each year and into the juvenile (青少年) justice and adult prison pipeline. If the education system is to do its part in replacing it with a cradle to college, career and success pipeline, we must end the current practice where children in the greatest need are suspended from school mostly for nonviolent offenses.

    These resources, officially known as "guidance," will help schools and districts meet their legal responsibility to protect students from discrimination (歧视) on the basis of race, color or national origin as required under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As we recognize the 50^th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and so many other important hard-won victories in the Civil Rights Movement this year, we must remember those victories could be lost without meaningful enforcement of the laws advocates fought so hard to win half a century ago.

    While the guidance does not prohibit (禁止) schools or districts from using any particular nondiscriminatory policy, it does call into question some policies that have historically excluded Black students and are of questionable educational value including "zero tolerance" discipline policies which require mandatory (强制的) consequences for certain infractions (违反), and policies that prevent students from returning to school after completion of a court sentence.

    Information of the new guidance recommendations is available at this government website for almost every school and district in the country. Check your own school district now to see whether the discipline policy is focused on creating a positive school climate and preventing misbehavior, whether consequences are clear, appropriate and consistent, and whether there is a commitment to fairness in the application of discipline.

    It is estimated that more than half the world's population is bilingual (双语的), and in an increasingly globalised world, there are obvious benefits of speaking more than one language. However, for many years, parents were advised not to teach their children to speak more than one language from birth. Learning two or more languages simultaneously (同时) was believed to cause confusion and slow down academic development. While it is certainly true that children who are learning to speak more than one language as their mother tongue will often mix the languages up or speak a little later, these are temporary problems, and there is no reason to avoid teaching a child more than one language.

    In fact, there are plenty of reasons to encourage your child to become bilingual from birth. As well as the obvious benefits of being able to communicate with more people, and the possibility of earning more money, children who speak more than one language have been shown to score more highly in achievement tests at school. This is true for mathematics as well as tests of verbal (言语的) skills.

    And in later life it has been found that bilinguals, on average, will tend to develop Alzheimer's disease five years later than monolingual speakers. Speaking three or more languages offers even more protection. It seems that the increased number of connections within the brain allows bilinguals to cope better with brain damage.

    But is it too late if you haven't already learned a second language in childhood? It used to be thought that the adult brain was very fixed, but recent research has shown that we continue to develop new connections in the brain throughout our lives, meaning that it's perfectly possible to learn another language to a high standard. Older learners are less likely to have native-like pronunciation, but they are better at learning vocabulary as they are able to use far more skills and strategies than children. And learning a language is like using a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger it gets, meaning that you will find your third language easier than your second, and so on.

    People need to relax and enjoy themselves. One way they can have a good time is to watch a baseball game or another sports event. Even thousands of years ago, groups of people gathered to watch skilled athletes (运动员).

    Over 2000 years ago in Greece, certain days in the year were festival days. These were holidays when people stopped work and enjoyed themselves. They liked to watch athletes take part in races and other games of skill.

The most important festival was held every four years at the town of Olympia. It was held in honor of the Greek god Zeus (宙斯). For five days, athletes from all parts of the Greek world took part in the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games, people could watch them box, run, jump and so on. There was a relay race between two teams of men in which a lighted torch (火矩) was passed from runner to runner. The Olympic Games were thought to be so important that cities which were at war with one another had to stop fighting. People were allowed to travel to the games safely. Thousands of people came to Olympia from cities in Greece and from her colonies (殖民地) in Africa, Asia and Italy. They met as friends to cheer their favorite athletes and to enjoy themselves.

    When your dream is to become a footballer, nothing should get in your way—even if you have no feet.

    Gabriel Muniz, an 11-year-old Brazil kid, was born without feet. Although his family thought he would have serious difficulties living a normal life, he started walking before he was one year old. His mother would go after him, expecting him to keep falling, but he never fell. It took him a while to make the jump from walking to playing football, but he did make it. And, in fact, there's nothing he loves more than playing football. In his school, the skillful youngster (年轻人) is not only the best player in his school team but also the captain of his gym team.

    He knows that his disability means he'll never be able to play for a professional (专业的) football team. So Gabriel is hoping that football will one day become a Paralympics (残疾人奥运会的) sport. He proved to everyone there he could go head to head with any other boy. Watching him play is unbelievable. He's fast and he's got a big bag of tricks—he's very skilled and he does everything he can to copy his hero, Messi so much that he is invited to go to Spain to meet his hero Messi and show his talent in the Barcelona Football Club.

    His coach says he is proving the disability only exists (存在) inside our heads.

    When men and women take personality tests, some of the old Mars-Venus stereotypes(定式)keep reappearing. On average, women are more cooperative, kind, cautious and emotionally enthusiastic. Men tend to be more competitive, confident, rude and emotionally flat. Clear differences appear in early childhood and never disappear.

    What's not clear is the origin of these differences. Evolutionary psychologists think that these are natural features from ancient hunters and gatherers. Another school of psychologists argues that both sexes' personalities have been shaped by traditional social roles, and that personality differences will shrink as women spend less time taking care of children and more time in jobs outside the home.

    To test these hypotheses(假设), a series of research teams have repeatedly analyzed personality tests taken by men and women in more than 60 countries around the world. For evolutionary psychologists, the bad news is that the size of the gender gap in personality varies among cultures. For social-role psychologists, the bad news is that the change is going in the wrong direction. It looks as if personality differences between men and women are smaller in traditional cultures like India's or Zimbabwe's than in the Netherlands or the United States. A husband and a stay-at-home wife in a patriarchal(男权的)Botswanan clan(部族)seem to be more alike than a working couple in Denmark or France. The more Venus and Mars have equal rights and similar jobs, the more their personalities seem to separate.

    These findings are so unbelievable that some researchers have argued they must be due to cross-cultural problems with the personality tests. But according to new data from 40.000 men and women on six continents, David P. Schmitt and his colleagues conclude that the trends are real. Dr. Schmitt, a psychologist at Bradley University in Illinois and the director of the International Sexuality Description Project, suggests that as wealthy modern societies level(使平等)the barriers between women and men, some ancient internal differences are being developed.

    The biggest changes recorded by the researchers involve the personalities of men, not women.

    Men in traditional agricultural societies and poorer countries seem more cautious and anxious, less confident and less competitive than men in the most progressive and rich countries of Europe and North America.

    To explain these differences, Dr. Schmitt and his partners from Austria and Estonia point to the hardships of life in poorer countries. They note that in some other species, environmental stress tends to extremely affect the larger sex. And, they say, there are examples of stress decreasing biological sex differences in humans.

    Peter Damon produces about 30 paintings a year and sells them for between US$250 and US$1,500. That's not enough to make ends meet, but it has made him whole again. He lost both arms in an accident.

    "Having this skill that even normal people find difficult was something that really helped me and made me feel like I fit in more in the world," Damon said.

    He was a worker in a car factory. One day when he was working, there was a gas explosion (爆炸), killing one worker and injuring him.

    "I lost my right arm above the elbow, about three inches above the elbow, and my left about six inches below," he explained.

    "How am I going to make a living and take care of my family? I had always worked with my hands," he said.

    Then with a simple little drawing, a new future opened up for him.

    "I thought it was wonderful in a way," Damon said. "Something was telling me to focus on this and everything will be alright." Damon doesn't have a perfect prosthetic arm (假肢)—just a hook (钩子), which he finds works best.

He and his wife Jen run True Grit Art Gallery in Middleboro, Massachusetts, where he shows the works of local artists. With his disability check from the government, he can afford to be an artist. He is a man doing what he wants with his life, and doesn't look at his situation as a hard time.

    "I don't see it that way," Damon said. "Suffering an injury like this has a way of making you focus on what's important in life."

    He believes his best work is still ahead of him. But with his pictures of simple American scenes, Damon has already produced his best work.