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Global COVID-19
COVID-19 is going on all over the world. All people need to unite to deal with this epidemic. And I also want to express the feeling that people are yearning for the outside world. During the self-isolation, everyone feels boring. In order to let the disease pass quickly, people choose to be isolated at home. However, their brain can “traveling” around the world.
Reciprocity: an indigenous teaching for a better 2021
Ayni is an Aymara principle that means “mutual reciprocity and help others in need” and Juk’uchaña is an Aymara word that means “to accumulate or hoard like a mouse” translated by the Aymara teacher Félix Layme Pairumani. While thinking about actions to take for a better 2021, I was compelled to ask my elders what are the steps to reimagine a better future after the COVID-19 pandemic? Instead of providing a straight answer, they narrated one of our traditional stories, which is taught from generations to generations. There was once a mouse who always had food in his house. He harvested all...
International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Chinese youth using their art to promote inclusion
How a 15-Year-Old Began Empowering Youth Voices against Injustice
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved stories. Yet, that love dwindled once I stepped into the life of a high-school freshman, where most of the “useful” reading is out of textbooks. Stories began to seem juvenile or useless, but that is far from the truth — they transmit emotions like no other. Indeed, it was a story about my family that sparked my passion for social justice. We call it the story of our family’s “Missing Four.” During World War II, when the Japanese occupied China, they controlled everything, including the hospitals. One day, my great-grandmother took her four children to...
Dream captures his last breath
I approached him after an hour of sitting without revealing a word. His features told me a lot, he is not good. I went up to him and asked, "Are you okay?" Oh thank God I asked. He was a bomb that only needed a little pressure to explode, but with our conversation, I relaxed him a bit. He told me a story that made me apprehensive and angry, but he told me that he still had some time to turn it into a success story. My conversation with this young man lasted for more than two hours. I felt when he spoke every letter he uttered took from his soul a little because of his pain and his sorrow for...
The Importance of Support from Schools
Growing up, my academic results weren’t so bad. I tend to get average marks on all my tests. When I was in year 9, I achieved the best score in my study, I became one of the students in the top 5 in our class. I worked hard for my study, at that time, I was still aiming for famous colleges in Australia. However, when depression hit me hard in year 10, I lost all my passion. I no longer worked hard nor tried to work hard. My academic results were dropping. I failed my tests, exams, and even did poorly on my academic report. My heart broke. Thinking that I may be retained and fail more of my...
Holistic education in the digital era
Living in the twenty-first century, we’re witnessing digital technology permeating all areas of human life. One of them is the field of education. Nowadays at school, it’s common to use digital technologies on a daily basis. In my country, Bolivia – often perceived as a ‘developing’ country – we are witnessing a transition to a digital, community-based and pluralistic pedagogy that adds ancestral knowledge to the traditional humanistic education model. Without doubt, this is a revolutionary step, not only towards inclusion and recognition of indigenous groups within the formal education system...
Towards the teaching of indigenous languages in schools
Aruskipt'asipxañanakasakipunirakispawa is an Aymara word that means "we are compelled to communicate", translated by Aymara teacher Juan de Dios Yapita. As a young Aymara, belonging to this indigenous people, I feel proud of my culture. Unfortunately, I am one of many who with affliction do not know the language of their parents and grandparents. The school offers us education and values, which are usually far from our original culture. Making it difficult to access materials, teachers and the learning of our native language. That is why the teaching of indigenous languages is fundamental...
Let’s face the world with its grim reality of injustice
Hard work and virtue get rewards. In a fair and flawless world, everything seems self-explanatory. Students get good grades because they pay attention in class; business magnates earn money and status through their industrious effort; losers fail because they aren’t wise enough to seize opportunities. This is what I believed in the past, that the world is just and we all get the things we deserve. When I was ten, I wanted to be a poet. My desire was so strong that I could imagine how I would walk through the red carpet and accept the Nobel Prize of literature. I read one book per day...
Education—The only path to light
My mother is a wise woman. Born in a family with six siblings, she was initially deprived of education. She pleaded her parents for tuition from grade one to grade nine, but as she received their offer till high school, her father was no longer able to afford the bill. Although my mother is now a successful entrepreneur, when talking about school, she is filled with yearning and tears. Her dream is to go to college, walk around the campus, read books, and exchange ideas with the world’s greatest thinkers. But since she was unable to go to school, she missed many beautiful things in life...
Better sitting posture, better future: Part 1
I am a student from Fudan University, China. When I was sixteen years old, a friend of mine had serious back pain due to being sedentary and holding harmful postures, and eventually he stayed at home for half a year, which not only delayed his studies, but also prevented him from participating in strenuous activities. Many other students and I also thought that the school seats were contributing to this and inappropriate, so in 2017, some of my classmates and I formed an interest group to study the student seat problem and to propose solutions. This blog wants to warn people to pay attention...