Category Archives: shizuki

Audio Essay-Education and Creativity

In this day and age, the school education is manualized and children are only required to sit down and study, following their guidelines. They are educated to get a better grade, enroll in highly evaluated university, and work for a big company. Ironically, however, this educational system is now one of the main problems that cause unstable society we’re living in. According to his presentation, intelligence can’t be calculated by a school grade. It’s much more diverse, dynamic, and distinct. Under the process of academic inflation, children grew up feeling suppressed. Now they should be released to face the future they are going to live in. Education was supposed to give children rich experience and amaze their mind. I thought about some factors that would let children’s creativity free.

There was a story about being wrong in his presentation and I totally agree with his idea. If you tell your child not to make a mistake, he/she will become a shallow person. Today’s educational system doesn’t put much emphasis on sports but they should because playing sports teach students how it’s like to be beaten. You might face someone you can’t beat even if you try hard. Then, you need to be creative to come up with great idea which will allow yourself to make it better next time. Like playing sports, life is literally a series of fails and that is how we live.

Art is also one of the underestimated subjects as he remarked. The subject hierarchy should be vanished not only because every subject is equally valuable but because subjects interact each other. I studied graphic design in University of the Arts London and I thought it was really good I was in law department before that. Lots of people think they are totally different subject, but for me, they are not. In an art school, you need to think logically and create meaningful piece not like I just made this because I thought it’s cool. The researching ability that I achieved in there still helps me study after I came back to law.

No matter how much you try to cram knowledge into your brain, it doesn’t mean you’re thinking by yourself.  What I think boosts your brain are group work and field work. As a group member, you need to speak up your idea at the same time listen to others. Every member in the group will learn from other and can think flexibly. Field work is a great opportunity to output what you’ve learnt so far. Plus, such a real experience leaves you a huge impression and it’s sometimes stays in your head longer than books does .

Incidentally, I love the posts “Cute Kid Note of the Day” available from Huffington Post. They show me how children interpret their own world. I bet nobody wants to suppress their ability based on pure experience. I wander how people don’t have imagination make the world better place? People enriched their lives only know what exactly the richness is and they can make the world filled with creativity.

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So embarrassed everyone is posting an essay and I’m doing a reaction to “Tax rises on alcohol”

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Some people believe that raising taxes on alcoholic beverage will increase job losses. According to the new findings, however, the result is opposite. Frank Chaloupka, a professor of economics stated money not spent on alcohol may possibly be spent on other goods and services, creating jobs in non-alcohol sector. His team estimates an increase in alcohol taxes will not on only reduce the number of heavy drinkers but also stimulate economy. The study shows the tax increase on alcohol leaded to more employment in California. In response to this research, David Jernigan, the study author remarked alcohol tax increases are an evidence-based approach to help drinkers to health and create jobs. Conversely, some experts are warning those findings are not published in a peer-reviewed journal yet so considered preliminary.

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I don’t think this article is 100% reliable. Firstly, there is no explanation about the connection between the tax rising and the job creation. How do they know people spend money not on alcohol but on other goods when the tax is raised? Though it’s showing the study result in California and Louisiana, it is undeniable that it just happened by chance. Secondly, it is doubtful only 10 cents or so tax increase work quite effectively. You can find 10 cents around self-checkout machines in seconds. Such a small rise seems not to be enough for a heavy drinker’s health.

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How long I live

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Human being’s life expectancy is getting much longer than before. Two thousand years ago, its average was only 7000 days because of the luck of hygiene, good nutrition and so on. Now the world average is 63 years. If you’re lucky enough to live in developed country, you can expect even longer one. Fortunately, however, luck and gene account for only 20% of the factors of lifespan expectancy. Long life is closely related to outlook, diet, excercise, and active minds besides them. So basically, 80% of them are controlable. How long you live depends on how you live.

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I never imagined that my lifespan is that long. 89 years sounds pretty outrageous. I’m not sure I feel happy to have a long life when I get old. What if my husband has been already dead? What if I can’t even walk by myself? I remember my Turkish friend asked me “What is the average life expectancy in Japan?” I told him it’s about 80 years. He suddenly opened his eyes wide making his “Oh my goodness you have to live another 60 years” face. After wrote sentences above, I began to feel like “No matter how much I worry about the future, it wouldn’t do any good.” And I realized that’s why I will live that long. Still I can’t say living long is absolutely fortunate, the least I could make it so with my positive mind.

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My reaction to “Seoul: Pyongyang Sanction Unchanged”

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The South Korean president, Park Geun-hye,remarked her govenrment  is open to the idea to try to resolve the isuue between North and South Korea. This sincere comment is showing her positive attitude. At the same time, it would encourage Pyongyang to have an important dialogue.  Problem is that it would not be possible to carry out proposals explained in Dresden Declaration without changing the May 24 sanctions. In this regard, it was found
in a recent poll the South Korean public expect improvement of the situation.

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I hope I’m not the only one who surprised by recent poll took in South Korea. It revealed not only the government but also the South Korean public is positive to make a change on the long-term relations. This result shows there have been moves to try to have a genuine talk with the North. If the two Koreas made substantial dialogue, other divded countries could also be affected. I’m worried this declaration won’t change the situation, though.  It is true that Ms.Park’s proposals raised a hope for better relationship,  still they sound a bit vague. In this meaning, the importance of solving  the 24 May sanction got clearer than before. Yes, the door is open. Now the world is watching whether the two Koreas will get in there.
How the North Korea would respond and what they would discuss will be a hot topic.

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