SESSION 18: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
2.1 RAISING CHILDREN: Do you strongly believe children need to be toughened up nowadays or the other way round?
2.2 PARENTHOOD: What is most difficult? How big a worry are the following issues and why?
- kid´s health worries
- good education
- discipline / good manners
- bullying
- child´s safety from society
- kid´s marriage
- love
- discipline
- brothers and sisters
- a father and a mother
- a good education
- independence
- toys
a) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘tough’?
b) What kind of upbringing did you have? Did you have a tough one?
c) What do you think about the article you read?
d) What challenges did you present your parents with?
e) Did your parents raise you in any ways you disagreed with?
f) Do you think Mr Liesheng’s training can have any value in the world we are living nowadays?
g) Do you think Mr Liesheng should be arrested for cruelty to children?
h) Do you know anything about Spartan way of upbringing?
i) What do you think of the comparison with how eagles raise their young?
j) What’s the most difficult thing about raising children?
k) What can parents do to further the intelligence of their children?
l) How would you feel about training in freezing conditions half naked?
m) What do you think of Mr Liesheng as a father?
n) Are you / Would you be a good parent? Why do you think so?
o) How has raising children changed over the past few decades?
p) Should children be toughened up as they grow?
q)What can change IQ besides education?
r) What questions would you like to ask Mr Liesheng?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT IN THE ORAL SESSION.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 18, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions:
- How has raising children changed over the past decades and its consequences.
- Write a letter to Mr Liesheng telling him what you think about the way he raises his son.
The children's education has changed over the past decades, not only at school with the new educated system even at home. In my opnion, parents are more open minded and permissive and sometimes in a excessively way. Children need an authoritative person, who they have to respect and teach them the limits. In our society, children are more unpolite every time, and they have a big lack of respect towards teachers and adults. This will have a great consequence in a future because when these kids grow up, they will have a great lack of values.
ReplyDeleteI remembered when I was a child, teachers were people whom, you must respect and they could punish you, if they considered that it was necessary. However now, it is impossible, in many cases teachers are afraid about pupils, they are humillated and offended by pupils. From my point of view, the only responsibles of this situation are parents.
Parents must teach their children that in Life there are limits and how they must respect people, they are wrong when they think that these kind of things have to be taught by teachers.
Dear Mr. Liesheng,
ReplyDeleteI am writing to complain about the video everybody can watch on You Tube currently.
This video shows a behaviour which is completely cruel and besides, in my opinion, it belongs to those years in which civilization was not very common.
The way you are training your child in order to be more intelligent is completely wrong and I am sure there are not any scientist or doctor who can support these outrage ideas. Besides, the example you explain about eagles raising their babies is acceptable in birds and animals in general. But despite being ourselves animals too, there are a basic difference between animals and us which is that we are able to think, and this simple concept is one that some people like you sometimes forget.
It is undeniable, that your child can have cerebral palsy, however, your brain is accurately damaged too. So as soon as you can you would better go to visit a psychiatrist in order to cure your brain properly.
Anyway, I hope you have a clear conscience about the way you are raising your child. Furthermore I hope that all the letters you are going to receive, force you changing your idea of being a good father.
Yours sincerely,
Miguel Ruano
Dear Mr. Liesheng,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Bárbara and I am a cybernaut and I have seen your son´s video. Because it is public now, I feel confortable telling you my opinion about it.
I am sure you think you are doing the best for your child but others thought the same in the past and damaged seriously their children. I don´t know what kind of education you have received but if you feel modern and tough in your purposes, I can assure you that crying and suffering makes you learn. Yes, you get stronger but learning how miserable life can be.
Anyway, if science means something to you, last research explains that, in contradiction with what we believed in the past. People learn better from good experiences than bad experiences. Something physical happens to us when we experiment positive thing and it hooks us. On the contrary, when we have bad and painful moments, we defend ourselves; we create a shield and try to survive. Obviously we learn, but something dark and sad reminds inside us.
Otherwise, your son is a four years old child, not a soldier in the middle of a training day. Don´t you think he will learn same strength trying to instil into him more self-esteem and confidence through love and understanding instead of fear and pain? It is only an idea. I don´t mean you have to go to jail or be imprisoned for that but think about it. Children do what they see and you are not a very much loved dad example anymore. He will forget, I am sure but you should do the same. Forget, erase and restart. We would be grateful to see you new videos playing with your son dressed and happy in the snow.
Best regards,
Bárbara from Spain
As well as other characteristics of our society, bringing up and educating our children have strongly evolved from the past until these days which has implied a significant transformation into a more comprehensive and tolerant way of education.
ReplyDeleteDespite this evolution is apparently positive, some contradictions have surged, most of them because some of our children have used their bigger freedom and less control in a bad way, not assuming obligations and just demanding rights and more rights, or even completely loosing the respect for their parents in extreme cases.
Of course, we must not forget western countries do not represent the rest of the world and the educational system is not the same in everywhere, so it is easy to find a lot of places where parents still use very strict methods to raise their children, not to talk about the wide range of differences between the way to educate girls and boys.
Although we must fight to improve the way we bring up our ‘babies’, I think we are walking along the right road. As father I try to educate my daughter in a tolerant and responsible way but I always make an effort to get her happiness, is that not the most important thing in this life?
Dear Mr. Liesheng,
ReplyDeleteI would like to do an appraisal in reference to the overwhelming video you have hung on internet which has raised a huge controversy across the world.
Firstly, I should apologize for my daring in asking you something; do you really think is your son who was born with cerebral palsy or the other way around?
If I had to assess what you have forced your little son to do with the aim of increasing his intelligence, I would say that it is the most outrageous thing I never ever seen, so I would be pleased to give you some advises for the good of your son.
Related to the comparison you do about how the young eagles are trained to use their wings and your kid’s training is absolutely absurd, I think you have forgotten that what makes the human being different from animals is the rationality, so you should consider to put in practice others upbringing methods, why not, with discipline as to be more involved in his playing (this time with a tracksuit and trainers) and educational learning and remember that to force him to exceed his own limitation as a way of giving him strength and to enhance his health and intelligence can hinder your son’s psychological development and hence could be detrimental to his near future.
Mr. Liesheng, I would be grateful if you take into account my sincere advise and keep in mind that once we grow up we often think back to childhood with mixed feelings and memories from funny incidents, to unpleasant experiences and, why not, regrets; from which we learn for life.
Sincerely,
Rosa Triviño