Today, people live visual. They are easy to be exposed to the mass media which attracts visually such as TV, videos, movies and DVDs. Therefore, many people are more familiar with videos than books in their lives. I read the article “Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers.” The author, Motoko Rich talks about the issue that video games are used to  people to read books and help them to understand readings. He mentions how effective using video games are to connect people to books and talks that it really helps people to read books.  I agree with the idea that playing video games has educational value.

 People understand learning materials easily with using video games. Books contains just letters and few pictures to give people information. However, video games have lots of pictures, graphic effects and music, so they make people able to use many senses like hearing and seeing to understand and get information. People can get what they can not understand and imagine in written words by watching and playing video games.

Also, people can be more interested in learning by using video games than by just reading books. Our society works and moves more visually and more visually. People can watch movies and TV everywhere and use them to entertain themselves. They enjoy watching. Therefore, video games, which show lots of visual material, attract and interest people more easily than books. If  people learn something with books, they might feel pressure because books are usually used for learning and getting information. They are used for education more than videos are. 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/06/arts/06games.php

After reading the article “What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart” written by Ellen Gamerman

Finnish students are considered smart because they got high OECD’s test scores, which were just about math, science and reading sections. There is no way to know and evaluate how much students are good at art and any other subjects just with this test. Also, people can not say the only people who are good at Math, science and reading are smarter than others. Each person has different talents and also there are various intelligences.  Also, Finnish model schools have no sports teams and marching bands. It seems no-frills but, many activities and event schools have also give good opportunities to find their talents or intelligence to students. There are no gifted classes in Finland because Finnish educators think outstanding students can help others’ weakness. However, it could be waste of time for them just to repeat all the things that they already know and doodle on their note during the class. The students who are more talented in certain area than any other people do should be educated with appropriate level that they need.   

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120425355065601997-7Bp8YFw7Yy1n9bdKtVyP7KBAcJA_20080330.html

After reading the article, “School Is Bad for Children”by John Holt

 I agree with the idea that schools don’t respect students’ individual differences so the students learns not to ask questions, hide their curiosity and feel ashamed of what they are wondering. When I was an elementary school student, I felt ashamed of what I did not know and afraid of asking questions to teachers. It is because I thought teacher would consider me as a stupid person who could not understand what everyone knew if I asked a question, so I sometimes said yes when teachers asked me if I was following well the class, even though I didn’t get what they taught. In Korea, when students get low grades on the test or did something that distracted class, many teachers discipline them by heating with stick. It was very scary for me when I was young. I think it influenced me a lot to think that not knowing something is wrong and feel guilty. I think schools should be the place people can feel free to ask and learn what they want to know and don’t know. Also, they should respect individual opinions and differences so let them be active during the class and learn what they want to know as many as possible without feeling afraid someone else’s judgment. I regret that I did not take advantage of lots of opportunities to learn because of the fear of asking questions. I should have participated in class and been more active

http://www.spinninglobe.net/holt.htm

I read a article“Boys Will Be Boys”, written by Barbara Kantrowitz and Claudia Kalb in my ESL class.

The first interesting idea in the article is that boys and girls have different characteristics in the way they behave. When I was a kid, I could not understand why boys act so offensively and why they seem to like sports more than girls do, so I used to prefer to play with girls. I remember that I and my friends liked to gossip about the way boys acted when we got together. However, now, I realized that it was because boys are likely to act actively and aggressively by the hormone.       The second idea that I am interested in is boys have homophobia when they are about 11, 12, 13 years old. I have a guy friend, whose name is Joseph. I have known him since I was 5 years old, and we had grown up together. We did really get along together, so we did everything together. We played card game, played with dolls, went shopping and chatted until late night. However, since he got into the middle school, he seemed not to want to hang out with me anymore. He didn’t like what I used to do with him, and he started to hang around with other boys. I was kind of broken mind at that time and I think I concerned a lot about the friendship between me and him. He is still my good friend, but actually I could not understand him until I read this article. I am really glad that now I can understand why he acted that way to me.