Term 2 Week 5 (Weekend Assignment)

'Students should be given more freedom in deciding school rules.' What are your views?

      School rules define the barriers of students’ actions, school rules decide what a student is allowed to do in school and anything done outside these barriers are considered wrong and would warrant a certain punishment by the school. However, increasingly, schools are starting to give students some authority to decide the rules they wish to be governed by in the examples of the class rules which students are allowed to decide through discussions in class. Should students be given more rights to decide these rules? Students should be given a voice to speak out of the rules that they think can be improved upon and not be totally denied this right but ensuring that students do not abuse this power.

       Firstly, students should be given a voice as I feel that students are capable of deciding what is best for them and the consequences of their actions. If students are allowed to take part in organizing school events and taking part in the student’s council, why not extend this authority further by allowing students to have a role in deciding the school rules? Some rules that might have been outdated and redundant such that it is no longer effective can be improved if a student is able to improve it such that it stays relevant. With the advancements of the internet, certain rules can no longer govern the students as effectively as it would have hoped and with the students help these rules can be improved upon and hence regain its effectiveness.

     Next, by allowing students to discuss on such rules would allow these students to be able to draw knowledge from their discussions with teachers on certain rules. Students through their discussions with teachers allow them to understand the rationale behind these rules and hence draw knowledge from such. Furthermore, teachers can also learn from their experiences with the students as students being able to experience first the implications of the rules, would be able to better understand if the rules are suitable and whether improvements are needed to be made to it. This method is able to achieve two aims and hence I think that this is indeed beneficial to the school and students.

     However, as there are two sides to a coin, by giving the students some power to decide the school rules there are also some side effects that might be caused due to this delegation of power to the students. Some students might take this chance to implement rules that are detrimental to the school instead and do not benefit the student population. If that happens, it would defeat the entire purpose of having such discussions in the first place. Hence I feel that if students are to be allowed to decide the school rules then students are to be ensured that they do not misuse this power and implement rules that do not benefit the student population.

    In a nutshell, I think that students should be given some power to decide the school rules but be kept in check such that this power is not misused and beneficial to the student population. 

The horrors of war

The sound of explosions all around me, artillery shells dropping and raining death upon my comrades. East Berlin was within sight and the Germans were nonetheless defending stoutly, willingly giving up their lives to protect their city. The war was far from over much to world’s disagreement and the Germans were not giving up without a fight. Hiding behind a thin sheet of metal foil, I prayed for the luck that had kept me alive these years, luckily, it seemed that my luck had not abandoned me and I was unscathed by the constant bombardment of his area. After what seemed like an hour of constant shelling, the whistling sound of artillery shells flying through the air stopped, and explosions ceased to continue. A wondrous silence filled the air and I knew that the artillery bombardment had stopped. Crawling out from my hiding spot, I gazed around the street. Dead and wounded soldiers, burnt-out houses, dug-up fields, cars, clothes, weaponry — all this is scattered around me, a real mess. Men that I had called my brothers lay dead on the pavement that was holed by artillery shells. As I stood upright it seemed as though I was the other person alive in the bloodbath, not a single soul was seen alive. Once again, I doubted the purpose of this war; the government claimed that this war could end the suffering of many innocent civilians. However, what is the true cost of this war, is the price of millions of dead soldiers a price too high for us mankind to pay?

Does nuclear energy still have a part to play in the world?

Despite accidents such as the Fukishima 1 nuclear accidents and the Chernobyl diasater, I feel that nuclear energy is still the way forward. Nuclear powered reactors under controlled circumstances can produce a larger amount of heat energy as compared to the conventional coal energy that is used to produce electricity required to power of daily lives. Producing lesser amounts of pollution as compared to coal energy it is still much more productive than coal, this alone highlights the benefits of nuclear energy already. Coal powered reacters produce many greenhouse gases as its by products, porducing an estimated 2.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide every year and other toxins such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous dioxide.Theses emissons contribute greatly to the greenhouse effect and globl warming which is taking place currently. In comparison, nuclear powered reacters produce waste in the form of spent fuel rods which can be stored safely in the long run. Futhermore, coal requires extensive amounts of mining to constantly maintain the electricity output of these reactors while nuclear reactors, despite requring mining to acquire the uranium that is needed for production of electricity, require very little amounts of uranium as compared to coal and hence reduced the enviromental impact that is caused through mining. Through the examples listed above, nuclear power is clearly a much better choice as compared to the traditional coal energy. With further developments in nuclear technology, I believe it is a matter of time before nuclear energy becomes the main source of energy for countries.