Both my parents were educators, and for the past 40 years, I’ve done the same thing. For years, I have watched people teach. And one of the things that are not often noticed is the importance of relationships. Someone says that no important learning can happen without an important relationship. That’s true. Kids may not even learn from people they don’t like.

How do I build relationships with kids and look after kids? I once gave a test — 20 questions. A student missed 18. I put a “+2” on his paper and a big smiling face. I said to him, “You got two right. You didn’t miss them all. And when we review this, won’t you do better?” He said, “Yes, I can do better.” You see, “-18” may be a blow to his pride, but “+2” said, “I am not all bad.”

And for years, I watched my mother take the time at recess (课间休息) to review, go on home visits in the afternoon, and buy small gifts for kids. After she retired (退休), some of her kids came and said to her, “You know, Ms. Walker, you made a difference in my life. You made me feel like I was somebody.” When my mama died, there were so many students at her funeral (葬礼). It brought tears to my eyes, not because she was gone, but because she left a treasure of relationships that could never disappear. Can we have more relationships? Of course, yes. And we teach anyway, no matter what kinds of kids we have.

Teaching and learning should bring joy. How influential our world would be if we had kids who were not afraid to take risks, Who were not afraid to think, and who had a champion (拥护者)! Every child should have a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, and who understands the influence of connection and believes that they can become the best.

The world climbs in population every year, meaning new parents enter the workforce daily. A wide variety of ideas change and adapt over time as people try to figure out what the “best” take on parenting is. Sadly, some parenting techniques have disastrous effects.

A common technique that leads to a difficult adult life by lowering confidence in children is negative parenting. Negative parenting tactics, such as lecturing, complaining, and yes, insulting can have a serious effect on your child’s behavior and activities later on in life. Clearly, being insulted and lectured multiple times a day by an authority figure can greatly affect a child’s confidence going into adulthood. It’s not surprising he’s hardly apt to actively seek out the companionship of others. Instead, his negative feelings toward himself cultivate a feeling of unworthiness around other children.

While negative parenting can affect a child’s mental state, helicopter parenting results in ill-prepared children in an ever growing competitive world. A helicopter parent is overly involved in the life of his or her child. Children who cannot regulate their emotions and behavior effectively are more likely to have a harder time making friends and to struggle in school. Another problem children with helicopter parents may have in the future is managing their health. Taking all of this information into account, helicopter parenting doesn’t allow the child to be independent, so once the child has grown up he or she will not be able to make a decision by himself or herself.

On the other side of the spectrum, permissive parenting leaves a child undisciplined for life. This style of parenting has a very loose structure and few rules; the parents usually show a lot of affection and love for their children. Therefore, permissive parenting is a type of parenting style characterized by low demands with high responsiveness. Because parents have low expectations of their children, and want to be friends rather than parents, kids suffer because of a lack of achievement and motivation to do well in what they do. Therefore, children have worse self-control and cannot follow rules. These are fundamental concepts that should be taught at a young age to prepare for adulthood. If done a certain way, the effects left from parenting can hurt an adolescent into adult years.

Overall, parenting really does affect how children grow and adapt to their world. Some parenting techniques lead to major problems that show in adulthood. The new parents of the world ought to be careful with how they raise their children.

To learn to think is to learn to question. Those who don’t question never truly think for themselves. These are simple rules that have governed the advancement of science and human thought since the beginning of time. Advancements are made when thinkers question theories and introduce new ones. Unfortunately, it is often the great and respected thinkers who end up slowing the progress of human thought. Aristotle was a brilliant philosopher whose theories explained much of the natural world, often incorrectly. He was so esteemed by the scientific community that even 1,200 years after his death, scientists were still trying to build upon his mistakes rather than correct them!

Brilliant minds can intimidate up﹣and﹣coming thinkers who are not confident of their abilities. They often believe they are inferior to the minds of giants such as Aristotle, leading many to accept current paradigms instead of questioning them.

I, like many thinkers of the past, once believed in my mental inferiority. I was certain that my parents, my teachers﹣adults in general﹣were always right. They were like a textbook to me; I didn't question what was written on those pages. I respected them, and accepted whatever they told me. But that attitude soon changed. My mind’s independence was first stimulated in the classroom.

Astern,65﹣year﹣old elementary﹣school science teacher once told me that light is a type of wave. I confidently went through years of school believing that light is a wave. One day, however, I heard the German exchange student mention that light could be made up of particles. As the others laughed at his statement, I started to question my beliefs.

Maybe the teachers and textbooks hadn’t given me the whole story. I went to the library， did some research and learned of the light﹣as﹣a﹣wave versus light﹣as﹣a﹣particle debate. I read about Einstein’s discovery of the dual nature of light and learned the facts of a paradox （悖论） that puzzles the world's greatest thinkers to this day. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave, it is both at once. I realized I had gone through life accepting only half of the story as the whole truth.

Each new year brought more new facts, and I formulated even more questions. I found myself in the library after school, trying to find my own answers to gain a more complete understanding of what I thought I already knew. I discovered that my parents and teachers are incredible tools in my quest for knowledge, but they are never the final word. Even textbooks can be challenged. I learned to question my sources, I learned to be a thinker. I once believed that everything I learned at home and at school was certain, but I have now discovered to re﹣examine when necessary.

Questions are said to be the path to knowledge and truth, and I plan to continue questioning. How many things do we know for sure today that we will question in the future？ At this moment, I know that our sun will burn for another five billion years, and I know nothing can escape the gravity of a black hole. This knowledge, however, may change in the next 20 years﹣maybe even in the next two. The one thing we can control now is our openness to discovery. Questions are the tools of open minds, and open minds are the key to intellectual advancement.