We’ll finally grow up someday, leaving our parents and facing the challenges (挑战) in life. Parents may not be able to solve every problem for us. Instead, we should have enough life skills to deal with the problems that come our way.

This is what our country tries to do now: Helping more students gain working spirit. To stress the importance of hardworking spirit education (劳动教育) among students of different ages, the government released (发布) a guideline (纲要) recently.

The guideline calls for students to respect work. Students should learn basic life skills and form good working habits through such education. The government has been trying to stress the importance of hardworking spirit education. But this has been overlooked in recent years. Many teens do not value the importance of working hard and are uninterested in doing so.

According to a study of nearly 3, 000 students that was done by Evening News, only 22 percent of primary and middle school students help with everyday housework.

“Schools and families play an important role in teaching students about the value of working hard,” the guideline says. Primary and middle schools should provide students with hardworking spirit classes every week. According to the guideline, schools can also hold activities to give students real-world work experience. For example, schools can teach children how to plant trees on Tree Planting Day.

As children’s first teachers, parents should also encourage children to learn how to do housework. Students should master one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms.

Problems of Near-sighted

Do you notice how many people wear glasses when you go along the street? A middle school teacher Hong Xiang found most students in his class wear glasses one day. Then he collected some information. According to a report from a national survey in China, more than one million people are blind and the number of near-sighted（近视的）people is nearly ten million. Among them, people aged from 3 to 20 are more likely to have problems with their sights. Here is some information.

My teenage son Karl became withdrawn after his father died. As a single parent, I tried to do my best to talk to him. But the more I tried, the more he pulled away. When his report card arrived during his junior year, it said that he had been absent 95 times from classes and had six falling grades for the year. In this case he would never graduate. I sent him to the school adviser, and I even begged (乞求)him. Nothing worked.

One night I felt so powerless that I got down on my knees and begged for help. “Please God, I can’t do anything more for my son. I’m at the end of my rope. I’m giving the whole thing up to you. ”

I was at work when I got a phone call. A man introduced himself as the headmaster. “I want to talk to you about Karl’s absences. ” Before he could say another word, I choked (哽咽)up and all my disappointment (失望) and sadness over Karl came pouring out into the ears of this stranger. “I love my son but I just don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything to get Karl to go back to school and nothing has worked. It’s out of my hands. ” For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line. The headmaster seriously said, “Thank you for your time. ” and hung up.

Karl’s next report card showed a marked improvement in his grades. Finally, he was even on the list of the best students at school. In his fourth year, I attended a parent-teacher meeting with Karl. I noticed that his teachers were surprised at the way he had turned himself around.

After the meeting, Karl said, “Mum, remember that call from the headmaster last year? ” I nodded.

“That was me. I thought I’d play a joke but when I heard what you said, it really hit me how much I was hurting you. That’s when I knew I had to make you proud. ”