In your spare time, do you help your parents with chores around the house? Can you cook for your family?

In order to stress the importance of labor（劳动）education among students of different ages, the Communist Party of China Central Committee recently released（发布）a guideline（指导方针）.

The guideline calls for students to respect labor 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 labor education. But this has been overlooked（忽略）in recent years. Many teenagers do not value the importance of working hard and aren’t interested in doing so.

According to a study of nearly 3, 000 students that was done by China Evening News, only 22% of students help with everyday chores around the house. 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 hard-working spirit classes every week, according to the guideline. School 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 chores at home. Students should grasp one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms.

It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday. I was going to meet an old university friend I hadn’t seen for years. My train was running a little late, but that was no big problem – I could text him to tell him. He would understand. But ... where was my mobile phone? I had that familiar terrible feeling. Yes, I’d forgotten to take it with me when I left home.

No mobile phone. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling worried when I don’t have my phone with me. In fact, I know I’m not alone: 66% of us experience “nomophobia”, the fear of being without one’s mobile phones. That’s according to a study of a survey in the UK about their relationship with mobile phones. It says we check our mobile phones 34 times a day, and women are more “nomophobia” than men. 77% of them say they are unable to be apart (分开) from their phones for more than a few minutes.

It’s funny to think that around 30 years ago the only people with mobile phones would be business people carrying their large “bricks (砖头)”. Of course, these days, mobile phones are everywhere. And when there are more phones than people in the world, maybe it’s time to ask yourself, “Are you in control of your phone, or does your phone control you?”

So, what happened to my university friend? When I arrived a few minutes late he just laughed and said, “You haven’t changed at all－still always late!” We had a great afternoon, full of jokes and stories, and I forgot about my phone. Not having it with me felt strangely free. Maybe I’ll leave it at home again next time.