※ 青年議會(Youth Parliament)
議題一│高中課程選修─我不要四十堂必修
各位2012全國青年高峰會尊敬的與會者,
首先,對於您參與全國青年高峰會Ⅱ,我在此致上最高的敬意與歡迎之意
將身軀蜷縮在那個被書堆掩埋而更加狹窄的位置裡,我怔怔的看著書桌上堆疊的如巍峨峻嶺的課本,
數學、生物、英文、國文、物理、化學、地科、公民、歷史、地理,再垂眼凝視著今日的課表,
數學數學生物地理化學公民國文歷史,㏒、東羅馬帝國、腎元、八隅體、行政法、蘇東坡突圍、我達達的馬蹄是美麗的錯誤…,
腦海中浮現的是飛舞的文字及符號向我逼近,張著嘴對我傾訴著、嘶吼著、咆嘯著,如魑魅魍魎般的糾纏著我、占據我的內心,
而讓我張嘴欲言卻無法發出聲音,我滿腹悲憤,無奈沒有人能傾聽。
我已經逐漸遺忘自己當初拾起書本時的愉悅,
現在,讀書之於我,是一種責任,是一種包袱,而不再是令人享受的心靈饗宴,
被繁重的課業壓得喘不過氣,而自己真正喜愛的科目,卻不再或是鮮少出現在課表上,
取而代之的,是讓學生退避三舍的必修科目。
讀書,從何時開始成了一種達到手段的工具?
「書中自有黃金屋,書中自有顏如玉」能夠順利金榜題名,功名利祿自然接踵而至,
而我們竟然落入了這樣往復迂迴的惡性循環中,像孔乙己、像范進,將「金榜題名」四字奉為圭臬,深深刻印心中,
我們不再重視過程,只在乎結果,以至於淡忘學習的真諦,甚至於無法獲得心靈上的滿足,
我們的內心求知若渴,但澆灌我們的,是必修科目,是既定的課程,是缺乏源頭活水來的死水!
無法得到知識的甘泉源源不絕的灌注,所以我們註定枯萎、註定乾涸。
有鑑於國外的選修體制開放之多元及完善,臺灣的選修課程落實是否能不再只是天方夜譚?
選修意味著選擇,意味著改變,學子們是否能決定自己未來的方向?
選修尚有許多窒礙難行的道路必須通過:是全面課程的選擇開放,亦或是侷限在非主要科目?
台灣現今擁有的師資人數,是否足以應付這樣的體制?
這些選擇是否為學生真正所期盼的學習?
升學考試制度又該如何配合修正?
再者,這樣的改變是否會造成教育預算大幅度的增加?
儘管前方充滿著未可知的變數,這也不該是我們卻步的藉口!
不管前方究竟是康莊大道,抑或是更曲折蜿蜒的小徑,
學子們必須向前邁進,不該畫地自限,侷限自己的發展、扼殺自己的前程!
Steve Jobs曾經說過:「Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. 」
教育,是與每個青年學子最息息相關的議題,因此,我們不能讓學子們的聲音被埋沒在人群中,
不能讓學子們被既有的規範給綑綁束縛,不能讓學子們成日無所適從、手足無措。
學校,是神聖的知識殿堂,不該淪為知識的囹圄。
2012青年高峰會,讓我們聽到你的聲音!
議題二│十二年國教─聽著!我告訴你十二年我們需要什麼
Dear all,
教育,是與每個青年學子最息息相關的議題。
回想自己九年級時,踏出校門往往天色已晚;夜半的翻書聲滑破寂靜,抬頭一望驚覺迅速流逝的時光,
以及自己的窗口已成了街坊上唯一的亮點
那段苦讀的生活,我不曾忘記。
究竟讀書是為了什麼?
努力奮鬥三年換來的是接下來三年的春風得意,還是不斷刺痛自己的一個挫敗?
這或許是每一位學生心中的矛盾,當我們努力追尋目標的同時,時常也感到茫然。
究竟努力是不是真的可以換來我想要的結果?我在這反覆練習的過程中,是不是逐漸淡忘了學習的真諦。
眉頭微蹙,一個困擾自己許久也最重要的問題在腦中浮現:「我到底快不快樂?」
「你能做的,是有智慧與勇氣去適應所處的環境,然而從不忘記心中最純粹的理想及初衷。」一位睿智的老師如是說。
教改一改再改,該如何順應此種情形而不在變動中感到無所適從?
我們在這個委員會中做的種種討論,不僅僅為了讓自己和往後的每一位莘莘學子的學習之路更加平穩,
也希望能在過程中以理性、誠懇的態度滌清盲點,找回曾被名次與分數、被種種惡性競爭抹滅的內心的澄淨。
我是北一女中二年級學生許立儒,
擔任「十二年國教──聽著!我告訴你十二年我們需要什麼」的委員會主席,
誠摯邀請全台各地的青年學子蒞臨2012青年高峰會。
※ 模擬聯合國會議 - Model United Nations
Committee: Economic and Social Council
Issue│ The question of famine in DPRK
Dear Honorable Participants of NYS II 2012,
First of all, welcome to NYS II. We, Te-Jung Chu and Shao-Ming Yang,
will be serving as your chairs for the Economic and Social Council of NYS II.
The Chairs will first like to recognize the effort of all member states in ECOSOC for making this conference possible.
This year, the NYS II staff hoped to encompass a higher diversity of issues and way of discussion.
Thus, we came to an agreement to add a Model United Nations section to our original blueprints.
The following is a brief, and we hope, succinct, introduction of our issue this year.
In the most recent estimate of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, released in
October 2010, 925 million people are undernourished. In round numbers there are 7 billion people in the world.
Thus, with an estimated 925 million hungry people in the world, 13.1 percent, or almost 1 in 7 people are hungry.
Nearly all of the undernourished are in developing countries.
Children are the most visible victims of malnutrition.
Poor nutrition plays a role in at least half of the 10.9 million child deaths each year--five million deaths.
Malnutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, including measles and malaria.
According to the most recent estimate that Hunger Notes could find, malnutrition,
as measured by stunting, affects 32.5 percent of children in developing countries—plainly speaking,
one out of every three children.
Geographically, more than 70 percent of malnourished children live in Asia, 26 percent in Africa
and 4 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In many cases, their plight began even before birth with a malnourished mother.
Under-nutrition among pregnant women in developing countries leads to 1 out of 6 infants born with low birth weight.
This is not only a risk factor for neonatal deaths,
but also causes learning disabilities, mental, retardation, poor health, blindness and premature death.
The world produces enough food to feed everyone.
World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago,
despite a 70 percent population increase.
This is enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day.
The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow,
or income to purchase, enough food.
There is ample evidence that rapid progress to reduce hunger can be made by applying a twin-track strategy
that tackles both the causes and the consequences of extreme poverty and hunger.
Track one includes interventions to improve food availability and incomes of the poor by
enhancing their productive activities.
Track two features targeted programs that give the most needy families direct and immediate access to food.
Simultaneously, a global food system needs better governance at national and international level.
In food insecure countries, institutions are needed based on the principles of the Right to Adequate Food.
These should promote transparency and accountability,
the empowerment of the poor and their participation in the decisions that affect them.
Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
The issue of people suffering chronic hunger has been brought up in the United Nations numerous times,
and it is still widely discussed by groups such as the FAO and the World Food Programme.
Unfortunately,due to the neglect of agriculture relevant to very poor people by governments and international agencies,
the current worldwide economic crisis, and the significant increase of food prices in the last several years,
the problem is far from being solved.
Imagine yourself sitting in a room.
Instead of the chitchat you usually hear,
imagine the girl next to you being so weak from hunger that she cannot stand nor walk.
Imagine that the boy on your other side is going blind from malnutrition.
If you had imagined yourself in a room of 30 people your age or younger,
know that if the human population were to shrunk tothis proportion,
roughly ten children will never reach adulthood without some sort disability or disease related to malnutrition.
Some will never reach adulthood at all. This is how immediate world hunger is.
As delegates, we believe you have the job as representatives from your country to develop
a practical resolution for this issue.
We will be looking forward to heated debate in order to create the best and most constructive resolutions.
Good luck to you all, and we will be anticipating a successful conference!
Sincerely,
Shao-Ming Yang (Class of 2013, Taipei First Girl’s High School)
Te-Jung Chu (Class of 2013, Taipei First Girl’s High School)