In the prejudiced eye of the beholder

How much do you think physical beauty affects your chances in life?  What should individuals do to combat their own prejudices against "ugly" people?  What should we do as a society?  Do such people deserve special legal protections like other disadvantaged groups or is this too impractical?

OK, all the boys over there and all the girls over there

Do single-sex classes encourage learning or do they just reinforce prejudice?   This article seems quite skeptical about a recent study which claims the latter.  What do you think of the studies mentioned?  Does the article treat the arguments fairly?  Is segregating students by gender similar to segregating by race?  Would you like to go to a single-sex school?  If you were a parent, would you like your children to?  Why or why not?

What’s race got to do with it?

This article is a bit long, but there are so many interesting issues to talk about here.  First of all, does this article give us more evidence to show that the concept of race is outdated?  For instance, geneticists point out that Australian aborigines (who appear black) are more closely related genetically to Europeans than they are to Africans.  Has the simple concept of categorizing people by skin color outworn its usefulness in a world where mixed race individuals are becoming more common and science is providing us a more complex genetic picture?  What do these twins tell you about the nature/nurture debate?  What can be done about racism and bullying in schools?  Finally, what do you think about racially-culturally mixed families like this one?

How much can you do with a hotpot?

This one is especially for those of you (if it indeed applies to anyone in the class) who live in a dormatory. 

As a student, is it worth spending extra time on cooking?  What can you manage to cook given limited equipment and money (and of course time)?  If student cooking is a good trend in terms of health, what can be done to encourage more students to cook (and eat) healthy meals?  For example, should cooking classes be a mandatory part of the high school curricula?

Iran is bad, but the USA is no saint either

Unfortunately, this article is no longer available at the above link.

The writer of this article seems to be claiming that the role of the media should be to criticize national policies and structures rather than those of other countries.  Do you agree?  Is this a realistic expectation?  How can citizens of democratic countries best form an unbiased view of their own country, including its faults?  Do you admire these boys for criticizing US policy after being released, or are they “biting the hand that feeds them?”

(Be sure to hit the “continue reading” button at the bottom to get the whole article.)

Give me an L, Give me an E, Give me a G, Give me an S…..

This is the last entry you can comment on for the first half of October.

What do you think about dress codes and where the limits lie for appropriate student clothing?  Are these schools hypocritical because they don’t allow cheerleaders to wear their official uniforms in the school itself since the skirts are too short?  Are cheerleading squads simply an outdated and sexist custom anyway, or would you like to see Slovak schools take up the practice?