Based on your own experience, would you agree that people are more disconnected and lonely than they were five years ago? Is this mainly due to the aftereffects of anti-COVID measures, or are there other important factors? Obviously, loneliness can have an important negative impact on your mental but also physical health. What do you think about the US response in terms of a declaration by the Surgeon General or a bill allowing doctors to do “social prescribing”? To what extent is loneliness a problem that needs to be solved versus an experience that needs to be accepted and even embraced? Does our school (in terms of both staff and students) make a good effort to combat loneliness?
Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Friday, March 22, 2024
No toilets in this ladies’ room (not even a urinal by Duchamp)
Can the experience
of feeling unfairly excluded be an enlightening one for someone who is part of
the dominant group? What do you think
about women (or other groups who have been excluded historically) creating their
own exclusive spaces? Did Lau fall into Kaechele’s trap by suing her? What do you think about the fact that she turned
the trial into a kind of performance art?
Visibly Homeless
Do you find
the modern trend of the homeless setting up tents in public urban spaces disturbing? Should the government remove them at all costs,
or does their visibility help force the public to face the problem of
homelessness and its related causes? How
would you feel if your church (or another organization which you belong to)
decided to allow homeless people to camp on the premises?
What does it mean to you, Aretha? How about you, Azuka?
I have
sometimes noticed in Slovakia, as this Nigerian columnist does, that respect is
often given according to perceived status or wealth. Would you agree? What have been your experiences of giving and
receiving (or withholding and not receiving) respect? To what extent and in what circumstances
should respect be earned rather than freely received? What do you think about what this writer says
about treating criminals? Do
declarations of human rights by bodies like the UN help? Or do official words simply enable us to
pretend that we are actually doing something concrete about this issue?
Uncle Sam Wants You For Climate Corps. Nearest Recruiting Office.
This is the last entry you can comment on for late March to late April.
It is often
argued that the global warming and its effects constitute the most significant
crisis that the world is now facing. Is
putting boots on the ground a good way to help slow climate change or
mitigate its effects? Should tax monies
be devoted to this? Do you agree with
the author that the Biden administration’s program should be even more
extensive? Should the EU or Slovakia do
something like this? Would you join the
climate corps?