Have a conversation as natural as possible with a partner about the topic. Use the pictures above and the questions below to help you.
- Have discipline problems worsened in schools in recent times? Compare what you know of these issues with your own school days.
- “It takes a village to raise a child”. Do you agree with this African proverb? To what extent are we all responsible for the actions and behaviour of our children?
- Are teachers trained to tackle problems like bullying or other serious problems which might arise in schools?
- Do universities prepare people for the real world? Why? Why not?
- “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education” (Albert Einstein). Do you agree? Would you say that knowledge is the result of curiosity? Discuss.
- Do you know anybody who started a degree but dropped out after only a year? Why do you think this happens?
- Did you ever play truant and did you ever write your own absence notes? Did any of the kids at your school ever do that? Were they ever caught red-handed?
- Do you know students who cheat in exams even at the university level? How would you feel if you found out that your doctor cheated at medical school?
- Were you ever given a detention at school? Were you ever grounded as a consequence? Did these punishments successfully act as a deterrent?
- When do you think a student should be suspended from school? and expelled?
- What should be done about plagiarism in this day and age of the internet?
- Were any of your classmates defiant or obnoxious at school? How did the teachers deal with them?
- What will the classroom of the future look like?
1 "Knowledge is power" (Francis Bacon). Do you agree? Discuss
2. How might university education be improved?
3. What kind of subjects / topics do you read widely and voraciously?
1. "The dumbest people I know are those who know it all" (Malcolm Forbes). Do you agree? Discuss.
2. Should university students study away from home in order to get a degree? Do you think studying in a foreign country on an Erasmus grant is something positive or not?
3. What role do the new technologies play in education nowadays? Have traditional teaching methods outlived their usefulness? How do children learn best? Can children learn almost anything through video games?
tackle something to make a determined effort to deal with a difficult problem or situation. E.g. The government is determined to tackle inflation. I think I'll tackle the repairs next weekend. Firefighters tackled a blaze in a garage last night.
drop out (of something) to leave school, college, etc. without finishing your studies. E.g. She started a degree but dropped out after only a year.
play truant: to stay away from school without permission: e.g. he often played truant and he usually wrote his own absence notes
catch somebody red-handed: to catch somebody in the act of doing something wrong or committing a crime. E.g. I caught him red-handed, stealing a wallet.
medical school: a college where students study to obtain a degree in medicine.
detention: the punishment of being kept at school for a time after other students have gone home. E.g. They can't give me (a) detention for this.
ground somebody to punish a child or young person by not allowing them to go out with their friends for a period of time. E.g. You're grounded for a week!
deterrent (to somebody/something) a thing that makes somebody less likely to do something (= that deters them). E.g. Hopefully his punishment will act as a deterrent to others. The country's nuclear deterrents (= nuclear weapons that are intended to stop an enemy from attacking).
be suspended from to officially prevent somebody from going to school for a time. E.g. She was suspended from school for a week.
expel somebody (from something) to officially make somebody leave a school or an organization. E.g. She was expelled from school at 15.