Somethings...

Now I’m going to tell you some news I read in newspapers on summer.
Pensioner passes 39th A-level!
Walter Turnbull, who is 81 years old, has just passed an A-level in Spanish. His teachers at Lancaster College, where he took his exam, are delighted. Walter, whose grand-daughter Tess also took the exam, now has 39 A-levels!
Walter started studying in 1970, when his son asked him for help with his homework, and he sat his first exam the following year.
‘It’s like an addiction!’ he joked. His grades, which are mostly Bs and Cs, are not important to him. ‘I’m not interested in getting high marks – I just love learning,’ he explained.
But Walter thinks his 40th A-level, which will be in travel and tourism, will probably be his last!

I hope you liked it, it’s really interesting! Now, I’m going to tell you about a typical controversial subject in our society.
Girls vs. boys!
Are girls cleverer than boys? Is our education system sexist? These are the kinds of questions that made the headlines last week, when the results of this year’s GCSE and A-level exams were published. Once again, girls have outperformed boys. Even in computer studies, which is traditionally regarded as a ‘boys’ subject, the girls are doing better. The government now says it is concerned by the ‘unacceptable’ gender gap.
So, why are boys underachieving? Some people blame an anti-learning attitude among boys who think it is not ‘cool’ to study. Others think that the exams themselves need rewriting. Studies have shown that girls generally perform better at tasks which require imagination and empathy, whereas boys prefer questions which ask for lots of dates and facts. Modern exams often ask students to think creatively – an approach which some experts think might be favoring girls. However, Dexter Hutt, who is the head teacher of a co-educational school in Birmingham, thinks that boys are just overconfident.
According to Mr. Hutt, boys tend to misbehave more than girls in class, and they do not work as hard. He says that boys are more interested in watching TV and playing football!
What do the students themselves think? One of Mr. Hutt’s students, Califah, who was pleased with his exam results, says that it is all down to personal motivation. ‘There are a few distractions, but I do my best,’ he says. His classmate Kerry, who got very high marks in all her exams, thinks that girls mature earlier. ‘They know what’s got to be done and they just do it,’ she says.
The Education Minister says that some teachers are now experimenting with teaching boys separately to improve their performance. Until we find out what is causing this difference in results, she feels that teachers need to try new techniques. But they had better hurry. Last century was a time when countless girls failed to achieve their potential. Will the twenty-first century see the same thing happening to boys?

Another discussion essay, related with this it would be: What are the advantages and disadvantages of single-sex schools?
Most people agree that girls and boys are different. For example, boys are often more competitive than girls, and girls are often more hard-working than boys. Some people think that because boys and girls are different, they should be taught separately. However, there are also disadvantages to single-sex schools.
One advantage of single-sex schools is that boys and girls do not distract each other. For this reason, pupils can concentrate more on their studies. What’s more, teachers in single-sex schools can change their teaching style to suit their students. Boys and girls learn differently!
On the other hand, women and men have to learn to live together in the outside world. Single-sex schools prevent boys and girls from learning to work together. Moreover, single-sex schools could make boys and girls uncomfortable with each other.
On balance, I feel that mixed schools are better than single-sex schools because both sexes learn how to cooperate, which is important when students leave school and enter the real world.