A Dream for a Better World

History has left many sites for human beings but more and more historical and cultural sites are lost gradually. Here take some historical sites as examples.
Historic Route 66 in USA. Historic Route 66 just refers unconnected places and interstates at first. Afterwards, it played an important role when the federal government started to set up national road system. Historic Route 66 is not only the longest road with the longest history in USA but also the shortest trunk connecting middle and west part of USA and Pacific coast. When more and more people started to use cars in 20th century, the route make people move to the west region. During the great depression in USA, people escaped west region with much sand and drought through the route. When the second world was broke up, soldiers made use of the route to delivery goods. At present, Historic Route 66 is on the wane but thousands of people all over the world still pass the road. In the past 10 years, many sites of Historic Route 66 have lost and as more buildings will be built, the route will be destroyed more.
Fenestrelle Fortress. Fenestrelle Fortress is located in Italy. The fortress was built as a impregnable barrier and its length is about 3km with about 4 square kilometers. Various buildings, churches and museums etc were built within the fortress. In 1947, Fenestrelle did not have the military function any more. Afterwards, it always suffers from theft, erosion, aging and destruction of other factors.
Herschel Island. Herschel Island is situated in Beaufort Sea and near to north part of Yukon area of Canada. Thule were the earliest residents on the island 1000 years ago. Many buildings in ancient times were remained on the island. However, as the globe becomes warm and sea level rises, some buildings on the island have been moved to other regions.
Old Shanghai. Shanghai is always the center for international trade in China. During two world wars, some architects who ever accepted education from western countries built various building with unique style. However, as the society develops so fast and many buildings remained have been ignored in modern times.
The Wa Naa’s Palace. The Wa Naa’s Palace is the building in Ghana and it was ever the traditional residence for leaders of Wala people in north part of Ghana. The Palace is the typical and significant building in Sudanese style in Ghana. The building needs changing coatings every year but few people nowadays know how to do it. In addition, the country is not stable and local government can not pay much attention to repairing it. Therefore, the building has been terribly destroyed.
Pidhirtsi Castle. The castle was built from the year 1635 to 1640 in Ukraine. The castle was first established for entertainment instead of defense. Therefore, it looks like a villa or palace which has been listed as a part of historical and cultural sites in Ukraine. However, the castle was seriously destroyed during wars. In addition, the fire disaster in 1956 also destroyed the castle too much and many walls and galleries will collapse.

On November 1, 2009, China World Hotel embraced the 2009 International Boarding School Fair in Beijing. Hundreds and thousands of parents attended with their teenage kids. Although Beijing welcomed it’s first snow of 2009 on the day, the hall with the fair going on was extremely hot with too much crowd as well as too much enthusiasm from both parts: the parents eager to consult and find their children the “best” schools while the representatives from North American secondary schools trying their best to convince the parents that they are the very one being sought.

The schools were unexceptionally boasting their colorfulness in terms of how many international students they enrolled, and their specialties in arts, sports and many other fields. The parents looked over each stand present, asking the most concerned questions, such as how much the tuition is, how the children are settled in the boarding schools, how their children can be helped and can receive individual attention. But the kids’ eyes full of curiosity and bewilderment, and some with excitement as well, it seemed that they had no exact idea what they were going to experience in the near future to come.

Though some parents in Beijing are well-being enough to pay more 200,000 RMB each year for their kids to study overseas (which is 20 times more than the regular tuition for high school or even university education), the real question behind the parents should be thinking about is whether this really fits their children. After all, they are just 13 to 17 years old. To attend a secondary school and maybe later a university overseas means that the children have to be kept apart from their families for 4 years or even longer. When they are not mentally and physically matured enough, staying in an exotic culture with no parents around may cause some problems in their growing up. In this day and age when it is difficult sometimes for even adults to cope with cultural shock despite their mature cultural cultivation, children will definitely run into similar situations, not to mention that they are not mature yet. The potential sense of isolation, homesickness and loneliness will likely to outweigh all possible gains.

So it is really recommended for the parents to think over and make sure it is the right decision to make before they send their children to a secondary school thousands of miles away. Although education maybe a different case, it is not always a good idea to seek far and wide for what lies close at hand. My tip: stay cool to the rush!