Your Voice: Importance of showing your appreciation; why students need health lessons (short letters)

I am writing to express my opinion on the power of appreciation and how it can positively impact us and the people around us.

My school held an open day last week, and I was one of the helpers. The preparation period was exhausting, and everything we worked on did not go as smoothly as planned. For example, there were delays in the delivery of decoration materials and gifts. We also had a lot of quizzes and dictations over the week. It was a challenging time, and I even had a mental breakdown.

Your Voice: Hong Kong student group empowers kindness (long letters)

However, one thing that touched my heart deeply was when a teacher approached me and said, “Thank you, you have done a great job!” The moment I heard those kind words, I felt like somebody valued all the work I had done.

A little appreciation is like a beam of radiance in the darkest of nights. In our fast-paced lives, it is easy to overlook the importance of expressing gratitude and acknowledging the efforts of those around us. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t try to keep it a secret; let them know! It’s a sure way to brighten their day.

Gordon Fu, Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial College

Nowadays, many students eat unhealthy food, especially with restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC appearing around schools. This is why I feel it is important for schools to introduce health as a subject.

A health curriculum would educate students about healthy food choices, helping to reduce the number of students consuming unhealthy meals from restaurants. Consequently, this would lower the risk of disease and illness occurring within the school environment.

Secondly, introducing health as a subject would not only educate students about nutrition but also equip them with essential life skills for their future. For example, they could learn how to give the proper dietary care to a child, which would be valuable knowledge once they have children themselves.

Some may think that health lessons would reduce study hours for other core subjects or increase school expenditure. I believe that health could be implemented as an elective subject, so it wouldn’t significantly reduce teachers’ time to teach other subjects.

As for the expenditure, I consider it a worthy investment, as medical bills are far more expensive than a few extra lessons.

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Bobo Wong, Pope Paul VI College

I am writing to express my views on the establishment of the first full-time college for adult prisoners.

One of the primary benefits of a college education for prisoners is its emphasis on critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. By providing prisoners with opportunities to develop these skills, we can empower them to become self-sufficient and contribute positively to society on release.

Furthermore, college education offers a transformative experience that goes beyond academic knowledge. It provides an environment where prisoners can engage in personal growth, self-reflection and develop moral values. College provides a sense of community and encourages the exploration of different perspectives.

Additionally, the establishment of a full-time college for adult prisoners sends a powerful message to society about our commitment to the principles of justice, fairness and second chances. It demonstrates that we recognise the potential for positive change in every individual and that we are willing to invest in their rehabilitation.

James Shen Chingche, Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School

I am writing to express my views regarding the latest artificial intelligence (AI) tool from Google, called “Gemini.”

Gemini claims to outperform GPT-4 in all aspects and even claims to outperform human experts in MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding), which covers a multitude of subjects, including mathematics, history, computer science and law.

From the demo videos, Gemini can seemingly identify abstract images in real-time and understand sarcasm. Not only can it identify live drawings almost instantly, but it can also respond to jokes fairly well.

AI development has once again awed me. Just a few years ago, it seemed impossible for AI to solve complex problems and generate images. Yet, we already see it integrated and used among our peers. Now that it is increasingly on par with humans, it seems like what was envisioned in the movie Terminator years ago is slowly coming true.

What worries me is that malicious individuals may create AI with ill intentions to scam people, but despite this concern, I remain optimistic about the overall outcome.