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There is perhaps a tendency to stereotype those who take part in individual sports, such as tennis, swimming or athletics, as somehow being reluctant to embrace teamwork and cooperation, while those who choose to participate in team sports, such as football and basketball, may be viewed as more willing to share success and possessing better interpersonal skills. In my opinion, these two ideas are, in fact, mere stereotypes and do not accurately reflect the nuances of individuals’ personalities and motivation.

Although team sports obviously promote a sense of camaraderie and encourage people to cooperate and collaborate with each other, it cannot be claimed that individual sports don’t bring benefits of comparable value. There is no doubt that individual sports can also foster resilience and discipline in their participants. Furthermore, even if a sportsperson is on their own while they’re doing their chosen sport, in my experience, this tends to be a small fraction of the overall amount of time that someone invests in a sport. These sportspeople will usually train or practice with other people and may become involved in training or mentoring other sportspeople. As a result, they will also be able to develop the collaborative skills and sense of team spirit that we associate with team sports.

Zoos were originally set up not to conserve wildlife, but for entertainment. Exotic animals, often from distant places, were kept and displayed in zoos for the amusement of royal families. These animals were used to show how rich and powerful these families were.

Later, zoos started to become open to the public. Scientists used zoos to carry out research on animals, and people visited zoos to educate themselves about animals from around the world.

In more recent times, zoos have often played a role in rescuing animals and organizing breeding programs to help increase the number of endangered animal species. This can have a positive effect on the populations of rare animals, but it does not make up for the fact that animals in zoos are not living in their natural environments.

Nowadays, scientists and the general public can still learn about animals by visiting zoos. However, this is only acceptable if the animals are given conditions that are as similar as possible to their natural habitats. The welfare of the animals must take priority over any desire to educate or entertain people.

Robots have played a part in the human imagination for a long time. Many ancient civilizations have legends of human-like machines that exist to serve people. During the Renaissance, da Vinci sketched what looks like a knight’s armour with an internal mechanism that would make it move automatically. People today tend to think of shiny, friendly machines popularized in science fiction of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. At that time, many felt certain that by today these types of robots would be commonplace. As in ancient times, the dream was for these robots to complete basic tasks and free up time for mankind to focus on more interesting or pleasant aspects of life.

These types of robots have not taken off yet, however, and perhaps they never will. It turns out it is incredibly difficult to build a machine that can complete complex tasks such as walking over uneven ground. However, other kinds of useful robots do exist nowadays. They are typically machines that can complete one simple task effectively and independently, such as robotic vacuum cleaners or toilets. These types of robots certainly increase our quality of life.

A common criticism of people, in particular children, using screen-based Internet technology is that it limits creativity. Medical experts, educators, and psychologists have all joined in the debate on how much screen time is suitable for different ages, though overall there seems to be little consensus on how much time that is. It is easy to see why many are concerned. We can all conjure up the mental image of a child or teenager mindlessly staring at a tablet or phone for hours. This type of technology, one that demands no interaction and lets the person passively consume, is probably not stimulating or inspiring creativity.

However, this is clearly just one aspect of this kind of technology. In the last decade, the way we interact with screen-based Internet-linked devices has changed dramatically. There are now many social platforms available that have led to a surge in creativity. Instructional videos and apps are enabling people around the world to learn and teach new skills. People are using the technology of this kind to come up with creative solutions to local and global problems, such as managing food waste, organizing transport, or providing companionship to the elderly.

Those designing and writing programs for Internet-linked devices are very creative people. Even children learning coding at school can quickly come up with original games, using nothing but a tablet and their imagination.

The spread of English as the world’s most common language has brought certain benefits, such as better and increased communication between different countries as well as easing the sharing of information between universities and other institutions. However, it is probable that the spread of one language is contributing to the decline of others.

Minority languages are facing extinction, but they have value to their communities. Many people feel most at home in their native language, even if they sufficiently master other languages. This may be partly because certain concepts or ideas are expressed more clearly or better in the language local to the situation or context people are in. It is reasonable to assume that a language rooted in a certain part of the world may have more specific words to describe that world.

It is not only vocabulary that can vary considerably between languages. Many concepts are expressed through the grammar of a language. The importance of time, of the individual versus the group as a whole, or the formality of a society or culture is usually expressed through linguistic functions. Losing a language can therefore also lead to a loss of cultural expression and identity.

Lots of classes are now carried out online and many people prefer learning in this way than sitting in a classroom. While I believe there are some advantages to online learning, I still think learning in a traditional classroom environment is important and of more benefit to learners. In this essay, I will explain some of the reasons why I believe this.

Firstly, not every student has access to technology. To learn online, you need a computer or mobile device of some kind and you also need the Internet. Some people might not have these and therefore would lose the opportunity to learn.

Secondly, technology is not always reliable. The Internet might not work or the signal might be poor meaning the connection is bad. It might be difficult to communicate or to access the necessary documents if this is the case.

Finally, you cannot create the same social environment online as you can in a traditional face-to-face classroom. We learn many things through communicating with others in a social space and this might not be achieved in the same way when learning online. In this way, important social lessons might be missed.

Education plays a major role in the public life of a country. It is important to prepare young people for the life ahead of them, and schools can offer children from the poorest backgrounds a chance to get ahead in life. However, there is less agreement on what children should be doing with their time in school.

Many jobs require specialist knowledge these days. That is true of highly academic jobs, such as a lawyer or a surgeon, but it’s also true of manual jobs, such as building. There are many rules to be learned, and in countries where children specialise early, they are able to take up meaningful employment at a younger age, too.

Early specialisation also means that children are not wasting their time or becoming demotivated studying subjects that are not interesting to them, that they struggle with, or that they simply dislike. It is better to have children spend their teenage years in tasks that truly motivate them, and that will be useful in their future.

However, there is a risk that at the age of 13 or 14, children are too immature to be able to predict what will interest them in their future. They are more likely to take the same routes through work as the people around them at that age. Many girls, for example, are deterred from studying computer science at that age but may see more value in it later in life.

Sugar is not good for people’s health. It can lead to problems with diabetes and general poor health. The amount of sugar that we consume has increased considerably over the decades, and rather than being a treat, eating sweet things has become a daily habit. I do not, however, agree that the best solution is to tax products with sugar in them. 

Taxing products that contain high levels of sugar may not have the intended effect. If the intention of introducing a sugar tax is to discourage people from buying products, it is unlikely to work. A tax of a few pennies will probably not be enough to change people’s habits. Of course, if the intention is to raise income from the tax to combat health problems, then it may be more effective. 

To change people’s habits, it seems necessary to take stronger action. Sugar is a highly addictive substance. It may be more effective to introduce limits on the amount of sugar that companies can add to products, or ban them from advertising products that go over recommended limits. A ban on advertising may encourage companies to show restraint.

An alternative might be to promote healthier alternatives. In the long term, we need to train people to show more restraint in the choices they make. Having a bowl of fruit next to the cakes in a café may remind people that there are better options available.

While the debate continues between whether tertiary education should focus mainly on training for specific jobs or whether there is a higher purpose to education, my opinion is somewhere in the middle: while it makes sense for job preparation to be a significant part of tertiary education, work is not the be-all and end-all of everything and there are opportunities in tertiary education that would be lost if it was too work-focused. In fact, many skills are useful for both the workplace and for other aspects of life. 

On one side of the debate, it would be unfortunate if, after investing several years of life in education, none of it helped in obtaining or in being successful at a job. Industry and government all require skilled people if they are to be effective, and if tertiary education doesn’t provide society with such people then it’s hard to know where they would come from. 

However, an education that focuses only on specific job skills would be very narrow and limited. There is far more to life than just work, and just as examples, an appreciation for the arts and a broad understanding of the world can only enrich society. Tertiary education clearly has a role here, too. 

Indeed, there are skills that are useful both for work as well as outside work. Critical thinking, for instance, not only helps people be more effective at work but also enables society to function properly – it’s important to the democratic process, for holding companies and governments to account, and so on.