Among the constant adjustive education standards and requirements, it's important to ask a question: exactly what do we want in a high school graduate?

Some people think the goal is to enter college and earn a bachelor's degree. Others find that interpretation too narrow, preferring that young people leave school with the skills to move into living-wage jobs. But one thing many people can embrace is that high school graduates are skilled in basic math and English.

A proposed law, House Bill 1308, could ruin that goal. Students must do the following things to get a diploma: earn 24 credits of coursework; complete a High School and Beyond Plan matching those courses; meet one requirement of a series of "graduation pathways". The problem is that these pathways don't work for all kids.

In large part, that's because they guide students toward college standards. Last year, after surveying nearly 1, 000 students, researchers discovered that 18% of students said they were "not good" at math, and 33% said they were poor test-takers. For them, the current pathways are a barrier because of their emphasis on these skills.

The new pathway is instead focused on performance. It would allow kids to create a presentation—say an exhibit or report—demonstrating mastery of two core subjects, but not necessarily math or English. When the bill came up for discussion, over 350 people showed their support, because it's possible that through the performance pathway, a student could create a project emphasizing mastery in "fine arts "and" health and fitness". Rep. Sharon favors the proposal. In a hearing, she spoke of her granddaughter, who wrote and self-published a novel while still in school, to illustrate the kind of project is workable. While Tafona Ervin worries that the lack of emphasis on math and English could lead students to graduate without solid skills.

If the purpose of education is to ensure that young people are prepared to pursue a fulfilling life, finishing school uncertain of one's abilities in math and English weakens education's goal.

Yue-Sai Kan was born in 1946 in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and grew up in Hong Kong. In 1968, while majoring in piano at the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University, Kan entered a beauty contest sponsored by the local Chinese Chamber of Commerce. She won second place, and as a result got to travel around the world. The life-changing experience marked the beginning cf her career in fashion, beauty, communication and cultural exchange.

In 1972, she moved to New York and created the weekly television series Looking East, the first of its kind to introduce Asian cultures and customs to a growing US audience. In 1986, Kan returned to China, producing and hosting the television series One World, which was the first show ever hosted by a Chinese-American on the television network, and was a national hit. Other important projects of hers include the ABC documentary China：Walls and Bridges，which initially explored different forms of spirituality in the country over the ages.

"I worked in China for almost 40 years, and I was there to witness and contribute to the country's breakneck pace of change. This rare experience has given me a unique vision. As I say all the time, if I stay away from China for six months, I already miss so much of what is happening there！The Chinese saying'a year—small change, three years—big change' has held true all this time, "Kan says.

Kan has never stopped doing what she loves. She is currently planning to do a 10-part television series exploring and highlighting the most interesting aspects of 10 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu. "I firmly believe that a TV series featuring these major Chinese cities is not only timely, but also necessary to educate, enlighten and entertain by showcasing the Chinese people as they live today. This will help dispel some of the misunderstandings about China in the world, "Kan says.

Throughout her life, Kan has also been deeply involved in charity. On Jan 26, she is planning to host a major charity event in San Francisco, in which she will honor 12 of the most outstanding Chinese-American women.

Consumers around the world could be wasting more than twice as much food as thought, according to an analysis that says previous figures have been underestimated. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) claims that around a third of food is lost or wasted. Its report is considered to have played a key part in food waste reduction becoming one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

"The problem is much worse than we think. We have to wake up. I hope it's a wakeup call, "says Monika Verma from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She and her team took an unusual approach to calculate global food waste. Due to a shortage of comparable national data on such waste around the world, they instead inferred it. First, they compared how much food is produced—based on UN data on its availability—with how much is eaten, as calculated by the energy people need to consume and World Health Organization (WHO)data on body mass from 66 countries. Then they used World Bank data to factor in affluence (富裕).

This suggests that an average person wastes 527 kilo calories a day. That is about one-fifth of the 2, 500 kilo calories the average man needs to maintain a healthy body weight, according to the UK's National Health Service, or a quarter of the daily recommended intake for a woman. The previous FAO estimate came to only 214 kilocalories a day.

Verma has found that food waste starts to become a serious issue once people reach a total spending power of ﹩6. 70 a day. She says the work shows the importance of looking at different consumer attributes (属性). "Food waste is a luxury when you're poor; it's not when you're richer. The value of food goes down as you get richer. "

There are limitations to the new analysis. It only covers 67 percent of the world popula-tion and doesn't draw on data from some big food-wasting countries, including the US. The FAO says the research provides new perspectives (视角), but should be viewed as part of a body of literature. Andrea Cattaneo at the FAO has some doubts about the results, such as Japan coming out as a country that wastes lots of food, which he says" is unlikely to reflect the reality."

Verma says the biggest assumption the new analysis makes is that poorer countries will develop the same way as richer ones did in the past. That risks a" brewing potential future problem" of even more food waste, she and her colleagues warn.