ISSUE TOPICS

1. The primary goal of technological advancement should be to increase people's efficiency so that everyone has more leisure time
2. The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society.
3. To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards.
4. Governments should focus more on solving the immediate problems of today rather than trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future
5. While some leaders in government, sports, industry, and other areas attribute their success to a well-developed sense of competition, a society can better prepare its young people for leadership by instilling in them a sense of cooperation
6. Both parents and communities must be involved in the local schools. Education is too important to leave solely to a group of professional educators
7. Many of the world's lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The governments of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct
8. It is impossible for an effective political leader to tell the truth all the time. Complete honesty is not a useful virtue for a politician
9. In any profession—business, politics, education, government—those in power should step down after five years. The surest path to success for any enterprise is revitalization through new leadership
10. In any given field, the leading voices come from people who are motivated not by conviction but by the desire to present opinions and ideas that differ from those held by the majority
11. For the growth of professions and academic fields imagination is more important than knowledge
11. The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people
12. Some educational systems emphasize the development of student's capacity for reasoning and logical thinking, but students would benefit more from an education that also taught them to explore their own emotions