What are the Top 3 sample essays showing opinions on a social issue? What is the code of conduct for 8th-grade students in general education institutions in Vietnam?

TLittering in Public Places

The phenomenon of littering on streets, throwing trash in public spaces, and illegal dumping has become extremely widespread. People have yet to truly develop a sense of environmental hygiene, as they carelessly litter on sidewalks and streets with indifference. Walking around pedestrian streets in Hanoi or places like West Lake or Hoan Kiem Lake, one can easily see water bottles and plastic bags strewn across sidewalks. Not just in public places, in some neighborhoods, despite the presence of signs designating cultural areas prohibiting littering, garbage is still pervasive, emitting strong odors. As for water environments, factories discharge pollutants into rivers without treatment, poisoning water sources and causing massive deaths of marine life. Notably, the 2016 incident where the Formosa plant discharged waste directly into rivers, heavily contaminating the related sea areas, impacted the work of fishermen and the daily lives and health of the people.

Beyond discharging waste into water environments, the use of chemicals not only degrades the land but also pollutes water sources when chemicals are sprayed before or after rainy days, causing chemicals to flow into rivers, while toxic fumes affect the air environment. Especially, the air environment is currently heavily polluted by untreated emissions from vehicles and factories.

Environmental pollution has caused many detrimental effects not only to flora and fauna but also to humans, who are directly affected. Concerning human health, pollution indirectly causes dangerous diseases as people consume contaminated food and water, while heavy metal contamination like lead poisoning leads to foodborne illnesses. Particularly, Vietnam is currently the second country in the world in terms of cancer rates.

These are actions that pollute the environment and deserve condemnation. Measures must be taken to prevent these actions and protect the environment.

Environmental Pollution

The world today is advancing incessantly, with a plethora of products created to make human life more convenient and simpler. However, alongside this progress, difficulties arise that pose disadvantages, especially concerning the increasingly severe problem of environmental pollution, which demands our immediate attention and protective measures.

The environment encompasses the whole space where humans live, including land, water, air, and forests. It is a critical factor impacting human life. However, the issue of environmental protection is more urgent than ever.

Travel along any road, and you’ll encounter heaps of household waste recklessly discarded, marring the aesthetic and surrounding air. In rural areas, indiscriminate dumping of household waste becomes even more severe. In agriculture, the overuse of chemicals has critically polluted the soil. Not just the land, water sources today are also facing severe pollution due to untreated industrial discharge by factories and during crop seasons, with empty pesticide and herbicide bottles casually discarded by farmers into ditches, along with dead animal carcasses. Moreover, the air quality today is not as pure as before, degraded by industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, and waste burning. Notably, reckless exploitation of minerals and natural resources or slash-and-burn agriculture has disrupted the ecological balance.

The severe impacts on the environment stem from human awareness. This may be due to negligence, not realizing the consequences of their actions. Yet, some knowingly harm the environment for short-term benefits. Such unintentionally or deliberately induced consequences are grave. Environmental pollution first adversely affects human health, leading to respiratory and digestive issues, and more critically, it threatens human survival (air pollution causes greenhouse effects, global warming, and ozone layer depletion). Pollution mars the general aesthetics. Imagine unpleasant-smelling waste piles near hospitals or schools; wouldn’t you feel something is amiss? Additionally, it affects the climate, causing natural disasters like floods, droughts, landslides, and soil erosion, leading to severe human and financial losses.

Due to these grave consequences, proactive measures are necessary to protect the environment. First, each of us needs to develop correct awareness and consciousness about environmental protection. There should also be practical actions like spreading awareness about the harms of pollution, cleaning streets and water bodies, disposing of waste properly, and participating in tree planting and afforestation. Companies and industrial units must treat waste, wastewater, and emissions according to regulations before discharge. The government must strictly penalize individuals and organizations that violate. For students, they should maintain cleanliness in schools, protect trees, and dispose of waste properly. Even small actions contribute to environmental protection.

The environment holds great significance for our lives. Therefore, let us protect the environment for the future, for a green-clean-beautiful Earth.

The Indifferent Attitude

Society is developing at a rapid pace in all cultural, political, and economic fields. This swift growth inadvertently influences interpersonal attitudes, making them more aloof and less intimate. The fast-paced life drags people into everyday busyness and haste, cultivating indifferent and apathetic attitudes.

First, we need to understand what indifference is and why it is termed as a "disease." Diseases like coughs, tuberculosis, and skin diseases can be treated with medicine, but indifference is also termed a disease, implying a deeper metaphor. Indifference is an apathetic attitude towards life and those around us. We neither care nor feel responsible for ourselves or others.

Today, as the country progresses, indifference increasingly becomes a disease. A "remedy" needs to be found to reconnect human emotions, to eradicate this apathetic lifestyle in society.

Once indifference plants itself in a person, it takes deep roots, refusing to let go. Each person needs methods to curb this dangerous disease that can erode the heart.

Indifference is increasingly present in modern life, evident in interpersonal attitudes and behaviors. People are no longer warm, engaging in small talks but become indifferent, cold, and unconcerned about each other’s lives.

Children living far from home, engrossed in their work cycle, gradually reduce the frequency of checking in on parents. Over time, phone calls and visits dwindle year by year. In this way, we inadvertently make our hearts indifferent to those we love most. Indifference is reprehensible and frustrating, but if we learn from it, rectify it, and inquire into each other’s lives, it becomes precious. Everyone makes mistakes; what matters is acknowledging and correcting them.

Nowadays, many absurd situations arise as people treat each other coldly and indifferently. Every person has their circumstances and life; some are affluent, while others face hardships, who is to blame?

This afternoon, while walking on the street, I saw a young couple riding a luxurious Sh motorbike. Passing through a noisy, bustling market, they encountered an old lady with dim eyes leading a small barefooted grandchild dressed in rags. They held a hat out to the couple, asking for a few coins. In return, they received disdainful glances, indifferent and unconcerned. The couple left behind a trail of fragrant perfume, exuding an aura of cold indifference. Such indifference is just minute expressions in life that not everyone has the empathy to recognize.

In this life, we need to love and share through difficult times. Seeing another’s suffering as our own allows us to help sincerely. Due to indifferent and cold attitudes, life lacks genuine love.

The indifferent attitude among the younger generation needs preemptive intervention. The future needs intelligent individuals who can share and love their fellow humans. Regardless of circumstances, we can use our hearts to warm those with scars.

Indifference stems from many reasons, including the rapid social growth that overwhelms individuals. Consequently, they become engrossed in the hustle and bustle, forgetting to love and share with those around them.

If indifference is not promptly halted and discarded, it can become habitual. Thus, each individual must self-reflect on their thoughts. When we love and share love, we find ourselves living a more meaningful, beautiful life.