In the WeChat group, there was a long message from a parent in China, saying that the children went to kindergarten and elementary school in the United States and had a good time every day. They don't have to be as tired as at home, and the effect is good. Children will go online to find information and express their views on humanities, history and people.
Many parents think that children in China attend all kinds of cram schools, extra-long classes and interest classes, and their schoolwork is heavy and their burden is heavy, so they have no happy childhood. People not only envy the idea of "happy education" in the United States, but also criticize the exam-oriented education in China. Some people will also associate the current educational situation with the strangulation of talents by the imperial examination system in ancient China.
So, does "happy education" really exist in the United States?
I have collected many examples of China families raising children in the United States, and I have also learned something about American education. It can be said that we were cheated for many years.
First, the stage of kindergarten education
Kindergarten education in the United States generally includes two-year preschool classes and 1 year kindergartens. In the first two years, the learning stage of preschool class mainly focuses on children's sensory experience and independent exploration, and cultivates children's social, emotional and cognitive abilities. The following year, children in kindergarten began to learn ABC, numbers and other subjects. Below I try to compare the differences between Chinese and American kindergarten education from three aspects:
(A) on the cultivation of reading ability.
Kindergarten education in the United States is by no means not learning. On the contrary, it pays great attention to cultivating children's reading ability. Children should not only learn to read, but also learn to read, make sentences and read. Montessori kindergartens pay more attention to early education. Many children who have just started preschool, especially those who have attended Montessori kindergarten, can already read chapter books with several illustrations by themselves when they enter school.
On the other hand, in our domestic education, children usually draw a book and a simple story book with many illustrations before going to primary school, and can't read chapter books by themselves until the second and third grades of primary school. Of course, this is also related to the number of basic Chinese characters we have to master.
(2) On the cultivation of mathematics and computing ability.
We are used to thinking that China people's math scores are outstanding, while American children's basic math is generally poor, and our children's math scores can completely crush all American children. In fact, this is really a big misunderstanding. Before the start of kindergarten in the United States, teachers will give parents a study plan for the school year, which also includes detailed plans for mathematics learning, such as learning to know simple shapes, understanding mathematical concepts such as permutation and combination, statistics and classification.
Our kindergarten seldom sends out study plans, and mathematics education pays more attention to the calculation ability of numbers, such as addition and subtraction within 10, addition and subtraction within 20, and learning numbers within 100. I seldom touch mathematical concepts such as permutation and combination, induction and classification.
(3) About the cultivation of quality and character.
American kindergartens have no strict and unified requirements for simple knowledge enlightenment education, and attach great importance to the education of personal living habits and personal morality. In kindergarten, teachers often say that "honesty is the best policy"-honesty is the best criterion. This has something to do with American society attaching great importance to honesty.
Kindergarten teachers in the United States do not require children to sit well in class, but they will teach them how to respect, learn to listen, observe public order and learn to apologize. Many kindergartens will arrange a "circle time" of about 30 minutes in the morning-"circle time": all students in a class will gather in a specific area of the classroom or on the carpet, sit in a circle, start chatting, establish social feelings, share personal experiences and cultivate social skills. Teachers will also participate in chatting like family members.
Our kindergarten education pays more attention to learning and mastering specific knowledge points, such as how many words children have learned, how many new words they know, or how many Tang poems they can recite. However, the education of children's personality cultivation and will quality is very lacking. Our general education mode is that teachers let children do one thing or lead them to do it together, whether they are studying or playing games, they pay more attention to the authority of teachers, and instill in children from an early age that they should listen to teachers and parents, and there is almost no equal communication.
From the above three points, we can see that kindergarten education in the United States is not what we imagined. The so-called happy education in the United States is not a paradise, and our education also has its own characteristics and strengths.
Every country's education system is different, and every child has different characteristics. Only by absorbing the advanced ideas of American preschool education and absorbing the strengths of Chinese and western educational ideas can we provide children with more scientific educational methods, entertain and entertain, and let them grow up happily.
There is a lot of content. I will continue to write the second part tomorrow. )