However, economists have given us a new perspective, showing us not only cultural traditions, but also potential economic principles. For example, the modern west also highly values "authoritative" parenting, and in the 1970s, the most mainstream education method in the world was actually arbitrary education. There is no absolute difference between the two methods. This article may refresh your cognition. Let's have a look.
Use the "tiger mother" education method to worry that children will lose their creativity; Use the "stocking" education method to worry that children are too free and lack a sense of rules.
Two economists from Yale University and Northwest University wrote a book called Love, Money and Parenting. They think: "From an economic point of view, different educational methods seem to be related to parents' choice and cultural background, but in fact it is the social environment and its supporting economic principles that play a role behind it. "
So under the background of China, which education method will prevail?
0 1
There are two kinds of education: "fatherly love" and "maternal love"
There is a classification of business models, which holds that there are two main types of business models in the world today, one is "father's love" and the other is "mother's love".
"Father's love" mode means that enterprises provide users with what they think is good, and users only need to accept what enterprises give them. The typical representative of this model is Steve Jobs' Apple Company, that is, "I am responsible for product innovation, and you only need to be responsible for the experience".
Another "motherly love" mode refers to designing enterprise products by understanding users' preferences, that is, the enterprise will give them to users if they think they are good. Platforms like Today's Headlines and Tik Tok are actually pushed according to users' preferences.
In fact, these two classifications can also be applied to education-"fatherly love" exerts influence on children; Provide support to children in a "loving mother" way.
The author calls the "fatherly love" education method "intensive parenting"; "Motherly love" education is called "laissez-faire" parenting.
"laissez-faire" parenting is easy to understand, that is, parents rarely interfere with their children's thoughts and behaviors. Parents who adopt this kind of education usually accept and affirm their children's impulses, desires and behaviors, and at the same time do not encourage their children to follow established laws.
For example, at a family dinner, if the child suddenly becomes unhappy and wants to go home, such parents generally do not think about how to appease the child, but directly apologize to the people present and respect the child's wishes. In this way of education, the status of parents and children is equal, and children's happiness is also relatively high.
"Intensive" parenting is different. This kind of parents will clearly position their children as children, not as their equal friends. In their view, children can't judge right or wrong at all, so they must be controlled. For example, children love to play games, but parents think games are harmful to their minds. When these two ideas conflict, such parents will try their best to control their children.
Generally speaking, parents have two strategies to control their children:
One is compulsory, that is, children are directly prohibited from playing games for a long time, which the author calls "arbitrary" parenting;
The other is persuasion, that is, instilling the bad idea of "playing games for a long time" into children, which the author calls "authoritative" parenting.
The biggest feature of "arbitrary" parenting is that parents will try to restrain their children with a series of rules. Obedience and observance of rules are the most important things in the minds of arbitrary parents. These parents firmly believe that it is very important for their children to learn to obey rules.
Relatively speaking, "authoritative" parenting is much more open-minded. Although this way also affects children, this influence is not imposed on children, but gradually changes children's thoughts and behaviors through ideological guidance and problem-oriented methods.
02
It is not love but social background that affects the way of education.
The three educational methods of "laissez-faire", "arbitrariness" and "authority" are actually the three most commonly used methods by parents all over the world. Although these three methods are quite different, there is no difference.
Moreover, from the perspective of economics, it is not the choice of parents themselves, but has profound social and historical reasons.
For example, in the 1970s, the most mainstream way of education in the world was actually arbitrary education. Because of the low economic level and poor social and professional mobility at that time, most people inherited their father's career, and parents had to impart knowledge to their children and even directly control their children's choices.
If children are out of the control of their parents, they will often lose more than they gain. In this context, it is very important to observe and follow the rules. So at that time, it was not because parents' education methods were too backward, but only this kind of education method was the most useful in the harsh environment at that time.
With the change of society, many new industries have sprung up, and the job mobility has increased, resulting in many young people engaged in occupations completely different from their parents. Even some industries are not possessed by parents' generation, and the vocational skills mastered by parents are useless to their children. As a result, the arbitrary educational model has lost its function, and the authoritative educational model has gradually become a general trend.
Different educational methods seem to be related to parents' choice and their cultural background. In fact, it is the social environment and its supporting economic principles that play a role behind it.
03
How do economic factors affect educational methods?
Like all business activities, the economic principle that affects the educational model is mainly the input-output ratio, which you can also understand as the return on investment generated by using this educational model.
Speaking of investment income, we must look at it from two aspects: "input" and "return". There are four main factors that have the greatest influence on the "input" and "return" of an education model, namely, the conditions of parents, the characteristics of the education system, the size of the socio-economic gap and social mobility.
Parental conditions
Generally speaking, the higher the education level of parents, the more economic income and leisure time, and the more resources are invested in education. In this case, parents will generally adopt the authoritative education method with the most investment.
For those parents with low education and low income, they have no time to invest too much in their children because they are tired of making a living. They either order their children to listen to themselves or simply ignore them, so most of these parents will adopt "arbitrary" or "laissez-faire" education methods.
Characteristics of the education system
Every country in the world has different educational system designs.
For example, in northern Europe, there is almost no difference in quality between schools and there is almost no competition among students. Most students can get all the educational resources as long as they study normally.
In this case, no matter how much you invest, the return is similar. Naturally, not many parents are willing to invest more in education. Therefore, most Nordic parents will adopt a "laissez-faire" education method with relatively little investment.
However, in China, the United States and other countries, because of the complex national conditions, there are often huge differences in educational resources across the country, and the competition for educational resources is fierce. Therefore, in these countries, parents usually adopt an "authoritative" education method, with a large investment and a large return.
The size of the socio-economic gap
The greater the socio-economic gap, the greater the return on education investment. After all, the quality of education received will greatly affect children's future income.
In a society with a small economic gap, no matter whether everyone is rich or poor, children's future income will not drop too much, and natural parents are not willing to invest too much in education.
This is why "laissez-faire" education is popular in developed countries, while "authoritative" education is emphasized in developing countries.
Social mobility
If there is great social mobility in a region, local people will increase their investment in education, because it will bring children the possibility of changing their lives. On the contrary, if a social structure is relatively fixed, then everyone will not invest too much in education.
For example, in ancient China, education was very important. As long as the family has the conditions, it will instill in the children the idea that "everything is inferior and only reading is high". Therefore, there are historical reasons why China people prefer to use "authoritative" education methods.
For example, in western countries before the industrial revolution, the division between nobles and civilians was obvious. Civilians can't become aristocrats through education, and aristocrats can't become civilians because they didn't receive good education, so most families in western countries at that time also adopted laissez-faire education.
However, after the industrial revolution, the social mobility of western countries became greater, which directly led to the popularity of "authoritative" education methods in western countries for some time. It was not until these countries became very rich and developed countries that the "laissez-faire" education method became popular again.
From these four factors, we can see that in many cases, what kind of education mode parents choose is not based on personal preferences or cultural background, but the input-output ratio behind this education mode, which is determined by the economic principles behind the education mode.
04
There is only the choice of the education method that suits you best, and there is no distinction between high and low.
After understanding the basic principles that determine the educational model, we will find that in today's ever-changing society, the "arbitrary" educational model has completely fallen behind.
Because few people will do the same job as their parents, even the same job, the way of working is very different. If we use "arbitrary" education methods again, it will not only help children adapt to social changes, but also solidify their thinking and keep up with the changes of the times.
But for "authority" and "laissez-faire", there is no absolute difference between these two educational methods, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
For the authoritative type, many ideas that parents instill in their children will indeed become very useful in adulthood, such as instilling good universities, diligence and other concepts; But brainwashing makes children like "useful" subjects, such as science, engineering and finance. It seems wise, but it may actually kill their hidden talents.
It is also for this reason that it is difficult for some talented artists to appear in a society that respects this education.
For the "laissez-faire" education model, children may not become nerds because of excessive intervention by their parents. They are more capable of discovering what they like, and they will maintain greater confidence in what they like, and their creativity and imagination are usually stronger.
However, this kind of education method can easily lead children to develop a bad habit of focusing only on immediate happiness and ignoring long-term results because of lack of discipline since childhood. In addition, such children have relatively poor self-control, are easily tempted by bad things, and are difficult to adapt to some highly competitive environments.
Therefore, when choosing education methods, we should combine our own actual situation. There is nothing wrong with these two educational methods, but we must grasp the degree in practical application.
In fact, in the choice of educational mode, parents don't have to stick to a single mode, and they can adopt different educational methods when dealing with different things.
For example, when cultivating children's values and comprehensive quality, we can adopt some "authoritative" educational methods to guide children to establish correct values and relatively high comprehensive quality. However, in terms of children's creativity and career planning, some "laissez-faire" education methods can be adopted to let children explore their own interests and potentials and lead their own life direction.
In a word, when parents choose education methods, they should not just rely on feelings or blindly listen to some external views, but should combine their own actual situation and social environment to analyze and choose the appropriate education methods.
No matter what kind of education method is adopted, parents' education should follow the law of children's growth, and education should follow the trend and not encourage it.