Do our children need gratitude education or not? The answer should be yes. Because of the family planning policy of "only having one child" for many years, a large number of "little emperors" and "little princesses" have appeared. Some children lack real life experience, which leads to selfishness, self-centeredness, and a weak sense of basic etiquette and gratitude. However, looking at some so-called "gratitude education" that is popular at present, they send letters to their parents and groan. It seems that children are "deeply moved and grateful to tears", but in fact, gratitude education has been "a gust of wind", which makes people wonder: can such forced gratitude education really work?
Before answering this question, there are two prospects worth clarifying: First, can gratitude education achieve low input and high output through one or two so-called "theme education"? Or do you need the continuous education and influence of "moistening things silently"? Second, whether children's gratitude consciousness is established is directly related to the speaker's agitation and incitement. Furthermore, can the children's "collective crying" show that the sense of gratitude has entered their minds?
Perhaps the school is well-intentioned, or it may be that the school really realizes the necessity of gratitude education and invites some so-called experts with beautiful flags or "selling dog meat" to carry out gratitude theme education. With inflammatory language and artificial expression, children "feel deeply guilty and burst into tears". So, is such a temporary spiritual baptism lasting? Do children have a rational and comprehensive understanding of what gratitude is and how to be grateful? Of course it's impossible. To put it bluntly, this is a kind of performance-based gratitude education, which is a utilitarian and formal expression of school gratitude education.
Self-esteem, self-improvement and self-love are the basic educational concepts of modern times, and gratitude education should not break through this category. For example, in the keynote speech, "There is only one country whose mother is the greatest, and that is the mother of our children in China", "Washing parents' feet, knocking three times and worshipping nine times" is not so much a modern gratitude education as a "resurgence" of feudal filial piety, blind worship and enslavement.
Actually, gratitude is a very broad category. For example, if you are abroad, you should be grateful to your motherland, instead of saying that the air in the United States is "sweet" regardless of the facts, saying that the air in your hometown is "turbid and toxic"; When you are away from home, you should remember the maternal love of "making clothes for her wayward boy's body, she sews them carefully and she repairs them thoroughly"; Out of the school gate, students with "farewell to Cambridge" were deeply touched. On the other hand, if gratitude education is limited to love for parents, can it cultivate the next generation with sound personality, self-esteem, self-love and gratitude?
Thanksgiving education is, in the final analysis, the moral education of children and the subtle education of personal moral cultivation. There will inevitably be a subtle environmental impact process of "teaching by example is greater than teaching by words". Instead of paying a lot of money to hire so-called experts and scholars to "teach by example" with great fanfare, schools should start with teachers who "learn to be a teacher and a model" and start from the dribs and drabs of school life, constantly influencing and driving children to know and learn to be grateful. This is obviously more natural than the "fast food" gratitude education, and the effect will be more lasting.