"We should follow the age characteristics of preschool children and the law of physical and mental development, combine conservation and education, take games as the basic form of activities, and integrate education into life and various activities." —— China's first local regulation on preschool education, The Regulations of Beijing Municipality on Preschool Education.
On March 3 1 2005, the article "Today's Concern" on the front page of China Education News was "Kindergarten has actually set up a" simulation classroom "for primary schools-how can a child's dream become a success? 》。 This article reveals that there is a serious tendency of primary education in Tianjin, and some kindergartens even introduce primary school textbooks frequently and offer standard primary school "simulation" classes.
At the two sessions of the National People's Congress a month ago, some deputies to the National People's Congress and CPPCC members expressed deep concern about the phenomenon of primary school in many areas of China, and people in the pre-school education industry also called for rectification of pre-school education in primary schools.
In fact, some basic and obvious truths have long been familiar to us: early childhood education is not a simple intellectual development, and early childhood teaching is not a simple knowledge transfer. Scientific preschool education should be the cultivation of comprehensive ability; Sound personality, solid physical foundation, good personality and behavior habits should be cultivated from an early age, and early childhood education should focus on these aspects to lay a solid foundation for children's lifelong development. ...
However, today, in order to "not lose at the starting line", many parents have begun to teach their children pinyin, writing and arithmetic in advance. In order to make a profit, some kindergartens have also put up signs of various characteristic classes to attract students ... The phenomenon of primary education exists and spreads in different degrees all over the country, and it seems to be getting worse. ...
Inspection of preschool education in primary schools in China
Harbin: Parents of pre-school primary schools complain bitterly.
On a small blackboard in the kindergarten, children's homework to be completed at the weekend is written: copying the ancient poem "Silent Night Thinking" three times and reciting the Chinese phonetic alphabet, and parents give 20 abdication subtraction questions ... Although the education authorities have cancelled preschool classes many times and put an end to kindergarten primary education, many kindergartens in Harbin still go their own way, and kindergarten children carry heavy schoolbags too early.
It is understood that at present, a considerable number of kindergartens in Harbin line up like primary schools, and a class lasts for 40 minutes. Before graduation, children are required to learn addition and subtraction within 100, know thousands of Chinese characters and master pinyin skillfully ... This kind of primary education makes children overwhelmed and parents complain.
Guangzhou: Children become "primary school students"
Children who should be singing, dancing and playing games are immersed in learning English language and mathematics. At present, some kindergartens in Guangzhou have the phenomenon of "primary school". Education experts worry that this will not only affect children's physical and mental health development, but may even stifle children's interest in learning because of premature schoolwork burden.
It is understood that at present, some kindergartens in Guangzhou offer math classes and English classes in middle and large classes, and some kindergartens even offer first-grade primary school courses in large classes. These kindergarten children have to attend Chinese, math and English classes that are only available in primary schools during the day. After school, they have to do a lot of homework assigned by the teacher. At the end of the month, teachers in each class will test their students. "I feel that children now have become primary school students."
Shanghai: There are also exams in kindergartens.
Recently, a young mother complained to reporters that there are also exams in kindergartens. A few days ago, her 6-year-old son cried and took out a 55-point math test paper for her to sign, saying that all children who failed should take the test paper home for their parents to sign. The son also relayed the teacher's words: "The teacher said that he failed the kindergarten exam and will be a poor student in school in the future."
According to the media, there are not a few kindergartens in Shanghai that hold exams like this. In some kindergartens, middle and large classes have formal classes like primary schools. Especially in mathematics and foreign language teaching, some teachers even regard primary school textbooks as children's textbooks. Some kindergartens offering primary school courses point out that educating children in advance is to meet the requirements of parents. Many parents want us to teach their children some contents in primary school textbooks, thinking that this will make "children familiar with the curriculum after going to school in the future and have a learning advantage over children of the same age".
Guiyang: offering primary school courses to meet parents' needs
Lingling, who is studying in a kindergarten in Guiyang, has a full life arranged by her mother. Learn painting, calligraphy and vocal music on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Of course, Lingling has to recognize Chinese characters, recite Tang poems and learn arithmetic in kindergarten. Children are tired and parents are not relaxed. Apart from the child-rearing expenses of nearly 10,000 yuan per year, "every day's life is like a war", carrying a drawing board and musical instruments to pick up dolls, and even "studying with children after work".
It is understood that many parents in Guizhou believe that children's progress is mainly reflected in how many words they can recognize, how many poems they can recite and how many arithmetic problems they can do in ten minutes. Therefore, many local kindergartens cater to parents' requirements and teach children to read, recite poems and do arithmetic. "Don't let children lose at the starting line" is the most exciting sentence for parents, and it has also become the best excuse for many kindergartens and parents to accept primary school teaching. As a result, the phenomenon of "primary school" in preschool education has quietly appeared in Guiyang, and it has become increasingly fierce.
Yinchuan: There are many disadvantages in pre-primary education.
According to a report by Xinhuanet Yinchuan, when children in this area are still in kindergarten, many parents have already started to "catch up" with their children in pinyin, writing and arithmetic. Parents are still learning from each other and don't want to fall behind. As a result, many kindergartens also "stare" at their parents' pockets and hang up signs of various special classes to attract students. In this cycle, the trend of "primary school" in kindergarten teaching mode is getting worse.
In Yinchuan, the negative impact of "the phenomenon of primary education" on children is already obvious. For example, children become less naive, romantic and happy because of the pressure of study; Children's cognitive process with the characteristics of time and year is seriously damaged, which leads to children's "knowledge indigestion", but they lose their interest in learning when they go to primary school; Many children kill their imagination when they are tired of studying, and they are in a state of mechanical reading, writing and memory for a long time; Even some children have different degrees of autism.
Hohhot: Super-long classes in primary schools become signboards.
Recently, many parents in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia put literacy and arithmetic as the key content of their children's training several years in advance. For this reason, some kindergartens have put up signs of special classes and interest classes to teach children Chinese arithmetic and other first-grade primary school courses. Early childhood education tends to be primary school, and even falls into the pattern of exam-oriented education. "
According to a survey by local reporters, there are more than half of private kindergartens in Hohhot. A private kindergarten in Saihan District has very simple facilities and narrow space. The children have almost no playground, but they are thriving, because the park "runs a lot of extra-long classes". One of the reasons why many parents are willing to choose private kindergartens is that children can't learn much "exam-oriented cultural knowledge" in public kindergartens. As a result, all kinds of super-long classes have become the signboard for private kindergartens to attract students, and children have stepped into the door of exam-oriented education prematurely.
The director's voice
The director of a private kindergarten in Saihan District, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia is very helpless. She said: "We also know that playing games should be the basic teaching content of kindergartens. However, if children play more games in kindergarten and have less literacy, there is nothing we can do if parents come to give their opinions. We can only open some extra-long classes so that children can learn more knowledge, otherwise the number of kindergarten students will decline. "
According to the analysis of the director of a first-class kindergarten in a province in Guangzhou, the phenomenon of primary school in early childhood education is inseparable from some parents' desire for their children to succeed. When choosing a kindergarten for their children, many parents pay more attention to which kindergarten they have studied and which kindergarten they send their children to. In this case, some private kindergartens and many self-funded or contracted public kindergartens offer some courses that should not be offered in order to attract students, make more money, blindly cater to parents' psychology and ignore children's acceptance ability.
Director Chen Dianling of nangang district No.2 Kindergarten, a provincial model kindergarten in Heilongjiang Province, said that it is absolutely harmful for kindergartens to study primary school curriculum. High-quality preschool education should focus on children's lifelong learning and development, and its purpose is to cultivate children with physical and mental health, exploration spirit, creativity, social communication ability and artistic expression ability, rather than just reciting a few poems and calculating a few problems. Many children are "rich" in subject knowledge when they enter school, not because they were born early, but because they have received mechanical memory training in kindergarten. Because of neglecting the cultivation of children's understanding and application ability, these children often "disappear from the crowd" after a short lead, which seriously dampened their self-confidence and left a shadow on their later life. Regular kindergartens also teach children some basic knowledge, but they will let children enter the game and learn unconsciously. Practice has proved that children who love to talk, participate and have stamina in primary school classes are often children who do not blindly carry out advanced education.
Wang, director of the first kindergarten in Yinchuan, believes that education is regular. For example, the educational syllabus stipulates that the goal of early childhood education is "children enjoy a happy childhood in various games". When children are not interested in Chinese characters and poems, they are forced to learn them. Once they go to primary school, they really start to get in touch with this knowledge, and they start to get bored. Early education has seriously dampened children's interest in learning.
Expert comments:
In view of the phenomenon of preschool education in many parts of the country, preschool education experts generally believe that the practice of preschool education in primary schools fundamentally ignores children's physical and psychological characteristics, deprives them of their childlike innocence and the right to play, and distorts or even stifles their nature. This intensive indoctrination and compulsory learning of knowledge in kindergartens weakens children's interest in learning, and makes some children have different degrees of fear or even fear of learning, which in turn leads to weariness of learning. It is understood that surveys in 30 provinces and cities across the country show that about 35% of children in the first grade of primary school don't like Chinese, and about 40% don't like math. This is the bitter fruit of "education" that is short-sighted and eager for quick success.
In addition, some kindergarten teachers may not impart knowledge correctly and accurately, which makes it difficult for children to correct their preconceptions when they arrive at primary school.
Gu, a teacher in the Preschool Education Research Office of Heilongjiang Academy of Educational Sciences, believes that the primary school curriculum in kindergartens is ostensibly to be close to primary schools, so that children can start early and get ahead early. In fact, it is a short-sighted behavior of "profit-seeking", and it is a move that violates the law of children's own development. She believes that children's development must be based on proper physical maturity and timely training, and they can't go beyond their own cognitive development stage at will. Children's initial learning style can be summarized in almost one word, that is, play, and playing with children is a healthy child. Kindergartens should educate children to learn how to be human, how to do things, how to learn and how to get along with others, so that children can continue to learn and live a quality life all their lives. This kind of "invisible education" is far more important than the "explicit education" that can do several problems simply by recognizing a few words.
In this regard, the educational psychologist of East China Normal University pointed out that the "primary school" of kindergarten education is an important factor affecting children's mental health. The "primary school" education model will not only increase children's psychological pressure, but also constrain their independent personality and imagination. At present, the embodiment of quality education we advocate in early childhood education is to cultivate children's interest and let them have free imagination and healthy and relaxed mental state. Kindergartens should cultivate children's habit of being willing to use their hands and brains, so that children can have their own interests, instead of blindly letting children learn books.
Professor Sun from the teaching department of Huazhong Normal University said: "Ignoring children's physical and mental characteristics, blindly pulling out seedlings and blindly climbing will only affect children's physical and mental health development." Long-term, massive and boring training makes children lose their nature and interest, and even have serious psychological problems. Many children are too autistic and bear the pressure alone, which leads to a vicious circle in the future and is even more reluctant to communicate with others. Some children are self-centered and can't stand setbacks and criticisms. Once they encounter setbacks in the future, they may change their lives.
Three major hazards that are worrying
Some experts in early childhood education have conducted a follow-up survey on the growth of children throughout the country. They found that this kind of quick success and instant benefit primary education caused at least three hazards.
1. Damage to children's mental health
The "primary school" education mode in kindergarten will not only add heavy psychological pressure to children, but also constrain their independent personality and imagination. In the transformation from traditional exam-oriented education to quality-oriented education, the embodiment of quality-oriented education in preschool education is to cultivate children's interests, such as literacy. As long as children can "know" instead of teaching them to "write" blindly, so as to avoid being bored by improper education, children should have free imagination and a healthy and relaxed mental state.
2. Miss the "critical period" of early childhood education
Zhu, an expert in early childhood education who has been engaged in research, teaching and management for more than 20 years, believes that kindergartens should become children's paradise, and "playing" should be their main activity in kindergartens. It is the task of preschool education to cultivate children's interest in learning, so that children can develop good study habits, self-care ability, communication ability, tough quality and good psychological endurance. Only in this way can children really fall in love with learning and will not be afraid of going to school in the future.
Zhu said that parents try their best to choose kindergartens, hoping that their children can learn more knowledge. However, monotonous study often backfires, which makes children miss some "critical periods" of education, such as the critical period of training oral English before the age of three. As a result, English and arithmetic occupy too much, which will hinder their all-round development.
3. Disturbing the teaching order in primary schools
Because all kindergartens carry out primary education in advance to varying degrees, the foundation of freshmen entering primary school is uneven, which makes it difficult for first-grade teachers to teach. Take care of students with low foundation, and students who have studied don't want to learn at all; Accommodate students with high foundation, and students who have never studied can't understand it. This situation often makes primary school teachers at a loss. What bothers these primary school teachers even more is that due to the differences in educational concepts and teaching methods between kindergarten teachers and primary school teachers, teaching is not in place, and some children have developed bad study habits, such as incorrect writing posture and irregular pinyin teaching, which are difficult to correct once formed. This will affect the child's life.
The legacy of "primary school" education in these kindergartens has brought a lot of inconvenience to primary school teachers, seriously disrupted the normal teaching order of primary schools, and ultimately the children are the victims.
To this end, domestic experts in early childhood education have repeatedly called on the whole society to be vigilant and resist the tendency of early childhood education to be primary, so as to give children all over the country a truly happy golden childhood.