Back in those days, we could not only sing "Red Hearts of Iron", but also beat the little friends possessed by "I am Silas" with the dance of "Michelangelo". Of course, children of the same age have been influenced by China's classical culture since childhood-who hasn't recited dozens of Tang poems!
Wait, the problem lies in the word "edification". When we don't know the specific methods to improve certain abilities, it seems that we often use "edification" to cover up and comfort ourselves.
Suppose a person is going to work in Moscow next year, and now his Russian level is almost zero. Should he learn from letters or listen to Russian news every day to edify him?
Some people say that children are different from us and have strong absorption ability. The beautiful words and rhythms in Tang poetry will be deeply imprinted in their minds, dreams, hearts and songs.
I have no objection to the beauty of China's words and poems. However, parents often let their children recite Tang poems at the age of three, which makes it easy for parents to show off. Children are often forced to perform in front of strangers. If they stop or don't perform, they will be criticized and laughed at, and the performance will be praised as "really smart". Appreciating Tang poetry is no problem, but reciting poetry in this way and for this purpose at such a young age will do more harm than good.
In fact, how many Tang poems can be recited is only a child's memory ability, which cannot directly reflect the child's intelligence level, nor will it make the child smarter, and even has little to do with language ability. The same two three-year-old children, one can only pop up a few words occasionally, and the other can tell what happened today in complete sentences. This is the difference in language ability.
The language in Tang poetry is mostly simplified Chinese characters and archaic style, which is different from the words and grammar in modern Chinese. Because of the lack of real life experience, children tend to be unknown so, so it is difficult to internalize. I remember when I recited the poem Goose … when I was a child, I could only match the word "Goose" with the animals in the picture. I didn't know anything about other "Quxiang", "Anthurium" and "Qingbo" until I was a few years old.
A large number of studies show that children are more inclined to learn the names of things they often see and come into contact with in life, such as "apple", "car" and "doll". The more experiences and connections vocabulary can develop, the easier it is for children to remember. For example, when introducing "apple", children should try to see, touch, smell and taste the apple while hearing the pronunciation of the word, and it is best to see the mouth shape of adults when they say "apple".
If children want to be familiar with Chinese phonology, children's songs that are more closely related to life are more vivid and easy to learn than Tang poetry. For example:
White rabbit, white, ears pricked up,
I like carrots and vegetables. Jumping is so cute.
Let's take Britain as an example. Although it is well known that Shakespeare's poems rhyme beautifully, English children usually begin to be "edified" by them in the senior grade of primary school. What they have been exposed to most since childhood are children's songs with simple rhyming language.
If we put aside the topic of language phonological training for the time being-if children want to acquire a language naturally, nursery rhymes can only play a very small auxiliary role, and children must often have meaningful language interaction with adults in daily life/games. If the "quality" and "quantity" of daily language interaction are enough to develop children's language ability, it doesn't matter to read Tang poetry occasionally. However, if parents are busy and have few opportunities to really play with their children (intergenerational education is very common at present), it should be based on a more relaxed, direct and helpful interaction between parents and children.
As a speech therapist, I met the parents of three-year-old girls who often read Tang poems to their children but didn't have enough quality and quantity of daily interaction (children are usually taken care of by grandma, who rarely talks or plays with them), but the children can say no more than 20 words. For this kind of children who tend to be "slow in language", if they continue to use Tang poetry, which is too difficult, as the main language nourishment, the children will only be poisoned by "smoking". After instructing parents to increase meaningful interaction and adjust their language to suit their children's level, children soon appear more language imitations and meaningful vocabulary.
In short, there is no problem in appreciating Tang poetry for children, but there are several preconditions:
1. It is best to step by step after the child's spontaneous expression ability reaches a certain level (such as normal 4 to 5 years old);
2. Parents choose relatively simple poems and explain them in vivid and simple language. At the same time, it is best to have physical objects and real scenes (at least pictures and videos) related to the poems around you;
3. The purpose is not to let children recite and perform in front of others, but to support children to recite and recite themselves out of interest;
4. Ask children to understand and appreciate the "quality" of poetry, not the "quantity";
Otherwise, even if the child is forced to recite hundreds of Tang poems by memory, he can only leave a vague impression of "vaguely dreaming" like the first poem of "Iron Blood and Red Hearts" and gradually disappear. In fact, instead of spending so much time reciting Tang poems, it is better to do something more conducive to children's all-round development, such as taking a walk in nature, visiting the zoo and playing with children. ...
Nowadays, Tang poetry seems to be less popular than before. Nowadays, many children grow up playing ipad. Let's talk about this good helper who trains children with language delay alone when you are free another day!
In addition, to cultivate children's ability, parents/teachers need to reach a very high level of education and cultural literacy if they have not reached the most suitable training age. For most children, it may get twice the result with half the effort. The specific method is beyond the scope of this article.
Although many things that I came into contact with as a child will gradually find various benefits in the future, if I adopt training methods and contents that are more in line with the law of development from the beginning, I will definitely benefit more in adulthood.
In other words, for a family, the same time and energy can produce different results in children's education. The more you want your child to stay on the starting line, the more you want to "let the child do something at any age", which is the best, otherwise it may run slower.