Back when I was a child, when teachers asked about "dreams when they grew up," "scientist" was always a hot profession.
However, the "2021 Internet Interest Insight Report for Minors" jointly released by Tencent's Sustainable Social Value Division and the China Children's Center in early 2021 shows that in the 15,000 questionnaire samples of 6-16-year-old adolescents across the country, children no longer have "scientists" in their ideal occupations after primary school.
The exploration of the unknown is the nature of every child. It is precisely because of the exuberant curiosity and enthusiasm for constant questioning that children will become their pursuit. And now, why don't kids want to ask questions about the world anymore?
01
You and I used to be
Love to ask intellectuals
In fact, children do not lose their scientific dreams from an early age. Instead, any question can be traced back to the origin of the universe and was once an essential skill for children.
Friends who have had children have probably experienced similar deadly serial questions.
“
"Why is this kitten lying?"
"Because it's sleepy."
"Why is it sleepy?"
"Because it's tiring after a day of playing."
"Why do you get sleepy when you're tired?"
“#￥%&*#@@…………”
Children will have a lot of small question marks, astronomical geography, trivial, human science, all-encompassing. Answering a child's question is like taking an exam of unpredictable difficulty, many times, the first question is just to find the bottom, if you answer it without any concern, then the naïve child may gradually reveal his murderous nature - question 2, you need to take out your mobile phone to ask the lady; question 5, there is a murmur in your head; question 7, do not dare to look directly into his eyes, began to look at him left and right; question 10, a chill rises in the heart, want to grab the door out; question 15, a stream of fishy sweetness gushes from the throat, and green smoke rises above the top of the head Question 20, I have the heart to end, but it is too late...
Answering the child's question is a duel between martial arts masters, and there are generally three kinds of good men who can survive.
The first is the method of patient victory, seriously asking and answering, occasionally asking counter-questions, and playing the idea of "fighting with people for endless fun" to see who can drain the opponent's physical fitness bar first.
The second refers to fighting east and west, answering while using other things to divert his attention and lead the child to take the initiative to withdraw from the battlefield.
The third is the once and for all method - "You will know when you grow up..." The whole play ends.
"You'll know when you grow up" = "Mom's tired"
Many times, even if there is a desire to maintain the child's curiosity, there is still more than enough and insufficient strength. Of course, we can end this endless cycle of dialogue in a more perfunctory or violent way, but we always worry that if the child does not get an answer every time, they will gradually not want to ask questions.
For these various problems, at first, I thought that my knowledge structure was not enough.
Later, I understood that in fact, adults know nothing about the world of children.
So, when the child amplifies the trick, how exactly do we give him an answer?
02
What the kids want
Exactly what kind of answer
I have fought with children more times, and I have gradually figured out some of their routines.
Many times, children ask "why" not to get an answer, but to express their own demands.
---------------------------------- Seeing that my parents were busy with their own work, and I was bored, I used the way of constantly asking questions to attract the attention of adults. It doesn't matter what the answer to this situation is, just play a small game of continuous questioning and answering with him and he will be satisfied.
-- Many of the serial rhetorical questions are protests. "Why can Dad play with his phone?" "Why can't you watch cartoons?" "Why do you want to eat coriander again?" These reasons are actually the child's resistance, you can first patiently guide the child to say his inner thoughts, and then start from the root to win.
"Stop, I'm already watching (thinking about your question...!) ）”
What really needs to be mentally coped with with 12 points is the "why" that the child proposes by observing some things. There are many conventions in the adult world commonly known as concepts, tanks can not be used domestically, people can not fly, pigs can not lay eggs, people and centaurs are not the same species, you can not go to Narnia and Saturn. Yet these conventions are precisely the realm of the imagination of young children, who do not understand, who want to know that the existing answers do not bind their ideas, so that their ignorance and incomprehension of the world fulfill their curiosity without limiting the boundaries of their thinking.
No one is a jack-of-all-trades or a big encyclopedia, and in the face of children's inquiry into the world, we always have times to be asked. Some people choose to take their children to the science and technology museum, some people choose to ask for help for "100,000 Whys", and some people choose a more participatory way - "Why is the rudder round?" So, together with the child, I made a triangle and a square rut and felt the speed of the different wheels rolling.
Asking questions is how children know the world, imagination is their nature, and we need to protect their imagination, and many times we need to learn with them. Adel Faber, a world-renowned parent-child communication expert, once said, "What children sometimes need adults to do is act as an echo wall to help them explore their minds further." ”
Therefore, whether it is an "appealing why" or a "curious why", the key to solving all problems is the big bang: companionship, and, together, the exploration of the world.
For example, in the form of encouragement and mutual questioning to guide children to expand their imaginations, in the following video, we see such a dialogue between father and daughter. "Why are there stones in the world?" "When the magma eruption cools, it turns into stone." "Dad still has a question for you, you say there are famous planets in the world that don't have stones?" "No, because the planet is a stone." "Is that a planet that could be gaseous?"
Such dialogues undoubtedly push the big bang of simple issues deeper.
In fact, full respect for children's nature is only the basis for stimulating their desire to explore, and helping children cultivate curiosity from 1 to infinity requires a guided process, and this process is even more important than the answer. Or rather, the process of searching itself is the answer.
03
"Answers" for children
It is also a "reflection" that emptys oneself.
Of course, it is not easy to find answers with children. "Don't know what they want to ask?" "How do you answer after asking?" "Is that correct?" It is the three mountains of thought exchange between adults and children.
In order to change the phenomenon of "using adult thinking to speculate on the confusion in children's minds", and in order to better answer children's questions, Tencent's Sustainable Social Value Division and China Children's Center jointly published the first volume of the magazine book "Answers" under the name of "Answer Studio". It contains about 100 children's questions, including various public welfare contents such as "Science Explosion", "Growing Pains", "The Internet Around You", "What is the Future" and so on.
The Answer will carefully answer more than 100 questions from children
In The Answer, all the questions are asked by children: I want to be a scientist, what should I do?
Many questions that are difficult for parents in non-professional fields to answer, professors from the Public Security University, science and education experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Children's Center and other departments, as well as experts in the fields of Tencent's Internet and artificial intelligence, have also directly taught and become professional "answerers".
Swipe left or right to see more pages
In the process of working with their children to find the "Answer", many parents have also asked their own questions. "Why is it said that a child's greatest success in life is to achieve happiness? How to guide children not to indulge in the virtual online world? How can children express their ideas bravely? ”
A series of soul questions are actually common problems faced by the whole society in parent-child relationships and personal growth. Everyone has their own confusion at different stages of life. Maintaining children's curiosity not only requires a good family environment, but also requires the whole society to provide more platforms for questions, answers and exchanges.
In order to grow up together with parents and children, Tencent and Ten Point Reading launched "Answers" to ask questions to the times, a total of 4 films, inviting experts and scholars in different fields to jointly answer questions from children and parents.
"Answers" asks questions to the times of Bi Shumin's chapter
Bi Shumin replied: "Because we are born lonely, the cherishing of your life that you feel from others will actually greatly strengthen our own strength." ”
"Each of us is a unique individual, and I don't have to live in the expectations of others."
The answers of experts and scholars have triggered more thinking among parents and expanded new dimensions of thinking in parent-child education.
According to statistics, there are about 230 million children of families in China, of which about 160 million are in the adolescent stage. In 2018, Tencent's growth guardian team spent 2 months visiting more than 300 teachers and students in 6 underdeveloped areas in China and found that due to hardware conditions and school-running resources, children rarely have the opportunity to contact cutting-edge technologies and expand their interests and hobbies after school, in addition to mobile phones. In July 2020, the country's first "future classroom" was opened at Longfeng Junior High School in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, which covers VR, programming, 3D printing hardware and curriculum. In 2021, after the future classrooms cover 4 provinces and 8 schools, Tencent Growth Guardian launched the "Wisdom and Body Double Hundred" public welfare project, providing 100 science and technology classrooms and 100 sports fields for underdeveloped areas, starting from science and education and sports, to provide more possibilities for township children.
"Classroom of the Future"
Zheng Lei, head of Tencent's juvenile protection system, said: "The "Wisdom and Body Double Hundred" plan is a new practice of juvenile protection launched by Tencent under the idea of 'blocking and unblocking'. In the future, the growth guardian team will realize the "double hundred" commitment, let more classrooms and sports fields land across the country, and continue to develop better courses, continue to export teacher training resources for various places, and sow a seed and open a window for more children's hearts.
At the end of 2021, the third Tencent Youth Artificial Intelligence Dream Camp with the theme of "Opening the Future for Children Who Chase Dreams" was successfully concluded, which lasted for 4 months as a whole, aiming to promote the cultivation of digital literacy of adolescents in various regions and help improve digital education in underdeveloped areas. In total, it covers 49 cities in 23 provinces and has accumulated nearly 10,000 students from 300+ primary and secondary schools.
The 3rd Tencent Youth Artificial Intelligence Dream Camp in 2021 came to a successful conclusion
The endless quest for the unknown is an important source of human progress.
This is an initialization skill that everyone has since childhood, but many people have forgotten it when they grow up.
If we go back to the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, we all have the same cosmic genealogy. The male lions running on the grassland are our brothers, the lavender blooming in the wilderness is our cousin, and we are all engraved with the history of the universe.
In this vast history, there are countless questions that can lead us and our children to explore the answers together.
Giving children an answer is also an answer to themselves. It may not be a standard answer, but it's a response to children from the adult world.
This response is to grow up with the child and to make every generation interested in the world:
Always curious, always enthusiastic.
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Watch the original film "Answers" asking questions to the times
(Some of the pictures are from the Internet and Tencent Sustainable Social Value Division)
Planner: Triptych. CREATIVE
WeChat Editor: Mao Siyu
Author: Ned
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