Recommended reading in this issue
BENQIDUSHUTUIJIAN
The Mood of Education XII
Full of love / Happy Toot
For parents and teachers,
Help you become a "witty" educator.
twelve
Children teach us
Be hopeful and keep open
Hope is not the kind of optimism that is passive, that things will eventually be resolved. Hope encompasses commitment and effort. Even in the most absurd and painful times, we will not, and will never give up, our children.
Jenny said:
Adults often make us feel that there is no hope for human beings. And my opinions are mixed. I am disappointed when I think of so many problems in the world, such as environmental degradation, religious conflicts, ethnic wars, incurable diseases, insufficient energy, and shortages of clean water and air. Teachers even believe that their past lives are unattainable for modern young people. They said, "It will be up to you, you are the generation that will determine the fate of mankind," with suspicion and discontent. However, they themselves wasted their time, and felt hopeless without doing anything. ...... It's really the hardest thing in the world. I often feel the same way as many of my friends: the end of the world is here. But you know what, you can't always be so pessimistic. I feel this way from time to time, but overall, I still feel that the future is full of hope. I want to have a good life, a good family, a good child, but when your parents don't encourage you and don't give you hope, it's hard to keep hopeful about the future.
Kim says:
Sometimes I feel particularly disappointed, as if there is no need to go to school because humanity is destroying the earth. I am very resentful of the previous generation, who left a messy world. Their lives are coming to an end, and our lives have only just begun. ...... I still want to live, I want to experience a good life when I am young. I am very sad when I think of ecological garbage, environmental pollution, deforestation, the extinction of life, and the suffering caused by people around the world. These are terrible responsibilities that we young people have to bear. The previous generation threw it all to us, what should we do?
Helen said:
I graduated a year later, and I don't have a clear idea of where I'm going after graduation. My parents divorced. I want to have a sense of security – have a place of my own and some good friends. College seems hopeless, what can I do? Sometimes I worry about these things and talk to my friends. Some people don't care about that. Some people even allow themselves to fall. Some people feel the same as I do.
What can we say to these young people? They spoke of fear, destruction and disaster. Sometimes, that's how they experience this era. When we listen to them, we will always see or hear our failures. They say we make them feel extreme fear and waste of life. Worse still, they accuse us of shifting a whole bunch of blame onto them.
Another question has to be asked: Do we have the right to hold our children responsible for what should otherwise be ourselves? As educators, for the sake of our children and the world, we must lead by example and spread hope and confidence. Those of us who live with our children cannot be nihilists, and we cannot give up our educational position in the lives of our children. Children are the hope of the future.
A world without hope has no room for children. But as long as you have children in your life, in your home, in your classroom, you should take a look, take a good look, and look at it with a pedagogical eye. What you see is hope. See your children and your life will be full of hope. Living with their children, those young parents immediately had a belief that the world should— no, must— continue to exist. Since I am a father of a child, I cannot avoid the crazy acts that threaten the whole world. I see my children as the hope of life. I have to do my best. Hope is constantly inspiring me.
In fact, hope exists from the beginning, and it exists at the first fetal movement. However, parents sometimes develop a complex and confusing sense of anticipation, and one of the earliest and deepest feelings is the experience of hope, which becomes concrete in such thoughts as: I want this child to be healthy. It is no exaggeration to say that a pregnant woman and want to live together.
The hope of education makes the life of parents or teachers and children full of vitality: it tells adults how to live more meaningfully in this world, how to portray the world to children, how to take responsibility for the world, how to use knowledge to show and explain the world to children, so that children can understand everything about this world. For children, those who are hopeful about the future are the real fathers, mothers and teachers. When we fail, we give up our responsibilities or refuse to live with hope. Our irresponsible behavior can make young people cynical, losing hope, failing to assume obligations, and failing to demonstrate how to live. The German writer Günter Grass was well aware of the situation, and in his work The Tin Drum, Oscar refused to grow up because he didn't think it was necessary to grow up.
Hope is not the kind of optimism that is passive, that things will eventually be resolved. Hope encompasses commitment and effort. Even in the most absurd and painful times, we will not, and will never give up, our children. In our time, many mistakes can happen in our lives. However, when we feel hopeless, it is precisely the fragile child who once again gives us a taste of hope. How ironic!
As parents or teachers, we must have expectations and hopes for our children. But "hope" is just a word, and words can be abused, misinterpreted, and become superficial and hollow. So it's important to see how living with children is experienced as hope, and how our actions themselves become hope. Hope is full of energy, and its most important aspect is to be with the children. It's not about what we say or do, it should first be about letting hope appear among the kids.
We can use "I wish..." to express certain specific expectations and wishes: "I want you to do well in school," "I want him to do his own homework," or "I want her to keep up." These hopes can be replaced over time. But in fact, it is the child who pushes the adults beyond themselves, daring them to say, "I wish..." and "I am with hope." "My life is to think of my children as hope." This experience of hope distinguishes educational life from non-educational life. In a pedagogical sense, it also makes us more aware that we can only hope for the children we truly love. Hope gives us a firm belief: "I will never give up on you." You'll be fine. "Hope is that we become more patient, more confident, more tolerant for the sake of our children, and hope is to experience the countless possibilities of children's growth." Children let us know that no matter how many disappointments we experience, we must live well. That's what we believe. Therefore, it is hoped that we will be taught to educate. Or is education teaching us hope?
Let's take a look at the fresh words of "knowledge production", "project promotion", "results-oriented education" and "target management". Now, industrial models, computer technology, information processing, and market thinking have invaded campuses on a massive scale. From time to time, educational theorists and administrators cite them to elaborate on educational practices. How do we understand these trendy words that depict teaching?
I find a very complex contradiction in these discourses. On the one hand, the use of these words encourages teachers to change their teaching activities, and on the other hand, they are not really inspired by "hope". Such words are all languages "created" for a so-called future, not the language of the present, which is about our lives in the here and now. It does not allow us to equate our lives with our children with our hopes. Outcomes, promotions, evaluations, inputs, and consumer confidence are abstract "hope" discourses, and true hope itself has been consciously abandoned. Therefore, they are hopeless "hope-like" discourses, impetuous discourses, discourses that cannot be awakened.
"There are concrete measurable goals" is not the same as "promising". Of course, teachers need to measure progress or growth against expectations, goals, and goals. But they must also have great trust in and value the magical power of teaching and learning in terms of non-technical aspects. Expectations can easily degenerate into desires, attempts, and predictions. As a result, the teacher may abandon the possibility beyond the vague expectations and stagnate. And to have hope is to believe in that possibility. Hopefully, people will concentrate their efforts on creating.
The question is not what is wrong with fresh curriculum discourses such as "project promotion", "goal management" or "results-oriented education". If used appropriately, these words may be useful for administrative work. The teacher is always scheduling and planning lessons and classes. The problem is that the discourse of "administration" and "technology" has become so pervasive in our lives that it's easy for parents and teachers to overlook another way of understanding: first understand what it means to "have" a child and "have hope" for a child, and then take care of and teach the child. We, as parents and teachers, should always reflect on this.
"If only I could go back to my youth and at the same time know as much as I do now." Many people miss their childhood, but they don't want to be children again, but they want to experience the world the way they do. We long to regain the childhood feeling of thinking that anything can happen, an open mind about anything, and the confidence that anything is possible.
Kids know they can't do what Superman did in movies. However, they can experience this possibility while playing. When you're young, anything can happen. The emergence of hope is a reward for parents and teachers, and this is what children teach us. As long as we are truly qualified parents or teachers, children can certainly teach us to have hope.
The way we know our children is a good indication of how we know ourselves. When we are able to experience our own openness, we are also able to remain open to the way our children live. Children need the openness of life in order to form their own unique personality. Parents or teachers need to be open in order to be themselves and reflect on the factors that have contributed to the formation of their present selves.
We must openly reflect on ourselves in front of our children, always asking ourselves, "How should we live?" In this way, after the children get used to this way, they are free to ask themselves such questions. To be a responsible adult is to always be open to the question of how people should live. "Is this my favorite way of life?" In this way, our lives have always been a role model for our children. Whether we like it or not, life will tell us: "That's how people should live." ”
My sense of responsibility for my children motivates me to constantly act, to constantly present and guide myself in such a way that children can see in me the image of a mature adult.
That's what we have to learn from our children. We must be a better learner because children are learning from us too.
to be continued
Reading makes people progress
DUSHU SHIREN JINBU
end