Click on "Everyday Life in American Elementary Schools" to follow me
American public school teachers share American education
Author: Teacher Xiaoyuan
About the Author:
Public elementary school teacher in Silicon Valley, USA
Master of Science in Bilingual Education, USA
Share the experience of American education
Coordinate California, 8 years of teaching experience
Recently, all my friends around me were talking about a red panda from Pixar's latest animated film, Turning Red (Chinese name is "The Metamorphosis of Youth").
This film is not wanted in the Circle of Chinese Friends in the United States, and its Tubing Pilot film has been played more than 40 million times, with nearly 500,000 likes and praise.
Even the well-known American film review website "Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes" scored a high score of 9.4!
The film tells the story of Xiaomei, a 13-year-old Chinese girl in adolescence, who transforms into a giant red panda when she is too excited or stressed.
It is said that Xiaomei's ancestor Xinyi, in order to save her daughters in the war, prayed to the gods to give her the ability to control her emotions. So the gods turned her into a red panda, successfully repelled the enemy, and saved the descendants of the family. When Xinyi's daughters reach adulthood, they will inherit this talent and pass it on from generation to generation.
Obviously, what was originally a blessing has now become a trouble for Xiaomei, because she will transform into a giant panda at any time as soon as she is excited, just like a time bomb.
It's puberty, how can she stand it! I met a mother who had a strong desire to protect and control, which made Xiaomei's situation more difficult.
The whole film takes the story of the red panda as the main line, focusing on the transformation of the growth of adolescent children and the conflict between them and their parents, and throwing us a lot of topics about growth.
Don't expect too much
In the film, Xiaomei is a good student with excellent character and learning, and is also her mother's little pride. She would write math exercises on the bus, help her mother take care of the ancestral hall, and was a very enterprising and responsible little girl.
When mom sees the transcripts that are all A+, she will say "today is an excellent student, tomorrow is the Secretary-General of the United Nations, our ancestors will be proud of you." It seems to be encouragement, but invisibly brings a lot of pressure to Xiaomei, it seems that only by keeping excellent and being a well-behaved good student can you not disappoint your mother.
"We raised you with hard work, how hard, you have to study hard!"
"XXX didn't study well, so he didn't get into a good university, so you have to fight for breath!"
I believe we all heard such words to a greater or lesser extent when we were children.
Although parents have a heart of "hoping for a son to become a dragon and a daughter to become a phoenix", such words invisibly give children great psychological pressure, it seems that their efforts are to fight for their parents, and over time, they gradually lose their desire for "self-worth realization".
Care becomes hurt
In the film, Xiaomei, who is full of adolescent fantasies, draws a handsome convenience store brother Dai Wen on her diary one night, and this happens to be discovered by her mother.
Due to the misunderstanding of Xiaomei's imaginary graffiti, her mother believes that Xiaomei was bullied by the convenience store boy, so she involuntarily rushed into the convenience store to confront the boy.
Who admits that there are many acquaintances in the convenience store, including their own classmates. When they saw the graffiti their mother took, they all began to laugh at Xiaomei.
At this time, her mother completely ignored Xiaomei's feelings, and sighed, "Fortunately, I am here, and this villain will not harass you again in the future!" As everyone knows, Xiaomei has been embarrassed to drill into the cracks in the ground.
That night, Xiaomei had a strange dream, there were jokes about her classmates, there were red plasma gushing in, there were strange-looking scarlet beasts, Xiaomei woke up from the dream with a heavy breath. However, when she looked in the mirror, she found herself transformed into a giant red panda.
"Ah!" A scream came from the bathroom, and the mother heard the news, mistakenly thinking that Xiaomei was menstruating, and prepared ultra-complete hygiene products for her. On the other hand, Xiaomei also found a pattern in panic, as long as her emotions calmed down, she would change back to her original appearance.
But the mother was too concerned about her daughter, and even secretly ran to the window of Xiaomei's classroom to observe the child's situation, and even handed the child a sanitary napkin in front of the whole class, which was simply a large social death scene! Xiaomei was emotionally excited, and turned into an oversized red panda, and in a hurry, Xiaomei ran back to her home and began to cry.
You see, Xiaomei's mother is too sensitive, over-protection and attention to the child, so that she will react particularly strongly when she encounters any problem, completely ignoring Xiaomei's feelings, not only making her feel embarrassed, but also hurting Xiaomei's heart.
Therefore, in our homeschooling, excessive concern can sometimes be self-defeating and become a kind of harm to the child.
We may wish to leave children with more room for choice, a relaxed growth environment, take the initiative to communicate with children when they encounter problems, and jointly find ways to solve problems. Instead of doing things that hurt the child's heart in the name of "love".
The power of friends
Her mother told Xiaomei, "The form of the red panda will not always accompany her, as long as a ritual is done at the time of the next red moon, it will seal the soul of the red panda forever, but she needs to control her emotions, otherwise the ceremony will become very difficult." ”
After that, Mom and Dad let Xiaomei rest alone in the room, but he whispered outside the door, "I never wanted to give her this", "Can't let others see her like this"! Hearing this, Xiaomei was very helpless and began to be sad!
At this time, her three good friends appeared at the door of the house, and Xiaomei felt that at this time, she was not only smelly and dry, but also dirty, and she was eager to hide quickly.
But several of her friends gave her a big hug, and they told Xiaomei that the most pink idol group was coming to their city for a concert, and invited Xiaomei to go with them.
Xiaomei did not know whether she could return to her original appearance at that time, so she sat in the corner and cried silently, her friends sang and danced idol songs when they saw it, Xiaomei was healed at once, and her ability to control emotions seemed to become stronger.
Therefore, in the next emotional test, no matter what exciting scenes are encountered, as long as she thinks of her friends, Xiaomei will become calm.
"Whether you are a panda or not, we love you", this is the biggest encouragement that friends give to Xiaomei.
Let the child be himself
Xiaomei wants to go to the idol's concert with her friends, but her mother feels that this is too dangerous, although the red panda is cute, but it will hurt others if it gets out of control, so her mother does not agree with Xiaomei to go to a place where there are many people.
But there is only one chance in a lifetime!
Xiaomei decided to rebel, "I have always lived the way my parents wanted me to live, if they still don't trust me, what is the point?" Xiaomei and her friends decided to fight their parents together!
But where does the ticket money come from? That's a lot of money. Since parents don't give, they can only think of their own ways. The children started the idea of the red pandas, "We can raise money by turning into red pandas for performances, or collecting a photo with the red pandas." Just do it!
It didn't take long for the kids to make a lot of money!
At the same time, Xiaomei also likes herself more and more like this red panda, and she completely forgets that she may bring harm to others.
At a male classmate's birthday party, Xiaomei and her good friend are invited to perform. The boy said something very unfriendly, which seriously angered Xiaomei, so her "fierce form of the red panda" was completely activated, and she almost hurt the boy, which made Xiaomei start to be jealous of the power of the red panda.
Soon, the day of the red sun ceremony arrived, and Xiaomei remembered what her grandmother said, "You will banish the beast in your heart and become your true self", and she knew that it was time to say goodbye to the red panda.
However, when the ceremony began, Xiaomei hesitated, she remembered the beauty that the red panda brought to her in the past, she thought that the red panda was also a part of herself, and living with it was to be her true self. In the end, instead of choosing to separate from the red panda, she decided to keep it!
At this point, Xiaomei's self-consciousness has completely awakened! She finally began to accept her own red panda, and she began to realize that all her emotions and thoughts were part of "me".
The end of the film makes me think a lot, what we parents have to do is not to actively enlighten children when they are confused and doubt themselves, help them accept even if they are imperfect, and tell them that no matter what happens, they must still love themselves and be themselves.
This film gave me a lot of feelings and made me re-realize the special significance of family education on the road of children's growth.
Soon it is going to be the May Day holiday, you may wish to find a night to watch this film with your children, I believe that both parents and children can find some shadows of themselves in the film.
Finally, I wish you all a happy May Day, peace and happiness!