Summer "selling anxiety" into a business, don't use children's mental health to "pay"

During the summer vacation, in order to reduce the burden on parents and effectively alleviate the problem of students' summer "nursing difficulties", some schools and communities carry out free summer care to provide students with homework guidance and quality courses and other services, so that children can spend a happy and meaningful holiday. The picture shows students practicing football at Shijiazhuang Sunshine Primary School on July 10. Zhang Xiaofeng/Photo (Xinhua News Agency)

Entering the summer, when many netizens brushed short videos, they suddenly found a bunch of so-called "teachers", all of them were bitterly telling parents "how terrible the summer vacation is", "if you don't work hard, you will be opened the gap" and "this is the cruel reality", and then began to sell books and classes.

"Create anxious hype!" This is the first feeling Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, when he saw these videos. As an education scholar, he worries that parents will increase their educational anxiety after watching these videos, and they will be defrauded of money by accounts that sell books and classes, and "the most worried thing is that the anxiety created by these short videos will affect the mental health of parents and children."

At present, the implementation of the "double reduction" policy is in a critical stage of connecting the upper and lower levels, and positive progress has been made in the governance of off-campus training, but problems such as "invisible mutation" of discipline-based training and insufficient collaborative supervision of non-discipline training still exist. To this end, the General Office of the Ministry of Education recently issued the Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Governance of Off-campus Training in the Summer of 2023, requiring all localities to maintain undiminished work intensity and tenacity, strive to consolidate the achievements of discipline-based training governance, deepen the supervision of non-discipline training institutions, prevent and resolve various risks, effectively reduce the burden of students' holidays, and let the majority of primary and secondary school students spend a healthy, safe, fulfilling and meaningful holiday. At the same time, all localities are required to guide parents to view rationally and carefully choose off-campus training, pay more attention to children's physical and mental health, and do not blindly follow the trend to report classes.

Protecting children's mental health in the summer is an urgent issue at present.

On July 10, volunteers gave calligraphy lessons to children at the summer nursery school in Xincheng Community, Dianbu Town, Feidong County, Hefei City, Anhui Province. Ruan Xuefeng/Photo (Xinhua News Agency)

The essence of the "summer vacation is the scariest" short video is to sell anxiety

Ms. Ma in Beijing has two sons and daughters, her son is in junior high school and her daughter is in elementary school, and she is sometimes very anxious in the face of the pressure of junior high school entrance examination and college entrance examination. She feels that the "scariest summer vacation" video will increase parents' anxiety. "Short videos fool parents into signing up for classes for their children, which adds fuel to the fire."

"The so-called 'summer vacation is the scariest' promoted by these short videos is to sell anxiety." After carefully analyzing these short videos, Xiong Bingqi hit the nail on the head. He believes that this is just like the "double reduction" policy, training institutions put up "you don't train, train your opponents" advertising slogan, is to stimulate students and parents, so that students and parents are not calm, "this anxiety mentality is obviously not conducive to students to spend a meaningful summer vacation."

Wang Yali also agreed with Xiong Bingqi. As the leader of the Chinese discipline in Shaanxi Province and the head of the language teaching and research team of Hanbin Junior High School High-tech Campus in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, she believes that the "most terrible rendering of summer vacation" is actually that some businesses are taking advantage of parents' expectations for their children's education to create educational anxiety. She analyzed that short video anchors mainly grasp the psychology of parents not letting their children lose at the starting line, prompting parents to increase their children's learning pressure; At the same time, parents are forced to do everything possible to buy books and classes for their children, so as to expand the space for business operations; Finally, the pressure of the high school entrance examination is transmitted to primary schools, forming a grab and panic about educational resources.

As a front-line teacher, she found that despite the implementation of the "double reduction" policy, some parents would still sign up for seven or eight cram classes for their children, resulting in no rest time for their children.

From long-term teaching practice, Wang Yali found that students' anxiety mainly comes from parents, not schools. Parental pressure leaves children with no respite or even basic learning tasks in school.

Duan Xinxing, a professor at the School of Public Administration of China University of Mining and Technology and a doctor of psychology at Beijing Normal University, feels that there is a big "pit" hidden behind these short videos, which makes parents with parenting anxiety unconsciously enter the "pit".

Ms. Wu, who lives in Shanghai and has a son who is in elementary school, believes that short video creators kidnap parents' minds through video content, which in turn leads parents to kidnap their children's time, so that children only focus on learning and ignore other aspects of development, which will definitely have an impact on children's mental health development.

On July 10, at the First Primary School of Sunac Center in Shijiazhuang, students conducted flight simulation driving under the guidance of teachers. Zhang Xiaofeng/Photo (Xinhua News Agency)

Parents should have the determination to reject "trafficking anxiety"

After carefully observing and analyzing the "most terrifying summer vacation" short video, Chen Zhiyan, a professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that this is mainly for anchors or businesses to create educational anxiety for students and parents, so as to achieve the purpose of selling books and classes.

"This kind of advertising video makes parents feel a sense of gap after watching it, resulting in anxiety and dissatisfaction, so they consider buying educational products." She said that psychological studies have found that if a person watches ads more frequently and in a higher number than others, it will lead to a decline in self-satisfaction and self-worth, and "we will be manipulated by anxiety when we watch too many 'scariest videos of summer vacation'."

Chen Zhiyan believes that in the face of overwhelming short videos that create educational anxiety, the best way to alleviate parents' anxiety is to change parents' concepts and avoid blind obedience.

"The essence of educational anxiety is the anxiety of blind competition." She believes that the best direction for the growth and development of each child is to become the best version of themselves, rather than taking the path of others, so during the holidays, if parents blindly follow the trend due to anxiety, it is not conducive to the development of children, and may also bring pain to children, and parents will also become painful because of anxiety.

She suggested that children can follow the progress of school teachers during the school learning stage. Holidays are the best stage for children to explore themselves and discover themselves, do not sign up for many tutoring classes for children, do not let children do a lot of test questions, but support children's self-exploration, so that children have the opportunity to do what they want to do, "so that children do not work hard, parents will also reduce anxiety".

Xiong Bingqi believes that the purpose of "double reduction" is to allow students to gain more independent space, develop their own interests, and improve their comprehensive literacy. In order to make the "double reduction" not out of tune and deformed in the implementation process, it is necessary for the whole society to form a joint force, especially to change the parenting concept of parents.

"At present, the key to giving children a meaningful holiday is actually parents." He said that because the evaluation system cannot be changed in a short period of time, and invisible and mutated discipline training cannot be naturally extinct, this requires parents to have the ability to identify invisible and mutated training, as well as the determination of family education to reject "trafficking anxiety".

He believes that every parent must realize that they must put the physical and mental health of their children first, give the holidays to their children, and make holiday life plans with their children. And we can't still take advanced learning of subject knowledge as the main line of holiday life.

Wang Yali also has an identity, is a national second-level psychological counselor, she often conducts psychological counseling for parents and students. She believes that to alleviate parents' anxiety about education, parents first need to correctly understand that the essence of education is good communication, harmonious family atmosphere, and the breath of free growth, rather than promoting seedlings. Parents should create more opportunities to talk to their children, understand the real difficulties encountered in their children's learning, help children differentiate learning tasks, and solve growth confusion.

At the same time, she believes that parents should see the interest chain behind the business hype to avoid being kidnapped by educational anxiety. She observed that after the cancellation of offline training institutions, many institutions began to launch online classes, squeezing children's time in disguise and obtaining commercial benefits. "There are also some platforms that sell books in disguise in the name of public welfare classes, which is not a real public welfare act."

"I also call on everyone to be sensible parents, and the best teachers for children are parents. Children need social practice, reading nature, and going through tests, and what parents need to do is to accompany and provide appropriate guidance, not to enroll their children in classes. Wang Yali said.

Duan Xinxing suggested that during the holidays, parents should work with their children in the upper primary school to make an executable summer vacation plan, watching (reading books, watching friends, watching movies, etc.), playing (going to amusement parks, sightseeing and scenery), learning (completing holiday homework, learning knowledge according to their own interests that they usually do not have time to learn), rest (getting enough sleep, working on time), and focusing on relaxing and relaxing interest activities during the holidays, supplemented by learning. "Children's summer vacation life is enriched, learning efficiency will naturally increase, and parents' education anxiety will be reduced."

When children encounter psychological distress, they must do "four stays": stand, steady, stand up, and stand

Chen Zhiyan believes that to care for children's mental health in the summer, families, schools and society should work hand in hand. She suggested that parents should listen to their children's ideas and needs, instead of letting their children participate in extracurricular training or brush up on questions at home, it is better to take their children to watch movies, read, travel, explore the outside world, and develop hobbies, which are all good ways to relieve children's psychological pressure.

"School teachers should also not leave their children with a dense homework during the holidays." Chen Zhiyan, a parent herself, believes that schools should guide their children's holiday life, give them enough personal space, explore extracurricular interests, and "sharpen knives and not chop wood by mistake, which will be very helpful for children's learning in the new semester."

Wang Yali suggested that families should reduce their children's learning anxiety, increase social activities, and formulate reasonable growth plans. Schools should reduce written homework during the holidays, increase social practice assignments, especially in primary schools, and return vacation time to students. Society should oppose and resist "trafficking anxiety", purify the online public opinion environment, and create a relaxed environment for children to grow up.

When children encounter psychological distress, Duan Xinxing suggested that parents should achieve "four residences": standing, steady, standing and standing. Stop: Stop and think about what the problem is and what it affects the child; Stability: parents are the stabilizer of their children, parents will have a sense of security when their children are stable, and anxious parents will cultivate more anxious children; Hold on: When children have emotional problems, parents should become a strong backing for their children and face the pain of growing up with their children; Stand: Parents are the backbone of their children's hearts, first they cannot waver, communicate with their children about what happened, and how to help their children.

In addition, she also suggested that self-media should be self-disciplined, and relevant departments should strengthen supervision, and should not ignore the physical and mental health of children in order to obtain traffic and benefits.

Xiong Bingqi believes that taking care of children's mental health also requires the support of the community. He suggested that the community help primary and secondary school students have a meaningful vacation and provide more meaningful places to go.

He found that after the implementation of the "double reduction" policy, all localities proposed to provide summer nursery schools for primary and secondary school students, but many summer nursery schools were not popular with parents, because these summer nursery classes were handed over to schools to organize, teachers were not motivated, and the services provided by summer nursery schools were mainly taken care of, and parents thought it was a waste of time.

"Students should receive more social education and family education during the holidays, not school education." Xiong Bingqi believes that the community should provide students with summer care services or summer activity venues and resources, and play the main role, "so that students can have more choices in their summer vacation life."

China Youth Daily / China Youth Net reporter Li Huaxi Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily