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Respect the laws of cognition to keep young people childlike and "silly"

Educational Thinking

By Flagler DanzigPublished about a year ago 10 min read
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Educational Thinking

[On Teaching]

The General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of National Competitions for Primary and Secondary School Students, which calls for resolutely avoiding the phenomenon of entries that are inconsistent with students' cognitive abilities, not only to regulate the competitions for primary and secondary school students but also to warn our society, schools, and parents. Education should respect the law of youth cognition. Adolescents' cognition of the world is a gradual process, with its unique laws, its cognitive process is mainly characterized by: like to play, love reverie, naïve, and "silly" pursuit.

Play, to develop a real interest in science

Play is the nature of adolescents, and it is also the initial process of cognition of the world. It is through play that young people can perceive the fun of nature, and their lives can be filled with passion and creativity. The Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1973, Reiyu Ezaki, had this insight: the initial, naive interest and desire for inquiry that emerges from exposure to nature at an early age is a very important initiation into science. The best time to develop this sense and intuition is when you are a teenager playing in the mud. Japanese teenagers have a tradition of playing. They start by getting in touch with nature, playing with mountains and water, dragonflies and butterflies, etc. At school, children make full use of the classrooms where they can play and do what they like to be interested in, playing with clay figures and blocks. In playing, they can dimly perceive the mysteries of nature and play with their hands to create many childhood imaginations, and gradually cultivate their interest in exploring the mysteries of nature and their artisanal spirit of pursuing the best. This kind of play has led to many of Japan's scientific masters in this century. It is no coincidence that American teenagers also spend their time playing. American parents bring their children along from an early age to participate in household chores, plant flowers, trees or small animals, etc., to exercise their children's practical and creative skills in play. Many American families are very supportive of their children playing alone with small creations, experiments, etc. They are encouraged and supported to create works that suit their strengths and such small creations are just for fun. As long as they find it interesting, let the children play, let them play to get the feeling, play out of interest, and rarely think about the big prize.

Young people growing up to participate in some necessary science and technology activities, in essence, should be played. Through this play, they can have a further perception of the world around them, deeper thinking, and an understanding of the problems they wonder about in the learning process, thus stimulating their interest in exploring the mysteries of nature. However, some of our local institutions now offer places for young people to play, places to play that are too advanced and things to play that are too fashionable, beyond the level of cognition they should have at their age, and even further away from nature. The projects provided for play, due to the lack of basic cognitive and operational training of young people, can only watch the operation of others, at most with the teacher to compare a few, rather like the road in the movie. For example, teenagers playing genetic manipulation is an advanced occasion to play advanced operations, in fact, children simply do not have the space to think, let alone the opportunity to do it freely, and do not know what the meaning of this follows others to compare a few times. Participate in such activities, at best, some physical action experience, simply do not experience the fun and joy of exploring nature, is a misinterpretation of youth participation in science and technology activities, the result is that many children do a line hate a line, and even many young people "science and technology experts" in the college entrance examination after choosing a profession that has nothing to do with the subject they have done.

Educational Thinking

True interest in science comes from playing at a young age. We need to give children a world where they can play, create an environment for them to play at home, create a place for them to play at school, and guide them to play things that are appropriate for them to play, to cultivate their most primitive interest in exploration and basic imagination. Play should be the starting point of a person's lifetime understanding of nature. Across this stage, children may grow up with a distorted personality and an incomplete understanding of the world.

Imagination is the golden key for young people to open the unknown world

Childish, wild imagination is the beginning of the world carved by teenagers, but also they are the golden key to opening the door to the unknown world, which should be much encouraged. A survey by an organization once showed that among 21 countries surveyed, Chinese children ranked first in numeracy, last in imagination, and fifth last in creativity. In addition, only 4.7% of Chinese primary and secondary school students consider themselves curious and imaginative, while only 14.9% want to develop imagination and creativity. The low level of imagination and creativity among Chinese children is recognized by many educators.

Cultivating curiosity and imagination in young people should start from a young age. As young people grow up, they should find ways to encourage their imagination and try to give them some free time and space to imagine the world in their brains that they cannot see with their eyes. For example, let children draw an angel, encourage children to give full play to their imagination to draw the angel into their imagination: can be Change sister, baby panda, dolphin sister, octopus uncle, etc.; can also be such a round ball, or such as a curved moon, or such as a long stream-like appearance; can also let them in the angel embellished with countless pairs of eyes and countless hands, etc. In short, these angels must be beyond the imagination of adults, beyond what we take for granted to look like. In reality, however, some children, under the guidance of adults, consult a certain number of information on angels drawn by others through the Internet and then make some degree of repair to the original pictures. If someone else draws an angel with long hair, he draws an angel with short hair; if someone else sees an angel with a face like a peach blossom, he sees an angel with a face like a peony, a lotus flower, or a plum blossom. As long as these angels do not look the same, the so-called "innovation" is accomplished, which is very detrimental to the development of young people's imagination.

It is an important mission of educators to cultivate the imagination and creativity of young people. Let young people participate in more science and technology activities, and cultivate their imagination through science and technology activities. However, many youth science and technology activities, from the establishment of the topic to the research to the conclusion, most of them do not jump out of the set of some children painting angels, are simply carved and tinkered under the framework or set of others, the such subject experience can not enhance the imagination and creativity of young people, and will not have a deep perception of the world outside the eyes. For youth science and technology activities, we should encourage them to think about what the world would look like without flowers. What would the world look like without grass? What would the world look like without the moon? Encourage them to think about the world outside their windows, the world outside their books, the world outside their lenses. Don't give the so-called standard answers, just ask children to imagine with their hearts, we should give high praise, this is the way to cultivate young people's imagination, but also to train them to explore the unknown world in the future the most effective way.

"Silly" questions are the beginning of a rational understanding of the world for young people

More naivety, more "silliness", and more questions that seem "silly" around them, this is the beginning of a rational understanding of the world for young people. Encourage them to use every opportunity to boldly ask around the willow and spring breeze, southern birds and northern swallows, ask about the flowers in the four seasons, ask about the tides in the rivers, sun, and moon, will allow them to have deeper rational thinking, and help develop their interest in science.

Youth in science and technology activities, the first thing to ask those around the seemingly "silly" questions, to understand these issues, they can have further rational thinking, to achieve innovation and breakthroughs at the source. For example, many young people have played with electromagnetic guns and other related experimental research, and they know that attraction is generated between different poles of a magnet bar or between positive and negative charges. In fact, in such science and technology activities, they should ask more questions about the reasons for the attraction between two magnetic poles or between positive and negative charges, and about what the world would look like if there was an attraction between two magnets with the same pole or between two positive charges. These seemingly simple and even somewhat boring questions can inspire young people's inspiration and imagination, allowing them to see a different world that we do not yet know. Einstein's questioning of light as a child gave birth to the special theory of relativity, allowing us to see a different space-time; Tu Youyou's questioning of the taste of flowers and herbs in nature as a teenager led to the invention of artemisinin, giving mankind an additional powerful weapon to overcome disease. The Einsteins and Tu Youyou of the future will surely come from teenagers who like to ask the "silly" questions around them.

Many of our teenagers now participate in science and technology activities, regardless of their cognitive level, and like to blindly follow hot topics, which is alive. For example, middle and high school students explore aerospace, new materials, anti-cancer drugs, etc., these hot issues are the relatively high starting point for research, the surface looks "high, big, noble", but the research content is far beyond their cognition, in the process of investigation, the youth did not and can not ask the reasons for the existence of problems in the research topic and the solution to the problem In the process of inquiry, young people basically do not and cannot ask questions about the reasons for the problems in the research questions and the reasons for solving them, nor do they know the connection between these problems and the surrounding environment, and cannot think deeply and effectively. They are unable to think deeply and effectively. They do not know what is going on and they do not know why, so they can only draw from a gourd and give some results that they think are meaningful. Some of the so-called gifted youngsters are injected with "hormones" through different channels and are exposed to scientific problems that they are not aware of through the eyes and mindset of adults, just like blind people feeling the elephant. Such youth science and technology activities can even be harmful to their growth so children gradually lose interest in exploring the world.

Don't let young people lose their childishness too early, encourage them to ask the "silly" questions around them, so that they can have deeper rational thinking, which is the hard truth to culcultivatingung people's innovation ability.

Let our children be more childlike, more playful, more "silly" inquiring, and less, utilitarian thinking, and educators should respect the law of youth growth, which is the basis for cultivating youth innovation. This is what parents, teachers, and educators should remember.

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About the Creator

Flagler Danzig

The talent is 1% inspiration adds on 99% sweat, certainly, does not have that 1% inspiration, in the world all sweat to put or bring together also only is the sweat!

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