Chapter 12 5. A child’s brain is like a mirror

We always think that children's learning ability is very strong, but this is the misfortune of children.On the surface, they seem to know everything as soon as they learn it. In fact, they have learned nothing. Their brains are like a mirror, reflecting back to you everything you say and do without changing anything.They learned what you taught them, and when they said it, everyone knew what he meant except him. Although memory and rational thinking are essentially two different abilities, they are mutually reinforcing in the process of development. Before the age of rationality, children can only feel images, but not ideas.

The difference between the two is that image refers to the specific state of an object, which can be perceived by the senses, while concept refers to the perception of things. If you want to have a concept, you must first understand the relationship between things.Images can exist in the human brain alone, while concepts are premised on other concepts. As long as we see, we can imagine, and only by comparing can we think.Feelings are passive, while concepts and ideas are subjective creations of our minds. So I say that without judgment, a child cannot have a real memory.Children can remember sounds, shapes, and have feelings, but they cannot form ideas, let alone know the relationship between ideas.

Those who disagree with me might say, you see children can learn simple geometry.I would like to say that this example, far from refuting me, provides evidence for my point of view: children not only cannot reason, but also do not understand how others argue. If you examine these so-called little geometers, you will find that all they memorize are the shapes of the pictures and specific geometric terms in individual cases.If the topic is changed a little, they will immediately panic, and they will not know how to reason. They have little knowledge except sense, and poor comprehension.Even if they remember a lot of things when they are young, they have to learn it again when they grow up because their memory is no better than other abilities.

In fact, I think children's understanding is not as bad as we think, especially for those things that involve their real interests, they understand very thoroughly.However, there are often deviations in our communication with them. For example, they don't know something, but we think they do; they don't understand something, but we think they can understand it. In addition, there is another mistake we often make, which is to always talk to children about issues that they are not interested in at all, such as their adult happiness, other people's respect, and future interests, and so on.

Kids don't care about that at all, so it doesn't make sense for us to say more.But these poor children have to come into contact with and face these things that are contrary to their nature in their usual studies. It is conceivable how deep their pain is. It can be seen from their teaching practice that the arguments held by those professional educators are completely opposite to mine, and their ideas are exactly the same as mine. So what do they teach their children?In addition to words, or words.They are taught in useless subjects, because they contain a great deal of terminology, genealogy, chronology, geography, and languages, etc., which can show the depth of their knowledge, while the useful knowledge comes from the subjects that deal with facts. Mistakes can happen if you are not careful.

In this way, the knowledge learned by the children is of no use to them now and in the future. It can even be said that they are lucky if they can use it once in their life. Language is one of all useless education.You may think this statement is a bit uncommon, but I want to emphasize that I am referring to childhood education. No matter what you say about me, I insist that an average child cannot really master two languages ​​before the age of 12 or 15. For children, learning a language is nothing more than learning some sentences or words, but language learning is far from that simple. With the change of language symbols, the concepts conveyed will also change.

Among all languages, the only thing in common is thought, but the expressions of the spirit of those languages ​​are quite different.With the child he uses only one of the many forms, and there will be no other until he reaches the age of reason. To master two languages ​​at the same time, they must first learn to compare different ideas, which they cannot do because they have not even figured out what ideas are. You might object to me that you do see children who speak several languages.Here, I make it clear that I disagree with you. Indeed, I have also seen a few children who spoke five or six languages, and they were even called child prodigies.I heard them switch from one language to another, from German to Latin, from Latin to French, from French to Italian.They can use half a dozen languages, but all they speak is German.They transform words, not language.

The reason why teachers teach children languages ​​that few people use is because no one will question their teaching, so that they can hide their ignorance. Since the speakers of the language were few or far gone, they could only imitate the words that had been handed down in written form, and advertised that it was the spoken language. Just think how fluent a teacher can expect a student to be in both languages ​​if he doesn't know enough Greek or Latin. Geographical symbols are used to represent things, and concepts are used to express things. If the two cannot be combined, any learning will become meaningless.This defect exists in children's learning, what they learn is only symbols.

In geography class, the teacher thought he was teaching geography, but all the children mastered were maps.Through the teacher's explanation, the children know the names of many countries, cities, and rivers. They can easily point out the location of a certain place on the map, but in reality, they can't tell where this place is at all. I remember reading a geography book, and it said at the beginning: "The world is nothing but a ball wrapped in cardboard." This sentence could not be more appropriate to describe the geography that children learn. I daresay a 10-year-old who has studied globes and Cosmographies for two years cannot give a route from Paris to Saint-Denis on the basis of what he has learned.

I dare say there is not a child who can walk those winding paths with his father's sketch map of the garden and not get lost. And those doctors, for whom it is easy to point out Beijing, Mexico, Isfahan, and any place in the world on a map, but they are no different from those children. Some people say that children are only suitable for learning things that can be learned only with the eyes. This idea is good, but so far, I have never encountered such a thing. What is even more ridiculous about history is to let children learn history.You said that history is a pile of facts, which is easy to understand.So, how should "fact" be defined?Don't you think that the relationships that determine historical facts are so easy to understand, and that it's extremely easy for children to form corresponding concepts in their minds?

For a historical event, if you do not understand the reasons for its occurrence and the consequences it caused, it is meaningless to be familiar with the process of its occurrence. If history is just a series of human actions described in language without value judgments, then there is really nothing to learn from history.You can try to see if your students can understand the moral relationship behind those actions, so you can know whether they are old enough to study history. Children can easily memorize words like "king," "country," "war," "conquest," "law," and "revolution," but they have a hard time understanding the ideas these words convey.When you explain it to them, it will certainly not be as simple as explaining to Emile the dispute with Robert the farmer over the fava beans. Under the shaping of nature, a child's mind has the ability to accept certain impressions, but this does not mean that he should use this ability to remember the names of kings, the year of events, the names of countries, Words that mean nothing at his age or at any other age. If we have to impose these things on their immature hearts, it will definitely make their childhood lifeless. Children's minds are malleable, and we should make full use of this to imprint in them ideas that are understandable to them, beneficial to them, related to their immediate well-being, and helpful to them in the fulfillment of their duties in the future. in his mind. In this way, it can be imprinted upon him, and it will help him throughout his life to live in a manner commensurate with his nature and talents. When not learning textbook knowledge, the child's memory is not idle.He remembers what he sees or hears in his mind, including the words and deeds of adults, which have a subtle influence on him.Everything around him was like a book, invisibly exercising his memory and improving his judgment. This is when we make a difference.We should pay attention to his surroundings at all times, put away those things he cannot understand or should not know, and only let him touch the things he can understand, so as to selectively cultivate his memory.We want to build a storehouse of knowledge for the child and lay a good foundation for his youth education. Perhaps, the child raised in this way has no special talents, and his teacher or nurse has nothing to show off in front of others, but he will surely become a knowledgeable, cultivated, healthy person in body and mind when he grows up .Although no one noticed his talent when he was young, he will definitely be respected by others when he grows up. Fables I would never ask Emile to recite texts, including fables.It is true that La Fontaine's fables are simple and vivid, but I will not let him recite them.Just as the words in a history book are not all history, so the words in a fable are not all fables. How foolish we should be to teach our children fables as ethics.When we use fables to enlighten children's morals and hearts, how can we ensure that children understand the original meaning of the fables?It seems to me that fables are only suitable for the education of grown-ups, while speaking to children should be straightforward. Children don't understand these stories exactly as they are meant to be, and no matter how hard you try to make them understandable, you can't avoid things that are beyond their comprehension. In La Fontaine's collection of fables, there are only five or six fables that are simple and clear, the most wonderful of which is "The Crow and the Fox".Next, I will use this as a case to analyze why fables are not suitable for children to learn. 【The Crow and the Fox】 "The crow was resting on a tree." First, do children know what a "crow" is?Have they seen "The Crow"?Second, our language habit is "resting on a tree", not "resting on a tree". In order for them to understand the meaning of this sentence, they must first understand what the inversion of poetry is.Before that, we must first tell them what is prose and what is poetry. "It had a piece of cheese in its mouth." What kind of cheese?If children have never seen a crow, how can they imagine a crow with a piece of cheese in its beak? Moral understanding is more difficult than literal understanding.The fox got the piece of cheese from the crow's mouth by flattery and deceit.What conclusions will the children draw after listening to it?You will find that they think exactly the opposite of what the fable conveys: they think the crow is too stupid, and the fox is very cute. Reading and literacy If children are to completely get rid of their homework, the most important point is to eliminate textbooks.For children, reading is the source of all troubles and brings various disasters to their childhood.When Emile was 12 years old, she didn't know what a book looked like. You will definitely say that reading is a necessary skill for a person, and he has to learn it.I agree with you, but I only let him read when he needs to, otherwise he will be bored. If we don't force children, they will only learn what they think is good for them or what they are interested in. Apart from this, they have no other motivation for learning. It is indeed a great art to speak or listen to people who are not in the same space as us, and then communicate and communicate with them without any medium.This art is worth learning for anyone, and people are willing to learn it. But this useful and interesting art has become a chain around the children's necks.The reason for this is that children's learning is not motivated.They are in a state of coercion and find the stuff useless and uninteresting. How can children be willing to approach it if they feel it is torture for them?On the contrary, if they can feel happy from it, they will take the initiative to do it without your telling. We worked hard to study, trying to find the most effective way for children to learn to read and write.In order to achieve this goal, some people invented single-word spelling sheets and word cards, and some people pasted all kinds of paper with words on the wall, and decorated the children's room like a printing factory. Locke advocated using Dice teach children to recognize words. All these sounds good, but one of the most effective methods is neglected, which is to cultivate children's desire to read and write.As long as children want to learn, no matter what method they use, they can learn well. Being able to achieve immediate results is the biggest motivation for people to engage in any activity, and it is the same for children. Sometimes, Emile would receive some invitations from his father or friends, asking him to go boating, dinner or theater or something. The letters on these invitations were concise and clear, and the calligraphy was also very beautiful, but the problem came, Emile could not read, so he had to let others read the words on the invitations to him. But he either couldn't find anyone, or the one he did find wasn't helpful at all.When someone finally read it to him, it was too late, the day of the party was over. Emile was very frustrated, he thought, if only he could read and write.After a few days, he received several more invitations. This time, he didn't ask others for help, but he only knew a few words: Invite him to eat butter. But where to eat and who to eat with, he doesn't know at all.He tried every means, but fortunately, he recognized all the other characters. So you see, Emile doesn't need writing cards at all.Next, should I talk about how to write?No, my focus is on education, how can I waste energy on such trivial matters? I will say one more thing, and this is a very important rule: the less you rush to a goal, the faster you will get there. I am sure that Emile will learn to read and write before he is ten, because I do not care a little whether he will learn to read and write before he is fifteen. However, I think it is better not to be able to read and write, so that he can have more energy to learn other things.I don't want to bore him at the sight of books, otherwise what's the point of reading to him! The more stubbornly I insisted on this passive method of education, the more voices opposed me.You might say that if you teach them nothing, they will learn from others.If you don't tell them what is truth, their hearts will be occupied by heresy. You worry that they will be prejudiced, but this prejudice is infected by the people around you.What those people did, thought, and felt were all seen in his eyes, and then entered his heart, corrupting his rudimentary rationality.His undeveloped mind has long been close to numbness, and now he is deeply immersed in material enjoyment.If he doesn't consciously develop the habit of thinking about problems now, he will lose this ability when he grows up. In the face of these objections, it's not that I can't respond, but that I don't want to.If my method is effective, it is the best counterattack to those who oppose me. If my method is not effective, no matter how much I say, it will seem weak.So, let me continue my talk!