Chapter 18 3. Feeling and experience are the real and only teachers of children

With the development of reason, a new problem is in front of us, that is, the child's career choice.When he knows himself well enough to judge for himself what is good for him and what is right for him, he will be able to separate work from play, and know that the latter is for recreation. At this time, we will let him study some useful things, and he can no longer do it with a playful attitude, but must devote himself to it. Under the domination of the law of need, we always do some things we don't like to do. The purpose of this is to prevent us from doing bad things.I have to say that this is a very far-sighted approach, but foresight is also good and bad. It can give birth to wisdom or disaster.

When a child has been able to predict what he will need, his rationality has developed by leaps and bounds.He knew the value of time and was able to spend it on useful things, and by "useful" I mean usefulness as understood by the wisdom of a child of his age. Don't expose your child to ideas that involve social morals and ethical habits, because his brain is not strong enough to understand these things.Don't make your child do what you think is good, but let him do what he thinks is good.You let him do things that he can't understand at all. You think you are far-sighted, but everything is taken for granted.

You've gone to great lengths to arm him with tools that are of no use to him, but you've deprived him of the most important piece of equipment: common sense.Under your education, he is always dominated by others and reduced to a tool of others.You hope that he is obedient when he is young, but when he grows up, he will be deceived everywhere. On the contrary, if you teach your child something useful for his age, it will definitely benefit him for life.But why do you insist on making him learn things that are beyond his comprehension?These things do him no good.You might say something like: "It's too late to learn these things when you use them."

I don't know if it will be too late, but what I'm sure is that if you let him learn so early, he won't be able to learn at all.Feeling and experience are the real and only teachers of the child. If he does not experience and practice himself, it is impossible for the child to know what is really suitable and beneficial to him. The child knows that he will grow up sooner or later, and the adult life he understands is all the motives for his education. As for what he doesn't understand, we don't need to tell him. This principle is emphasized again and again. As long as we try our best to let the child understand the meaning of the word "useful", we can educate him better.As long as he can connect something to his current situation and know that he can benefit from this thing, he can understand the concept of "useful" more deeply.

"What is the use of it?" This question is sacred, and it will determine all communications and actions between Emile and me.No matter what question he asks me, I respond with this sentence to keep his mouth shut and prevent him from saying something stupid.This sentence is one of the most powerful tools you will have with your students. Since he doesn't know how to answer you, you can always shut him up if you want.Your situation is different, you can make full use of your experience and knowledge, tell him the usefulness of something or something. It should be noted that this tactic cannot be used casually. If you always use this sentence to respond to him, he is likely to use the same tactic to treat you.You have to be able to ensure that he won't just say to you as soon as you open your mouth in the future: "What's the use of this?"

I don't advocate talking earnestly to children about this and that, no one wants to listen to other people's long speeches.Let them practice!Let them practice!How many times do I have to stress before you remember?Don't spend too much time on chattering, you must know that those who are cultivated by the chattering method must be chatterers. If I was explaining to my student the law of the sun's movement and how to determine the direction, he suddenly interrupted me and said, what's the use of learning these?That's when I can go on and on and on and on, especially if other people are around.

I can take this opportunity to tell him all I know about the advantages of travel, the specialties of different places, the differences in folk customs, the role of legislation, the advantages of commerce, the reckoning of agricultural seasons, and how to orient yourself in the open sea, etc. In addition, I can also talk to him about politics, astronomy, natural history, and the laws, rights, and morals of human society, so that he can have a general understanding of these knowledge and subjects, and inspire him to learn them. desire for something.After I finished my speech, everyone present applauded my erudition, as if I was a real Mr. Dong Hong.

Lovely Mier had no idea what I was talking about, but he didn't dare to speak out.Because he was afraid of angering me, he pretended to understand everything.This is typical of flashy education. The above are all my assumptions. The education Emile received was simple but effective.As soon as I opened my mouth, as long as he didn't understand what I was saying, he would immediately run away to play elsewhere, and I was left to speak eloquently there.Faced with his question, we want a simple and understandable answer.No matter how profound and unfathomable that knowledge is, what use is it to him?

When I pointed out the town of Montmorency to him, he asked me curiously, "What's the use?" Think about it. If it didn't work, we wouldn't do it, and now we're sitting around with nothing to do." The next day I took Emile for a walk before breakfast.We started off happily, but then we got lost in the woods.We were tired and hungry, but we couldn't find our way home anyway.Emile burst into tears, but what was the use of crying? I asked him, "What time is it?" "12 o'clock," Emile said, looking at his watch, "I'm starving to death."

"We were standing at Montmorency at twelve o'clock yesterday, looking at the woods," I reminded him. "I remember that the forest is to the north of the town," Emile said excitedly, "then the town is to the south of the forest!" "But which side is south and which side is north?" I continued to guide him. "Just judge by the shadow," Emile said. Later, under my guidance, Emile came to the conclusion that as long as you walk in the opposite direction to the shadow, you can reach the town. After returning home, Emile said excitedly: "It seems that astronomy is still very useful!"