Chapter 17 the sun is happy

Last week, I helped the children to read and write with pictures.A child in the second grade wrote five sentences on a picture. What impressed me most was his last sentence. He wrote: "The sun is very happy." In that picture, the birds are singing, the monkeys are jumping, The fish are playing in the water and the children are playing.If I were Father Sun, I would also be happy because of this vibrant scene.I praised him at the time: "Work hard, you will become a little writer. I like your 'The sun is very happy'." Today, a week later, he ran up to me bitterly, holding a composition book with a big red cross, and complaining on his face.He said: "The teacher said that it is wrong for the sun to be happy." I was shocked, and I didn't understand.

Why can we say that the birds sing happy songs, but we cannot say that the sun is happy?I taught three second-grade children, and I was often amazed at the directionality of their thinking.For example, the example sentence for "Look at pictures and write words" is: I can write.If the next picture is a dog standing by the door, everyone writes "The dog can watch the door", and then comes "My brother can play ball", "Dad can eat", but the last picture is a chair, they still write: " The chair can sit." I call it the step-by-step simple blind obedience.This way of thinking, I think, will be suitable for their work in the future. The advanced ones will engage in computer programming, and the low-level ones will go to assembly line assembly.

The education methods of Singapore and China are sometimes similar. Under this education system, there are many engineers and technicians, many people who perform tasks, but few creative pioneers. A simple example, in art class in China, the teacher will take out a boat and put it on the podium and ask the students to copy it. Whoever copies it most realistically will have the best art result.When I observed the teaching at the American School in Singapore, I found that the teacher asked the students on the podium to dictate what kind of ship they imagined, and the teacher would give an outline based on the student's description.The children said that the boat has sails, and the teacher asked, what shape?Some children say rectangles, some say triangles, and the teacher makes half the rectangle and half the triangle.Some children said that the boat has wheels, and the teacher also drew four wheels on the boat. Finally, the teacher said, you can write and draw the boat in your heart.The boats described by the children are different in shape, colorful and have different functions, but each boat has its own characteristics.

I often think that people are independent individuals. Everyone has different thoughts, different personalities and different feelings. Why should everyone be trained in the same way, as if they are parts laminated in a standardized industrial workshop? I am not criticizing children, I am criticizing the education system and teaching methods that equate educating people with making machines.The key to the quality of an article is not whether there are typos in it or whether the grammar is correct; it depends on the idea, conception, and novelty of the language.The purpose of the article is to clarify the truth, express thoughts, and express emotions.As long as the above points are achieved, even if there are a few typos, even if the grammar is not very precise, as long as it does not affect reading and allows readers to penetrate the author's sensory world, I think it is a good article.Now the school implements exam-oriented education, requiring students not to make mistakes, to follow the standard answers, first to ensure the minimum pass, and to shoot all dangerous expressions.It's better to be on the safe side than to risk being wrong.I feel that a large number of budding writers have been stifled in this way.

However, in recent years, I have become more and more happy with the changes in China's ideological and public opinion circles. The biggest feeling comes from the composition of the college entrance examination.I remember that in the past college entrance examination composition, the teachers first emphasized the political nature, the general direction should not be wrong, the second emphasized the style, and the narrative should not be written as an argumentative essay, and finally, there should be no typos.The whole article looks like work clothes, the collar and sleeves are a bit nicer.First clarify the point of view, then argue, then demonstrate, and finally summarize, forming a fixed stereotyped model.

Overseas in recent years, I was delighted to find that the composition format of the Chinese college entrance examination is changing, the style of writing is changing, and the standards of reviewers are being relaxed.What impressed me deeply was the appearance of ancient vernacular articles and this year's 209-character poems. These novel, fluent and unique characters were also selected as full marks. How I hope that Singapore's education will gradually change from the training of technical personnel to personalized training, highlighting individuals, highlighting creativity, and allowing different creations and different ideas.Society needs a large number of screws, but if there are transmission wheels, lubricating fluid, and new power, the operation of the machine will be more dynamic.

Sun, if you are happy, be happy! 2003-12-21