Yang Peichang: Why does German legislation prohibit preschool education?

In yesterday's blog post, we introduced 20 1 1, one of which is preschool education. "Preschool education is not only necessary for the healthy and harmonious development of individual life, but also an important way for a country and a nation to reserve talents for future national strength." This orientation puts preschool education in a very important position. In the United States, both Bush in the past and Obama now regard preschool education as a starting point for deepening education reform and put a lot of energy into it. However, a study by an independent educational institution in the United States shows that the investment in preschool education is most obvious in the first grade of primary school. After the fourth grade of primary school, there is little difference between children with preschool education experience and children without preschool education experience. In other words, preschool education is not as "effective" as the administrative department of education said. Preschool education in the United States and China have the same name, but their connotations are quite different, so it cannot be concluded that preschool education in China is worthless. However, it is still useful for us to know the characteristics and policies of preschool education in different countries today. This article by Yang Peichang may provide a new perspective for us to understand preschool education. Why does Germany legislate against preschool education? Yang Peichang lived in an apartment by the lake during his academic visit to the University of Freiburg. Not far from the apartment, there is a small shaping with some facilities for children to play. Every time I pass by this place, I always see three or four children playing in Shaping. A lady stood beside her, staring at the children. Even if the child was covered with sand and the clothes were covered with sand, she didn't interfere. Another colleague from China couldn't help sighing: "Look at the sunshine on these children's faces, Lao Yang, which is hardly seen on children's faces in China". I feel the same way about it. My daughter goes to school in one of the best primary schools in Beijing. Although she is only 8 years old, her speech and expression on her face are not much different from those of adults. Although the child's mother is satisfied, I am still a little sad. There is a wide lawn around the lake, but there are some trees that can provide shade. On sunny days, some people play volleyball, tennis, badminton and football on the lawn. Some people spread cloth on the grass and sit together in twos and threes. I don't know whether they are chatting or enjoying the sunshine, while others are having a barbecue. I used to sit under the arbor of a cafe and observe the people on the lawn. One scene I can't forget today is that there is a family playing football not far from me: husband, wife, big boy and little boy (about four or five years old). These four people are divided into two groups: a husband and a little boy, and a wife and a big boy. Although it was divided into two pairs, it was actually the husband and two boys playing. The wife just kicked one side and didn't have a game, but her eyes never left her husband and two children. The father passed the ball to his youngest son, and the eldest son grabbed it. The father was worried about kicking his eldest son, so the action was very light, and sometimes he deliberately made mistakes to let his eldest son grab the ball. The youngest son is brave, but his skill is not good. When he saw his younger brother running, he passed the ball to his father far away. What impressed me most was that the children were full of energy when playing, and the expression on their faces could be described by sunshine. Out of curiosity, I went over to chat with the family. The man told me that both children are in kindergarten and take them out to play on weekends. I asked, "Don't you take your children to various classes on weekends?" The man looked at me with a puzzled face: "What class do you have?" I said, "For example, dancing, gymnastics, painting, piano, foreign languages, Olympics and so on. My daughter studied almost all the courses except Olympiad in kindergarten. " The man replied: "We prohibit preschool education here, and children are not allowed to teach professional knowledge during kindergarten. There is no similar training class in society." Originally thought that only kindergarten children were not allowed to learn professional knowledge, but later found that primary school children could not learn extra courses, even if their IQ exceeded their peers. Sandra from Cologne wrote: "My son is 7 years old this year. I asked the school teacher if I could teach him something extra, because he learned basic reading, writing and simple mathematical calculations at home when he was 5-6 years old. The teacher objected,' You should keep your children in sync with other children'. A week later, I went to see the teacher again and showed the child's high IQ certificate, hoping to get her understanding and support, but the teacher looked at me with strange eyes, as if I were an alien. " The teacher further explained that the over-development of children's intelligence is not a good thing, because it is necessary to leave room for imagination for the brain. Too much knowledge will turn a child's brain into a computer hard disk. In this way, the child's brain will gradually become a storage and will not take the initiative to think. Nevertheless, I still don't quite understand the practice of banning preschool education in Germany. In order to find out this problem, I specially consulted German educators, who referred me to the Basic Law. Open the Basic Law (Constitution) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Surprised me. Paragraph 6 of Article 7 clearly stipulates that the establishment of Vorschule is prohibited. I still don't understand why the German Constitution stipulates this, so I have to consult relevant education experts again. They told me that children's "only task" before primary school is to grow up happily. Because children's nature is to play, we should do things that are in line with children's nature and should not violate children's growth laws. If children must be "educated" before going to school, then the focus of "education" is only three aspects: First, basic social common sense, such as not allowing violence and not talking loudly. Second, the child's hands-on ability. During kindergarten, children will participate in hand-made according to their own interests, so that children can take the initiative to do specific things from an early age. Third, cultivate children's emotional intelligence, especially leadership. I thought only Germany had such strange rules. Later, I checked the situation in relevant European countries and found that they treat their children in the same way. For example, Hungarian legislation stipulates that kindergartens are strictly forbidden to teach children to learn to write, read and calculate. Kindergarten education is free. Ungarn: This is the children's favorite word. Bezu Bringhen. Dead p? 0? 1 kindergarten? 0? 1rten is kostenlos). Contrary to Europe, children in China have basically learned all the knowledge of the first grade of primary school during kindergarten. People have reason to worry that children in Europe lost to children in China at the starting line. In fact, such worries are unnecessary. Europeans generally believe that children have their own growth laws and should do corresponding things at corresponding stages. On the surface, China's preschool education and basic education are solid, but their imagination and thinking ability are destroyed, which leads children to form the habit of passively accepting knowledge and ignoring active thinking. For the time being, let's put aside the disputes and judgments on the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese and western education, and pay attention to the achievements of German education: since the establishment of the Nobel Prize, Germans (including Germans who immigrated to the United States, Canada and other countries) have won nearly half of the total number of Nobel Prizes. In other words, 82 million Germans shared half of the Nobel Prize, while another 6 billion people in the world only got the remaining half. Is this a racial issue? I'm afraid it's not that simple. Let's re-examine German education and see if their practices are worth learning from.