How should we educate our children?

Not everyone has the right to be a parent.

Giving birth to a child is simple, raising a child is difficult, and educating a child is even more difficult. Parents can be generous in food and clothing. But what about education? What kind of education is a good education?

Bian Xiao is here to share with you a 70-year follow-up study on the growth of more than 70,000 children. From this, you may be inspired by how to be a good father or mother and how to help children get a healthy and happy life.

This study is from Britain. Time goes back to 1946, just a few months after World War II.

At first, scientists just wanted to know what effect having children would have on women. They interviewed and recorded the mothers of 14000 newborns at that time. These new mothers were asked some "strange" questions, such as: Did they drink an extra large glass of milk every day when they were pregnant? How much will you spend on clothes? What's more, who is taking care of your husband when you put the children to bed? ...

Since then, in 1958, 1970, 1990s, and at the turn of the century, British scientists have added tens of thousands of newborn samples and made a return visit every few years. So far, this study has always involved more than 70,000 children born in five years. The children who were first born in 1946 are now over 70 years old.

On March 20 16 1 day, London held a special birthday party. More than 3000 people in their seventies celebrated their birthdays. They are the first samples of this study, and they are called Douglas children (Douglas is the main scientist who put forward this project).

The ordinary or extraordinary lives of these children have been recorded in detail and isomorphic into a great science story. The data recorded in the study include piles of paper questionnaires, trillions of bytes of electronic data, histological sample bank and even more than 9000 placentas. By analyzing these precious and huge data, scientists have published more than 6,000 papers and books.

More than 70,000 children have been scientifically recorded from birth to death, and they are perhaps the most "detailed" people in the world.

Helen Pearson, a science journalist, spent five years studying these papers and summarized them into a book:

Life engineering: the extraordinary story of 70,000 ordinary lives

(Life Planning: 70,000 Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Life)

Helen Pearson, the author of this book, told her conclusion at TED.

These studies involve all aspects of life growth. The following points are the essence of children's education summarized by Helen.

Unfortunately, family conditions have the greatest influence.

Judging from the data of more than 70,000 children, one of the most remarkable laws is that children from rich families live better than children from poor families when they grow up.

Better here not only refers to income, living standards, but even physical health. Children from poor families are obese in adulthood and have a higher proportion of hypertension. In old age, they are more prone to memory loss and physical weakness.

In terms of learning level, in the test, children from rich families showed that their learning level was one year higher than that of children from poor families, and this phenomenon appeared at the age of three.

Coincidentally, the British BBC once produced a documentary called Seven Years of Life. From 65438 to 0964, they tracked and filmed the growth of a group of 7-year-old children and updated their current situation every 7 years.

20 12, the program broadcast their report at the age of 56. Most people in the film, parents are elite or elite, parents are farmers or farmers. If you have money, you will always have money, and if you have no money, you will always be poor.

The latest season of "Seven Years of Life" series reports the situation of the protagonists at the age of 56.

Of course, this is just a general trend. Not every child from a poor family ends up poor, and there are many examples of turning over.

For example, Nick, one of the protagonists in Seven Years of Life, was born in a peasant family, but was admitted to Oxford University at the age of 2 1, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 28 to become a university professor.

The possibility of this gorgeous turn is a bit gratifying and expected.

Nick, one of the protagonists in Seven Years' Life, is a typical representative of achieving poverty to prosperity.

Parental influence-how to help children

Family conditions are fixed and difficult to change. But equally influential is how parents treat their children.

In order to study the influence of parents, scientists screened out 17000 samples of children born in 1970 who had poor families but did well in school.

They found that parents are the most important factors affecting children. The more active and diligent parents are and the more they love life, the better their children will do in school.

What specific actions will help?

The research found that there are obvious effects, including: giving children a positive response when talking; Teach children simple knowledge in person; Take the children on a trip and so on.

At the same time, another study found that if parents read to their children every day when they are about five years old, and show more concern for their children's education when they are ten years old, the possibility of their children falling into poverty at the age of thirty will be greatly reduced.

Feasible advice ― you can start today.

After learning a lot of research, Helen gave her parents some practical suggestions:

1. Talk every day. Talk to your child for at least 15 minutes every day and ask seriously what happened at school today. Parents' concern can make children feel more energetic.

2. Read at any time. Ensure that children always have a book to read;

3. Give confidence. Tell children that they have confidence in their future, and they will surely become happy, happy and accomplished people.

Of course, are these practices necessarily useful?

Not necessarily. After all, all the research conclusions are based on the statistical data of these 70,000 children, reflecting the laws of the masses, and there are always individual differences between people. In the process of human growth, besides parents, there are too many factors that affect children's future.

But for parents, these practices can at least have a more positive impact. If you are still confused about how to educate your children, you may wish to start with these small methods.

reference data

1.Helen Pearson at ted2017 "Lessons from the longest research on human development"

2. Life engineering: 70,000 extraordinary stories of ordinary lives

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