BEIJING, Jan. 14 -- Winter vacation is coming next
week, yet Shen Yiqian is upset. For her, the month-long winter break means more
study, no fun. Her mother has already set up a demanding schedule: English,
piano and painting lessons.
Chinese kids are sorely tested. All this extra
schooling aims at making the seven-year-old more competitive in a demanding,
fast-paced society.
For her winter-break studies Shen will be rewarded
with a Japanese cartoon TV drama on DVD and a short trip to scenic Hangzhou,
Zhejiang Province.
"I have no choice," says her mother Wu Lihua, an
accountant. "People around me have all made detailed and early plans for their
children. I just can't let my daughter lose at the starting line."
It's fair enough to want to give your child an edge.
Children of today like Shen won't confront basic living problems in their
future. But their parents can pay scant attention to their psychological needs
for rest, fun and a largely worry-free childhood.
Parents are pushing their children too hard to excel
academically at very early ages, says Professor Yang Xiong, director of the
Institute of Youth and Juveniles with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
"Parents, many of whom are white-collar workers with
good educational backgrounds, place excessive expectations on their children,"
he says.
"Some kids are even deprived of a happy childhood
since they are trained and supposed to be 'geniuses.' Yet a wise approach is to
let children be children."
He warns that though kids today, overwhelmingly in
one-child families, are smarter or more knowledgeable than those in the past,
they are also facing new problems such as lack of sleep and free time, anxiety
over performance and pleasing their parents and even retrogression in their
daily-life abilities and skills.
"It's sad that some primary-school students still
don't know how to tie their shoes or take a bath on their own," says Yang.
Because of all the attention focused on them, he says, "they are also likely to
become selfish and self-centered."
Education these days is overwhelmingly exam-oriented.
"Teaching for examination and learning for examination" has been the motto for
years, and it's difficult to change the mindset. The system is much criticized
for turning out good test-takers but relatively few well-rounded students who
are curious, inquiring and who take the initiative. Passive, not active
learners.
The concept of "quality-oriented education" or
quality education has been around since the 1980s and Chinese educators have
tried to gradually put it into practice since the 1990s, encouraging students to
think for themselves and be creative.
Turning out well-rounded, physically and emotionally
healthy people is a slow process. Parents push their children to score high, and
teachers still focus on the tests.
'Quality education'
The exam score based on academics is still the only
standard method to select students for college admission. Though a university
degree no longer guarantees a good job and high salary, it can help, and parents
still want to send their children to prestigious colleges for a bright future.
To fully embrace "quality education" in a rat-race
era, however, means a new mindset and probably lower test scores.
In principle, quality education covers five aspects:
academics, arts and music, moral and value education, physical education and
physical labor. The physical labor part is dropped nowadays, and academics is
emphasized.
Until that changes, extreme pressure, stress,
distress and duress are a matter of course.
Quality education remains a goal, and children's
television can help achieve it through learning and entertainment. It can also
promote healthy intellectual, emotional and physical growth.
Children's TV in China dates back to the late 1950s.
But teaching based on quality education will be incorporated into the 2008
programming by Haha TV, the dedicated children's channel in Shanghai.
Haha TV, formerly a series of TV programs, became a
separate channel as of this month. It targets children and teens 14 years old
and younger.
Cong Haiying, an official from Shanghai Education
Commission, says this is the first time some condensed content and requirements
of quality education have been televised in a systematic and easy-to-understand
way.
Yang Wenyan, channel director and veteran TV
producer, describes today's children, mostly from single-child families, as
curious, emotional and capricious. She also sees depression and dissatisfaction.
"The fact is that they are getting too much homework
and are asked to compete at the very beginning," she says. "They have little
chance to interact with society or nature."
It seems that parents have only one mantra for their
children: You must win. That pushes Yang and her team to promote healthy,
meaningful learning and child development. It can also help parents understand
children's brain development and cognitive growth, and why enormous work loads
and demands can be counterproductive.
"The primitive form of children's TV like singing and
dancing shows will be replaced by a format with more scientific planning," says
Yang. Most programs are developed with experts and psychologists from the
Shanghai Education Commission and East China Normal University. Scientific
research on children's physical, neurological and emotional development goes
into the planning.
"Haha Games" offers funny physical games that take
into account children's physical shape and abilities. The program's "happy
sports" spirit conforms to local teaching guidelines for physical education.
Children's TV
Parents too can learn from "Happy Scampering" about
the cognitive growth and development of children through age seven. Specialists
in preschool education are program advisers.
Programs will also encourage children to become
readers and get interested in traditional Chinese festivals and customs.
"This is my favorite show," says 12-year-old Chen
Qinian of "Haha Games." "My classmates and I seldom miss it. It has taught us
how to play football and basketball. That is so cool."
Program highlights include a children's drama about
campus life titled "Together We Bond" and a pantomime about building healthy
parent-child relationships.
The four-month "Happy Art" teaching program by
Norwegian cartoonist Oistein Kristiansen helps children from three to 12 years
old express themselves and build constructive imagination through doodling,
cartoon drawing, painting, paper craft and other expressions.
"We will apply bright and mild colors in the studio
to help children's eyesight," says channel director Yang. "There will be no
sharp edges of furniture on the sets and our camera gets down to the child's
height to make them comfortable."
The channel will also sponsor a national doodling
contest, a children's charity dinner and summer camps for kids to get to know
about nature and Chinese society and culture.
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
