Family education is not just "housework"
Our reporter Liu Yao
"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (09th edition on January 21, 2021)
"The son does not teach, the father's fault", a family is a school.
Recently, the much-anticipated draft of the Family Education Law was formally submitted to the 25th meeting of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation.
Family education was formally incorporated into the national education development plan and legalized management track.
How should parents do a good job in family education?
What role should all parties in society play?
With the increase in the protection needs of minors and the emergence of family education issues, family education is not just a "family", but a "major event" that the whole society pays attention to and participates in.
Family education out of the "comfort zone"
"When the child first started online lessons at home, the family was in a rush and it was about to collapse." Recalling the scene of his son who was going to elementary school every day online lessons in 2020, Beijing parent Liu Li still had lingering fears.
At the beginning of 2020, a special time of "stopping classes and not stopping school" made many Chinese parents busy to "doubt life".
"Don't talk about homework, be kind and filial when you do your homework."——While busy at work, it is necessary to take care of the daily life of the "bear children", but also to tutor and learn. Facing the sudden important task of family education, many parents feel powerless .
The epidemic and the test of home study have highlighted the weakness of family education.
Experts say that for a long time, family education in China has revolved around school education, and knowledge education that should have been led by schools has become the core of family education.
“In the early stages of their children’s growth, a considerable number of parents devote most of their energy to checking homework and supervising their studies. They regard family education as a form of extended knowledge education, while ignoring the accumulation of life experience, social learning, curiosity, and thirst for knowledge. , Humanistic feelings and other aspects.” Liu Jian, Dean of the China Education Innovation Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, believes that the epidemic has broken the "comfort zone" of family education for a period of time, allowing family education to go from behind the scenes to the front.
With the development of economy and society, many new situations and new problems have emerged in family education.
The All-China Women’s Federation Family Education Survey shows that 50% of parents don’t know what method to use to educate their children; some parents do not raise, raise, teach, or teach their children; most parents have varying degrees of parenting anxiety and The phenomenon of “wisdom and morality, knowledge and ability, and nurture and education” is the phenomenon; many parents are overly pampered and laissez-faire, which has led to an upward trend in juvenile crimes and crimes, and a younger age.
At the same time, changes in family economic structure and population structure have also changed the mode of family education.
Among the urban "post-80s" and "post-90s" parents, dual workers have become the norm, and the time involved in the education of their children has been relatively reduced. Correspondingly, the grandparents are more involved in family education, and the conflict of ideas among the three generations is increasing; in rural areas , A large number of left-behind children face a gap in family education...
In this context, speeding up the formulation of the Family Education Law has positive social practical significance.
Experts point out that as family education issues begin to take on the nature and characteristics of public issues, special legislation must be adopted to regulate the external relationship of family education.
School, family and society perform their duties
"I am both the'group leader' of the parent group and the'active member' of the boasting group; I am both a teacher who assigns homework and a parent who corrects the children's homework." Chu Tong (a pseudonym), a Chinese teacher at a middle school in Shandong, is also a member Parents of elementary school students.
When it comes to the parent group and the phenomenon of parents correcting homework that have caused heated discussions in recent times, she has no feelings.
Parent groups have become "boasting groups" and "homework groups", and children's schoolwork pressure is passed on to parents... The topic of education that Chinese parents empathize with reflects the deep contradictions in the education field.
Zhou Hongyu believes that the emergence of phenomena and concepts such as "the burden on teachers is reduced and parents increase, while the burden on school is reduced and the burden is increased outside school." A major reason is that there are no professionals to guide parents to establish a correct and scientific concept of family education.
"As a teacher, I certainly hope that parents can participate more in the education of their children. But as parents, some of the burdens passed on to them are really miserable." Chu Tong believes that there is a relationship between family education and school education. Borders and performing their duties are the only qualified methods of education.
Experts believe that the reason why the discussion about the distorted taste of the parent group resonates because it confuses the responsibilities of school education and family education.
School education should be based on general education, and the core of family education is to provide children with life education, life education, and survival education, focusing on literacy and individualization.
Returning family education to its standard, allowing schools, families and social education to perform their duties and form a joint force is an important goal of family education legislation.
At present, China's family, school, and social education mechanism has not yet been formed, and the issue of effective connection between family education and school education and social education has not been resolved.
Experts said that family education legislation should be passed to clarify what content belongs to the category of mutual education, so that school education and family education should be put in their respective places, so as to alleviate parents' anxiety and promote the overall physical and mental development of students.
"When parents learn to be a qualified family educator, children will be more comfortable in the school education system." Capital Normal University Professor Kang Liying said that family education legislation should help and guide parents to learn to play the role of educators and grow with their children.
Clarify the responsibilities of all parties
How to accurately locate family education?
How to help parents better competent in family education duties?
Family education legislation on the agenda is expected to help parents.
The draft Family Education Law proposes that the parents or other guardians of minors are the main body responsible for implementing family education.
The government, schools, and society provide support for family education and promote family education.
When necessary, the state intervenes in family education.
Nowadays, family education is more than just family and personal affairs.
Zhou Hongyu, professor of Central China Normal University and dean of the Yangtze River Education Research Institute, who has been paying attention to and promoting family education legislation for many years, said that family education is the front end of the entire education system.
State intervention in family education is not to control the family, but to provide the family with systematic, professional and scientific guidance and comprehensive and diverse guarantees, and use legal means to regulate the behavior of parents and educational service organizations.
Experts pointed out that speeding up family education legislation will enhance the status of family education, clarify the core content of family education, expand the supply of public services, standardize family education behavior, and promote the resolution of related issues from the institutional level.
At the same time, the family education legislation should be promoted to link up with the juvenile protection law and the juvenile crime prevention law, and the legal system for juvenile protection should be improved.
In fact, in recent years, many places have tried first, and many provinces and cities such as Chongqing, Guizhou, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces and cities have introduced local laws and regulations for family education, and have made useful experiments and practical experience. National legislation laid the foundation.
For example, the "Regulations on the Promotion of Family Education in Hubei Province (Draft)" proposes that parents or other guardians should be responsible for the education of their children even if they go out to work. The necessary knowledge of family education and scientific education methods should be learned. Couples during pregnancy, parents of infants and young children, and parents of students should receive family education guidance; the "Regulations on the Promotion of Family Education in Jiangsu Province" clearly require both parents to jointly perform family education for minor children Educational obligations, if the parents are divorced or separated, they shall continue to perform the family education obligations, and neither party shall refuse to perform.
Make up the first lesson for parents
Family education also needs "education"-experts pointed out that in the past, Chinese parents received very little education and training. This is a major deficiency in the family education system.
According to a survey, 23% of Chinese parents have not participated in any community-organized family education guidance activities; 30% of parents expressed their desire to receive collective guidance on family education, such as special lectures, parent-child activity guidance, etc.; and nearly 30 % Of parents hope to accept the guidance of online family education content, including courses, consultation and other forms.
On the one hand, parents lack the first lesson to be a parent; on the other hand, parents have an urgent need for family education and guidance. In recent years, the government and social forces have actively explored this problem.
Forms such as family committees, parent schools, parent classrooms, and purchasing services are in the ascendant, and a family education work system linked by the government, families, schools, and society has taken shape in some places.
For example, Jiangsu Province recently issued the "Opinions on Strengthening and Improving the Work of Family Education and Guidance in Primary and Secondary Kindergartens", clarifying the key content of family education guidance provided by schools, and requiring primary and secondary schools to organize 1 to 2 family education guidance and practical activities each semester. No fees shall be charged for providing family education and guidance services.
Many experts have called for more social forces to be mobilized to include "family education education" in the basic public service system and give more support to family education.
Zhou Hongyu said that legislation should be adopted to vigorously improve the professionalization of family education trainers, set up family education majors in universities as soon as possible, cultivate professional teams with theoretical foundations and practical experience, and make communities an important channel for family education.
At the same time, schools or training institutions set up family education courses to help parents learn scientific educational concepts and methods.