INTERVIEW
Friday evening, the school year finally ends, after a hectic period of work at home due to coronavirus, and two weeks of resumption at school. But how do we make up for the delays caused by the crisis? Philippe Meirieu, educational researcher specializing in education, offers Europe 1 a few tips for continuing to "make use of their intelligence" to children, while letting them take a vacation.
Let them blow and don't jump on the holiday notebooks
"Our children must take vacations, at least initially," recalls the teacher, who confirms that "this period was very stressful". "Our children need it, too, and that will only make it easier for the real return to school, once the holidays are over," said Philippe Meirieu.
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The education specialist says he is "skeptical" about the pedagogical interest of the vacation homework notebook to compensate for the delay that may have been accumulated during confinement and prepare for the 2020 return to school, which promises to be different from previous years . "Statistics show that a lot of vacation homework books are purchased, but that very few are finished," he says, adding that "vacation books are often a way to gain a good conscience." " for the parents.
Combine the useful with what may seem futile
On the other hand, according to him, many activities allow you to work without (almost) realizing it. "We can cook and revise proportionality, we can make a hut and geometry. We can also prepare a hike, read a map, do toponymy and even wonder why such a place is called like that rather than otherwise ", details Philippe Meirieu.
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"All these little intellectual activities that we do during the holidays are stimulating for the child. They are not ways to educate the holidays, but to keep them active, to keep them awake and to maintain their curiosity". The researcher believes that these activities "which are not traditional school activities" are the best way to make children work during the holidays, in any case "to make them use their intelligence and use their ability to think".
Encourage and read them
He naturally cites reading as a factor in academic success. "The holidays are a great time to read. It is an activity that we know has a considerable impact on academic success. Children who read books, which can be novels, but also technical books, geography books, books on dinosaurs, or whatever, are kids who will activate their intelligence. "
"We can help them with that, by interesting ourselves by reading them, by discussing them with them," he explains. "We can ask them to explain to us what they have read, to tell us the story they have read. All these are small vacation activities which are in reality great intellectual activities, great mental activities as we say, and which prepare children very effectively for the start of the school year. "