A teacher from Shanghai Luwan Middle School teaches "cloud classes" for students at home. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Ying
Our reporter Luo Juan
After hesitating for a while, Chen Jing removed the Chinese tuition course from the schedule of her son Haohao's new semester and replaced it with a children's programming interest class.
This is Haohao's own request.
"On August 29, the first grade, the first grade, the third grade, the first grade, the second grade, and the third grade of elementary school will start; September 1, the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school, and the second grade will start; on September 7, the second and third grades of elementary school will start. , The fourth grade begins..." On the evening of August 9, Chen Jing and others came to this "iconic" notice-the start time of the autumn semester in Beijing.
Ten days later, the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Education and Teaching and Epidemic Prevention and Control in the Fall Semester of 2020". "Comprehensive restoration of education and teaching order" has almost become the headline of all relevant news feeds.
Seeing the positive and firm attitudes shown by all parties, Chen Jing cautiously and optimistically felt that this time, the beginning of school had a few more safety plugs.
On January 17, the third grader Hao Hao ushered in the 2020 winter vacation. At that time, probably no one in Beijing would have thought that a student under the fourth grade like Hao Hao would not be able to return to campus all spring and summer. The winter vacation will eventually “connect seamlessly” with the summer vacation.
By the time the fall semester started, they had been "homeschooling" for nearly 8 months.
In mid-February, a student in Handan City, Hebei Province received online education through live webcast at home. (Issued by Xinhua News Agency)
School no longer
"Can school start?"
Chen Jing could not tell exactly what day it was. Some people realized that the new crown pneumonia epidemic that was raging in the country at that time would affect the upcoming spring semester, but she remembered that as the calendar on the phone jumped from January to February , "Does school start, how to start school, and what to do if school does not start" has become the most discussed question in each class group, mother group, and tutoring group. "It is every parent’s three questions a day."
In a group of mothers that Chen Jing joined, some people sighed: As a mother for more than ten years, I haven't seen any big storms, but this is the first time I can't even figure out when the child will return to school.
The answer is not too late. At the beginning of February, the Ministry of Education proposed to "suspend classes without suspension" and required the development of "cloud education"; on February 17, Beijing's primary and secondary schools failed to open as scheduled, and the homeschooling mode was officially launched.
Settling down, Chen Jing eagerly fists and smug. Like all parents who choose "Chicken Baby", in the past she always felt that the school education progress from Monday to Friday was slow and there was little content. According to the requirements of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, no new classes during the postponement of the semester, Chen Jing, who is still at work flexibly, feels that the use of online classes and her own arrangements and supervision will make Haohao’s home life during the epidemic an effective family education time It's not a difficult task, "Every day from 8 am to 8 pm, from the Big Bang to the destruction of the solar system is enough."
Considering that her son will use the computer intensively for some time to come, Chen Jing also quickly purchased a projector to protect his eyesight.
No matter what happens in the outside world, for a 9-year-old boy, the holiday extension is something that is worth jumping up and down. In addition, it is a new thing to face the computer online class, and face the number of words set by the mother. Hao Hao seemed to be very cooperative in the home study tables for subjects such as foreign, physical education and science.
On the first day, Haohao took 3 hours of math tutoring class seriously, spent nearly 2 hours reading English novels, and planted a can of mimosa by hand—this was in the home study guide package sent by the school teacher One of the requirements: plant plants.
If this continues, the transformation from Puwa to Xueba is just around the corner. Chen Jing thought beautifully.
On the third day, there was no change in the cans watered every day, and Haohao was a little disappointed;
On the 4th day, the science teacher answered questions online, telling Haohao that the mimosa should be placed in a sunny place, and can also write planting records every day;
On the 6th day, I forgot to water;
On the 7th day, remember to water and forget to record;
...
Plants do not change their growth rhythm because of children's expectations or negligence. I don't know when 4 buds appeared in the can, but Haohao's notebook only writes to page 3.
There are also various online courses that are slowly losing his attention. Children are very active by nature. In the past, sitting in the classroom and attending classes, it is inevitable that they sometimes wandered. Faced with an unchanging computer screen, there is no teacher walking back and forth in front of him, and no classmates who can be seen or touched by him. It is inevitable that he can't sit still.
More than a week after the implementation of the family education plan, Haohao's dedicated time for each online class has exceeded 15 minutes. Chen Jing even felt that as soon as the webpage was opened, his son's eyes would straighten and his body would become crooked.
Chen Jing herself was not as calm as she had previously imagined. When it was almost March, the Olympiad book she planned to study only turned a few pages. Many times, she just sat down at the desk, or it was a work that a colleague sent to modify or confirm, or someone in the WeChat group said that this website can snap up masks and that platform can place orders for food, or else, just The pot in the kitchen grumbled, urging her to get up and check.
The living room at home is more and more like a small computer room. Laptops, earphones, and projectors are piled together, and the floor is covered with wires of various colors in all directions. From time to time, Chen Jing has to search for her work documents under Haohao's eraser and pencil sharpener.
It's useless to clean up, "I got up in the morning to clean up, and it will be messy before noon."
In the chaos, the mimosa that had been placed in the corner of the table was already luxuriant, but neither Chen Jing nor Haohao noticed, let alone reached out to feel how shy it was.
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During the postponement of school, the open space in the community became one of the few places for children to play.
Photo by our reporter Yang Dengfeng
Online lessons are difficult
Chen Jing's home-based high-efficiency learning project cannot be implemented anymore.
At present, the number of primary school students in my country alone exceeds 100 million. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, although all localities postponed their return to work, by the end of February, most units and enterprises across the country had resumed work and production. This means that throughout the spring, parents of more than 100 million elementary school students have to go to work and worry about their children's life and study at home.
At the end of March, the Shanghai Survey Team of the National Bureau of Statistics released the "Report on Primary and Secondary School Students During the Epidemic" in primary schools. Nearly 30% of the parents who participated in the survey had negative attitudes when accompanying their children to study at home. 28.2% of parents have the urge to beat and scold, and 7.3% of parents say they are bored.
Starting school as soon as possible is a life-saving straw that Chen Jing and hundreds of millions of parents urgently need.
It's just that the epidemic failed. On the last day of March, Beijing announced that it would start online subject education in primary and secondary schools on April 13.
When the school will start is still unknown, but the familiar "curriculum" is back. Chen Jing regained her spirit and wanted to put Haohao's study on the right track again, "I don't know, I myself was defeated by the huge amount of labor first."
Beijing-level education platform, Xicheng District education platform, corporate WeChat, DingTalk, Tencent Conference, Classin...Different course answers and assignment submissions are all on different platforms. Some homework needs to be handed in with a click of the mouse, some homework needs to be photographed, and some homework needs to be recorded in video. Every night, after Haohao falls asleep, Chen Jing will spend nearly an hour to help him with the homework. time.
One day, because of being too busy at work, Chen Jing forgot about handing in homework. Nearly 12 o'clock at night, she received a WeChat urging from Haohao's class teacher Wang Xiaoou on her mobile phone, "I was so scared that I bounced off the bed."
Wang Xiaoou also looked forward to the early start of school. She is the head teacher of Haohao and the head teacher of 67 other students, but after studying at home in mid-February, Wang Xiaoou feels that she is more like an e-commerce platform customer service, or a 24-hour online one.
Recording the body temperature of each student, publishing school notices, documents, and materials, and asking students about their thoughts and mental states are her daily routine tasks. The rest depends on the number of emergencies that day.
After each home study guide package is issued, different parents will have different questions about different content; there are also parents who do not install equipment for online lessons, Wang Xiaoou will guide step by step on the phone.
After the online teaching started on April 13, every day there were students and parents who couldn't find the course resource pack, students and parents who didn't know what the homework of the day was, and students and parents who forgot to submit their homework. What Wang Xiaoou didn't understand was that while there were so many people in a situation, there were jobs submitted to his system at any time. Therefore, she must always be ready to correct her homework and feedback questions.
Because Beijing has adopted a unified curriculum resource package, Wang Xiaoou and her colleagues do not have to prepare for classes. Every week, she felt that she was indeed playing the role of "teacher", only 6 online Q&A sessions and one class meeting. Watching the instructional video with students in the air, Wang Xiaoou, who has been in business for many years, has no idea how many children are listening to the class seriously; in the classroom practice session, how many children are actually doing calculations and copying.
Mobile phones and the Internet are many children's closest partners during the epidemic. Photo by our reporter Yang Dengfeng
It’s not Huangzhuang, it’s education
One weekend in April, Chen Jing drove past the famous Haidian Huangzhuang and found that it was quiet.
Beijing education looks at Haidian, and Haidian education looks at Huangzhuang. Before the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the roads around Huangzhuang were always congested. Especially on weekends, winter and summer vacations, the road is full of children carrying school bags to and from the cram school.
Like tourism, catering and other industries, the pause button of the "crazy" tutoring industry in Huangzhuang, Haidian was pressed in an instant. In the iconic building Yinwang Center, the gates of most training institutions were closed from the Spring Festival holiday until after May Day.
Huangzhuang paused, and the crazy education didn't stop at all.
Seeing that the epidemic will not disappear in the short term, since February, tutoring organizations have successively transferred courses online through cooperation with third-party platforms, including head education institutions such as Xueersi and New Oriental.
Haohao's Mathematical Olympiad small class was translated online. In order to show sincerity, the training institution reduced the tuition fee of 200 yuan and gave away several courses in other subjects. But this does not satisfy the parents, "The cost is low, why not lower the price?" "Disconnected, stuck, a 45-minute online class takes nearly two hours"... In the WeChat group of the tutorial class, Parents have their own complaints. The most talked about is that their children are silly to teach to the computer screen, with poor results. There are also parents who request a refund of class fees.
"Complaining" did not affect the popularity of online tutoring classes. Seeing that Haohao became more and more impatient with online classes, Chen Jing dropped out the English tutoring class he had previously registered, and wanted to change to a later time. "But the other time is full, and as soon as I turned around, the quota that was just returned was taken up." Called the customer service of the counseling agency, the other party was very good, "but there is no way to put the child back."
Chen Jing deeply regretted. "Even if a child listens for 15 minutes in each class, it is not better than class." As a parent who had to report to Huangzhuang, Haidian every holiday, she could not contain such thoughts.
In order to retain the students, the counseling agencies hurriedly moved to the front line did their best. Among them, the famous teacher class, which was always "difficult to find" limited to venues in the past, no longer limits the number of applicants, which has surprised many parents.
The fifth-grade student Weiwei and her mother are the mother and daughter Chen Jing met in Huangzhuang, Haidian. Weiwei is a standard "cow baby". In the past, limited by time and quota, she only attended 2 math classes, one English class and one Chinese class. Each class is 3 hours, plus the teacher drags the class and the journey back and forth, most of the day is gone. Every time we met, Weiwei's mother would complain, "Too much trouble".
During the epidemic, Weiwei usually didn't have to go to school, and online classes could be replayed. Her mother enrolled her in 6 classes in one breath-4 mathematics, two English, and Chinese also added two short punch-in classes. The little girl has strong learning ability and self-discipline beyond her age. She can complete more than 20 learning tasks in one day. "I really hope that I can take classes online in the future." said Weiwei's mother.
It's just that not every child is a cow. One month after the famous teachers took classes online, many parents did not see the expected progress in their children. The famous teacher lectured too fast and the course was difficult. Many of the concepts and methods used in a single language were not known to Pupwa. I haven't recovered yet, a class is over.
Whether the famous teacher made the cow baby or the cow baby made the master, this is just like "the chicken or the egg" in the extracurricular tutoring industry. But after crazy online education during the epidemic, Chen Jing gradually realized that a word that many mothers used to say, including herself, seemed unable to stand scrutiny.
The sentence goes like this, "If I can help my child chase famous teachers, my child will learn better."
Sanhao boy became an internet addicted boy
On May 13, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued a notice that on June 1, the first and second grades, the first, second and sixth grades of elementary school will return to school to resume classes; on June 8, the fourth and fifth grades of elementary school will return to school and resume classes. Prepare to go back to school in grades one to three.
Just when Chen Jing thought that this long winter vacation was finally over, on June 11, "Uncle Xicheng" was diagnosed. Beijing's record of no new cases of new coronary pneumonia for 56 consecutive days was broken. Subsequently, a new outbreak broke out.
On June 17, elementary and middle school students who had returned to school stopped coming to school, and Haohao, a third-grade student, had a "holiday" before school even started.
The school did not begin, but Chen Jing and her husband Zhang Wensong welcomed their son who was increasingly "wrong".
Da Da, Da Da, Da Da... Sitting on the "Supervisor" opposite Hao Hao for three or four months, Chen Jing heard the mouse click more and more frequently, even to the point of non-stop.
But in fact, online classes rarely require students to use a mouse, and more often they need to pick up a pen to practice.
After careful observation, Chen Jing found that her son had become a "mouse hand". As long as he sits in front of the computer, whether consciously or unconsciously, he will hold the mouse and click around. Even if Chen Jing was sitting next to him, Hao Hao couldn't help but poke every corner of the webpage, "I can't stop at all, as if only that boring voice can make him feel at ease."
One day after the online class was over, Chen Jing called up the browsing records in the computer. During the one-and-a-half hour course, Haohao even opened more than 40 web pages, online novels, web games, and video sites that provide live games. In short, it has nothing to do with learning.
The impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the psychology of adolescents is far beyond ordinary people's estimates. According to a sample survey conducted by the Beijing Youth Legal and Psychological Counseling Service Center for 100,000 teenagers across the country, nearly half of the teenagers interviewed believed that they were troubled by "suppression," "fear," and "tension". Inseparable from mobile phones," and 10% of teenagers "cannot do anything a day, just play games."
Haohao also became addicted to online games. "Peace Elite" "Fifth Personality"... Chen Jing frequently found some similar game icons on the tablet. Although she and her husband repeatedly warned Haohao not to play online games and deleted related apps, the children still used all possible opportunities to download and install again.
One morning in early June, Chen Jing got up and walked into Haohao's room, and saw him sitting crookedly on the bed asleep, holding a mobile phone in her hand. Chen Jing took the phone and pressed it to brighten the screen, and the game page appeared in front of her. Looking at the time records in the game, Hao Hao should have started "action" at 3 o'clock in the middle of the night.
With a buzz in her mind, Chen Jingshun flicked something she didn't know what it was, and flicked at Haohao. The child who was awakened first looked terrified, and then began to cry.
Chen Jing collapsed. She couldn't understand that the teenager whose hobbies were playing football, badminton, and Go six months ago has stayed up until midnight, just waiting for his parents to fall asleep and play games at ease.
A few days later, Chen Jing and her husband Zhang Wensong took Haohao and sat in front of Yang Jianli, a child psychologist.
This is another case of children addicted to the Internet during the epidemic that Yang Jianli took over. "Do you know what game Haohao is playing, and which part of the game he likes the most?" Faced with Zhang Wensong, who had been "complaining" his child, Yang Jianli couldn't answer the first question of Yang Jianli.
Yang Jianli told Zhang Wensong that during the epidemic, adolescents had been out of group life for a long time, lacked a regular life, and lacked communication with classmates, partners or even strangers outside of their families, and their emotional needs could not be met, so they turned to the Internet or games as alternatives. .
At this time, Chen Jing remembered that one of Haohao's best friends lived in the same community, but the two had not met before May.
After returning home from the first consultation, according to Yang Jianli's suggestion, Zhang Wensong installed all the games that Haohao had played before on the tablet, and then "asked him" about the content and features of each game.
"This game is about the story of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms. Zhao Yun is a very powerful character." Hearing what Haohao said, Zhang Wensong immediately responded: "I think Guan Yu is more powerful. Most of the people who designed the game are arranging heroes."
In order to verify his father's words, Haohao re-read most of the original chapters of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Although the conclusion is still that Zhao Yunqiang passed Guan Yu, he also found many settings in the game that did not conform to the original.
A few days later, Haohao deleted the game. "He said it felt boring to play again." Zhang Wensong happily responded to Yang Jianli.
More exciting content
Temporary playmates, "temporary" childhood
In the early morning of April 30, Beijing's first-level response to public health safety incidents was adjusted to second-level. On May 1, under the organization of Wang Xiaoou and his parents, Haohao and the whole class went outdoors for a day.
This is the first time this group of children have seen each other since mid-January. Haohao has been happy for nearly a week because of the day of gathering, and his mental state has also refreshed a lot.
Born in Beijing after 2010, in addition to his classmates, Haohao's generation of children only has "cram school playmates."
Taking a cram school together means that the learning content and time are consistent. You can do homework together, or you can go to the convenience store to buy snacks together after class, and then go to the subway together after school. Last semester, Haohao's cram school was on Saturday, and his good friend's cram school was on Sunday. The two discussed together and asked the two mothers to find a way to adjust the time together. "Must!" Haohao and the others are very determined, because if they don't, they can't play together. After a few months, they might not be their best friends.
The weekly psychological consultation for a family of three continues. By July, the issue of video games had been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Chen Jing and Zhang Wensong no longer regard playing games as a heinous thing, and Haohao no longer secretly plays games. According to the agreement with his parents, he has half an hour a day to play games in a fair manner.
During the rest of his study time, Chen Jing encouraged Haohao to play in the courtyard of the community. Slowly, after going home in sweat, Hao Hao would bring up a playmate with a water gun, or another playmate who was playing hide and seek.
After holding back the whole spring, the children quickly got together.
In late August, Chen Jing and Zhang Wensong began to prepare for the new semester. Mathematics tuition classes and English tuition classes still have to be arranged in advance, but after six months of homeschooling with the children, Chen Jing's desire for "chicken baby" has become less intense. She plans to set aside one day of free time for Hao Hao every week, and he decides what he wants to do. Hao Hao insists on learning programming for children, although he enters the fourth grade according to the plan of most "chicken baby" parents. , All interest classes must give way to extracurricular tutoring to prepare for the upcoming Beijing No. 8 Junior High School enrollment.
"How about one less Chinese course and let him keep his hobby?" Chen Jing looked at the new semester schedule before her and convinced herself.
It was in the afternoon when children shouted and clamored outside the window. Children up to 10 years old can't tell everyone's name even after playing together several times. Later, they simply numbered everyone, "Today, kid 1 did not come" and "Tomorrow I will take Transformers to play with kid 5".
Chen Jing secretly admires the children's ability to solve problems. Just thinking about it, she felt that it was like a metaphor. Do even the children know that once the new semester begins, such "temporary gangs" will disband and the yard will return to the quietness of the past?