To study abroad for a younger age should be treated rationally

  In the "Report on the Development of China's Study Abroad (2019)", studying abroad for primary and middle school students has become one of the focus of the report.

Elementary and middle school students studying abroad have shown a trend of younger age, which has continued for several years.

This trend not only shows that parents are determined to nurture their children at all costs, and hope that children can integrate into foreign life and adapt to the culture of the country as soon as possible. It also shows that parents hope that their children can use this experience to increase their chances of being admitted to foreign prestigious schools and get better Development Platform.

However, it is not sensible to blindly advance the age of children studying abroad.

  One is the indifference and estrangement of family affection. The so-called "new empty-nest families" refer to families where children study abroad and their parents work in China.

In China, blood relationship and family ethics have a deep accumulation, forming close family bonds.

Western individualistic values ​​determine that they advocate freedom and independence, and a relatively sound social security system and social service system also make parents not dependent on their children.

At an age when children most need the company, love and guidance of their parents, staying away from relatives is an emotional pity for both parties.

  The second is the social barriers brought about by marginalization.

Chinese children have lived in the environment of Chinese culture since they were young, and face an unfamiliar cultural environment after being far away from the country.

For elementary and middle school students who are still growing up and studying abroad, it is difficult for them to integrate into the social circle of local students, which will cause a series of problems such as social barriers.

What is more noteworthy is that when children go abroad to study at a young age, socialized learning in China has just started, and suddenly the transfer of learning to an unfamiliar Western environment may hinder the socialization of children.

  Third, the development of personality and potential is difficult to be tapped.

Elementary and middle school students are at a critical stage of physical and mental development. Facing sudden illnesses such as headaches and brain fever, they can only choose to solve them by themselves.

If the physical illness is only a temporary pain, then at the critical stage of psychological development, if the primary and middle school students cannot get the correct guidance from their relatives in time, problems will also arise.

In addition, in the process of children's growth, their own personality development and potential development are the key to being able to give full play to their talents and make them the driving force for personal development in the future.

Elementary and middle school students studying abroad are in different cultural backgrounds and lack proper guidance, which often delays the best time, makes children take detours in the development of personality and potential, and even destroys spirituality.

  The fourth is the weakening of cultural identity.

Adolescence is a critical period for the formation of world outlook, outlook on life, and values. The influence of Chinese excellent traditional culture on young people is the silent penetration of things, but the influence of traditional culture, and even the formation of cultural identity and world outlook takes a long time to accumulate.

Therefore, the lower the age when you go abroad, the shallower the foundation of a person's national culture, and the cultivation of cultural identity has become a source of water and a tree without roots.

  From this point of view, the emergence of elementary and middle school students studying abroad is often due to over-magnification of the possible early adaptation benefits of elementary and middle school students studying abroad, ignoring the more important family care for children’s growth, and ignoring cultural barriers. The resulting physical and mental burden avoids the shortcomings of children’s personality and potential that cannot be tapped effectively and promptly, and underestimates the huge impact of cultural differences.

It may be a good thing for children to study abroad, but the age group they choose to go abroad is very important.

Young people in elementary and middle schools are more likely to lay the foundation of the country's cultural soil, accept the nourishment of five thousand years of cultural heritage, and soar into the world when their wings grow.

It can be said that the more ethnic the more the world, the more students who have a rich heritage of Chinese excellent culture can ride the wave of the world.

  (Author: Tangsheng Chang, Department of Shanghai super principals are senior teachers, former president of Shanghai High School)

  "Guangming Daily" (November 09, 2020 Edition 02)