Kindergarten stage is suitable for introducing labor education
——Exploration on preschool education for children aged 3 to 6 years old
Recently, a video released by a kindergarten in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province has become popular on the Internet and has been sought after by many parents. In the video, children can skillfully pancake and stuff sausages. The principal of the kindergarten responded: "This is a life class offered in the kindergarten. The children not only set fire to cook, but also raised chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Parents are very supportive."
How should we view the phenomenon of labor education extending to kindergarten? What labor methods are suitable for young children to learn? What roles should parents and kindergartens play respectively? A few days ago, the reporter conducted an interview on this.
Labor education should become an important part of preschool children’s education
In 2022, some media released a survey on labor education among more than 20,000 primary and secondary school students. The data showed that: 40.9% of the students surveyed could not wash clothes, 42.8% could not cook noodles, 63.2% could not cook, and even wash 36.6% of students cannot do even relatively simple housework such as cooking. This survey reflects to a certain extent the current situation of students’ insufficient participation in housework and insufficient skills.
Today, labor education has begun to extend to kindergartens.
"We have class duty students, and we require children to learn to clean, take care of class plants and small animals, and record their changes with a paintbrush." Fang Yiyi (pseudonym), a kindergarten teacher in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, discovered that now children at home He will also take the initiative to help adults with housework.
"The kindergarten stage is suitable for introducing labor education, and labor education should become an important part of preschool children's education." Zhao Gang, honorary dean of the Family Education Research Institute of Northeast Normal University, analyzed that compared with the primary and secondary school stages, more emphasis is placed on intellectual development. The kindergarten stage is the social center for children. It is an early exercise of gamification and a gamified imitation of adult society and future society. Therefore, experiencing life and simulating society through labor should become a prominent feature of early childhood education.
"Stimulating interest is the prerequisite for cultivating children's labor habits." Hong Xiumin, director of the Preschool Education Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, said that children participate in various labor experiences in the form of games, from which they can learn life skills, safety knowledge, strengthen Labor exercise.
Hong Xiumin suggested: “The labor enlightenment education for young children should cleverly combine games and labor education according to the characteristics of the labor projects suitable for them. It should also focus on guiding children to develop interest in labor in life, enrich labor experience, and cultivate self-cultivation in games. Labor attitude, experience the value of labor in activities.”
Gu Jianjun, leader of the compulsory education labor curriculum standard group of the Ministry of Education and director of the Nanjing Normal University Labor Education Research Institute, told reporters that labor education plays an important role in children's labor enlightenment, and it is very important for kindergartens to do some practical exploration in this regard. He reminded: "Children have their own characteristics in terms of labor cognition, physiological and psychological development, etc. Labor projects should be adapted to local conditions and within their capabilities, scientifically design labor intensity, frequency, difficulty, and depth, and pay attention to the enlightenment of kindergarten children's labor emotions and labor concepts. , as well as the early cultivation of good working habits and self-care abilities, laying the foundation for the formation of children’s labor literacy.”
Exploring “Home-School Cooperation” in Labor Education
In addition to learning household chores such as cooking and steaming steamed buns, some kindergartens are also trying to allow children to participate in agricultural production such as sowing and breeding, breaking away from the constraints of the classroom and moving labor education to kitchens, fields, and farms.
Last year, the radish garden of the No. 3 Kindergarten in De’an County, Jiangxi Province had a bumper harvest. In addition to radishes, the school’s labor education practice base also grows watermelons, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. The Central Kindergarten of Linchi Town, Zouping City, Shandong Province, has carried out a number of labor-themed educational activities such as paper-cutting, weaving, printing and dyeing, clay sculpture, and food education workshops. For many parents, labor education no longer remains at the “photo-taking and clock-in” stage.
What roles should schools and parents play in the process of labor education in kindergartens?
"Kindergarten teachers should consciously provide children with labor opportunities in their daily lives, actively guide children to participate in labor, and experience the sense of accomplishment of learning labor skills and harvesting the fruits of labor, so as to cultivate their spirit of respecting and advocating labor." Hong Xiumin said .
Gu Jianjun reminded that kindergarten labor education must properly handle the relationship between the playfulness, life and authenticity of labor activities, properly handle the relationship between school education, family education and social education, and give play to the leading role of school labor education and guidance for family labor education. effect.
"Parents should also participate in the labor education of young children." Zhao Gang also believes that the focus of "home-school cooperation" in labor education is to improve parents' labor education capabilities, clarify parents' responsibilities and obligations, and enable parents to form awareness of labor education. .
"Parents can be clearly informed: Children aged 3 to 4 can help parents put away clothes and organize toys; children aged 4 to 5 can help water plants, clean tables, place dishes, take out the trash, wash dishes, etc. Children can participate..." Zhao Gang said that labor education should penetrate into all aspects of daily life, guiding children to do their own work and take the initiative to take on labor tasks, instead of parents arranging household labor. To implement labor education in kindergarten, parents and kindergartens need two-way communication, cooperation and complementation to form a synergy.
(Our reporter Chen Peng and our correspondent Hua Yiran)