We all studied at school and remember very well that in each class there are children with different academic performance: excellent students, good students, three students and two students.
With the beginning of the list, everything is clear, this is the pride of the parents and the absence of a headache about studying. And what about being a parent if the child's grades leave much to be desired or if he has sharply worsened his academic performance. Let's try to figure out what the reasons for poor performance may be.
1. Family problems. Any scandals and quarrels between parents have a negative impact on the child. The most terrible thing for a child is the divorce of his parents. As a rule, this event entails a sharp deterioration in academic performance and a complete unwillingness to study. There is no need to think that he does not notice anything and does not understand anything in adult affairs. In addition to the above, the child may react in a similar way to moving or changing schools.
2. Health problems. Perhaps your child's eyesight has simply deteriorated, and he does not see anything from the blackboard, but is embarrassed to tell the teacher, as happens at a young age. The reason may be overwork, insufficient exposure to fresh air.
3. Problems with classmates. Everyone is well aware that in any school there are hooligans and bullies who offend the weak, come up with offensive nicknames for them and humiliate human dignity in other ways.
4. Combining studies with sports or in creative circles. Some children manage to study well and become strong athletes. However, those who do not succeed in such a combination have to give up their favorite business for the sake of study.
5. Laziness. Often the child is too lazy to do homework, read textbooks, solve problems. Try to look at yourself from the outside. If you spend your free time pointlessly staring at your phone, watching TV, etc., your child will take an example from you and, just like you watch TV, play computer games instead of completing school assignments.
As a parent, you need to analyze the situation and try to resolve it.
Give him concrete examples from life that if you study well at school, you can go to college or university, get a higher education, get a well-paid job and buy yourself everything you want. Let the child not attach much importance to your words, but a consistent chain of actions will be built in his head.
Greetings to all parents of students! Today I want to talk about the performance of our children at school, about how to arouse interest in classes so that grades get better and better. Unfortunately, many parents complain that the child does not study well, what to do in this situation, how to improve grades?
Now my daughter has already moved into the seventh grade, and for the entire time she has been at school, we have already established certain rules with her that relate to school, and in particular, homework. But of course, in elementary school, I had to work a lot for this, both for me and for her.
But now it has borne fruit: she studies very well and we have practically no problems with studies. Of course, a lot depends on the teacher, especially in primary school. To be honest, we were very lucky with the teacher, she was kind and at the same time very strict. But it's not about that...
Now it’s already November outside and the second quarter will fly by as always very quickly, and then, you see, it’s already the end of the school year, and then you understand that your student will again bring not the best grades in the report card ...
Of course, there are children who study with pleasure and do not need to be forced. They do all their homework after school on their own in order to get a good grade the next day. This is the dream of all parents. But, unfortunately, according to statistics, there will be no more than three or four such students for the entire parallel.
But our scientists say that excessive diligence is also not very good, since such children always get used to doing everything only perfectly and be the best. And this can greatly hinder them in adulthood, where everything can be completely different from what they are used to. Therefore, if your baby does not love learning too much, there is nothing wrong with that either, you do not need to blame him for this.
In most cases, how a child learns depends on the parents, and not on teachers and friends, because it is the parents who can interest the child and find certain incentives to improve his performance. How to do it?
But in this situation, you can try to do something. Of course, if there are problems with only one or a couple of items, then, as they say, there is something to fight for, you can “push” more specifically on these items. And here the active participation of parents in the process is necessary.
But if all items are launched, then here, at the end of the year, it is unlikely that something will be fixed. And in such a situation, it is already worth preparing the ground for future classes, in a new educational one. In particular, you just need to talk to the child in an adult way, without swearing, and try to set him up for more serious work in the next classes. You need to find out his opinion, as he thinks, why he began to study worse. Ask how you personally can help him.
But it is necessary to end such a conversation only with a positive attitude, so that the child understands that you fully believe in his strengths and abilities. After such a conversation, it is advisable to start studying additionally and think about a plan for additional classes during the summer holidays, for example, with the help of a tutor.
Before you arrange a “showdown” with your child, you need to try to find the reason for his poor grades. And you know, sometimes it may turn out that these reasons are not at all related to study.
How long has the baby been at the optometrist? Observe how close the child leans to notebooks and books, maybe it is the visual impairment that prevents him from studying well? If, after visiting the optometrist, this is confirmed, then you need to inform the teacher about this in order for the baby to be transplanted to a comfortable distance from the board.
If the baby does not eat well, is pale, it is clear that he is very tired from exertion, it does not hurt to show him to the attending physician. You may need to do some basic testing. The fact is that our children can very often have those who take useful substances from the child's body for their life. And simply getting rid of worms can have a positive impact on academic performance.
As you know, children are very sensitive to conflicts that occur in the family. He will obviously not be up to school if his thoughts are constantly clogged with the fact that mom and dad are constantly swearing. Remember yourself in childhood? For example, I remember very well how once my parents quarreled a lot. It was already very late in the evening and my brother and I went to bed. I woke up from this scream, and then I could not sleep all night, listening and worrying about my mother, because my father was very angry and screamed very much. Not only did I not get enough sleep, but all day at school all my thoughts were very far from the lessons ... How many years have passed, but I remember everything in detail. That's how childish it is...
Therefore, try to solve all your problems and conflict situations so that the child does not know about it, and even more so does not participate in it.
You need to try more often to just talk with the kid about what is happening at school, whether he has friends, whether there are any “bullies” who pester him at school and do not allow him to concentrate on the lessons.
You can talk with the class teacher, and in addition to grades, find out from him how the child behaves in class and breaks, how good his relationship with other children is.
Of course, we all want our children to grow up diversified. Therefore, we often overload them with various additional activities, which eventually turn into a heavy burden for them. Children are overwhelmed, and more often psychologically than physically.
The kid must definitely have time so that he can play with his favorite toys, with friends, go through the next level in his favorite computer game (not too long) or just relax without doing anything.
As practice shows, this is the most common cause of poor academic performance. It seems that there is time to do homework, but you really don’t want to do it! It is much more pleasant to sit at a computer, watch TV or just sit back in an armchair.
In such a situation, first of all, look at yourself from the outside. Perhaps it is you, excuse me for being direct, who sets a bad example for your child? If mom and dad constantly spend all their free time watching the same TV, then the child will copy your behavior.
In this case, you need to adjust your habits a little, and when everyone in the family has free time, spend it to good use. For example, go for a walk with the whole family, to the theater, to a picnic, it doesn’t matter, the main thing is not to spend time pointlessly.
As for the child, more decisive measures are needed here. For example, you can ban watching TV and playing games on the computer until the lessons are done or move all these entertainments to the weekend. If this does not help much, then such a ban can be introduced on weekends. This works especially well in the education of younger students.
Of course, at the first stage, you may encounter tantrums, but, over time, the child will get used to the new rules. This is where determination on your part is very important. If it says NO, it means NO.
Of course, you can talk a lot with the child that if he studies well now, it will help him in the future. But as practice shows, this will give little, since this is still a distant and incomprehensible prospect for him.
But this does not mean that such conversations are not needed. You just need to speak not in the abstract, but with the help of concrete examples. For example, like this: if you have good knowledge and grades, then you can go to college and get a good specialty, thanks to which you will have money and you can buy a car, an apartment, or whatever else he dreams of.
Let the child not yet be able to attach great importance to such words, but a certain sequence of actions will be laid in his head related to learning now and a secure life in the future.
Well, so that he can now feel at least some benefit from a good study, come up with some kind of incentive for him. You can promise to give him, for example, some thing that he has long wanted to receive.
For example, it can be a mobile phone, some kind of game, perhaps an increase in pocket money or a trip somewhere. Or you can allow him to show independence and plan the day off himself.
Ask the student what he wants. This approach will be a great motivation and the child will most likely try very hard to get the promised reward. Only at the same time it is very important to fulfill this promise, otherwise you will simply lose the trust of the child.
As for parents, I can give advice to go to school and talk with the teacher to find out his opinion on why the kid has poor academic performance. At the same time, the teacher will see what you, as parents, are going through and you are not indifferent to the school life of your son or daughter.
Sometimes, to correct the assessment, you can prepare some additional materials, such as an abstract. And at home, especially before tests, just devote more time to subjects and work out additional homework with your child.
To a greater extent, control over homework is needed for children who are not very organized and are constantly distracted by something else.
Another good tip would be to make a daily routine with the baby so that he knows exactly when and what he should do in order to be in time. It is very organizing, I can say from personal experience. Now this is no longer very common in modern families, but I remember when I was a schoolgirl, I always had a daily routine on the wall. It is especially nice when it is colorful and beautiful. My mother and I filled it with multi-colored felt-tip pens and hung it in a conspicuous place. As a result, I had a clear plan of action, and I managed to do my homework and go to training and just relax.
And for younger students, you can do something else. On a large sheet of paper, write down all the subjects that he is studying. Then, when he gets a good grade in the subject at school, we draw a smiling sun or a cheerful emoticon in front of this subject. And if the score is bad, then the emoticon will be very sad.
For older children, you can simply draw a graph, depending on the points received. Children in this case will try and be very happy when the schedule goes up)
And, of course, there are three main ways to improve your grades:
There are several points that are important not to forget for the parents themselves. First of all, an excellent mark in a subject should not be achieved at any cost. The child must understand that it is not so much the assessment that is important as the knowledge itself.
Also, you do not need to do his tasks instead of the child. Firstly, it will have a bad effect on the upbringing of independence and responsibility in him, and secondly, he may develop a complex that he himself is not able to cope with anything, which will greatly hinder him in the future.
And of course, in no case should a child be called names because something does not work out for him, as he may lose faith that he will succeed, or vice versa, he will study poorly out of harm.
Only patience, various stimuli and friendly conversations can help in a situation where a child does not study well.
A child's progress in school is a matter of pride for parents, because everyone wants to see their child successful, smart and talented. However, not all children study well and become excellent students. How to respond to a student's bad grades, is it worth scolding him for it, and how to make sure that the child does his homework without coercion? We will discuss these issues in detail in this article.
Learning to adequately respond to bad grades of the child
Often moms and dads are interested in the question Is it worth scolding a child for bad grades? Psychologists advise not to scold or punish. Even if it makes you very sad, do not throw out a bunch of reproaches, disapproval and accusations on your son or daughter. Usually, children perceive such a reaction from their parents as an assessment of their personality, which in the future can significantly reduce their self-confidence.
In addition, the child next time will think about whether it is necessary to tell you about a bad mark or is it better to hide this fact so as not to run into your anger. In the future, he will most likely hide from you other not the best situations that can happen to him. Therefore, in order to become a friend to your child, you need to build a trusting relationship with him.
. If child does poorly in school, no need to flatter yourself with the illusion that everything will somehow be decided by itself. Underachievement signals certain problems with your student, so you should definitely find out the reason for what is happening.
. Don't do homework for your child. The question is not that there is no need to help and explain. This is exactly what should be done when needed. But if you do all the lessons for the child, you do not bring him good, but only exacerbate the problem.
So, what is the algorithm for solving the problem of poor progress?
. Find out from your child how he is doing at school, what they teach, what he likes and what causes difficulties, what are his impressions of teachers and relationships with classmates. Moreover, such communication should be constant, and not occur only when the child does not study well at school.
. Try to calmly and with the help of unobtrusive questions find out the circumstances under which the child received a two or three: what was the topic of the lesson, what question did the student fail to answer correctly, did he worry about the answer, and so on.
. Tell your child that you are upset by a bad grade, but you are ready to help him cope with this trouble. Among other things, do not forget to thank him for his frankness and honesty.
. Now we need to find the root of the problem. Here, of course, you will also need the participation of the child. Most likely, he did not have time to understand the topic of the subject, or he missed something. If a child does not study well, the reason may be his self-doubt. Perhaps he was simply confused and shy to speak in front of the class. Poor progress can also be the result of poor health of the baby or lack of contact with the teacher.
. When the cause is found, it's time to correct the situation. Help your child study the material if necessary.
If it's a psychological issue, reassure the child and find words to increase his self-confidence. Tell your son or daughter that getting a bad grade doesn't mean being bad for others. That the assessment itself simply shows the degree of mastery of the educational material, and you can learn it and correct the assessment. Do not hesitate - you will definitely be able to cheer up the child. After all, who knows your child better than yourself?
In addition, explain to the student that you need to ask the teacher for the opportunity to retake the material. Thus, he will show the teacher his indifference to a bad mark and a desire to learn.
How to teach a child to do homework willingly?
After the child returns from school, let him rest for an hour or two or take a walk on the street. Since 4-5 hours at the desk and at home right at the desk is already too much. Picking up the kid from school, you do not need to talk with him first of all about lessons or homework. It is better to find another interesting topic for communication. Classes in a circle or section after school are also a good option for changing activities.
. The child does not want to do homework? Let him know that the fulfillment of the tasks assigned at school is for him the same important and serious work as for adults their work. Thus, you simultaneously teach the child to be responsible.
. Do not tear your child away from lessons by entrusting him with some lengthy housework. However, the baby should in no way sit at the table for hours continuously, because this negatively affects his health. Pauses in study are necessary, so you can, for example, ask him to water the flowers or give some other quick and easy task.
. Threats, reproaches and punishments are not an option. They can bring only a short-term effect. The child will simply do homework "under pressure", and this will not change his true attitude to the situation in any way.
. Doing homework should not be a way to punish a child for bad behavior. But also do not use it as blackmail: "If you do your homework, let's go to the rides." Otherwise, the acquisition of knowledge will not be considered by the child as something valuable and useful for him, but only as a means of achieving personal selfish goals.
. You should not give your son or daughter any additional tasks to those that he received at school. And do not "run ahead of the engine", studying with the baby the material that he has not yet passed. Everything has its time.
. When the child does not want to do homework, tell him that he can rely on your help. But this does not mean that you will do everything for him.
. Be sure to encourage your baby. “You will certainly cope”, “I believe in you, everything will work out for you”, “You will certainly master this task” - such phrases will instill confidence in the child, and he will become more willing to learn lessons. Remember that praise is a great motivator, so don't forget to praise your student for a successful homework assignment.
Often parents are faced with the fact that their children, who initially showed great promise, suddenly change dramatically. It often happens that at the age of two a child already knows letters, colors, as well as a lot of other information that his peers cannot boast of. The children read poetry and are well behaved at home, but suddenly, as soon as they go to school, the situation changes.
As a rule, in this case, fathers, mothers, grandparents start to panic and most often go to a psychologist with the same problem: the child does not study well, what should I do? At worst, they begin to use a belt and physical punishment on a child who flatly refuses to behave well in an educational institution. However, you need to understand that such measures will not help change the child's attitude to school. In this case, you need to look for the cause much deeper. Therefore, it is worth referring to the recommendations of psychologists who are not the first time faced with a similar problem.
So, if at school, what to do in this situation? First of all, you need to understand the causes of the problem.
According to recent studies, in 20% of cases of such behavior, the cause of poor school performance is brain cell dysfunction. Most often, mental retardation occurs in schoolchildren who were born in dysfunctional families. If the mother of the baby drank a lot, then this could provoke the so-called fetal alcohol syndrome. Also, inhibited development can be the result of traumatic brain injuries or serious mental shocks. Also, this could be facilitated by the transferred infectious diseases, which proceeded in a severe form. In this case, children learn poorly for no apparent reason.
The fact is that doctors cannot always immediately identify a developmental delay in a child at a very early stage. This is due to the fact that little crumbs from birth love to learn. They want to learn new information and try to absorb everything new like a sponge. That is why in younger age they can perfectly know letters, verses and many other things. However, subsequently, difficulties with remembering information begin to appear, as well as with the simplest analysis in certain situations. Such children cannot cope with ordinary algebraic formulas or learn verse.
In this case, do not blame the baby. Instead, it is worth considering whether the child may not study well due to developmental delays. Therefore, it is necessary to contact a specialist to clarify the presence of this problem.
If he does not study well, then this is not yet a sign of his rebelliousness. The receipt, perception and processing of information can be impaired due to a variety of ailments that can occur in the body of a child.
The most common problem is poor eyesight. The fact is that for children who do not see very well, it is more difficult to read the boards, respectively, they get tired faster. They are forced to lean closer to the notebook, in which case an additional load on the spine is created.
Poor hearing is also one of the most common problems. If the child is very hard of hearing, he cannot always correctly understand what the teacher explains to him. In this case, there is a plethora of information.
Also, problems in learning can occur in children who suffer from autism. In this case, kids simply simply cannot concentrate on information correctly, they very often switch their attention from one subject to another.
In addition, learning difficulties can occur due to diseases such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. If the baby does not see any difference between letters and symbols, then his brain will not be able to process the information in the necessary way.
If we talk about why children do not study well at school, then it is worth paying attention to this problem. You need to understand that children are the most impressionable. Any conflicts or tragic events in the family can leave a huge imprint on the psychology of a young child. If his parents constantly quarrel, and the baby sees and hears this, then very soon it will be possible to notice that the child has become worse at learning, as it is more difficult for him to concentrate.
When his head is filled only with anxious thoughts and concerns for the well-being of his family, he will not be able to fully immerse himself in the necessary material that the teacher explains.
Before going to school, many children attend extra classes. Preschool education plays a huge role in a child's academic performance. If he cannot correctly form the features of his behavior and how the educational process really takes place, then he will not be able to treat school life with the necessary attention. This is especially worth considering if you plan to send your child to study at a lyceum, in which the programs are usually much more complicated than in typical district schools.
Therefore, a lot depends on the preliminary preparation. If a child does poorly in school, then perhaps he has not learned to adapt to the fact that he is forced to be in the same room with complete strangers for a long time while simultaneously learning new information.
Very often, parents try to realize their dreams through their beloved child. By and large, they believe that the child is a certain project, which must be successful. That is why adults begin to show too much perseverance and exactingness towards babies. They judge them by their grades, not their emotional qualities.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with trying to grow a comprehensive personality out of a child, but one must not overdo it in this undertaking, since in this case one will have to face the problem of why the child does not study well.
If the kid is constantly engaged in various circles and sections, then he will experience huge overloads. It is necessary to give children the opportunity to relax and be a little who they are. Toddlers should participate in social life not only through sports activities, but also in a free atmosphere. Psychological stress can also lead to the fact that the brain of a young child simply cannot process the huge amount of information that is presented to him daily. In this case, if the child does not study well, what to do is quite obvious. Need to loosen up his schedule a bit.
Starting from a very early age, the child learns to build relationships with the outside world in the right way. If during this period he did not have the opportunity to socialize, then he is likely to face a huge amount of difficulties. Children who rarely go out and spend more time at home find it much more difficult to find the right approach to their peers and classmates. In this case, it is not surprising that the child began to study poorly. What to do in such a situation? Try to spend as much time with the baby as possible and try to find friends for him.
Some children do not study well because they are very shy, so it is difficult for them to act actively, answer at the blackboard or recite poems in the presence of a large number of people. Other babies, on the other hand, may be overconfident. In this case, they will be sure that they simply do not need to prepare homework.
Very often in childhood, kids are jokingly called clumsy or some other carefree at first glance words. However, very often the child perceives this as a call to action and becomes the person with whom he is compared.
If a child does not study well at school, then the reason may lie precisely in this. This explanation is becoming more and more common today. In this case, the child most likely has enough time, he lives an active social life, he has friends and, by and large, has all the prerequisites to do well in school. Most often, such children are not deprived of mental abilities, but, on the contrary, show increased ingenuity and the ability to think logically. However, such people are simply too lazy to devote time to learning new material or preparing homework. Very often, young schoolchildren simply copy the behavior of one of their parents.
Very often, the reason that children do not study well at school is possible quarrels with one of their classmates or even with the teacher himself. And it happens that teachers begin to find fault with the child too much, and he “turns on the self-defense mode”. In this case, the student deliberately stops doing homework and behaves in the same way as with his parents, being mischievous and capricious.
Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that one of his classmates mocks him or constantly laughs. In this case, the children are very much withdrawn into themselves and stop doing homework, so as not to once again provoke bullying from their peers.
At the age of 12-13 years, active puberty begins. At this stage, teenagers begin to be interested in the opposite sex and behave more impulsively or aggressively towards others. Interests change, new hobbies appear, and children do not study well.
And if it came to falling in love, then "write wasted." During this period, it is very difficult for children to concentrate on their studies at a time when the head is full of the object of adoration. Therefore, at this age it is very important not to overdo it, there is no need to “press” on a young child. It must be understood that during this period of time the child is most interested in new feelings that he discovers for himself. Therefore, you need to try to concentrate on explaining the key points of the relationship between a man and a woman.
You need to understand that, starting from the 1st grade and up to the 11th, it is the parent who must help his child get an education. In order not to become an enemy for the baby, you must follow several important rules.
First of all, you need to find contact with the child. You need to become a friend for him, and not a monster that only requires a positive assessment. No need to hide your warm feelings towards the child. If he does not experience love in the family, then most likely he will throw out all his negativity at school.
In addition, it is very important to evaluate not the school marks themselves, but the fact that the child really aspired to gain knowledge. If the kid painstakingly did his homework and tried his best, but at the same time he got a three, you don’t need to scold him, on the contrary, it’s better to praise him for his efforts and try to explain to him that next time he can get an excellent grade.
Also, do not forget about motivation. In this case, it is impossible to threaten the child with any physical violence in case of receiving a bad mark. Physical punishment is the most terrible motivation for any person. In this case, there is a big risk of growing a notorious or, conversely, a very aggressive or unsociable person.
If a child does not study well, the reasons can be very diverse. However, you need to understand that good school grades are not a guarantee that the child will live a happy life and become a famous scientist.
According to research by psychiatrists, not all excellent students turn into successful people. Very often, due to the stress that a child experiences in childhood, at a more conscious age, he tries to relax as much as possible. As a result, lazy people and alcoholics grow out of such people. The reverse situation happens to those who studied, on the contrary, very badly. Having not fully realized their potential during their school years, matured adolescents begin active work. They find interesting hobbies and really realize themselves as full-fledged individuals.
For example, Albert Einstein could only boast of good grades in mathematics. In all other subjects it was a complete failure. However, this did not prevent him from becoming the most famous scientist, whose name today is known to absolutely every person on earth.
Marilyn Monroe did not know grammar at all. Almost all of her letters contain a fantastic number of errors. However, this did not stop her from becoming the most famous actress and legendary person.
And the inventor Thomas Edison at school was considered mentally retarded by everyone. There are thousands more examples of successful people who were able to become millionaires, scientists, brilliant specialists and actors, although at the same time they studied below average in school, and some did not receive a certificate at all.
You need to understand that, no matter how high a child’s academic performance, he has the same chance of becoming a successful person or, conversely, sinking to the very bottom. Everything depends not on the grades that he receives, but on the experience and knowledge received from his parents. If a child does not see love and a normal attitude towards himself, then he is unlikely to succeed in becoming a good person.
And there are children who go out of their way Not get involved in the work, demonstrating their independence with all their appearance. And I understand: they are afraid to join in an unexpected test, because they are not confident in their abilities. These are the children in whom they do not believe at home.
– But to be unsure of one's abilities is a natural state for a person ...
“It’s not natural for a small child not to believe in himself. If a six-month-old child did not believe in himself, he would be in a state of constant fear of the outside world. And he begins to master this world, and even so assertively. Up to five years, psychologists say, the child is self-centered. The situation of egocentricity is a situation of unconditional faith in oneself.
A child is a being charged with the energy of achievement. A feat is not when something is done to me, it is when I do something to myself. I jump above my head, I make efforts that I could not make yesterday. I bravely enter a zone that is unknown to me. And doing it makes me feel like a hero. Childhood is the period when there is always a place for a feat in life. And it’s good if there are adults nearby who see and understand these micro-feats. With sincere praise from adults, the child gains more and more strength. Effort turns into strength. A move is an effort. A move is a risk. But if parents do not raise the bar, do not increase the testing space, do not set truly intriguing and difficult tasks for the child that would develop his inner strength, then they do not trust their child.
But those children in whom parents believe will be enthusiastically included in any unfamiliar trials. They will never run away from them into a corner to quietly drive a car ... Another thing is that sometimes various tests break a child's faith in himself.
- We are talking about the fact that an ordinary child needs to take more and more new heights. In a Russian school, speaking objectively, it is difficult to study. This is not a Scandinavian or elementary Japanese school... Why do school heights break children in Russia?
- School is not an easy walk around the playroom. The school involves taking difficult heights. Undoubtedly! But there are difficulties adequate, there are inadequate. There are cheap difficulties, there are expensive ones - what is called “difficulties-diamonds”. And we wonder why the learning system that we create naturally, in the family, in the circle of loved ones, has the potential to make the child many times stronger? Why does the school system, created artificially, often break children's ability to be strong?
Imagine: when you were two months old, you were brought up ... let me think about who the Chinese are! Or not, there is even a language even more difficult: you were brought up by the Vietnamese. From now on, only Vietnamese is spoken around you. The truth is that you can easily master this insanely difficult Vietnamese language. What inner courage you need to have to do it! And you can do it with ease. This suggests that in a month, two, three, four, you had self-confidence. You had courage. In your life there was a place for a feat. It never crossed your mind to reject this challenge and refuse to learn Vietnamese. You will naturally penetrate into these strange scales and decipher them. And at the age of two or three you begin to babble in Vietnamese, moreover: you freely master this language space. This task is up to you.
Amazing, right? But now - you go to school, where you are given teachers who begin to teach you according to the program and set learning tasks for you. They begin to teach you your native speech, teach you to read, write - and suddenly you start to break down. Why?
– Probably because the school forces you to do what should happen by itself?
- Certainly. When a child learns oral speech, it happens by itself. If a two-year-old child were to build a program for mastering oral speech, distributing the educational material into lessons, and pestering him from morning to evening: “Study, study, after you master this set of words, we will move on to the next words” ... What was would? Children would not master the language. Not Chinese, not Vietnamese, not Russian. Never. But for some reason, kids master their native language.
I emphasize that they all do it on their own trajectories. It is impossible to say in advance about any child what words and phrases he will have first, second, etc. The traditional "mom and dad" are signal words. I mean, it's not even a word. These are appeals. Words are those that have individual semantics. Do you know how unusual a child's first words can be? One of my acquaintances, a two-year-old girl, the very first independent word was the word "refrigerator". But she pronounced it like this: "di". That is, she isolated a certain carrier sound combination from a long word. And, of course, she delighted her parents: “Hurrah! Our Dusya says the word "refrigerator"!
Naturally, in such a situation, it would not occur to any sane parent to scold a two-year-old child for “wrong pronunciation”. Quite the opposite: nothing but sincere joy and sincere delight. And, of course, very little time passes, and Dusya begins to say the word “refrigerator”, and many other words in a form much more familiar to the ear ... All children act in this way: they pull out some sound or a sum of sounds from a word and start using it.
And adults at first do not even understand what the child is saying. But guess - and rejoice. And as a result, learning a language becomes a great joy for a child...
Each child has their own individual trajectory of mastering speech. And literacy is an intuition that is formed at the tip of the tongue in the process of activity. But a child who has freely and courageously mastered the language space goes to school and discovers that literacy within the walls of the school is something else. It is the relentless pressure that gives the child an insane fear of making a mistake. And therefore, the technologies of teaching reading, which are now accepted at school, in children - with rare exceptions - cause rejection. Let's remember what parents complain about most often when it comes to school reading lessons?
– "My child knows letters but can't read." Or: “My child can read, but doesn’t want to…”
- Right! "He can read, but he doesn't want to." This is an accurate diagnosis. I will say what is behind these words: such a child can not read. Because being able to read means wanting to read. Reading is not the folding of syllables into words, reading is the generation of meanings. Learning to read means learning to see what is hidden behind the text. A child who simply puts letters together does not read, that is, does not generate meanings. He simply speaks the characters on the page of the book. If a child can read, he always wants read.
And now we come to a very important point. The fact is that there are many children in school who do not really know how to read and count. If a child cannot read, every year at school his problems grow like a snowball. He cannot read the condition of the problem. He can't read the homework page of his textbook. He can read the symbols on the page, but he cannot understand what meanings are hidden behind them. He does not keep up with the work of the class in the lesson. And they give him more and more new tasks! This is followed by distrust of teachers, distrust of parents, destruction of self-esteem ... We strive to invest in children at school the most difficult and for this we endlessly overload programs. But in fact, these children are inhibited in relation to elementary things.
– So everything is simple? If a child does not do well in school, should we try to teach him to read?
- No, it's just difficult. You can not teach to read by showing the child the letters. It's useless. It is necessary for him to form the semantic and imaginative muscles of reading, just as the muscles of an athlete are formed. So that the child learns to IMAGINE what he reads. But that's what the school doesn't teach.
They sometimes say about me that I "work as a democratic teacher." No, when I work with children - both successful and unsuccessful - I quite authoritatively lead them through all sorts of tests. This is the only way to teach real reading - reading as the generation of one's own images and meanings. I create for each child individual difficulties that can rekindle his excitement. The task should be difficult, but at the same time interesting, with a really working intrigue. Then the excitement of meeting with difficulties awakens in the child.
- When teachers say: “Oh, how well we would teach if there were no these tablets!” For me, this is a diagnosis of pedagogical incompetence. It would be great if we had one black plate in the village, which from time to time purrs and lets out a little information. Then I, the teacher, would be godfather to the king, with my suitcase of books that I brought with me to the village to reveal the worlds to children. Indeed, the poorer the environment, the easier the task of the teacher. He has in stock the amount of ready moves that can be used in any situation. When my competitor is a tablet with a game that a child holds in his hands, not noticing anything around, I need to rack my brains. How can I become more interesting for a child than this tablet? Today I am working with a group of preschoolers in kindergarten. How many different toys this group has! Every now and then I hear complaints: now, if half of these toys were removed, how much easier it would be to deal with children. Too many temptations! But these temptations are a challenge for me. Who am I in relation to them? Can I become as interesting and even more interesting for children than a tablet game? If I can't, I'm worthless as a teacher.
– Can you tell me how to make reading a book more interesting for a child than a computer game?
- Certainly. The first condition is to take a book without pictures. Unfortunately, on the shelves of the kindergarten library, where we are talking, there are only picture books. Let's take "Winnie the Pooh" and cover the picture with our hand. The first magic that I can do after looking at this page is to turn the letters - and for a child this is still dots and dashes - into meanings. We read: “Sometimes,” said Eeyore, “when people take someone’s house, there remains a piece or two that they don’t need, which they will gladly return to the former owner.” I performed a technical miracle: I turned symbols into words. But when I read the letters, they were not yet spiritualized, because this is a special work of the imagination that goes on at the same time. “Sometimes”… – after reading this, I pause… and suddenly, right in this pause, it dawns on you what “sometimes” means. Sometimes... tell me what happens to you sometimes. Imagine you are a child...
– Sometimes I feel like crying...
Here! Sometimes you feel like crying. More!
– Sometimes I want to listen to music.
– Super! You suggested two phrases, and through these phrases the word "sometimes" was spiritualized, filled with meaning. We read the word "sometimes" - and a chain of internal associations immediately starts inside us. For you, the word "sometimes" is soulful and real. It has been revealed to you. This is something that you cannot depict with any picture, this is your inner work. There are six-year-olds who still do not feel the difference between the words "sometimes", "always", "never". The word "sometimes" did not have time to appear to them. And we must try to show it. What is the difference between a reading child and a non-reading child? He sees a flash of an image with every word he reads. It happens at lightning speed. And in this flash, the word appears to him. The imagination of a child is a saving thing. If we learn how to use its thermonuclear energy, much will become possible.
The child in our world saves himself by imagination. But the school did not learn how to convert the energy of his imagination into educational things. She always wants to give her children something of her own. And we are still very little striving to listen to children's speech, we do not know how to cultivate it. And that is why the book is enchantingly needed in modern world. Especially a book without pictures.
Because a book without pictures is the only thing that truly allows a person to develop his imagination. Reading it, you are constantly creating heroes inside yourself, constantly creating visual images in yourself. Humanity has not yet come up with another such effective tool.
What we practiced, I call "hole reading." What happens to you at the moment when I pause and invite you to continue the sentence? Your imagination awakens. During these pauses, the child begins to perceive the word in many dimensions. He learns to distinguish between word endings and cases. He quickly begins to develop syntactic, spelling and semantic hearing. So he begins to learn to read. And when children begin to feel the text, they understand that it is much more interesting than watching a movie. Reading wins over visualization, which has become too much in the world over the past thirty or forty years. But I say thank you to computer games and visual culture in general for creating this level for us.
Now we're talking about babies. Is it possible to teach reading to an underachieving high school student? It is sometimes said that teenagers at this age are already corrupted by the school system...
- No one is corrupted! In life, each of us is faced with different practices: among them are right, wrong, dubious ... So what? Do we say to ourselves that we are corrupted by them? I also practice hole reading with high school students. We read with them not "Winnie the Pooh", but - the most incomprehensible (and therefore most boring) physics textbook for them. The most interesting thing is that the content of the chapters they read is assimilated by them firmly, although they do not think about physics as such at that moment.
- Twenty years ago your book “Another Mathematics” was published, in which you explained that many children leave school without having learned the simplest arithmetic operations. What can be done to help these children?
- Watching with what torment children subtract, multiply and divide, learn the multiplication table or verses, I understood that it was impossible. It occurred to me that a game could be made that would develop these skills and help them click through the school program - at least the elementary school program - like seeds. The game is intended for family entertainment. And as side effects, it allows the child to learn to read, write, master the entire amount of arithmetic skills, learn the multiplication table, memorize poetry. Nobody teaches him this, it comes by itself during the game.
In twenty years of working with children and adults, I have come up with many different games. And all this has not even been inventoried yet, which would be nice to do.
The most popular among children and adults are my "Archicards" - special playing cards, language or mathematical. Some families already take "archicards" with them on vacation, as they used to take playing cards. Parents begin to play them: before, with such excitement, they cut themselves on the beach in a throw-in fool or played on the train "to the cities." "Archicard" is no less interesting than traditional card games, and you can play it for hours, enjoying both the game and the communication that is built into the game. But unlike ordinary cards, Archicard allows - as if by the way - to master many of the most important educational skills: learn to quickly and accurately add, subtract, multiply and divide, learn to imagine and write correctly, learn to read and create a palette of author's meanings ... And it does it is so that it is equally interesting for both adults and children.
I am now thinking about making a video encyclopedia of these games for caring parents. It would take too long to describe this in a book. Showing with a live example how you can play the same "Archicard" is much more exciting.
Sometimes I receive letters from parents that the child has started playing Archicard and abandoned the tablet. That's great! And then I thought: what if we make an “archicard” for a tablet? Maybe then a lot of children will play it, and not shooters and runners?
– Are you more willing to work with parent communities today than in the education system?
– To be honest, twenty years ago, when I did the same as part of my probabilistic experiment, there was no such excitement. People did not understand what I was doing and why it was necessary. Twenty years ago everyone wanted to reform the school. And now parental communities have declared themselves, who have felt responsible for the education of their children. Family education is something that is relevant for people all over the world. Therefore, I am invited not only by Russian parent communities, but also by parent communities in different countries ...
- And the last question: what should parents of losers do? Waiting for the miracle of meeting a teacher who will help their child?
“Parents need to learn this on their own. There is a lot they can and should learn on their own. No matter how critical we are about the school, the problem of a loser is, in most cases, the problem of his parents. When parents are insecure, they begin to project that insecurity onto their children. They say: “We did not take place, but it must take place!” Everything rests on the readiness of the parents themselves to perform feats from time to time. Then the child will have a desire to break through, to take his height.
– For parents of losers, the biggest feat is to believe in their child ...
- And he must feel the parental faith in everything: in words, intonations, in our views. The worst thing you can do is pretend to believe in this child. Faith must be real. This is the main thing.
With Alexander Lobk, the author of the books “Another Mathematics”, “Probabilistic World”, “Anthropology of Myth”, “Chartography of Childhood”, “The Science of Apprenticeship” - we are talking in the living room (at the same time the library) of the kindergarten. Handmade dolls, kings, queens, princes, coachmen and even horses harnessed to the carriage look at us. Each one is about the size of a child. This is the character of the Cinderella story. Japanese tables with mother-of-pearl inlays are placed on carpets in front of the sofa. At these tables, parents read old children's books to their children. Books stand in dense rows here on the shelves. This is the family reading room of preschool department No. 3 of Moscow school No. 15. In other words, a kindergarten. The voices of huge parrots that live among the palm trees in the glass winter garden could be heard in the living room. There are two winter gardens. Their inhabitants doze in the Moscow twilight. Only the monkey affably pulls its paw towards the guests through the bars of the cage. “Don't try to shake her paw in return. She asks you for a banana!” - Kindergarten employees explain to me. And the applicant is immediately delivered what she asks for. And behind the glass walls of the winter garden, in the usual school grounds surrounded by high-rise buildings, they live in warm aviaries that take the children for a ride. What does the health department say about this? Don't know. This is a municipal kindergarten. There are thousands of them. There were just people who wanted children to come to a fairy tale every day ...
