This article comes from the WeChat public account:Tongxing Academy (ID: tongxingplan), author: Shan listen, head Figure from: vision China
Classes are completely free. If you don’t like them, you can skip classes for several years. The children are on equal footing with the teacher. The size of the school is determined by a school conference similar to the “Civil Assembly” in ancient Greece. Both the principal and the child are one person and one vote. A vote for a seven-year-old child has exactly the same effect as a principal’s vote…
If I tell you there is such a school, do you believe it?
Schools like this don’t just exist in movies and imagination. 99 years ago, the British Neil created such a free school in the world-Xiashan School. Even in our opinion today, Xiashan School is still very ahead.
Recently, I read Neil’s book “Xiashan School”. Let’s follow this book and walk into Xiashan School.
How free is Xia Shan
How free are the children of Xiashan School?
Here, students are not willing to attend classes on their own initiative. If a childReluctant to study, even if he stays for ten years without taking a class, no one will give him a little pressure.
When not in class, children have a lot of fun to play, such as climbing trees, digging soil, riding bicycles, running wildly, and making toy guns by themselves. Some children transferred from a well-regulated school, hated taking classes, and breathed fresh air all at once, and inevitably never wanted to enter the class again. In this regard, Xia Shan also gave enough tolerance. Neil said that there was a girl who was transferred from a church school who was reluctant to take classes and wandered on campus for three years. Generally speaking, it takes an average of three months for a child to be afraid of going to class.
Even children who are willing to attend classes do not have a fixed schedule, they can just choose the subjects they like and spend most of the rest on other interests-carpentry, ironwork, drawing, reading novels, acting, listening to jazz , Or even dazed.
You may be curious. You have to take the exam in the UK. Children don’t study exam subjects, how do they go to college?
The answer is jaw-dropping. Many children don’t want to go to university and just go to work. Children who want to go to college start studying hard at the age of fourteen and study for about three years before taking the college entrance examination. If you can’t pass the exam in one year, the big deal will be another year. In our opinion, it is unimaginable.
Xiashan School
Why does Xia Shan give children such great freedom?
Because, Neal believes, The child’s nature is kind, not evil. If unconstrained, the child’s nature and potential can be freely developed.
If Neil has a belief, then that belief is freedom.
Parents and teachers should wait for the flowers to bloom. Children willing to playLet them play enough, if they are willing to talk about urine or sex, talk about enough. If they are tired of learning, give them a chance, and make them completely bored. When they are willing to learn or do things, this inner motivation will burst out. If the child is not torn or hurt, he will always wait until the day of bloom.
Accustomed to school education, we may not be aware of the general school or even the family’s restrictions on children.
Neil said in the book:
“At home, the child is always in a passive position. As soon as he is born, he is wrapped up and down, and the time for breastfeeding is strictly regulated. There are always grown-up adults who teach children how to play with toys; When the baby in the cradle wants to see something on the wall, someone must pick him up. Who would think that this is depriving him of the greatest joy in his life-the joy of finding and conquering difficulties?
Books are the least important things in school. For most teenagers, the school curriculum is just a waste of time, patience and energy. Books are nothing more than the creation of a group of little old men. They are good at talking, but they don’t understand sex, love and freedom. Scores and exams hinder the development of personality and emotions, and also deprive children of the most important right-the right to play.
Even some people who advocate “game teaching” are just another way to promote learning first. Those people think that learning is so important, and the child is unable to withstand it, so he coats the bitter medicine with sugar coating. They adore games, not really give children a happy and free childhood, but use games as a means to achieve a less glorious purpose. “
Neil and the child
Therefore, in Neal’s view, book education is incomplete, and it ignores the emotional part of life. Abstract knowledge is like a heavy stone slab, which suppresses the smart and lively emotions, makes life lose vitality, and makes people fall intomachine.
True happy learning is not learning in a relatively less painful way: not getting anesthesia for surgery, not holding your nose and drinking soup, but giving your child absolute freedom-what to learn Don’t learn anything if you don’t want to learn.
Parents are afraid, children are not free
We have to ask further, how did the passive, restricted situation of the child form? Neil said it was because of their parents’ fear and anxiety about the future.
Parents worry that with a little slack, the child may get nothing in the future. Therefore, parents often cannot wait for their children to grow at their own pace. It was like a parent who wanted to send the child to Xia Shan worried: “If my son is still illiterate at twelve years old, what can he expect in his life? If he can’t enter college at the age of eighteen, he will go What can I do as a small worker?”
This shows the confusion of each of us-we also want to give our children freedom, but reality does not allow it.
Children are not free, and the consequences are implicit-“restricting development” and “losing oneself”. These disadvantages just sound scary but not intuitive. Moreover, generations have been managed from childhood to large, and they have grown up, haven’t they?
In contrast, if you fail to enter a good school, you will not find a good job, no money, and the next generation will be unhappy. Isn’t this more serious?
College Entrance Examination
Thus, although most parents agree with a free and happy education, they still put the shackles on their children at the fork of decision-making. Xiashan School dares to risk the world and free most people from thinking about it, To the extreme.
Actually, Xia Shan’s children did show their unique traits – the traits freely given to them.
For example, they are honest. A nine-year-old kid broke a window when he was playing football and ran to tell the principal Neil without fear. Because he knew that Neil would not be angry. He may want a window, but he will not be taught and punished.
For example, they are very confident. Neil gave such an example:
“A student named Jack left Xia Shan at the age of seventeen and came to work in a factory. Once, the supervisor asked him: “If you can choose again, would you go to Eton College or Xia Shan? “
Jack replied: “Of course Xia Shan myself!”
The supervisor asked again: “What is unique about Xia Shan?”
Jack scratched his head and said slowly: “I think it gave me an absolute confidence!”
The supervisor said quietly, “I found it as soon as you walked in. The vast majority of people who came to me behaved at a loss, unnaturally. When you came in and spoke to me, they behaved peacefully. I am equal. I like that.”
Neil
Imperfect summer mountain
Speaking of which, you may have doubts already. Is Xia Shan really so perfect? Is there no problem at all? of course not. Good ideas are always out of harmony with complex realities, and there are often many problems in practice. Xia Shan is no exception.
In another book about Xia Shan, “Xia Shan School Graduates,” the author interviewed Xia Shan’s alumni. They grew up and looked back after entering the society, showing us a more real Xiashan school.
When it comes to Xia Shan’s problem, the first is that students may have difficulty adapting to society.
Neil once said that his philosophy is “Let schools adapt to students, not students adapt to schools.” But can we adapt society to students instead of students?
I’m afraid not.
A Xiashan alumnus reflected:
“Xia Shan’s school conference and democratic spirit have influenced the way I do things in my life. Many Xia Shan people have never been afraid of authority, never thought that there should be authority, and they will not try to establish themselves as children’s authority.
Xia Shan gives students a spirit of freedom, but sometimes it also becomes an obstacle for them to adapt to society, because it is difficult for them to follow the instructions and follow the instructions.
Some Xiashan people may not be easy to integrate into the society, because many work environments have clear levels and trivial regulations. It is inevitable that some people are higher than you in your work, or you are higher than others, but I am afraid that Xiashan people can hardly adapt to this kind of working environment with different levels of respect, because all people in our growing environment are equal.
In some places that require a high degree of creativity, employers like independent people; but for most positions, they do not like people with very independent and complete personalities. “
Xiashan School
Except for the difficultyAdapting to a complex society, Xia Shan’s students also face another problem. As mentioned earlier, in Xiashan, children are not forced to take any course, even literacy and arithmetic. If you are interested in it, just learn.
However, children’s interests are short-lived and changeable. Therefore, they may be attracted to machinery manufacturing, artistic creation, and performance at this time, but after a while, they become interested in others.
As one alumnus said: “In fact, it is difficult for me to persevere on a thing for a long time. I am always interested and changing. This makes it difficult for Xiashan graduates to take many years Fields of achievement can only be achieved through continuous practice, such as ballet, piano, and academic fields.”
This is understandable. Children’s interests are often in crafts, games, and painting. If not guided consciously, how many ten-year-olds would give up the forest and play and take the initiative to come into contact with the boring philosophy and art?
Children in Xiashan
The third problem of the Xiashan people is a feeling of self-esteem and blindness of superiority.
An alumni said in an interview:
“No matter what generation of Xiashan people, it seems easy to feel that they are outstanding, but they can’t really understand the people who are different from them. They should learn from the common ground and save the difference. If you don’t agree with a certain point at all, it’s okay, You can admit the difference. This is respect for the other party. The self-respectful attitude is not as good as those who say “I don’t agree with Xia Shan.” At least, such comments are made after listening first. Xia Shan people are Judge directly, and then no longer want to listen to different opinions.”
Indeed, what will a child learn after spending many years in a high-profile and distinctive school? Freedom, equality, nothingDid the competition really melt into their blood? Or do they just get the false glory and blind superiority brought by the difference?
Just like a student graduating from a world-class university, it is not easy to say whether he planted “big” or “big” arrogance in his mind.
Xia Shan: a couture fashion
After reading the previous introduction, there must be many people who feel that Xia Shan is not good, or that although Xia Shan is very beautiful, it is not suitable for him.
Indeed, Xia Shan is indeed more suitable for children with “some mines at home”.
Neil said that Xia Shan has always been short of money and received little funding. Therefore, he has been unable to enroll children with poor family conditions, and can only enroll children above middle class. This is actually the paradox of many international schools and innovative schools today-they most respect equality in education and believe that every child should grow up freely and happily, but the poor children are firmly blocked by the high tuition fees. outer. On the contrary, it is the public school that seems to have the least “human touch” and is more inclusive.
Children in Xiashan
What is the middle-class baby in Xia Shanli after graduation?
As mentioned earlier, due to the laissez-faire children’s free development, they often have strong hands-on skills. After graduation, they are mostly engaged in mechanical, manual, technical work, rather than elite work such as finance and law.
Neil once said: “Xia Shanning would rather be a happy cleaner than a melancholic doctor.” However, middle-class parents spent millions on their children, and several willing children eventually became What about happy cleaners?
Without a bulging waist bag,How dare you say: “Just be happy.”
Step back and say that even if your family is rich, it may not be suitable for Xia Shan.
As Neal said:
“Some parents have shown interest in Xia Shan, but I found that they are completely unable to understand the meaning of giving children freedom. I don’t want to spend half my life explaining to parents what freedom is, but parents won’t believe it. Facing a child is devastating. Because the child will face a terrible doubt-who is right, parents or school?”
So, Neil is looking for someone who truly believes that “children are free” as Xia Shan’s parents.
Xia Shan’s poster
If we don’t have the financial resources and courage to send our children to a school like Xiashan, or if we don’t agree with Xiashan’s ideas, what does Xiashan mean to us?
Actually, if the schools are arranged on the long band in the order from freedom to imprisonment, then Xiashan School may be at the extreme of freedom, and the correctional school may be at the extreme of imprisonment. And our ordinary NPC probability will be in the middle-our children will neither enjoy too much freedom nor be too restricted.
Nevertheless, it is good for us to look at the extreme people from time to time. Looking at Xia Shan’s children will remind us that even if the competition is brutal, the children must be given some freedom, which is the nourishment for their growth. Looking at children at the other extreme, we see the importance of rules and cherish the beauty of freedom.
Actually, sometimes looking at a school like Xia Shan, like watching expensive and unpractical big-name fashion on the catwalk, you might be envious, and think that it is another world, not related to me; feelIt has to be doubted, rejected, and even ridiculed.
This is not necessary. Because we don’t have to buy those strange clothes and put them on the street. It is good to use a little bit of the elements and ingenuity in our daily outfits and let ourselves change a little bit.
Just as we don’t have to send our children to Xia Shan, we can give them a little more tolerance and freedom after knowing that there is another Xia Shan in the world.
This may be what Xia Shan means to each of us ordinary people.
This article comes from the WeChat public account:Tongxing Academy (ID: tongxingplan) , author: Shan listen