美國的小學教育

Jean

無奈香港的兒童就係在背誦中成長,不只背還要心算快,做完功課做補充練習,又要運動出色又要樂器訓練. 不過學校、家長們還樂此不疲,還一句:practice make perfect. 學校迫,孩子悲.

Hei-Hei

仲有, 12生肖排位!

小一係咪會識??

WYmom

Hei-Hei 寫道:

仲有, 12生肖排位!

小一係咪會識??

What do you think then? What should a P.1 student know or don't know?  Is there any standard measurement of knowledge?  If P.1 should know 12生肖排位, then you will ask the kid to memorize it? For what? A P.1 student can know a lot of things already if one is very brilliant or smart, or have received a lot of training from parents.  It does not matter how much a kid knows, it is more important how the kid learns - by feeding duck or by self-motivation.

wewangwang

小朋友係識,但(李白) (唐朝) (詩仙) for him 只是一堆名, 冇意思, 反而背小小唐詩我覺得OK.

冇話小一係咪就要識十二生肖, 識又好,唔識又冇什麼大不了,就算我自己都未必數得晒十二生肖,知識世界咁廣, 冇必要局限在一個框框內.

Jean,

係呀,小朋友要入水能遊,出水能跳,琴棋書畫都要識,簡直就是訓練超人.

Jean 寫道:
無奈香港的兒童就係在背誦中成長,不只背還要心算快,做完功課做補充練習,又要運動出色又要樂器訓練. 不過學校、家長們還樂此不疲,還一句:practice make perfect. 學校迫,孩子悲.

Yukyuk

HI hei-hei,


學校想看看學生在平時生活上, 有冇對容易接觸的事物產生好奇, (當小朋友好想知, 而妳可以話我都唔知, 不如一起搵, 當小朋友大d d 習慣了搵資料, 妳就可讓他自己找)  

例如:- 搭車/船/mtr/van仔路線的選擇

Hei-Hei 寫道:

仲有, 12生肖排位!

小一係咪會識??

Yukyuk

Let's share!

Quote from "All about education"

提起西方的教育，人們談論最多的是他們的快樂教育，但事實上他們在重視素質和能力的培養。　


　　　在美國就有很多家庭選擇寄宿制軍校，這種軍校是普通3文化教學和生活軍事化管理相結合的學校，這其中大多數家庭有時間照顧孩子，但為了讓孩子能夠成為大學或UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS 等等有名大學的學生，他們讓孩子在軍事化管理的學校鍛煉生活意志、掌握有效的學習方法，培養合作意識等。在統一的作息時間裡，有普通學校裡必修的文化課程，也有課餘時間選擇參加校內豐富多彩的俱樂部，包括自然科學、商務、騎馬、國際象棋、美術、園藝、模擬野外行軍等。這些培養過程使每一名學生在畢業後都會成為走入大學繼續他們的學習計劃。看到西方教育者包括家長都應該重視現行教育中存在的弊病，針對孩子的特點，放任有度，嚴於疏導，重視知識的運用，培養自己的有效學習方法等等，為孩子的一生奠定良好的基礎。

***************************************

美 國 家 庭 教 育 風 俗 13 點
　　
1.讓嬰幼兒從小單獨夜宿，無父母陪護。
2.一些年輕父母把幾個月的嬰兒赤身扔進水中，讓其學會遊泳。　

3.孩子跌跤，父母不管，讓他自己爬起來。　

4.父母要幾歲的孩子做家務勞動，如洗碗、掃地、洗衣服等。

5.自己的事情自己決定，自己的事情自己辦理。　

6.讓孩子在看到本國國旗時，注目兩分鐘。在聽到國歌曲奏響時，把手按在心口，心中默唱國歌。

7.即使家庭經濟狀況很好，也鼓勵孩子用自己的雙手勞動掙錢，讓孩子自己支付保險費用或部分學習費用及其它費用。　

8.沒有午睡的習慣。　

9.大人鼓勵孩子做登出、攀巖、跳海等危險性運動，孩子們也樂于參與這些冒險活動。　

10.絕大多數18歲以上的孩子，都靠自己掙錢來讀書。有的人把錢賺夠了才進學校讀書，也有人一邊打工、一邊讀書，或讀讀停停，用十幾年時間拿個博士學位。孩子們認為，長這麼大還伸手向父母要錢，很不光彩，會被人家瞧不起，說你無能。所以，必須找工作，做到經濟上獨立。

11.在用錢上，就是那些出身于中產階級家庭的孩子，對自己“吝嗇”，與人交往也不“大方”，無論一起進公園或歌舞廳買票，還是入擬]買飯，一切費用都是“AA制”。

12.父輩一般不給孩子財產繼承權。企業界人士普遍認為，讓孩子坐享其成是人生中做的最糟糕的事，使孩子沒有機會去經歷他們自己的成功失敗，真正幸福來自于自己的努力。　

13.資本家如果覺得自己的子女不爭氣、不成材，他們寧肯花錢去雇用一個有才幹的經理來經營他們的事業。資本家死後，子女“吃”遺產有規定期限，但要付出很高的遺產稅，而且這些“剪息票”的寄生蟲，權力和地位是繼承不到的。

Fatherofdaughter 寫道:
What a great topic it is!

By the way, can anyone show me a website showing the syllabus they use for primary, and secondary school?

WYmom

The US education is good for developing independence and self-confidence.  Yet it seems to enforce too much on individualism and lacks family and community concepts.  So seems that a compomise between the eastern and western way is more desirable.

judy

The US education is good for developing independence and self-confidence. Yet it seems to enforce too much on individualism and lacks family and community concepts. So seems that a compomise between the eastern and western way is more desirable.

唔覺得现時港人有family and community concepts.我們常聽說:"聚個新抱等於無咗個仔"，有的一年也未必探一次。

只有好的教育，オ能培養family and community concepts。

WYmom

judy 寫道:
唔覺得现時港人有family and community concepts.我們常聽說:"聚個新抱等於無咗個仔"，有的一年也未必探一次。

只有好的教育，オ能培養family and community concepts。

Agree, HK education is also very much focus on individualism, people look at success based on one's power, authority, financials, professions etc. The Chinese concepts and education are fading or have faded out.

Yet don't fully understand your last comment, what do you mean by "good education"?

lochan

Youma hi,

Maybe I am not one of those as quoted from your Math professors!

I grew up doing tons of "gaijin" math 234, 666, 456 333 etc. I also took Add. Math in F.5 but I recall I can prove theorems without actually understand why. I was trained to be fast and effiecient in exams and during that time, I see nothing wrong about it as everyone was doing the same thing!

I thought I was really good at calculus and algebra, therefore I took these two core courses in year one Univ.. Then my nightmare began... The approach is totally different! All assignments and tests are with Qs that does not have definitive answers. All Qs require you to think hard and thoroughly understand the basic concepts. I then realized my 11 years of math education in HK did not provide me enough in this regard.
I did get A on cal. section in A-math and a B in modern Math! I agree a lot of causcasions are still very poor in Math. Point is those who are not interested in math, they will take art courses and don't waste time on this anymore. Therefore, I am facing those who are supposed to be very good at math (and I am supposed to be good in HK standard) but there is a gap in terms of mindset and approach. I did manage to get an A in both courses but with so much effort made though! This was the time I start to realise the shortcomings of traditional HK education system.

song

靜夜思我同意背，可說是最出名的中國詩，一定要背，日後別人說起，孩子都知別人說什麼。   但其它普通的小一教科書文章背來是為默書100分。

lochan

Dear Veronique,
I think if the question is interesting enough i will work all nite to solve it. It has to be challenging and intriguing though.

Speaking of HW, for your interest, here's my Year One first two Physics assignments Qs -
Two bicycle running at the same speed say 20kph and the front one is squirting mud to the back at say 45%, what is the min. distance they have to keep to keep the behind bike from mud squirt?

Two trains running at say 60kph assuming constant speed towards each other at a separation of 1 km. A roadrunner start running back and forth at 200kph between the 2 trains
Q1 After how long will roadrunner be hit by the train?
Q2 How far will he travelled before got hit?
(assume no need to accelrate and decclerate)
some who are smart takes maybe 5 or 10 mins to solve the problem, of course it took me much longer since I am not that smart. These kind of questions I assume very rare to appear in HK?

Vernique2005 寫道:
Dear lochan:

Just as a joke, have you ever faced the situation that I mention below?

Whenever my friend does his math HW, he'd say, "Oh.. come on! I'm supposed to be a smart guy... I should  know how to solve it!"

.........after two hours, my friend says the same thing..........at the end, the problem remains unsolved....

When he goes to school and gets the answer key, he'd go, "Ahhhhhhhhh! Stupid me!!! This is sooooo easy.  Why didn't I think of that?  I should have KNOWN it...AHHHHHHHHHH~!"  

To some people, that's the sole beauty of math; to many others (count me as well, please), this is totally nightmare!  

lochan

Wymom,
I read an article recently. In USA, kids are infused with algebra concepts starting from pre-kinde! Step by step in a very systematic approach starting from quantitatively to qualitatively understand the concept using examples from daily life which I think is quite effective. In HK, math is taught too fast for kids to fully digest the concepts since the more difficult in level were taught = the better the school is.

you quote:
This is very true. I guess the HK way is teaching kids how to calculate Maths problem as quick as possible, but the western way is teaching them how to do a Maths problem using many different ways. By doing this, they are exploring the beauty of Maths, encouraging creativity and understand concepts and theories very thoroughly. By doing this, kids are developed to have much higher analytical skills and creativity in future.

judy

lochan,

完全唔同意你講嘅嘢，依家唔得閒，遲的才駁你。

WYmom

lochan 寫道:
Wymom,
I read an article recently. In USA, kids are infused with algebra concepts starting from pre-kinde! Step by step in a very systematic approach starting from quantitatively to qualitatively understand the concept using examples from daily life which I think is quite effective. In HK, math is taught too fast for kids to fully digest the concepts since the more difficult in level were taught = the better the school is.

Hi, lochan,

As I see in HK, teachers don't spend a lot of time to teach concepts, they usually teach more on ways to calculate as fast as possible.  The difficult level is more in numerical sense, but not in concepts.  This is the opposite in western countries, or in international schools.  So HK students are very good at calculating, but not good at analyzing the fundamental concepts.

lochan

dying to hear your disagreement!!

judy 寫道:
lochan,

完全唔同意你講嘅嘢，依家唔得閒，遲的才駁你。

judy

lochan,

如果只論數學之教育，不能說美國之那一種比香港優勝。學好數學要有两方面，一方面是數學本身，這當然包括solve 实際問題，但數學之精髓，却是for fun，solve 实際問題的數學，是應用數學 。一方面是形式(這方面要操)美國中小學數學不好(這在很多國際性測試可知)，就是缺之操練之故。

香港之數學編得不錯，幾年前，聽說以色列也採用新加坡之教科書。但在香港，讀數學的，很多是不喜欢數學，不喜欢數學，又怎能學得好。我的侄兒有數學天オ，但這幾個小朋友，将來會讀數嗎？我想不會，香港地找食之困難，生活之無保障，只有港人才知。有才能而讀數的，是非常非常浪漫之人。

信報林行止介紹，一個地區之經济發展和學生數學科學之水平有很高之關係，香港學生數學科學之水平名列前矛，本是好形象，這表示香港将有一批好的R & D 力量。但香港投放於科研之開支，却比外國少得多，只佔投资之0.5%，而曰本却是3.5%。

其實，香港之教育政策不錯，包括數學、語文政策，教育改革(如果冇教改，你個仔可能要讀貴很多之國際學校)。香港之問題，是社會問題。

uncleedward

Dear Song

Regarding your remark that “ I don't understand why the HK students are requested to 背 those not famous Chinese articles. 背唐詩 is FINE, but not those normal articles. What is the purpose???” I had the same question before. Then I put forward this question to a friend who is a senior executive at a well-known publisher producing such rubbish primary Chinese books.

The answer is simple. EMB has a prescribed list of standard Chinese characters a primary school student is supposed to learn. The publisher then has to hire a genius writer to write up articles to include these characters but at the same time to exclude those which EMB considers as out of syllabus.  That is why you never see articles by famous writers to be included in primary school Chinese books. That is why these text books are all so dry. I have yet to see a kid whose interest in Chinese is aroused by these text books. They are the perfect tools to keep students away from learning Chinese. The whole Chinese education has been buried by these text books.

lochan

Judy,

To achieve good ranking in Competitions means you need to cover a lot of topics and be able to complete the paper fast.

However, to invent a theory or math phenomenom, you can take as much time as you need and definitely not required to hurry but you do need sound train of thoughts, solid fundamentals and have in depth knowledge on concepts. It may take years to develop a new phenomenom!

有才能而讀數的，是非常非常浪漫之人 (i think it is not romantic at all - look at the movie "Beautiful Mind", touchy but scary to some extent but only a hint of romantism in it!

judy 寫道:
lochan,

如果只論數學之教育，不能說美國之那一種比香港優勝。學好數學要有两方面，一方面是數學本身，這當然包括solve 实際問題，但數學之精髓，却是for fun，solve 实際問題的數學，是應用數學 。一方面是形式(這方面要操)美國中小學數學不好(這在很多國際性測試可知)，就是缺之操練之故。

香港之數學編得不錯，幾年前，聽說以色列也採用新加坡之教科書。但在香港，讀數學的，很多是不喜欢數學，不喜欢數學，又怎能學得好。我的侄兒有數學天オ，但這幾個小朋友，将來會讀數嗎？我想不會，香港地找食之困難，生活之無保障，只有港人才知。有才能而讀數的，是非常非常浪漫之人。

信報林行止介紹，一個地區之經济發展和學生數學科學之水平有很高之關係，香港學生數學科學之水平名列前矛，本是好形象，這表示香港将有一批好的R & D 力量。但香港投放於科研之開支，却比外國少得多，只佔投资之0.5%，而曰本却是3.5%。

其實，香港之教育政策不錯，包括數學、語文政策，教育改革(如果冇教改，你個仔可能要讀貴很多之國際學校)。香港之問題，是社會問題。

WYmom

"其實，香港之教育政策不錯，包括數學、語文政策，教育改革(如果冇教改，你個仔可能要讀貴很多之國際學校)。"

Is this saying from govt?  The fact is just the opposite.