The significance of patriotism education to preschool children

Keywords: preschool education; Patriotism education; Patriotic feelings; Family education

Abstract: Children's patriotism education is the basic project to train builders and successors in Socialism with Chinese characteristics. To strengthen children's patriotism education in the new period, we should follow the principles of emotional cultivation, gradual progress and easy acceptance, and help patriotism sprout by means of random infiltration; Sublimate the connotation of patriotism education with theme education activities as the carrier; Expand the space of patriotism education by creating environment as the medium; Take family education as a link to form a joint force of patriotic education.

2065438+On September 24th, 2009, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting to review the implementation outline of patriotism education in the new era. The meeting pointed out that patriotism is the core of the Chinese national spirit. When Socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, it is necessary to vigorously carry forward the spirit of patriotism and make patriotic education run through the whole process of national education and spiritual civilization construction. [1] Children are the builders and successors of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the future. Patriotism education for young people is a basic project to cultivate a new generation. Implementing correct educational guidance in the early stage of children's moral formation, taking emotional education as the starting point, choosing educational content and activity forms that meet the characteristics of children's physical and mental development, cultivating children's patriotic feelings in a planned and step-by-step manner, and cultivating children's passionate patriotic feelings will help them establish a correct world outlook, outlook on life and values, and earnestly shoulder the historical responsibility of promoting the cause of Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

First, the necessity of patriotism education for young children

Patriotism belongs to the category of morality, and childhood is the key period for the formation of individual morality. Whether patriotism education should be carried out or not, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Psychologist Tom said: "Timid soldiers are not created on the battlefield, but in the nursery." [2] There is a saying in China called "Look at the old at the age of three, look at the old at the age of seven", which means you can see what a person looks like at the age of three. You can see a person at the age of seven. All these show that individual moral education needs to be carried out in the plastic period, and childhood is the most suitable period.

On the understanding of patriotism education, preschool teachers usually realize the importance of this kind of education from the ideological level, but how to educate children in patriotism is a controversial topic. The current preschool education practice shows that patriotism education for young children is in a weak link. The fundamental reason is nothing more than the following two reasons: first, children's thinking development is in the "pre-calculation stage", which is not enough to understand the concept of "country" through superficial psychological activities, and they can only rely on simple symbols to have a vague understanding of the external world. The logical process of individual moral formation begins with "cognition". For young children, patriotism education seems to be in trouble in the first link. The second is that children are young, have a low level of understanding and are immature. It is not easy and very difficult to educate them in patriotism. Even if it is forcibly promoted, the educational effect will hardly achieve the expected effect. For example, it is best to implement it in primary schools. Although the above reasons have some truth, the angle of consideration is still biased and cannot be a scientific basis for not educating children about patriotism.

Patriotism education is a long-term and arduous task, just like building a tall building. Patriotism education in preschool period is a basic project, which will affect the quality and benefit of this tall building. It is an objective fact that children's thinking development level is not high, and it is difficult to understand abstract things, but this can be overcome through educational means. Patriotism education for young children is not to make them understand what is "motherland" and what is "patriotism". The profound connotation of these "super words" has gone beyond the children's understanding, but it is necessary to convey the patriotic thoughts to children in an appropriate way, so that they can acquire basic knowledge and stimulate their patriotic feelings, and lay a solid foundation for the follow-up system to accept this kind of education. Psychologist Bruner once said: "Any subject can be used for intellectual education, which is an honest way to effectively teach any child at any stage of development". The so-called "intellectual education is an honest way" refers to transforming obscure things into images and concrete things, so as to enhance the acceptance of the educated and better adapt to the psychological development level of children. Although it is not easy to educate children in patriotism, it is by no means impossible, and it is feasible from the perspective of children's physical and mental development.

Second, the principles of patriotism education for young children

The new characteristics and new situations in the new era have put forward higher and higher hopes and requirements for patriotic education of young children. In the new period, strengthening children's patriotism education and guiding children to establish a scientific concept of patriotism should follow the following principles:

(A) the principle of gradual progress

Patriotism education is an arduous task with a long way to go, which needs to be carried out in a planned and step-by-step manner. Childhood is a critical period for shaping individual's good moral quality. Children grow up in the caress of their loved ones and feel the emotional experience of being cared for and cared for by others. The motto of the school headed by Soviet educator Suhomlinski is surprisingly simple: "Love your mother". [3] Mr. Chen Heqin said, "If you love someone as a child, you will love the people and the motherland as an adult." Patriotism education for preschool children should be carried out step by step according to the logic from concrete to abstract, from near to far, from small to large, and guide children to start from things around them, love parents, elders, teachers, companions, collectives, hometown, labor and public property, and gradually sprout national consciousness and patriotic feelings. Of course, children's minds are not yet mature, especially at a certain stage, everything will be self-centered and everything will be branded as "selfish", which is a common short-lived phenomenon in the process of individual cognitive development. At this stage, children only perceive the world from their own perspective, and often think from their own perspective. They don't realize that others may have different perspectives and views, and mistake their own views for others'. Individualism is the biggest obstacle to patriotism education. In view of the temporary characteristics of children's egoism, it is necessary to change it into non-egoism through educational means to prevent the formation of egoism.

(B) the principle of emotional cultivation

The core of patriotism education is "love", which is strong and profound. Children are in a period of emotional development faster than reason, with poor sense of self-control and vulnerable to changes in surrounding stimuli. Therefore, patriotism education for young children should be scientific and reasonable. Although children can't form a clear concept of things because of their age, they can gain emotional experience in rich practical activities by creating vivid scenes, and gradually transform them into high-level social emotions with the improvement of their cognitive level. Patriotism education must be targeted, scientifically arrange activities according to the cognitive level and psychological development characteristics of children of different ages, and resolutely abandon dogmatism and formalism. For example, singing the national anthem, from the perspective of adults, is a sacred act to express patriotic feelings, regardless of theoretical significance or practical value. But for young children, due to the level of physical and mental development, it is not suitable for learning to sing the national anthem. If they learn to sing reluctantly, there is no doubt that the final effect will be unsatisfactory. But it is undoubtedly more enlightening to "enjoy music" by playing the national anthem. Only when children have the emotional ability to love can they gradually extend this kind of love to the country with their age, and can they root their patriotism in their hearts.

(3) the principle of acceptability

Patriotism, as a kind of "ism", has certain abstractness, is a high generalization of Qian Qian's total patriotism in social life, and has its own theoretical integrity and support. [4] For educators, it is necessary to accurately grasp the cognitive laws and moral development characteristics of preschool children, and formulate patriotic education content in a targeted manner based on the "Kindergarten Education Implementation Outline (Trial)". Preschool children's thinking is in the pre-operation stage, and their knowledge level and understanding ability still depend on their own perception to a great extent, so they can't carry out reversible psychological operation and rely on symbolic format to carry out "imagery thinking" in their minds. Because the logical structure of children's cognitive field has not been fully established, the choice of form and content of patriotism education must be based on children's vision and scope, in order to be better understood and internalized. If the content of the adult world is imposed on children, it is tantamount to encouragement, which will make children feel resistant because they can't complete the task, and in the end, they will only lose more than they gain. Children's intentional attention lasts for a short time. Patriotism education cannot be confined to classroom form. It is necessary to make overall use of various resources and expand the educational space. Only by making the educational content more interesting can children pay attention to it for the first time, and then improve the educational effect of patriotism. The excellent traditional culture and revolutionary culture of the Chinese nation are important carriers of patriotism education, which cannot be limited to static oral communication. Instead, it is necessary to integrate the rich cultural connotation and national spirit of traditional festivals into a strong practical atmosphere, so that children can feel the prosperity of the country and the greatness of the Chinese nation in rendering and edifying.

Third, the path of patriotism education for young children

Patriotism is the core of Chinese national spirit and the deepest, most fundamental and most eternal core of socialist core values. The purpose of patriotism education for preschool children is to stimulate children's cognitive awareness of the motherland, cultivate patriotic feelings, enhance inner experience, guide children to build a correct spiritual system, and lay a solid foundation for individual lifelong patriotism.

(1) Help patriotism sprout through random infiltration.

It is a gradual process for individuals to cultivate patriotic feelings, and it is a development process from concrete image thinking to abstract logical thinking. Patriotism education is not a temporary "political task", but an eternal theme from childhood to old age. The Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education (Trial) clearly points out: "Education in the social field has subtle characteristics". Patriotism education is not only a simple knowledge education, but also an emotional education. The education plan should pay attention to the effective decomposition of the content, and be good at discovering the educational value hidden in children's interests and accidents, so that it can run through children's daily life. It should be pointed out that this combination can not be forced, let alone replaced by patriotic education. The world of adults is the best classroom for children, and children have strong susceptibility. Adults' words and deeds often become role models for children to learn and imitate. Children have a certain ability to distinguish the emotional reactions of adults' appreciation or contempt, and are directly infected by them, resulting in * * * songs. Parents and teachers should promptly consider whether their emotional words and deeds meet the standards of patriotism, play the role of "setting an example" and set a good example for young children.

(2) Sublimate the connotation of patriotism education with theme education activities as the carrier.

The purpose of patriotism education for children is to stimulate their patriotic feelings and cultivate their patriotic feelings. In view of the characteristics of children's physical and mental development in the "pre-operation stage", if we follow the theoretical teaching mode, it will inevitably make the educational content difficult to digest and produce resistance. Only by promoting children's spontaneous inner emotional experience in practice can we achieve the best educational effect. Kindergartens can determine the theme of education according to the age characteristics of children and carry out thematic education activities of different projects. Small classes need to take the symbols representing the national image as the starting point and focus on children's intuitive feelings. The middle class and the large class pay attention to cultivating children's emotions, deepen the educational content layer by layer, arouse children's emotional voices in vivid forms, and gradually sprout children's national consciousness and patriotic feelings. The flag-raising ceremony every Monday is an important way to educate children in all aspects of patriotism. The five-star red flag raised in Ran Ran during the activity can stimulate children's patriotic feelings, and then cultivate children's sense of collective honor and belonging. In daily life, parents and teachers can lead their children to visit places of historical interest, famous mountains in Sichuan, scenic spots, monuments to revolutionary heroes and other places, and give them timely explanations, educate and guide their children to know the beauty of the motherland and stimulate their love for the motherland. Patriotism education should also make full use of major time nodes such as "July 1" and "Eleventh" to hold activities such as poetry reading and song singing to make it easier.