All of us must have the ****ing knowledge that the future is never just a look-a-like!

My early childhood was different from other kids because I had an operation when I was 2 or 3 years old, which made me too weak to go to kindergarten all the time, so I basically spent my time at home.

Because I spent a lot of time alone at home, I learned to communicate with myself, or what is commonly known as self-improvement, by drawing, reading, building, and giving lessons to my toys. But because of my lack of schooling and lack of interaction with people, I became very shy and unsure of myself.

My parents have always been very traditional and suppressive, never complimenting, which seemed to exacerbate my lack of self-confidence and made it harder for me to interact with people.

What I didn't expect at all was that this affected me all the way through elementary and middle school, and didn't get better until after high school (because in high school I started to make my own judgments).

But that lack of confidence seemed to become a part of my body, especially when there were a lot of people, and it affects me to this day.

Because of my childhood experiences, I have a strong sense of personal space, I don't like to work with others, I'm not used to being in a crowded place all day, and I enjoy being alone at certain times of the day, especially at night.

I was surprised to find that my childhood environment and education had such a profound effect on me, and that it seemed to determine my personality and the kind of person I would become.

Recently, a movie about education came out of nowhere, only aired one episode rating as high as 9.0, an episode about a country's education, a **** 6 episodes. In those A Childhood in Another Country, we may be able to get some inspiration and find answers.

01

Japan

In Japan, there is a kindergarten with a difference.

For the past 60 years, they've been letting their children go topless and exercise every morning for all seasons until April of this year, when they had to discontinue the tradition due to public pressure.

This is a boisterous kindergarten that encourages and teaches children how to properly "shout" and make loud noises as a way of learning to express their emotions and awareness.

△Children in a kendo class

They don't use simple, slow intervals just because they're teaching young children, but rather choose a rhythm, a tempo, a repetition, a "comfortable speed" that's most appropriate for young children.

Another world-famous kindergarten, Vine Kindergarten, is also unique.

As soon as you enter, you are attracted by the design of the kindergarten, which looks like a donut. The entire school is a circular building surrounded by a circular lawn, and this lawn is also the kind of uneven lawn ------

Not afraid of children tripping over?

But the head gardener said, It's just to make it inconvenient for them.

Only when it's inconvenient do children start to think and form their own understanding. Do they go around, or do they go across? If the grass is flat, kids don't need to worry about it and won't think about it.

With round classrooms one after the other, children can come and go from classroom to classroom, with no segregation in the space, enjoying the freedom to do as they please. Here, children can choose the distance between themselves and others.

The doors of each classroom are also carefully designed! The doors are made so that the children can't close them because of their strength. In winter, a child who leaves the door will say it's cold, and the child who closes the door will come back and close it again.

Wouldn't that be a pain in the ass?

But the director said, With this design we want to show the children to do things thoroughly.

Here, there is a faucet with a hose attached, so if you are happy, you can open the faucet at any time and nourish water on your classmates without being scolded. If a parent asks, the director will say, It's okay, it'll dry up in a minute.

There are two horses, if you have a birthday, you can ride around the field, too cool!

There's also a tree that's netted at the bottom, and the net is specifically for kids who climb the tree. It's worth noting that it's not 100% safe, and you're likely to fall and get hurt (or at best, bruised).

But the teacher will say, Go ahead and climb, it's okay.

Because it's a child's nature to play. How to play is his choice.

On the ground in front of the office, there are vegetables, insects and other things for children to observe.

They deliberately made the onions dirty with sand and dirt. But the children do not mind, they will be the onion pieces layer by layer, until they reveal the inside of the tender white, they will show a look of realization, some children will even bite a bite to taste ------

The director of the gardens said: If you touch the onion to the age of 20 years old, the heart feel so excited ah, then it is a little bit dangerous ah!

02

Finland

Finland

Finland is a world-recognized powerhouse of education, where children are smart, creative, and stress-free.

With a population of only 5 million, Finland is a highly developed country, and in 2018 Finland was ranked first in the Global Happiness Index.

Education in Finland promotes freedom and equality and a return to nature, which is reflected in various details.

Kasukkala Elementary School, Lappeenranta, Finland

This is a lesson in the forest.

The teacher gives the children color cards and sends them out into the forest to find colors that match the cards.

The teacher gives the children color cards and asks them to go into the forest and find a color that matches the color card.

They are asked to smell the plant, describe the smell, and name the tree, but not the actual name of the tree, but to use their own imagination to give the tree a name.

Finally, she brings out a list of adjectives, and expects the children to find something in the forest that corresponds to the adjectives, even something disgusting.

Is this so the children can learn how to survive in the wild?

The teacher says: Maybe, but the main purpose is to foster a relationship between children and nature, so that they learn to love and protect it.

The teacher believes that if there are forests in Finland, they should be taught in the forests, and if they are in the cities, they should be taught in the cities.

And at Sky Elementary School in Helsinki, a lesson on phenomenon education also touched me.

The teacher taught the children about self-awareness, and then asked them to make a face, or faces, in the proportions of a human face, that would be suitable for living in the long Finnish winter.

Some children drew long, narrow faces to minimize heat loss, some drew lots of hair to protect them from the cold, and some made faces that were reflective because it's safer to be brighter during the darkness of a long winter night. -------

They learned from the real world, and then they applied that knowledge to the real world. This I think is critical.

In Finland, there are no exams until the end of elementary school, and while the world is fiercely competitive, Finland is avoiding competition, any kind of competition.

The only thing they assess, says Mr. Lani, is not how much they have learned in the subject, but how they have learned it.

The school values positive education, meaning that even if one of the children is not good at math or science or art, they can still find their own strengths, which may be fairness, kindness, teamwork, perseverance, curiosity, empathy, and so on and so forth.

When I saw this, I suddenly thought of all those kids who were looked down upon by everyone because they didn't study well, and for the first time, I thought, this is just plain wrong. And then I marveled that people can be treated so gently.

The Finnish society itself is relatively fair, there is not so much competition, everyone's heart is very calm, will not go to compare, there is not even a luxury store on the street, wealth is not a major indicator of the Finnish people than, they may be more than the taste and upbringing.

And I was surprised again by a group of teachers at H?mmenlinna Teachers College.

They don't limit what teachers can wear, everyone can dress their own way.

They try to avoid labeling, demeaning children, and when there is a child who is really bad at math or a particular subject, they reflect on whether there is something wrong with what they are teaching, rather than suspecting in the first instance that it is the child.

They take a closer look and teach math with Legos if the child is interested in Legos, or with carts if the child likes carts.

At a senior rehab center event, children and seniors form groups to paint a portrait of one person in the group.

Director and star Zhou Yijun is also involved, and this is the first time she's ever done a full painting, and afterward she feels that it's not just about painting, it's also about expressing herself. But she always seems to think she's not doing a good job.

Ms. Rani said to her, Everyone can draw, because these drawings are not meant to compete with each other, so people can look at things in a more interesting way and express themselves on paper.

These words made Zhou Yijun weep, and they moved me.

We're always being told that you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do this, you can't do that. Maybe sometimes we just want to express ourselves.

When you have a hobby, you are never alone, never desperate. And the ultimate goal of learning is to live a better life.

03

Israel

"We're Leechy, we're a startup, right now we're doing a proof-of-concept, and I'm the CEO of this company and this is the CTO of the company ------"

What comes to your mind when you see this conversation? Is it a bunch of adults in suits and formal wear standing in front of you? If so then you would be very wrong!

The CEO of this company is only 16 and a half years old, and the oldest of the staff is no more than 16 years old, and the youngest is surprisingly only 13 years old! But the maturity of their conversation and the amount of knowledge they have is mind blowing.

Israel, once a land of conflict, has changed its narrative in the last two years, emphasizing that it is a "startup nation", second only to the United States in terms of entrepreneurship. So what was it like to be a child that created this entrepreneurial generation?

A group of kids at the Green Start Academy at the Startups site are busy designing robots and making parts for new products using a variety of machines themselves.

There are no adults in this program, it's all a group of 14-16 year olds. They do the engineering, make the electronics, program the robots, and also take care of the PR, business part of the program, finding sponsors ------

And all of this is taught to them by Green Start Academy and the FIRST Robotics Competition.

One young girl said, I'm only 14 years old, but I'm already doing things I used to think were impossible in my grade.

At the academy, there are 13 active startups this year, and even a hacker group! The members are all a bunch of teenagers. Every one of them has the title of either CEO or founder.

But in fact 96% of such innovative companies fail, even though that's already lower than the general figure for the world.

One Israeli mother said that while her son and his partners created a company that in the end they probably won't end up doing all the time, and their company isn't necessarily the future, they learned about the process.

Do your best, and if that doesn't work out for you, I'll help you, we'll try again, and if it doesn't work out the first time, it doesn't matter. Each of us should learn how to deal with failure.

Parents in Israel also look to their children and are very demanding of the next generation, but they prefer to believe in their children, even if they don't become traditionally successful, but just become themselves.

In Israel, his heroes are those who have failed many times, but still dare to try again, he will not be failed to define themselves. He doesn't let the fact that you've failed negate all the hard work you've done.

It turns out that people who have failed many times can also be treated as heroes by others ah ~

When I saw this, my eyes were moist. I thought of my own failure in the midterm, because I lost out with the key class, and I had been giving up on myself in high school (I had been in the key class in junior high school and got good grades). If someone had said something like that to me, would my future have been different?

In Israel, if you start a second business after failing, investors will give you more when you raise money. Because they feel that you have learned from your failure and that the same mistakes will not be made again.

Instead of labeling you as a failure, they will admire you for trying again and again.

And what amazes me even more is that the Israeli army doesn't ask its soldiers to just follow orders, they ask them to innovate.

Debate is part of Judaism, the Talmud is a book about debate, and they believe that people should question, so there is no strong authority in Israel.

Democracy Elementary School, is a school that a group of parents started themselves because they couldn't choose the right school.

Here you can choose the classes you're interested in, plan your own schedule, and even take or skip final exams. They give kids a great deal of autonomy.

When it comes to the question of how education can help children develop and trigger the motivation to keep learning, Saul Singer, one of the original creators of the Israeli entrepreneurial myth, and co-author of The Land of Entrepreneurship, says, The answer should be to give kids more control over what they do.

For reasons of space, I can't list all those great educational ideas in the documentary here, I've only selected a few to present, and there are many more to learn about in the documentary.

And after watching so many episodes, I suddenly realized that although "A Childhood in Another Country" is about one country in one issue, he doesn't just introduce the educational philosophy of one country in general, but goes deeper into a school, or even a teacher or a parent.

He gets down to the individual!

We see that within the larger cultural context of the country, each school is different and has its own unique teaching philosophy.

And in the process, I was surprised to find that the core of these seemingly different teaching systems had a lot in common.

For example, one of the things that is very important in an Indian university classroom - debating with the teacher, questioning the teacher - is very similar to the Israeli idea that people should question.

Then there are Finnish schools that believe that the ultimate goal of learning is to live a better life. And one of the great things about the Dewey schools in the UK is that they care about more than just academic achievement, they want to prepare these kids not just for college, but also for their life after college.

Teachers at Ago Paradise School in India believe that electronics such as cell phones tablets are a part of this generation of children's lives and should not be banned from using them, but rather shown how to use them properly.

And a father in faraway Israel, who never bothered to limit his child's time on his cell phone except at bedtime, argued that it's not a parent's job to tell a child what you should do next, but rather for him to learn how to exercise self-control.

Gradually, though, I realized that it seems that behind every kind of seemingly flawless education, there are problems of one kind or another.

The collective education of the Japanese nation allows people to stick together, to help each other, and to always think of others. But what comes with this is a very serious problem of bullying in schools and depression in everyone's mind. Japan has a high rate of depression and suicide.

In the UK, "elite education" is not fair, because it is only for the children of the upper classes, and the education of ordinary children is far worse.

And Israelis have a lot of small companies, but not many big ones, because they question authority, like to debate, like to experiment, and lack patience. These qualities are great for startups, but they don't do much good for big companies that require a lot of organization and discipline.

So what kind of education system is better suited to raising the next generation of our country?

This brings to mind a quote from that Finnish issue: If you ask me which school is the best, I'll tell you it's the one closest to home.

There are thousands of paths to excellence, there is no one formula, and for parents, the answer is all around you - know your child.

We hope that parents and teachers will be inspired by the documentary to make changes at home and as individuals, and to raise their children in a better and more correct way ！！！！！

Author / silva

Illustrations / A Childhood in Another Country