Appreciation Education

I must say that schools in Singapore also seem to have many activities...

The other day Ace came home with a letter announcing that the school is holding a Parent Symposium and they have a series of talks for us to register for.

I registered for one that teaches how to teach Primary school kids to write compositions and another one called  Appreciation Education. Which I thought is quite interesting..

Alas, the compo one was cancelled and so I only went for the Appreciation Education one.

Apparently, this appreciation education thingy was made popular by a Chinese professor, Zhou Hong, who says we should help our children by appreciating them and praising them more. His parenting philosophy is “appreciation education”, which focuses on a child’s strengths and builds upon these positive traits to inculcate a healthy self-esteem in the child. Apparently, some of wat we watched in the movie, 小孩不笨came from inputs from THE MASTER himself.

According to one website I came across when I was finding out more about this:
"With more than 20 years of personal experience, Mr. Hong ZHOU is progressively elevating the status of this education method into a philosophy, a system, naming it "appreciation education". The key ideas of this philosophy are:

1. There is no such thing as bad crops, only farmers who do not know how to grow crops, and
2. There is no child who cannot be taught well, only parents or teachers who do not know how to teach.
3. How a farmer treats his crops determined the growth of his crops. By the same principle, how parents treat their children will also determine the child’s destiny.
4. Just as a farmer prays for his crops to grow quickly, all parents also wish for their children to succeed early in life. However, the difference lies in how they go about attaining that goal.
5. A farmer ponders day and night about how to improve the quality of his crops—whether he is watering them enough, whether he is using sufficient fertilizer. However, when parents lose sleep over their children’s education, do they think about their innermost needs? Do they fret about how to satisfy their children’s emotional needs?
6. When the growth of the crop is below expectation, a farmer never complains nor blames the crops. On the contrary, he would reflect on the poor growth in a bid to come up with a reason for it. However, when children fail to live up to their parents’ expectations in their studies, many parents will only single-mindedly reprimand the child. Never for a moment do they stop to think about their part in it nor to do some soul-searching.
7. With changes in geographical conditions and environment, farmers adapt by altering their crop-growing methods accordingly. However, with changes in the social environment, are parents conscious of the need to keep abreast on their concepts of education?

Focusing on a child’s strengths and building on it differentiates from other educational methods. It acknowledges disparities and allows room for failure; appreciating what the child has done.

The secret of appreciation education lies in infusing inspiration into a child. It is also teachesempathy, a lesson that is vital to understanding one another’s feelings and thoughts. This is a lesson in gratitude, an education for which to be eternally happy. This is also an education about passion for life, relishing in the moment and developing a love for the Nature all around us.

So here are some of my takeaways from the session as well.. and hopefully it can help all parents reading this..

1. Education is about helping children find confidence and the phrase, 天生我材必有用 is a reminder to always acknowledge our children so that they feel like they are "useful".
2. Education encompasses teaching our children how when they face people, they should have in their hearts this desire to show respect, trust and also understanding.
3. It also means teaching them.. that when they are faced with situations, some strategies they can apply will be to be all encompassing, to be motivated or motivating and to be aware and remind themselves to do the right thing.
4. When our children are young, eg, when they were learning to walk, there was a 100% success rate because parents were always encouraging, always allowed failures and allowed mistakes (falling down). Parents were their children's best friend who motivates them along. Many parents however forget to do that as their children grow up...
   PS: I think however parents also should not forget to praise children for their efforts.. most parents only focus on praising results..and that will result in a child who is intensely afraid of failure.
5. Parents should learn to:
   - Respect their children so their children will learn to listen and consult them
   - Trust their children so their children will "idolize" them and learn to be proud of themselves
   - Understand their children so their children will be thankful and be happy to have a good companion
   - Be inclusive so that their children will learn to reflect upon oneself and learn to wait
   - Motivate their children so that their children will learn to share and be self motivated
   - Learn to remind their children so their children learn to accept criticisms and be responsible for their own actions

I think it is a rather good reminder. Too bad the talk is in chinese. I think more people will be interested if it is in english.. haha.. If you are interested you can visit this site:
http://ssjyw.com/

On a totally unrelated note.. I saw two lizards on my way home from school... never knew there were lizards living in our area..


 

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