bobbymcgill
Member
- Aug 23, 2008
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While parents in Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan push their children to study more diligently at younger ages, American experts are calling for exactly the opposite: More play time.
So, who is right?
Anyone familiar with life in North East Asia can attest to the obsessive expectations placed on kids from kindergarten right up into high school. Westerners teaching abroad are often surprised at the excess number of families with young children that spend hours in academies after school before they even know how to wipe their own butt.
Not to mention the middle school and high school students walking home in a zombie-like trance at 12 A.M. after late night classes for science and math.
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychologist at Temple University claims that lack of play in childhood "could be the next global warming." She added: "Play equals learning. For too long we have divorced the two."
Could this explain why in countries --where there was never a marriage of the two-- that such social ills persist? Prime examples are Japan and South Korea, which have over double the suicide rate of that in the United States --with an average of 33 people killing themselves everyday.
And a recent online poll by the Korean newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo and Google Korea found that while South Korea is known for its conglomerates Samsung and LG, the Korean people themselves are mostly known as "hot-tempered."
My take is simple: The problem is in how the brain develops an ability to cope with difficult situations. In countries that emphasize excessive study and, more specifically, rote learning or what is referred to as "teaching to the test," a lack of critical and abstract brain processing skills develop. The end product? People who see life in simple black and white terms.
When conflict arises within, this can quickly lead to a walk on the dark side. In other words --violent reactions against one's self or against others.
Experts agree that the need for critical thinking and abstract reasoning are essential to the healthy development of the mind. "They (children) are inventing abstract thinking, before the world tells them what to think," said Vivian Paley, a former teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. "It gets them thinking, 'I am intended to have my own ideas.'"
So what happens when a child is not given the chance to develop these tools? Not much good.
Bobby
Idle Wordship
So, who is right?
Anyone familiar with life in North East Asia can attest to the obsessive expectations placed on kids from kindergarten right up into high school. Westerners teaching abroad are often surprised at the excess number of families with young children that spend hours in academies after school before they even know how to wipe their own butt.
Not to mention the middle school and high school students walking home in a zombie-like trance at 12 A.M. after late night classes for science and math.
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychologist at Temple University claims that lack of play in childhood "could be the next global warming." She added: "Play equals learning. For too long we have divorced the two."
Could this explain why in countries --where there was never a marriage of the two-- that such social ills persist? Prime examples are Japan and South Korea, which have over double the suicide rate of that in the United States --with an average of 33 people killing themselves everyday.
And a recent online poll by the Korean newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo and Google Korea found that while South Korea is known for its conglomerates Samsung and LG, the Korean people themselves are mostly known as "hot-tempered."
My take is simple: The problem is in how the brain develops an ability to cope with difficult situations. In countries that emphasize excessive study and, more specifically, rote learning or what is referred to as "teaching to the test," a lack of critical and abstract brain processing skills develop. The end product? People who see life in simple black and white terms.
When conflict arises within, this can quickly lead to a walk on the dark side. In other words --violent reactions against one's self or against others.
Experts agree that the need for critical thinking and abstract reasoning are essential to the healthy development of the mind. "They (children) are inventing abstract thinking, before the world tells them what to think," said Vivian Paley, a former teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. "It gets them thinking, 'I am intended to have my own ideas.'"
So what happens when a child is not given the chance to develop these tools? Not much good.
Bobby
Idle Wordship
