Give Children Back Their Childhood Article...Independent

[southbucks3]

Very good, if long, old article, re: many things discussed on here. Deffo worth a read. Particular interest was this extract, as many westerners seem in awe of the east Asian way of teaching, this gives a dramatically different perspective:

Educators in East Asian nations have increasingly been acknowledging the massive failure of their educational systems. According to the scholar and author Yong Zhao, who is an expert on schools in China, a common Chinese term used to refer to the products of their schools is gaofen dineng, which essentially means good at tests but bad at everything else. Because students spend nearly all of their time studying, they have little opportunity to be creative, discover or pursue their own passions, or develop physical and social skills. Moreover, as revealed by a recent large-scale survey conducted by British and Chinese researchers, Chinese schoolchildren suffer from extraordinarily high levels of anxiety, depression and psychosomatic stress disorders, which appear to be linked to academic pressures and lack of play.

Full article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 54433.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Yamin151]

Very good, if long, old article, re: many things discussed on here. Deffo worth a read. Particular interest was this extract, as many westerners seem in awe of the east Asian way of teaching, this gives a dramatically different perspective:

Educators in East Asian nations have increasingly been acknowledging the massive failure of their educational systems. According to the scholar and author Yong Zhao, who is an expert on schools in China, a common Chinese term used to refer to the products of their schools is gaofen dineng, which essentially means good at tests but bad at everything else. Because students spend nearly all of their time studying, they have little opportunity to be creative, discover or pursue their own passions, or develop physical and social skills. Moreover, as revealed by a recent large-scale survey conducted by British and Chinese researchers, Chinese schoolchildren suffer from extraordinarily high levels of anxiety, depression and psychosomatic stress disorders, which appear to be linked to academic pressures and lack of play.

Full article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 54433.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Need to read full article but no time at present as trying to keep order in my non studying, let's wind up our brother household just now! But fascinating extract that doesn't surprise me in the least.........

[neveragain*]

Amen to that.