Learning is work, and children today are not accustomed to work and https://argoprep.com/math/1st-grade/shapes/three-dimensional-shapes/, psychologists say. In addition, the child often doesn’t want to go to school because he doesn’t like his teacher.
About half of Russian students do not want to go to school because they dislike their teacher, Alexander Kuznetsov, president of the Association of Child Psychologists and Psychiatrists of Russia, told RIA Novosti. Experts told RIA Novosti about the difficulties schoolchildren encounter, how to restore a child’s motivation to study and instill independence, on the eve of Children’s Day, which was held on November 20.
Mom, is the weekend coming soon?
Maria Rempel, mother of a second-grader at a high school near Moscow, did not expect that her eight-year-old son Mark would have any problems with his studies. She herself did well at school, but Mark cannot yet boast of such success. The boy finished the first quarter of the second school year with one “C” in Russian language.
“He doesn’t like school so much that every day he asks me when he’s going to have a weekend,” Rempel told RIA Novosti.
According to the parent, her son has no desire to study because the school teacher failed to interest him. “We used to come to school to learn, but now we come to show what we learned at home with our parents,” she said.
In addition, Rempel said, school textbooks are full of complicated and strange tasks for example what is 2/3as a decimal that not even every adult can solve. “And parents of a second-grader have to solve problems with their collective minds on special forums on the Internet or by phone,” Rempel noted. As a result, it turns out that it’s the parents themselves, not the children, who are more concerned about doing homework.
Study, study, study
Unwillingness of a child of any age to go to school is a self-protection from the heavy load, says teacher of Russian language and literature, honored teacher of Russia Inna Golenok.
“It turns out that the child is uncomfortable, uncomfortable with what he is not doing, and when he starts doing everything, he is also uncomfortable, because he gets tired,” she explained.
Golenok noted that teachers’ workloads related to deficiencies in basic planning are projected onto students. “The curriculum is made to allocate sometimes one hour a week to a subject. And one hour a week by all psychological rules should not be at all: knowledge is not consolidated, there is no repetition, hence the heavy load,” – said the teacher.
Maxim Pratusevich, principal of Lyceum No. 239 in St. Petersburg, winner of the national contest “Director of School-2012,” agrees that the program of modern students is not simple. At the same time, he considers laziness the main reason for reluctance to study at school.
“There is little time and need to work, and it is not very accepted to work these days. Children are not accustomed to work. They say you have to have fun in school to learn well, but that’s not true. Studying is hard work. We learn for life, and in life you have to work hard, be able to do it,” Pratusevich said.
What do they teach at school?
Child psychologists believe that a key role in a child’s attitude to school is played by the first teacher, who should motivate the child to learn. Alexander Kuznetsov, president of the Association of Child Psychologists and Psychiatrists, told RIA Novosti that schools in Russia have always lacked an individual approach to each student.
“School is oriented to the average student, so any individuality is out of the question. It is proven that strong students descend to the level of the average student in two or three grades,” Kuznetsov said.
According to him, often the child doesn’t want to go to school precisely because he doesn’t like his teacher. Or the child goes to school not for knowledge, but just to socialize and show off in front of his peers. “We don’t like the subject, the teacher we don’t like. From our practice, about 50% of children in elementary school, when asked about the teacher, say that they do not like the teacher,” said the psychologist.
According to Kuznetsov, if parents want their child to have no problems with learning in school, they must keep the main thing – the child’s motivation to learn. “And not at the expense of the fact that learning is work, it’s silly big, but on the contrary, to explain that learning is always interesting. We need to look for ways not to kill the child’s natural curiosity for knowledge,” he said.
The Right Help
A psychologist gave some practical advice to parents who can’t get their child into school. First of all, parents should find out if the child likes the teacher. “If the child does not like the teacher, change the teacher. It can be a teacher at a neighboring school. Don’t get attached to a school just because it’s closest to home,” Kuznetsov recommends.
If you can’t find a good teacher, you can transfer your child to home schooling. “Under the new law on education, this can be done very simply: you go to school, write an application, and that’s it. Then you will only have to take tests,” explained the psychologist, noting that his children, for example, have long been comprehending the school curriculum at home.
Learning at home saves a lot of time and fosters independence in the child. “If a child can read, he can explore a topic on his own. If he has a question, he can ask his parents or watch numerous video lessons online,” Smith said.
Another tip is to assign the child prizes so he or she is fully motivated to do his or her own homework. For example, children can earn the right to do twenty minutes of cognitive applications on the tablet after eight in the evening. Subsequently, the child will get used to a certain course of action, a ritual, and start doing homework independently.
“Parents don’t understand how to help a child do his or her homework. They can’t get the child to get away from the computer and do their homework for five hours at a time. As a result, the child gets used to it and says, “Mom, it’s late, could you do physics for me?” The child has the attitude that my mom still will not let me go until I do the homework, and since she also has to go to bed, in the end she will do everything for me, I just need to be more stupid and do less,” – said Kuznetsov.
The psychologist noted that about 20 percent of children have attention deficit disorder. “So one more piece of advice: children need to be taught to rest and break up difficult tasks into smaller ones. So that the child doesn’t have the feeling that he is sitting for lessons until he is blue in the face,” he said. You can use a cooking timer or an hourglass to control the time to work and rest.
In the younger grades, it’s imperative to teach your child to read. “By instilling a love of reading, you hedge against most educational problems,” said the psychologist. The easiest way to teach a child to love books is to show interest in what your child reads aloud to you. “We usually have very little time to hear a child. When you listen to a child, they really enjoy reading to an adult, especially if the adult is genuinely interested,” Kuznetsov added.
“Sometimes it’s important to buy textbooks from the previous grade and diagnose and determine the level the child is doing well with. “And tell the child: that’s it, at home we start learning from this level. We need to catch up with the program so that the person gets on solid ground and feels confident in the classroom,” the psychologist said.
But the most important rule for parents to remember is to never tell a child he’s stupid or get annoyed if he doesn’t understand something. “If you get annoyed, it means you’re setting exaggerated goals. Go lower. And be sure to encourage your child’s independence,” Kuznetsov concluded.