How do you make your children lose their curiosity about the world?

Carl Sagan, the famous astronomer and popular science author, once said: \”Every child is born a scientist, but we make them give up this nature. Only a few survive the test of adulthood with their passion and curiosity for science intact. .” Does Sagan’s intuition make sense? Indeed, every child is born a scientist, according to research by MIT cognitive psychology professor Claire Cook. Children are very curious about everything in the world. When they can talk they start asking questions and why. Adults are often stumped by children\’s questions. But that’s okay, kids will explore the world on their own. Discovering mistakes through practice and verifying intuition through practice are ways to guide children to discover the laws of the world. In fact, children are already doing what scientists do before they go to school. But the problem is, how to keep them curious about the world when they grow up? Or to put it another way, what kind of environment will make children lose their curiosity? Cook\’s research provides a telling answer. She started by letting some 5-year-olds play with a music box. Some children\’s music boxes can be activated with 4 beads, while other children\’s music boxes sometimes require 4 beads, and sometimes only 2. Cook then gave all the children a new music box and some beads that stuck together to see if the old music box had any impact on the children\’s exploration of the new music box. As a result, the children who had been playing with the four-bead-activated music box never imagined that the beads could be taken apart and used. Most children who have played with randomly activated music boxes have begun to study how to combine beads to make the music box make sounds. Cook believes that if the learning environment is always the same, it will be difficult for children to learn anything and they will not be motivated to explore. If there is uncertainty in the world around them, children will actively explore and try to figure out the rules behind the game. Children\’s exploration methods are similar to scientists\’ research. Children\’s exploration in the game is to understand the causes and consequences of the toy\’s movement. This is actually a small scientific research. If children are born scientists, how can we encourage their practical instincts? What kind of teaching methods are \”toxic\” and will kill children\’s curiosity? MIT psychologist Laura Schulz has done some research on this. She presents a set of toys to a 4-year-old in different ways. In front of a group of children, like an adventurer, she \”accidentally\” activated the toy and said to the children in a surprised tone: \”Did you see it? Isn\’t it amazing? Let me try it again!\” In front of another group of children, she showed the toys to the children in a traditional teacher\’s manner: \”Today we are going to learn a new toy,\” and then showed the children the functions of the toy. She then left toys for both groups of children to explore on their own. As expected, the children in the first group had a lot of fun and discovered many hidden functions of the toys; while the children in the second group quickly got bored and did not discover other ways to play with the toys. This shows that teaching methods have a great influence on creativity.Very big impact. The closed teaching method leaves no room for children’s imagination, and creativity is easily lost in this environment. For parents and teachers, the best way to preserve children\’s creativity is to maintain a sense of mystery and uncertainty in the world while giving them some \”sweeteners\” of knowledge. When we explain the principles of things to our children, don’t pretend that we know everything and know everything. Science should not be a dry dictionary, and experimental classes should not be verification activities with known results. Unknown and uncertain are reliable sources to urge children to explore and maintain their creativity. So as a parent or teacher, if you want to preserve your children\’s creativity, what should you do and what shouldn\’t you do? Here are some suggestions from the American Psychological Association (APA): Please do: Give your child a chance to ask questions. If children have difficulty understanding concepts or performing operations, give them the opportunity to ask questions to the teacher or peers. · Encourage children to manage themselves. Parents and teachers should encourage children to supervise themselves, such as allowing children to record their daily learning gains in diaries. Encourage children to set goals for themselves. Involve children in the decision-making process of learning goals, let children talk about their interests, and then discuss them with parents/teachers. · Children will inevitably encounter setbacks in their studies, and you must help them cope with them. You can tell your child that trouble in learning is inevitable and is a good opportunity for growth. You need to let your child manage negative emotions, because negative emotions can dampen enthusiasm for learning. · Encourage children’s efforts. Encourage specific things and the sweat the child put in, not the final result. ·· Use background knowledge your child is familiar with to introduce new things. For example, games that children are familiar with can be used to introduce the mathematics and computer languages ​​involved in programming. Please don’t link learning outcomes to ability or intelligence. If you tell your children that a person\’s performance is only related to intelligence, then the child will think that there is no need to work hard and just let nature take its course. · I always mention how quickly other people’s children learn. Learning is an individual process. If children are always compared with others, children will gradually lose perseverance and motivation. · Let the top students lead the underachievers. This will make underachieving students dependent and lose their motivation to learn (unless top students can fully mobilize the enthusiasm for learning among underachieving students). · Negative teaching methods. Negative teaching methods refer to giving children certain questions and answers without giving them a chance to express their opinions; giving children one-sided information and ignoring the background of the problem; giving children several fixed options but not allowing children to think about their own needs. Opportunity. Active teaching should fully mobilize students\’ interest in exploration. Teachers should provide support and feedback instead of directly giving correct answers. · Let your children learn from role models. Children should be encouraged to explore learning methods that work for them, rather than blindly following others as examples.