2 . “Why does grandpa have ear hair?” Just a few years ago my child was so curious to know “why” and “how” that we had to cut off her questions five minutes before bedtime. Now a soon-to-be fourth grader, she says that she dislikes school because “it’s not fun to learn.” I am shocked. As a scientist and parent, I have done all to promote a love of learning in my children. Where did I go wrong?

My child’s experience is not unique. Psychologist Susan Engel notes that curiosity — defined as “spontaneous (自发的) investigation and eagerness for new information” — drops greatly in children by the fourth grade.

In Wonder: Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science, Yale psychologist Frank C. Keil details the development of wonder — a spontaneous passion to explore, discover, and understand. He takes us on a journey from its early development, when wonder drives common sense and scientific reasoning, through the drop-off in wonder that often occurs, to the trap of life in a society that denies wonder.

As Keil notes, children are rich in wonder while they are rapidly developing causal mechanisms (因果机制) in the preschool and early elementary school years. They are sensitive to the others’ knowledge and goals, and they expertly use their desire for questioning. Children’s questions, particularly those about “why” and “how,” support the development of causal mechanisms which can be used to help their day-to-day reasoning.

Unfortunately, as Keil notes, “adults greatly underestimate (低估) young children’s causal mechanisms.” In the book, Wonder, Keil shows that we can support children’s ongoing wonder by playing games with them as partners, encouraging question-asking, and focusing on their abilities to reason and conclude.

A decline in wonder is not unavoidable. Keil reminds us that we can accept wonder as a positive quality that exists in everyone. I value wonder deeply, and Wonder has given me hope by suggesting a future for my children that will remain wonder-full.

    1    present, high school students are under increasing pressure to study long hours every day. They spend over 8 hours a day     2     (study) at school, some of whom even have to attend extra     3    (class) in their spare time. This greatly     4     (affect) their health and makes their parents and teachers concerned.    5    (help) solve the problem, recently, some relevant government departments have made     6    new regulation (规定) that no students shall go to school at weekends or during official holidays. We support such a reform and we know that    7     is necessary and important for us students to balance study and     8    ( relax). You see, The National Day    9    (come), and the children will make good use of the time to relax. Also, we come to realize that if they can rest well, they will be able to study     10    (effective) when they come back to school.

6 . Children love playing outdoors. They usually get muddy, with no regard for the colour of their clothing. “Don’t get dirty!” was once a constant family warning, as parents watched their children ruin their best clothes. They were happy running through farmer’s fields or climbing trees.     1    

According to the experts, parents don’t have to concern too much about it. Recent research shows that the dirt outside can develop resistance to a range of illnesses. Certain natural materials, such as mud, contain surprisingly powerful microorganisms (微生物群) whose positive impact on children’s health we are only beginning to fully understand.     2    .

Many of the psychological benefits of outdoor play are established as well. Our brains evolved in beautiful landscapes, and the way we perceive the world is particularly suited to wild outdoor spaces. This means that natural scenes provide the perfect level of stimulation (刺激).     3     One study found that children with ADHD (注意力缺陷多动症) were better able to concentrate following a 20-minute walk in the park. Being close to grass and trees seemed to have a beneficial effect on their minds.

Outdoor play can also offer valuable learning experiences.     4    . Thus they gradually understand the external environment and the internal connections of things in different ways. If children play with others, they can develop effective strategies to promote communication and socialization.

Today, with the attraction of video games and social media, contact with nature is rarer than in the past. More and more parents begin to recognize the importance of outdoor play.     5     They believe that not only does it make children emotionally happy but it also has a powerful effect on their wellbeing.

My Views on the Cooking Lesson

8 . It’s a picture we often see.     1     He is trying not to fall asleep as his teacher drills (训练) the class in the body structure of a man: the heart is here; the lungs are here… The teacher then gives the class a worksheet and asks them to answer questions like which body parts go where. At the end of the period, the only way to measure whether the students have learned anything is based on this worksheet and the unit test.

    2     Primary school students walk into a classroom and see a basic skeleton (骨架) with models of the heart, lungs, and the stomach lying on a table in the center of the room. Students gather around in a circle, see the model organs (器官), laugh, and begin to guess the name of each body part and its function. Through trial and error, they figure out where each model organ fits in the skeleton.

The differences between these two types of classes are obvious. One has students actively involved. The other relies on direct instruction, rote learning (死记硬背), and remembering information for the test. One is memorable for students.     3    . Which lesson will leave a lasting impression?

    4     Why? Lessons should be based on students’ psychological needs and help them achieve learning outcomes. If an educator takes a child’s development into consideration, he or she can prepare lessons that will not only engage the student but also leave a lasting impression.

Many famous educators like John Dewey have written about student-centered learning and they think highly of it. But many teachers are still adopting a wait-and-see approach to it.     5    

9 . Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain students and keep younger faculty members from going elsewhere.

It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose task is to “solve” problems-real or imagined. And in my position as a professor at three different colleges, the actual problems in educating our young people and older students have deepened, while the number of people hired-not to teach but to hold meetings-has increased significantly. Every new problem creates a new job for an administrative fixer. Take our Center for Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title, the center is a clearing house (信息交流中心) for using technology in classrooms and in online courses. It’s an administrative sham (of the kind that has multiplied over the last 30 years.

I offer a simple proposition in response: Many of our problems-class attendance, educational success, student happiness and well-being-might be improved by cutting down the bureaucratic mechanisms and meetings and instead hiring an army of good teachers. If we replaced half of our administrative staff with classroom teachers, we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20 or fewer students per teacher. This would be an environment in which teachers and students actually knew each other.

The teachers must be free to teach in their own way-the curriculum should be flexible enough so that they can use their individual talents to achieve the goals of the course. Additionally, they should be allowed to teach, and be rewarded fordoing it well. Teachers are not people who are great at and consumed by research and happen to appear in a classroom. Good teaching and research are not exclusive, but they are also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft, talent and practice; it is not something that just anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that people do not recognize this, despite the fact that pretty much anyone who has been a student can tell the difference between their best and worst teachers.

10 . As a society we might want to rethink the time and money spent on education, so that these resources can benefit a greater percentage of the population. Ideally both high schools and colleges can prepare individuals for the ever changing roles that are likely to be expected of them.

High school degrees offer far less in the way of preparation for work than they might, or than many other nations currently offer, creating a growing skills gap in our economy. We encourage students to go on to college whether they are prepared or not, or have a clear sense of purpose or interest, and now have the highest college dropout rate in the world.

We might look to other countries for models of how high schools can offer better training, as well as the development of a work ethic (勤奋工作的美德) and the intellectual skills needed for continued learning and development. I recommend Harvard’s 2011 “Pathways to Prosperity” report for more attention to the “forgotten half” (those who do not go on to college) and ideas about how to address this issue.

Simultaneously, the liberal arts become more important than ever. In a knowledge economy where professional roles change rapidly and many college students are preparing for positions that may not even exist yet, the skill set needed is one that prepares them for change and continued learning.

Learning to express ideas well in both writing and speech, knowing how to find information, and knowing how to do research are all-solid background skills for a wide variety of roles, and such training is more important than any particular major in a liberal arts college. We need to continue to value broad preparation in thinking skills that will serve for a lifetime.

Students also need to learn to work independently and to make responsible decisions. The lengthening path to adulthood appears exacerbated (恶化) by parental involvement in the college years. Given the rising investment in college education, parental concern is not surprising, but learning where and when to intervene (干预) will help students take more ownership of the outcomes of these increasingly costly educations.