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compiled by: chen yanbo

editor: chen tianmu

in the new semester, students and parents face a series of challenges, from adapting to the new environment to managing study pressure, from social difficulties to the role positioning of family education. these problems are common at all stages of education.

this issue of tencent news "required courses for the new school year" special program invitationchen zhiwen, editor-in-chief of china education online, guo feng, principal of the national branch of chen jinglun middle school, and yu xiaobing, a chinese teacher at the experimental middle school affiliated to beijing normal university, we explore these phenomena in depth, provide professional guidance and practical strategies to help students smoothly transition to the new semester, and at the same time provide parents with advice on mindset adjustment and educational methods.

chen zhiwen: what challenges do parents and children face when moving from primary school to junior high school?

yu xiaobing: although the transition from elementary school to junior high school is just a summer vacation, it is really a huge challenge for most students. coming to a new school, facing a new class and new classmates, this is an unknown situation for them. most students are not mentally prepared immediately during this process. people are always used to living a normal and stable life. for six years in elementary school, he can do things step by step every day, which gives him a strong sense of security. however, after entering a new and unknown environment, this sense of security is broken, and he will inevitably have some anxiety. however, children will not think too deeply, and they don’t know how big this difficulty may be in the future. this is a good thing.

it is different for adults. from my observation, most parents are more anxious than their children when their children are about to enter junior high school. on the one hand, which school to go to is a particularly big problem. although there is some room for choice in the allocation of places, parents start to worry a few months before the ranking begins.

the second is the issue of class placement. every parent hopes that their child will be placed in the best class, with the best classmates and teachers. even if the teacher allocation and classmate allocation for parallel classes are random and balanced, there are still quite a few parents who are particularly anxious about this matter.

i often tell parents,you have no way to find a perfect school or a perfect class. what you need to do is to be prepared to cope with changes and difficulties. only by adapting to changes and overcoming difficulties can children grow better. if parents can stabilize their mentality and provide strong support for their children, it will be easier for them to adapt.

chen zhiwen: what do you think of parents' anxiety about the new semester's class placement exam? is this anxiety necessary?

guo feng: people feel anxious, which is actually the fear of the unknown, worrying about problems that have not yet occurred, and increasing their mental burden. certainty is accidental, uncertainty is inevitable, and life is full of uncertainty. if we use uncertainty to deal with uncertainty, it will be quite unreliable, so we must use certainty to deal with uncertainty.

i think that in a short period of time, helping children get a so-called outstanding score in the class placement test through the guidance of so-called famous teachers is a kind of certainty based on uncertainty, which can easily collapse. we need to accurately understand what state our children are in and where they can go with the support of their learning potential and learning habits, so that we can know the upper and lower limits of our children's development. there are students of different levels in any class, and test scores may not necessarily determine the future, but your own learning habits, learning ability and learning potential, as well as the like-minded people you meet, can influence these certain things and help you smoothly overcome the uncertainty you are about to face.

chen zhiwen: teacher yu, are the students and parents in your school more anxious compared to those in ordinary schools?

yu xiaobing: yes. sometimes parents try their best to get their children into a good school, but don’t think that you can rest easy once they get into a good school. getting into a good school means facing more and greater challenges. if you don’t have better adaptability to such challenges, a good school may become the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

i often meet parents like this. when their children do not perform as well as expected after entering the second and third year of junior high school, the parents will look back and say that if they had not chosen this school but another one, their children would be very good now. when the children do not perform as well as expected in the school they chose and thought was good, the parents will feel a little regretful.

usually at this time, i will tell parents or students that if you go to another school, it may not be as good as you expected, because you will also encounter other problems. no matter what kind of school you go to, you will encounter problems of one kind or another. even if you go to a school that is not particularly ideal, it may seem like a major setback in your choice in the short term, but in the long run, it may not be a particularly bad thing.if you don't adapt well to a better school or a more competitive group, your self-confidence will be hit and your performance will continue to decline. if you go to an ordinary school, you can become a better part of this place, perform better in academics and various activities, and get more attention from the school and teachers, your overall self-confidence will become stronger, which may be a good thing.

so there is no such thing as better or worse. we should embrace uncertainty. it is too easy for people to seek certainty. the more they seek certainty, the more anxious they become. uncertainty can actually be eliminated through individual efforts. it may not look good in the short term, but in the long run it will lead to better directions.

chen zhiwen: in the process of children's growth, we cannot ignore the important value and significance of schools and teachers, but we cannot exaggerate it, it is not decisive. the child itself and your education of the child are very important. the so-called good school is mainly a gathering of excellent students. its good results are due to the gathering of excellent students, not because those teachers and principals are particularly excellent, excellent enough to turn any child into a child prodigy. if a child goes to a not-so-top school, he will become one of the top students, and the final result may be better than in other schools. it mainly depends on how parents view this issue. this is a process of psychological construction.