The learning methods and training details of Harvard's top students

Chapter 47

(Harvard representative: Peter) Every child is a potential gifted child, but often manifested in different forms.

--Howard Gardner, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
【Wonderful Guide】

biography of peter
Peter, born in the United States, his parents divorced when he was a teenager. In 1959, Dr. Jang Byung-hye, the daughter of former South Korean Prime Minister Jang Taek-sang, became his stepmother.Peter, his elder sister Alice, and his younger sister Nancy lack family values ​​because they were entrusted to others for foster care.They have no sense of security, are wary of and distrust Zhang Binghui; they have no ability to take care of themselves, no sense of family belonging, lack of humility, friendship and mutual assistance among brothers and sisters; their intellectual development is uneven.Peter was diagnosed by a doctor as an intellectual developmental disorder caused by psychological problems, and his grades had been poor until middle school...

However, Zhang Binghui was inspired by his father's method of educating his children and became a "good teacher and helpful friend" for his children.Under her education, Peter was admitted to Yale University. After graduation, he studied economics and management at Harvard University. He graduated with No.1 and became an outstanding businessman in Manhattan, New York. His sister Alice also graduated from Harvard University in the United States. , Became an international lawyer: When my sister Nancy was 16 years old, she entered Yale University with No.1 grades. She was the youngest among the students who entered Yale University in the same year, and finally became an international lawyer.

【Character Story】

The miracle of teaching students according to their aptitude

Peter and his elder sister were very ordinary when they were young, but their personalities are very different.Alice has a lively personality and has leadership skills, but lacks artistic cells; Peter is introverted, but he is very talented in the field of science when it comes to manipulating machines; Nancy has outstanding artistic sense, calligraphy and logical thinking are unique.

Mother Zhang Binghui paid great attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude when educating them.

Peter was born prematurely and was slower than other children.When he was in elementary school, he was more careful than his elder sister and younger sister, and he was not very active in whatever he did.

Doctors who examined him said Peter had been traumatized as a child by psychological shocks.

After a long period of depression, mother Zhang Binghui began to observe Peter continuously.

One day, Zhang Binghui saw the children playing a game on the floor of the room attentively. When she asked them what they were doing, they replied that they were playing a game invented by Peter.It turned out that Peter liked to read science fiction novels, and he was inspired by a science fiction novel, so he invented this game.

Peter's father often worried about Peter's immersion in fantasy science fiction, but Zhang Binghui discovered a different side of Peter from it.

From then on, as long as he did what he wanted, Zhang Binghui would praise him.On the other hand, Zhang Binghui no longer blindly locks him at home, and will take him out whenever he has time, and let him listen, watch, and do it directly.

Zhang Binghui rarely interferes with the children.Not only Peter, but after Alice and Nancy finished their homework, I also let them go back to their rooms to do their own things.After Peter often stared blankly for a while, he would start to tinker with some assemblies, and he would also take out the book and draw something on the paper.Alice and Nancy like to knit and sometimes paint and play.

Sometimes they just sit there blankly.However, no matter what the children do, Zhang Binghui will not interfere, but occasionally guide them to do something.Being able to think freely in their own time and space develops character and strengths in children.

The music that the children listen to together during the day, they will consciously listen to it again when they return to their room, so that their understanding will be deepened.When painting, they will paint their future with a brush.Through graffiti-like doodles and weaving things, they have updated knowledge of their favorite colors and images.

Gradually, the children's learning tasks are getting heavier and heavier, and the time is getting tighter and tighter.However, the more time Zhang Binghui gives the children freedom.Because children need to think about more and more problems.

As time went on, Peter's talent in natural sciences, especially mathematics, became more and more obvious.In high school, he served as the school's representative at the National Science Conference to win the invention award.

Peter had been physically weak since childhood.One day, he proposed to his mother to deliver newspapers.After serious consideration, Zhang Binghui agreed.With his mother's encouragement, Peter never gave up delivering papers, no matter how bad the weather was.He persisted for three full years until he graduated from middle school.His grades did not decline a bit, but his body became stronger and stronger, and because he kept his promise, he was also named "the best deliveryman".

Later, Zhang Binghui needed to be hospitalized due to illness.While packing up, Peter handed his mother a wad of money that he had earned from delivering newspapers for three years.And told my mother that the money must be used, otherwise, the money would be meaningless.Zhang Binghui was moved to tears.

As Zhang Binghui said, this kind of experience is "the most precious wealth of children".The reason why Peter was able to study economics at Yale University, and later finished his studies with No.1 grades in the business training course of Harvard University, is not unrelated to his insistence on submitting newspapers.

【Harvard view】

Believe in the child, he will prove with excellence
Many parents, when faced with children with shortcomings and slow progress, often blame more than praise; more disappointment than hope.Do you see how good they are?Why don't you even know these things?Are you really worthless? ... In the face of some deficiencies and dissatisfaction temporarily shown by the children, we are more reprimanded and desperate. What is the result?Of course it is also conceivable.

Napoleon Hill was considered a bad boy as a child.Whatever happened, like a cow being let loose from the pasture, or a dike burst, or a sapling broken, everyone suspected: it was Napoleon Hill Jr. who did it.Because my mother died early.People thought he was bad, even himself.

At the age of 9, he had a stepmother.

Little Hill's father introduced to his stepmother and said: "I want you to pay attention to this worst boy in the town. He may throw stones at you tomorrow morning."

The stepmother walked up to little Hill and raised his head to watch, then she said to her husband seriously: "You are wrong, this is not the worst boy in town, but the smartest boy."

After hearing this, Xiao Xier was greatly moved, and based on this passage, he began to establish a friendship with her.No one had praised him for being smart before she came, but that one sentence from his stepmother changed everything.

When Hill was 14, his stepmother gave him a second-hand typewriter as a birthday present and encouraged him to become a writer.A year later, Little Hill became a well-known young writer in the local area. At the age of 20, he was already known as a writer.

Later, he met Carnegie, the pioneer of success in the world, and worshiped him as his teacher.Since then, Napoleon Hill has struggled for 20 years, creatively put forward 28 golden rules of success, and helped thousands of ordinary people on the road to success and wealth.

Napoleon Hill once recalled: "The person I respect most is my stepmother, not my mother. She changed my destiny with love and the right way, and gave me everything."

It can be seen that the cultivation of children is inseparable from the indoctrination of parents' self-confidence.If you often say that he is inferior to others, he will prove that he is really stupid with his actions; cheer for him all the time, he will surprise his parents one after another.

In life, how do parents express their confidence in their children?
1.respect for differences

As the saying goes: "Ten fingers have lengths", every child must be different in their development.The great thinker and educator Confucius put forward the idea of ​​"teaching without discrimination".While respecting children's independent personality, we must admit that children have both special laws due to age and differences in personality in terms of physical and mental development, and we must not start from subjective wishes.

2. Encourage children to build self-confidence
If parents are used to reprimanding their children, which dampens their young self-esteem, they will invisibly put a lot of pressure on them, and even suspect that they are stupid and have no confidence to learn.At this time, parents should encourage their children to be good teachers' assistants. Only by encouraging their children and persevering can the problem be gradually solved.Children have the desire to express themselves and hope to attract the attention of others. Parents should encourage their children to participate in various activities and strive for opportunities to perform. This will not only exercise their ability to perform on stage, but also cultivate their self-confidence and satisfy their desire for performance. .Establishing good self-confidence from an early age is very beneficial to the growth of children.

[Easy interaction]

1. Do you often say "you can do it", "you are the best" and other similar words to your children?
2. Do you believe in your heart that your child will be outstanding?If you've expressed disappointment with him, now, suggest that he express how he really felt at the time.

【Parent-child total product】

Zhang Binghui, known as "Korea's first mother", has many excellent views on parenting.Here are a few of her views for reference only:
(1) There are no more professional experts than parents.Parents should not blindly follow the experience of others. Planting flowers and plants needs to be cared for according to the specific conditions of each plant, let alone educating people.Focus on your own children, and establish your own educational methods diligently and carefully. The methods of educating children mainly come from the mother's nature and intuition, and then learn from others.As a parent, if you do not realize that you are an education expert, you will not discover the infinite talents hidden in your children.

(2) Before developing children's creativity, we must first lay a good foundation for them.Don't neglect basic education while trying to cultivate children's creativity. Protecting creativity is not letting it go.

(3) No matter how young the child is, he must be responsible for what he does.Let the children distinguish the difference between freedom and self-discipline.

(4) You should not only consider how your child can become a talent, but also consider what you can do to become a role model for your child.

(5) Let children learn by themselves in life. The kitchen is the best place for children to learn, and life is the best stage for learning.

(6) Don't use children as exhibits or excuses.

(7) Children need time and space to think independently.

(8) Teach children the difference between "I" and "we" and that they cannot survive without giving.

(9) Children must never be allowed to see their parents arguing.

(10) Preventing children from asking questions is voluntarily giving up the opportunity to cultivate children's perceptual knowledge.

【Harvard view】

Teaching students in accordance with their aptitude is a sharp tool to tap children's advantages
Every child has different personalities and abilities.Some are precocious and precocious, while others are late bloomers.Some children may be sensitive to music, while others are sensitive to language; some children have better memory skills, while others have better observation skills.Every child has different abilities in different areas.

If we try to train Qian Zhongshu into a physicist, or Einstein into a writer, we will find that these efforts will eventually fail.Therefore, the so-called teaching students in accordance with their aptitude is to develop in accordance with the individual's advantages, and at the same time improve the children's disadvantages as much as possible.

The premise of "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" is to understand the child, including his strengths and weaknesses.Children's ability structure and state are often quite different from our intuitive judgment.Moreover, some key abilities, such as children's abstract thinking ability and generalization ability, are usually difficult for us to detect, so misjudgment is often prone to occur.

In life, many parents hope that their children are the best in all aspects among their peers, ignoring the existence of differences in abilities.Expecting too much from children and over-designing children's lives.This kind of excessive attention causes children to be excessively self-centered, while excessive expectations make it difficult for children to obtain successful experiences and lose self-confidence prematurely.In addition, affected by some utilitarian factors, family education "follows the trend" is also intensified, disregarding children's interests, ignoring their initiative in growing up, and completely arranging children's growth according to the wishes of adults, which seriously affects the formation of children's independent personality .

Therefore, parents should not only strive to develop their children's strengths, but also face their children's weaknesses.Such early education may not have so many exciting effects on the surface, but in the long run, it is the most rational choice.

In life, how can parents effectively use their children's strengths?
1. Help children find their strengths.

To give full play to a child's strengths, one must first find his strengths.Children's advantages are reflected in many aspects, such as being very interested in a certain subject, or being very good at a certain aspect and being different.For example, does the child like to ask questions, is curious about those things, what kind of extracurricular books he likes to read, where his intentional attention is concentrated, etc. These will be revealed in daily life, although the child may reveal it inadvertently, but All show his interests and hobbies, parents should pay attention to observation.

2. Let children's advantages be continuously developed.

Advantages can only become real advantages if they are carried forward, brought into play, and developed continuously.For children with academic advantages, in addition to encouraging them to learn more relevant content, we must pay attention not to let the children have partial subjects. Although this is not common in elementary school, we must prevent it from happening.For children's advantages in a certain aspect, we must focus on cultivating them.

3. Pay attention to the personality differences of children.

Every child is different and unique.Some children have shown extraordinary talents since they were young. People with good talents are the natural biological basis for their talents, including intelligence, body shape, voice and other genius qualities.

[Easy interaction]

1. What is your child's personality and specialty?How much knowledge do you have in this area?
2. Do you always let your children follow the development path that you think is good?Talk to your child to find out what he really thinks.

【Parent-child total product】

Please carefully observe the characteristics of children. If parents and teachers can grasp this characteristic, they can make the best use of the situation.

Visual advantage: The best way for these children to acquire knowledge is to see with their eyes, and they have high visual memory and observation skills.It's easy to be impressed by what you've seen.If they also watch a movie or TV show, they describe the content and plot more completely and accurately than other children.When educating this type of children, try to provide them with opportunities to use their eyes.For example, take children to the park and the outskirts, and let them observe; try to prepare visual teaching aids, pictures, etc. during teaching, so that children can better understand and remember.

Hearing advantage: This kind of children are good at acquiring knowledge by hearing, and can remember all the content they have heard more accurately and quickly.After listening to the explanation or story, such children often ask the teacher or parents to "tell it again".When educating such children, we should provide as many auditory stimuli as possible, such as reading out the contents of the book, recording them into tapes, compiling the acquired knowledge into nursery rhymes, stories, etc., and letting the children listen to them repeatedly so that the children can grasp them quickly and accurately.

Hands-on advantage: These children often like to accept, acquire, and understand new knowledge during the hands-on process.They are curious, active, full of spirit of exploration, and have strong motor memory ability.I always like to do it myself according to the content of the explanation or explanation. As long as I do it, I will quickly grasp and understand it.However, because these children often break things and have non-stop hands and feet, teachers and parents should be careful not to accuse them rudely, or even think that they suffer from "hyperactivity disorder". Instead, they should provide experimental objects, places and mobile phone opportunities for children. If you take the time to research and explore with your children, encourage this good advantage.

Writing advantage: This type of child is very diligent in writing, and always carries a pen and a small notebook with him. He always likes to write down what he sees or hears anytime and anywhere. keep in mind.They have higher thinking, generalization and comprehension abilities.For this type of children, when educating, it is necessary to consciously provide some learning materials so that the children can acquire more knowledge through written arrangement.

Pair advantage: This type of children likes to be together when they are studying, and they can understand and consolidate the knowledge they have learned through dialogue and question-and-answer with each other.They are afraid of loneliness and excitement, and most of the companions they make are stable and have similar personalities.For such children, teachers should try their best to provide them with learning conditions, such as arranging them at the same table and in a group.Parents should also support and encourage their children to bring their peers home to study and discuss together.

Single advantage: This type of child is willing to study and think alone in a quiet environment.I don't like the lively environment and atmosphere.Such children are very self-conscious and can persist in studying for a long time, even forgetting to sleep and eat.For such children, it is necessary to provide a quiet learning environment and avoid disturbing at will.

Comprehensive advantages: Although these children have no obvious advantages in one aspect, they can mobilize various sensory organs and use various methods to acquire, understand, and consolidate new knowledge.In learning activities, they not only concentrate on listening and watching, but also often take notes, and do it by themselves if possible.This kind of children's mastery and understanding of knowledge are generally more comprehensive, profound, and have a strong ability to accept.But there is often a bad tendency to be overconfident and proud.Therefore, don't praise too much when educating, and discover bad tendencies in children in time, and correct and guide them.

(End of this chapter)