The Ministry of Education recently issued a "sleep order", which made clear requirements for the bedtime of primary and secondary school students, causing great concern among parents. At present, the New Deal has entered the implementation stage. How will the school arrange the schedule? Will the teacher leave less homework for the students? How should parents urge their children to go to bed on time?
Question 1
Do children still need to get to school early?
For school hours, many parents are very entangled. On the one hand, they hope that their children can sleep more in the morning, on the other hand, they are worried that the teacher will delay their study in advance. After the "Sleep Order" issued by the Ministry of Education, will the school make overall arrangements for work and rest, and do children still need to get to school early?
Reasonable arrangement of work and rest to ensure students’ sleep time
Ding Lan, President of Puxun School in Beijing No.4 Middle School.
The primary and secondary school stage is the key period for students to grow up healthily and develop in an all-round way. Strong physique, happy mood and good living habits are all closely related to adequate sleep. The hippocampus of the brain is the key area of learning and memory. The more children get enough sleep, the larger the hippocampus related to memory and emotion, and the better the brain development. Therefore, adequate sleep is the premise for children to study efficiently and develop physically and mentally healthily.
In response to the request of the Ministry of Education, our school issued a letter to parents and friends at the first time, informing parents about students’ work and rest time and overall management of homework, reaching a consensus with parents, and jointly promoting autonomous management. At the same time, we have actively explored and tried to guide students to manage their sleep scientifically and promote their scientific work and rest. One of the important contents is to arrange students’ daily work and rest reasonably.
From the beginning of the school, the school enrollment strictly abides by the nearest admission policy. At present, most students in grades one to nine in our school live in the neighborhood around the school, and it takes about 5 to 15 minutes to walk to school. According to the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, the school has formulated a schedule for going to and from school in batches. Students in grades seven to nine enter school at 7: 30 in the morning, students in grades five and six at 8: 00 in the morning, and students in grades one to four at 8: 15 in the morning. The first class of grades seven to nine starts at 8: 00 in the morning, and grades one to six start at 8: 20 in the morning. During recess and noon, according to the characteristics of students of different ages, each class adheres to the principle of combining work with rest and moderate exercise, and independently arranges the time and content of recess. Students can have lectures, lunch breaks, physical exercises, physical exercises, group activities, etc., to ensure students’ rest time and relax. School is also carried out in batches, and an efficient second study time is created for students. Students in need can study at school until 5: 30 pm.
In order not to increase the burden on students, our school requires all teachers to ensure the quality of the classroom, to be efficient in the classroom, and to fully implement the "burden reduction and quality improvement"; Optimize the quality and duration of homework, carry out hierarchical design of homework in senior grades, reasonably control the total amount of students’ written homework, and improve the effectiveness of homework; Take the class as a unit to coordinate the homework. If the total amount of homework is overtime, the class teacher can exercise the right to delete it. At the same time, communicate with parents in time to try to avoid the phenomenon that schools reduce burdens and families increase burdens; The school guides students to use electronic products reasonably, and does not arrange homework in the form of online completion and online punching. In addition to English listening and speaking practice for 30 minutes twice a week, students can do homework without using mobile phones.
In addition, the school also explores the course of sleep management, and incorporates scientific sleep publicity and education into the course teaching system to eliminate the phenomenon that students do not know enough about sleep problems and pay attention to them. Recently, the school has begun to try to popularize scientific sleep knowledge through physical education and health courses, mental health education, class team activities, etc., to remind students to relax and study moderately, and to help students improve their understanding of sleep management from thoughts and actions.
Question 2
Can the teacher leave less homework?
Parents often complain that teachers leave too much homework, which causes children to write homework until late at night every day, and they are seriously deprived of sleep. They are listless in class the next day, and some children even fall asleep in class. Can the teacher improve in this respect and leave less homework?
Homework should be efficient and innovative.
Zhao Yihong, a teacher at Beijing No.5 Middle School Branch.
For a long time, the voice of "reducing the burden" for primary and secondary school students is very high. One of the important contents is to hope that teachers will give students less homework. As a class teacher and math teacher, I think students should be given proper and efficient homework to reduce mechanical brushing. At the same time, students also need to improve the efficiency of attending classes, so that they can write their homework with ease and not spend a lot of time.
The reason why the school keeps homework is to consolidate the knowledge learned in class, so that students can really master the knowledge points. Therefore, experienced teachers pay great attention to grasping the "degree" when they leave their homework, and will not win by quantity alone. Especially in a subject like mathematics, it is not effective to rely solely on rote memorization. Mastering ideas and methods is the right way. Usually, the homework I leave for students every day can be completed in about 40 minutes. Sometimes it is several big questions, and sometimes it is a paper. If students have questions that they can’t do, I don’t even want them to use software to search for answers and allow their homework to be "blank", because as long as they think hard, even if they can’t, they can understand it quickly after listening to the teacher’s explanation the next day.
I have done some research on students’ homework. Take the math course as an example. Usually, students who write fast can finish it in less than 20 minutes, while students who write slowly can really put it off until the early morning of the next day. Analysis, there are many reasons why homework is written after midnight. Some students have bad study habits and like to write while playing, dragging their feet; Some students don’t like the learning content arranged by their parents, and deliberately delay "dawdling" until their parents sleep first and then enjoy their free time; Other students are absent-minded in class and don’t listen to the lecture. As a result, they can’t do their homework at all, so they can only "get on the sedan chair and prick their ears now" and stay up late to make up for it. Of course, it does not rule out that there is indeed a lot of homework that day. For example, before the mid-term and final exams, teachers in all subjects will issue review materials, and there is a relatively large amount of homework.
In order to effectively reduce students’ academic burden, our school requires teachers to improve the teaching efficiency of each class, and at the same time, constantly innovate the form of homework, so that students can truly become the main body of learning. To this end, in addition to assigning traditional forms of homework, I will also assign homework to students. Specifically, it is to let students speak out the learning contents of each chapter, including definitions, formulas, key exercises and so on. By speaking with the mouth, gesturing with the hands, listening with the ears, and drawing with strokes, students can increase the retention rate and understanding of knowledge. Students should not only talk to the teacher, but also talk to each other, correct and judge each other. Because this kind of homework can be completed on campus, students who speak well can also win the treatment of not writing homework on holidays. Students are scrambling to talk about topics after class, and the learning atmosphere in the class is getting stronger and stronger.
In a word, to ensure students have enough sleep time, we must improve learning efficiency. To achieve this goal, teachers need to leave more "valuable homework", and parents need to help their children correct their wrong study habits, learn to allocate time reasonably, and develop self-disciplined will.
Question 3
How can the family guarantee?
Children’s bedtime?
Some parents report that they also want their children to go to bed early, but the children are ungrateful and think they are nagging. In this regard, these parents are helpless and don’t know how to let their children go to bed early.
Find out the reasons that affect sleep with your child.
Zhao Zhiqin, Vice President of Cuiwei School affiliated to the National People’s Congress
The "Sleep Order" of the Ministry of Education clearly requires the bedtime of primary and secondary school students: primary school students are generally no later than 21: 20, junior high school students are generally no later than 22: 00, and senior high school students are generally no later than 23: 00. To truly implement and guarantee the sleep time of primary and secondary school students, home-school cooperation is essential. Here, I give some suggestions to parents based on my own education and teaching experience.
First, parents can communicate with their children through heart-to-heart communication, and objectively and comprehensively analyze the causes of insufficient sleep time. For example, whether the workload is really large or the efficiency of children’s homework is low, whether children have the habit of procrastination or their own knowledge points are not firmly grasped, whether it is the interference of electronic products such as mobile phones or the difficulty of homework itself, and so on. Every child is an independent individual, with different study and living habits, and the difference in academic level exists objectively, so the factors affecting sleep are bound to be different. Parents and children should find the problem together in a harmonious atmosphere and then come up with a solution.
Second, guide children to plan their study time reasonably. Children should copy the homework directory with notepad every day, make overall planning, arrange the sequence reasonably and estimate the time. It is suggested to do the most important content first, such as the problems that need a lot of thinking in science classes in the most awake and energetic period, which will help save time and improve efficiency. If there is a big difference between the estimated time and the actual completion time, the reasons should be analyzed in time and the methods should be adjusted. Finishing homework in a limited time is an important condition to improve the efficiency of homework, and it is also the key to accumulate exam experience at ordinary times.
Third, use the family environment to influence children subtly. When children do their homework, parents should not rush them frequently, but help them find and solve problems as far as they can. For example, you can check what children need to recite, listen to children’s analysis of test questions, discuss social hotspots or life problems with children, and negotiate to solve open test questions. Parents’ words and deeds and habits have a great influence on their children. Parents should also sleep on time if they want their children to sleep on time. If parents can’t go to bed early, they should also stop all noisy activities before their children go to bed. It is best not to play mobile phones, play games, watch TV or listen to the radio, etc., so as to create a good rest atmosphere for their children.
Fourth, don’t give children too much extra-curricular burden. Parents should agree with their children on the rules that need to be followed, including the schedule of work and rest, the use time of electronic products such as mobile phones, etc. Even on holidays, don’t break the rules easily, and gradually form a regular schedule. Before going to bed, parents can remind their children to drink some milk, etc., to ensure nutrition and improve the quality of sleep, and don’t nag and preach. Try not to increase children’s extra-curricular academic burden, such as enrolling in various remedial classes and interest classes, so as to avoid children spending time in remedial classes after school or holidays, forming double pressure inside and outside the school. Even if we cultivate the best and make up the bad, we should selectively improve or make up the leak moderately, and pay attention to quality instead of unilaterally pursuing quantity.
Sleep directly affects children’s academic level, which is related to their physical and mental health. Home and school should adhere to the concept of life and health first, and make reasonable efforts to ensure children’s sleep, so that children can grow up healthily and happily in a state of energy and pleasure.
Question 4
What if the child can’t sleep?
Some parents say that it is not too late for their children to go to bed, but they can’t sleep in bed for a long time. What should they do?
Happy exercise helps children sleep well.
Zhang Jun, PE teacher of Runze School in Beijing Financial Street.
For primary and secondary school students in the growth and development period, sleep will undoubtedly have a greater impact on their health. Studies have shown that, in addition to heredity, among environmental factors, the influence of sleep on children’s height ranks first, and sleep will also affect children’s intellectual development, immunity and so on. In fact, having a good sleep is inseparable from sports.
First of all, physical exercise can produce endorphins, which is beneficial to sleep. Secondly, regular exercise can regulate the biological cycle rhythm, which is also called biological clock, and this effect is as strong as that of light on sleep. Thirdly, exercise will increase the body temperature. Doing some light exercise like walking before going to bed can promote the body temperature to rise, and the body will sweat slightly. After stopping, the body temperature will start to drop. Take a hot bath before going to sleep, and people can easily fall into deep sleep. Fourth, regular exercise can make people feel happy, help relieve stress, reduce waking up in dreams and relieve insomnia symptoms. Fifth, exercise below moderate level can make people feel slightly tired, speed up the time of falling asleep and deepen the depth of sleep.
Every winter and summer vacation, many children will form the habit of going to bed late and getting up late, but for a period of time after school starts, most of them can go to bed at normal time and enter a deep sleep state. This is closely related to the colorful physical exercises such as skipping rope, ball games, running and roller skating carried out by the school. Children are interspersed with happy exercise in intense study, fully engaged and released, and the heart rate of exercise can basically reach 120 to 150 times per minute, which not only exercises the body, relaxes the mood, relieves stress, but also promotes sleep. Therefore, during holidays, parents should also urge their children to take proper exercise. Except in special circumstances, reaching a certain amount of exercise every day is very helpful for improving the quality of sleep.
Expert opinion
Behind children’s sleep is the education system engineering.
Liu Xi, deputy director and assistant researcher of Education Development Research Center of Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences.
Faced with the hard pressure of entrance examination, some schools extend students’ school hours at will, and off-campus training has become a common practice. Sleep for primary and secondary school students has become a soft problem that can be sacrificed, which has been difficult to solve effectively for many years, so that it has been paid attention to by the central government, and the state has issued documents for special treatment. The "Notice on Further Strengthening the Sleep Management of Primary and Secondary School Students" recently issued by the Ministry of Education puts forward seven measures from the aspects of "paying attention to it, ensuring time, preventing interference, improving quality and emphasizing monitoring and supervision", which embodies the spirit of comprehensive policy. Sleeping among primary and middle school students seems to be a simple problem, but it is actually an educational system project. Only when the government, schools, families, students and the society reach a consensus on scientific development can we consciously and effectively implement the measures in the Notice.
Have a scientific view of sleep. Sleep is a basic need of human beings. It can make us rest, make our bodies grow sturdily, enhance people’s immune function, and is the prime time to restore memory. Research by Jiang Fan’s team at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine shows that for children and adolescents who are in the rapid growth and development stage, sleep deprivation and biological rhythm disorder will not only cause short-term inattention, academic performance decline and other consequences, but also damage children’s brain function in the long run, leading to emotional and behavioral problems such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit and behavioral impulsion, significantly increasing the risk of metabolic diseases such as obesity, and damaging physical and mental health and academic development.
We should have a scientific view of educational evaluation. The General Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era and the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Education and Teaching and Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Compulsory Education issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council require "reforming students’ evaluation, promoting the all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor" and "ensuring students’ adequate sleep time". The Statistical Index System of Education Monitoring and Evaluation in China (2020 Edition) has included students’ physical health compliance rate, students’ obesity rate and students’ poor eyesight rate in the index system. Sleep quality is closely related to these indicators, so it is necessary to incorporate students’ sleep status into the monitoring system of physical health monitoring and education quality evaluation.
We should have a scientific concept of educating people. Too much study squeezes sleep time, which is related to the educational concept of some school teachers and parents. The concept of exam-oriented education is prevalent, and repeated exercises are carried out through "brushing questions" in order to get high marks in the examination room. Even if school teachers take the initiative to reduce the burden, parents will report to various off-campus training classes and take the initiative to increase the burden. We should be soberly aware that the 21st century needs high-quality talents, especially innovative talents, so that the country and individual citizens can be in an invincible position. The concept of educating people in schools and families should also be changed. Instead of spending students’ rest time to win scores in the examination room, we should improve classroom efficiency, cooperate between home and school, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and cultivate them individually. We should arrange the quantity and content of homework on the principle of necessity and pertinence so that every student can grow up healthily.
There must be a scientific learning method. Students’ main business is learning, and scientific learning methods help students complete their studies efficiently. Students who can learn can often manage themselves, work and rest regularly and go to bed on time. However, in practice, teachers are busy teaching knowledge, parents don’t know how to guide their children’s learning, and quite a few students don’t have correct learning methods. They are tired of coping with various courses and can’t arrange their time and work and rest as a whole, which naturally leads to a vicious circle. Effective learning is a science, which requires a deep understanding of brain science and psychology. We should teach teachers, parents and students the science of learning, master the correct methods, change passivity into initiative, and reduce learning anxiety, which will naturally help to improve students’ sleep quality.
Of course, in addition to raising awareness, it is necessary to use technical means and establish an accountability mechanism to effectively solve the sleep problem of primary and secondary school students. First of all, make full use of modern information technology to ensure that the end time of online live training activities should not be later than 21 o’clock, and no game service should be provided for minors from 22 o’clock to 8 o’clock the next day. Secondly, it is necessary to establish and improve the accountability mechanism, and give administrative sanctions or administrative penalties to schools, off-campus training institutions and online platforms that violate the regulations according to law.
