暑期登场！孩祗们该玩还是该有计划？

20160705ou 一中两外锵锵三人行 今日话题： 暑假来临，小孩子们是应该无忧无虑的玩和放松呢，还是有计划的度过整个假期呢？ Lincoln: Now, do children need to be bored? Brian, take it away. Brian: Well that’s a very good question, and we’re in the right season to talk about it, because summer’s here, and I think most kids, at least in the Northern Hemisphere are about out of school now. A lot of their time gets scheduled by their parents, whether it’s for family vacations, it’s for learning something, maybe summer school. Sometimes kids may not have much of an opportunity to be bored because they’re so tired of everything else. Yoyo: Well, nowadays, I can see that lots of kids, they are surrounding me. No matter in the cinemas or in the shopping mall or in the restaurant, I can see them everywhere, and I can just hear their laughing before I even saw them. In China, it is the summer holiday for primary school students, and they’re really happy about that. And usually parents are warning them, after hours and you will have your time studying mathematics. I can see– Lincoln: I feel so incredibly sad, because I remember summer, being one of, some of the best times of my life, just playing outside, reading lots of books, being allowed to be creative, to write something, I don’t know, [WY: Free, careless] just free and then to just to have to have that be a continuation of the school year, and from what you tell me, Yoyo, even worse, because now there’s more time for you to learn more things. Brian: Yeah… Yoyo: Or the parents are preparing the kids to get ready for the future exams, or make them a better person possibly in the future. Brian: You’d hope – the second one, that sounds good, I’m all for that in moderation. The former one? I mean, you’re kind of trapped, ‘cause you were saying before the show, Wu You, if everybody else is studying and your kid is not, that takes a very strong will and a lot of confidence to say, you know what, I’m not gonna force my kid to do this; they don’t need to do that, even though there’s this big exam that marks the single most important event in their life comin’ up, the gaokao, for a lot of people, that’s hard to say no to. Yoyo: I can totally understand Lincoln when he talked about as a kid that is the only period of time in your life when you can just worry about nothing, and you can just simply play throughout the summer, that is great. But for lots of kids nowadays it is a competitive world. You can see that it is not all totally wrong for the parents to make all the schedules. You can also see that in China nowadays, parents are taking their kids not only to these extra classes but also to like astrology museums, or gallery, or even to the interesting zoos to let them know it is an exciting outside world and what you can achieve in the future. And also you can see, there are different tour groups even for the little kids to experience like what university really looks like in Beijing or Shanghai. Lincoln: Oh wow, this, this being exciting times. Yoyo: You can see some kids really enjoyed it. Lincoln: Most kids? Yoyo: I don’t want to say most, but if a kid really get bored during their summer holidays just staying at home being a couch potato and watch all the TV series, you think that is good? You know most Chinese parents would put all their efforts, like 90 percent of energy in nurturing and educating their kids. That is unquestionable. But is it really that bad? Lincoln: What would you say to that, Brian? Brian: Well, I would say what you were listing before that, before the college tours, was all fantastic. This is exactly what summer is for. You get your down time, keep it at a minimum, let kids have fun, and let their minds rest and wander, because if you don’t, if you’re always doing something with your mind, you’re gonna be more tired, and you’re not going to be as creative I think.