The content of children’s books ＂I eat bananas and you eat skins＂ is controversial.
Zhongxin. com, Beijing, November 25th (Liu Yue) "Cheapskate, drink cold water, and drink cold water to turn into a devil", "Zhang Sanyi turned around and scared a cow by the river", "Xiaoming’s fart shocked the world and collapsed to Italy" … … Were these jingles popular when you were a student?
This kind of content, which is short in form, funny in language and playful in nature, is often passed on from mouth to mouth among children. Recently, a song like "gray nursery rhymes" has caused a lot of online controversy. Some netizens posted that the children’s song "Little Sister Don’t Be Angry" included in a children’s book is suspected of bad guidance: "Little sister don’t be angry, I will take you to the theatre tomorrow. I sit in a chair, you sit on the ground, I eat bananas and you eat skin. "
In this regard, some people feel childlike and think that "it is not necessary to be true, everyone was naughty when he was a child"; However, some people have suggested: how can such children’s songs be printed on paper and taught to children?
Literacy (I). Screenshot of Taobao page
Publisher: Everyone has a different perception.
According to public information, the article "Little Sister Don’t Be Angry" was included in the children’s book "Literacy" (Volume I), which was published by Tianjin Science and Technology Press under Tianjin Publishing Media Group. By inquiring about the major book buying platforms, the reporter found that Literacy is divided into two volumes, and the selling price of each volume ranges from 39 to 68 yuan.
The first volume of this book contains many ancient poems and nursery rhymes, such as Ode to Goose, Silent Night Thinking, Grandpa Winter and Duiyun Song. Among them, "Little Sister Don’t Be Angry" appears on page 40 of the book, and the corresponding illustration depicts the scene of a little girl sitting cross-legged and cross-legged, and a little boy dancing happily.
Illustration of "Little Sister Don’t Be Angry" by netizens. Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
"This is to cultivate children’s selfishness from an early age", "jingles and witticisms are not suitable for serious teaching to children" and "this kind of ballad is killing the flowers of the motherland in reading" … … While raising objections, netizens also questioned the editor of the book: Did the editor’s cognition deviate from the public?
To this end, the reporter called Tianjin Science and Technology Press for answers. The staff of the publishing house responded that the reason why this nursery rhyme was recorded in the book was that it was "classic enough": "This nursery rhyme has been widely circulated for a long time, including audio and text."
It is reported that Literacy was released in 2020, and the staff said that since its release, the publisher has never received negative feedback from readers: "Never (received). This book has been published for several years, and we don’t publish it now. Recently, suddenly a parent may feel inappropriate. Maybe everyone has different values, and we respect each other. If it needs to be reprinted in the future, we will adjust the content. "
"All our books are three trials and three schools, and they are done in strict accordance with national policies and regulations." The staff member bluntly said that there is no such thing as "editing with private goods" as some netizens speculated, and all disputes come from "everyone has a different perception". He admits that the publishing house will not be held accountable for this, but he will be more cautious about the selection of materials in the future work: "Try to choose everyone without feeling controversial. We chose the classic before and chose the more classic later. "
Is it polite for children to say "I eat bananas and you eat skins"?
The "everyone’s perception is different" in the mouth of publishers is also reflected in the different opinions of netizens.
Some people think that there is no need to overreact to a nursery rhyme: "It’s just a joke", "Over-understanding it, this is an ordinary nursery rhyme", "Children think it’s fun at best, but adults go online" … …
Since the adults can’t argue with the answer, it’s better to ask the real readers of this book. In the children’s world, what kind of semantic color does "I sit in a chair and you sit on the floor, I eat bananas and you eat skin" have?
Jia Lu (a pseudonym), a kindergarten teacher who works in a public kindergarten in Yongzhou, Hunan Province, told reporters that she had a special discussion on this topic in the class a few days ago. During the activity, this group of children aged 4 -5 generally suggested that this was an "unhappy" sentence: "I am unhappy because the ground is dirty, and there will be bugs crawling up my ass", "the banana peel is tasteless" and there are many bacteria on the banana peel "… …
After investigation, Jia Lu bluntly said: "The children in the middle class are not very rich in language expression, and generally say they are happy or unhappy. They think this is an unfriendly act. In addition, this ballad spreads an unequal thought to children. If I optimize, you will deteriorate, raise yourself and step down on others. Such an idea will lead children to become more and more selfish, and it will also affect their learning and use of polite expressions. Therefore, our teachers agree that this is a problem. "
In addition, the reporter also interviewed a number of children and parents, and the respondents also generally believed that the behavior in nursery rhymes was "very impolite".
"In this nursery rhyme ‘ I ’ Very impolite, let yourself sit in a chair and eat bananas, only let your little sister sit on the ground and eat banana skins. " Yuanyuan (pseudonym), a second-grade student studying in a primary school in Beijing, said, "Don’t do to others what you don’t want to do."
Ms. Zheng, a steady stream of mothers, said that children’s books are a more reliable source of information for parents’ associations, and its audit management mechanism should be stricter: "The content should be designed in line with the principle of being responsible for children, and it is not recommended that this kind of jingle with excessive stalks appear in regular children’s books, which will make it difficult for children to distinguish right from wrong and is not conducive to the establishment of three views."
"Preschool children’s learning style is imitation, one hundred children, one hundred kinds of understanding, one hundred kinds of ideas. Many children don’t have the ability to distinguish right from wrong. One child looks at it and imitates it. One becomes a class and the other becomes a community. This kind of communication speed is very fast. " Jia Lu admits that the spread of "gray nursery rhymes" on campus is extremely harmful: "These children are still growing up and their consciousness is still developing. They don’t have a sound personality, so we should spread positive energy to them."
Expert: We need to be cautious about the education of children aged 3-6.
"When children first came to school, they were a blank sheet of paper, and what the teacher taught was what they were. We should not only teach students knowledge, but also teach them to be human beings. Learning to share is a very important lesson. "
Xu Yueshi, an old teacher who has been deeply involved in the education industry for 43 years and now runs an independent kindergarten, told reporters that the content of teaching in small and middle classes is mainly children’s songs, stories and etiquette, so big class children will be exposed to writing with pens, so be careful when choosing textbooks for younger children.
Xu Yueshi’s concern is necessary. The reporter noticed that the cover of this "Literacy" clearly marked the words "compiled according to the" Guide to Learning and Development for Children Aged 3-6 "of the Ministry of Education. According to official website, the Ministry of Education, the guide was issued in 2012, which clearly stated that it is necessary to "create a warm, caring and equal family and collective life atmosphere for young children" and "let young children gain a sense of security and trust in positive and healthy interpersonal relationships, and develop self-confidence and self-esteem", and repeatedly stressed the need to guide young children to use appropriate polite expressions when talking with others.
Contents of "A Guide to Learning and Development for Children Aged 3-6". Screenshot of official website of Ministry of Education
Does the meaning of "I eat bananas and you eat skins" contradict the core elements of the guide "Caring for children"? In this regard, Ni Huan, an associate professor at the School of Journalism of China Communication University and deputy secretary-general of the Communication Psychology Committee of China Social Psychology Society, told reporters that if this book is aimed at children aged 3-6, there is indeed a bad guidance tendency.
"Children aged 3 to 6 are in the process of rapid brain development, and they begin to form a basic prototype of right and wrong in literacy and reading. They think in a binary cognitive way, but they can’t handle both good and bad information with complexity and integration. "
Ni Huan pointed out that most children of this age can only receive information in one direction, so the guidance of learning materials is particularly important: "If there is ‘ I eat bananas and you eat skins ’ The children will agree with it, or they may imitate it in reality. "
As for some netizens’ opinions such as "don’t go online" and "just kidding", Ni Huan believes that the content of joking should be aimed at individuals who have complete cognitive ability and established relatively stable values, not young children: "Because these netizens themselves don’t really just eat bananas to make each other eat their skins, he will think this statement is harmless. However, in the age when children are still forming values, such obviously uncivilized and impolite behavior cannot easily appear in educational reading materials. "
In fact, compared with the group of "gray nursery rhymes" who were very aggressive and "very yellow and violent", the words and sentences in Little Sister Don’t Be Angry are not out of line. However, the difference between word-of-mouth and published books determines that the latter must bear greater social responsibility.
"Word of mouth is random and interactive, so there can be some playful expressions, but not in reading materials." Ni Huan said: "Reading materials belong to mass communication and are printed in black and white. We have higher requirements for mass communication, the content should be blameless, and all aspects of values, expression and printing should stand scrutiny because it is aimed at audiences of different classes and ages. "