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Many people in our country are now concerned about the problem of school overload — doctors, teachers, and parents. According to research by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the «working day» of an ordinary high school student sometimes reaches 10-12 hours.
This is especially true for those who study at high schools. Even for first-graders in such schools, training sessions last 6-7 hours a day, and even at home they have to work.
This means that the existing standards of training loads practically do not work. But some children, in addition to a comprehensive school, also attend numerous additional classes!
What causes school overload?
Chronic overload of our schoolchildren is caused not only by physical fatigue and mental overwork. There are other reasons as well.
- Constant conditions for time limits — both in a regular lesson and when performing test work. Some children, due to the peculiarities of their mental make-up, cannot work like that. And the system of knowledge testing is the same for everyone.
- In elementary school, an important source of stress is the high demands on the speed of reading and writing.
- Specialists of the Russian Academy of Education note that the total number of teaching hours per week for elementary school students has not changed in recent years. But at the same time, the number of hours devoted to the study of mathematics and the Russian language has decreased. This means that the current first grader — third grader has to master the same amount of material in a much shorter time.
- Many children spend their entire school life in a state of chronic underachievement. This is due to our system of assessing knowledge, and often — with high expectations and requirements of parents.
- Features of our training programs, in particular, a large amount of theoretical material in them. According to one study, up to 70 percent of the information in our textbooks is useless and will not be learned. So, in one paragraph of a textbook on the history of Russia in the XNUMXth century, you can find up to two dozen different surnames.
How to determine that the child is overloaded?
Of course, in many ways the ability of a child to endure physical and mental stress is determined by his individual characteristics. This is the state of health, and the strength of the nervous system, and personality traits. And the symptoms of overload in our children can be different. What should you pay attention to?
- On the expressed changes in the behavior of the child. With increasing loads, he can become more restless, irritable, whiny. Tired faster with noise, stuffiness, bright light. At the lesson, he can lie down on a desk or walk around the class, although this has not been observed before. Contact with adults and peers may be disrupted.
- On sleep disturbances (sleep is superficial, sensitive, restless, or, on the contrary, excessively deep, «dead»; problems with falling asleep).
- There are constant, including unfounded complaints about headaches, abdominal pain, etc., statements “everything is tired, tired,” etc.
- Handwriting may deteriorate significantly, a large number of corrections, stupid mistakes, etc. may appear.
- For some “junior students”, overwork can be masked. Parents see a cheerful, cheerful child after many hours of work at school, classes in the section and homework. In fact, this behavior is a consequence of nervous overexcitation.
- Extreme manifestations of the nervous system — such disorders as enuresis, tics or stuttering, or an increase in such disorders, if they were observed in the child before.
How to make the load reasonable?
The consequence of overload is not only the deterioration of physical health and the state of the nervous system. This is also a loss of interest in learning, in former hobbies and a decrease in self-esteem (“I can’t cope — it means I’m incapable”).
The first thing to do is to undergo an examination and a course of treatment. At the pediatrician or pediatric neuropathologist — it is decided in each case.
The second is to determine the optimal daily routine for your child. You need to take into account the features of biorhythms, the level of performance at different times of the day and other points. You will need advice from doctors and psychologists.
The question is not to completely eliminate stress from a child’s life, but to make it optimal. The role of parents is very important here. After all, overload is the lot of those who study at high-level schools in the first place. Try with the help of a specialist (child psychologist) to adequately assess the level of the child’s abilities, take into account his interests. Then the loads will become feasible, and your student will be able to realize his natural potential.
It is important to pay attention to this moment. Our possibilities of mechanical memorization of educational material are limited. But it is memorization, albeit not verbatim, that requires the study of the so-called «text» subjects (history, geography, etc.). While the child’s ability to self-knowledge remain unclaimed.
The way out is in mastering the methods of active processing of information, research methods of cognition. In schools in many countries, more hours are devoted to the practical development of the child around the world than to the study of theoretical material.
Most high school students already have some specific learning interests. This is due to their plans for the future, whether it be study or work. It is quite natural not to expect brilliant success from them in all sections of the school curriculum. It is possible that your high school student is in no hurry to make a choice. Try together with him to select from the huge volume of subjects the most promising for him.
And further. It is in our power to make sure that both our attitude towards the personality of the child and the level of his self-esteem depend less on the school grade. This will be the best prevention of school overload. See How to Criticize a Child Properly