Looking back at the interactive crafts 2 (2)

The essays on the cards are about things you are proud of and things you want to praise yourself for.  Even if it's not something they can be openly proud of, we wanted them to be free to write about even small things like, "I'm good at this," "I have this strength," "I think this is a good aspect of me," or "I'm working on (something) with this mindset."

At this point, we told the children who always get good grades in class to write about other things.  It's great that they're trying to keep up their good grades, but we already know that well enough because they always write about their academic achievement when writing letters or answering questions about best memories of the year.  We emphasized that the only exception to mentioning academic record is if there has been a change; for example, say you were ranked 30th out of 40 people in your last test, but with some effort you're now ranked 24th this month.  Of course, there is no need to be obsessed with scores or rankings.  Anything that makes them feel like they worked hard and did their best is fine.

However, when we looked at the children's answers, most of them mentioned studying after all.  To be honest, I was personally disappointed.  I wondered if they didn't know what other wonderful points/aspects they had.  Still, upon further reflection, I came to the conclusion that rather than the children being unable to think of anything else to write, it may be that they simply believe that the only thing they can be proud of is how hard they have worked at their studies and how well they have consistently achieved good grades.  They may believe that only studying hard will lead to a better life for themselves and their family.  In reality, no matter how creative or artistic they are, if it has no practical use, it is not valued and they have no idea what kind of job it will lead to in the future.

For the children who gave monotonous answers, we felt a strong desire to find something wonderful about them and share it with them.  How to enrich their real lives is a complex issue.  At the same time, how one enriches oneself or one's mind as individuals is also very important.