HWSCD
Jonathan Gastel
学术校长
Jonathan Gastel博士，现任宏文学校成都安仁校区学术校长。历任美国纽约著名高中史岱文森高中科学教师兼学科协调人、纽约军事学院副校长、清澜山学校（华为公司与清华附中联办国际学校）特聘学术校长等。拥有几十年丰富的高中教学管理经验，参与多项国际教育咨询项目，擅长国际课程研发创新。在史岱文森学校任职期间，带领学校科学家和工程领导力计划跻身全美之冠。
Jonathan博士为耶鲁大学政治学学士、哥伦比亚大学教育学硕士、约翰霍普金斯大学环境毒理学博士，曾获得美国国立卫生研究院杰出研究奖、美国科学促进会教学奖等众多国际奖项。
Every middle school parent could adapt a phrase from the famous British author Charles Dickens to describe their relationship with their child:“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”. One moment a child is appreciative, cooperative and even loving and then the next moment they are angry, disrespectful, and uncontrollable. Parents are therefore often asking me: How do we keep our middle school child moving in the right direction?
每一位中学家长都可以用英国著名作家查尔斯·狄更斯的一句话来描述他们与孩子的关系：“这是最好的时代，也是最坏的时代”。前一刻，孩子们充满感激、合作，甚至是爱，下一刻，他们会生气、无法控制自己的情绪，家长们经常问我：如何让中学生朝着正确的方向前进？
The roots of middle school academic and behavioral problems usually start in late primary; it is best to catch them there while they are still younger and paying attention. Don’t wait for self-resolution! There are three absolutely required daily habits that all parents must work on at home during this late primary period ages 9-11, if not before: 1) develop effective daily lines of communication with your child; 2) provide defined space, times, and practices for serious academic study/review of the days learning and additional time for more informal reading, writing and exploration; 3) help your child to deepen a few areas of interests that will prove useful later on in various ways.
孩子在中学学业和行为问题的根源通常始于小学阶段后期，最好在孩子低龄段时期，注意力还集中的时候，多多关注他们并解决问题，比如：在9-11岁时候，家长必须让孩子在家养成三个必要的日常习惯：1）与孩子建立有效的日常沟通渠道；2）提供学习的空间、时间和生活实践，让孩子进行学习研究、复习，并为阅读、写作和探索提供充裕的时间；3） 帮助孩子加深几个兴趣爱好领域拓展。
Much of successful middle school growth is about establishing good habits in the primary years, such as: regular math practice, reading, and daily review of learning. Early establishment of good habits leads to continuation of those habits in middle school. When the habits start to weaken, many parents wait too long to enforce and reestablish them independently of any other activities that might compete; this is a mistake. To me, the most important habit that needs to be preserved at all costs is the one
that parents and children share equally – daily communication. The worst possibility is that your child no longer communicates what is important to them and the problems fester, eat up time, and derail their progress.
中学时期，孩子健康成长在很大程度上与小学阶段养成良好习惯有关，比如：定期进行数学练习、阅读和复习。早期，良好学习习惯养成会使这些好习惯在中学得以延续。对我来说，需要保持最重要的习惯是父母和孩子平等交流的习惯，而最坏的可能性是你的孩子不再与父母交流，那么，问题会恶化，耗尽时间，阻碍他们的进步。
To ensure communication, start by setting a time each evening where you discuss a child’s day with them. What happened today? Have them habituated to discuss with you the good and the difficult parts of their day and they will appreciate it; let them concentrate on relating stressful events even if they seem minor to you. They likely will spend a lot of time on any social interactions that did not turn out the way they wanted, and maybe hide or delay talking about any academic challenges that were not yet met. As long as setbacks are greeted with support, open communication will continue. As long, as the conversation is open and transparency encouraged, then you can take some time to consider solutions – together and fewer emergencies will occur.
为了确保沟通，你可以从每天晚上在固定的时间和孩子沟通当天发生的事情开始，关注孩子今天经历了什么事情？让他们习惯并享受与你讨论一天中的快乐和困难的事情，让他们讲述自己感到压力的事情，即使那些事情对你来说非常的微不足道，也希望父母能花时间来倾听孩子的讲述，只要孩子能感到受到挫折后得到支持，孩子就会建立自信心。
Another aspect of minimizing tension during middle school is the establishment of a range of interests. Just like a chair is more stable with four legs than one; a child is more stable with more than one thing that is important to them. Sure they want to learn, have friends, and please you and their teacher; but when learning is not fun and their classmates are not nice, they still need something to motivate them. Personal interests are first established in the primary years; but in the middle years they take a huge jump up making them more visible in terms of talent and time. They have more time and energy to develop their talents in sports, arts, sciences or mathematics than they might ever have again; and often are open to totally new ideas which are going to be very useful as an adult. Take advantage of a child’s interest by allowing the standards to rise with the child.
在中学时期，要给孩子建立一系列的兴趣爱好，就像一把椅子，四条腿比一条腿更稳定，一个孩子不应该只有一种兴趣爱好，当然他们也想要努力学习、交朋友，让家长和老师满意，但当他们缺乏学习兴趣时候，某一方面的兴趣爱好就会变成激励学生前行的动力。
在小学阶段，培养孩子的兴趣爱好，到了初中阶段，在某个领域，孩子的天分就会凸显出来，这个时期，孩子比任何时期都有更多的时间和精力来发展自己在体育、艺术、科学或数学方面的才能，他们经常乐于接受全新的想法，这对他们长大后非常有用，成长中，孩子的兴趣爱好让他们更快地进步。
Its for this reason at Hongwen that we like research and capstone projects because the personal growth is unlimited and the direction is shaped by the student. Not only do the students work in areas they are interested in, they develop more advanced communication skills which helps them even at home. Students have access not just to our campus but to the enormous creative resources of the Hongwen Educational network. As students begin to link what they are learning about in school to their interests and their future; learning becomes not just something Mom and Dad want, but something they want for themselves. Using interest-based education, together teachers and parents can motivate students who care little for conventional education or for simply pleasing the teacher or parents; in this context, progress is constant, varied, and never dull. When we can link the interests and talents of a child to the middle school day of learning, the worst of times becomes the best of times for both the child and the parent.
正是因为这个原因，在宏文学校，我们非常关注孩子的成长，学生们不仅在自己感兴趣的领域工作，还培养了更好的沟通技能；在宏文学校，学生不仅仅能接受到优质的教育资源，还能学习到由宏信教育研究院专家团队带来最前沿的学科探究。当孩子把在学到的内容与兴趣和自己未来职业联系起来时，学习就有了主动性，当孩子把兴趣和天赋与中学时代的学习联系起来时，对孩子和家长来说，就变成了最美好的时光。