Preschool physical education teachers’ opinions on early childhood football education

Editor’s note: In recent years, children’s football education has been sought after by many parents. Let’s take a look at what kindergarten teachers think about it!

I have always wanted to talk about? Children’s football? This matter, because I always feel that this matter has been done in a wrong way, and it is a bit outrageous. It just so happened that two male teachers chatted with me in the past two days, and they both talked about some of their own experiences in developing children's football, so let's discuss it with you.

One of the male teachers was distressed that he had carried out a children’s football activity in the kindergarten for a semester, but at the end he always felt that the children’s results were not satisfactory, while another male teacher felt that the children’s results were not satisfactory. Football classes are particularly difficult to organize. I think children prefer games they invent using football. In fact, the feelings and feelings of these two male teachers are not unique to them, but are practical problems that current children's football activities in many places are bound to face, and are quite universal. The development of children's football activities is indeed not what we imagined. We can just get a field and materials, find a coach who can play football, and take the children to start it. This year, a domestic organization engaged in the development of early childhood educational toys and curriculum asked me to help them provide a set of children's football game plans. After thinking about it, I gave up and did not participate. The main reason is that I am relatively self-aware. On the one hand, I am not professional in the football project, so it is inevitable that what I write will have many shortcomings and mistakes. Secondly, I haven’t really thought clearly about children’s football and verified it in practice, so I’d better not mislead other children.

Since the General Sports Federation and the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Launching National Youth Campus Football Activities" in 2009, football activities on campus have been launched with great vigor. Naturally, kindergartens are not to be outdone. Various football courses and competitions for young children are emerging one after another. The so-called "football specialty kindergartens" in various places are also constantly evaluated and selected. However, many of these are not all caused by the education department. The reasons are very clear to everyone, and this is also the problem that causes children's football to go further and further.

First of all, we reviewed various documents, plans or plans from the General Administration of Sports, the Ministry of Education and various localities regarding the development of campus football activities. Most of the documents issued after 2009 have limited scope for the development of football activities. The basic positioning is in the youth group. In the "Chinese Football Medium and Long-term Development Plan (2016-2050)" issued in 2015 and Jiangsu Province's "Jiangsu Province Youth Campus Football Revitalization Action Plan Outline (2015-2020)" and other documents , in the implementation principles section, there is a statement that "football starts from babies", but in other parts of the document, "what to catch" and "how to catch" are more about the youth stage. Implementation of football activities.

Secondly, from 2009 to now, various documents at all levels have clear requirements for the development of youth football activities: The education and sports departments have jointly studied and formulated provincial, municipal, and provincial regulations. The four-level league system of counties and schools and the four-level competition system of elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and universities? In other words, there is no mention of the competition system at the early childhood stage. Going back to the children's football activities we carry out in reality, the curriculum system of children's football has not yet been clarified. Most of them are just what I once said - reducing the size of adult football and simplifying the movements - at the level of imitation and competition. The system has emerged very quickly. Many provincial and even national children's football leagues have emerged in an endless stream in the past two years. Many kindergartens are also very keen to participate in various so-called children's football performance competitions, children's football competitions, etc. , the children wore football jerseys and began to fight in the north and south. The craze for children's competitions and the rave reviews of special kindergartens have naturally spawned various ways and means that are eager for quick success, which often leads children's football to a performance in which most people are eliminated and a few people participate.

Of course, from my personal point of view, I am not opposed to the development of children's football activities. I am just opposed to the competitive nature of children's football activities. The functions are too mythical and the results are too utilitarian. Football is just a game material for children in kindergarten. Football activities in kindergarten should also be just a game activity, rather than intensive training of specialized football movements.

What children need is to develop an interest in football activities through "playing football", and what is improved is the ability of physical movement, not the competitive level of football. For children, children's football is just a form of sports activities in kindergartens, not the so-called "first sport". There is no need to overly deify the special status of a certain method. As for the development of children's football, we should return to the essence of kindergarten courses and games, pay attention to the children's experience and feelings in the process, and allow children to truly "actively participate", rather than for the so-called kindergarten characteristics, achievement display or Repeated training for competitive competitions is often counterproductive. Teachers are physically and mentally exhausted, and children have no interest at all. After all, from the perspective of cultivating interests, developing movements, and enhancing physical fitness, there is not only this single-plank bridge, but "all roads lead to Rome."

What preschool educators need is a sense of clarity, a conscience and reason, rather than being driven by utilitarianism to follow what others say and blindly follow the trend. We need to reflect deeply: Are the children in the so-called "Happy Football" really happy? Football starts from children, and the core of it is not only football, but also people. Each age group has its own things that each age group should do. Children's football is about children playing children's football, rather than infantilizing adult football.

Author | Wang Yan

Public Account | Children's Sports

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