When I was 17 years old, when I participated in the National Day parade, I saw a college student playing a banner in the square - "Hello, Xiaoping"; that year, China won the first Olympic gold medal; that year, American astronauts achieved the first "security lock" in human history to leave the space shuttle to walk in space; that year, US President Reagan was re-elected, and Apple launched the eye-catching personal computer Macintosh...
Think about myself at that time, and I was full of longing and hope for the future. However, at that time, I didn't know what "choice" and "planning" were, and these two words were very unfamiliar with me at that time.
My daughter is 17 years old now. Her name is Jessica, and she is a 11th grade student in lunar exploration college. Lunar Exploration Academy is an innovative high school for the future. After learning about our sending our daughter to Lunar Exploration Academy, many friends contacted us, some sent blessings, some said, "You are so brave", and many others said to me, "You are so crazy."
However, I don’t think the decision to send my daughter to the moon to visit is crazy. If you really want to say it’s crazy, it should be Jason, the founder of Lunar Discovery Academy. He didn’t go to college at the age of 20, but actually opened a school called Lunar Discovery.
Think about it carefully, there are many seemingly crazy ideas, but they are actually the inspiration for brainstorming. 20 years ago, the vision of Alibaba made people feel that Jack Ma’s idea of was too crazy. When WeChat first appeared, we couldn’t imagine that its future would be like this.
When our minds no longer accommodate seemingly crazy ideas, when we can't listen to "my child is amazing", we are actually old people. "Oldness" like has nothing to do with age. If you always reject the idea of "crazy", you will be an old man at the age of 30, and if you can have an inclusive and accepting mentality, you will be a young man at the age of 90.
Story 1: Choice is a trade-off
Narrator: Jessica's father
Holy daughter Jessica spent three years in junior high school on the campus of Peking University Affiliated High School, and she is very familiar with it here. Peking University Affiliated High School is located in the east building of the school, and the high school is located in the west building of the school, so there is a very interesting interaction at the junior high school graduation ceremony, called "Take Express No. 2018", start from the east building and head to the west building.
Before this, I always thought that my daughter would be the same and took the "2018 Express". But the reality is that she did not go from the west building to the east building, but went to the south building, which is where the Lunar Exploration Academy is now located.
"Go to the South Building" decision, for my daughter and our family, it means that she will have a graduation certificate with Peking University Affiliated High School graduation certificate Say Goodbye, college entrance examination Say Goodbye, and international department graduation certificate Say Goodbye.
Is this a rational choice, or is the ignorant fearless?
Jessica’s past life experience in lunar exploration
’s have made most of our decisions very cautious, and the decision to explore the moon is no exception. At that time, when we chose to explore the moon, it could be said that we were 40% rational, 20% emotional, and 40% brave.
To be honest, it is not easy for our family to make such a decision.
From a rational perspective, we agree with the concept of lunar exploration. They always discuss education and human development from the future. After a year, I deeply feel that the way of learning is undergoing tremendous changes.
But a year ago, we also had a lot of worries when we made decisions, such as the college entrance examination mentioned just now, such as where she would go to college in three years, etc. However, we thought about this issue from a different perspective at that time - we wanted to think back from a longer future trend.
So, my wife and I decided to look at the future of our children, for example, after she graduated from college and entered the workplace, what kind of people would the society need at that time, and what hard and soft skills were needed at that time, instead of just focusing on what kind of college we would go to after 3 years of high school.
Just like that, our thinking has opened up a little, and our courage has become a little more.So we think further: What can children get and what may they lose in an environment like in a lunar exploration?
Compared with traditional education, what you get at Lunar Exploration Academy is freedom of time, space and choice, which many schools cannot provide. But this freedom also brings some problems simultaneously, such as the decline in efficiency, and for children who have received traditional education and training along the way, they may not be able to adapt quickly.
In this regard, the daughter believes, "If you compare the students studying in the International Department and the Headquarters of Peking University Affiliated High School, you will definitely not be able to compare with those of you studying in the International Department of Peking University Affiliated High School; but if you look at the aspects of interest cultivation, personal development and independence, you can gain more from the Lunar Exploration Academy."
Jessica Shares public welfare experience in the Lunar Exploration
If you only look at the present, you will definitely feel that there is a loss. If you look at the long term, you will feel that what you are doing now is very meaningful! This is a problem that we as parents cannot avoid whether we choose traditional education, international schools, or innovative education, because different choices are different in length and short, advantages and disadvantages.
Next is, since has been selected, you have to accept it.
Under an education system like lunar exploration, parents' trade-offs are more important. They need to make choices based on the characteristics of their children and adjust their pace through trade-offs. Although this is not an easy task, it is a reality that we must face.
Story 2: "We just found those who are looking for us"
Narrator: Sabrina Mom
The first time I went to the moon to explore, I didn't feel anything except curiosity.
The environment of Lunar Exploration Academy is quite unique, not like a "normal" school. After sitting down, I realized that this was the first co-construction meeting between the moon and parents, which kicked off the prelude to every co-construction meeting I would like to attend.
In the self-introduction session, my "self-righteousness" unconsciously emerged: the team is so young! Not only the founders, but generally very young.
When it was my turn to introduce it, I didn’t mention my expertise and the work I am currently engaged in, but mentioned without warning the reason for leaving the HR career: Although I participated in the formulation and use of industry-leading tools in large companies, my years of experience made me feel that the decisive role is still the "people". In the long run, if the "people" is not good, the more advanced tools will not be very useful. So I got tired of it...
Ellen, sitting opposite me, nodded frequently. At the subsequent admissions briefing, I learned about Ellen's mental journey of joining the moon exploration. Her nod was not entirely out of politeness, but it was indeed a bit of a soulmate. The first half of the
co-construction meeting introduced the concept and implementation methods of lunar exploration. My curiosity has become a watch, interesting, you can pay attention and support it appropriately.
I went to the bathroom during tea break. When I returned to the venue, there was only one seat left, next to Jason, "This seat is left for me," I said to myself. I really want to feel close to this young man who ran an innovative high school just after graduating from high school.
Later on, I found that as long as he speaks, he completely forgot his age and forced you to be humble. You must not only be humble, but also be open and sincere, otherwise you will not be able to sit there.
Founder of Lunar Exploration Academy Jason
Not only him, other partners generally give me the same feeling. There is only one time when you can feel that they are really young, just listening to people and eating snacks on the table.
Everyone speaks freely, sincerely and openly. The indoor is warm and flowing, completely different from the cold and solidification outdoors. My "self-righteousness" completely slipped away at some point and never came back.
In his summary, the dean of the Lunar Exploration College talked about what kind of students are suitable for lunar Exploration. Several of the keywords are "independence", "warm", and "aware of action". I was hit in one go! How can you just watch this? How can you just support it? You must participate in it!
So in the next Check out session, I said with certainty that I came here with curiosity and didn’t think it had anything to do with my children.A few hours later, I felt that my child was very likely to become a member of the founding class, and today I would discuss it with my family when I go back.
Raising children, I have thought about my expectations for them countless times, and finally came down to the fact that when I left home at the age of 18, I hope to achieve three points: Take good care of myself; know how to get along with others; have my own ideas and are willing to work hard for it.
Reviewing our "founding" process is all related to this goal. The adjustment in the process is precisely because the realization of this goal encounters difficult resistance. I have communicated these three points with my daughter more than once. This is almost seamlessly connected with the "inner abundance and positive action" of the moon exploration.
On the day of the first co-construction meeting, I asked for the application form from the teacher in charge of enrollment at the time. I was anxious to get the form, not in a hurry to register. I wanted to see the content and requirements. There was a lot of information hidden in it, which might help us determine whether it matched enough.
Afterwards, this action was very correct. It took us 2 weeks for the whole family to fill out the form and prepare the materials, and it was submitted when the first batch of registrations was about to end. The time has been long. Except for the heavy workload of my daughter and limited time, everyone enjoys the process of filling out the form -
For example, you need to answer "your favorite movie", "Imagine a few careers that you don't have now", "How to introduce yourself to aliens", "The book that impresses you the most", etc. The process of filling out the form in is also the process of our verification and lunar exploration.
The daughter said she wanted to meet Jason, it couldn't be just a legend. As a result, on the weekend of the second co-construction meeting, Jason was on a business trip in the United States. The form and content of the co-construction meeting are also different from the first time. none of these have affected our whole family’s decision, that is, “apply for lunar exploration”! Now, right now!
Just as we attended the second co-construction meeting, Jason met with Dr. Wang Jianli and Dr. , Qian Zhilong and Dr. in the United States with Ted Dintersmith, the producer of the globally popular innovative education documentary Most Likely to Succeed.
Jason sent back the results in real time, and the two sides established the Sino-US Innovation Education Alliance, and Mr. Ted Dintersmith will support the lunar exploration team. I was impressed by watching this documentary a few days ago. The next day, I was very moved to see Jason and several seniors taking a photo together, and involuntarily said the following words in the co-built WeChat group:
Here I would like to express my feelings when I saw this photo:
See it for the first time, oh, it is really good news, China-US Innovation Education Alliance, Ted entered the lunar exploration consulting team;
looked at the photo for the second time, and I was suddenly moved. I knew 4 people in the photo, the two in the middle and the two on both sides (the two in the middle are Jason and Ted; both sides are Dr. Wang and Dr. Qian). Seeing the young man standing in the center of the stage, the word that popped up in my heart was "hope".
I remembered that at the end of 2017, I had a wish to find a learning organization in the new year. At that moment, I confirmed that I had found it.
Jason's "real-time picture"
"Inner abundant, positive action" is not only my expectation for my children, but also my own expectations. In the future, what I present to the world around me must be determined by me today.
Jason's teacher once asked him a question: How do you recruit students?
Jason A: We just find those who are looking for us.
Story 3: The dull days finally come to an end
Narrator: The admissions teacher of the Lunar Discovery College
In the eyes of parents, Dio has been a smart and ambitious child since childhood. He went to junior high school and entered the top key junior high school in Tianjin. He vaguely saw the smooth road of going to school in the future. But unexpectedly, after entering the second year of junior high school, Dio became obsessed with electronic games, his academic performance plummeted, and his family became a battlefield without gunpowder.
Dad gradually lost patience, was negative, no matter, gave up. There is a quarrel between mother and son, and it quarrels almost every day. The mother tried various methods and learned various parenting knowledge, but the results were minimal. In the second, third, and even the first year of high school, the whole family is suffering from living a life without seeing hope.
turning point appeared.
One day, my mother came home very late after work. When she saw her son fighting with the game in the room, she didn't know why the anger she had lost, but instead she felt distressed. is so painful, so helpless, and a child who needs help from his parents.
So, my mother's attention shifted from the electronic game itself to understanding the motivation behind playing the game, seized every opportunity to express her appreciation and recognition of her son, and slowly deal with her anxiety.
Slowly, the child relaxed and did not close the room door. The time spent playing games gradually became less, and sometimes he pondered on the windowsill.
was followed by another turning point - I met the Lunar Exploration Academy.
Dio Parents said it was a huge surprise. The child seemed to see his way out, although he was still confused inside.
The first time I attended the lunar exploration enrollment briefing, the child left early. The parents asked him what he thought, and he said: lunar exploration is so good, how can I go?
The road ahead is full of fog, but at least the family can sit down and discuss together. After several consultations, the child decided to apply for lunar exploration. He told his parents that I hope I will walk by myself in my life, even if I fall or go astray, I will live my own life.
Dio Parents said that their children never said this before, and even if they said it, their parents would not believe it. Moon exploration allows the family to see each other again.
In order to apply for lunar exploration, Dio took the initiative to unplug the computer cable in his room and handed it to his parents. Mom described it as a "miracle". And Dio said: Because I have played enough games, I am ready to live a different life.
But when applying for lunar exploration, Dio still encountered a big hurdle.
During the interview, Dio's self-management ability is still quite obvious, and we are worried that it will be difficult to adapt even if we come to the lunar exploration. But it would be a pity if you reject Dio because of this. Therefore, the final opinion of the Admissions and Admissions Committee at the time was: conditional admission.
This time, conditional admission is not about achieving better academic results or improving English skills, but a challenging task: proves that his self-management ability has been significantly improved in one month.
In addition to assigning tasks, we also provide growth thinking tools. Have a plan, have a summary, and a weekly review.
Dio The challenge plan I made was
Dio I promised Dio that this is only a communication between me and him. I will not share it with his parents without obtaining his consent.
Later, I asked Dio what he felt in that month. Dio's summary is as follows:
In a month of self-management, I seemed to have watched someone else's life once. One month is a microcosm of my life. It is said that it is others because it is significantly different from my previous life and is closer to my ideal self. I experienced a small transformation this month. The first is the power of the motto: He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
This sentence spurred me for a whole month and will continue to accompany me in the future. Compared with the past, my self-management ability has made a qualitative leap, and the game has lost its first priority. My focus of life began to shift to how to better enable myself to grow and to do something that really nourished me.
Story 4: We won't go back to Australia
Narrator: Cherry's mother
Last September, Cherry became a learner of lunar exploration, but the degree in Australia is also temporarily retained. After all, I found it was not suitable and there was still a chance to go back.
11, she wrote a letter to the principal of the previous school, thanking all the teachers, classmates and the days when everyone was together in the past, but she finally decided to stay in the moon exploration. "Because here, not only is I learning, but I also found the feeling of continuous growth."
I was quite curious about what "the feeling of growth" means, and later I found an opportunity to ask Cherry.She said that in the previous school, there were also many very outstanding students - some students were very good at math and could already teach with students from higher grades; some students had reached the level 10 for violin and piano; some were particularly good at sports and won awards in national competitions...
"But the excellence of the moon explorers is different from them. The moon explorers seem to be constantly exploring different boundaries, and in some unexpected places, they did a very good job." Among such a group of students, Cherry felt that he had become more open and diverse, and dared to make some new attempts.
Cherry At the start of school
I can also see her exploring her boundaries, such as taking the initiative to participate in the Spartan Club, a sports club that explored the moon, which I could not imagine before.
Club will train 2-3 times a week, and the training is very hard. Their goal is to participate in international cross-country obstacle courses in the future. They also need to learn professional content such as sports nutrition. Each training indicator has a detailed record.
Cherry is an introverted child. In fact, until now, she is still not used to actively communicating with others, but I can feel that in the past six months of lunar exploration, she is slowly opening herself up.
Cherry In the basketball team exploring the moon (the white team uniform on the right)
Cherry started studying abroad in the first grade of elementary school, attending a local girls' school until the eighth grade. I never thought about letting her go back to high school before. The opportunity was one day in March last year. I accidentally saw a video about innovative education, which introduced a local school, a lunar exploration college, etc. I was surprised at that time. I didn’t expect that there were such schools in China.
That night I searched for all the information I could find on the Internet and basically figured out the ins and outs of the Lunar Exploration Academy and their main educational concepts. The curriculum design part was very touching. It can be seen that it was actually implementing the training goal of "a rich individual in the heart, a positive citizen". Three of them were particularly impressed by me.
First, Moon Exploration emphasizes the "honor course" that focuses on self-exploration.
Starting from courses such as self-cognition, systematic thinking and Eastern and Western philosophy, it guides learners to explore inward and ask about their relationship with the world. This is something that is relatively lacking in high school education in the East and West.
This kind of exploration does not necessarily mean finding a clear meaning of life. Instead, in this kind of thinking, children can develop deeper interest and links in the world, and thus find the endogenous and sincerely willing to work for it, rather than just the external concrete materialization goals of studying a prestigious university and working in a Fortune 500 company.
Now, we often hear the true stories of young people who are confused after graduation and quit their jobs after being frustrated. This is because the previous goal was often designed by parents or society for their inertia, and they did not think independently of themselves.
Second, the interdisciplinary courses of lunar exploration are all using PBL (project-based learning).
Unlike most schools that use simulated scenario teaching, learners face very real projects during lunar exploration. For example, this year's interdisciplinary project "Climate Action", learners need to monitor the electricity consumption of the entire school, design relevant equipment and facilities to make the lunar exploration campus greener and lower power consumption (it is said that the power supply system of the new campus will use the solar panels they are doing), and will also produce a series of short videos to improve the public's awareness of climate change.
In the process, children not only need to learn knowledge from various subjects, but also really solve problems in the team. They will take the initiative to explore what they need to learn, how to cooperate with others, even how to make a budget, how to preach to gain support from more people, etc.
Through this exercise, they can have extensive exposure to the connections between various disciplines and actual life, explore various roles, and it is likely to help them discover their true interests from it.
Lunar Exploration Academy learners are conducting project design
, the social science course for lunar Exploration.
Teacher Zhang Yang's history class uses the "Outline of Chinese History" course by Teacher Shi Zhan (Professor of History of Peking University) and teaches it in a discussion manner. I myself am a fan of Teacher Shi Zhan. I was very surprised that the moon exploration would teach learners history in this way.
This course looks at Chinese history from a global and historical perspective that combines Chinese and Western history, rather than from a chronological and fragmented event perspective. The classroom also uses Kissinger's "World Order" and Beckett's " Cotton Empire " as reading materials to view Chinese history from different perspectives. In
class, Mr. Zhang Yang emphasized that learning history does not necessarily mean studying history or being a historian, but learning the way of thinking of history and becoming a person who can apply knowledge.
s0 She took the children together to find people who can transfer and apply subject knowledge well, read and study these people and their works, and learn their wisdom. This method of focusing on thinking training rather than simply teaching knowledge can guide children into deeper learning, which was what impressed me at that time.
Teacher Zhang Yang was in class
Regarding the parents who explored the moon, I observed that they have many common traits, such as loving learning, actively accepting new things, working hard to grow up, and loving life. They are a group of people who are very responsible to society and have their own independent thinking.
In fact, we choose a school and choose a community with common values with us. I think that children grow up in such a nutritious community, and the friendship they form will accompany them throughout their lives.
Lunar Exploration College Home and School Activities
Another small episode is shared. There is a parent named Zheng Yi of the Lunar Exploration. She is the director of Lenovo's global strategy department and a senior design thinking creative training tutor. She taught the learners a design thinking training class. Later, in response to the requirements of our parents, she also gave the parents a whole day of design thinking class. didn't expect to be able to get the best of children and get such high-end training.
Overall, in the lunar exploration community, we parents, learners and teachers have become lifelong learners, and there are really countless possibilities in lunar exploration.
Last month, Jason, the founder of the Moon Exploration, published his long article of 10,000 words. In this chaotic and uncertain world, he pointed out a certainty for his team and all the Moon Explorationists - educates the common destiny of mankind.
As parents of lunar exploration, I saw that they are implementing this seemingly empty narrative step by step in this transformation of the educational ecology. I am honored to be one of them and grow up with this great dream. I also believe that lunar exploration will inspire more partners with the same vision to join them.
