Every spring, parents of primary school students in some places enter "mulberry leaf hunting" mode.

It is reported that in the third-grade Science curriculum, there is a unit titled "The Life of Animals," which requires students to raise silkworms and observe them in order to understand the various stages and characteristics of a silkworm's life. As a result, raising silkworms has become a task for many primary school students.

"April is the hardest month to read: silkworms need warmth while wheat needs cold." Listening to the rustling sound of silkworms munching on mulberry leaves and watching them grow plump and white before "climbing up" to spin cocoons—raising silkworms is a cherished childhood memory for many rural children.

Precisely because I hold such a special feeling in my heart, when my child proposed raising silkworms, I raised both hands in approval. Caring for life and learning to live in harmony with nature have always been core elements of education. Observing the growth of silkworms is not only a form of science literacy education that helps cultivate patience and a sense of responsibility, but also allows children to witness the journey of life's growth and inspires them to cherish life.

However, once the child started the silkworm-raising activity, I discovered that it was nothing like my childhood memories. Newly hatched silkworms have an extremely limited appetite, and the mulberry leaves that came free with the purchase were enough to sustain them. But as the silkworms changed day by day, the "food supply" quickly ran short. So parents resorted to all sorts of tricks: some searched every corner of their neighborhoods, some drove dozens of kilometers to the countryside to look for leaves, and some bought them online...

In a modern society with advanced logistics, as long as you are willing to spend money, the mulberry leaf problem is not hard to solve. But if you don't pick the leaves yourself, not only do you miss out on the joy of labor, but the experience of feeding is also diminished. More importantly, what should be the child's task has been distorted into "parent homework," with the child reduced to a mere bystander—this probably goes against the original intent of education. Therefore, some have suggested that schools organize centralized silkworm-raising activities guided by class or group, or that each family raise different animals according to the child's interests. However, these voices do not seem to have received sufficient attention, and the scene of primary school parents collectively "hunting for mulberry leaves" continues to play out year after year.

Although raising silkworms and hunting for mulberry leaves may seem trivial, the home-school collaboration issues in practical education at primary and secondary schools that they reflect cannot be ignored. As an important approach to cultivating students' comprehensive qualities, practical education not only enables students to combine theoretical knowledge with practice, but also cultivates their hands-on abilities, innovative spirit, and sense of social responsibility. Regrettably, some practical education programs only assign tasks without fully playing a guiding role, creating excessive burdens for parents.

Taking silkworm raising as an example, schools should serve as the primary organizers and guides, providing necessary resources and guidance—such as the mulberry leaves and silkworm eggs needed for raising silkworms. Schools can establish on-campus practice bases, such as setting up a silkworm room where students can adopt silkworms, and creating small botanical gardens with mulberry trees and other plants for students to observe and learn from.

Life education does not necessarily have to involve raising silkworms. We might borrow from the approach of Soviet educator Sukhomlinsky—for example, organizing young plant cultivators' groups, gardening groups, beekeeping groups, and flower-growing groups to provide rich and varied samples of campus life, allowing students with different interests and preferences to join different groups and achieve personalized growth suited to their own needs.

Schools must not be hands-off managers, and parents should also adjust their mindset. Looking at it from another angle, searching for mulberry leaves can also become an opportunity to cultivate children's problem-solving abilities. Parents can think together with their children and try different methods to solve the problem—for example, whether a substitute can be found through scientific methods—and encourage children to cooperate with classmates to solve problems, cultivating teamwork skills... The process of facing challenges head-on is itself part of education, and such experiences are beneficial to children's growth. Don't rush to "do everything" for them.