In the long-term development, the private school education in Han Dynasty has accumulated rich experience and made important contributions to the theory and practice of ancient education.
First, before the establishment of the official school system, private school education undertook almost all the educational tasks, which made the ancient education in China never stop and made great progress. Since the burning of books in Qin Dynasty, the war at the end of Qin Dynasty and the inaction at the beginning of Han Dynasty, private education has never stopped. Ancient cultural classics and scientific knowledge are preserved and disseminated mainly through private education. Most of the talents who participated in the political, economic and cultural construction of the Han Dynasty were also trained and exercised through private education.
After the establishment of the official school system, private school education has become an important supplement to official school education and continues to undertake heavy educational tasks. Illegitimacy is several times that of Taisheng. The development of local official schools is slow, with only one or several schools in the county. Local private schools far exceed local public schools. There is almost no enlightenment education in the official school system, and the education of children is almost entirely undertaken by private schools or home schools. Booksellers in the library are a large group of educators who have undertaken the responsibility of educating hundreds of thousands of children. Thousands of private school educators and teachers have made great and indelible contributions to the development of ancient culture and education in China.
Second, private education has promoted the development of different schools. In the Qin Dynasty, academic achievements outside the Legalists continued to be spread and developed, mainly through private schools. There was a war at the end of Qin dynasty, private schools still existed, and the sound of chanting string songs continued. In the early Han Dynasty, the study of Huang Lao was still advocated, but the official school was not established, and various academic schools spread in the form of private school. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only respected Confucianism and set up a doctor of the Five Classics as a post-imperial college. Huang's method is so yin and yang saints are still teaching in private schools. Since the dispute between ancient and modern Confucian classics, the Confucian classics of modern literature has always occupied a dominant position, while the Confucian classics of ancient literature are often taught in private schools, constantly fighting and giving full play to their strengths, which finally promoted the mutual absorption and integration of the two schools. It is precisely because of the repeated struggles of ancient and modern Confucian classics that private schools and official schools constantly contend and learn from each other's strengths, thus avoiding or overcoming their one-sidedness to some extent. Comparatively speaking, the official school abides by the law of imitating the family, and the private school education is less restricted by this. Many private school masters are also familiar with ancient and modern classics, which shows that private school education is more flexible and adaptable.
Thirdly, private school education has accumulated rich teaching experience, and many experiences have been applied and popularized in official schools.
First of all, private school education has created and accumulated the experience of Mongolian education, especially the experience of literacy and calligraphy teaching. Literacy teaching is a heavy task. There are many kinds of characters in Han dynasty. Chinese characters are divided into several categories according to their scope of application, and some of them are compiled by radicals, which is easy to read and remember and convenient for teaching.
Calligraphy in Han Dynasty was relatively stable, and then it was added, deleted and changed, which achieved good results in enlightenment education.
Second, we have found a bridge to consolidate the achievements of literacy and make a transition to a higher level. After concentrating on literacy and writing, private schools in the Han Dynasty immediately entered the reading stage, choosing books with fluent words, less controversy and strong practicability, such as The Analects of Confucius and The Book of Filial Piety, so that they can read them, without requiring in-depth study. As long as they have a little understanding of the meaning and a rough understanding of the meaning, they can do what they say, feel fluent and speak fluently, and make the sentences in the books sound like their own mouths. This kind of experience can also be used for reference by future generations. Finally, the experience of specialized study. The masters of private schools teach their disciples, not only the classics themselves, but also the methods and experiences of learning, advocating questioning and asking difficult questions. These experiences were the basis of later academy teaching. Masters in private schools gave lectures and had many disciples, so they created long-term experience in teaching students and students in higher vocational education, and created Disciple Experience and Recording Disciples, which were adopted by imperial academy at that time. Under the conditions at that time, this method expanded the number of apprentices, met the needs of students' learning, mobilized the enthusiasm of students to a certain extent, and increased the opportunities for practical exercise.
Fourth, private education attaches importance to the cultivation of style of study and honesty. The style of study in the Han Dynasty paid special attention to studying classics carefully, striving to master chapters and sentences and paying attention to practicality. This style of study is particularly prominent in private education. Private school education attaches great importance to the cultivation of morale and moral integrity, especially when political corruption and the atmosphere of the ruling and opposition parties decline, a large number of honest people are unwilling to agree. They advocate moral integrity and virtually oppose private schools. Many people are not afraid of power, do not admire Lu's position, and live a clean and honest life, which has inspired or influenced a generation of literati. This is also an important fine tradition of private school education, which has been further developed in the later academy teaching.
Of course, due to the limitation of historical conditions and the influence of educational development, private education also has obvious limitations.
The teachers and students of private school education are mainly the upper-middle class in feudal society, and there is no principle difference between the educational objectives and the leading direction of educational content and government-run education. Generally speaking, official education and private education are not antagonistic, and the basic direction is basically the same.
The teachers and teaching materials of private school education cannot be guaranteed, and often only teachers can learn. Without teachers, learning will be abolished; Most of the textbooks are set by teachers themselves. There are many experts and many incompetent people who can teach.
Private school education lacks necessary rules and regulations. The flexibility of private schools is its outstanding advantage, but unnecessary rules and regulations are defects after all.
Private education has no stable source of income. Although many teachers are still teaching when they are hungry and cold, there will be serious difficulties in teaching without funds.
Therefore, it is unscientific to say that private education is superior to official education in all aspects. Private education is a product of history, and we should also examine it with the attitude and method of historical materialism.