ShutterStock "Choosing to go to an experimental school is a very important decision. Why did you choose to send your children to this school? 」

ShutterStock "Choosing to go to an experimental school is a very important decision. Why did you choose to send your children to this school? This is the first question in the "Experimental Education Self-Checklist" of Taipei Heping Experimental Primary School. According to the enrollment brochure of Heping Primary School, all parents who wish to enroll in this school must fill out this Self-examination Form of Experimental Education and sign the Book of Agreeing to Participate in Experimental Education before applying for admission.

Heping Primary School became a complete school in the first year of its establishment. Because only 58 students are admitted each year, the competition is fierce both in enrolling students in the school district and drawing lots in the university district (it is said that more than 300 freshmen in the university district have robbed 23 places, and the winning rate is only 6%).

Why do public experimental education schools let parents break their heads? Is this in fashion? Or a deliberate decision?

As a parent lucky enough to enter the first freshman of Heping Primary School, I am happy to share my reasons and ideas for choosing Heping Experimental Primary School.

Before I say why I choose peace and simplicity, I want to say why I choose "experimental education".

Traditional education system of one-way input and examination?

When I was a student, the classroom was just rows of desks and chairs facing the blackboard. As soon as the bell rings, the teacher writes on the blackboard on the podium, or shuttles between seats to study. The students sit down and listen quietly without talking. The progress of the course is according to the textbook. We draw key points in the textbook, write notes and listen to the drowsiness. The bell is ringing. Take a ten-minute break. There's a bell. Keep sitting back. All day in the classroom, the teacher said, "Let's listen."

Homework is an endless homework or test paper. We practice word for word, recite formulas to solve math problems, and answer multiple-choice questions with pencils. The way of learning is paper and pencil, and the way of examination is also paper and pencil exam, quiz, monthly exam, mid-term exam, final exam, mock exam and joint exam. Both teachers and parents require test scores, and the learning process is like an exam competition, which has become the dream of many people.

The purpose of study is just to get into a good school?

Although I hate this learning mode, I am the winner under this system. Although not gifted, domestic high schools are not famous schools, but the results can remain in the top five of the class. The college entrance examination is the best exam I have ever taken. After three years of burning incense, I finally got a sweet reward. I still remember the day when the list was released, I ran to the roof and sang "Top of the World" happily. Countless bitter nights are finally over, and I prove that I did it!

However, my mouth snorted with joy, but my heart felt lost. Admitted to the highest institution of learning, and then what? I'm on top of the world, but I don't know what to do next.

Since childhood, the purpose of learning is only to "get a good grade" and "get into a good school". We are all memorizing texts, formulas, other people's ideas, and the names of the mainland railways (no longer used). We spend most of our time memorizing "information", but we don't understand its connection with life and its true meaning. The way of exam-oriented education made me lose my enthusiasm for learning. I spent almost all four years in college alone. But the inertia of studying for exams always makes me cram for the exam two weeks before. Anyway, I wish I had passed the exam.

I spent eighteen years studying hard for the exam and was admitted to the university for four years. After graduation, I will continue to take the postgraduate entrance examination, take the license test and take the public office test, and continue to crawl on the exam road behind other people's opinions. I am very good at exams, winning in various battles and moving towards what others define as "success". However, it is the purpose of education to enter a good school and a good company after graduation?

What is the purpose of education?

Fortunately, two professors in the university reversed my view on learning. A constitutional law professor studying in the United States wrote the word "doubt" on the blackboard. He used Socrates' method to guide us to think, and I realized that there is no absolute answer to anything. Professor Liu De brought only a short piece of code to the class. He used philosophy to guide us to understand the law. Only then did we find that law is not a rigid law, but the truth of life. In these two courses, I really feel the fun of learning! As for the boring class that only reads textbooks, I can skip it. Who wants to sit in the classroom and waste their lives?

Later, when I went abroad to study, my reflection on education was even stronger.

To tell the truth, "the aura of a famous school" and "professional license" are the basis of my sense of existence. In Taiwan Province Province, as long as you tell me which school you graduated from or what you do, you can be labeled as "excellent" and classified as "upper class". This is the value advocated by Taiwan Province society and the direction of education. It is not surprising that it is used as a standard.

However, when studying in Europe, this standard was completely broken.

Being in a foreign country where "Taiwan Province" and "Thailand" are silly and indistinguishable, it is meaningless to say that you graduated from T University, and the "prestigious school aura" disappears at the first time. In countries that advocate thinking, they don't care how high their education is or what their occupation is. What they care about is whether you have your own opinions, whether you can make sense, whether you know how to argue with others and whether you can convince others. I remember at a dinner party, foreign friends put forward their own ideas on a social issue (whether foreign immigrants should be opened), and everyone was flushed. When everyone turned around and someone turned to ask my opinion, I sat there with my head empty and giggling.

Growing up, who cares about my opinion? Besides, I don't even know the background of the topic. what can I say?

Thinking and debating topics are the daily habits of these western students, and they are also the basic skills of their study. However, in the past, I only recited exams. When I had the opportunity to set foot on the international battlefield and be on the same scale as this group of people, I knew I lacked the necessary ability. I was surprised that night! Watching this group of western students gush, citing historical events to prove and various viewpoints to refute. People who can think independently! Whether a society can make progress depends on people who can think rationally.

In addition, I also observed that they have a very clear understanding of themselves. Many people have known what they love since childhood, and almost everyone has dreams. I have never heard of anyone whose dream is to go to school, but "I want to be a master of calligraphy", "I want to study poverty in the third world" and "I want to build an animal shelter". Their school will take their children to the museum for classes and play freely in the park. They encourage children to express their views and face them bravely. If you like studying, you can study. If you don't like studying, there is still a million ways to go. Everyone can choose his own life and shine on his own road. Who said that the exam will be "successful"?

An education system that only pays attention to "examination" and only teaches students "examination"

I grew up hating the educational methods in Taiwan Province Province, especially the system that only judges people's value by "achievements", which ruined the lives of countless children. One-way input cramming and exam-oriented teaching will only be taught, and students who will "take the exam" will be screened out. No one cares whether children know life, think, find answers, have dreams and walk out of their own meaning on the long road of life.

Such children leave school, probably because they don't know how to take care of their own lives and have no perception of life. They can only listen to other people's suggestions and can't solve problems without guidance. They will take the road designated by others all their lives, and don't like to be high above them and use their lives to dissipate heat.

The prosperity of a country needs all kinds of talents, and everyone's happiness needs the right to choose and the possibility of realization. Is it a good thing that our education system has been producing people who can only take exams?

In order to get into a good school, we left too many more important things behind. I often wonder: If I didn't grow up under such an education system, what would I be like now? Will I go further, fly higher and see more beautiful and magnificent scenery?

How I wish the school would give me a method, a way of thinking, the ability needed by the real society and the key to finding life. Unfortunately, my education can't be done, but at least I can choose not to let my children go through the same process, because it will be a loss of life and make them lose the fun of exploring the world.

Experimental education lies in "innovation"

Fortunately, the emergence of experimental education has made my parents' anxiety of the same idea exit.

The purpose of the three experimental education methods is to encourage educational innovation. The so-called "innovation" is to break the "inherent" and aim at breaking the traditional teaching system, so that schools have to adopt specific educational concepts and try different ways and possibilities in administration, organization, equipment, courses, teaching, admission methods, academic performance evaluation, student affairs and other matters.

There is no doubt that children in primary school must learn the basic skills of entering society. However, must the teaching method only be listening? Do you have to use paper and pencil for the ability test? In fact, the learning process can be lively and interesting, and even stimulate children's interest in further exploring knowledge. The study of basic skills is absolutely important, but there can be one hundred teaching methods. The traditional education method records everything in paper and pen. To put it bluntly, it is to let children get used to paper and pencil exams and achieve the goal of "getting into a good school". Children under experimental education still need to acquire basic abilities, but the teaching methods of the school will be more diversified, with more innovative's ideas, and even look further, leading children to develop more possibilities, not just the option of "getting into a good school".

See more stories about peace and simplicity:

Why I choose to let my children learn peace and simplicity (Part Two)

As a parent, I think the school environment is very peaceful and small. ......

Taipei Heping Experimental Primary School: the first one in the northern city, and it was a sensation before it was performed.

Heping Experimental Primary School: the first one in the North City, indicating that it will attract 1500 parents.

"This article is the author's view on cooperative innovation, not his position."