After reading The Purpose of Education, people generally think that knowledge is the source of wisdom and has the power to change fate. Mastering knowledge is like mastering life. However, this is not the case. As early as 1929, the educator Mr. Whitehead profoundly pointed out in the book "The Purpose of Education" that knowledge should be the basis for the rapid development of life, but improper knowledge learning is quite harmful to children. What inappropriate knowledge learning is harmful to children? The author believes that there are mainly the following three points:
(A) learning knowledge is rigid
The so-called rigid knowledge refers to unprincipled knowledge. This kind of knowledge is not universal and cannot help children understand life and solve problems. Learning too much rigid knowledge will make children bear a heavy burden of knowledge and their thinking become dull.
However, through observation, the author found that a lot of knowledge that children learn now is actually rigid knowledge. For example, children learn music and ask them to remember a lot of information about musicians; When I was studying art, I was asked to memorize the painting styles and representative figures of various sects; When learning Chinese, you are required to master a lot of literary common sense that has no practical significance. These rigid knowledge can't inspire any ideological vitality, and it is of little benefit to the formation of children's academic literacy.
Whitehead believes that childhood is a romantic period of intellectual development. During this period, the children were confused, overwhelmed and excited about the looming content. At this time, knowledge learning should strive to weave harmonious and colorful patterns in children's hearts. If children are allowed to remember too much rigid knowledge at this time, it will extinguish their desire to learn, break the wings of their imagination and dampen their enthusiasm for learning.
Less is more. In the romantic stage of intellectual development, letting children learn a small amount of principled knowledge will provide them with more space for independent thinking and free imagination, help them build a rich and colorful spiritual world independently, and also help them maintain their romantic feelings about learning, laying a solid foundation for later precise learning and comprehensive learning.
(2) The learning process is indoctrination.
Whitehead believes: "The human brain does not passively accept knowledge, it always takes the initiative." As an objective existence, knowledge itself is meaningless. Only by digging and using it will it glow with extraordinary brilliance. A meaningful learning process should be an inquiry process accompanied by discovery, conjecture, reasoning and verification, rather than a forced and compulsory indoctrination process.
Paulo freire pointed out in Pedagogy of the Oppressed: "The more knowledge students store, the less they can cultivate their critical consciousness of intervening in the world as world reformers." Critical consciousness is the key premise of critical occurrence. People who lose their critical consciousness will become "slaves" without independent thoughts and lose the possible opportunity to transform the world.
However, indoctrination learning not only makes children become "knowledge slaves" without critical consciousness, but also weakens their autonomous learning ability, or even almost loses it. Rousseau pointed out in Emile that education begins with the birth of life. When a child is born, he is a natural student. This fully shows that people are born with learning ability. Instilling learning will mercilessly deprive children of the opportunity to learn independently and will gradually weaken their natural learning ability. As Whitehead said, instilling accurate knowledge at a young age will stifle students' initiative and interest in learning.
The essence of indoctrination learning is to ignore the law of children's intellectual development and hurt their life growth.
(3) The learned knowledge is useless.
Whitehead discussed the application of knowledge in The Purpose of Education as follows: "Education is the art of teaching people how to use knowledge", "The importance of knowledge lies in its application and our active mastery of it-that is, wisdom". This tells us that only in the process of using knowledge can children turn knowledge into wisdom and become the power of life.
However, in the current primary and secondary schools, the phenomenon that knowledge is not used or "falsely used" is widespread. Due to the influence of exams, most children only use knowledge in their own thinking world, and present the process and results of using knowledge in the test paper. In fact, applying knowledge on paper is completely different from applying knowledge in real life. In real life, we will find that many children can get high marks in exams, but they can't solve any practical problems. For example, some children can correctly answer questions about scores in math exams, but they will not use the concept and principle of scores to solve the problem of "distribution" in their lives.
Whitehead reminded people in The Purpose of Education that "knowledge that cannot be used is quite harmful" and that "the only use of knowledge is to arm our present". Education has only one theme, and that is a colorful life. Knowledge that can't be used is lifeless knowledge, which can't resonate deeply with children's lives and make our lives rich and colorful.
Therefore, in order to make knowledge have the power to transform individual life, change the fate of life and even transform the world, as educators, we should establish a connection between children's knowledge learning and real life to avoid poisoning children by knowledge learning. Let children learn dynamic and non-rigid knowledge, and let them fully experience the surprise of mining knowledge and the excitement of using knowledge in the process of learning knowledge. Only in this way can children gain real wisdom and grow into powerful people.
Reflections on the purpose of education 2 Recently, a book about education was popular all over the country, which was edited by Whitehead, a famous British educator. In his book, he pointed out that the purpose of education is to inspire and guide students to carry out a process of self-development, and we should try our best to cultivate students to make thinking and reading a habit and learning a demand. It is also pointed out that knowledge that cannot be used and applied in life and labor is quite harmful. The core of education is not to make knowledge rigid, but to make knowledge full of vigor and vitality. This is the core problem of all educators. At the same time, education is to make students more different and different, so that every student can develop according to his own development.
Education has only one theme, which is to make students grow up healthily and happily and have a colorful life. At present, due to the educational purpose and classroom model, a large number of students in China are tired of learning, resulting in so-called "poor students" and "bad students". We didn't show the colorful life to the students, but just instilled knowledge and completely adopted the spoon-feeding teaching mode. In class, the teacher speaks and the students listen; The teacher assigns homework and the students finish it. In a limited time, squeeze all kinds of knowledge to teach them. Zheng Yefu, a professor in Peking University, compared the current situation of secondary education in China in 12 to compressed biscuits. He said, "Students' talents and abilities are uneven, and the practice of traditional education is often reinvented. In other words, students with good grades are restricted and students with poor grades are forced to study, which leads to the phenomenon of serving grades. Grades become the only measure to distinguish "excellent students" from "poor students". More importantly, in the teaching process, we only teach students the methods of solving problems and the answers to questions, not their thoughts. Just solve problems simply for the sake of solving problems, and take exams for the sake of exams. Professor Zheng Yefu's incisive exposition exposed all the problems in our education. Let's think it over. Can these contents used for exams really help students solve many problems in their lives?
In the United States, primary education offers such courses, such as how to solve contradictions, how to solve stress, how to communicate with intimate friends, how to make plans and take actions, how to appreciate the beauty of nature, how to trust your own judgment, how to tell each other clearly and so on. In addition to these basic life skills, character education courses are also provided. Such as empathy, respect, courage, humor, responsibility, perseverance, loyalty, honesty, cooperation, tolerance, civic awareness and forgiveness. These courses are invisible in our textbooks, and even our college students and graduate students need to practice. In life, all kinds of codes of conduct are actually imperceptibly influenced from a very young age, not just shouting slogans, or just paying attention to some "piano, chess and calligraphy" that are not used much in real life. In fact, many years ago, parents in China realized that they shouldn't "lose at the starting line", but what is not to lose at the starting line? Only by cultivating children's good habits, self-confidence and healthy physique, as well as interest, independent thinking and sound personality, can they really not be lost at the starting line. However, today's China is distorting its original intention. They have done many things that are completely against the interests and wishes of their children. They let their children attend various cram schools from an early age, whether they like it or not. As long as they think it is right, they will spare no effort to realize their wishes, not the wishes of children.
The purpose of education is not only to impart knowledge, but also to convey ideas, spirit and culture, that is, the power, beauty and order of ideas. In a class with good classroom discipline, students concentrate on learning the solution of quadratic equation and master the method smoothly. But what is the significance of the teacher teaching them to understand? Is this the result of education? Mastering the method of solving quadratic equations is only a process of honing the brain, not the ultimate goal of our study. So we can't turn students into learning knowledge for the sake of learning knowledge and taking exams for the sake of exams. Zheng Yefu, a professor in Peking University, strongly urged not to turn children into "examination machines".
Of course, in recent years, great changes have taken place in China's education, and the college entrance examination system has been constantly reformed. From the proposition of national unity to the proposition of provincial and municipal autonomy, many key universities have also started independent enrollment projects. Just like this year's college entrance examination in Zhejiang Province, the proposition is also open to the people of the whole province for comments. All this shows us the "progress" of education in China.
But compared with foreign education, we still have a big gap. A few years ago, an American research team sent a special team to China to investigate the current situation of education in China. After returning home, I handed in a 30,000-word paper-Don't be afraid of China, because education in China is cramming. All education revolves around the baton of college entrance examination, which completely violates the essence of education and the goal of educating people. That kind of advanced education and extra education turned naive and lively children into stupefied examination machines. However, the college entrance examination, which is ultimately considered to judge the success of "education", tests knowledge that they will never use, and these knowledge that will never be used may determine their life. However, the most basic communication skills, speech skills and basic hobbies that affect people's life are seriously lacking in the education process. Finally, the American research team concluded that China's current education system has seriously inhibited its development, so there is no need to be afraid of China at this stage.
Some time ago, a CCTV program suggested saying no to "China people crossing the road". Why has compulsory education been popularized for so many years, and university education has been open for so many years, but even the most basic rules of behavior have not been mastered? More and more China people go abroad and find that foreigners are so humble, polite and tolerant. Compared with China, on the contrary, western countries with a history of only a few hundred years look more like China with a history of 5,000 years. Just like in England, you can accept hugs and high-fives from strangers with a smile. There, there is no need to queue up by bus, because everyone humbly lets the other side get on first; There, you can tell the British that your food is rubbish, but the British replied with a graceful smile: I love Chinese food.
The focus of foreign education from kindergarten to middle school is to let students develop and innovate freely according to their own instincts. On the contrary, the teaching of knowledge is put in a secondary position. At the same time, in the teaching of knowledge, they pay more attention to inspiring and guiding students, and guide them to find answers and find them themselves. In this process, students' ability to explore and solve problems is cultivated, and their subjective initiative in learning is also cultivated. Looking at domestic education, it is to instill knowledge blindly. Students master knowledge by rote learning, but this simple rote learning method can only be used to cope with exams. For students, not all knowledge can be mastered by memory, and knowledge that is not used in practice is easy to forget.
High school and university are the key moments for students' training. In junior high school, most students are still ignorant of themselves and their self-awareness is not very clear. In high school, the rapid germination of self-personality and self-consciousness makes students more and more independent. At this time, the teacher's role is to inspire and guide, not to force students. Students should be the main body of learning, and be willing to learn, want to learn and want to learn. In this process, the role of parents is also decisive and indispensable. Calling on parents to spare some time to chat with their children, play ball, play or be a loyal listener will bring positive energy to their children's growth. Here, I appeal to all parents to turn around when they think that their children are the hope and future of the whole family and that they are actually the future of their children. Parents' behavior is imperceptibly affecting children's growth. Now "you" may be what the future "children" will look like when they grow up.
Now the whole education circle has realized the importance of students' free development and personality development. Especially in western developed countries such as Britain and America, on the curve of people's education, their professional knowledge is from sparse to intensive. In terms of ability thinking and personality cultivation, it is from secret to success.
As the saying goes, winners always try to find ways, and losers always try to find excuses; Winners immediately put their ideas into action, while losers always hesitate. All success comes from hard work. On Harvard night, the most dazzling thing is not the laughter of the dance, nor the famous brand bags and luxury sports cars of LV, but the warm lights of the 100 library. The packed library, students everywhere, and Harvard campus at two o'clock in the middle of the night are the beginning of the night; Tired students lie on Harvard lawns, corridors and benches in the morning. You can see the traces of all-night fighting last night. Passerby walk on by, no one will disturb their rest.
We all feel more responsible for every educator. Efforts to return to the origin of education need to constantly publicize and appeal to all sectors of society what the real purpose of education is. But I firmly believe that in the near future, China's education will definitely catch up with western countries and inherit our 5,000-year-old cultural history in China.
The Purpose of Education is the representative work of Whitehead, a British educator, philosopher and mathematician, which embodies a series of educational philosophy thoughts. In his book, he analyzed some basic problems related to the purpose of education with strict logic and profound philosophy. The main viewpoints came from practical experience, educational reflection and theoretical criticism. He believes that the purpose of education is to inspire and guide energetic students to develop themselves.
I am deeply touched by several statements or viewpoints in the book: one is "lazy thinking" and the other is "practicality of education".
"Idle thinking": just receiving some ideas through the brain without application, verification or organic integration with other new things. In order to be easy to understand, the book gives an example: although those smart women have little education, they have rich experience and profound cultivation, and they become the most cultivated group in society after entering middle age-the reason is that they get rid of the shackles of lazy thinking. In my opinion, lazy thinking here is not only aimed at students, but at anyone with ideology.
I want to avoid falling into "lazy thinking", which is the best and simplest way. For example, in the teaching process, I reflect on every class, every decision and action I make in class management, my words and deeds in dealing with people, and so on. In constant reflection, I find my own shortcomings and correct them in time, and at the same time make my own advantages more prominent. In reflection, I know myself and know myself.
As for students, I think most of them have this kind of thinking to varying degrees. Some students listen quietly in class and finish their homework carefully, but they can't get any results in the exam. We can't say that such a child is lazy and not diligent, because the phenomenon he showed us gives us a serious and practical feeling. For such children, we often think that they have not found the right learning method. I don't think it's easy to find a suitable learning method. The premise is that you have a correct understanding of yourself, such as your study habits and your personality characteristics. Second, teachers talk about more than simply receiving information in class. It is more important to absorb and digest information and internalize what you see and hear in class into your own things. This is real learning.
Simply blindly receiving information without thinking is as simple and mechanical as a robot completing a task according to instructions, but learning itself is not to complete a specific task. Such students may be controlled by "lazy thinking", not lazy in action, not diligent in thought, and the students themselves don't realize it, so the learning efficiency is not high and the effect can't be achieved. If they don't change their thinking in time, over time, they may be hit again and again by this seemingly disproportionate result, and then lose confidence in learning, and even become simple-minded and reckless people. So in class and after class, I often tell students to use their brains and think more. They not only ask themselves to reflect, but also often remind students to reflect on their study and life.
The other is "the practicality of education". He thinks that education should be useful, but it is wrong for people to hide what they have learned from education without using it. The book also says that "understanding is tolerance", which means that the purpose of education should be to serve students' experience, discovery and application in life, not to be divorced from life. If the knowledge acquired is not practical and can't solve the problems in thought and life, then such learning is meaningless and can be said to be a waste of time. This reminds me that the reason why we oppose and prevent students from reading those romantic martial arts novels and cartoons is because these things are illusory and have no practical value, so we advocate "good reading", that is, reading books with ideological connotation and practical significance.
In addition, combine the subjects you teach, don't give lectures in textbooks, and correctly inspire and guide students to closely link textbook knowledge with real life. Only by studying in this way can we vividly learn the knowledge in textbooks, highlight the necessity and importance of learning textbook knowledge, and mobilize students' initiative.
In any case, theoretical guidance is always inseparable from personal practice. On the road of teachers, I need to act boldly and constantly enrich and improve myself under the guidance of these correct ideas!