Good education must be human education, that is, human education and human subjectivity education, not some functional education. Generally speaking, education enables people to have certain abilities, such as exam-taking ability, work ability, even interpersonal communication ability, leadership and so on. We just give our children a kind of ability through education, which is what many of us understand about education. But my understanding of education is that education makes people more perfect and powerful, enriches people's emotions and makes people more rational. I think such a subjective and perfect education is a good education.
The Book of Songs is a collection of ancient folk poems, with a total of 305 articles, which were compiled by Confucius and others. You will be asked to fill in the blanks during the exam. Be sure to fill in the blanks correctly. If you fill in the blanks incorrectly, you won't get any marks. But the book of songs really gives people a feeling, giving people inner edification and enjoyment. Confucius wanted to change a person by teaching The Book of Songs. He gave us four words: "Xing, Guan, Qun and Complain"-with feelings; Have observation and judgment; A sense of responsibility and responsibility; Have the spirit of independent thinking. The four spirits of "prosperity, outlook, group and resentment" are the subjectivity of people I just talked about. Confucius said, "Poetry can be appreciated, impressive, gathered and resentful." "Xing", explained by Mr. Bao, is awakening, that is, to awaken a person through education, make his heart full of vitality, generate motivation to do things, set up lofty ideals, aspirations and ambitions, and cultivate his feelings for home and country. This is the first function-not the first function of the Book of Songs, but the first function of education.
What is "view"? "View" means reading, you should be able to read widely, you should be able to understand the achievements in art and human cultural history, and you should improve your reading comprehension ability. This is the connotation of "view". "Group" means that you should have a sense of social responsibility and group consciousness, and have the spirit of being responsible for the community and the country. This is the connotation of "group". You not only solve problems for yourself, but also solve problems for everyone! "Resentment" means critical thinking and independent thinking. You will have some different views on reality, and through education, you can express these different views appropriately. "Xing" is to awaken people's vitality, let a person have feelings, let him open his spiritual world and interact with the outside world. When I face this world, something in this world evokes a certain emotion that I must express in my heart. This is "Xing".
At present, we lack the awakening of the child's own vitality, which has not made him feel that life should be vigorous. What does this "lively splash" mean? For example, it's like a fish just fished out of the water. You throw it on the ground, and it floats on the ground. This vitality needs to be awakened in a special environment. For example, our school and our society constantly enrich his life through education in different environments.
How did Confucius awaken a person? How does Confucius make a person full of vitality? For example, why do you want to read The Book of Songs? Confucius didn't ask them to know the Book of Songs. The Book of Songs is just a tool, and Confucius wants them to acquire a certain life, individual and quality of life through the Book of Songs. He explained it with four words: "Xing, Guan, Qun and Yuan".
He hoped that his disciples would often discuss problems with him, so as to cultivate their observation ability and make them thoughtful. I once said that only thoughts can find essence in facts.
For example, Zi Gong asked Confucius: Teacher, can you give me a sentence that I will pursue all my life without making mistakes? "Who can walk all his life in one sentence?" Do you know how difficult this topic is? If you don't give me a word, I will do it at this moment, and I can't make any mistakes. In fact, what does this topic require? Is to let all people in all time and space, according to this word, can not make mistakes. As a student, Zi Gong can ask the teacher such questions. We can see that Confucius' education is an education in which teachers and students inspire and learn from each other.
What is the difference between The Analects of Confucius and Mencius? Why is The Analects more important? Teacher Bao said that it doesn't matter if the names of Mencius students are exchanged, such as Zhang Wan and Gong Sunchou. Because you know nothing about the appearance and personality of each of them. Each of them appeared in Mencius just to ask a question and set off the glorious image of Mencius, but they did not have personality characteristics themselves. But Confucius' students have distinct personalities, and everyone is different. You will build feelings and identify with them. Because Yan Hui is a schoolmaster; Because Luz is very brave ... Everyone has a different personality. More than a dozen disciples of Confucius have distinct personalities. This is reflected in an Analects of Confucius.
What are the two major missions of education? The first mission is to inherit and develop human culture and pass on the traditional culture in human history from generation to generation. This is the most essential and primitive mission of education in human history. "Inheriting culture" here is not to let you remember the knowledge of culture, but to educate people through culture. Without inheriting human culture, human behavior cannot be civilized. So people are not only the product of physiology, but also the product of history. Our way of thinking and soul are inhabited by the ancients and Confucius. If you ask a child who hasn't read The Analects: Do you want to be a villain or a gentleman? He will definitely choose to be a gentleman rather than a villain. This is because the ancients and Confucius lived in his soul. So where do these values come from? It is through education that civilization is transformed into people's souls and thoughts. This is the first mission of education. Why do I count it as the first mission? Because the earliest human education is like this.
What is the second mission of education? Is to inherit and develop human technology and expand the boundaries of human knowledge. This is related to knowledge and technology. Let's see where the focus of today's education is. The second level is to expand the boundaries of knowledge. We hope that children can remember more knowledge, and that there will be more scholars, experts and scientists in the future, who can expand the boundary of human cognition, increase new knowledge, push forward new technology, create a better material life and improve the physical space of human life. The importance of this mission is self-evident, others can see and touch it, and so can our education.
Confucius has a kind heart, so let's all have a kind heart. Confucius buried dogs in his later years. In The Story of Confucius' Family, an old dog of Confucius' family died in his later years. Confucius was very old at that time. According to the record of this story, I guess Yan Hui is dead, and Lutz was not there at that time, because Lutz and Yan Hui are one year apart. At this time, among the more reliable classmates around him, only one child is left to pay tribute. Zigong is very powerful. I think he can be compared with the richest man in China at that time, and he was the most outstanding diplomat at that time. An old dog of Confucius died. Confucius said to Zigong, You took out my dog and buried it. Then Confucius told him to wrap it up when burying it, not to bury it directly in the soil, nor to bury its head directly in the soil. Then Confucius also talked about the civilized attitude towards animals in the history of China. Confucius will even have a class on this matter. He said that the ancients buried horses with old curtains and wrapped them with curtains. The dog and the hood are buried together. Maybe the hood is upside down and the dog is put on it. He said, I don't have a car and a roof now. Take my mat. He asked Zigong to take a cushion and roll up the dog, and then repeatedly told Zigong not to let the dog's head be buried directly in the soil. This is such a detail. You can see how soft a person's heart is. So I just said that the education of culture is the education of soul, and the education of scientific and technological knowledge is the education of hands. Hand education can make you more practical, and cultural education can make your mind soft, warm and compassionate. As you just said, Confucius asked Zigong to bury dogs, and Zigong would be deeply affected.
This is education. Therefore, the two major missions of education are cultural inheritance and skill inheritance. The second question is about the way to be a teacher, that is, what teachers can do. What do you think teachers can do? I think especially in today's era, teachers play a leading role. In the era of Confucius, teachers may also have the responsibility to impart knowledge, because there were not many channels and carriers for knowledge dissemination at that time. Let's give the simplest example. At school today, the teacher was holding a textbook, and so were the students. In the era of Confucius' teaching, it was impossible to do this. For example, when Confucius taught the Book of Songs, it was impossible for every student to have a copy of the Book of Songs. Because the Book of Songs was written with bamboo slips at that time, if all the students brought a Book of Songs to class, there wouldn't be much room for it. Moreover, the cost of the book of songs is very high, and it is impossible for everyone to have one. In the different versions of ancient books we see today, why are some words similar in pronunciation but different in text? Why are there so many interchangeable words? The main reason is the teaching method of "teachers tell and students remember". Therefore, in the era of Confucius, teachers may have more leading and imparting functions in knowledge.
But in today's era, there are too many channels to spread knowledge-for example, studying in Fan Deng is a great channel to spread knowledge-if a teacher is only teaching students knowledge, the teacher will be eliminated. So, what is the more important role played by teachers? Is to guide students to make value judgments. What kind of talents does Confucius think can be teachers? Is a person who can "review the past and learn the new". The general understanding of "reviewing the past and learning the new" is to master old knowledge and new knowledge. Actually, it's not like this. "Reviewing the past and learning the new" can be said to emphasize knowledge, while "learning the new" does not emphasize knowledge. "Knowing the new" means being able to make an appropriate judgment on the endless new events in this world. So the meaning of Confucius' sentence is that only people with knowledge and judgment can be teachers. Just like Confucius' students asked Confucius if they could give him a word to pursue all his life and not make mistakes. If a student asks you, "Teacher, how do you judge a recent incident?" Teachers should be able to judge what is happening at the moment. The teacher's point of view is not necessarily right, but the starting point of the teacher's logic, values and values must be right. Teachers should ask themselves: Can I do it? What is my logic? What is my starting point of value? It is very important for a teacher to have such ability. So in today's era, we put forward more requirements for teachers. In this respect, Confucius did a good job at that time.
In fact, once a child is awakened, he will learn technology and specific knowledge faster than adults. When children are young, they don't have to learn Tang poetry. They don't have to start with poetry, or even poetry. They should start with the most classic and essential things. You put forward the concept that some books are called classics and some books are called Yuan Dian. What's the difference between classics and Yuan Dian? First of all, there are many classics, which can appear in different periods. Today, if a great novelist writes a novel that can be handed down, it is also called a classic. For example, in 2022, a writer suddenly wrote a book, which has reached a high level and can be passed down all the time, so it is called a classic. However, Yuan Dian can only appear in a specific period, not in this era. "Yuan" has its origin and original meaning. The source of a certain culture or a certain pioneering work is called Yuan Dian. I have a definition of Yuan Dian. Jaspers of Germany (German existentialist philosopher in the 20th century) talked about the origin of human civilization and the axis era. Generally speaking, Yuan Dian mainly appeared in the Axial Age, which is an era of great breakthrough in human spirit and cognition. There is a big explosion in the material world and a big explosion in the spiritual world, such as the ancient Greek period in the west and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China, which are the spiritual explosions of the human spiritual world. The works that appeared in that era were called Yuan Dian. What is Yuan Dian? To this day, the meta-point defines our thinking mode, behavior mode and our values. All our values today, as well as the starting point of thinking and logic, come from those ancient books, so I call them Yuan Dian. We have been explaining the meta-point, which means accumulation and development. Who told you that teachers only teach students what they are interested in? Teachers should cultivate students' legitimate interests-interests that affect students' future life development.
Seven books-The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, University, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi and Six Ancestors' Altar Classic. Children can read seven books in their spare time from grade two to grade five. Today, traditional culture is regarded as a useful supplement, that is, "study literature when you have spare capacity". You must deal with these things in class first, and then learn some traditional culture. Education must take traditional cultural classics as the basic educational resources. That's what I said before. The mission of education is to inherit culture and nourish children's hearts with traditional culture, which is what education must do.
The goal of a paper should not be 100, but 80. I calculated an account at that time, for example, we asked the student to recognize 100 words and got 100 points in the exam, which means he must not be wrong in every word. This is a form of test paper called 100. There is also a form of test paper called 80 points. For example, we give students 200 words and ask them to remember 80%, which is 160 words. Which form do you think is more difficult? From the perspective of human cognition, it is much easier for us to acquire more knowledge through a large cardinality than to master knowledge through a small cardinality of 100%, which is a basic common sense of cognitive psychology. So 100 words, 100% can read and write, compared with 200 words, 80% can read and write, the latter is a little easier. What is the result of 100? The result is that even if you master all of them, you will know 100 words, which is basically impossible. This is the basic teaching principle, but many of us who do research today don't understand this truth.
There is a more important problem. Why can't our students think independently? Because he dare not think for himself. Why can't you think for yourself? Because you asked him to take 100. If he wants to get a score of 100, what he wants to do most is not to express his independent opinion, but not to make mistakes. If we allow him to make mistakes, he will dare to think independently. Why is our passing score 60 instead of 100? Many people don't understand it, and think it may be because it is impossible for every student to get 100. I said that there may be such a reason. There are 40 students in a class, and it is impossible for everyone to get 100, so if 100 is used as the passing line, many people will fail. But more importantly, when we set 60 points as the passing line, it is equivalent to giving the student a 40-point chance to make mistakes, so that his thinking will be active and he will be more courageous and dare to put forward independent opinions. Therefore, the learning orientation of teaching materials is very important, and it cannot be positioned as 100, but only as 80 at most. This also involves the difference between knowledge and culture. Teacher Bao also said in the book that no one is blind in knowledge. It is normal to mispronounce a word, use a wrong allusion or say a wrong name. People's minds often short-circuit. Many people take pleasure in finding fault with other people's intellectual mistakes, which is particularly boring. In fact, when we do education, if we overemphasize the accuracy of such things, it is really possible to ignore the core things. It is very possible to ignore the critical thinking we just talked about, the activity and independence of children's thinking, and the independent thinking of children, so that their spiritual courage and exploration courage to make bold and prudent judgments are gone. Therefore, I think our test paper must give children a broader room for mistakes.
The third question is what is quality? There are two points: knowledge is not quality, and skill is not quality. Knowledge and skills help to improve people's comprehensive quality, but they are not quality in themselves. This goes back to what I just said. Our education is the construction of the whole person's subjectivity. We don't have to play music, the key is whether we can appreciate the music and be moved by it. So is literature. We don't all have to be writers, and we don't all have to write a dream of red mansions ourselves. The key is whether you can read a dream of red mansions. Writing a dream of red mansions may be a literary specialty, and being able to appreciate and understand a dream of red mansions is a manifestation of quality. I can understand that Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu can enter their hearts, and even enter the state of mind when Cao Xueqin wrote A Dream of Red Mansions-"Hualin is full of sad fog", which is called literariness. And creativity is a professional skill. A typical example is that it doesn't matter if you can't make a computer or a TV. The division of labor in this world will become more and more complicated, and many things do not need to be done by ourselves. What we have to do is not to solve all kinds of problems in life, nor to create all kinds of things needed in life through our own ability. What we want is a powerful and perfect subject to face everything in the world. Do you have a TV? I can handle it. Do you have a dream of red mansions? I can read it. If you say that a person is particularly good as a whole and has a particularly high realm, everyone will not see it. My major is communication. Everyone judges whether something can be imitated or learned by what they can see. For example, if you can play the piano, I can tell; You can listen to the piano, so I can't see Although you don't think knowledge is that important, everyone's admiration for you comes from your knowledge reserve. How do you explain this? In The Family of Confucius, why did Sima Qian spend a long section writing that Confucius could answer all kinds of strange questions of the parties? Just because of what you said, judging from other people's cognition of ordinary people, if you want others to think that you are great, it depends on what you can show.
Confucius was called a saint before his death, which is different from the reason why we call Confucius a saint today. Confucius was called a saint before his death, mainly because he had much knowledge, so Confucius was under great pressure. For example, he stayed in Lu Qufu City. Every morning, when he opened the door, he saw two people sitting outside, Wei Guo and Chen Guolai. They camped for several months just to ask Confucius a question. If Confucius can't answer, it is a fatal thing. So Sima Qian recorded that Confucius knew everything and all the questions were answered. So Confucius himself realized that many people thought he was powerful because of his knowledge. Confucius specifically raised this question. One day, he said to his student Zi Gong, Do you think I have more knowledge? His original words were: "Do women care about those who know more for learning?" "Learn more" is written down as knowledge. Zi Gong listened and said: Yes, you just learned a lot of knowledge, so we all admire you and worship you as a teacher. Then Confucius said, "No". Give consistently. "He said, no, I have judgment. So judgment is a person's core ability. We just talked about knowledge. I don't think that more knowledge means higher quality. It's not that you don't need basic knowledge Knowledge is very important. This is the boundary of this world. Where your knowledge goes, the boundaries of your world go. So the world boundary between people with more knowledge and people with less knowledge is different. From this perspective, knowledge is really important. But you have to consider another factor: human life is limited, and we can't expand our knowledge indefinitely. If we understand learning knowledge as expanding the width of life, then the width of our life is infinite, and we can't compete in infinity. There is also a height called life, and height is human judgment. So I have always felt that the most important quality of a person is not his breadth of knowledge, but his high judgment and spirit. But the cultivation of these things depends on what you say about Yuan Dian. To some extent, The Original Code does not provide us with knowledge. We read The Analects of Confucius today, and many people made it well-read. Just like the Book of Songs we just talked about, we also turned the Analects of Confucius into a fill-in-the-blank question. For example, the teacher told the students that The Analects of Confucius was the recorded works of Confucius' disciples and his disciples. The knowledge of "recording style" can be turned into fill-in-the-blank questions. In this way, The Analects of Confucius is learned.
Another example is Confucius' main thought "benevolence"-benevolence of benevolence, which belongs to the concept of value rather than knowledge. But today's exam has turned it into a concept of knowledge. Ask the students to explain the concept of this noun. In fact, "benevolence" is not a knowledge concept, but a value concept. When Confucius discussed "benevolence" with his disciples in The Analects of Confucius, he never defined it. Students asked Confucius what "benevolence" meant, and Confucius gave us different answers. Why is it different? Because Confucius is not defining. If we define it, Confucius' answer must be the same, because the definition is definite and clear. How can it be different? But Confucius gave different answers to everyone, which actually implied that what he called "benevolence, loyalty, righteousness, faithfulness and honesty" was not a concept of knowledge, but a concept of value. Knowledge is necessary, but simple knowledge accumulation is not quality. Skills are also important, but quality is not the accumulation of skills. From the perspective of education, skills and knowledge are very important if we need some knowledge and skills to show our spiritual height in the future. But what is the problem? It depends on whether you have such a high spiritual level to show it. For example, playing the piano is not just a skill. When you play, the piano can reflect your understanding of music, this piece of music and even the whole life through this piece. Why is clayderman playing the same piano music different from Lang Lang? Can we use the computer to pop up the same thing? Computers can make absolute technical perfection, but why does everyone play differently? Why can't you reach that height? If you don't read many books, you don't have a thorough understanding of life, no compassion for the world, no love, no such thing, and no matter how you play, you can't reach that height. Because skills are just a means to show spiritual height, if you don't have spiritual height, then your means have nothing to show.
The quality that Confucius said is the "sex, management, group and yuan" that we discussed earlier. If a person has feelings, judgment, responsibility and independent thinking ability, do you think he is a high-quality person? If there are two students, one can be rich and strong, optimistic, group and resentful, and the other can learn to play piano, ballet, taekwondo and calligraphy, which one do you think is qualified? Who do you think is truly trustworthy? As far as his life is concerned, which is more likely to have a better life
Wang Yong, the author of "The Ferry Man of Life", the younger brother who delivered the courier. He is not particularly outstanding in technical level, but he can shoulder such a big task when the crisis comes. That kind of emotion, ability, judgment and organization is what you call "excitement, prospect, group, resentment". In fact, quality is "can you recite things in the future?" Even if you know so many skills, can you carry things? You play the piano well, and so do Taekwondo. Can you handle things? After family affairs, state affairs, and community affairs happen, can you bear them, and do you have the will and ability to bear them? This is called quality.
Mencius' "Four Hearts" can also explain what quality is-"compassion, shame, right and wrong, resignation". People have "four hearts", and "compassion" means compassion and compassion; "Shame and evil heart" refers to whether you know right and wrong, justice and right and wrong; "the heart of resignation" means whether you know humility; The "heart of right and wrong" is whether you can judge good and evil. I think this is called quality.
What is Yuan Dian? Yuan Dian is the starting point of our thinking, behavior and thinking today. Therefore, sometimes after we return to the Yuan Dynasty, you may unconsciously touch many problems in our reality, or even solve them.
The ideal education is what human education looks like in its initial state. "Education once had noble contents and beautiful forms", and I think these two points add up to my ideal education.
What is "noble content"? Just don't make education too utilitarian and practical. Can you guide students to think more about some metaphysical problems? Some people may think that thinking about metaphysical problems is to make students not face reality. Actually, it's not. On the contrary, thinking about metaphysical problems can cultivate his ability to reflect on reality, raise his spirit to a certain height, and let him overlook and see through life from a height. "Noble content" does not mean that we discuss some elegant issues, but whether we can get rid of some particularly practical, utilitarian and instrumental education and carry out more education to cultivate people's own thinking ability. This is the noble content. Utility education is not bad, and life needs utility. For example, at the moment, I am tired of talking and drinking water. This is called utilitarianism. But the problem is that these things are just the bottom line in our lives, and they do not represent the height of our lives, let alone the ideal realm that we ultimately pursue in our lives. Therefore, education must first have "noble content". Plato's college also teaches geometry, and its teaching core may be mathematics, but they teach mathematics not to let you cope with exams, nor to let you measure land and do financial calculations. They teach mathematics in order to make your mind have thinking ability, build a framework and give you the ability to think abstractly. The purpose of learning now is to give your hands some abilities, and "noble content" can make your mind have stronger thinking ability.
The ideal state of education is not the result of every step, but the question is whether you have worked hard towards this ideal state. It is not for you to achieve this goal as much as possible, but for you to exert all your abilities as much as possible and work hard in this direction to make our education better and better. Children have their own logic of self-growth, and what we have to do is to give him a more relaxed space. What used to make you tired and anxious is actually not important or necessary for your child's growth. So what we have to do now is: in the face of "double reduction", relax our mentality and face it calmly. Let children read more books and form a family reading atmosphere at home. Reading must be in form, and you can't read without form. The reason why an activity can last is bound by an external form, which promotes, supervises or constrains each other invisibly. So I told my parents that we must find a family reading model. Don't dwell on your child's exam results all the time. I don't think it matters. What matters is whether you have developed his reading habit, which I think is the most important.
Even the future senior high school entrance examination and college entrance examination may be different. The future senior high school entrance examination and college entrance examination may test children's reading ability, thinking ability, cognitive ability to the world and emotional richness. Even if you don't take these exams in the future, if your child has this ability, you can still get high marks in the face of such questions. More importantly, with this ability, children can not only pass exams, but also pass life.