A person who has read my book "On pedantry" told me at my home one day that I should talk about children's education. However, madam, if I have this gift, I'd better dedicate it to your soon-to-be-born boy (you are a Nanyang aristocrat, and your first child can't be a boy). Because I have always been your loyal servant, it is my duty to wish you all the best. And I also actively promoted your marriage, so I have the right to pay attention to the prosperity of your family. However, on the other hand, educating and raising children is the most important and difficult knowledge for human beings.
Just like farming, ploughing before sowing is reliable and simple, and sowing is not difficult, but once the sown seeds have life, they will have various ways of tending and encounter various difficulties; People, too, have no ability to sow, but once they are born, they should be educated and cared for in every possible way to keep them busy and afraid.
When people are young, what hobbies are still tender and fragile, bright and dark, and the future is still uncertain, so it is difficult to make a reliable judgment.
Look at Simon, Themistocles and many others, how far their actions are from their own nature. The offspring of bears and dogs always show their natural tendency, while people quickly succumb to customs, prejudices and laws and easily change and dress themselves up.
However, it is very difficult to force children to do things beyond their nature. People often spend a lot of time tirelessly training their children to do things they don't want to do, because they choose the wrong path and the result is in vain. However, since it is so difficult to educate children, I think we should guide them to do the best and most beneficial things, and don't be too involved in speculating and predicting their development. Even Plato seems to give children a lot of power in his Republic.
Madam, knowledge gives people gorgeous decorations and is an incredible tool to serve people, especially for people who are extremely rich and educated like you. To tell the truth, knowledge is useless in humble hands. It prides itself not on helping people to establish arguments, defend complaints or prescribe medicines, but on helping to guide wars, command people or win the friendship of princes or countries. Madam, you come from a literary family and have tasted the sweetness of education. I believe you won't forget your education. Therefore, I just want to talk about your views on this issue, which is incompatible with customary practice. This is all I can do for you.
What kind of person you choose as your son's tutor determines the effect of his education. The tutor's accusation involves many other aspects, so I won't say it, because I know I can't say it well. In this article, I want to give some advice to teachers. The more reasonable he feels, the more he will believe me. As a noble child, learning knowledge is not for profit (this purpose is humble and unworthy of the favor of the muse. Besides, whether you are interested depends on others, not on yourself), not to adapt to the outside world, but to enrich yourself and decorate your heart; It is not to cultivate learned people, but to cultivate capable people. So I hope I can pay more attention to finding a teacher with more brains than knowledge for my children. If I can have both, so much the better. If not, I'd rather be virtuous and have good judgment than choose a knowledgeable person. I hope he can educate his children in a new way.
Second, education is not to cultivate fools with books on their backs.
People keep pouring things into our ears, just like pouring them into a funnel. Our task is just parroting. I hope your child's teacher will change his ways. When he takes office, he should be tested according to his intelligence, teach him to appreciate, identify and choose things independently, sometimes lead him forward, and sometimes let him cut through difficulties. A teacher should not think alone, speak alone and listen to his students. Socrates and later Asilous asked the students to speak first, and then they said. "The authority of the teacher is not conducive to students' learning part of the time. "
Teachers should let students trot in front of him in order to judge their speed and decide how to slow down to adapt to the students' level. If the speed of teachers and students does not adapt, things will get worse. Being good at choosing the right level and getting the same speed is the most difficult thing I know. A noble and discerning person should be good at condescending to children's pace and guiding them. For me, going uphill is more stable and practical than going downhill.
Usually, no matter how different students' abilities and habits are, the courses and methods are the same. Therefore, it is not surprising that among a large number of students, few people can achieve anything.
Teachers ask students not only to say which words they have learned, but also to say their meanings and essence. When evaluating students' grades, it is not how much they remember, but whether they can survive. After a student has just finished learning new knowledge, the teacher should follow Plato's teaching method, let him draw inferences and practice repeatedly to see if he really masters it and becomes his own thing. What you swallow, you spit it out, which is a sign of raw swallowing and indigestion. If the intestines and stomach don't change the appearance and shape of what they swallow, it won't work.
Our thoughts are at the mercy of others' thoughts in vain, enslaved and bound by others' thoughts. We have a rope around our neck, so we walk heavily and lose our vitality and freedom. "They can't control themselves." I visited a learned man privately in Pisa, Italy, but he regarded Aristotle as a god. The most general one of his creeds is that to measure the reliability and authenticity of a theory, it depends on whether it conforms to Aristotle's theory, otherwise it is fantasy and fantasy. He thinks Aristotle is well-informed and his theory is all-encompassing. His creed was misinterpreted, so he got into trouble and was investigated by the Roman Inquisition for a long time.
If a teacher asks his students to choose carefully what they have learned, instead of arbitrarily and vainly asking him to remember everything, then Aristotle's principles, like those of Stoicism and Epicurus, are not simple principles for him. If all kinds of opinions are put forward for him to judge, then if he can distinguish, he will make a difference, if not, he will also question.
& gt I like doubt and I like affirmation. -Dante
Because, if students can master Xenophon and Plato's views through thinking, it is no longer their views, but his own. People who follow others actually follow nothing. He will get nothing, even he doesn't want anything. "We are not ruled by any king, and everyone has the right to control himself." Students should at least know what they know. We should use the views of those philosophers instead of reciting their dogmas. If he wants, he should forget where those doctrines came from, but he should turn them into his own. Truth and reason are shared by all. Whoever said it first and then, whether Plato said it or I said it, it was no longer a pod or oregano. Similarly, students borrow other people's chapters and make their own works after processing and synthesis, which is their own opinion. His education, his work and his study are all aimed at forming his own opinions.
Where did he get help? He can hide it and only show the results. Generally, people who copy and borrow just show off the houses they have built and the goods they have bought, rather than what they have learned from others. You can't see the gift the judge received. You only saw him win in-laws and honors for his children. No one will attribute his income to the public, but only say that the property he has acquired is his own.
Through study, we become more perfect and smarter. This is the harvest of learning.
Ebinur Camous said that only understanding can see and hear. It uses everything, dominates everything and affects everything in King's Landing: everything else is deaf, blind and soulless. Naturally, because we don't give us the freedom to understand and act, it becomes passive and timid towards Nuo Nuo. Who ever asked his students to talk about Cicero's motto or the rhetoric and grammar of that? People pour these feathered aphorisms into our minds as oracles, and every letter and syllable constitutes the essence of things. Memorizing doesn't mean knowing, but storing what others have said in memory. If you really know something, you must be able to use it. You don't have to listen to the teacher or read a book. It is a pity that the talent gained by dead endorsement. I hope this talent is just for decoration, not as a foundation. This is Plato's point of view. He said that firmness, faith and sincerity are the real philosophy, and all knowledge that has nothing to do with them is an ornament.
People improve their judgment through contact with the world, so as to keep attention to things. Each of us is confined to ourselves, short-sighted and only sees what is under our noses. When someone asked Socrates where he came from, he didn't say "Athenian", but answered "from all over the world". His imagination is richer and deeper than ours. He regards the universe as his hometown, puts his knowledge into all mankind, loves all mankind and associates with all mankind, unlike what we only pay attention to under our noses. When the vineyards in my hometown were frozen, my pastor concluded that it was God who would be angry with mankind, and asserted that barbarians were so hungry and anxious. Seeing that our civil war is fierce, who doesn't shout that the world has been disrupted and the day of final judgment has arrived? They don't want to think that worse things often happen, but in many parts of the world, people still live happily. And I, although the war is unbridled and I do whatever I want, I am surprised to see that they are gentle and powerless. Some people get hail on their heads and think that the storm has swept half the world. Henry Etienne, a Sava, can't imagine anyone greater than his master, the Duke. Any of us may make similar mistakes unconsciously, resulting in serious consequences and losses. However, only when we see the picturesque majestic image of nature, observe the ever-changing changes from our mother's face and find that not only ourselves, but the whole kingdom is like a beautiful dot, can we make a correct judgment on the size of things.
The world is a mirror, and we should look in the mirror to know ourselves correctly. Some people classify it to make it more colorful. In a word, I hope the world is a textbook for my students. It contains all kinds of characteristics, sects, opinions, opinions, laws and customs, which can teach us to judge ourselves correctly and find out what the shortcomings and congenital defects of our judgment are: this is not easy to learn. Seeing that the country has gone through vicissitudes of life and its fate is ill-fated, it teaches us that we can go down in history by capturing ten hussars and a chicken coop-like fortification, and then we will find how ridiculous this idea is. Seeing how many foreign countries are proud of their luxury and how many imperial courts are proud of their majesty, our eyes will be tempered and we can stare at our dazzling luxury. How many people have been buried underground before us, which makes us more courageous and not afraid to go to another world to find a mentor. And so on.
Pythagoras said that life is like a huge and complicated Olympic Games. Take it there to sell. Some people exercise there in order to win honor in the competition, while others go there with goods to sell money. Others-not the worst-just stand by and observe how and why everything is going, and how others live, so as to make judgments and adjust their lives.
When we teach children how to make themselves smarter and better, we can teach them logic, physics, geometry and rhetoric. His judgment has been cultivated and he will soon be able to master his chosen subjects. The way of teaching can sometimes be through chatting and sometimes through explaining books; The teacher can ask him to read excerpts from authors related to his courses, or explain the spiritual essence in detail. If the child's reading ability is not very strong and he can't find the wonderful exposition in the book, the teacher can choose some writers for him purposefully and provide different materials for his students according to different needs. Who can doubt that this teaching method is easier and more natural than the mixed method? When teaching, try to talk about obscure and boring principles and empty and boring words. There is nothing meaningful that can inspire intelligence. Some things can be understood and absorbed in the way I said. The fruit produced in this way must be huge and more mature.
For this reason, I don't want people to treat your child as a prisoner, and I don't want to teach him to a moody and moody teacher. I don't want to corrupt his mind and make him study 14, 15 hours every day like other children, and suffer like a porter. If he is withdrawn or gloomy, too addicted to books, people know that he is too careless but still tolerate it. I think this is very inappropriate and will make children lose interest in social life and better recreation. I have seen many people of my generation blindly greedy for knowledge and eventually become stupid and stupid.
Third, children should exercise their brains and muscles.
We should not only exercise their minds, but also their muscles. If the brain is not supported by muscles, it will be overwhelmed to undertake double tasks alone. I have a deep understanding. My body is delicate and sensitive. How hard does my mind have to work to withstand the pressure of my body? I often find in my books that when my teachers talk about nobility and bravery, they often admire the steel-like body. I have met some men, women and children who are born strong. For them, being hit by a stick is like being bounced by a finger, silent and frowning. Competitors compete with philosophers for endurance, which is more about physical strength than brains. However, getting used to hard work means getting used to suffering: "Labor can grind out painful cocoons." It is necessary to train children to bear hardships and stand hard work, and let them endure dislocation, colic, burns, imprisonment and torture. It is hard to say that they will not suffer from prison and torture. Sometimes, good people are imprisoned and tortured like bad people. We must stand the test. Some people have no laws and threaten decent people with whips and ropes.
Besides, teachers should have supreme authority over children, and if parents are present, they will be interrupted and hindered. In addition, in my opinion, it is not good for children to be spoiled by their parents or to know that their family is a rich and powerful aristocratic family from an early age.
When cultivating communication skills, I often find that there is a shortcoming: we always try our best to show ourselves and sell our products instead of getting to know others and learning new knowledge. Silence and humility are conducive to communication with others. When your child is talented, we should educate him not to show off his wealth; Don't frown when you hear other people's nonsense, because it is impolite and annoying to frown when you hear words that are not to your taste. It is necessary to educate children to pay attention to their own self-cultivation, and there is no need to blame what others refuse, nor to be out of tune with customs. "If you are a saint, you should not show off your knowledge and arrogance." Children should be taught to be polite, not to be good teachers, not to be ambitious since childhood, not to be smarter than others in order to impress others, and not to gain fame by pointing fingers and being unconventional. Only great poets can be unique in art. Similarly, only great and outstanding tasks can set aside tradition and be unique. "Even if there is a Socrates and Ali stipe who are far away from habits and traditions, people can't follow in their footsteps. They are talented and different, so they may be unique. " Children should be taught to express their opinions or arguments only when they are in diamond cut diamond. Even so, don't show all the tricks, just use the best for him. We should teach him to be good at choosing his own arguments, and reason to the point, so we should be concise. We should teach him to surrender as soon as he finds the truth, whether it comes from the other side or slightly modifies it from his own point of view. Because he didn't speak on stage and said some prescribed lines. Don't be bound by any reason, unless you agree with it, and don't use political party money to buy freedom of regret. "He doesn't have to defend the prescribed point of view."
Only reason can guide children's words to shine with the light of conscience and morality. Teach him to understand that when he finds that his argument is wrong, even if others don't, he should openly admit that this is a sign of honesty and strong judgment, which are the important qualities he seeks; He should also know that insisting on or denying mistakes is the quality of mediocrity, which is more obvious in the more humble people; He should know that it is a rare quality for a philosopher to correct his point of view, correct his mistakes and give up a wrong decision halfway.
I want to tell my children that when they are with others, they should look at all directions and listen to all directions, because I find that the most important position is often occupied by mediocre people, and no amount of wealth does not mean outstanding talent.
When people at the dinner table talked about how gorgeous tapestries are and how delicious Maldivian wines are, I heard an interesting conversation on the other end of the phone.
He wants to test the value of everyone: cowherd, bricklayer, passerby. We should mobilize everything and learn from the strengths of others, because everything is useful, even the stupidity and shortcomings of others are not without educational significance to him. By observing everyone's manners, he will envy proper manners and despise bad gestures.
We should cultivate his curiosity about everything, and he should see all the strange things around him: a house, a spring, a person, an ancient battlefield, the passage of Caesar or Charlemagne;
What land will freeze, what land will be dusty in the hot sun, and what wind will bring sailboats to Italy. -Prupes
Teachers should not only teach students to admire virtue, but also teach him to admire love, so that virtue and love are full of his wishes. He will tell him that poets always follow the universal characteristics and regard love as the eternal theme. The gods of Olympus are more willing to sweat on the road to Venus than Athena. When the child begins to have self-awareness, he will introduce Bradaman or Angerik to him as a mistress: a person's beauty is generous, active and generous, not male but full of masculinity; The beauty of the other is weak, artificial, exquisite and unnatural. One is wearing a boy's clothes and a shiny helmet; The other wore a girl's costume and a bonnet decorated with pearls. If his choice is contrary to Phrygia's feminine shepherd, then he will think that his love is masculine. The teacher will give him a new lesson to make him understand that the value and nobility of true virtue lies in simplicity, practicality and pleasure. It is far from difficulties, whether children or adults, simple-minded, alert, as soon as they learn. Virtue uses rules, not coercion. Socrates, its first darling, deliberately gave up coercion, but gradually acquired virtue naturally, easily and gradually. It is like a mother, feeding human happiness with milk: when it makes happiness reasonable, it also makes them real and pure; If you control your happiness, you will make them refreshed and happy; If it loses the happiness it refuses to accept, it will make us more interested in the rest; It leaves us all the happiness that our nature needs, and it is rich, so that we can enjoy motherly care to the fullest until we are satisfied or even bored (maybe we don't want to say that diet control is the enemy of happiness, so that drinkers can stop chewing before their stomachs turn sour and sluts can stop chewing before they lose their hair).
Gade lacks the usual good fate, so he simply avoids or gives up and chooses another fate that belongs to him completely, instead of vacillating and changing. It is good at becoming rich, strong and knowledgeable, sleeping on a mattress smoked with musk. It loves life, beauty, honor and health. But its unique mission is to be good at using these wealth legally and lose them at any time: this mission is not so hard as noble. Without it, any described process will be abnormal, turbulent and ugly, with only reefs, thorns and deformed monsters. If this student is special, he likes to listen to the teacher telling anecdotes instead of telling a pleasant trip or wise suggestions; If his partner is excited to hear the drumming, but he can't resist the temptation of street performers and watch their performances instead; If he thinks it is meaningless to return home in triumph, he hopes to make a sensation in playing ball or dancing; If so, I can't help but persuade his teacher to strangle him early when no one is present, or let him go to the city to make cakes, even if he is the son of the duke, because according to Plato's teaching, children should rely on their own skills rather than their father's property to find jobs in society in the future.
Therefore, there is no doubt that our children are as outspoken and idle as other children. However, just like walking in a gallery, we won't feel tired if we walk three times more than going to the designated place. Similarly, our courses seem to be what we say when we meet, regardless of time and place, and will be carried out unconsciously. Even games and activities, such as running, fighting, music, dancing, hunting, riding, practicing weapons and so on. , will also be an important part of learning. I hope that while shaping the child's mind, we should also cultivate him to behave appropriately, be good at dealing with the world and be healthy. What we create is not a mind or a body, but a person. We should not separate the mind from the body. As Plato said, we can't just cultivate one of them and ignore the other. We should treat each other equally, just like two horses tied to the same pole. From Plato's words, we can feel that he did not give more time and attention to physical exercise, but thought that body and mind were equally important, not the other way around.
In addition, the education of children should be strict and gentle, rather than following the convention. In that way, instead of encouraging children to study, they feel that reading is terrible and cruel.
I don't advocate violence and coercion. I don't think there is anything like violence and coercion that will make children mentally degraded and dizzy. If you want to make your child feel ashamed and afraid of punishment, don't make him numb. To exercise him, he is not afraid of sweat, cold, strong wind and scorching sun, and despises all dangers; Teach him not to be picky about food, clothing, housing and transportation, but to adapt to everything. I hope he is not a beautiful and weak boy, but a strong and lively little boy. I have always thought so, whether it is childhood, adulthood or old age. However, what I am most dissatisfied with is the management style of most of our schools. Joining can be more tolerant, and children may be less hurt. This school is a complete children's prison. People punish children until they go crazy. You can go to school and have a look: you will only hear children begging for mercy and husbands yelling. The children were so delicate and timid, but in order to arouse their curiosity, Mr. Wang held a wicker whip in his hand and kept a terrible face, forcing them to bury themselves in their studies. What is the practice? Isn't this extremely unfair and dangerous? On this issue, I can also quote quintilian's point of view: he clearly noticed that teachers' arbitrary power, especially corporal punishment of children, would only bring dangerous consequences. Supposedly, their classroom should be covered with flowers and green leaves, not bloody wicker whip! I want to make the classroom full of joy, incarnation and elegant laughter, just like the philosopher pipes did in his school. The place where they harvest should also be the place where they play. Good things for children should be soaked in sugar water, and harmful things should be full of bitterness.