Education is an awakening. That's not what I said. German educator Spange said: "The core of education is the awakening of personality and soul. The ultimate goal of education is not to teach what you already have, but to induce people's creativity and awaken people's life consciousness and value. "
I quite agree with this view. As Rilke said in "Ten Letters to a Young Poet": "Please go into your heart, explore the reason why you were asked to write, and see if its roots are in your heart; You have to confess that if you can't write it, you will die of it. That's all that matters. Ask yourself in the quietest moment of the night: Do I have to write? You have to dig a heart answer in your heart. " What we do as teachers is to awaken students and guide them to "dig a profound answer in their own hearts".
I wonder if you have heard this story: a TV reporter interviewed a little boy who was herding sheep. The little boy said that he herded sheep to make money by selling them. After earning money, he can marry a daughter-in-law, marry a daughter-in-law and have children. When the child grows up, he tends sheep. After the program was broadcast, a city boy 14 years old with excellent academic performance felt bored and committed suicide.
Yes, every age has its neurosis and needs its psychotherapy. The sexual frustration in Freud's era and the inferiority complex in Adelaide's era are more or less present in today's students, including us, but the main shadow is something called the void of existence.
A junior high school student wrote to the column "Fangfang has an appointment" in the junior high school world: "At school, I am surrounded by classmates who are as miserable as me. We don't know what else to do, and neither do I. My best classmate told me one day that he really didn't want to live, and I was scared. "
Reflecting on our education, it is not difficult to find that we only care about what students "learn", learning literature, mathematics, foreign languages, politics, history, physics ... There are several or more subjects in a study; Only care about students "how to learn", copy and recite, do exams ... musical instruments one after another; But they seldom care about students' "why to learn" and "for whom to learn". In a word, the source of students' learning motivation is far from being really solved. Without solving the problem of power source, establishing students' dominant position, giving full play to students' dominant role, stimulating students' creative thinking and enhancing students' innovative consciousness will all be empty talk.
Austrian psychiatrist Dr. Frank often asks patients in great pain: "Why don't you kill yourself?" The patient's answer can usually provide him with clues to treatment. For example, some are for children, some are because a talent has yet to be developed, and some may just be to preserve a precious and unforgettable memory. Using these delicate filaments, we can weave meaning and responsibility for a sad person and find "enrichment"-this is his "logotherapy".
I think, in order to make students no longer empty and find enrichment, can our education also have some "logotherapy method"? This kind of treatment is actually an awakening.
Yes, learning is hard work for most people, but some people turn it into fun, that is, find the meaning of learning. As Nietzsche said, "People who know why they are alive can endure almost any pain."
The following two letters are my communication with a strange student. I think it better confirms the above point of view. The girl walked out of the predicament, successfully admitted to a local four-star ordinary high school, and then admitted to the university.
Teacher Yuan:
Hello! I am a girl in grade three. Now that the senior high school entrance examination is approaching, I am timid. Once upon a time, before entering the first grade, teachers always said that the third grade was fast. At that time, we always felt that the third day was so far away. In addition, when I was a freshman and a sophomore, my grades were always upstream. Since I entered the third grade, my grades began to decline, and the advantages of my original grades completely disappeared. I'm really scared. I'm afraid I can't get into high school. I am really sad to see the wrinkles on my parents' faces deepen one by one and the white hair grow out bit by bit. They have taken care of me day after day for more than ten years, not only for this year's hard work and high flying, but I have let them down again and again. I took the exam again and again, and my grades plummeted. I wanted to take action, but I chickened out. I'm at a loss. I gave up on myself. Seeing their parents smiling all day, I feel so small and sad that I really want to leave. Is life really to suffer? I feel burdened by living, but I don't want to be sorry for my parents. If I want to leave, I have to pay them back first. There are only more than 20 days before the senior high school entrance examination. I don't know if there is any chance to enter the third year of high school. After all, for our rural children, being admitted to high school and university is the only way out. But now, I can only get a little score in the language that I am most sure of getting a high score. I really don't know what to do. I'm afraid to talk to my teachers because I'm afraid they will look down on me. Because my grades are poor. Then I thought of Mr. Yuan. Although I don't know you, I think you are very kind in the photo. I want to give Yi Meier to you. But I don't have a computer at home. I know you taught in our school, so you are close. What should I do if there are only 20 days? How can we live up to our parents' expectations? Please give me some advice!
Xiaomei, a girl waiting for a miracle in sadness.
Xiaomei:
Hello! I have just returned to Suzhou from a business trip for a few days, so when I receive your letter and start to reply, it may be a few days later than you expected. Please understand and forgive me.
First of all, I want to thank you for your trust in me. On the back of the envelope, you wrote: "A sad and desperate girl/waiting for the enlightenment of the soul/I send you hope/I hope to get rid of my heart knot/a distant girl/waiting for the bell of hope/I tell you the truth/I hope to spend this moment bravely ..." These words made me feel the heavy burden on my thin shoulders and the heavy responsibility I should bear in life.
Speaking of the important task in life, I think of a person, who was the first person who touched China in 2005-Hong Zhanhui, a 23-year-old student from Huaihua University in Hunan Province. When Hong Zhanhui 12 years old graduated from primary school, his father with intermittent mental illness found an abandoned baby, and his mother had no choice but to run away from home because she couldn't stand the poverty at home. For more than ten years, Hong Zhanhui took her sister to study, took care of her sick father, worked odd jobs to earn money, and suffered a lot, but she remained indomitable and optimistic. "My sister has a life, and I have a responsibility to cherish it; Society has life, and we have the responsibility to make society warm. " Hong Zhanhui's ordinary words reflect his extraordinary spirit of self-improvement and let us understand what "responsibility" is. Responsibility begins at birth and ends at death, and will accompany us all our lives. Responsibility guides us to do good and forbids us to do bad things. Responsibility makes us know how to cherish ourselves, let us go out of the family to help others, and let us integrate into society to create a better future. Why do people live? How can I live a meaningful life? How can I make my life more fulfilling? These are all questions that each of us will think about. Hong Zhanhui told us the answer with his own actions: Only when people are responsible for society and others can they show their value and dignity, get respect from others, and make their lives more substantial and meaningful.
Xiaomei, the first sentence I read in your letter is "responsibility". It is not that it is my duty to help you-needless to say-but that you reveal a sense of responsibility and responsibility for your family and parents between the lines, which makes me very moved and appreciated. In your letter, you said, "I am really sad to see the wrinkles on my parents' faces deepening one by one and the white hair growing a little." They have taken care of me day after day for more than ten years, not only for me to fight hard and fly high in this year. " "I feel that I have a burden to live, but I don't want to be sorry for my parents. If I want to leave, I have to pay them back first. " That's right, "the kindness of dripping water is rewarded with a spring" and "but how much love there is in an inch of grass, it is rewarded with three rays of spring". When we recite these ancient poems and sayings in the exam, it is equivalent to giving points, but we often can't write a few simplest words in action: love and return! Today, many of our only children have grown up with the doting of their parents and elders. They have never had a sense of repayment, let alone the practice of repayment. Indifference and self-righteousness have replaced love. In their view, everything adults, especially parents, have done for him is justified, and there is no need to thank him, let alone repay him. A family revolves around him, just like the earth revolves around the sun, which is a "natural law". He can buy the best ice cream, regardless of his parents' hard-earned money; You can also buy instant noodles that you don't want to eat in order to collect the small cards of Shuihu 108; You can even buy several boxes of mineral water showers in the crowded night in the bathroom ... and throw away all the meals carefully prepared by your parents to get angry! Bi Shumin, a contemporary female writer, wrote that we have every reason to believe that every sincere and upright child has made a big wish of "filial piety" to his parents. He believes that time will be abundant, will come naturally, will return to his hometown when he succeeds, will do his filial piety calmly, and will return calmly. It's a pity that they forget, forget the cruelty of time, forget the brevity of life, forget that there is still kindness in the world that can never be repaid, and forget the fragility of life itself. And you, the sensible Xiaomei, are obviously different from them. You think that the fastest return, the best return and the most practical return are to be admitted to high school, college and fly high ... You said: "After all, for our rural children, being admitted to high school and college is the only way out. "I noticed that the envelope you sent me is the envelope of China Insurance Co., Ltd. and China Ping An Life Insurance Company of China Insurance Company-maybe your father or mother is in insurance? You may feel the value of this reward better from their busy and hard work all day. ?
Admitted to high school, admitted to college, flying high ... this is of course a way to repay, and I believe this is also the ardent expectation of your parents, but what I want to say is that this is not the only way. Here, I don't want to discuss with you too much about "whether going to college is the only way out" and "what's the difference between a diploma and a level", but I want to tell you that there is far more than one opportunity to seek knowledge, learn, make progress and make progress. According to my understanding of education in Suzhou, especially in Zhangjiagang, high schools have basically been popularized. In other words, you should be able to pass the senior high school entrance examination and go to a middle school. This is a middle school, whether it is a vocational high school or an ordinary high school. Judging from the admission situation in recent years, about half of them can go to ordinary high schools and the other half can go to vocational high schools. Admitted to an ordinary high school is certainly much closer to your wish, but I think it is not necessarily a bad thing to be admitted to a vocational high school. At present, the country is vigorously developing vocational and technical education, and the spring of vocational education has arrived. In this spring, no one can stop a flower, even a nameless flower. There are many vocational technical schools in Suzhou, and their graduates have a good employment situation; On the contrary, there are many college students in the country who can't find jobs now. Therefore, blue-collar or white-collar workers, everything is actually in the process of self-realization; Whether it is employment or entrepreneurship, everything is actually in your own grasp of the future. Even if you get a diploma, you don't just have to go to college to get it.
Recently, in Chudiwen Primary School of Taicang New Education Experimental School, Chen Zhenhang, a pupil in Class 4, Grade 6, who is only 12 years old, successfully completed all subjects of Jiangsu Higher Education Self-taught Examination and obtained the graduation certificate of Higher Education Self-taught Examination, which is what we usually call graduation certificate. Started in 2004. That year, Chen Zhenhang's father was applying for a master's degree in law from Nanjing University. Looking at the pile of legal books on his father's desk, Xiao Zhenhang suddenly became interested and flipped through them. Unexpectedly, he was attracted by legal terms and read hungrily. Xiao Zhenhang told his father that he also wanted to study law. Dad encouraged him to take the self-taught exam. Report it. Xiao Zhenhang really signed up for two professional courses: legal history and civil law. Therefore, in the following days, Xiao Zhenhang lost the concepts of rest days and winter and summer vacations. Every day, after finishing the homework assigned by the teacher, he will spend an hour or two reading law books, as well as during the Spring Festival. If he didn't understand, he asked his father. Sometimes, I have an argument with my father because of different views. Three months later, I passed both courses, and my grades were not bad, with 77 points in legal history and 79 points in civil law. Xiao Zhenhang is more confident. The following year, he applied for other courses one after another and finally passed. In all 14 courses, he got 90 points in international law, 80 points in the principle of Marxist philosophy, and even 77 points in the very difficult college Chinese! In the self-taught examination for more than ten months, Xiao Zhenhang also encountered setbacks, and he passed the law examination three times in a row. He only got 47 points in the first exam. He's a little depressed. Encouraged by his father, he applied for the second time. However, due to difficult questions and improper learning methods, his score in the second exam was only 46 points, which was even lower than the first one. But he was not discouraged, summed up the experience and lessons seriously, worked harder than before, read books and did problems over and over again. Everything comes to him who waits, and he persists in creating miracles in the end. In the third exam in April this year, he finally got 72 points, which cleared the last obstacle for getting the diploma.
A pupil can get a higher education diploma through unremitting efforts. As an ambitious person with ideals and pursuits, are you afraid of no chance? Opportunities always favor those who are prepared. Maybe sometimes she will be late, but please believe that she will come as long as you work hard for it. I don't know if you have noticed that Hong Zhanhui and Xiao Zhenhang have one thing in common, that is, as long as they look for the truth and goals, they will make unremitting efforts, fail, get up, hold their heads high and straighten up ... They have the resilience of life.
Xiaomei, in your letter, what worries me most are these words: "I flinched again, I was at a loss, I gave up on myself ... I felt so small, so sad that I wanted to walk away ..." These words can be summarized as one word, that is, "give up". Let's take a look at what athletes you and I are familiar with think about the word "give up"-in the 2004 Olympic Games, Liu Xiang, a flying man from China, tied the world record of 1 10 meter hurdles, which had been silent for many years, and broke the black monopoly barrier of men's short track. After the 2005 World Championships, he rarely participated in the competition because of injury, and did not officially return until the Osaka Track and Field Grand Prix during May Day. After three consecutive championships, the reporter asked him: "Have you ever thought about giving up in your sports career?" He replied, "Of course, I thought about giving up. Injuries and psychological withdrawal in training made me want to give up, but now that I am a professional athlete, I think I must continue. This is a sportsmanship. " The reporter asked again: "What is the sportsmanship that can stimulate your potential most in the sports field?" He replied: "Stick to the end, never give up, dare to challenge and surpass yourself." Yes, "stick to the end, never give up, dare to challenge and surpass ourselves" is not only a kind of sports spirit, but also a kind of spirit for us to face life. Especially for life, it should never give up, that is, when death comes, we must fight tenaciously! Please remember that for each of us, without life, everything has no foundation; Give up life, give up the foundation of existence! The first rule of life morality is to be kind to life. Be kind to other people's lives and to your own. Being kind to life is also, no, a responsibility! The greatest sin in the world is to deprive innocent people of their lives.
You said, "When I was a freshman and a sophomore, my grades were always upstream. Since I entered the third grade, my grades began to decline, and the advantages of my original grades completely disappeared. I am really afraid that I can't get into high school. " "Now, I am most sure that I can only get a little point in the language with high scores. I really don't know what to do." Indeed, the study in grade three is very tense and there are many exams. In a sense, every exam is also a competition of strength. It is also the call of honor and the expectation of applause. There are only 20 days before the senior high school entrance examination. Now let's see if your learning goals are clear, your interest in learning is growing, your learning will is tough and strong, your learning foundation is solid, and your learning methods are correct and effective ... It seems a little late. But what I want to say is that you should remember such a learning inequality: "state" is far greater than "method" and "method" is far greater than "effort"! What is needed now is to check your status. This state also includes your state of mind. A great man once said, "Either you control life, or life controls you." Your mentality determines who is the mount and who is the jockey. "Indeed, mentality is your real master. Never let your mind fall into the habit of "black and white, either one or the other" or "disastrous psychological filtering." Either white or black, either this or that "means that everything goes from one extreme to the other." If a situation is not perfect, it is considered a complete failure. "I didn't go to high school, which means I have no chance to go to college, which means my life is over. "It is this kind of mistake." Catastrophic psychological filtering means always picking out the negative factors of an event, exaggerating irrelevantly, and thinking the problem in the worst direction. Even the language you are best at is not dominant, and the senior high school entrance examination is definitely hopeless! "It is this kind of mistake. This mentality will make you feel anxious about the exam, and it is easy for you to feel uneasy in the examination room, produce redundant actions, answer questions at will, and even sit there with a blank mind. ...
So, now, please do some relaxation often: take a deep breath-take a deep breath and then take a deep breath to take away the tension; Meditation-imagine a pleasant scene or a pleasant landscape; Relax muscles-give yourself relaxation instructions, from hands, shoulders, head and neck to chest, abdomen, arms and feet; Hint at yourself-resolutely put an end to the use of words such as "miserable", "finished" and "terrible", and say silently before going to bed every day: "As long as I try my best, I will have no regrets!" At the same time, find an opportunity to chat with your parents and teachers and tell them-in fact, you are also in a hurry, so that your parents and teachers can understand your mind and state; In fact, you need their encouragement, as long as you pay, you will get something; In fact, you need their help, care and guidance. Emerson once said, "When God created everything, he left flaws in everything." This sentence makes us feel inadequate and humble, but it also encourages us. In the process of growing up, don't expect too much from yourself (including others), or even impose perfectionism on yourself (including others), which will cause mental burden on yourself and even push yourself to the shadow of failure. We should draw a new portrait of ourselves from time to time, truly understand ourselves and accept ourselves completely. ?
If you need some direct guidance in your study, then in these few 20 days, I suggest you: first, you should have your own review plan. Be specific and clear. Don't learn where you are, or go to the place pointed by the teacher, not to mention the place pointed by the teacher. You can't get there yourself and spend nothing every day. Second, concentrate in class. Teachers' teaching in the last stage is very important, that is, combing knowledge, checking leaks and filling vacancies. It is necessary to consolidate knowledge, develop intelligence and improve ability in effective classroom time. Third, practice exams. Use the exams organized by teachers or their own simulated exams to get yourself into the state of senior high school entrance examination, from the adjustment of mentality and the mastery of emotions to the filling of answer sheets and the neat writing of test papers. I want to remind you that your writing skills are good and your handwriting is ok, but your handwriting can be more neat and bigger. Punctuation marks, especially periods, should be written in a standardized way, not as dots in foreign languages.
Xiaomei, the senior high school entrance examination is certainly a pass in life, but it is not the only pass. Before this level, you feel stressed. It's a good thing that you came to talk to me. Because you expressed it, they evaporate from the pot like steam-put a small pot cover tightly on the fire, and the force generated by the explosion will destroy the whole house; But if you let the steam evaporate, when the water in the pot boils, it is like singing happily! You should sing! As long as you work hard, you are you, and you are Xiao Mei who is worthy of yourself, your parents and all of us! ?
-I hope to hear the news that you walked out of the examination room with a smile, and I hope that you will walk through every day of your life with a smile.
Your big friend? Yuan
Late at night on Children's Day in 2006