The reason for dissatisfaction and criticism is that people's educational needs have not been met. Here, I assume that people's educational needs are parents' educational needs about their children-in real life, children's choice of education is more influenced by parents' wishes. The needs of parents represent the needs of children.
As far as children's education is concerned, what needs do parents have? No matter what social class parents are in, it is certain that, firstly, parents all over the world want their children to live as long as possible. Longevity means health; Secondly, parents all over the world want their children to be safe and happy all their lives. Peace and happiness means that there is no disaster in life, and children can overcome it even if they encounter difficulties. After all, parents will leave one day, and children will eventually have to face the hardships of life independently, which requires mental health, optimism and strength; Finally, parents all over the world want their children to be good people and do the right thing. No one will teach their children to be bad people and do bad things. Historically, even bandits and underworld leaders must let their children receive the best education and live a normal life. These three requirements are basic requirements, and all other requirements are derived from basic requirements, which can be called "derived requirements". For example, "getting ahead" is a derivative demand. People with lower social and economic status usually want their children to get ahead. But what is it for to get ahead? Or to meet three basic needs. For those parents who have received higher education and improved their socio-economic status, "getting ahead" is no longer their educational demand goal. It doesn't matter whether a child can go to Tsinghua of Peking University-after all, not many people can go to Tsinghua of Peking University-but parents always want their children to be physically and mentally healthy, receive a good education and live a stable and happy life in the future.
It is not easy to meet these three seemingly simple needs. Frankly speaking, if we measure the current education by this standard, none of us have achieved it. Physically, today's children are surrounded by endless homework and endless training classes, and have little time to exercise, let alone develop the habit of outdoor sports. Physical education class in school, for various reasons, its strength and physical challenge are greatly reduced. The phenomenon of "bean sprouts", which attracted much attention in the 1980s, can be seen almost everywhere now. The age of students wearing glasses is advancing, the proportion is rising, and their physical fitness is declining. Psychologically speaking, today's children are extremely vulnerable to pressure, can only accept success, can't accept a little frustration and failure, take extreme actions when they are slightly dissatisfied, and lack the skills and ability to communicate effectively with others; From the point of view of values, under the powerful baton effect, this effect is based on the results of the college entrance examination (excellent courses). Schools are constantly instilling knowledge into students and training examination skills, and the education of values is actually marginalized, even going to the opposite side-providing distorted and wrong values. Walking into the classroom, my eyes are full of murderous slogans-"Give a point, kill a thousand people", "Give me a shoulder if you can hold it, give me a shoulder if you can't hold it", "Take an examination of Gao Fushuai, play the second generation of officials", and so on, which is shocking. We send our children to school to get a good education, not to let them master a lot of exam skills, to be promoted and rich by hook or by crook, and then "kill" those who stand in their way when they are dissatisfied.
More seriously, this highly competitive selection mechanism has deeply eroded the body of education. It artificially divides the student groups into two categories: one is 10% students with good test scores; The other is 90% students with poor exam results. The criterion for judging whether the exam results are good or not is that students can enter the university level after graduating from high school. Why is the ratio 1:9? Because there are about 6.5438+million high school graduates in China every year, among them, about 6.5438+09 million candidates can enter 985 colleges and universities, and 540,000 candidates can enter 265.438+065.438+0 colleges and universities, adding up to about 730,000 people, which is exactly 65.438+00% of the total number of high school graduates. This 10% student gained a further advantage in the job market competition after four years, which led to a great difference in the wages of college graduates at different levels in the labor market, thus forcing society, families and schools to pay more attention to this 10% student. As some scholars pointed out sharply, 90% of students become "accompanying students" in fact.
From the sociological point of view, the phenomenon of "accompanying students" may have two serious social consequences: First, 90% of students have become the "silent majority". They may be in opposition, contradiction or even conflict with 10% minority students. Because they think that their disadvantage is due to 10% ethnic minorities. In the later life, with the gradual expansion of the education level of the two groups, the gap between them will become deeper and deeper, which may lead to the division or even fracture of social classes. Second, 90% of the students have the mentality of "nothing to do with me". Because they have been at a disadvantage in the competition of test scores for a long time, and have not found their advantages in other fields, 90% of students gradually accumulate emotions such as anxiety, frustration, disappointment, lack of self-confidence and distrust, thinking that it is impossible to change their unfavorable situation and they are not happy, and then they doubt or even reject any educational reform measures, thinking that this has nothing to do with me. In recent years, I have visited some middle schools with so-called low education quality, mainly because the number of people admitted to key universities is small. I have noticed that this feeling of "nothing to do with me" is spreading among teachers and students. If effective measures cannot be taken to guide them, this group abandonment mentality will have a far-reaching adverse impact on social development.
Many people blame society for the problems in the field of education and think that the whole social environment is out of order. As a part of society, how can education be immune to it? I think it's an evasion of responsibility. It is true that in the process of transforming from a planned economy system to a market economy system, because the old system has not been completely broken and the new system has not been fully formed, all kinds of chaos and even chaos will inevitably occur in society, but we cannot take it for granted that we are doing nothing. On the contrary, the more floating population, the more education shows its irreplaceable unique value. Historically, Britain in the18th century and the United States in the early19th century also experienced social chaos when money worship prevailed. However, relying on the efforts of the school system and dedicated educators, they constantly cultivated "natural aristocrats" with noble character and strong physique, and gradually established a good social credit system, which successfully reversed the deterioration of the social environment, just like reversing it. During the Spring and Autumn Period in China more than 2,000 years ago, there was a social chaos in which "the ceremony collapsed and the music was bad". However, with the unremitting efforts of generations of educators such as Confucius, China's context finally continued. On the contrary, the ancient Roman Empire in its heyday was unable to resist the decadent, decadent and extravagant social erosion because of the collective abandonment of the education department, and eventually collapsed, with profound lessons. Education is the conscience of society. As long as this conscience is not bad, society will develop in a good direction.
Today, more and more parents in China send their children to the United States in the hope that they can receive a good education. As we all know, the essence of American education comes from the wisdom of China's ancient education-we just throw it away now. For example, many people appreciate that children under the American education system can develop their own nature to the maximum extent. In fact, isn't this Confucius' thought of "teaching without class"-everyone has his own glory and should be educated. For another example, many people talk about the "heuristic" of American education and criticize the "indoctrination" of China education. In fact, Confucius never instilled so-called "knowledge" into his students, so Yan Yuan lamented in shame that "Confucius is so charming!" For another example, many people think that American schools have great freedom, while China schools have little autonomy in running schools. In fact, Lao Tzu has long said that "governing a big country is like cooking small fresh food". Instead of tossing and turning like frying small fish, "doing nothing" is the best effect.
Perhaps we are losing the most precious essence of China's ancient education-value education. For ancient China people, the purpose of literacy was never to acquire knowledge, but to "show virtue". Before 13 years old, the child had read all the classics he wanted to read in his life. In his later years, with the increase of experience and rich life experience, he will constantly engrave his words in his mind and turn them into the needs of real life, so as to "respect heaven and fear people", know right and wrong, and know that "the day is high and the moon is full, and he wants to eat." In ancient times, scholars studied piano, chess, calligraphy and painting in order to cultivate sentiment, cultivate sentiment and pursue show-off skills, which even prostitutes disdained to do. Therefore, Xia Zi said, "Although there are trails, there must be considerable people." Stay away from the mud, but also a gentleman. "But in the current education, students have mastered a lot of knowledge and can speak fluent English (excellent courses), but they have abandoned the spirit and belief behind the words; Children shuttle from one art skill training class to another, but they lack a basic appreciation of beauty and art. In fact, if they don't have correct values and don't know the truth of being a man, what's the use of learning so much knowledge and art skills?
What is a good education? In my opinion, an education that can meet the educational needs of parents about their children is a good education: an education that can help children develop the habit of outdoor sports and have a strong body is a good education; Education that can make children have an optimistic and positive attitude and bravely face all kinds of setbacks and disappointments in life is a good education; Education that enables children to distinguish right from wrong and know the bottom line of being a man and doing things is a good education. It is not difficult to meet these simple needs, as long as teachers have a heart of loving children and treat other people's children as their own. The most important thing is that the reform of the examination enrollment system should be supported and guided, so that those students who have received a good education instead of receiving large-scale repeated training can enter their ideal universities. By doing this, we can meet the educational needs of children at home. Why send children across the ocean to receive "other people's education"?