Ten years ago, as a farmer, I entered the basic education industry in a daze. Although I recited several concepts and laws about pedagogy in college, what is education? What is the purpose of education? How should we educate teenagers? These issues related to the nature of education and the state of basic education in China have not been seriously studied and carefully considered. Today, ten years later, on the road of basic education, after countless groping, trekking, careful observation, careful research and in-depth thinking, I gradually realized the true meaning of education.
Any problem related to the essence of the concept will come down to a philosophical problem, and so will education. When we think about what education is in the essential sense, we will definitely move towards philosophical thinking. What exactly is education? Educators and philosophers at all times and all over the world have made wonderful expositions. For example, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said: "Education is not indoctrination, but awakening"; Indian philosopher Krishnamurti said: "Education is emancipating the mind", and German philosopher Jaspers even said what education is in poetic language. He said: "Education is a tree shaking another tree, a cloud pushing another cloud, and a soul awakening another soul." Dewey, an American psychologist, clearly pointed out that life is education. No matter how philosophers understand and express education, I think, as educators, we must realize that education is not simply to teach students (especially teenagers) knowledge, but to teach students how to become a person, a capitalized person, an interesting person, a sentient, righteous and warm person. Education is a cause concerning the human soul. We should lead people's soul to be noble rather than humble, lead people's thinking to pursue truth rather than trivial, increase people's belief and strength in self-kindness, and cultivate people's eyes to discover beauty, appreciate beautiful hearts and cultivate beautiful talents through education. In a word, I think education is to cultivate people's noble mind and practical ability of seeking truth, being kind and loving beauty.
What I said above is what I think is the "Tao" of education, and it is the ultimate value pursuit that haunts all educational behaviors, educational contents and educational methods. Since education is to cultivate people's spirit of pursuing truth and kindness, it is to discover beauty, appreciate beauty and create beauty. Then the purpose of all our educational actions is to cultivate and shape people. As Whitehead, a British philosopher, said, "Students are flesh and blood, and the purpose of education is to inspire and guide their self-development." We run the school better and concentrate young people on learning knowledge at school. The purpose is to guide children to discover themselves, develop themselves and improve themselves through education. Not to get good grades. We teach children to learn knowledge only as a means, and human development is the purpose. This is in line with the view that "man is the purpose" put forward by the German philosopher Kant. From this perspective, we will find many strange educational situations, such as putting the cart before the horse and turning left and right upside down. Have you noticed how many children's curiosity has been obliterated by the school and how many children's inquiry nature has been suppressed? Have you found that too few children brush questions day and night in order to get good grades in the exam? After the college entrance examination, they not only don't love the books that accompany them day and night, but have an inexplicable hatred. School was originally a place to teach people to learn, but it has become a nightmare for most children. Books, originally the ladder of human progress, have become a heavy shackle that destroys students' body and mind. A few years ago, the college entrance examination approached, and every few days, it broke out on the Internet that high school students in many places tore up the review materials and then threw them upstairs, making them look like a goddess, euphemistically called decompression. In this case, how much emotion, how much sadness, how much helplessness. We can't help asking: Is this kind of education an education in the eyes of others? There are even more incredible things in basic education. For example, after the results of the senior high school entrance examination and college entrance examination come out every year, schools and places are posting "good news" in various forms, and the words are similar. They first compliment their superiors, then find out all kinds of online rates, promotion rates and online numbers, and brag about it. Finally, I hope all teachers and students will continue to work hard, roll up their sleeves and work hard, and make great achievements next year. Every time I see such "good news", I am not "happy" at all. How can students' test scores become the capital of the school to show off, and it is difficult for students to learn only exams in your school? To say the least, has your school trained these students who can take exams, as well as those who have poor grades? How did you train them? ? Moreover, I think that students with good test scores are not trained by schools at all. They are first determined by genes, followed by good behavior habits, thinking habits and study habits. He can get good grades in your school, and so can other schools. If good grades can be cultivated, why not cultivate all the students in your school to get good grades? When I ask these seemingly tricky questions, I find that some common phenomena in the field of education are really so weird. These educational phenomena and practices run counter to the purpose of education.
Then how can we follow the path of education? I think we can start from the following three aspects.
First of all, I want to make an analogy. I think education is agriculture, not industry.
? Education is a slow art, as the saying goes, "It takes ten years to plant trees and a hundred years to educate people". Education should be like farmers planting crops, sowing at the right time, fertilizing and watering at the right time, and then waiting for crops to sprout, heading, blossom and bear fruit at their own pace. Because every life has its own life rhythm and growth law, people only follow its growth law, and once they act rashly, the result will be counterproductive. The same is true of education, which faces a large number of the most complex individuals in the world-people, especially teenagers, whose body and mind are amorphous. However, our education must not train people according to the mode of mass production and standardized operation like the production of industrial products. Every life is born different, and every life has its own growth rhythm. If we follow a unified model and unified standards, we will definitely distinguish who is a good product and who is a defective product. Education must not be reduced to this tool that divides people into three categories. In my opinion, every life deserves respect, and every soul has the right to become noble through education.
Second, education should not only face the whole, but also pay attention to the individual. It is necessary to develop in an all-round way and respect differences.
In my opinion, a good education must be universal and open to all, so that all children can receive education and be open to all students. As Confucius said, "there is no class in education", no matter rich or poor, no matter high or low, everyone has the right to receive education. Education must not be reduced to the monopoly resources of some privileged people, because education is related to the future of a country and the whole nation. As Martin Luther said, "The future of a country lies not in the wealth of the national treasury, the firmness of castles or the splendor of public facilities, but in the civilized quality of citizens, that is, people's education, knowledge, enlightenment and character. This is the power at stake. " However, it is not enough for education to only do this. Education should face the individual and be responsible for the life growth of each individual. A good education is not a cold number, but a concern for temperature. Educators should go deep into each student's heart and find a development model suitable for each child. This is what Confucius called "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude". We propose that education should cultivate people with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor. This is both appropriate and correct, but we should also deeply realize that people are different and must be different. The world is rich and colorful because of the existence of different people, but everyone is a special individual and deserves respect. We demand all-round development, not all-round average, but respect for students' individual differences. I firmly believe that there are no students who can't teach well, but our requirements and evaluation criteria are different. As Einstein said, "If you judge a fish's ability by whether it can climb a tree, you will think it is stupid all your life." In reality, those students who are regarded as poor students in school just don't fit our current evaluation standard of foot education, if education can be more tolerant and tolerant.
Third, education should lay the foundation for students' future and be responsible for their present.
? Education, especially basic education, should face the future and lay the foundation for students' lifelong development. Adolescent students are very flexible. What kind of education you give them will make them what kind of people they are. This requires our basic education to have a long-term vision, not only to teach young people the necessary professional knowledge, but also to cultivate children to become a harmonious development person. As Einstein said, "It is not enough to educate people with professional knowledge. Through professional education, he can become a useful machine, but he can't become a harmonious person. Let students understand the value and have warm feelings, which is the most basic. He must make a clear distinction between beauty and moral goodness. Otherwise, he and his professional knowledge are like a well-educated dog, not like a harmonious development person. " However, don't mistakenly think that students in the period of basic education only study to win a bright future, or even simply think that learning is to get into a good university. In fact, children are developing children, and childhood is the best time in a person's life. The age full of fantasy and childlike interest is the golden age, and childhood is not to prepare for adulthood. Childhood has its own value. But in reality, we almost completely ignore this point. Some schools and teachers try their best to increase students' homework, so that students can study mechanically, repeatedly, excessively and in advance, which makes children miserable. Have you found out how many children's myopia lenses are getting thicker and thicker, how many children's schoolbags are getting heavier and heavier, and how many children's physical fitness is getting worse and worse? Many children can do their homework until midnight even in the first and second grades of primary school. Is it really good for children's life development to write so much homework? Trapped in front of the desk day and night, the child lost many opportunities to call friends, lost many whimsical time, and reduced the fun of childhood. As American writer neil Pozmann said, children's childhood is fading away.
In my opinion, a good education should not only lay a foundation for students' lifelong development, but also provide students (especially primary school students) with a healthy and happy environment and guidance in line with the pace of childhood life. Schools (especially primary schools) should become a paradise for students' growth rather than a playground for their academic achievements. The classroom should be an exhibition hall for students' childlike interest and creativity rather than a burial place for their imagination. Teachers should be the patron saint of students' curiosity rather than the maker of homework. In primary school, every student's life can bloom in the present, instead of studying hard and getting high marks to prepare for a good university.
Education should face the future, but for every specific student, the future is unknown. In today's society, all kinds of technologies are changing with each passing day, and the speed of knowledge updating is extremely fast. It is a question mark that what a child has learned today will be of much use in entering the society in 20 or 30 years. Therefore, in my opinion, a good education is not to teach students much knowledge, but to awaken children's nature and cultivate their lifelong useful character.
In the past ten years, I have seen too many strange situations that run counter to the educational ideal. I have seen many teachers and students fail to appreciate the beauty of education and the joy of learning. I think our education must be ill, and it is not light. Based on this, I put forward my ideal view of education. In my opinion, a good education is not only the instillation of knowledge and the transmission of technology, but also the awakening of the soul and the enlightenment of wisdom. As Xiao Chuan, a contemporary educational scholar, said: "A good education is to lead students to observe with their own glasses, feel with their own hearts, judge with their own minds and express in their own language. A good education makes a person a real person, himself, an irreplaceable capitalized person standing between heaven and earth. "