Our news is that according to the biennial "National Sampling Survey on Reading and Purchasing Tendency", from 1998 to 2003, the reading rate of China people dropped by 8.7 percentage points, and the national reading rate in 2003 was 5 1.7%. However, this is just our "lace news" here.
The news in the United States is that according to a survey of 4 1 countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the math and science abilities of American students are lower than the national average. In fact, this is a fact that people have known for several years. In fact, the performance of eighth-grade students in the United States has improved this time. But the news is still very explosive. The major newspapers discussed it for a long time, as if the whole country was in crisis. ……
It seems that people's instinctive reaction to this bad news is that without mathematics, citizens will lose their ability to think accurately and abstractly. So, what did China people lose when they didn't study?
Reading is the most effective and irreplaceable means for human beings to transmit information. Because receiving information through reading can best reflect the subjectivity of the information receiver.
For example, when you are reading, you can adjust the speed according to your own needs. Some paragraphs can be pondered repeatedly, notes can be taken, and even questions and challenges can be raised. The process of receiving information and the process of thinking can be fully mixed.
Another characteristic of reading is personality. Reading is not reading aloud, but reading silently, not sharing with others. A personal relationship can be established between readers and books. Most other media have some kind of propaganda, even if they watch TV behind closed doors, they often feel surrounded by people. Therefore, reading creates the greatest freedom for personalized information transmission. The receiver of the information has the complete right to interpret the information he has received, so as to avoid the influence of other viewers to the maximum extent.
Therefore, if a person does not study, he will often follow the crowd, be passive and lack analysis. If a nation doesn't study, its culture will lose its creativity and criticism, and individuals will be overwhelmed by the group. The most interesting thing here is reading classics. Reading classics is probably a rare reading movement in recent years, but reading classics is an endorsement, which removes all the space for thinking in the process of reading. Just like following the tape recorder, students lose control of the process. This has nothing to do with reading.
From this perspective, we can see the crisis represented by the decline in reading rate. Many of our industries still rely on foreign capital to a certain extent; When people give money and design, we will do what we want and do our best. The assembly line is like a DVD and audio tape that keeps moving forward. Laborers can only passively follow, of course, there is no room for questioning, criticizing and creating. Some white-collar workers in China follow the rules and follow the book, belonging to the class that follows others. Although reading is to receive information, it is an information processing activity of "following yourself". This is of course superfluous for white-collar workers who are willing to keep their jobs.
But today is an era of encouraging adventure, innovation and letting the world "follow itself". Bill? Gates and the founders of Google stand out because they dare to let the world follow them. At present, 30% of the labor force in the United States belongs to the "creative class", not because they pursue work, but because they pursue work: various high-tech companies have to camp in expensive cities where these people live. Because of the whimsy of these people, the enterprise lost its motivation. These people must read.
Whether China people can study or not, to some extent, determines whether the world will follow China or China.