From March to July this year, the Ministry of Education decided to carry out the pilot work of Peking Opera in 200 primary and secondary schools in 10 provinces and cities nationwide. People have different views on this move. I think this move is a major reform of education curriculum, which should arouse our deep thinking on how to better protect and carry forward China's excellent traditional culture.
Peking Opera is the quintessence of China, and it is a pluralistic art integrating "singing, thinking, doing and playing". It contains rich knowledge of literature, music, dance, art, history and sociology. As a part of music education, Beijing Opera is included in the national curriculum system, which reflects the country's emphasis on traditional culture. Promoting curriculum reform from the height of improving soft power is more conducive to spreading traditional culture. For many years, we have always emphasized quality education, but in practice we often understand it narrowly, thinking that adding some music, beauty and dance to children and taking them to dance, sing a song and draw a picture is quality education. This is only a part of quality education. At present, people's understanding of art has entered a bigger misunderstanding-art exams held in colleges and universities one after another every spring seem to be a shortcut for some parents to send their children to college. As a result, children have been deprived of the right to develop freely and play freely since childhood. Piano, acrobatics and sketch have become compulsory courses for children every day. When the college entrance examination is about to enter, all kinds of pre-test remedial classes, surprise training classes and exam certificate classes are surging, saying that business is really good. All these children think about "Princess Zhu Huan", super girl and fast man. This kind of fast-food art training leads to their indifference to elegant art and a serious lack of traditional culture. The purpose of Beijing opera in the classroom is to let children get in touch with classic works, understand the common sense of Beijing opera, guide students to appreciate opera, experience the charm of opera art, feel the charm of Beijing opera performance, guide students to further love, inherit and develop national art and culture, and establish national spirit. In this way, children should know not only Jay Chou, but also Mei Lanfang, and the four famous Peking Opera songs.
The significance of Peking Opera in the classroom is not only to let children appreciate the beauty of Peking Opera, but also to cultivate and recognize it. It is an experiment to transform a single aesthetic education into all-round quality education.
For a long time, art education in China has been alienated to some extent. On the one hand, art education in ordinary schools lacks artistic characteristics, and art education is not artistic; On the other hand, some parents, under the banner of "quality education", let their children learn art for the sake of grades and extra points for further studies. The essence of art is aesthetics. Similarly, art education is essentially aesthetic education, and its main function is to improve students' aesthetic cultivation. Art education is the real "art education" only if it carries humanistic connotation, makes people feel the beauty of life and inspires people to pursue a more meaningful and valuable life.
As an important part of music curriculum, Peking Opera has entered the classrooms of primary and secondary school students under the background of new curriculum reform and quality education, which greatly enriched the content of art classes in primary and secondary schools. The new curriculum reform advocates the change of students' learning from a single subject to a comprehensive subject. As a comprehensive art form, Beijing Opera's aria, aria, performance and stage costumes contain multi-disciplinary contents, which belong to the art category. Children can receive moral education and feel the beauty of art by learning Peking Opera. The whole teaching process embodies entertaining and entertaining. Beijing opera entering the classroom is not a decision of "slapping the head" after "whim". As far as its realistic background is concerned, this is an echo of the return of traditional culture and a measure taken against the reality that Beijing opera, as a national quintessence, is drifting away from teenagers. Its symbolic function and practical significance should be affirmed.
A nation, the more people who study art, the more energetic it is; In a country, the more people are willing to engage in artistic career, the more creative the country will be. It is said that in Russia, every family has Pushkin's poems. Opera is very popular in Europe and America. Poetry and opera are their "national arts". Similarly, the status of Peking Opera in China is equivalent to that of Western Opera, with elegance and vulgarity. Beijing opera entering the campus should trigger a series of positive reactions about artistic quality education, rather than hastily "drinking" or denying it.