Hello, my name is Dong Zhongli, and I am an English trainer. I have trained a total of 6.5438+0.5 million students. I have taught the students who are the first in the city's postgraduate entrance examination, and countless students pass the CET-4 and CET-6 exams every year because of my courses. My classmates trust and respect me very much, and call me "Teacher Xiao Dong".
However, many times, as a teacher, I also have some confusion.
Most of the courses I said are exam courses: CET-4 and CET-6, postgraduate English and so on. I once talked about CET-4 translation, about how Mr. Lin Yutang translated Jia Dao's When I asked your students, under a pine tree. My teacher replied, "I went to collect herbs." I talked about how Mr. Xu Yuanchong translated Li Qingzhao's Searching, Lonely, Sad and Sad, and how Mr. Wang Zuoliang translated samuel ullmann's Youth as "getting old, not getting old, abandoning ideals and falling down.
I can't help dancing, and my pride as a teacher is bursting. At this moment, a girl at the bottom directly questioned me: What's the use of saying this? Can I get points in the exam? You are wasting our time. I think I have a glib tongue, but at this moment, I am speechless.
Yes, she's right. It's no use. Can't get points But dear students, I didn't waste your's time. Because at this moment, I'm not teaching you exams, I'm doing education. As a teacher and educator, I hope I can not only teach students practical knowledge in class. If we only spell knowledge and memory, we would have lost.
From 65438 to 0997, the computer Deep Blue developed by IBM challenged Kasparov, the world's number one chess master. Kasparov, known as "fighting for human dignity", lost to Deep Blue with a record of 1, 2 losses and 3 draws. At that time, someone said: chess is too simple! Our Go is constantly changing. Why not let the computer play Go?
Twenty years have passed. In the first half of this year, the artificial intelligence program developed by the legendary Alpha Dog Google beat the world Go champion Li Shishi Jiuduan with a score of 4: 1. This "man-machine war" ended in failure again. That was a slap in the face.
Slowly, we found that artificial intelligence is brilliant; Network information, excellent knowledge; Computer response, agility. We have heard the voices of some parents: now Chinese and history can be found online, and there is no need to recite them at all; Mathematical physics has artificial intelligence, which is completely unnecessary; Translation software is becoming more and more advanced, and there is no need to learn a foreign language at all. What is the use of education? What is the use of education?
Yes, what's the use of education?
Some time ago, there was a joke circulating on the Internet: It is said that the reason why we should read more books and get more education is because when we see a flock of birds flying over the lake, we can recite "Sunset and lonely Qi Fei, autumn waters are the same color", instead of arguing there: I'm leaving, all birds!
When we travel to the Gobi and ride horses, we say to ourselves, "The desert is lonely and the long river sets the yen", instead of shouting, "Oh, my God, it's all sand. Go back quickly! " This is of course a mockery, but unconsciously it reveals the core significance of education.
Education can not only impart knowledge, but also improve personal cultivation and increase our sensitivity to life, so as to know ourselves and constantly improve ourselves. In my opinion, this is the important value and significance given to us by education, and it is also a beacon of hope to guide us forward.
In fact, not only students, but also our teachers have become impetuous because of the pursuit of fame and fortune. Before the exam, we gambled on topics, and we predicted that after the exam, we farfetched how many knowledge points we gambled on and how many students improved after listening to our own classes. It creates a pleasant illusion that "teachers are smart, students are superb and parents are happy".
At that time, I also enjoyed learning exam skills. How to choose options? "Three long one short choose a short, three short one long choose a long. Go hand in hand and choose 2B, and choose 4D if it is uneven. " The students all bought it and regarded me as a "test god", "idol" and "life mentor".
They even asked me questions other than the research itself. For example: "teacher, I don't want to work, and other students have gone to the postgraduate entrance examination." Should I take the postgraduate entrance examination? " "Teacher, my father wants me to go abroad, my mother is not at ease, and I am a little scared myself. What should I do? " "Teacher, my major is economics, and my master's degree is environmental engineering. What kind of job should I look for after graduation? " "Teacher, what should I do in the future?"
This confusion has become a universal existence. We have been teaching for more than ten years, and the students have studied for more than ten years, and finally they don't know what to do.
Western sages once asked three questions: Where am I from? Who am I? where am I going? These three problems are interrelated. The reason why we don't know what we are going to do is because we don't know who we are at all. And this is the great lack and sorrow of education.
Since ancient times, powerful countries have always attached importance to education. Education in Israel, Germany and Japan is a model for learning all over the world. Religion is offered in Israeli primary schools, and philosophy is compulsory for German middle school students. When we visited Japan, we saw that college students still participated in tea ceremony training, art appreciation and other activities after heavy study.
At that time, a teacher among our colleagues asked that particularly classic question: "What's the use?" The teacher said: "These activities are an important part of education, which is to cultivate the mind and let students know themselves better."
Yeah, how do you know what you want to do if you don't know yourself? If individuals don't know what they want to do, countries and nations don't know what to do. Then how can there be Israel still living in the war, and how can there be Germany and Japan rising from the ruins of World War II?
Our country, our nation, is even more so. China is called an ancient civilization. After thousands of years of turmoil, it can always be reborn. It is because we attach importance to education and respect teachers. As early as in our cultural origin, we regarded Confucius, the greatest educator, as the spiritual totem of our culture.
As for the obsession with education, even in our most difficult years and darkest years, we have never abandoned it in the hearts of the whole people. It will always be picked up again, erased and returned to our altar.
Once, we said that "reading is useless", and learning is not directly proportional to wealth, which has created an impetuous state of our society. However, everything can be impetuous except education. It is the bottom line of social conscience, the pure land of human soul, the foundation of building a country and strengthening a country. What is education for? Education is to help individuals know themselves and this nation know themselves, so that we can control our own destiny and create the future of this country.
Educators or educatees should achieve the real purpose of reading, as Zhang Zai, an educator in the Northern Song Dynasty, said: Make a heart for heaven and earth, make a life for the people, link the past with the future, and make the world peaceful.
So next time, I will practice the method of answering questions during the course time, but I will speak for five more minutes, so don't ask what this thing is for. I won't teach you the exam for the extra five minutes. Please allow me to do an education.
Thank you!