Why are some school rituals that impressed us so much now gone away from us?

We often say that life requires a sense of ritual. In traditional Chinese culture, a sense of ritual is also very important. Whether it is weddings and funerals, sacrificial trips, or even seating arrangements for meals, they are found everywhere. Different ritual-filled procedures and established rules. However, with the acceleration of the pace of modern life, young people have left their hometowns to make a living in other places, and some ritualistic things have gradually left us. In fact, in our school, there used to be many valuable rituals, but now they are becoming more and more rare, gradually faded, and some have even disappeared.

Some people may be disdainful. School is a place for learning. Isn’t it a waste of time to engage in those fancy rituals? What’s the point? In fact, this is not the case. Children gain a comprehensive and real emotional experience in the ceremony. The sense of ceremony gives students a sense of security, order, belonging, and sacredness, and also allows students to learn order, rules, discipline, and humility.

Some school rituals have existed since ancient times, such as enrollment, which was a major event in ancient times. It was regarded as one of the four major gifts of life together with coming-of-age ceremony, wedding, and funeral. Therefore, on the day of admission, there is a series of solemn ceremonies. After the ceremony, it means that you officially become a disciple of Confucius. The entrance ceremony includes a series of procedures such as dressing up, performing the apprenticeship ceremony, purifying hands and mind, and enlightening one's mind with cinnabar. Mr. Lu Xun also recorded the ceremony of attending classes in a private school in his "From Baicao Garden to Sanwei Bookstore": first bow to Confucius, then bow to the teacher. When Mr. Bai bows, the teacher responds.

The bell rang when class was over, and the teacher shouted in a loud voice: "Class", the monitor called "Stand up", the whole class bowed and said hello to the teacher in unison, the teacher responded and said hello to the students; when class was over, , the teacher shouted "get out of class is over", the monitor shouted "Stand up", the students bowed and said in unison: "Goodbye teacher", the teacher returned the greeting and said "Goodbye classmates". This is such a familiar ritual for getting to and from get out of class. The whole ritual only takes a few dozen seconds, but it can effectively boost students' energy and promote emotional communication between teachers and students. At the same time, it also achieves "respect for teachers and etiquette education". role.

However, in order to save time, many young teachers now start teaching as soon as they enter the classroom. When the bell rings, they always have to wait for a few minutes, and then leave the classroom in a hurry when the next class is about to start. These rituals are completely absent. Although we cannot deny the serious and responsible attitude of these teachers towards their work, are these classrooms really effective? As the saying goes, good communication between teachers and students is very important in classroom teaching, so these rituals not only do not waste time, but are beneficial to teaching.

The rituals that are slowly disappearing now are not just greetings before and after class? For example, in the past, new young pioneers who joined the team in the first grade would have a relatively grand joining ceremony. I still remember the scene when the principal personally put on a red scarf for me when I joined the team. This is the role of the ceremony. However, many schools have now canceled the joining ceremony. The children don’t even know the origin and meaning of the red scarf, let alone what the “Young Pioneers” are. They don’t understand the history of the Young Pioneers, so they put on the red scarf in confusion.

I remember the previous sports games. Everyone wore uniforms, lined up neatly and shouted loud slogans. It was really a red flag waving, a sea of ??people, and people were excited. In such a ceremony, it greatly made people feel excited. It gave students a sense of collective honor. But now due to safety concerns, the school has not held such a sports meeting for many years. Slowly disappearing, far away from our students are the opening ceremony, graduation ceremony and other ceremonies that are full of value and meaningful to the growth of students.

It turns out that when entering the campus, the preparation bell rings, and loud singing will be heard from each class. Students use singing to adjust their mood, as a transition from recess to class, to boost their spirits and get into class. Nowadays, the preparation bell is the school bell. Some teachers even stand at the door of the classroom, ready to start the lecture, before the preparation bell rings.

Of course, not all rituals have been cancelled. There are also some new rituals that have emerged, becoming more and more intense and popular, but they make people unable to love them. For example, the graduation oath ceremony in many middle schools is more lively than a sports meeting. Banners and slogans are hung all over the teaching building, slogans are shouted one after another, and the children are as excited as if they had been injected with blood. Such a ceremony lacks humanism and reflects more of the anxiety of education, turning schools into fast-paced and efficient assembly-line examination factories.

Why do many children now recall their school life without the nostalgia and aftertaste of the past? Because in their memories, there are too few things worth recalling, valuable, and ritualistic. Only "homework" and "examination" are left.