The true meaning of education: talk to the top ten thinkers and guide children to the right path with a higher pattern.

Professor Liu Qing mentioned in the first program of "Seven Pa Shuo": I found that students' reading ability has declined now. Information, jokes, jokes and small videos attract young people's attention all the time and are taken away. They are more knowledgeable than us in these aspects, but education needs deep and slow reading.

This year, in order to guide my son to read "deeply and slowly", I also began to try some unpopular classic books. The true meaning of education is one of them.

This book selects the core ideas of 10 educational thinkers, including Socrates, Aristotle, Rousseau and Kant, who have had a great influence on the west and the world since 2500, deeply interprets them and discusses their influence on contemporary education. Nicholas Tate, the author of this book, is also a senior educator.

Once, I discussed my reading experience with my friends. I said, I still prefer to read books on pedagogy and psychology translated abroad. Although some of them are not bestsellers, the texts are very long and there are many professional and academic things. But the refined things can make me update a lot of cognition and sublimate my ideological realm.

Friends also agree. He said that most domestic books introduce a foreign viewpoint or idea, and use many hot spots and stories to mobilize emotions. Foreign books, by contrast, are very systematic and emphasize rational argumentation.

The main content of The Truth of Education comes from 10 great educational thinkers in the long history. Therefore, the ideas and ideas put forward in this book are particularly enlightening. Share my three feelings:

In modern society, influenced by utilitarian education, many people put too much emphasis on memorizing, brushing questions and exam results. So some people, a minority, stood up and advocated "liberal arts education". Most people think these ideas are innovative, but they are actually the true meaning of education put forward by wise men thousands of years ago. It was only later influenced by social environment and management that it was gradually forgotten. Those profound thoughts still have a strong warning function and reference significance today.

When Nicholas Tai wrote this book, he didn't praise the ideas of wise men and sages just because he chose them. There is no excessive criticism. Rational comments can be found everywhere in the book. There is no conclusion, but it can cause readers to think more.

In reality, this kind of mentality is too rare. I often write articles on parenting, and I have heard various parents' views on parenting. Most people will feel that they are right. If everyone can keep a cautious heart, I think the problem of education will not seem so acute.

They are called sages because they can break through secular ideas, political constraints and the limitations of the times and return to human nature thinking education.

When I admire this, I know how to stand on a higher level to reflect on the current educational problems and seek a calm and brave future where wisdom and kindness coexist.

The authoritative interpretation of "sages" makes the book "Essence of Education" not only worthy of reference by educators and researchers, but also greatly helps my unprofessional parents who are eager to talk to the wise. After all, Plato's utopia is too far away.

Share my reading experience. Let's start with some key points mentioned repeatedly by sages in the book, but always ignored in reality.

From Socrates to Aquinas, to Montaigne and Rousseau, they have repeatedly stressed that the fundamental goal of education is to let children have self-awareness and self-driving ability. The teacher's role is not to instill knowledge into students, but to help them put forward their own ideas and practice them by themselves.

In this regard, Montaigne once made a very vivid metaphor in the book On Children's Education.

So what exactly should we do?

Socrates once put forward a classic education method-questioning education method. Don't tell your child the answer, ask questions to arouse your child's thinking and exploration ability. Until today, many educators in the west are still advocating this educational model.

Nicholas Tate said that if you have seen the primary school class organized on the basis of Socrates' question-and-answer skills, you will be surprised to find that children also have excellent thinking and reasoning skills.

Educator Rousseau also places great emphasis on active learning. Share Rousseau's concrete measures of "active learning".

As I mentioned in my previous article, it is anti-cognitive logic for many children to learn science.

Most of the teachers' classes are abstract concepts, terms and formulas. The teacher spends most of the class talking about topics and applying formulas to do various calculations. Children rarely have the opportunity to experience a physical phenomenon, which makes it difficult for them to really understand the knowledge behind the formula.

Now many people are talking about the cultivation of creativity. If children simply understand these scientific knowledge as a formula and a way to solve problems, they don't realize what the knowledge has to do with their lives, and they don't know how to use it to solve problems in life. I think such education is a failure, and the cultivation of creativity is out of the question.

Education must be combined with life. In this regard, Montaigne, Kant, Nietzsche, Rousseau ... many educational thinkers have put forward similar views.

Rousseau once mentioned "going to the real world" in Emile. Study the night sky and find directions in the Woods. Talk to local farmers and vendors, practice science and learn a trade instead of being trapped behind a desk. "

/kloc-In the 6th century, Montaigne, a French thinker, described the children trained by this kind of education as "donkeys carrying books".

He strongly criticized the educational method of keeping children in the classroom and having nothing to do with life outside. I think learning like this will only give children a false sense of accomplishment.

Compared with Rousseau's emphasis on learning in life, Montaigne emphasized the application of education in life.

He thinks that life is the best place to test knowledge and ability. For example, whether the decision is wise, whether the action is good, whether the words are kind and steady, whether they are tough enough in difficulties, and whether they are temperate when enjoying themselves.

Educator Rousseau attaches great importance to the habit formation in childhood and personality education in adolescence. He believes that the focus of education should be to cultivate those "lasting qualities" rather than "how much knowledge do you have". He appealed on many occasions not to let children learn things that go against their natural growth too early.

Just as he talked about how to educate children with Lafontaine's fables,

"Only when necessary, only when the child's understanding has developed to an appropriate level, use it. And edit it well, avoid the preaching part at the end of each fable, and let the children discover the truth contained in it. "

Similar to Rousseau's point of view are Aristotle and British thinker Locke.

Aristotle has a famous three-stage theory. He said that a person should do physical exercise first, and then learn to restrain various desires, such as desire, anger and self-will. Finally, conduct thinking training. This process runs through life, and lifelong learning is the proper attitude of education.

Locke said: "knowledge is essential, but only second." For those great qualities, it is only an aid. With great quality, we can develop learning conditions.

It is not difficult to understand what the sage said. Just under the baton of taking the exam, many parents ignored it.

But if we discuss this topic in depth, it is easy to understand that a good personality, attitude and moral tendency will make a person go further. Even though he hasn't stored a lot of knowledge in his mind for the time being, his mind has the ability to learn. You will get more opportunities when you step into the society in the future.

Interpreting the true meaning of education is a process of constant reflection.

In modern society, we have more enlightened thinking, stronger economic strength, more professional helpers, richer educational materials, more platforms and opportunities. But all this has not made us more determined and confident, but has fallen into unprecedented anxiety.

To this end, I continue to explore more leisurely ways of parenting and write many parenting articles to share my views, hoping to alleviate parents' anxiety.

In fact, I know that parents are not the source of the crux of education. The education problem of a society is closely related to the social environment and social orientation at that time.

Since it is not the key to the problem, why should I keep staring at my parents' self-improvement and keep writing? Just because, in order to better cultivate children, parents are the only way to improve themselves, which is also the fundamental way for parents to fight anxiety.

Perhaps you also need to calm down and understand the true meaning of education.