Culture establishes the soul of the school

——Talk about my understanding

? Regarding the interpretation of foreign and Chinese culture, I have written five articles from "Talking About Foreign and Chinese" to "Erudition and Erudition, Poems and Books of Foreign and Chinese" , and also wrote an article "Paying Attention to the Power of Culture", which was placed in the last article of my book "Traveling through the Years of Foreign Studies". This article was also published in Henan Education. I wanted to take it out and read it. But Director Lu disagreed and asked me to discuss it in conjunction with Professor Zhu Yongxin’s report. Let me sort out my thoughts again and talk seriously about my understanding of "Culture Builds the Soul of the School" and my own approach. Hope it inspires and helps us. I am also grateful for this opportunity, which allowed me to once again carefully sort out the formation of foreign and Chinese cultures. Due to time and space constraints, I can only choose one point to talk about my views and practices.

? What is school culture? Professor Zhu Yongxin explained this: School culture has the general characteristics of culture and has its own regulations. It is a special organizational culture, a living embodiment of the school spirit, and the fundamental way for the survival and development of the school and therefore students and teachers. Kent D. Peterson pointed out: "School culture is a set of norms, values ??and beliefs, ceremonies and rituals, symbols and deeds. These factors constitute the personality of a school that is different from other schools. It is these unwritten Factors that over time encourage teachers, administrators, parents and students to work together, solve problems together, and face challenges and failures together. "According to this, we believe that school culture is the spiritual conversion of members of the school organization. It is the aggregation of beliefs, concepts, language, etiquette and life that they agree with. It determines people's mission, value pursuit and development goals, and is also reflected in all educational behaviors of the school (school festivals, ceremonies, celebrations, teaching, and various specific behavioral rules, etc.), various material carriers (buildings, logo, colors, greening, classrooms, desks, seats, decorations, school uniforms, websites and even school badges, paper cups, etc.) and all symbol systems (school motto, school song, school badge, school mascot, and the language of school ethos, teaching style, and study style) expression).

? At the same time, Professor Zhu Yongxin also pointed out the formalism problem in the current construction of school culture: In some schools, we have seen some false "school culture" that stays in words and on paper. It mainly manifests itself in three aspects, namely objectification, textualization and sloganization. (1) Physical representation. We have seen that many school buildings are very luxurious, modern and magnificent, just like hotels. However, if the school’s buildings, corridors, walls, courtyards, pavilions, bell towers, greening and other scenery do not truly become “cultural” signs, do not truly become an integral part of the lives and memories of teachers and students, and do not have profound cultural connotations and education In other words, they are just a building, a pattern, a scene, or just a decoration or furnishing. (2) Textualization. We have also seen that many schools are able to produce complete ledgers and system texts when dealing with various inspections. However, if these systems only stay at the textual level, are only used for inspections and visits, are just words on paper, and do not truly become a force to regulate the actions of school members, they are just soulless ledgers and papers. (3) Sloganization. We have also seen that many schools strive to make every wall "speaking", filled with various slogans and slogans. However, if these slogans are just spoken, posted on the wall, and printed in brochures, and do not become the conscious pursuit of teachers and students, or even the direction of action is completely different from the connotation of the slogans, they can only be external to the school culture. things.

? How does Waizhong build school culture? According to the cultural hierarchy theory, the cultural hierarchy includes spiritual culture, material culture, institutional culture, and behavioral culture. Let’s analyze it based on Professor Zhu Yongxin’s interpretation and examples of foreign and Chinese cultural construction. The first is the construction of spiritual culture. From nothing to the establishment of a cultural brand, Waizhong has gone through an arduous journey of six years. Whenever I stand on the campus facing the morning sun and look at the eight characters "Erudition, elegance, poetry and calligraphy" under the green bamboo, my heart always surges. We used these eight words in four stages and took 6 years. The first is the establishment of the goal system, which marks the establishment of a framework for external and internal affairs.

School spirit may be the most powerful embodiment of "behavioral culture",

? The construction of material culture matches the construction of spiritual culture and behavioral culture. We have put a lot of effort into the construction of material culture. From the creation of the large environment to the detailed carving of small landscapes, we strive to create an environment that educates people with “scenery everywhere, and words to nourish the heart.” The creation of the campus environment is closely related to the theme of the school motto. I once wrote a "Notes on Graceland" to describe the beautiful scenery outside and inside, so I won't go into details. We designed a campus color system with "Boya Blue" as the main color. From school uniforms to file boxes, notebooks, school textbook covers, cultural walls, school flags, class flags, etc., they are all established according to the school's colors; we designed the "Code of Conduct" for the seventh grade "Cultural theme, the eighth grade is the cultural theme of "Gratitude and Filial Piety", and the ninth grade is the cultural theme of "Youth Inspiration". "Light blue, blue, dark blue" are used to represent the different colors of each grade; we have done everything from the design of the school emblem to the composition of the school song. They are collected from teachers and students; we build integrity bookshelves, classroom storage shelves, corridor bonsai corners, hygiene corners, calligraphy practice tables, etc., and carefully carve out the school environment in every detail, so that the school's material culture can fully display the school spirit. Culture promotes the formation of behavioral culture.

? When the spiritual culture is established, the behavioral culture is formed, and the material culture is revealed, the institutional culture must have been full, sound and perfect. Through the efforts of the past few years, the cultural construction of foreign and Chinese countries has avoided the misunderstandings of "material representation, textualization, and sloganization" mentioned by Professor Zhu Yongxin; it has avoided the emergence of formalism in cultural construction and the separation of culture and behavior. The "two skins" phenomenon. Let the "spiritual, behavioral, material, and institutional" cultures integrate with each other, develop and support each other, and make "erudite and elegant, poetry and calligraphy both Chinese and foreign" become the pursuit of every foreigner and the vision of the school.

Of course, the construction of foreign and Chinese culture still needs to be more thorough, detailed and in-depth, such as the creation of a poetry and book campus. Although we read "Essential Ancient Poems for Junior High School Students" in our morning recitation and afternoon reading respectively. , "The Analects of Confucius", "Tao Te Ching" and "Di Zigui", but they are still at an early stage and need to be further developed and excavated. For example, activities such as "Poetry Conference" can be held to promote students to fall in love with poetry and reading. The development of "Bo courses" has a long way to go. In short, the development history of a school is the history of the formation of an academic culture. It has only a beginning and no end. Culture is the soul of a school. A school with culture is full of energy, while a school without culture is a walking dead. The formation of foreign and Chinese culture is from bottom to top and gradually formed. Of course, you can also do a top-level design first and implement it step by step from top to bottom. However, no matter how you do it, it must be organically unified and provide guidance and guidance to teachers and students, rather than slogans on the wall.