Li Zhenxi: Who is education for (reproduced)

Someone said, "We have come a long way, but we have forgotten why we started?" This also applies to thinking about the purpose of education. Why do you want to do education? Or, what is education for? On this issue, I feel that our thinking has been problematic for many years.

For example, I often see such educational meeting notices or educational activity plans. At the beginning, it often says, "To implement the medium-and long-term development plan of education recently issued by the Ministry of Education, this activity is specially held ..." "In order to implement the spirit of General Secretary Hu Jintao's speech at the National Education Work Conference, we specially held this meeting ..." "Premier Wen Jiabao recently pointed out that ... in order to further implement the spirit of Premier Wen Jiabao's speech, we specially .." Of course, the notice of the recent education conference will be added. In a word, it gives people the impression that the reason why we want to engage in education is for the sake of the Ministry of Education, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Of course, the party and state leaders care about education, which is of great significance to promoting the development of education. But education itself is not for party and state leaders, nor for any of them. Because education has a history of thousands of years, our education has been developing, whether there are Hu Jintao or Wen Jiabao.

Why do other schools engage in such "educational reform", such "innovation", such "characteristics" and such "brands"? A headmaster told me that it was to expand the influence of the school and improve its popularity and reputation. I want to continue to ask, how do you expand your influence and improve your popularity and reputation? Of course I didn't ask, because I didn't want to embarrass others. But I know very well in my heart that some principals keep saying "education that the people are satisfied with", but in fact, what he is pursuing wholeheartedly is "education that the director is satisfied with" and "education that the media pays attention to". Then, I still have to ask this simple question: what is the purpose of all the actions of the school?

I think of Taiwan Province writer Zhang Xiaofeng. She once sent her son to school. When her son wanted to say goodbye to her, she was deeply moved to see him walk out of the campus. When I got home, I wrote a composition entitled "I teach you a child", which contained a passage: "World, I gave you a happy, honest and enlightened child this morning. What kind of youth will you give me after many years? " This last question hits the heart of every conscientious educator. Aren't all our educational actions aimed at answering this mother's question?

In other words, our education is for the children of millions of mothers in Qian Qian and for every child we face every day. This is the starting point of our simple education. This is the starting point of our education.

I have been thinking and trying to practice simple education in recent years. For example, on the campus of Wuhou Experimental Middle School, there are no slogans, and even the "school spirit", "teaching spirit" and "study style" that many schools have. There are no photos of me accompanying the leaders to inspect the school, no inscriptions of the leaders, and so on. I just hope the school is simple, simple, simple. Because education should be simple.

But our education now is too noisy and gorgeous. Some principals always think about "highlighting characteristics", "building brands", "enhancing image" and "expanding influence" ... they must find media to hype everything they do. The campus has become restless. A few years ago, some newspapers once designated our school as a teacher training base, so teachers from other places often came to visit and train, and the school was very lively almost every day. I feel more and more uneasy, which is far from the simplicity and starting point of education. In addition, our school has not achieved enough results for colleagues all over the country to learn from. So I decisively terminated this training and cancelled the training base, which was understood by the newspaper. Last year, I publicly stated that Chengdu Wuhou Experimental Middle School refused anyone to come to "study" and did not receive any visitors. I want to go back to school. After all, the school is not a supermarket or a shopping mall.

Now some schools are keen on "characteristics" and "brands", which I am disgusted with. First of all, I never object to the characteristics of the school. Shishi Middle School in Chengdu, where I taught before, felt different as soon as I entered. Atmosphere and smell are its characteristics. But now the so-called "features" of many schools are fake features. Find a few experts to help "summarize", "refine" and "sort out", so several keywords came out and characteristics were born. I want to say that these "features" are purely used for exhibition boards, for enrollment and publicity, for welcoming the inspection and acceptance of superiors, and for writing report materials ... nothing to do with students! What's the use of bringing things that have nothing to do with students? Talking about "running a school with characteristics", can't you run a school without "characteristics"? What logic is this!

I remember a leader went to our school for investigation last year. I accompanied him to the campus. As he walked, he asked me, "President Li, do you have any school characteristics?" Without thinking, I replied, "Nothing special?" He gave me a look, as if he didn't quite understand what I meant: "huh?" How can there be no characteristics? " I also asked him: "Hey? How can I have characteristics? " I explained: "Our school has only been running for a few years, and it needs long-term practice to form its own characteristics. Besides, I haven't considered so many characteristics now. I just hope that our teacher will teach every class well, every student well and every class well. As for me, I can help every teacher grow up seriously. If these four points are really achieved, what does it matter if the school has no characteristics? What is the function used for? " The leader deeply agrees with my statement.

I also said at that time: "Ye Shengtao seems to have said that education is agriculture. So what is agriculture? Loosening, sowing, weeding, fertilizing ... everything conforms to the law of crop growth, and we do the same thing every year. It is not a new trick every year, an "innovation" every year and so on. Imagine if a farmer came to the field with a hoe and inserted a sign that said, "I will plant an acre of special crops this year!" " "Oh, my God! Who dares to eat such crops? Education is the same, doing these things every year-