Notes from Thatched Cottage (9) - Let's talk about education during the school season

Under the shadow of the epidemic, China has ushered in another year of the school season. In many places, teachers and students have to start their studies with the company of testing. For example, in Shanghai, teachers are required to have two nucleic acid tests in the first three days, and one test twice a day. Nucleic acid tests (one nucleic acid test, two body temperature tests), and students in some schools are also tested for nucleic acid every day. Now Shanghai generally requires a 72-hour nucleic acid test result to be valid. It seems that the government still pays more attention to students than migrant workers. I hope teachers and students are safe and sound during the epidemic.

Looking at the origin of the modern school recently, it turned out that it was established by Prussia in order to create an ideal citizen and establish a certain social order expected by the country. After the rise of Prussia, this model quickly became popular in Europe and the world. Philosopher Foucault commented: The essence of school is not education, but plastic surgery, to make the next generation look like the country needs. In turn, the nationals shaped by school education will also adversely affect the spiritual outlook of a country.

For example, in school education in some countries, students' personal opinions are not important, but whether they meet the standard answer is important, then students will form a simple binary opposition of right and wrong, and they must suppress their personal opinions to gain a sense of psychological security. After the model is internalized, the future society will also form an atmosphere of obeying authority, disliking independent thinking, and analyzing problems in black and white.

Therefore, the problem of education is an issue that every country and every family attaches great importance to. Because too many interests are involved and the fault tolerance rate is low, many educators choose to follow the steps. There are very few people who have the ideas, the ability and the opportunity to try educational reform. Wang Zheng, the former principal of the High School Affiliated to Peking University, is one such person.

[Article: The most controversial principal of the High School Affiliated to Peking University is dismissed: Is it a hero or a sinner? 】

Link:https://www.sohu.com/a/515467996_119570

Before reading this article, I didn’t know that there was such a special reform attempt in the affiliated school of Peking University. I felt very emotional that the principal Wang Zheng, an educator with a spirit of reform and innovation, cannot be judged by a simple dichotomy of heroes or sinners. , but should be placed in a larger context and returned to the essence of education - should education educate a person well, or educate a candidate who can get a high score in the college entrance examination?

Taking classes, the academy system, encouraging love, the college entrance examination is a game, etc. labels are all attempts by Principal Wang Zheng. Many of his specific methods may be radical or poorly handled, but he can make such an attempt in such an environment. He and the Peking University system that has supported him for so long are still worthy of respect. Unfortunately, under the current education system with the college entrance examination as the core, there are only two schools recognized by parents and society: Hengshui Middle School and variants of Hengshui Middle School.

Wang Zheng's words at a graduation ceremony are worth thinking about: "We will go through various exams in the future, but I think it will only become a tool, it is not the whole of our life. It is only used by us. to choose and use. We will face broader, more meaningful, and more roads and pathways... After 12 years of basic education, should we get rid of the shackles of exams and enter our country? A richer life?"

I don't know where Wang Zheng will go next, and where will the next Wang Zheng be.

[Podcast: Journalism Lab - How to do critical thinking education in this era? 】

https://www.xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episode/62e004ca92f0689a31f50842?utm_campaign=News Lab&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue newsletter

This issue is an interview with two founders of Plan C. Plan C is an institution mainly engaged in critical thinking education in China. Under the current social environment, it is not easy for them to persevere. In the interview, the two founders shared their experiences and reflections in the educational practice of critical thinking, and it would be helpful to listen carefully.

For example, the two founders talked about their practice of combining critical thinking with the current education system, and how to teach children to go beyond the limitations of "black and white" by reading novels.

A surprising fact shared by the two founders is that 70-80% of the people who learn critical thinking are women.

This is obviously an unusual gender ratio, which is not consistent with the overall market situation of knowledge payment, and the courses of plan C are obviously not the areas that women pay more attention to in the traditional sense, such as parenting, health, and emotion, but thinking and logic. Wait for more "masculine" content in the stereotype. So why are most of the people who come to learn critical thinking from women? Could it be that women are naturally more thoughtful and debating?

The two founders gave their analysis: In fact, critical thinking has a core, that is, self-reflection-you need to always be vigilant about whether the information you receive is accurate, whether the logic of your reasoning is valid, and what else is there in your thinking loopholes, how to adjust those flawed views and flawed reasoning.

And "self-reflection" is something women are more willing to do than men - but not because women are born like this, but because women are the sex in a disadvantaged position. In a society, strong groups have the privilege of not reflecting on themselves. They make rules and are rarely questioned and challenged; while weak groups are accustomed to looking for problems from themselves, and are accustomed to changing themselves to accommodate others.

Plan C has also been in contact with a head platform in the field of knowledge payment, but after chatting, the other party's judgment is that the content of Plan C will probably not be liked by their audience. Most of the users of this platform are male "successful people". They are happy to learn the knowledge points that others help to summarize in order to achieve "fast learning", but they do not want to listen to reflective content.

The relationship between reflection and power revealed by this case is instructive. It can also be imagined that in the field of public opinion, the media often called on the government to reflect on policy issues more than a decade ago, but such voices are becoming less and less common these days. On social media such as Weibo, some people also call those who call for reflection "reflection monsters", without hesitation promoting a view that "we don't need reflection at all". In fact, behind this is also a kind of ebb and flow of power relations, a kind of arrogance of power: no questioning, no need to reflect.

[Video: Your child is not your child]

Link: https://movie.douban.com/subject/30232339/

There are many classic films about education, such as "Dead Poets Society", "Spring in the Cattle Class", "Soul Catcher", etc. Many of them are about an unusual educator who respects children and actively explores. This Taiwanese TV series is not like that. It uses five short stories to describe the tense and distorted parent-child relationship in a family under an education system that chases scores and severely introverts in a somewhat sci-fi and exaggerated manner.

For example, in the first story, the mother's line of accusation to the child: "Mom is for your own good, why don't you listen?", "Spend so much money for you to go to a private school, why do you let me down?" "Painting What's the use of these messes?" Even if you haven't heard the original words, many people may have heard the same meaning. In reality, parents do not have a tangible remote control that can control their children, but there are invisible ones. Not only in Taiwan, but also in Japan, a survey shows that 70% of children think that their parents are control freaks.

The TV series also shows the stories of families from other classes, exhausting all kinds of exaggerated imaginations, and full of various endings.

The name of the TV series comes from Gibran's prose poem "To the Children":

Your child is not really your child

They are the children born of life's desire for itself

They came to this world through you, but not because of you

They're with you, but they're not yours

You can give them your love, not your thoughts

because they have their own ideas

[Song: Radwimps "Positive Solutions"]

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV197411R7MD/?spm_id_from=333.788.recommend_more_video.1&vd_source=c88351c9583c3e2ceae830abc39ece56

A lot of very popular singers or songs, I only heard about them for the first time after they have been popular for a long time, such as Radwimps. Knowing that their song was in Makoto Shinkai's animation "Your Name" in 2016, it had been 15 years since their debut. The name of this band should be translated as "Heroic Coward", a somewhat tangled and contradictory name, but the creative ability is really first-class, including "いいんですか? "Sweet love songs like "Brainwashing" are also very ironic songs, many of which are both musical and sung.

What I want to recommend today is "Positive Solutions", which is called "the strongest graduation song". School life is over, learning is not over, we will continue to receive education in society. The lyrics express the feelings and moods of graduation. We should all cherish the memories of our youth, even if they are happy or sad; we have learned too many questions with answers, but in the future, the answers from textbooks are not very important. There is no absolute correct answer for how to choose in the future. Only you can come up with the correct answer for your own life.

I've only practiced those questions that have fixed solutions but starting tomorrow

Let's go and find the answer that belongs only to me until the day we meet again

Please fill in the appropriate text in the space below

This is the last topic

"Every day after tomorrow without you

I will definitely □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□”

Answer time is your future life

The answer sheet is your future life

I'm gone by the time I get the answer

So the standard of scoring is your future life

"ready, go"

This time I write here first, I hope you have a peaceful, happy and rewarding life.

If you like this newsletter, you are welcome to forward it or recommend it to your friends!

If you have anything to say, you can reply directly or send it to yangfan0129@gmail.com