Chapter 1245 The real school - the purpose of education
"Chen Qing, students from Wucheng Academy will not join the court as officials after graduation, so why should they make this school a school for the court?" Yunxi's expression changed slightly, but then returned to normal and said.
"His Majesty just now said that he was training assistant ministers for the future. Why do you say now that they will not join the court as officials in the future? Aren't all the princes and princes going to learn how to assist your Majesty and your princes at the Five Cities School?"
"Chen Qing, you are wrong. There are private schools all over the Ming Dynasty to educate children who have not passed the exam. Do these private schools also belong to the imperial court? In my opinion, the Five City School is a private school."
"How can Wucheng Academy be equated with a private school?"
"Why can't the Wucheng Academy be equated with a private school? The students enrolled in a private school are children who have never attended school, and the students enrolled in the Wucheng Academy are only those who are twelve or thirteen years old. The Wucheng Academy is just a private school, but
The students in this private school are all members of the Ming Dynasty clan or nobles."
"Furthermore, what I want to teach the clan members or nobles' children in the Five Cities School is not the study of state governance. My most important purpose is to train them to be moral, healthy, and knowledgeable in all aspects.
They are people, not officials. Even if they graduate from the Five City School, they will not become officials immediately. If they become officials, they still need to observe politics. This is the same as those who passed the scholar examination after attending a private school. Nowadays, if a scholar wants to become an official, he must take the examination
Become a Jinshi or enter the Imperial Academy to attend school."
"From this point of view, the graduates of Wucheng Academy are similar to scholars. Since children study in private schools, Wucheng Academy should also be private schools, and the imperial court should not bear the school's expenses."
Chen Ji seemed to be convinced by him. Although he did not think that the graduates of Wucheng Academy had the same future as scholars, according to Yunxi, the nature of Wucheng Academy was indeed the same as that of a private school; although the tuition fee was definitely high, the students were
Even if you are a distinguished person, you are not short of this little money.
But Yunxi himself knew that the reason he told Chen Ji was just an excuse, not the real reason. The real reason was that Yunxi wanted to build a free school, a truly free school.
Just now, Yunxi told Chen Ji that the purpose of setting up a student union and having students elect student union officers and monitors was to de-administrate. But what he did not say at the time was that the reason for de-administration and not allowing the Wucheng School to belong to the imperial court was
To be able to build a free school.
In later generations, China's education system has always been criticized by the Chinese people. Even the country knows that there is a problem and has repeatedly said that it wants to change it. It has indeed carried out reforms and implemented "quality education", but the common people only realize that they spend money on their children's education.
It is getting bigger and bigger, but the education system has not changed substantially. The academic burden of middle school and primary school students is still very heavy. College students, many college students, even if their grades are not bad, still cannot learn much that is useful for work.
The reason for this is the state's control over schools.
Frankly speaking, the state's control of schools may not necessarily be for bad purposes. The state actually wants to ensure fairness and use a fair way to measure all students as much as possible so that students can pass a fair competition.
To choose who can go to high school and university.
To achieve such a goal, we must remove those things that are not easy to quantify, issue a set of standard answers to all students, and answer questions according to the standard answers in the exam. In this way, fairness is guaranteed in form. And school administration is
means to achieve this end.
But the problem is that those things that are not easy to quantify are the problems that will be encountered in actual work and life; and those standard answers are not used by anyone except a very small number of scholars. The country is like this
The education method actually goes against the real purpose of education - smooth employment. If students cannot learn useful things and find it difficult to find a smooth employment, what's the point of being fair?
At the same time, different students have different talents. Some are good at mathematics, some are good at composition, some are good at chemistry, and some are good at history. But in the final exam, everyone must take these subjects. Those who are partial to subjects may be good at them.
No matter how high the subject test is, if the overall score is not high enough, you will not be able to get into a good school. What's more, some people are good at things that cannot be quantified, which is even more unfair. For example, Neville in "Harry Potter"
Barton, his grades in other subjects except Herbalism are not as good as Hermione's. In China, Neville would definitely not be able to get into a good university and become a professor. On the contrary, Hermione can get into a good university and stay as a teacher, but Naville
The Herbalism taught by Weijiao is definitely better than Hermione's.
In addition, the state has another purpose in controlling schools, which is to control students' thoughts. In fact, this is a common traditional problem. Didn't Zhang Juzheng also crack down on private academies in history? The fundamental reason is that the state wants to maintain national stability by controlling people's thoughts.
Regarding this point, Yunxi's ideas are also different from those of the rulers of previous dynasties. The result of strict ideological control is that the country has no progress. The most typical example is of course the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Although all dynasties wanted to control thoughts, they failed due to various reasons.
For this reason, in the middle and late periods of the dynasty, the control power was not very high. Even with the imperial examination system, various 'heretical' doctrines were inevitably spread; but the Manchu Qing Dynasty still firmly controlled the thoughts of intellectuals until the Opium War, making the Manchu Qing Dynasty's
The level of progress is the lowest in history. Therefore, for the sake of the country, ideological control cannot be too strict.
But if you think too loosely, it may make it difficult for a vast agricultural country like the Ming Dynasty to maintain unity. A balance must be found in the middle. Yunxi thought about it, and finally decided to maintain the aristocracy in the capital-this Yunxi was determined to maintain
The alliance of national domination - opening a hole.
In order to achieve Yunxi's goal, he could not just make Wucheng Academy a private school, but also had to have other supporting measures.
"Chen Qing," Yunxi continued to order: "The courses taught in this school will be completely different from other schools."
"First, the total score for each year is 00 points, including 100 points for military studies, 100 points for liberal arts, and 100 points for classes."
"There are only two courses currently offered in the military, and that is each course is worth 50 points. In the martial arts course, because they only learn some superficial things, the teacher will set the exam rules and give points according to the rules; in the physical education class,
, now the main focus is on practicing Cuju, then each class forms a team, and each class competes with each other. The class score is first determined based on the scores and wins during the game, and then based on the performance of the students in the team, goals are scored.
"In the first year, I personally formulated the scoring rules, and from the second year onwards, they were handed over to the teacher who taught this course. The rules of the competition are also completely different from the current Cuju competition. I will tell the teacher that this will be
I won’t go into details with you now.”
"The liberal arts section has a total of 100 points. There are currently seven courses in total. Among them, the three courses of Classics, History, and Gezhi each have 0 points, and the four courses of etiquette, music, calligraphy, and mathematics have 10 points each."
"I personally teach the course Gezhi, so I won't go into details. For the rest of the courses, the total score is divided into two parts, one is the daily performance, and the other is the test score. Take the course of etiquette as an example, the daily performance accounts for 4 points, and the test score
The score accounts for 6 points.”
"The teaching of liberal arts is also different from that of all schools today, whether it is the Imperial Imperial College or local private schools. In class, students are allowed to question whether what the teacher teaches is right or wrong, especially the two courses of classics and history."
"Your Majesty," Chen Ji said suddenly. He didn't understand some of the words Yun Hei said, and he didn't agree with some of His Majesty's instructions, but he kept waiting for the Emperor to finish speaking before asking. But when he heard these words, he suddenly
I couldn't help it anymore. "Your Majesty, the meaning of the scriptures is what the saints said, how can it be questioned? Although what is recorded in the history books may not be true, what can a young student question?"
'What Confucius wrote must be correct? It can't be questioned?' Yunxi said in his heart. But he must not say this. He could only smile and say: "Ai Qing, do you still remember that in the spring of the fifth year of Jianye's reign?
After Annan returned to Beijing, there was an endless debate between the DPRK and the Central Government over my decree to abolish the exemption of virtuous women from military service to their natal families?"
"I remember."
"At that time, the great scholar of Neo-Confucianism cited the words 'Only women and villains are difficult to raise' as Confucius's remarks to belittle women. However, Chen Ying based on other words in the Analects of Confucius, concluded that the character '女' is Tongjia, Tong'
The word "ru" leads to the conclusion that Confucius never made any derogatory remarks about women."
"Indeed. Your Majesty."
"This example is enough to show that the original intention of the sage is unquestionable, but the interpretation of the Analects and other classics by later generations may not be wrong. Therefore, I asked the students of Wucheng Academy to question whether what the teacher taught was right or wrong.
It makes them question the sage’s original intention, but rather whether the gentleman’s interpretation is correct.”
"The course of history is also average. Historical books such as "Three Kingdoms" and "Book of Jin" lack too much information, and many things can only be speculated. Even an old man who has studied "Three Kingdoms" for his whole life may not necessarily say what he said.
Correct. And many times, the longer people study a certain history book, the more likely they are to get into trouble on a certain issue and make mistakes that others seem to be very superficial, but they themselves are still unaware of it. And young students do not have many rules and regulations, so they may not necessarily
I won’t wake up the old gentleman.”
"Your Majesty is wise," Chen Ji said sincerely.
"Haha," Yunxi laughed a few times. These were words he had prepared for several days, so he naturally seemed wise.
Chen Ji asked a few more questions that he didn't understand, and Yun Xi answered them one by one. Then he continued: "You are not allowed to question the subject of etiquette, but students can ask the teacher why he stipulates this. Music, calligraphy, and mathematics are the three subjects.
I haven’t thought of anything that can be questioned, but it may not be beyond doubt, so I first told the students that they can question it, and if there is something wrong, I will make corrections.”
"But," Yunxi said in a more serious tone: "All students must be respectful in their tone when questioning, and must not be disrespectful to the teacher. I have stipulated in the school rules that the punishment for being disrespectful to the teacher also applies to disrespectful tone when questioning."
"Your Majesty is wise." Chen Ji praised. (To be continued)