Chapter 152 Education

Cai Yuanpei said: "Educators are not for the past, not for the present, but for the future." Cai Yuanpei put forward the views that "study is theory, art is application", "study is basic, art is branch and leaf".Mr. Cai Yuanpei pointed out: "Educators are the career of cultivating personality." Cai Yuanpei mentioned in a letter to Wu Zhihui: Probably the reason why the university is not satisfactory is that the courses are miscellaneous and the discipline is corrupt.To save the first disadvantage, hire pure scholars to teach and conduct research with students at the same time, so as to transform the university into an institution for purely studying knowledge.To save the second disadvantage, recruit model figures of students to rectify the style of study.

Cai Yuanpei stated frankly: Education requires the equal development of individuality and group character.Political parties want to create a special group character and obliterate individuality.For example, encouraging people to be friendly to a certain country and hate a certain country; or to use the culture of nation A to assimilate nation B.Today's political parties often have such policies. If they participate in education, it will be a great harm.Education is for long-term results, and political parties' policies are for short-term results. ... If the right to education is also handed over to the political parties, when the two parties change, the education policy will also change accordingly, and education will not be effective.Therefore, the cause of education must stand above all political parties.

Cai Yuanpei was the creator of China's capitalist education system in the early 20th century.He clearly proposed to abolish the feudal educational purposes of loyalty to the emperor, respect for Confucianism, respect for the public, martial arts, and truth.Advocating the education policy of bourgeois democracy, which takes military and national education and utilitarian education as the urgent task, centers on moral education, takes worldview education as the ultimate goal, and uses aesthetic education as the bridge, and initially establishes a new bourgeois education system. Cai Yuanpei's educational practice is mostly in higher education.When he was the president of Peking University, he proposed that the nature of a university lies in the study of advanced knowledge.He advocated academic freedom and scientific democracy.It is advocated to have a separate school for learning and art, as well as liberal arts and science.Change the "academic year system" to the "credit system", implement the "subject selection system", actively improve teaching methods, streamline the curriculum, advocate self-study, implement student self-government in the school, and teach the school.These ideas and measures of his, after they were implemented by Peking University, affected the whole country, so that some people called him a liberal educator.

Cai Yuanpei organized various academic research groups (such as the Philosophy Society, the Eloquent Society, the Reading Newspaper Society, the Calligraphy Research Society, etc.) to attract students' extracurricular interests to academic research.Cai Yuanpei earnestly hoped that students would focus on their studies, but he did not approve of studying to death.He said: "To study academic theory, one must have a lively spirit, which cannot be achieved by imitating the ancients' death method of 'not peeping into the garden for three years'." On January 9, 1917, Cai Yuanpei delivered a speech on his inauguration as the president of Peking University. He put forward three requirements for students: one day to set a goal, two days to cultivate virtue, and three days to respect and love teachers, and put "holding a goal" first. On January 9, 1917, the opening ceremony of Peking University was held, and Cai Yuanpei delivered his inaugural speech, which is the famous "Speech on the Inauguration of President of Peking University".There are three chapters in the agreement between Cai and Peking University students: one is to set the purpose, "a university student is also a person who studies advanced knowledge"; the other is to cultivate virtue, "you are university students, and your status is very high. Therefore, if you are grateful, you must have the heart to encourage others”; the third is to respect and love teachers and friends.

In 1912, when Cai Yuanpei served as the chief education officer of the Nanjing Provisional Government, he presided over the revision of the educational system of the Ministry of Education, announcing the equality of men and women in education for the first time in a government decree.Soon, junior primary schools in our country implemented co-education.Due to the extremely strong conservative forces, colleges and universities had not achieved co-education until the eve of the May 4th Movement.The Ministry of Education is timid about this, and universities dare not propose to recruit girls.Cai Yuanpei was very dissatisfied with the status quo. He gave a speech at the Beijing Youth Association, and also spoke to a reporter from Shanghai's "China News", publicly advocating co-education in colleges and universities.Cai Yuanpei said: "Once a proposal is made, it must be rejected. In fact, there is no express document in the school system that only recruits boys; if there are girls who apply during the recruitment examination, they can be listed; if they pass the exam, they can be allowed to study; please start with Peking University." Peking University was the first to have girls, and other universities followed suit, and the Ministry of Education acquiesced.

In February 1920, Cai Yuanpei ordered three female students, Wang Lan, Xi Zhen, and Zha Xiaoyuan, to be allowed to attend Peking University's Liberal Arts Department because the examination period had passed. In the autumn of that year, female students were officially recruited, setting a precedent for female public universities in my country. Someone asked Cai Yuanpei: "It is a new law to accept girls at the same time. Why didn't you ask the Ministry of Education for approval first?" Cai Yuanpei said: "The University Order of the Ministry of Education does not specifically admit boys; in the past, girls didn't come to ask for it, so there were no girls; now girls If you come to ask for it, and the level is enough, the university has no reason to refuse."

In 1920, Tao Menghe, acting dean of liberal arts, allowed nine girls to attend the school, which aroused public discussion and criticism from the Ministry of Education. Even President Xu Shichang came forward to warn Peking University authorities that state schools should maintain "high moral standards."But at that time, there was no law expressly prohibiting co-educational schools. Cai Yuanpei, who had already returned to Peking University, relied on this, without asking the government for permission, and formally approved the registration of the nine girls as regular students of Peking University.Since then, Peking University has officially recruited female students.

The only course Mr. Cai Yuanpei taught at Peking University was "Aesthetics".A classmate’s memoirs recorded the classroom situation at that time: “He taught aesthetics, and his voice was not very loud, but very clear. When he talked about foreign art, he even showed us pictures, so we thought it was very interesting. The second classroom in the first courtyard was completely crowded. The first courtyard was only as big as the second classroom, which could seat one or two hundred people. It was so crowded that even the podium was full of people, so I had no choice but to move to the second classroom. The Great Lecture Hall of the Academy.”

Mr. Cai Yuanpei clearly pointed out: Chinese language is divided into two types: one kind of practical language, which is produced because of the necessity of life when there is no civilization; In his reply to Lin Qinnan’s letter, Cai Yuanpei talked about his two ideas for running a school. The first one is: for theories, imitate the general practice of universities around the world, follow the principle of freedom of thought, and adopt the principle of inclusiveness. There is a reason for the rationale, and those who have not yet reached the fate of natural elimination, although they are opposite to each other, let them develop freely.

When Cai Yuanpei was the head of education in the Republic of China, Fan Yuanlian was the deputy head. Their methods of running education were opposite.Fan said: "If the primary school is not run well, how can there be a good middle school? If the middle school is not run well, how can there be a good university? So our first step is to reorganize the primary school first." Where do they come from? Without good middle schools, where can primary school teachers come from? So our first step is to straighten out universities.” Cai Yuanpei talked about his educational philosophy: The purpose and concept of university education are clear, which is to make boring learning interesting and arouse people's desire for knowledge. We will never regard Peking University as just such a place—yes Students are effectively trained to train them to become competent people in the future. . . . the university is also charged with fostering and maintaining a high standard of personal integrity which is indispensable to being a good student and henceforth a good citizen.