Chapter 4 3. Life in school

Father was determined to let us enter St. John's University, because it was the most famous English-language university in China at that time.He wanted the best for his son and even dreamed of going to the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in England and Berlin in Germany.Because he is an idealist.When I was in the United States, I was forced to leave the United States and go to France due to financial difficulties, and joined the Youth Association to serve the Chinese laborers.Later I wrote to him, saying that I already had enough savings, plus my wife's jewelry, and I should go to Germany to study again.I know this news will bring him unprecedented joy, because he has always dreamed of the University of Berlin!My father and I were equally idealistic, because both father and son appreciated humor and shared an incorrigible optimism.When I went abroad to study with my bride, I was bare-handed, and only had half a precarious Tsinghua scholarship and a one-way travel fee.Taking risks is taking risks, but he didn't stop me.This is a matter that no man of the world would dare to try lightly, but I managed to do it.What am I worried about?I often have good luck, and I have confidence in myself, and the experience of poverty in my childhood is enough to increase my courage and courage, so all kinds of difficulties are not enough to chill my courage and stop me from going forward.

Since my father was determined for me to learn English, that is to say, when I was in elementary school, I liked and encouraged our brothers to speak English, and spoke as many words as we could, such as pen, pencilpaper, etc., although he himself did not understand a single word.He tried to ask me what my lifelong aspirations were, and when I was concerned I replied, I aspire to be an English teacher or a physics teacher.I think my father must have indirectly hinted at my enthusiasm for English.As for the so-called physics teacher, I meant to invent machines.Because when I was in elementary school, I had already learned the principle of the suction pipe; for several months, I used it as a joke, and I really wanted to invent an improved suction pipe that could make the well water flow upwards and flow automatically to our garden.Although it was not successful, I still can't forget to solve the problem.Although at my age I can see the folly of the matter, that question still haunts me, like all other unresolved questions.Ever since I was a child, I have been very happy when I saw a machine, as if I was fascinated; so I often stood still and stared at the machine that carried us from the stone yard to Xiamen.I still believe that my greatest contribution in the future will be in the invention of machinery.As for the fact that when I first entered St. John's, I enrolled in the liberal arts instead of the sciences, that was purely accidental.I love mathematics and geometry, so my hobby for scientific analysis made me choose linguistics instead of modern literature as my special subject, because linguistics is a science that most needs scientific minds to do analysis in the study of literature Work.I still believe that I will invent the most refined and best Chinese typewriter in the future. Needless to say, I will be full of plans and ideas to invent other things.It would not be surprising if I suddenly became a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when I was fifty years old, after my six or seven-year plan to engage in literary work was completed.

When I was seventeen, I went to Shanghai.Since then, my relationship with English has never been severed, and I have lost all my foundation in Chinese.Looking at it now, my Chinese foundation at that time was actually superficial and not deep.In fact, my secondary education was wasted.The little knowledge of the scriptures I have was acquired from my father's court training in my early years.When I joined St. John's, I had already taken a real interest in Su Dongpo's literature, and was reading Sima Qian's "Historical Records", and then I would stop completely (this is partly the university's fault, and partly my own fault).I wasted my time at school, like most young people, and for that I can only blame the educational system then and now.God knows I'm as hungry for knowledge as a hungry person begging for food, but the modern school system is based on two assumptions: one is that students are not interested in various subjects; the other is that students cannot seek knowledge by themselves.Therefore, the curriculum is organized in a low-level manner, and is designed for those students who have no interest in the coursework.In addition to these two disadvantages, there is an extremely time-consuming and useless academic system, that is, students are required to answer books and give points (students are forced to memorize facts and numbers, which are all designed for the convenience of teachers to ask questions).This is all the result of a divided education system, whereby unnatural examinations and points are used as tools for measuring knowledge, and the personal needs of the individual teachers for each student at each stage of spiritual development are related to the actual income of each individual. It was completely ignored.I know that I am most interested in natural sciences and topography; I can read a geography book with 100,000 words without the guidance of a teacher, but I only need to read one and a half pages a week at school, and it takes a lot of time to read. It took a whole year to finish reading a geography textbook with less than 30,000 words.The same is true for the rest of the subjects.Besides, the implication of being obliged to attend classes, or of the teacher being responsible for the reading, was something I disliked so much that I disliked any book the teacher asked me to read.To this day, I refuse to read a book or a person's work, no matter its literary value, for the sake of conscientiousness.We students all feel that we should read as little as possible, and just asking for points to pass is enough.According to my aptitude, I have never had to consider the question of passing points. Since I entered the school, my points have never been lower than passing.As a result, I did less work than other students; I ate and slept, day after day, year after year, and from one level to the next, I was always among the best.My impetus to study hard was obtained only by letters of instruction from my father, who often thought my letters home were extremely shameful.It didn't mean anything to him that I got high marks in school or advanced to a high level, and he was right.If at that time there was a library full of good books, allowing me to make friends with the world's literary giants alone, I would be particularly encouraged.Unfortunately, when I was in middle school, there was no library facilities, and the big difference between this church school in Xiamen and other non-Christian schools is that the students in our church school do not read Chinese newspapers, or any other newspapers.

I graduated second in high school, as did St. John's.Graduating second place seems to be my luck in school education throughout my life, and I have also analyzed its cause and effect as follows.Probably in every school there is a fool who is as smart as me, or a little less, but believes in points more than I do, and can study the homework in class seriously, which I cannot.I believe that if I work hard on my homework, it will be easy to win the championship, but I won't do it.First, I have never been serious about my courses.Secondly, I don't want to be the first in everything I do in my life.This may be due to the Taoist element in my blood.As a result, no matter at home or at school, every week of the exam, when other students were working hard in the "three-shift lights and five-shift chickens", I wandered freely, went to the Suzhou River to catch eels, and stirred up the wind and rain Lure other friends to go fishing together.At that time, I really didn't understand the magic power of knowledge and the beauty of learning, which fascinates me today and makes me go deep into the road of exploring the mystery, so lost and forgetting to return.

For half of my life, whether in school or out of school, it has been a constant process, and I never know whether I am in school or out of school, during semester or during vacation.This doesn't make much difference to my reading habit, except that during the holidays I can openly read and show off, but when I arrive at school, I have to peek secretly and worry about fouling.But even the best teachers and the best schools can't completely ban me from reading the books I love.It doesn't bother me to spend ten or twenty minutes now and then preparing for homework.But it has convinced me (an opinion I often express in newspaper articles these days) that schools are places where it is illegal for students to read books.That place devoted the best time of the day to classes, shutting the students in from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.Anyone who peeks at miscellaneous books or exchanges opinions (so-called classroom chats) during school time is a crime and a crime.In middle school classrooms, one is only allowed to sit quietly with one's mind empty, listening to other students' wrong answers to questions.Even in college, this time is spent listening to lectures in class.This, I believe, is the greatest invention of the wasted time of mankind.A boy who can close his lips and empty his mind is said to have good conduct and get A-class conduct points, and the best student in the classroom is one who is good at understanding the teacher's psychology and catering to the teacher's meaning in the exam answers.In terms of Chinese characters, the best student in the classroom is the "flatworm in the teacher's belly", because he alone knows what the teacher wants him to say and thinks what the teacher wants him to think.Anyone who deviates from this way, or does not conform to the textbook, or has some independent thinking, is considered a heresy.From this, it is not difficult to know why I have been unable to rank first after graduation many times.

In St. John's Chinese class is my blissful world, during which I can peek at some books.Our Chinese teachers are old pedants, perhaps profoundly knowledgeable, but in my opinion, they are all grotesque and ridiculous.They are all old-fashioned quiet and elegant gentlemen, but they can't teach homework, and they don't understand world geography. One of them actually told us that we can travel from China to the United States by car.We have a good knowledge of geography, and we couldn't help booing.I remember an old Master Jin, about four feet ten inches tall, who spent the whole semester teaching us only forty pages of Chinese civil law in large print.I am very angry.Every hour, he only explains the ten lines that don't need to be explained. Even if he is the best at wasting time, he can finish the lecture in less than ten minutes. At other times, he uses it as a Buddhist meditation meditation, without looking at the students. , not looking at the scroll, nor at the wall.This is really the best situation for peeking at books.I believe that my reading at this time is not harmful to others, but beneficial to myself.During this period, my mind was quite developed and I loved reading.One of my favorite books was Chamberlains "Foundations of the Nineteenth Century" (Chamberlains "Foun Bdations of the Nineteenth Century"), which surprised my history teacher very much.I also read Haeckels "Riddlle of the Universe", Wards "Sociology", Spencers "Ethics" and Westermer. (Westermarck) On Marriage.I'm interested in evolution and the proof of Christianity.Theology books make up one-third of our library.Once when I went home during the holidays, I preached on the altar in the church, developing that the Old Testament should be read as a variety of literature, such as "Job" is a Jewish drama, "Kings" is a Jewish history, "James" "Song" is a love song, and "Genesis" and "Genesis" are good, very interesting Jewish myths and legends. — This missionary speech terrified my father.

I wasn't any better in English class either.I love French and psychology, but I put up with two classes of French and psychology just like I put up with a Chinese class.I believe I was an anachronism then.The faculty member who was most sympathetic to me was a professor of history, Professor Barton, who was surprised to see me read Chamberlain's great work.But he also couldn't be comfortable with me looking out of the window during his lecture time.All in all, I didn't get much out of the lectures in class.There I don't have many opportunities to ask questions, and I can't cut open the teacher's confidant and examine it carefully, just like dealing with the author of a book, and I can't freely choose what I want to know and search like in a book.When I listened to the speech, I heard satisfactory and interesting sentences, but I couldn't write down every word.It seems that when I read a book, I randomly mark the agreeable and interesting lines with a pen, so as to slowly linger and chew.I hate points the most, although I have passed all kinds of exams.Sometimes I just believe that I have successfully fooled the instructor into believing that I know the lesson, but sometimes I think my professor is not that stupid.All I need is a complete library, and there isn't one.Later, when I went to Harvard University, I had to study hard in the book forest in the library, and I realized the loss I had been in the university.