Chapter 10 Part II: The Proclustian Bed of Education

Dear Teacher Xu: A friend recommended your "Tuqiong Dialogue" to me at noon today, and I went to four bookstores to buy it.I haven't finished reading the content of the book, so I can't wait to write this email to you.I really need your guidance and help! My name is Tai Nan, I am 19 years old, and I was born in rural Henan.My parents divorced when I was three years old, and I lived with my mother.In the first year of high school, my mother lost the ability to work due to a car accident.Since then, I dropped out of school and entered the society as a typist in a private company.I am a girl who does not seek to make progress, stubborn, stubborn, fickle, and has an elusive character since childhood.

I thought my whole life would be like this.Until two months ago, I listened to a speech given by the New Oriental Western Lecture Group in Henan, which ignited my desire to pursue knowledge and find the power of hope in despair.I want to go back to school and repeat high school.I want to realize my own life value and let life live a bright color.However, if I study full-time, I don't have the ability to pay high tuition fees and living expenses.If you choose correspondence education, although you can work part-time while studying, you cannot receive formal education.Now my heart is on fire and I need a right choice to decide my life.

Teacher Xu, since "you have changed the lives of many people", you must be able to change mine too.I need your guidance.Hope to have the opportunity to get your consultation, and hope to have the opportunity to be your student. Thai Nan Dear student Tai Nan: Your letter filled me with sympathy for your fate and admiration for your fighting spirit.A girl like you must be strong, must be self-improving, and must strive to be strong! However, you need the right choice even more.If those children who are born more fortunate, looking around on the road of struggle will only make them less happy, and your wrong choice may threaten your right to live and strengthen the misfortune of your fate.Therefore, others can choose wrongly, but you cannot bear the consequences of wrong choices.

I see from your letter that fate has robbed you of finishing high school, that you have become a typist, have been able to support yourself, and apparently have taken care of your mother.I think this is your success and I'm so proud of you! I strongly suggest that you continue on the current path of employment, while developing and improving your employability and strength, look for and create opportunities for yourself to continue learning and further study, and never give up your job and study part-time . If you take the first path and learn while working, you will at least ensure survival between survival and development, and you will not give up development; if you take the second path, giving up work and studying, you may not only fail to learn, but even survive. Threatening you all the time.

In Chapter 23 of "Tuqiong Dialogue Records", when I was giving career guidance to a college student, I mentioned the industry of "listening and playing". This industry has very good development prospects and high income. There are countless listeners working in TV stations and conference centers.A friend told me: A TV station has a director who saw the typing needs of the TV station, and immediately opened a listening and typing company by himself, and soon almost contracted the entire TV station's business, and is now very rich. I think the industry of "listening and playing" is directly in line with your current job, which is a natural upgrade of your current job.In fact, when you change from a typist to a typist, in terms of your income and status, it is equivalent to Alto becoming an Audi.With a small occupational risk and a certain amount of "learning" energy, the salary can be more than doubled.You are in the industry and should know more than I do.

Of course, if the main market of Tingta is in Beijing, it is worthwhile to come to Beijing for this.At the same time, I also suggest that you think about it in reverse, is there no market for Tingta in Henan?There must be.Moreover, since there are not many Tingda companies there, there may be more opportunities. This is the future thinking method I advocate: If you consider and measure your own way out with market demand, there will be many opportunities.And if the standard of life value is measured by academic qualifications and knowledge, then the road of life will be very narrow... because the opportunities that the market provides to talents are all in today; in forever.

Your "as if on fire" mentality reminds me of a famous Greek myth: "The Bed of Proclustes".In the story, the demon Proclustes had a bed, and he guarded the intersection, and when he saw passers-by, he caught them and put them on the bed to measure them. If the bed was too long, he would chop off his feet with an axe, and if it was too short, he would lengthen it. In order to meet the standard of his bed.As a result, none of the people he measured died. Your letter actually reflects this disregard for personal reality and the desire to meet the standards imposed by others.I would rather lengthen or shorten myself, but also conform to the "recognized" academic standards of the society.Everyone's height is different, (for example, Yao Ming's height is not as suitable as Mr. Xu and me, but this does not affect Yao Ming's entry into the NBA, becoming the greatest goodwill ambassador to improve the image of the Chinese people, promoting the friendship between China and the United States, more than My old man has contributed even more!), similarly, everyone's educational background and the innate and acquired conditions for obtaining academic qualifications are also different.Moreover, academic qualifications play different roles in the survival and development of each individual.

Please allow me to play Yao Ming’s joke again: If his parents are academic fans and force him to play professional basketball after completing his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph. , and then cut off the excess part of him to become a person who meets the standard of Proklustus.Think about it, how miserable it would be! I'm sure you see what I mean: the cult of degrees, the cult of knowledge, is a bed of Proxtes.This bed threatens the fate of you and contemporary Chinese youth.You are not the only Chinese youth who wish to fit the size of this bed, they exist in different age groups, and spread across all levels of education.

This bed looks gentle and comfortable, with a "white-collar" eiderdown quilt on it and a "high-salary" gold silk blanket underneath, but it may not be suitable for everyone to sleep soundly.For example, it is not suitable for you.Given your personal and family situation, when survival is a major problem, if you insist on studying for academic qualifications, it is equivalent to stretching yourself on the bed of Proxtes with this academic qualifications. , even if his hands and feet are not separated and he is pulled to death, Future Future will definitely be seriously injured.

I urge you not to be tempted by this "Bed of Academic Proxtes".Temporarily put aside the plan of studying for academic qualifications, and concentrate all your energy on getting a job, making a living, and obtaining a livelihood that can bring you a stable survival and development!For example, the livelihood of "from typist to typist" was mentioned in my letter to you. It doesn't matter whether you really take listening and playing work as your goal, what is important is that I want you to establish your own awareness of employment and making a living.Because, once you take employment, survival, development, and serving your unfortunate mother who has lost the ability to work as an important goal of your life struggle, your confusion will immediately disappear, and your choice will immediately come to light. .All kinds of opportunities and choices will appear in front of you like flowers on the hillside, making your barren life full of brilliant opportunities.

Once again, I express my deep sympathy and condolences to your poor family, divorced parents, mother's car accident, and bad luck.My sympathy, though sincere, I know it is also cheap.For, while human sympathy may temporarily comfort less fortunate souls, it does not really improve their existence.And if you can really rise up and bravely fly towards the window of hope of your life because of my respect and guidance to you, this is the only comfort and pride in my heart facing you! Learning is important.But don't forget, let alone betray the challenge of survival.Education is important, but don't regard it as the bed of Proxtes.Overcome the challenge of survival, relieved the pressure of life, dismantled the devil's bed in my heart, and then invested my very limited time and money resources in learning designed for career development (such as learning listening and playing), For a girl like you, it's actually a brilliant success.How many successful people in the world are like this, realizing their own life value. Finally, tell a famous story about you to inspire you.Mr. Li Ka-shing, you know it, but do you know a fact?Mr. Li Ka-shing is an orphan!At the age of 14, he will shoulder the great responsibility of supporting his family.You are even luckier than him! I look forward to hearing from you about your success in your competitive struggle to survive. I love you, Xu Xiaoping