Chapter 33 Speech at the Symposium on General Education Work

(March 7, 1957) Our teaching plans and textbooks are consistent across the country.Is there a problem with this approach? Can the provinces add some teaching materials? Do the provinces feel restricted? Are there still private middle schools in each province? Private middle schools can still be established, but the government will not accept them after they are established.Once privately established and accepted, the enthusiasm for privately run schools will not be high. It is still a good way to set up a wearing hat middle school [1].Running middle schools is an advanced experience in rural areas. Farmers' children can go to the nearest school and go home to produce after graduation.If the teachers are poor, some of them can be transferred from good middle schools to support them.If the quality of running schools is poor, Confucius [2] has not received such an education yet.This is to solve the problem of farmers' children going to the middle school nearby. There are also grass-roots troupes[3] for singing opera.In rural areas, education should emphasize popularization, not improvement, and not overemphasize quality.The curriculum can also be simpler. There are eight or nine subjects such as Chinese, mathematics, history, geography, physics, chemistry, agricultural production knowledge, politics, etc., and others can be self-study in the future.These schools are mainly for the knowledge needed by farmers in production and labor. There is no restriction if they want to go to higher education. Students with good grades can go to higher education, and some may not.The famous Soviet writer Gorky did not go to middle school, and he was not self-taught! Xiao Chunv[4] also did not go to any formal school, and she is not bad at running a newspaper.Don't take off the hat of the middle school that wears a hat. If conditions allow, you should wear it more. Schools should be scattered in the countryside. It is not good to take it off.

How much is the bursary now? The bursary should be adjusted.It will take three to five years for the rural cooperatives to do well. At present, the history of cooperatives in most areas is only one year. Last year, there were very few sideline businesses, and the income of farmers did not increase much. Life is still hard. It is not easy for children to go to school to provide food. question.According to the current economic situation, it is planned to expand the bursary within two or three years, so that 70 to 80 percent of the children of rural families can enjoy the bursary and help farmers solve some difficulties.After three years, when the difficulties of the agricultural cooperative are reduced or eliminated, the grants can be gradually reduced.Currently, stipends should be given according to the difficulties of students, and cannot be considered as scholarships.

In order to solve the problem of high school graduates' tight enrollment, middle school enrollment can be increased.The primary school also increased some students at the same time.Issues about social and private organizations can be handled if conditions allow, but it is not easy to issue orders.The current difficult situation is mainly due to the severe famine last year, so this year's income cannot be greatly increased.Last year, we dug up our savings and dug out our old capital. The material reserves were used up, and the steel, timber, and bamboo materials were used up.The production of light industry, mainly cotton yarn and cloth, cannot be compared with that of last year, and the tax revenue is not as much as last year.It should be made clear to students so that they understand the overall economic situation of the country.With only this money and these things, the country can only run so many schools.

Schools should vigorously carry out ideological education, and carry out education in observing discipline and working hard.Students must be able to endure hardships and start from scratch.Aren't we all people who have been through hardships? Socialism is hard work.In the future, we should promote the spirit of hard work to workers, peasants, soldiers, and students.An atmosphere should be promoted in schools where teachers and students share joys and sorrows and run the school well together.Emphasis should be placed on cultivating students' creative spirit and not making them look like flowers in a greenhouse.From now on, no matter who recruits students, don't talk about it, don't talk about everything in a bright and beautiful way, but talk about difficulties, pour some cold water on the students, and make them mentally prepared.The trend of students falling in love should be reversed.There is no need to amend the provisions on the age of marriage in the Marriage Law, but it is necessary to persuade young people to marry later.The Ministry of Education should compile some texts specifically on hard work, from elementary school to university.

To strengthen political and ideological education in schools, each province must have a Minister of Propaganda and a Director of Education to personally handle this work. There should be political classes in middle schools.Politics classes should be related to reality, lively and interesting, not dogmatic, and let middle school students know some principles of life.If the history of social development from monkeys to humans is repeated with the history class, the history class can start with the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and talk about victories and difficulties.Textbooks should be revised every two or three years so that they do not deviate from reality.Dong Chuncai[5] can do less administrative work and spend more time compiling textbooks. He can also ask Zhang Jichun and Hu Qiaomu[6] to assist in compiling textbooks.

Party committees should guide the thinking of young people and guide the thinking of teachers.Why can't the secretary of the county party committee talk to the principals of primary and secondary schools once or twice a year, and hold meetings once or twice? Recently, the central government will issue instructions to talk about this matter.The first secretaries at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels have to take care of this matter. If the secretary doesn't care, it's very difficult for the propaganda minister to take care of it.Three or four days in the first half of the year, three or four days in the second half of the year, seven or eight days a year is enough.The secretaries of provincial, prefectural and county party committees should be tasked with managing ideological work, newspapers, schools, literature and art, and broadcasting.

Soviet textbooks should be learned, and what should not be learned should not be learned.If you want to carry out a reform, don’t copy foreign ones. It must be in line with China’s conditions and have local characteristics.Agricultural textbooks should be compiled by provinces, geography can be compiled by local geography, literature should also have local literature, and history can have its own historical materials.The courses should be reduced, the weight should be reduced, and the categories should be reduced in order to achieve comprehensive development. The lines of "Guan Guan Jujiu" [7] have no poetic taste at all, and no one understands "Chu Ci" and "Li Sao".The Chinese class can choose the works of "Water Margin", "The Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties" [8].There are too few compositions now, at least once a week, if you have difficulties, you can do less.

Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Wearing hat middle school refers to the junior high school class added to the primary school. [2] Confucius, that is, Confucius, see note [12] on page 84 of this volume. [3] Grass stage troupe refers to a troupe with fewer actors, poor equipment, and frequent performances in rural areas or small cities. [4] Xiao Chunv (1893-1927), a native of Hanyang, Hubei.He joined the Communist Party of China in 1922, and served as the editor-in-chief of "Xinshu Daily" and the editor-in-chief of "China Youth".

[5] Dong Chuncai (1905-1990), a native of Daye, Hubei, an educator.At that time, he was the Deputy Minister of Education. [6] Zhang Jichun (19001-1968), a native of Yizhang, Hunan, was the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.Hu Qiaomu (1912-1992), a native of Yancheng, Jiangsu, was an alternate secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong's secretary. [7] See "The Book of Songs Zhou Nan Guan Ju".The whole poem reads: "Guanguan Jujiu, in the river continent. A fair lady, a gentleman likes to eat. There are various watermelon vegetables flowing left and right. My fair lady, I want it. I can't ask for it, and I think about it. You are leisurely, tossing and turning. The difference Harvest waterweed, pick it from left to right. My fair lady is a friend of the harp. Mix waterweed from left to right. My fair lady, play with bells and drums."

[8] The Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties refer to Tang Dynasty writers Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan and Song Dynasty writers Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi.