Chapter 8 Section 7 Educational Thought

Confucius is not only a great thinker, but also a great educator.Before him, there were only government-run schools in China to teach the children of nobles, which was called "learning in the government"; since Confucius gathered disciples to give lectures, there were private schools.His pioneering work in the field of education will forever shine in the annals of history.Private education is not only a result of the downward shift of culture, but in turn it promotes the process of this downward shift.Confucius began his teaching career in his 30s and almost never stopped throughout his life. It is estimated that the most prosperous period of his educational career was before becoming an official at the age of 50 and after returning to Lu at the age of 68.Some of his students were from noble families, some from poor families; most of them came from Zoulu, and some came from distant Qin, Chu, Wu and other countries to learn from them.In short, Confucius has taught 3,000 disciples successively throughout his life, and 72 of them are proficient in the six arts.The results are quite impressive.

.But the main thing is to cultivate talents for the society who have the knowledge and skills of rites and music and understand the way of benevolence and rites.He often sends his favorite students out to serve as officials in order to realize his political ideas, which can be seen from the purpose of his teaching. He believes that the talents he cultivates should be gentlemen with both knowledge and skills and noble morals.He said: "Quality is better than writing, and literature is better than quality. History. Gentle and gentle, then a gentleman." ("Yong Ye") Question refers to a person's moral character, and text refers to his accomplishment in etiquette and education. These two aspects It is not good for any one side to win. We must make them develop in a coordinated manner. "The Analects of Confucius Shuer" said: "Ziyi teaches four things: literature, behavior, loyalty, and faith." These four aspects are the content of his teaching. It belongs to the category of moral cultivation. "Teaching in four ways" is the guarantee for cultivating talents with both character and learning.

Confucius advocated "There is no discrimination in education" ("Wei Ling Gong"), which is the specific application of the thought of benevolence in education, and it is a highly praised point in his educational thoughts.In that era when there were distinctions between high and low ranks and social family boundaries were still very strict, Confucius was able to educate all seekers regardless of rank and family, which was not only enlightened, but even had great reform significance to a certain extent. .Those civilian children who were not qualified to enter official schools were educated by Confucius, who implemented the principle of "teaching without discrimination", and a large number of them were transferred to the ranks of scholars.Later, people who opened private schools followed suit, which made the scholar class continue to grow.

Confucius has rich teaching experience and is good at analysis and thinking, so he proposed a series of teaching methods.He advocates teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. The same reason, the key points and requirements for students with different personalities are different. His teachings to Zilu and Ran You are a good example.According to the students' strengths and personalities, he divided them into four subjects: morality, speech, political affairs, and literature, just to teach students in accordance with their aptitude.He is good at teaching heuristics.He said: "If you don't get angry, don't open up, if you don't get angry, don't express. If you take one corner and don't use three corners to reverse it, you will never return." ("Shu Er") This is to ask students to think about the problem and find out the answer. Only when he thinks about it But if you can't figure it out, when you want to say it but can't say it, give me some pointers, so as to achieve the effect of drawing inferences about other cases from one instance.The advantage of this is that it mobilizes the initiative and enthusiasm of students. Students not only acquire knowledge, but also learn how to think about problems.Another characteristic of Confucius teaching is that theory is integrated with practice. He taught the Six Classics to students, and at the same time started discussions in conjunction with major political events that occurred at that time. Through discussions, students understood Confucius' thoughts more deeply, and Confucius also benefited from the students' wisdom and realized Teaching is beneficial.Confucius taught his students not only by words, but also by example. He himself is a model of Confucian ethics. He has a high degree of principle, perseverance, rich knowledge of ancient documents, a variety of practical skills, a philosophical attitude towards life, humility and kindness. The way of treating people and so on.His personality has far more influence on his disciples than his teaching.Zigong said: "The sages of others, even the hills, can still be surpassed; Zhongni, the sun and the moon, can't be surpassed." It is very deep, look ahead, and look behind." ("Zihan") Disciples respect and admire Confucius' personality and knowledge, follow Confucius all his life, and strive to practice his ideas and ideals. These are the words and teachings of Confucius. , The result of paying equal attention to teaching by example.

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