Chapter 7 Chapter Six: The People Ask the Sky Six Questions

I don't know anything in China that can attract the attention of the people more than the topic of education and children's college entrance examination.During my long and numerous interviews, both students and parents asked me and themselves many unanswered questions, which made me feel the seriousness of the problem and was at a loss.My high school class teacher Zhang Weijiang is now the director of the Shanghai Education Commission, and Chen Zhili, the Minister of Education who is now his immediate boss, came to Beijing from Shanghai.Teacher Zhang Weijiang and Minister Chen were acquaintances in the past. He knows better than anyone that the series of reform measures that Minister Chen has carried out since he became the Minister of Education have made great strides. However, Teacher Zhang Weijiang still told me that there are some questions that need to be "asked." , not all the competent departments can answer and solve it all at once.

So, I had no choice but to ask the heavens on behalf of the people—— Mr. Wang Meng, who was the Minister of Culture and is now the vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, also experienced embarrassment: he had done the current Chinese test papers several times, but the results were not satisfactory. The best score was 60, and the rest is failing. Perhaps in today's digital age, literati with pens have been degraded as low-intelligence people, but the only thing we are confident about is that our ability in writing can still compete with others a few times.Unexpectedly, however, today, our only advantage has also been lost. People who can write articles and produce great books cannot even pass the Chinese level of a primary and secondary school.

A certain gentleman is also a famous writer. His son has already published a novel under his influence, but he told me sadly that he gave his son a "compression" during a mid-term exam in junior high school. As a result, the master writer only scored 52 points for his "composition on the topic", and the teacher said that the composition lacked standardized language.From then on, the son dared not let his father, who is a famous writer, do it for him. The daughter of the writer Mo Yan once "borrowed" a certain paragraph of his famous work to write in the composition. After the teacher read it, when the daughter took it home and showed it to him, Mo Yan showed shame and anger on his face: My work There is not a sentence that is not a sick sentence!

The poet Zou Jingzhi once did a thankless thing for his daughter in elementary school. The teacher asked to write an idiom based on the meaning of the sentence, such as changing "about the same thinking and working together" into an idiom.Zou Jingzhi told her daughter that it should be "working together".As a result, the teacher made a mistake, and the standard answer was "work together".The other question is to write the meaning of "very lifelike" into an idiom. Zou Jingzhi instructed her daughter to write "lifelike" after careful thought.But the next day, the daughter ran over angrily and asked her father, "Dad, why did you say something wrong again? The teacher said it should be lifelike."The poet Zou Jingzhi was so angry that he couldn't speak, but he really wanted to use his sentimental pen to shout: to hell with everything, this kind of education will only lead our children to a dead end!

By the way my own experience.Because of that era of catastrophe, I didn’t even learn the most basic pinyin in primary school, but I think that from school to now, I have always been superior in composition writing among my peers, so the only thing I feel superior to my daughter is “I can write your composition.” You are going to college" - I have always expressed this to my daughter confidently, and my daughter has indeed followed suit.The father who was a writer had benefited from it.But when my daughter entered the third grade of junior high school, one day when I continued to "actively" ask her to "join the battle", she refused, and told me firmly and ruthlessly: If I continue to follow your composition, I may have to be punished. Remove the representative of the Chinese department. If it is serious, I may even lose my grades in the high school entrance examination!Oh my god!What my daughter said scared me so much that I no longer dared to mention my self-conscious "advantage" writing skills in front of her, and now it has developed to the point where I don't even need my "guidance" in her composition.My daughter said that if I don't write according to the teacher's requirements, I will definitely not get a high score. Do you want your daughter to fail to enter a key high school?Can't get into college?So, for the sake of your daughter's future, Dad, please temporarily wrong the self-esteem of the great writer.

My daughter’s words somewhat comforted me, but I still felt uneasy in my heart.Then I actually saw—— The article "Concerns about Chinese Language Education" in the 11th issue of "Beijing Literature" in 1997 triggered a nationwide discussion. After that, "People's Daily", "Guangming Daily", "Beijing Evening News", "Yangcheng Evening News", "Southern Weekend" and other newspapers successively launched a series of articles calling for "exploding the Chinese language".At the same time, all walks of life have also joined the discussion on "Chinese language education". The participation of experts from famous universities and scientific research institutions such as Peking University, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has made middle school Chinese become a major issue overnight. The target of public criticism.

"The problem of textbook compilation is the saddest part of Chinese language." This is the common "hate" of almost all experts and scholars. "From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the end of the 20th century, during the fifty years, we had nine sets of Chinese textbooks. In the early sets, knowledge was the most important, while in the mid-term, they were full of political color. Since the 1980s, Chinese The textbooks seem to pay attention to humanistic awareness, but unfortunately, there is almost no new content in the textbooks that can keep pace with this era... Such Chinese textbooks will not allow our children to become humanistic spirits and intellectuals under the highly developed natural sciences. The dwarf is the one to blame."

"In the next century, children will use the Internet, shop online and design new homes on the planet, but they will not know how to face and deal with the relationship between people around them, and they will not even know how to use the most basic Language builds its own national spirit." "In the future society, anything can happen. We can go to the moon like other countries, and we can build our own missile defense system. However, we cannot use the same will and spirit to defeat other nations, because we The knowledge of humanities has long been exhausted, and the things in those Chinese textbooks have harmed us for several generations..."

When I calmed down and read these deafening words from the experts, my heart was strongly shocked.It suddenly occurred to me that I should find out the Chinese textbooks that our parents, our generation, and my daughter’s generation had read, to cite whether there would really be a major collapse of the Chinese humanistic spirit.Later, I found eight Chinese textbooks for the first grade of elementary school in different ages. These different textbooks in different ages make it easy for us to understand the path that Chinese education in China has gone through in the past fifty years. Here are the texts and the first few words and words that these people of various generations had to learn in their first class when they first walked into school.

Year lesson words, words Our school started in 1949, we Getting up in the morning and getting dressed Chairman Mao, workers, farmers in 1955 1958 Sun, Moon, Water, Earth, People, Hands, Feet In 1961, the commune sent me to school commune and school In 1978, Chairman Mao will always live in our hearts Chairman Mao, our In 1981, the people of the whole country loved the Communist Party, the Communist Party, and the people 1989 I am Chinese I love Beijing China, Beijing, I 1992 I am Chinese I love my teacher, I love my father China, teacher, father, mother Through the first sentence and the first words learned in the first class of the school in different years, it is not difficult to see that the editors of textbooks in different eras have a root in their hearts to write Chinese textbooks. This is the brand of the times at that time.In the past 50 years, China has roughly experienced three major historical processes. One is the ten years before the "Cultural Revolution". It was the ten years of the "Cultural Revolution", and politics made the Chinese people's minds so simple that they only needed "direction" and no other blindness; the third was the period of reform and opening up since the 1980s, when people paid attention to spirit, emotion, and the influence of the nation and the world on themselves .It can be seen that the teachers who compile the textbooks all follow the same "era criterion" in their minds, and the difference is nothing more than the quantitative and qualitative differences in depth and point of view.However, we found that in the process of continuous updating and changing of all other teaching materials, only the Chinese teaching materials have remained an old face in the past ten years.As long as we flipped through the children's junior and senior high school textbooks, we immediately noticed that the "Chinese" textbooks, which are getting more and more beautifully bound and more expensive, are outdated and single in content. Whoever looks at it will be annoyed", Di Qi.

"Too many articles by political figures are selected, and whoever has the highest official position will be included in the Chinese textbook." "The selection and compilation of Lu Xun's articles is also worthy of study, should so many be selected?" "Among the twelve Chinese textbooks for middle school, works written by writers outside China accounted for only 8%, and it should have been 30% to 40%. Except for Gorky, one of the foreign writers in the 20th century No, none of the writers who won the Nobel Prize in Literature were selected..." This is a conversation between several students at Peking University and their supervisor Professor Qian Liqun at the end of 1998.It makes people feel that scholars have a lot of their own views on the "unbalanced" content of the selection and compilation of existing Chinese textbooks, but our writers seem to have less views on this issue. Drama critic Dong Daoming was a high school student in 1952. He said that what left the deepest impression on him was Ai Qing’s poem on visiting Su in Chinese class.Another article that he will never forget is Pu Songling's "Promoting Weaving". "The teacher suddenly called me up to recite the text, which was exactly what I had just recited, so I stood up and recited it without any stumbling. The teacher praised me for this. I can still recite it now, especially" Nusuoer, I don’t know where I’m going. Since I got his corpse in the well, I turned my anger into grief, and I’m desperate. The husband and wife are facing each other, the hut is smoke-free, relatively silent, and they don’t talk anymore.’ In this section, I think he used It’s amazing how the emotions of the characters can be expressed in just a few words.” Famous writers Jia Pingwa and Yu Qiuyu mentioned many times that they were influenced by Zhu Ziqing's immortal works such as "Moonlight in the Lotus Pond" and other immortal works when they talked about their beautiful prose and prose creation. "Moonlight in the Lotus Pond" is a true Chinese-style beauty, a classic that permeates Chinese humanism and the traditional spirit of Confucianism.Only those who can be soaked in "Moonlight in the Lotus Pond" can become real masters of prose.Jia Pingwa believed that articles like Zhu Ziqing's should be familiar to any learner of Sinology. In fact, the people who are influenced by a classic article in Chinese class are not limited to writers.A "capitalist" who already has assets of one billion told me with emotion that he said that he was influenced by the text "Grinding an Iron Pestle into a Needle" since he was a child, so he overcame his lack of tenacity. There are so many assets that can be piled up with gold, but business is done by a little bit, and the big and small transactions in the business field have a common value orientation. If you don’t have the spirit of grinding an iron rod into a needle, you will never It is impossible to have mountains of gold and silver.” Didn’t the stories of fighting heroes Huang Jiguang, Dong Cunrui, and Luo Shengjiao, as well as Lei Feng and Zhu De’s shoulder poles really influence thousands of boys and girls to become the pillars of the country? But why are people now expressing such fierce and sharp opinions on the Chinese language that has gone through fifty years of history? Why did Mr. Gong Meng, whose essays were selected into Chinese textbooks, only get 60 points? Of course, the problem also lies in the lack of scientificity and rationality in the compilation of teaching materials.Gu Zhenbiao, an authoritative person and director of the Chinese editorial office of the People's Education Press, analyzed it this way: In the first stage of New China (1950-1955), Chinese textbooks were edited by the Editorial Bureau of the General Administration of Publication of the Central People's Government.Six volumes each for junior high school and high school, published by People's Education Publishing House.This set of textbooks basically reflects the victory of my colleagues in all aspects of the people's democratic dictatorship, and eliminates the bad influence of feudal, comprador, and fascist ideology on the textbooks.However, there is no time for careful consideration in Chinese education, Chinese training and Chinese knowledge are not systematically arranged, and classical Chinese is too neglected. In the second stage (1956-1957), literature and Chinese textbooks were formed on the basis of the first reform of the content of Chinese textbooks after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.Six volumes for junior high school and four volumes for high school.Relatively established a relatively complete literature teaching system, most of the selected texts are masterpieces of famous authors, and the arrangement is relatively flexible and diverse, but due to the overemphasis on pure literature teaching, the composition teaching is neglected, and the training and cultivation of general Chinese ability is also neglected , but according to the arrangement of the Department of Literary History from ancient times to the present, which violates the principle of starting from the shallower to the deeper. In the third stage (1958-1960), Chinese textbooks were rewritten, with six volumes each for junior high school and high school.This set of textbooks has a wide selection of materials, and the texts are organized into units according to the ideological content. Short essays on Chinese knowledge are interspersed between each unit, but the total number of texts is too small.Later, in 1959 and 1960, the above deficiencies were revised again, but the arrangement of the units lacked planning, and the language training was not enough. In the fourth stage (1961 to 1965), there were 10-year and 12-year textbooks for junior high school and senior high school.This set of textbooks pays attention to political and ideological education, and pays attention to the cultivation of reading and writing skills. The selection of texts strives to be standardized and has a strong tool. However, the shortcomings are still obvious, that is, there is little practicality, and the arrangement is not rigorous and scientific. The Chinese textbooks during the "Cultural Revolution" were not worth mentioning, they were mostly quotations. The Chinese textbooks compiled in the fifth stage (1978 to 1988) played an important role in improving the quality of Chinese teaching for students. During this period, they were revised several times, but the old problems were still not well resolved, mainly due to the lack of atmosphere of the times. The sixth stage is the current Chinese textbooks in the last ten years of the 20th century. Although the experts tried to change the mistakes of the past, it was disappointing that they made the old mistakes again—they did not want to violate the so-called "sensitive areas". The "insurance" of choosing old content and discarding new content makes the entire textbook far away from reality and the times, and is eventually ridiculed as an antique that "the lessons taught by grandpa are still memorized by children and grandchildren". Everyone knows that there are certain problems in Chinese textbooks that cannot be rotated anymore, but it seems that no one can come up with a clever way to destroy them bravely! In 1995, East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai conducted an experiment in which 3,511 newly admitted junior college students, undergraduate students, master students, and doctoral students took a Chinese language test.The average score on the outcome test was 63.9.Another result is that the higher the degree, the lower the grades.In this test, master's and doctoral students all failed. Alas!Why?A doctoral student said: I majored in science. In fact, when I was young, I was very fond of Chinese, but after I went from elementary school to junior high school, I read and read those rigid things. The change is nothing more than an increase in the "depth of thought", and a few more articles written by ancient Chinese and foreigners.So after high school my interest turned to science. For the rigid and unchanging teaching materials, those teachers who have been teaching for a long time have more opinions, but most of them are unwilling to pierce this layer of paper. The example in the book "Blind Spot" is that Ma Wenqi is an ordinary Chinese teacher. He stepped onto the podium in 1954 and stood there for more than 40 years. His sighs about the textbooks were not just disappointment: In 1957, he sent away his first students.When teaching the second batch of students, he already knew the Chinese textbooks well. He really wanted to tell the students something new, so he thought over every text in the textbooks and made some new understandings from different angles and sides. New content has been added to the past lesson preparation notes, and his efforts have also brought about the students' grades. Teacher Ma Wenqi feels the unprecedented joy of being a teacher. After sending away several batches of students in this way, Mr. Ma Wenqi has been teaching for more than ten years. He has memorized the middle school Chinese textbooks back and forth, and he is called "Chinese Proficiency" in the school. Digging in the textbooks and telling the students something new was already beyond his reach. He felt that no matter how hard he thought about it, he would always return to what he had said.He felt at a loss what to do, and he felt that he was ashamed to be a teacher by giving lectures that he had taught so many times. He then reported to the school leader that he wanted to talk about some articles other than the textbooks. This was no different from shocking the world at the time. The answer he got was: it is the teacher's duty to talk about the textbooks, and it is absolutely not allowed to talk about other things.He had no choice but to give up this idea, and followed the scriptures, and he taught the textbook honestly, although, since then, he has become a little tired of the textbook. Teacher Ma Wenqi's shocking act became his unforgivable crime during the "Cultural Revolution". He must deeply reflect on the ideological motives behind the articles other than the textbooks, and what counter-revolutionary conspiracy is there. Did he want to take the opportunity to instill bad poison in the students? Teacher Ma Wenqi's answer was to let students have more exposure to some excellent literary works. As a result, this sentence became a bigger crime. Teacher Ma Wenqi was discounted by four ribs and imprisoned. After the new era, Mr. Ma Wenqi returned to the podium. Facing the immature faces eager for knowledge, he was filled with emotion. He rearranged his lesson preparation notes. Burned, but with all the notes hidden in his head, he resumed the hard work of teaching and educating people. From the first time he taught to the time when he returned to the podium and became a teacher again, nearly thirty years have passed in an instant, but he still has the same textbook in his hand.Although he went to prison because he wanted to talk about articles other than textbooks, he did not "seriously reflect on it."He once again proposed to the school that on the premise of teaching good textbooks, he would like to teach students some articles other than textbooks, because he has taught this textbook for nearly 30 years, and its antiquated feeling is self-evident.He feels that China has undergone earth-shaking changes, so he has great hopes for this proposal. But the school leaders did not listen to this, and only said that if the students fail the exam, which will affect the rate of admission, at that time, the board of education and the parents of the students will not agree. Teacher Ma Wenqi didn't understand, the school leaders just talked about the education committee and the parents of the students, why didn't they really consider the students?What role will they learn and use in society in the future? Why is no one caring about it? Ma Wenqi had no choice but to continue his lecture step by step. Looking at those students, sometimes he really couldn't bear to continue teaching like this, but he couldn't do anything about it.He sometimes thought, why no one has called for teaching material reform?He once appealed, but others spoke lightly. Once at a parent-teacher meeting, a parent of a student he didn't know excitedly called him teacher.It turned out that the parent of the student was a student he had taught in the 1950s.The student's parents are unforgettable to the teacher's kindness, and they are filled with emotion when recalling what happened back then.Ma Wenqi told the parents of the students that the child's Chinese is not very good.The parents of the students were also very distressed. Ma Wenqi couldn't sleep for several nights because of a sentence he said inadvertently.The parent of the student said: "Ms. Ma, why did I still learn from that textbook! I lost my student notes back then. If I don't lose them, I will let my child look at them and he will pass the exam. This child just doesn't take notes seriously." A casual remark expresses the aspirations of many parents in the world. Ma Wenqi, who has been a teacher for many years, felt stung by this sentence.If a Chinese notebook in the 1950s can help children in the 1990s get good grades, then what are we teaching children? Another time, when Ma Wenqi was asking questions in class, he was left speechless by the students.The student couldn't answer the topic and the general idea of ​​an article. When Ma Wenqi asked him to think about it, the student said: "Teacher, I am very tired of Chinese class. Yesterday, my father said that they divided the paragraphs and looked for the general meaning of the paragraphs. Looking for the theme of the work, why hasn’t it changed at all now?” Ma Wenqi looked at the childish student in front of him, and felt that what the student said was exactly what he wanted to say for so many years. He looked at the student, shook his head helplessly, told the student to sit down, picked up the chalk without saying a word, and put the "teacher" "The answer to the general idea and central idea of ​​the previous paragraph was copied on the blackboard, and the students were asked to copy it carefully on the notes, then memorize it and remember it firmly. Before retiring, Ma Wenqi had been looking forward to seeing the reform of Chinese textbooks, but in the end he left the podium where he had stood for more than forty years full of disappointment.He really wants to tell students that Chinese is not learned in this way, and the articles in the textbooks are also very limited. He really wants students to read more Tang poetry, Song Ci, Yuan opera,,, and even Laozi and Zhuangzi, but all these years he has only told students to read For a good textbook, you need to find the central idea, summarize the general idea of ​​the paragraph, pay attention to the explanation with little words, etc.The real Chinese education he expected has not been realized at all in his teaching career for most of his life. Retired Ma Wenqi looked at his little grandson, who had already entered high school, doing his homework under the desk lamp, and his grandson's textbooks were still the ones he used back then. Ma Wenqi couldn't help but shed tears.These tears should not be shed today in the late 1990s. After all, today is the era of reform and opening up! The sadness of the old teacher Ma Wenqi revealed a Chinese teaching material and a long-standing problem in Chinese education. This is the invisible behavior of the bureaucratic government.Su Yusheng, a teaching and researcher at the Chongwen District Teaching and Research Center in Beijing, pointed out the crux of this stubborn problem with his own experience: "I have taught for many years. After I came to the teaching and research center, I have listened to more than 1,000 Chinese lessons, with an average of more than 100 lessons per year. I think the main problem of Chinese class is to dismember a vivid text into a pile of knowledge platters, which makes students least interested in Chinese. I once surveyed which classes students like most, and there are very few people who like Chinese classes. It has something to do with our Chinese textbooks and teaching methods today, and it also involves government actions. For example, the outdated textbooks, the 101 basic chapters stipulated in the Chinese syllabus for middle schools now, all textbooks across the country must include these chapters. If you If the one hundred and one chapters are not properly selected, it will affect the students' college entrance examination. Therefore, teachers are bound by the teaching materials and also by the college entrance examination. If the basic content is cancelled, then the compilation of textbooks across the country can be liberated. I heard Some experts and scholars said that whether this basic content is worth discussing can only be resolved through government actions, and it is not the final decision of any level of educational leadership.” Once when I was giving a report at a famous middle school in Beijing, when I asked the students who could name the famous literary works published in China in the 1990s, no one could answer me. At the end, only one girl stood up and said: "Returning the Pearl and Princess by Qiong Yao." I can't laugh or cry. "Do you know how the current teachers ask our children to write essays?" An experienced parent told me eloquently, "It's actually very simple. They don't require children to have their own independent thinking, independent ideas, or even independent writing. vocabulary. Because in the eyes of the teachers, the closer the children's test ability to the 'standard answer', the better." I see.It turns out that our Chinese language has entered the digital "standard" operation stage.However, the high development of natural science has completely changed the way of thinking and language expression of human beings. This reminds me of the 1999 college entrance examination Chinese test questions announced in the news report, the teachers and students of a middle school in Chengdu, Sichuan cheered suddenly, it turned out that their teacher has passed the test this year. "Transplantation" is exactly the same as a popular science model essay he usually tells students!The teachers and classmates cheered for this long live—it is precisely because of the correct betting that at least half of the students in this class have taken several steps towards the door of the university. "What is the scariest thing? It's not the atomic bomb, it's the fact that our human creativity has been artificially stifled." Einstein, the greatest figure in the 20th century, warned us long ago.But some people in China's educational circles insist on doing such a thing that can be described as "insane"! "Her compositions are almost all lies, false feelings, and a complete collection of false stories. Almost all of her classmates have written stories about helping an old woman cross the street, giving an umbrella to a teacher, and borrowing a classmate's rubber. They happily edited the same story together. The story, and then set the three-element format of time, place, and character, and go to the teacher to get a good score. Their teacher said, "There are a lot of articles in the world, and anyone who doesn't copy is a fool." Poet Zou Jingzhi in "Daughter's Homework" He said impassionedly, "I have seen books like "Children's Composition Classics" in bookstores, which are placed on shelf after shelf. I don't know that the word 'classic' has become so casual now. The ultimate purpose of these books is not It's not to improve your writing skills, it provides you with some remodeled models for exams... I have met some college students who have read fewer classics than I did when I was an educated youth during the 'Cultural Revolution', and they They don't look at Balzac, they don't look at Feng Menglong, they don't look at Ginsberg, and they don't look at Bai Juyi. When it comes to hope, it is no longer possible to imagine that teenagers can write "Wild fires are endless, and spring winds are born again" It’s a famous sentence through the ages. It seems that the culture has improved, and it seems that there are more children going to school, but what we see are only children who have come out of the same mold.” What is the mold?Mold can be interpreted as "typical digitization" in avant-garde vocabulary.Once people's mental models appear in our world in thousands of forms like Motorola mobile phones, isn't it the day when human beings will self-destroy? The reason why China's teaching model caused people to panic and cry out for "rescue".This is the truth. Mr. Zhu Jianguo from Shenzhen mentioned two examples in an article that made me unforgettable.He said that Mr. Zhang Zhiqian, who participated in the 1998 college entrance examination Chinese examination paper, had such an experience. When he was marking the paper, he found that there was a question that required time to be the subject of two metaphorical sentences. Those who wrote "time is like a ship, take us to victory" Candidates in the "place" were all given full marks by the teacher who graded the test papers, while others wrote "time is like the sand in our hands, it leaks from our hands, and never returns; time is like a train, carrying us , After countless small stops in life, the candidates who finally arrived at death were judged by the teacher as "not active in thinking" and gave zero points.For this reason, Mr. Zhang, who was the teacher who judged the papers, had a quarrel with the teachers who were also judged the papers. In the end, he was the one who failed, and he also caused some leaders to have special opinions.Strangely, there was an authoritative teacher from a key middle school. In the year when he was transferred to a university, his son happened to be admitted to the university. His son asked him to answer the questions by betting, and his answer was judged as "full of mistakes". .Later, when he became the leader of the Chinese teaching and research team, he told everyone with his own authority that his answer was the standard answer. Those teachers who had judged him to help his son with the questions were "full of mistakes" applauded unanimously: the answer of the team leader is the standard answer. Our standard! Look, this is the so-called "standard answer" in Chinese education. It turns out to be so vacillating, and it turns out to be so random. When I was discussing this matter at Peking University with several sociology graduate students who had successfully passed the exams for more than ten years and entered the highest institution of higher learning in China, they were greatly moved: "standard answer" is a natural science. The concept of numbers is a product of the computer age.However, the interpretation and understanding of many problems in social sciences cannot be judged by any "standard answer".Chinese characters and vocabulary are rich, and a word can have several interpretations, as well as explicit and implicit meanings. Words like 'wholeheartedly' break down who's right and who's wrong.The standards and non-standards between them cannot be determined even by computers, not to mention our few teachers who rely on subjective judgments.However, in social sciences (in fact, some natural sciences also exist) "standard answers" are used to standardize and frame the cognition, behavior and ability of students and examinees. People who lose their intelligence, agility, independent personality, and creativity!This kind of national education, even if everyone enters the university, is very harmful. It is so big that it will destroy the vitality of our ancient and outstanding nation with the fastest and most mandatory timetable! China has gone through more than 5,000 years of recorded history, and the time of several generations is just a moment in the long river of history.But history often causes the ship to tilt hugely because of certain behaviors of a person or an era.From this, we imagine that from the past ten years when we have felt the danger of the "standard answer" to the future with such a strict and rigid exam-oriented education, there will be two to three generations of creativity and independent personality in China. destruction.And the next 20 to 30 years will be an era in which human beings develop more rapidly than ever before. When others have taught children how to search for resources and wealth through the Internet, we are still teaching children how to "grind the iron rod into Needle", the difference between these will not be long before China is eaten by others. Nearly 10 million candidates take the college entrance examination every year, plus their parents who are 100 million younger, and 300 million primary and secondary school students and college students and their family members, not every day in China, nearly half of the people are " standard answer" and working hard?Every year, there are a large number of students who are unable to continue their studies. Every year, there are so many students who rely on rote memorization to enter the threshold of rigid education. Every year, there are so many students who have experienced "standard answers" and got a paper diploma. Graduates who are hard to find a job, no matter whether they are "successful" or "failed", aren't they all victims of this artificial model education? From this point of view, no one knows how to write Chinese compositions, only those teachers who have formulated and memorized the "standard answers", those teachers who hold exam papers and red pens can do it.It's really sad. An expert told me that Chinese language test questions in China’s college entrance examination, especially composition test questions, can be said to have been 22 years since the resumption of the college entrance examination, and it is absolutely impossible to get a passing score, because it starts with selecting questions from the question bank of the National Examination Center and goes to the marking teacher’s The whole process of judging and scoring is full of "stereotyped writing style"!His words reminded me to carefully review the Chinese test questions of the college entrance examination in the past 22 years, and found that they were indeed very interesting and ridiculous. Exam questions fall into four categories.One is like "In This Year of Fighting" in 1977; Character"; three types are like "Feelings after Reading "Painted Eggs"" in 1980; four types are like another exam question in 1998: "Mom only washed one shoe".For these types of examination questions, the "teachers" self-evaluate that "the composition of the college entrance examination is discussed every year, and the essay questions are innovative every year."In fact, if you take a closer look, you will find that there is a common old problem in the Chinese test questions of the Chinese college entrance examination in China, which is the "stereotyped" spirit.It concentratedly reflects that the examination questions are always ambiguous and vague to attack the "imaginary enemy" of students; it often does not focus on composition as the dominant direction of examining students' writing ability, but makes examinees spend a lot of time and energy. Spend guessing the meaning of the question.For example, in 1988, there were four pictures of people falling into the water to save people, and in 1996, there were two comic questions in "Plastic Surgery for Six Fingers" and "Wrong Amputation".In fact, students' creative thinking can be brought into play, but candidates dare not do so, because the teacher has told them that if they don't deduct the questions, they will lose a lot of points.So who dares to let his thoughts fly easily?A stereotyped "standard answer" big hat is pressed on the examinee's head, do you want to play it?you dare?Beware that your whole life may depend on this "play"! Therefore, the students listen to the teacher's lectures in class every day, which are actually the "deduction questions" and "ideas" inherited from the "breaking questions" and "accepting questions" in the "stereotyped essays".The result is that when you talk about "deduction of questions", your strength makes you dance with your hands on; when you talk about "concept", you actually ask you to squat in a well and swim.Over time, the teachers who teach have a set of skills to deal with this kind of examination questions. For example, the teacher teaches the students: Whenever they encounter a question that needs to show "responsibility" in the future, they should follow the rules of "Talk about Kong Fanlin, criticize Wang Baosen, and think about it." "Qian Xuesen, contact middle school students" is enough to fill in the equation, and you will definitely get a high score.Therefore, in the 1998 college entrance examination composition theme "Overcoming Vulnerability" paper, thousands of candidates did not hesitate to let their parents "both die" in order to show their "strong" spirit. The teacher laughed, it's best to investigate, if it is true that both parents died, we will give good points, if not, we will also give good points, because this is a Chinese-style "standard composition". 用放大镜看完了语文教材和高考语文考题的幽默剧，再回头想想孩子们为什么不愿学语文，和今天我们庞大的国家，越来越出不了能写优秀作品的年轻人，是不是与此也多少有点关系？想想今天影坛、歌坛、电视台里那些肤浅不堪的“流行与时髦文化”，是不是也同样与我们多年来的语文教学有关呢？ 太闷了，有人就会出来说话。关于语文教材的改革问题，自《光明日报》、《羊城晚报》、《北京文学》等报刊频频发表文章后，1998至1999两年，几乎成了“讨伐中国语文”年。有人说，“让今天的孩子再读鲁迅的文章是教唆他学会跟政府对着干，是让他们从小学会伶牙俐齿”，“早该把鲁迅这样的古董从教科书还原到坟墓之中”；“郭沫若是什么？他的文章里渗满了奴骨，让孩子学他能获得赚钱的手段还是做人的准则”；“中国为什么出不了比尔·盖茨这样的软件之王，就是因为几代人一直在傻学雷锋故事和朱德的扁担那种傻人傻事”等等。本来是优秀民族文化的辉煌遗产，本来是中国新文化运动的杰出缔造者留下的经典之作，本来是共和国大厦与社会主义精神文明的基石，想动摇和抛弃它，不是很危险吗？什么可以丢，什么不可以丢，什么应该改进，什么应该弘扬，什么必须拒绝，什么必须坚持，如此大是大非，“秀才”们千万不要忘了，忘了就会出现麻烦。中华民族的优秀文化遗产和马列主义在任何时候都不能轻易“讨伐”的。记住这一点有好处。 值得一提的是，在我完成此作时，听到国家教委发出的关于《2000年秋季中小学教学用书目录》，首先是内容将作不低于三分之一的大调整，其次是高中语文的旧教材将被停止使用，这从另一个方面说明了现在的教育部门适应了时势的发展需要。同时也证明了社会上那么多人对现行教材的不满是有道理的。在今天国家教委所进行的一系列大刀阔斧的教育改革中，对教材的改革力度是前所未有的，让人欢欣鼓舞！ 我们期待新教材真的能适合培养高素质的下一代。 写这一问时，正好那天中央电视台午间新闻后的“今日说法”节目里，播出了这样一则内容：北京一个女高中生叫刘瑶，她母亲与天蝶公司签订了一个由刘瑶方出资十万元、公司方出资二十万元、两年之内由该公司将刘瑶培养成影视歌三栖明星的合同，但四个月后，刘瑶本人和她母亲觉得该公司没有什么作为，于是向公司提出退回已交付的五万元“培养费”款项。公司不干，说合同时间是两年内完成对刘瑶的“明星培养”，不予退钱。无奈中，刘瑶母亲把这家公司告上了法庭。最后法庭判定“天蝶公司”没能按照合同内容完成对刘瑶应该做的培训工作，应退回四万元。 《今日说法》持人最后说，此起民事官司，虽然原告刘瑶胜诉，但作为这样的民事案件，它给我们很多反面的启示，那就是：艺术明星这样的人才，并不是靠简单的人为包装培养就能实现的。主持人提醒广大学生家长，不要在培养子女问题上出现不合人才培养规律的错误做法。刘瑶的“明星梦”破灭的节目播出时间正好是新千年前夜。这件事永远留在了过去，但“刘瑶现象”在当今社会还有很多很多，我可以用一个简单的数字来说明：中国目前每年约有二十多万青年在影视圈内淘金，其中女孩子占百分之八十，也就是说约有十六万女孩子在等待着哪一天会像赵薇一样被“伯乐”发现和重用。也许平时我们确实看到生活中一夜成名的人物越来越多，所以才使一些家长为了儿女成才，不断地制造着无数神话和离奇故事。而今确实由于许多所谓的“明星”带给本人及家庭丰厚的物质与荣誉，因而使得无数梦想一夜之间改变命运的家长与青少年们，对明星的崇拜与追求，变得越来越疯狂。 单说赵薇的追星族们的所作所为就能让人气死。一个女孩子听说赵薇要到她生活的城市演出，后来因为知道是个“传言”，于是就跳楼自杀，虽被人救起，仍造成终身残疾。另一个姓李的女孩子死活要让父母到派出所把自己原来的名字改成“李薇”，父母说你这不是神经有毛病嘛！就这么一句话，这孩子就离家出走了，把父母急得满世界找，最后孩子的母亲心脏病复发，死在了找孩子的途中……这些令人痛心和荒唐的事情，不胜枚举。 1999年的北京电影学院因为《还珠格格》和学生赵薇的火爆，在新一年招生时简直空前热闹，着实让学院的知名度“实惠”了一番。本来表演系只招三十来个学员，后来报考者多达四千多名！我一个亲戚在电影学院工作，他告诉我当时招生的场面之壮观、之热烈，听后真让我感到我们这些梦想当明星的家长和孩子们太值得敬佩了。 他说有位广州来的母女俩，前两年曾来过电影学院报名，但因为没有考上，老师有意无意间说了“这孩子还是有些灵气的”，高中毕业的女儿本来可以考进一所文科类大学，也因此放弃了高考，母亲原来在一个公司当出口部经理也不当了，她说把女儿培养培养，以后成了明星“出口”，一夜一首歌就是几万元，一年接上三五个电视片，百八十万元还不像捡似的！为此，母女俩在广州请了几位专业教师当家教，天天训练，花出多少钱不说，光那间原来当客厅的四十多平米房间里的地板都磨薄了两毫米。当她们第三年出现在电影学院时，老师对那孩子的结论仍然是“有些灵气”，那孩子仍然被拒之校门外。女孩子哭得要死要活，当母亲的也不干了，责问老师凭什么不录取“有灵气”的孩子？老师被问急了，说我是怕伤了你们的心，才这样说，可'有灵气'的孩子并非你们家一个孩子呀！你们看看来报考的孩子中哪个没有点灵气？再说'有灵气'的孩子也并不一定就适合我们学校的招生要求呀！电影学院的学员还需要其它很多条件，比如文化课成绩，艺术潜力大不大等等。那孩子的母亲拉住老师的手追问道：那你再说说我们孩子到底哪个方面有问题？老师连连摆手，说我哪敢再给你说？要真说了你回去又花几十万元请人培训，如果还是考不上，那时候你们不把我给宰了才怪。那母亲大怒，顺手抄起一根木棍，就往那老师头上砸去：你以为我现在就不想宰你？狗日的，你害得我们好苦，光赔进的钱就是几十万元，还有要不回来的几年时光！ 有一位父亲，说自从看张艺谋导演《红高粱》成功后，他就发誓要让自己的儿子将来也成为大导演。为此，这位父亲从儿子十二岁起，就开始训练他当导演的能力，教他如何摆阵布局，如何策划戏剧情节，如何调动演员情绪等等，那儿子也算是聪明，教什么会什么。后来大了些，到十五六岁了，有一天突然问父亲，老这样练太没劲，得有些真人参加才行。父亲就说那你能动员几个同学最好嘛。于是经过儿子出钱“招聘”，还真来了几个临时“演员”，父亲一看，还行，儿子找的女“演员”还算有点“靓”。管吃管住这是自然的事，父亲掏腰包一天就是几百元。别人嘲笑他傻，这父亲说你们才傻，我现在投资，将来儿子有朝一日当了“张艺谋第二”时，钱算什么东西？一年不挣回几个百万就不是大导演！儿子也很卖力，天天放学回家的第一件事就是给几个女“演员”导演，常常到很晚时间。突然有一天父亲觉得到儿子回屋睡觉的时间了，于是来到“导演棚”里。天哪，自己家的小子正光着身子与一位同样光着身子的女“演员”搂在一起。父亲气急败坏地将儿子从地上拎起来，说我呕心沥血培养你当导演，你他妈狗日的小小年纪不干正事，尽给我丢脸呀！儿子嗡声嗡气地说：我没有不听你的话呀，不是都说要当好导演，先得学会睡女人吗？这个父亲气得差点没昏过去。 不知是今天的传媒误导了我们广大学生家长和不懂世事的学子们，还是我们今天的大众媒体过多地崇尚明星并给予他们太多光环的缘故，从80年代后期开始，与艺术和影视专业沾边的大学越来越热门。如北京的电影学院、中央戏剧学院、北京舞蹈学院、中央音乐学院、北京广播学院这些可以诞生明星的高等学府，成了广大学子和他们的家长追求与奋斗的目标。为了能实现进这样的大学而编织的“大学梦”，我们从每一个考生和他们身后的家长那里所听到的故事，几乎无一例外的可以轻易进入我们的报告文学作品之中。 一对已经在中央音乐学院附近一间不足十平米的平房里住了八年的东北父女俩，今年即将搬出这间“八年抗战”的小房子，我听到了这位白先生讲述他的“秘密历程”—— 白先生是东北人，身材魁梧，看得出，年轻时是个很酷的男人。事实上正是这个原因，他才有可能被当时下放到东北的一位上海歌舞团女学员看中并做了她丈夫。白先生是实实在在的工人出身，当时在哈尔滨一家肉联厂当搬运工，体力劳动使他的雄性气概更加突出，加上他娶了位相貌出众的上海姑娘做老婆，在结婚的头几年，白先生可谓风头出尽，很快小两口有了一个千金，日子就这么平平安安地过着。待到上山下乡的知青开始可以回城了，白先生为了老婆的前程和孩子的未来，1987年他们一家便搬到了上海。全家临时在闸北区苏州河边租了一间房子过日子。白先生的任务是负责每天接送孩子上学和到一家街道小工厂做临时工。女人是搞艺术的，一出家门就很风光，谁也看不出她生活在上海的“贫民窟”。过惯了那种充满了顶天立地的豪气生活的白先生，觉得上海这块地盘不适应自己，尤其是三口之家的生活实在无法正常维持，孩子是借读生，学校收费比一般的学生要高出几倍，女人收入不多，可每天用在化妆上的费用还得靠他做临时工拿的几个钱补贴。为留与走的问题，白先生没少跟女人吵架，最后俩人达成协议：女人留在上海，他带孩子回哈尔滨。离开上海的那一天，一家三口抱在一起哭了一场，夫妻俩心里清楚，这一别可能就不再是一家人了。第二年，女人给她寄来一张离婚协议书。信中说，离婚的原因不用说了，孩子可以留在哈尔滨，也可以到上海。白先生说什么也没有同意孩子到上海，他把女儿视为生命中的最重要的部分，从此开始了一个男人艰苦的追求与梦想。 “孩子在气质与长相方面都继承了她妈的优点，同时又从我们东北人的血脉里获得了良好的身材。可以说，先天的条件她都有了。只是她不该留在我这样一个没有一点儿艺术细胞的父亲身边。”白先生说完拿出一张女儿的相片给我看。 “真是天生的明星！”照片上的女孩子，既有南方女孩子的秀美，又有北方姑娘的娇艳，非常出众。 白先生听完我的赞美，颇为自愧道：这孩子如果放在你们北京人手里，现在不是赵蔽也应该是陈红了。 白先生陷入那些令他难忘的往事之中，他说在孩子小学四五年级开始，总有人在他面前说，看这女孩长得多漂亮，将来准能当刘晓庆、巩俐一样的大明星。开始白先生并没有在意，直到有一次，孩子的学校被一家广告公司看中，做了个食品广告上了镜头。广告公司给学校五千元报酬，上镜头的孩子因此得到一件特别礼物。孩子回家跟父亲说了这事后，白先生琢磨了一夜，正是这一夜，白先生决定了一件大事：一定要把女儿培养成全国著名的大明星！ 从此以后，白先生决心把自己的全部心血放在培养女儿身上，他心中有个强烈的愿望，那就是把从离婚老婆身上失去的东西，从女儿未来的光环中追回来！白先生本人对艺术一无所知，但他起码知道两点：一是女儿的学习必须好，二是女儿的艺术才能必须得有专业人士指导培训。前者他自己能做到，那就是严格要求女儿上好每一天的课，做好每一道题。后者他可以通过高薪请人达到目的。为此，白先生凭着强壮的身体，身兼三职，每个月赚回两至三千元来完成对女儿的培养。就这样，白先生带女儿度过了小学六个年头。要上初中了，孩子未来的路怎么走，这可是个大问题。 “什么样的环境造就什么样的明星。没有大的舞台就不可能出大的明星。”一位诗人气质的音乐教师对白先生说。这句话让白先生整整几夜没有睡好觉，因为有人对他说，你想把孩子培养成全国著名的大明星，不到北京的最高艺术学府学习深造，就等于白日做梦。 于是，白先生作出了一个令很多东北人称道的选择：辞职陪女儿上北京读书。 这是个难忘的日子：1993年9月1日。这天，白先生怀着对北京的一片敬仰和对女儿未来的无限憧憬，住进了北京丰台区的一间农民房子。大城市规定就是多，外地孩子上学只能进私立学校，公立学校不可以上。白先生对此没有怨言，他反认为北京就应该这样严格管理，不过让他不满意的是北京私立学校收费太高，但为了孩子能上完中学，他忍痛把哈尔滨的三间祖传老房子卖掉了，将所得的十二万元的三分之二交给了孩子上学的那所私立学校。 每次接孩子时，白先生看到像潮水一般的接送车队停留在学校门口，他不敢把带女儿的自行车停到附近三百米以内的地方，一旦被孩子的同学们看到了，就等于让自己的孩子受到一次最沉重的心灵打击。白先生听市民指指点点，说上这个私立学校的家长都是大款，心里总是暗暗叫苦。为了不让孩子受到歧视，他在给学校的家长工作单位和职业一栏里填的是“民营经商户”。显然在私立学校里，大多数家长的职业都是生意人，他白先生也算其中一个吧。学校很会刮这些财大气粗的个体经商户的腰包，一到逢年过节，总要想个法子让这些有钱的家长们慷慨解囊。“六一节”到了，白先生又一次被当作家长代表被学校叫去，老师提了个小要求：希望家长们支持学校在“六一”前为迎接上级检查而修建一座游泳馆出点力，“当然是自愿啊，我们绝对不搞强求！”校长非常严肃地向家长们表示，并说一旦发现有强求之意，大家可以向上级教育局举报。马上就有真正的大款举手，说拿出十万元赞助学校。这边刚落下手，那边的另一位家长立即表示愿意出二十万元无偿支持学校。最后有位据说个人资产达十个亿的学生家长一诺而出五十万元。白先生在会上第一次看到了什么叫有钱人，也第一次领略到了穷人的滋味，从此他再不敢参加什么家长会了，他让女儿以“爸爸业务很忙，出国在外没时间参加”之类的话推辞。 其实，孩子上学仅仅是一方面的开支，白先生要负担的远远不止这些。京城的艺术界大腕太多，名人也太多，一个好的老师可以一夜间把自己的学生捧上天，找不到门道，转一辈子恐怕也不一定进得了艺术殿堂的门槛。白先生来北京时间一长，便多少知道些“圈里”的事，为此他给女儿设计好了几套成才方案，先是练习声乐和舞蹈。这两项基本功据说是未来女明星们必须具备的条件。白先生想要让女儿成为最红的明星，自然要找最杰出的老师。 好不容易找到一位收费并不太高却注重人长相的“导师”，条件是学生在学习期间的演出收入归他。白先生觉得这个条件是可以接受的，只是让白先生不放心的是，他总觉得这位“导师”的眼里内容不太对劲。唉，艺术家嘛，不都是那个德行！只要为了女儿的艺术才能有长进，就是火坑也得让她跳进去试一试。为了安全起见，白先生想出一个“高招”——他对那位“导师”说他愿意义务为“导师”家做家务。 “导师”眼睛一亮：行啊，说好了，我不付一分钱哟？That's right.白先生保证。 女儿就这样交出去了。但白先生越干越不对头，因为那“导师”在给他女儿上形体训练课时，怎么两只魔掌总是在孩子上身乱摸！ 回到家，白先生旁敲侧击问孩子有什么不对劲的地方？孩子说没有呀？于是白先生就不好再说什么了。接着上课吧。 时间过得很快，当白先生又一次将五千元学费交给那“导师”时，对方告诉他说下个月要带学生上南方去演出一次。大约十天时间。白先生一想：反正孩子放暑假了，倒是个实习机会。不过临出门那天，他教给女儿出门在外的几个“注意事项”。天真烂漫的女孩哪知父亲心头的担忧，只顾点头，却并没在意老爸那双眼里隐藏的几多忧虑。 在女儿出去的几天里，白先生心神不定，那天因为想女儿的事而独自呆呆地在冷冻库里忘了出来，结果被同事关在里面，差点出了人命。第二天他便不能上班了，正好这天半夜，女儿突然从外地打来电话，哭着要回来…… 到广东顺德一家宾馆终于找到了女儿。还好，白先生见如花似玉的女儿没有出什么大事。只是这回他再不让女儿跟那个“导师”学艺了。女儿告诉父亲，就是这位“导师”在到广东顺德的第一天晚上，便让她进他房间“陪陪”。开始她并不懂“陪陪”是啥意思，后来发现不对劲时，便哭着要走。那“导师”就大发脾气，狠狠地抽了她两记耳光，气呼呼地对她说：“像你这样呆头呆脑的丫头也想出人头地？哼，只要我在圈内，就休想！” fuck it!北京有的是比他强的。走，我们重新找人给他看看！白先生让女儿擦干眼泪。 漫长的六年中学生活之后，白先生由初到北京时浑身散发着阳刚之气的东北壮汉，变成了从里到外透着不堪一击的弱朽之躯。“那是人苦心苦给逼成这样的。”白先生说。孩子在北京一年，学费加学艺的费用至少三万元，全靠他一个人挣出来。在北京当临时工最多的收入一年也就在万把元，其余的钱怎么来的，白先生说他不愿意讲。 最后他终于说出了他的秘密：每年他卖三次血，能得五千元；每个周末外出收废品，一年也在八千元左右；除此之外，他帮过一个小哥们在东北做成过一次大豆生意，赚了两万多元。“总之，除了没偷没抢，什么事我都干过。”白先生说。 同时，女儿自己也想了不少办法，比如她利用一个星期两小时为比她小的同学做家教。她自己的学习用具都是靠她自己挣来的钱买的。白先生很自豪地从一个打好包的纸箱里取出几个不同的书包和笔盒给我看：这些都是她用自己的钱买的。 我抚摸着一个个已经磨破的笔盒，感慨万千地想：也许白先生的孩子，是世界上惟一一个在“贵族学校”靠自己的劳动挣钱的学生了。 “可是你花了那么大的心血，最后却为什么没有让女儿上艺术类大学呢？”我一直不理解在北京苦苦挣扎了八年，一心想把女儿培养成明星的他，结果在去年女儿考大学时，却把她送进了一所普通大学，而没有送她到他梦寐以求的电影学院和戏剧学院或者是舞蹈学院。 “不是不想，而是有一天我突然感到自己的想法太过时了，或者说太急功近利了。”白说，触动他产生这个想法的是前年他带着女儿去某艺术学院招生现场所看到的一幕。“那天我和女儿本想观摩一下，谁知，那天的一个意外事情使我和女儿都改变了往日的明星梦追求。其实也不算是惊心动魄的大事，这种情景听艺术院校的老师们说年年都可以见到。正因为如此，才真正触动了我和女儿的心哪。那天我和女儿到音乐学院门口看招生，想不到初试的人有几千人！而且这些孩子一个比一个强，女孩子个个长得像花似的，好像都曾在电影电视里见过。结果呢，这些孩子没有多少被录取。我们看到有父女俩抱头痛哭，哭得伤心的程度令在场的人不得不过来劝解。那女孩子一边抹眼泪一边向在场的人说，她父亲已经得癌症三年了，就是为了她考音乐学院，不惜到一个有毒的矿上干重活挣钱才得上的。三年了，他把看病的钱全都花在了女儿的学艺上，这最后的一年，结果她没考上，父亲再也无力到矿上为她挣钱继续学艺和考大学了……那父亲后来不顾脸面地流着眼泪对我们在场的人说，你们也别信啥明星不明星，孩子能有个有幸福的家庭、有个工作做就行了。人死了，还有啥求的？就是儿女成了大明星，当爹当妈的都累死了，能看见些啥呢？就算我们的儿女当了大明星，心里会有欢笑吗？没有，不会有的……” 白先生久久没有从这段往事中收回他的思绪，而我也同样因这个震憾心灵的故事而沉默了