The Future Development of China’

A. Education should guide the soul of the human being.

The picture by Gorgon, a 19th century artist of the Dalist, is entitled Who Are We? Where Are We from? Where Are We Heading for? The philosophical title speaks of a meditation on the origin of universe and human kind, a probe of the outside world where mankind exists and also an exploration of Man’s soul. For years, our education has focused on the propagation and accumulation of knowledge. The examination system in imperial China intensified this trend and solidified it as an iron-cast pattern of China’s education. Have we ever taken into consideration Gorgon’s question which points to human’s soul? This is my conviction that education in the 21st century should liberate itself from the mould formed by thousands of years to become a search for the soul of mankind. Let education guide the human soul and let the guidance be life long.

In my career as an educator, I have seen many gifted students who contributed much to various fields both at home and abroad. Meanwhile our school system also created many people who have various psychological problems and irrational personality. There is little doubt that our students have accumulated large amount of knowledge and developed certain skills through education in elementary school for six years, secondary school for another six years and university for three or four years. However, they generally lack a world outlook and wholesome attitude, a mind that is critical and tolerant at the same time. Because of this, their soul is somewhat distorted. Such was the tragedy of Lu Gang, a student studying in the United States. He killed his compatriot Shan Linhua and his professors in cold blood because his desire was not satisfied and is a good example of some pupils or students with psychological and behavioural problems.

The ultimate goal of education is shape or mould the human soul. Understanding and learning of all disciplines will enable the educated to know comprehensively the outside world, to turn the knowing and perceiving of the outside world into rich nutrition for their inner-heart. This process, in turn, produces boundless imagination power. Like knowledge the depth and width of thoughts and imagination are boundless. They may trace back to the origin of the universe and may penetrate time and space to approximate limitlessness. Who am I? Where do we come from? This is a question that is to be answered philosophically and also a question that should be answered in our schools and education system. If we shift the focus of education from understanding and accumulation of knowledge to moulding the soul of students, we may find that the above questions provide our educational realm with a broad probing space of inquiry, a search for both reason and understanding where the roles of both the educator and the educated change dramatically.

 

The two contrasting roles of the knowledge giver and knowledge receiver will work together as a team and undertake research work on projects one after another, one field after another, one space after another, all focused on the search for the soul of human beings. The International Baccalaureate Organization founded after World War II has made a significant start. Mr. Rogon M. Pell, President of the IBO said, “The end result, we hope, is a more compassionate population, a welcome manifestation of national diversity within an international framework of tolerant respect. Ideally, at the end of the IB experience, students should know themselves better than when they started while acknowledging that others can be right in being different.” I think this is an exploration through education of the three questions put forth by that picture drawn by Gorgon.

B. Education should be concerned with the well being of mankind and nurture people who are more contented and more productive in our society.

What is the ultimate purpose of all that humankind pursues? What is crucial and indispensable to mankind? Through the great effort of research undertaken by psychologists, the following three aspects that they put forth, are closely related to human happiness:

1. Love: Psychological research shows that whether it be a man towards a woman or vice versa, young or old, love affects the standard of their happiness in life. An international investigation shows that over 90% of the people who are happy with their love, are generally happy with their life.

2. Marriage: Marriage is a significant factor for the extent of happiness in our life even though the role played by marriage within happiness is disputable, especially in modern times where crisis occurs more often than expected. According to data from research conducted by current psychologists, marriage does provide a very important base for our happiness.

3. Employment: Psychological research shows that people who are happy with their employment tend to enjoy a higher level of or greater extent of satisfaction in their employment environments Employment thus has an important role in creating the basis for a person’s happy life. Despite the above aspects being so closely related to human happiness, education in our country shows no consideration of them what so ever, much less provide any guidance to the educated.

The younger person or pre adolescent is more immature nowadays. Early love affairs are pretty popular among high school students, even among primary school children. Young people do not know much of true love and schools lack correct and effective guidance in this regard, thus resulting in abnormal behaviour as a result of curiosity and naivety or spiritual suppression because of a self perceived and heavy psychological burden. It is, therefore, very important to establish educational courses related to the discussion of love and happiness. In the first place, let the younger person or pre adolescent know that love is the most colourful and most beautiful flower in the garden of human happiness; that love is noble and precious and that everybody has the right to seek love and happiness. Young people need to be trained to have a balanced and appropriate world outlook for happiness and love. By all means let them get correct guidance in the field that is closely related to their lifestyle values.

The same is true of marriage. Courses concerning marriage should be open to senior high and college students. Why do so many marital crisis and broken marriages occur? The lacking of appropriate education and correct guidance is one of the reasons. Quite a few people prove how important the marriage is with the giving or sacrifice of their own life and also a great deal of suffering often occurs. If appropriate and timely guidance is given before young people enter into

marriage, is it not possible to reduce or avoid such tragedies? Vocational education should also be open to high school and college students. Job selection is very important in the life of a person. In professional or career choice situations it is better to encourage students to fully understand themselves; their personality, their individual characteristics and their inclination towards a particular profession or career, and have a comprehensive understanding of their own selves. Only when they have a deep understanding of themselves can a careful and considered choice be made. Attributes mentioned above are related to the prosperity and well-being of our society and nationality. If our educational system paid more attention to these issues, it is probable that our education standards will cultivate people who are happier and more productive in society.

C. Further attention should be given to people’s feelings and emotions.

With the satisfaction of people’s materialistic desire, more attention may be given to their spiritual and emotional world. The emotional world is the most sensitive, richest and most colourful within a human’s inner heart. Rich feelings and emotions can brighten people’s lives, enrich their imagination and enhance their creative abilities. It can also make communication among people more delightful, harmonious and warm. Furthermore, it can inspire people’s enthusiasm towards their work and study, and also make people more sympathetic and tolerant, as well as being more charitable and willing to help others. As previously noted Mr. Roger M. Pell said, “we hope more sympathetic people are to be nurtured through education”. This is a much wiser outlook about education. Nowadays people pay increasingly more attention to the study of emotional realm or domain. The study of Psychology reveals how feeling and emotion affect people’s thoughts. The second generation of “Spock” in the Treck War has become “Data”, which exactly reflects this trend. Data was surprised to find that his cool logic could not be explained for the benefit of mankind. It is just feeling and emotion that make human beings what they are, human beings. Consequently Data is striving to possess the feelings of human beings.

The most notable values of the human soul include hope, belief, sacrifice and love, and all exist in the people’s emotional domain rather than in the domain of rational thought. So education should pay special attention to the feeling and emotion of people. Given the aforesaid, Lu Gang, studying in the United States, who killed his compatriot and instructors, is an example that reflects the shortcoming in our education. Lu Gang can be regarded as high IQ type person with a psychological problem. People with a high IQ tend to be a well endowed of knowledge but an foolhardy in life. They are characterized with wide interests in knowledge, highly efficient cognition, ambitious, but are usually blockheaded, stubborn and are easily troubled or depressed by their own problems. Furthermore, Lu Gang would have been proud and judgemental, and probably unable to enjoy erotic feelings. Generally speaking these types of people are shy and avoid other people as well.

Our education has attached more importance to intelligence in acquiring and accumulating knowledge, thus resulting in a very narrow value orientation. We may nurture many “geniuses” but whether these geniuses have the normal feelings and emotions and whether they are as sympathetic as common people are, is very questionable. Sympathy is a characteristic of the moral belief of a juvenile. Lu Gang is just such a deformed product of our education. He has a high IQ and is quick- witted but he is lacking in sympathy and moral concept that he should have had. We may assert that if he had had a love affair, this love would not have been happy because compassion is helpful to one’s emotional life. Education has moulded ice-cool people with knowledge but not created people who are happy and productive in society. Is that not a kind of tragedy?

D. The exchange between Oriental and Occidental culture and education should be encouraged.

Nowadays the world has become increasingly smaller. Along with daily development of science and technology, the exchange process between peoples of the world have become s broader and deeper on a daily basis. We often use the term “the villagers of the Earth Village” to describe the close relation among peoples of various countries. The term is pretty close to what it means. Along with progress of the world’s civilization, the differences between people will be increasingly smaller and they will ultimately converge into a grand community. After a journey of thousands of years with their unique similarities and differences, the Oriental and Occidental cultures have come to recognize that there is something in common between them.

The Occidental or Western culture originated from two major sources: ancient Greek culture and old Hebrew culture, both of which are very focussed around religion with their main purpose and direction being in search and praise of the ultimate origin that is beyond the human world in spiritual terms. The Western culture embodied by Christianity endured a long period of over one thousand years. Following the Renaissance period and influenced by science and other worldly events, the importance and role of religion declined. Even to this day however, Christianity has been a force that is not negligible in many parts of Western culture and occupies an important position in people’s social and spiritual lives where it thrives. The Western education correlates with Western culture, whereas the Chinese or Eastern Culture which is the most representative in Oriental culture, has not brought forth any religion as the Western Christianity or Arabian Islam, has. Never-the-less, Chinese culture has normalized peoples behaviour and thought through the disciplines of ethics and art.

The culture of the early Qin Dynasty period is referred to as the culture of “Ceremony and Music”. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Oriental culture actually inter-fused with the three schools of Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism, which form the modern framework of the Chinese culture and an educational structure corresponding to it. It is apparent that “morality”, is the only word that best describes the cohesion related to aforesaid in the exchange and fusion of Western and Eastern cultures and educations except science. “Moral education” should be emphasized in exchange process of education (here I refer to a broader meaning of moral education). As noted at the beginning of this article, the human soul is subject to guidance and influence and at the very core of the human soul is “morality”.

In a report “Case Study Value on Education: International Comparison of Value on Education” by Wenings and other American scholars, moral education in the US, Western Europe, China, Malaysia and Singapore was analyzed. Singapore’s moral education may be summarized with the words of its President, “(the educated) with cultural cultivation, be diligent, hard-working and cooperative”. Malaysian moral education may be summarized as (1) pure physically and mentally (2) sympathetic and empathetic (3) cooperative (4) courage (5) temperance (6) diligent (7) gratitude (8) upright (9) honest (10) modest and prudent (11) just (12) rational (13) self-determining (14) love (15) respect (16) public-benefit spirit. Chinese moral education contains a lot which is not repeated here. American patriotic education stresses patriotism and civic consciousness. Western European moral education, the same as Chinese moral education, is realized through the imperceptible influence of religion, history, society and literature and the educated is required to be upright, respecting others and the law. With regards to humanity, moral education is so important in influencing humanity that both the Western and Eastern education systems should stress or otherwise emphasize morality.

In China there arises such an opinion that “morality” not only falls within the domain of spirituality but also is a kind of materialism itself. This explains why the great giants such as Einstein, Tolstoy, Laozi, and Confucius possessed lofty moralities.

E. The 21st Century’s education curricular should promote people’s personality and latent ability.

The modernization of Chinese society requires skilled people and education plays a special role in promoting people’s well-being and maturity. The 21st century also needs people with entrepreneurial thoughts, ideas and unique driving personalities. These types of people are able to exercise personal talents for the benefit of society, thus making it prosperous and vibrant for all. One of the purposes of education is to nurture the nature of human beings and to develop their personalities. So we should advocate for an education style which would reveal the fullness of one’s personality and help grow something unique in his character. Through such an education which would be accepted by the educated peer groups willingly, the development of positive personalities and characteristics would be enhanced and encouraged.

Education should pay special attention to subjectiveness, uniqueness and creativeness of the educated which are advocated by Ban Hua and Li Tianping in their article: “The Personality Development and Personality Education”. The above advocated idea, I think, shows a deeper understanding of education. Of the three points in the article, to my view, the subjectiveness of the educated is cardinal. Under the precondition that people’s subjectiveness has been fully nurtured and developed, their uniqueness can be also given full exposure. The so-called subjectiveness is itself consciously recognizing, grasping and surpassing various restrictions controlled by the outside world and obtaining domination of it. Nowadays, many crises turning up in the process of modernization calls for the development of people’s subjectiveness, requires people to control natural and productive forces, to control social influences and, thus, control people themselves, control their decisiveness and actions. Without a distinct or unique personality, without personality power or just echoing the views of others, being ambiguous and dubious, one is unable to meet the above criteria. Persons with great success at home and abroad, as we study them, are all people with a distinct personality. They dare to challenge convention, and not be subject to the obligations of customs and fixed models. They also have a rich imagination and a clear awareness of themselves. Their strong self-consciousness calls them to break cultural and conventional restrictions.

The 21st century is a century full of opportunities and challenges. It may well be predicted that in the new era many new things will materialize that people dared not to imagine nor do in the past. People who invent new things, who can foresee time and space and who can even predict future events are those whose personality and latent capacity have been fully realized. But is this realization at the expense of one’s personality? This is a question once asked of the master psychologist Freud who answered resolutely: “Those who can love and work will have a full display of their personality”. Here we unknowingly connect personality education with the afore said four issues. In the curriculum “The Scientific Research Project on Education in the Ninth- Five-Year Plan of Liaoning Province” we are undertaking precisely that, personality education. Perhaps a better title expression would be “A study of Juvenile Personality from an educational perspective in the New Era”.

In this project, we initially put forth 25 important educational subjects including (1) teaching in self- confidence, (2) teaching concerned with feelings and emotions, (3) psychological education (4) education about courtesy (5) independent daily-life management strategies and techniques, (6) education about love for their own motherland, (7) respect for another country’s history and culture, (8) education about charitable behaviour (9) education in children’s philosophy, (10) education about various roles played in society, etc. Embracing these types of subjects exampled aforesaid with further research activity should reveal additional insight, enlightenment and understanding surrounding a students’ latent capacity. In turn these outcomes will nurture and enhance further development of their personality.

F. Psychological instruction should be wholly inclusive of Education.

The book ‘Psychological Education by Shen Heyong and Gao Lan’ argues that for today’s many disciplines of social and human sciences, psychology is the “core discipline” of all. Indeed, psychology has displayed its unique and indispensable importance in various fields. The purpose and ultimate goal of education is to mould the human soul whereas psychology is a discipline to explore the human soul. It is essential that psychology be taken into consideration and psychological education be inclusive through the whole process of education.

Man’s psychological quality falls into two major categories: intelligent and non-intelligent psychological qualities. Intelligent quality includes personal psychological intentions, such as need, motive, interest, value judgment, feeling and emotion, morale as well as personal psychological characteristics such as disposition and character. Personal psychological quality and intelligent development promotes each other. Undertaking psychological education through out the entire process of education will certainly upgrade the psychological quality, intelligence and capacity of the educated. These days people are increasingly aware of the important role played by educational quality or EQ in a man’s life and his ultimate success. A psychologist at Harvard University argued that the human’s EQ index is more important than intelligence quality or IQ and summarized psychological capacity in five factors: capacity of self-awareness; capacity of self-control; capacity to strive for one’s own target, capacity to understand others and the capacity of dealing with interpersonal relations.

The research of problems concerning personality education, psychological education and morality education centered around EQ education, has drawn increasing attention from people within the educational circle. Education takes man as its key factor and psychological education deepens into the core of the key factor. In our daily lives including work and study, people can encounter various psychological challenges which frustrates us, making us vexed, depressed and angry. In such circumstances, diseases, even abnormal behaviours may develop. If we pursue psychological education through throughout the whole process of our education and offer psychological guidance to our peers when ever needed, then many problems may be solved and issues previously of concern vanish. It is very important for man to be healthy not only physically but also psychologically. As studies show, many diseases such as heart disease and gastric ulcers occur as a result of psychological pressure and other burdens. The book “Sympathy, Treatment and Miracle” by Boney Sigal depicts this phenomenon with many examples. We are to foster healthy and happy people who are beneficial to and productive in society. In order to accomplish this end we must lay much importance on psychological education and carry out this education through the whole learning process.

Someone once asked me: “What religion do you believe in?” I answered: “My belief is art.” I once told others of my life experience which is summarized thus, “treat something serious as a game; be humorous in the face of something very tricky; simplify a complicated matter and deal with daily life in an artistic way.” This ability was developed from a psychological education that I have practised ever since. From failure to success, from suffering of my own to happiness, I now feel deeply moved by the positive impact of a psychological education. So, as an educator, I urge all to highlight the important role of psychological education in the entire process of education.

What is expressed above is my view and opinion of the future development of education in China in the 21st century. It is also tendered as a meaningful contribution to the body of knowledge on the subject and my hope is that others may be inspired in like manner.

Liu Mingqiong

注：1997年8月15至18日，我作为中国教育学者出席了经国家教委批准的在南京东南大学召开的“面向21世纪全球教育合作”国际会议。大会中心发言共有12人，我是其中之一，我的发言在中、美、日、新加坡、台湾等国家和地区的学者中引起强烈反响和受到极大好评。

此为我的英文论文。（同时也为发言稿）

刘明琼

2020年11月