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2017最美好的假期已經(jīng)過(guò)去,距離2018僅有不到3個(gè)月的時(shí)間,要抓緊啦。
今天, 來(lái)信人是周湘香。讀她的來(lái)信,我能很清晰地感知到她在身體力行著教育學(xué)家懷特海的觀點(diǎn):“在任何理解之前先有表達(dá),在任何表達(dá)之前先有關(guān)于重要性的感受”。從農(nóng)村走出來(lái),她經(jīng)歷著教育給予她的成功和遺憾?,F(xiàn)在的她在芬蘭學(xué)習(xí)教育與全球化,希望日后通過(guò)教育構(gòu)建有益于農(nóng)村發(fā)展的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。
請(qǐng)讀:
Q: 談?wù)勱P(guān)于教育的經(jīng)歷和觀點(diǎn)。
以下回答主要是我的經(jīng)歷和觀察中而來(lái),或缺乏學(xué)術(shù)/理論依據(jù)。
在我成長(zhǎng)的環(huán)境中,教育和考試是社會(huì)和企業(yè)選拔人才的機(jī)制和工具,評(píng)判人才的依據(jù)也主要在于個(gè)體是否能促進(jìn)社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展。清楚地記得90年代末,掛在我們鄉(xiāng)初中大門口上的橫幅寫的是“今天工作不努力,明天努力找工作”?,F(xiàn)在回想起來(lái),我們也從沒認(rèn)為自己在接受教育,平日用的是“上學(xué)”兩個(gè)字,大概是“上學(xué)堂/?!钡暮?jiǎn)稱,當(dāng)然也從來(lái)沒有想過(guò)為什么要上學(xué)。90年代的中國(guó),在臨近城市打工、做買賣的農(nóng)村老百姓也開始嘗到經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的甜頭。在父母和老師看來(lái),上學(xué)或者接受學(xué)校教育就是為了孩子“跳出農(nóng)門”,開始體面的城市人生活。信念堅(jiān)定的農(nóng)村父母,譬如我母親,會(huì)用她在城市建筑工地和工廠打工一年的收入來(lái)繳納我當(dāng)年的學(xué)費(fèi)。另外一些父母看不到上學(xué)的價(jià)值,希望孩子早早為家里掙錢,便讓孩子輟學(xué),進(jìn)鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)的工廠打工。
與此相應(yīng),學(xué)習(xí)好的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)就是能考進(jìn)大學(xué),然后找一份體面的工作,留在城市。這個(gè)過(guò)程對(duì)整個(gè)國(guó)家、社會(huì)而言,是有益的,即為工作崗位快速篩選出合適的人,在國(guó)家范圍內(nèi)實(shí)現(xiàn)了人力資源優(yōu)化配置;但是對(duì)社區(qū)、家庭和個(gè)人而言,卻是破壞性的。破壞性主要體現(xiàn)在以下幾個(gè)方面:1,教育不是為本社區(qū)培養(yǎng)未來(lái)的人才,“腦力外流”的過(guò)程削弱了社區(qū)的人才儲(chǔ)備,如果以村鎮(zhèn)為社區(qū)單位來(lái)看,便產(chǎn)生了我們現(xiàn)今對(duì)“農(nóng)村在不久的將來(lái)是否會(huì)消亡”的擔(dān)憂;2,現(xiàn)代中國(guó)不具有強(qiáng)聚合力的宗教文化,因而能將個(gè)體聚合在一起的除了國(guó)家歸屬感便是家庭文化,但是現(xiàn)代教育使得作為一個(gè)社會(huì)最基本單元的家庭越發(fā)分散,從地理上和心理上在農(nóng)村家庭內(nèi)部劃出道道分割線,削弱了個(gè)體的歸屬感;3,個(gè)體是競(jìng)爭(zhēng)機(jī)制下的產(chǎn)物,那么競(jìng)爭(zhēng)環(huán)境和機(jī)制是否相對(duì)開放和公平,同時(shí)充滿競(jìng)爭(zhēng)意識(shí)的個(gè)體是否能最大程度實(shí)現(xiàn)社會(huì)潛力。
不可否認(rèn),現(xiàn)今的教育比起我們那個(gè)年代來(lái),內(nèi)容更豐富,形式更多樣,接受教育的起止時(shí)間跨度更長(zhǎng),家庭教育的比重越來(lái)越大等等,但本質(zhì)上還是為了塑造出能更快、更好、更久地為現(xiàn)代社會(huì)發(fā)展做貢獻(xiàn)的個(gè)體。個(gè)體是否幸福,個(gè)體所在的家庭是否幸福,個(gè)體所生活的社區(qū)是否健康,社會(huì)是否可持續(xù)發(fā)展等卻依舊未能從當(dāng)代教育中找尋到答案。
我希望教育可以從個(gè)體、家庭和社區(qū)的可持續(xù)發(fā)展的利益出發(fā),但一定不乏國(guó)家的視角,甚至是全球的視角。我們現(xiàn)在常常講生態(tài)系統(tǒng),教育也是一定要講的。我在回答上一個(gè)問(wèn)題的時(shí)候,總是在講農(nóng)村,因?yàn)槲沂寝r(nóng)村長(zhǎng)大的,而且我深深地感受到農(nóng)村生態(tài)系統(tǒng)被破壞的現(xiàn)狀。我現(xiàn)在在芬蘭學(xué)習(xí)“教育和全球化“, 也是希望日后能通過(guò)教育構(gòu)建有益于農(nóng)村發(fā)展的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。我想用兩個(gè)例子來(lái)解釋教育和社區(qū)關(guān)系的重要性,用一個(gè)理念來(lái)解釋我想如何做教育。
第一個(gè)例子來(lái)自我的加拿大同學(xué)。她說(shuō)在她的結(jié)婚派對(duì)上有一個(gè)很有意思的游戲,每位來(lái)賓寫出跟她相關(guān)的回憶,讓她來(lái)猜寫的人是誰(shuí)。她告訴我當(dāng)時(shí)有一個(gè)很難猜,寫的是她爸爸生病住院時(shí),她被照看的情景,但她想不起來(lái)自己長(zhǎng)大后爸爸什么時(shí)候生病住過(guò)院,所以猜到寫這個(gè)回憶的要么是外婆,要么是小時(shí)候的鄰居大媽。我聽到這兒就很驚訝,問(wèn)她:你小時(shí)候的鄰居大媽也參加了你的結(jié)婚派對(duì)?她點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭。我再問(wèn):跟你的朋友一起?她說(shuō):是呀。我聯(lián)想起來(lái)她常常講她所在的社區(qū)以及這個(gè)社區(qū)里面她的朋友,她念書和教書的學(xué)校,她的教會(huì),她的父母的家庭。這些聽起來(lái)跟我的經(jīng)歷和感受如此不同。
另一個(gè)例子來(lái)自一位新西蘭朋友。她們家來(lái)過(guò)一個(gè)寄宿的中國(guó)男生,男生的父母在他十五六歲時(shí)把他送到新西蘭念書,希望他畢業(yè)后回中國(guó)能找到更好的工作。這個(gè)男生在新西蘭念完大學(xué)后相當(dāng)認(rèn)同當(dāng)?shù)氐奈幕⑶覙?biāo)榜自己是kiwi(新西蘭人的自稱),不想回到中國(guó)工作。男生的父母非常希望兒子可以回到上海,這讓他感到很愧疚,但除了定期寄錢回去也不知道還有什么更好的方法。這樣的例子在中國(guó)的大城市一定為數(shù)不少。
我舉這兩個(gè)例子不是想說(shuō)孰優(yōu)孰劣,只是期待未來(lái)的教育能讓孩子們的過(guò)去和未來(lái)連接起來(lái),而不是分割開來(lái)。
我認(rèn)同的教育理念,是我暑期實(shí)習(xí)過(guò)的北京立德未來(lái)基金會(huì)所設(shè)立的“美麗小學(xué)“的辦學(xué)理念“生活即學(xué)習(xí),學(xué)習(xí)即生活“,是芬蘭新課程改革中所倡導(dǎo)的“Performance Based Learning”,是教育學(xué)家懷特海所提出的“在任何理解之前先有表達(dá),在任何表達(dá)之前先有關(guān)于重要性的感受?!焙?jiǎn)單說(shuō),老師作為學(xué)習(xí)的協(xié)助者,調(diào)用、激發(fā)學(xué)生的好奇心,讓他們從身邊的現(xiàn)象開始,利用因特網(wǎng)資源,自主學(xué)習(xí)、持續(xù)學(xué)習(xí),且能將學(xué)習(xí)的知識(shí)應(yīng)用于解決實(shí)際的問(wèn)題。當(dāng)然,學(xué)生并不只局限于當(dāng)?shù)氐膯?wèn)題,正如開端所提及,“一定不乏國(guó)家的視角,甚至是全球的視角”。
I grew up in a country where modern education was and still is a tool to screen talented people and train them to work for the society’s development, mainly from the perspective of economics. The country is so large that it couldn’t develop as a whole simultaneously, so we at first divided it into rural and urban, east and west, coastal and inland etc., and then we prioritized them. In this case, government could put most of its limited resources to urban communities, meanwhile, let local governments and families in rural areas cover their own education cost. For instance, my mom spent her one year’s earnings to pay my one year’s primary school tuition fee in 1990s, so that I could be filtered by our education system and start a new life in a city. In this circumstance, successful education means students are able to leave their own community and later on make contribution to the larger community, for example the economic development of the whole country. This process is similar to the concept of “brain drain”, which is used to describe the migration of high educated and skilled people between developed and developing countries.
The strategy is successful in a way that we can easily tell from the rapid and dramatic economic development in recent China. We put people/labor at the right place in a very efficient and effective way through our education and testing mechanism. But at the same time, it brought a severe unequal urban-rural and east-west dualistic structure of economics, education, social welfare etc. Government, as well as many grassroots change makers start to question: Is the rural disappearing since most of the labors are migrating to urban but senior and young children are left in the villages? Is the rural culture dying in China? If we don’t want it die, who are the right people to work on it? Is it sustainable enough that we call for philanthropic action from young people like what Teach for China is doing or we utilize government’s power to call for action from individuals who want further benefits after short term work in those lagged areas?
In addition, if we look at a bigger picture, the whole world is changing dramatically along with the development of technology and information. Does “education as a tool to screen people” still work in the current society? What kind of people we want to educate for the future, nationally, world widely, even locally? I am on my way seeking for the answers.
I hope education is designed to serve the local community sustainably with a global perspective. But here comes the question: what is the proper scope/range of local (that it wouldn’t restrain individual’s potential)? I would say it’s a manageable concept that individuals have the feeling of belonging and are energetic enough to maintain a good relationship within the community.
注:中英文均出自周湘香。
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