Classics for kids
Xi’an school that exclusively uses ancient texts under local govt investigation
The authorities in Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, have launched an investigation into a private school that was reportedly deviating from the national curriculum and exclusively teaching children classic texts.
The school, which opened after the Spring Festival this year, is called Runzhi Xuetang and is located in an apartment complex for the aged in Chang’an district. Before the school was suspended by local education authorities it had around 20 students, Chinese Business View reported on April 20.
A Chang’an resident surnamed Han told the newspaper that he was shocked when he found out his friend had taken his child out of a normal school to send them to Runzhi Xuetang where students mainly study Chinese classics such as The Analects of Confucius.
“The child is under 10 years old, isn’t it crazy to let such a little child quit school and only read classic books all day?” Han said.
Han said that the school cannot provide a comprehensive education due to its narrow focus.
The Chang’an authorities have launched an investigation into the school and asked it to temporarily shut down after receiving a report from Han. They also punished the school for having an unlicensed kitchen, Chinese Business View reported.
Waste of time
The director of the school and owner of the apartment, surnamed Ji, told Chinese Business View that students’ lives have improved since they started to study in his school. Regular schools overwhelm students with too much homework, Ji said.
“Isn’t it unbelievable that a Chinese person could have never read The Analects?” Ji asked. He said that public primary schools’ courses are highly repetitive and a waste of time.
Ji said that at first some volunteers at the nursing home would bring their children with them while they worked. They then started to hold classes, eventually founding the school.
Gradually, word spread and more children joined in, mostly those of people in the volunteers’ social circle. The students are all between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, according to Ji.
Ji said that some of the volunteers are certified teachers and offer their tutoring for free. Besides Chinese classics, Ji says they also teach English works including Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
But Ji did not mention whether the school itself is certified. All private educational institutions must receive government approval in China.
Two pupils were able to recite passages from The Analects to the Chinese Business View reporter who visited Runzhi Xuetang. However, Liu Xu, an experienced middle- school teacher, said that memorization without understanding is no good for students.
The Chinese Business View report said that all the textbooks used in Ji’s school use complicated language well beyond what most children of that age are expected to understand.
Liu pointed out that one cannot learn much from a book that one struggles to read.
Compulsory courses
China’s top education authority warned local governments to pay special attention to home- schooled children in February, stressing that compulsory education is, as the name implies, compulsory. Chinese law says that all children must take part in the compulsory education system that covers at least nine years, five to six years of primary school and three to four years of middle school.
Parents must gain approval from their local education department if a child has to drop out of school, warning that compulsory education cannot be replaced by home schooling without permission, says a document released on the Ministry of Education website on February 22.
As more parents are growing dissatisfied with public schools and turning to traditional methods of schooling, local education departments have been told to pay close attention to private schools, read the document.
“Many parents choose home schooling or private schools as they disagree with the philosophy and methods of public schools, which attach a lot of importance to exams,” Chu Zhaohui, a research fellow at the National Institute of Educational Sciences, told the Global Times.
Some parents also think public schools cannot provide their children with a tailored education, Chu said.
However, Chu noted that the quality of private schools is not very high in general as many of them do not employ qualified teachers or follow official curriculums.
Moreover, they focus too much on traditional values and fail to implement developed teaching methods, which can harm students’ long- term development, according to Chu.
Miu Jiaodong, an expert in education at Nanjing Normal University, told the Xinhua News Agency that traditional culture education can be a supplement to modern education which focuses on facts and overlooks students’ moral cultivation.