The essence of Ye Shengtao’s educational theory can be roughly summarized into the following aspects:

First, it aims at “being a human being” – this is the purpose and goal of education.

Yip believes that the purpose of education is nothing else but to let the educated learn to "be a human being". It is incorrect to regard education as just reading and understanding a few textbooks. Reading and reading textbooks are just a means, the ultimate goal is to learn to be a human being. To get an education and learn to be a good person, the means are not limited to reading books, and it is not limited to reading textbooks in school; after leaving school, you go into society, come into contact with various problems, deal with various contradictions, and absorb all kinds of knowledge. Information is all about education. On the issue of "being a human being", one should live and learn until old age, and there is no end to learning.

When it comes to "being a human being", there are all kinds of people, and there are various ways of doing things. Ye said: "The meaning and purpose of education is to be a human being, to be a qualified member of society, and to be a qualified citizen of the country." What is "qualified" in Ye's mind? First of all, we must understand that people live to promote When society and the country move forward, it is for the public rather than for private interests. As early as 1932, he raised the question of "what to study for" to middle school students. He believed: "Learning cannot be without a center; in other words, learn this, learn that, and understand what you are doing. It will tend to" Is it the authoritarianism and capitalist individualism of the feudal era, or is it trending toward collectivism that enables the unlimited development of human labor force? If you don't make a decision on this issue, learning is like a blind man riding a blind horse. "This is the direction of being a human being, and being a human being." fundamental. In modern society, only a person with a broad mind of collectivism can be a person who is truly beneficial to mankind, society, and the country. Secondly, we must understand the principles and practices of certain things in the world, that is, we must be able to "know" and "do" when encountering problems and contradictions. Ye said: "To be a person, you must deal with things and things, and you must rely on knowledge and ability to deal with them. If you don't understand the principles and practices, you will not be successful in dealing with each other, and your life will be in a mess. How can you get this?" With knowledge, You also have skills, which is the minimum requirement for being a human being. In modern society, new problems, new contradictions, and new things are constantly emerging, and various social relationships are becoming increasingly complex. A "qualified" social member and national citizen needs "knowledge" and "ability" no matter where he is. Both in terms of quantity and quality, the requirements will be much higher than before. The fundamental theoretical question of receiving education means learning to be a human being will enrich new historical content in practice.

How to be a human being? Ye believes that students in school say they are learning to be a human being, but in fact, the process of "learning" must also be a process of "doing". It cannot be said that the student years are just a "preparation" stage for future life; otherwise, it would mean that being a student and being a human being are two different things in tandem, which is absolutely not true. Ye said: "The reason why students study and do homework in school is to prepare themselves for life and work in the future. This is what thousands of teachers and parents think, and it is also what thousands of students abide by. In other words, students do not live a good life. It's not life, it's just preparation for life. Therefore, all actions and thoughts are looking at the future in the distance, but obliterating the present. Therefore, every living thing from elementary school to higher education can only be regarded as a student. ', they are not considered 'people' yet, they have only learned some 'subjects' and have not done 'things' yet." This concept is very harmful, because although the future is important, the present is the foothold and starting point for the future. , is equally important. Learn to be a qualified student now so that you can truly become a qualified citizen in the future. To learn is to do it, and to practice it step by step. Therefore, Ye emphasized that in the process of seeking knowledge and ability, educated people must devote all their efforts to seeking true knowledge and true ability. They must not just be able to understand in their heads and speak verbally, but must actually do it in action. OK.

Since the purpose of education is to enable educated people to learn to be a human being, then being a human being is something that everyone must learn, otherwise it will affect the progress of the entire human civilization and the development of the entire society and country, so the beneficiaries of education It must be all educated people, not a few individual "superior" people. In the 1940s, Ye made a loud statement: "Education must be designed for the whole society, and it must be designed to train people who can do something for society; education must not be designed to select a few players, and the result is that these people will be glorious and stand out. Standing above everyone's heads, reaching out to accept everyone's support." In 1978, after smashing the "Gang of Four," he also emphasized: "Chinese is a tool. , Natural sciences such as astronomy, geography, biology, mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and social sciences such as literature, history, philosophy, and economics must use this tool for learning, expression, and communication. Every student must be good at using this tool. (It is not enough to say that most students are good at using this tool.) Only when Chinese teaching has done its part to greatly improve the scientific and cultural level of the entire Chinese nation, can it have done its part to realize the four modernizations.” "Majority" is not enough, it must be all. This is a serious denial of the educational thought that general education is only for cultivating a few "top students".

Second, focus on "habits" - this is the key to realizing the purpose of education.

The shining point of Ye’s educational theory is not only to emphasize that the fundamental goal of education is to cultivate qualified social members and national citizens, but also to emphasize that the key to "cultivation" is to strive to cultivate all kinds of talents. All kinds of good habits. Learning to be a human being, in short, means gradually developing various good habits of being a human being.

Yip requires all educated people to become people with true knowledge and ability. What is the sign of this "real ability"? Ye's point of view is: it must become a habit. Ye said: "No matter what kind of ability, we have to reach the point where the habit becomes natural, then we have that ability. If we don't reach the point where the habit becomes natural, and we can do it reluctantly, then we don't have it. "The more habits you develop, the stronger your ability will be. We need various abilities to do things, so the most important thing is to develop various habits." In this sense, Ye said. He is convinced that the purpose of education is to develop good habits and maintain them throughout life.

Habit is a long-lasting and stable way of action. There are good habits and there are bad habits. If you develop good habits, you will benefit for life; if you develop bad habits, you will suffer lifelong consequences, and may even harm others and society. Ye believes that among countless habits, there are two habits that must not be developed: one is the habit that does not form any habit, and the other is the habit that harms others. The so-called "habit of not developing any habits" means treating everything casually, doing whatever you want, not following any rules, and not wanting to follow any rules at all, just doing whatever you want. Such thoughts and practices become habits, and all truly good habits cannot be developed. The requirement of "qualifying" is to be strict with oneself and strive to "qualify". People who don't care about anything will never meet this requirement. So, in essence, this is a habit of not wanting to receive any education. The other is "the habit of disturbing others", which can be as small as spitting and making loud noises; as big as misappropriation of public property and invasion of other countries. These are harmful behaviors centered on individualism. The first step for all those who do evil is to "harm others."

Yip believes that to develop good habits, we should start early and start from a young age. Starting from "early" means to emphasize the "beginning" and the first step. Ye said: "Everything that needs to be done in a lifetime requires the most development of good habits. Before the habit is formed, take a proper and appropriate start, concentrate on it, and do it reluctantly. Gradually, you will no longer feel that you are reluctant, and gradually Once the habit becomes natural, you can do anything with it. This means that good habits have been developed and can be used for a lifetime. If it is not appropriate at the beginning, it will become a bad habit later. We must pay attention to developing good habits in every detail of our words, deeds, and actions. Only in this way can we treat major events and handle the overall situation properly and appropriately. When Ye was discussing the necessity of "removing one's own life" during the Anti-Japanese War, he made an incisive analysis of "establishing oneself as a public servant". He said: "When it comes to developing behavioral habits, we must start with the smallest and most ordinary situations. , As time goes by, I will naturally be able to serve the public in situations that are not trivial or ordinary. I insist on not writing private letters when writing official letters, and insisting on following the order of which tickets to buy and which buses to take. These things may seem irrelevant, but after they become habits. , you can ensure that you will not be corrupt or infringe on the freedom of others. "Most of the words and deeds of students studying in school are not major matters related to society and the country, but good habits should be gradually cultivated from these small things.

Yip said: "Developing habits, in other words, is education." From this point of view, in Ye's mind, developing habits and receiving education are two things in one.

Third, the most important thing is "compassion" - this is the principle of implementing education.

Yip confirmed that the key to education is to develop good habits, and the cultivation of habits must rely on the educated themselves to try to do it and try to do it in accordance with the prescribed requirements. The formation of habits depends on self-motivation, and the acquisition of all knowledge and abilities depends on self-satisfaction; external force infusion is of no help, at least it is more work and less achievement.

As for education, Yeh put forward a famous principle, that is: teaching is to achieve the goal of no need to teach. He said: "Recently, I often use one language to talk to people. When I teach, the purpose is to achieve the goal of not needing to be taught." What kind of state does the so-called "no need to teach" mean? That is: being able to read by oneself without waiting for a teacher to teach; You can write your own composition without waiting for the teacher to correct it. In other words, you have the ability to educate yourself. In Ye's view, an educated person must be a person who has sufficient self-learning ability and can educate himself anytime and anywhere; otherwise, he cannot be regarded as an educated person. Therefore, Ye further emphasized: "The main functions of all types of schools at all levels, as well as tutoring and further education institutions, are to guide students to make continuous progress in self-study."

Yip once started from knowledge. The importance of self-learning ability is demonstrated in terms of breadth and depth. From the perspective of the breadth of knowledge, to be a "qualified" modern person in modern society, one should master so much knowledge that it is impossible to describe it. Various educational institutions can only take the important and basic ones and teach them to students as examples; for other more things, students must learn to draw inferences from one example and learn, research, master, and expand on their own. From the perspective of the depth of knowledge, the accumulation of human knowledge wealth is not mainly mechanical addition, but development and evolution.

Therefore, educated people must not "keep knowledge without changing" the existing knowledge; they must make discoveries, reforms and innovations through their own independent thinking on the basis of accepting the experience of predecessors. yes. This kind of discovery, reform, and innovation cannot be done by others; it must be gradually reached in the process of self-study.

To cultivate self-learning ability, teachers must work hard on the word "guidance". In other words, a good teacher must first be a good guide. Ye said: "Teachers must of course teach, but they should especially devote themselves to 'guidance'. A guide should try various methods to enable students to gradually seek for themselves, and at the end of the day, they do not need to be taught by teachers." The key here is to Always pay attention to "reducing students' dependence". Students have developed various habits of dependence on teachers, which is a failure of education. To understand a problem, rely on the teacher's narration; to record the key points of knowledge, rely on the teacher's writing on the blackboard; to know the mistakes in chapters and sentences, rely on the teacher's correction; to go further, to check how well you have learned, rely on the teacher's test; to restrain your words and deeds Don't be indulgent in your behavior and rely on the teacher's discipline. If this continues, will he be able to become a person with autonomy and self-care ability after leaving school? Therefore, Ye strongly advocated that educational work is "like helping a child walk. Although you support it carefully, you never forget to let go." This "never forget to let go" is exactly an educational principle expressed by Ye.

We firmly believe that the principle of education lies in "seeking for ourselves", and we must also fully understand that every educated person has the inherent potential of "seeking for himself". Ye said: "Teachers who are good at inspiring regard students as organic seeds, which have the function of germination and growth. As long as they are given appropriate cultivation and care, they can naturally grow into good grains, beautiful vegetables, good trees, and good things." Flower. "Students, even children who have just received enlightenment education, are not ignorant and incompetent. They always have some basis for accepting new knowledge and mastering new skills. Good teachers are nothing more than good at using this kind of knowledge. The foundation, through inspiration and induction, allows students to acquire new knowledge and develop new skills based on their original potential. Those who are poor at teaching always underestimate students' learning potential and continue to chatter endlessly even when students can fully rely on their own efforts to understand and master, causing students to become bored and drowsy.

The methods of education can be diverse, but the principles for implementing education should be certain. Ye said: "As for methods, I think it is not always appropriate to settle on one (which is equivalent to the 'one size fits all' that has been popular in recent years)." The goal of various methods and methods should be to "achieve the goal of not needing to teach." "Cultivate students into a new generation that surpasses their predecessors in all aspects."

Fourth, the effect lies in "intuition" - this is an effective method of implementing education.

“What you learn on paper is always shallow, but you must practice it.” The outdated concept of education as reading has caused school education to simply and one-sidedly attach importance to book knowledge. However, Ye advocated that in order to achieve the best results in education, we must pay attention to intuition. The "intuitive" proposed by Ye definitely does not only refer to the use of pictures or other intuitive teaching aids in classroom teaching. Its connotation is much richer and deeper.

Yip believes that school life is also an integral part of social life, and can even be said to be a microcosm of social life. When students receive education in school, they actually learn how to live and how to behave. Therefore, Schools should set up various environments for students so that they can directly study, live and learn to be human beings in such environments. As early as when he was teaching at Luzhi High School in Wuxian County, Ye, together with friends such as Wu Binruo and Wang Boxiang, opened the "Shengsheng Farm" and the "Liqun Bookstore" in the school, and also set up a "Baizhou Reading Room", "Music Room" and "Seal Engraving" in the school. "Room" organizes drama teams, speech teams, etc., and carries out a variety of extracurricular practical activities, allowing students to get in touch with life early and exercise their life skills. In the 1930s, he pointed out sharply that in the 1930s, school education was out of touch with reality, and pointed out: It is not appropriate to study only the Chinese language subjects, "but the natural subjects and social subjects are just to read with a book in hand, which is nothing." ?A cat, a fly, a historical site, and a police station are all real things that can be directly touched. Why not let children touch them directly, but write these things in books so that they only touch some words? What? If words are used in this way, words will become an obstacle that blocks wisdom." Until now, he still firmly believes that education must pay attention to intuition, and intuition "is direct contact with things." Within the scope of the school, if possible, it is necessary to open animal, plant and mineral specimen rooms, physical and chemical laboratories, library reading rooms, practice workshops, planting gardens, etc.; from outside the scope of the school, it is necessary to organize students to go to zoos, botanical gardens, museums, Visiting planetariums, geological museums, science and technology museums, libraries, and more broadly, factory visits, rural visits, social surveys, vacation trips, etc. are also good ways for students to receive intuitive education. Therefore, Ye's theory of "intuition" is a brief and simple statement that education is oriented towards life, reality and society.

Yip's "intuitive" education not only refers to direct contact with various things and objects, but also direct contact with various people. The ancients had a saying that "one who is close to vermillion will be red, and one who is close to ink will be black." Therefore, Ye emphasized that a person should have more contact with people of good conduct during adolescence and people who can serve as role models, so that they can receive good influence from them. Ye said: "Is there any intuitive way to enable students to 'really be able' to practice good behavior? I say there is.

First, teachers set an example and serve as role models in everything. This is the most cordial intuition for students. Secondly, it is also extremely beneficial to allow students to get closer to advanced figures in various fields. "From noble and upright adults, young people will see their future, which is a very important intuition.

Yip's emphasis on the effectiveness of "intuition" is consistent with his belief in the practicality and practicality of education. Infectivity and comprehensiveness are directly related. Education must not only make people "know", but also make people "do" and be able to do it in practice, which requires direct contact with things; education must not only appeal to people's reason. , but also to appeal to people’s emotions, to be emotionally infected and influenced, and to produce subtle effects. This kind of emotion can only sprout and stir up waves in the process of direct contact with relevant people and relevant things; Education must not only impart certain knowledge and skills, but also enable the educated to develop in all aspects so that they can really adapt to the needs of real life. Therefore, it must pay attention to comprehensiveness and integrity, and this kind of comprehensive and holistic education often It can be effectively realized in the process of direct contact with things.

Yip's educational theory is profound and reflects the unity of distinctiveness and richness. Of course, the four aspects summarized above are far from exhaustive. All of his theoretical achievements, but I believe that these are at least some of the essence of his theoretical treasure house, which still have guiding and reference significance for observing, researching, and promoting our current educational work.

2

The formation of Ye Shengtao's educational theory has a rich and profound foundation.

The essence of my country's traditional education for thousands of years is an important foundation for the formation of Ye's educational theory. He was a warrior who held high the banner of science and democracy during the May Fourth Movement and bravely criticized the old feudal education at that time. His innovative education started from criticizing and denying the "classicism" and "profit-making" of the old education. His attacks, criticisms and denials were all focused on the anti-scientific, anti-democratic and decadent nature of old-style education that served feudal despotism. Regarding the theoretical views and practical experiences put forward by some sages and scholars of the old era that were in line with the laws of education. He never negates it. On the contrary, he always elaborates on the essence of these valuable national educations in order to regain their glory in the new historical period. He once said a long time ago: "China. Although people need modernization, for Chinese people to modernize, they must first understand themselves. "The so-called "knowing oneself" here means to understand one's own past, respect one's own history, and be clear about all the pros and cons of traditional culture. Ye really achieved this. In his educational theory, we We can see not only the sharp criticism of the dross in traditional education, but also the absorption and transformation of the essence of traditional education.

Confucius said: "If you are not angry, you will not be enlightened; if you are not angry, you will not be inspired." , Take one corner, and if you don’t use three corners to reverse it, it will not be restored. "This is an important educational principle. Ye has always advocated that education should focus on inspiration and guide students to draw inferences from one example. When he recently wrote the preface to Chen Xia's book "On the Laws of Education and Others", he also emphasized: " Anger inspires as a rule. Mencius said: "A gentleman studies the Tao deeply, hoping that he will achieve it." If you are self-satisfied, you will live in peace, and if you live in peace, you will have deep resources. If you have deep resources, you will be able to draw on them from all sources. "In advocating "compassion", Ye can be said to have devoted all his efforts to repeatedly expounding on this point. He also raised the necessity of "compassion" to the level of "lifelong education" to explain it, giving it new content for the times. Xunzi said: “In ancient times, scholars were for themselves, but today’s scholars are for others. "From the perspective of the educated, it is affirmed that learning must seek to achieve real and practical benefits for oneself. Ye wrote an article titled "'For Oneself'" specifically for this purpose, incisively explaining Xunzi's "for oneself" theory: “For oneself, that is to say, everything you learn will be used by yourself, and your life will be happy. To be a human being means that what you learn has no relationship with life, and you act as if you haven’t learned it yet. You just talk empty words and put on empty airs, making others mistakenly think that you have learned it. "Ye believes that if we determine the goal of "for ourselves", then we must abandon the practice of studying hard, and "turn the various principles and practices printed in books into our knowledge and abilities" and "learn from them anytime and anywhere" "Integrate all kinds of homework with our thoughts and behaviors", so that we can truly become people who are beneficial to society. The above-mentioned famous sayings of ancient sages are undoubtedly an important basis for Ye's educational theory to reflect national characteristics.

In terms of education and teaching methods, Ye also abandoned what should be discarded and took what should be taken, and never adopted a historical nihilistic attitude. Confucius advocated "reviewing the past" and believed that "one can become a teacher by reviewing the past and learning the new." . Later generations of calligraphy schools also emphasized the need to review old lessons. Ye had his own feelings about this. He said: "In the past, studying in calligraphy schools required both learning about the new and reviewing the past. In the process of learning, , it is a good way to take some time to review what you have read before. It should be adopted when teaching Chinese language now. He believes that by reviewing the past, "recollecting the existing understanding and experience, and seeking new understanding and experience, the benefits will never be less than the new one from the previous article." "Another example is that ancient literature focused on "reciting", and Ye believed that "Chinese subjects should not only be learned with the heart and eyes; one must also use the mouth and ears in addition to the heart and eyes." Chanting is a learning method that uses the heart, eyes, mouth, and ears simultaneously." It gives a thorough explanation of the scientific basis of chanting.

But he also noticed the shortcomings in the application of the traditional chanting method: firstly, "most people do not pay attention to the content and theory, and only spend time on chanting", which is naturally not a good method; secondly, the implementation of "forced recitation" "Memory", this kind of "forced memorization method is not necessary, soon even the words are forgotten, how can you say you have experience"? Therefore, Ye believes that only focusing on the content and theory, while ignoring recitation, is a mistake. This is a bias; it is also a bias to only focus on recitation and ignore the study of content and principles. "Only by not neglecting research or reciting can we be comprehensive and impartial."

It can be seen that Ye cherishes the essence of traditional educational theory and the experience of educational practice very much, and can use it Analyze more scientific viewpoints and methods, and absorb them selectively. This creative spirit based on the excellent national tradition is a distinctive feature of Ye's educational theory.