What is the task of university education?

I have been teaching in Zhejiang University for five years since 2009. The most important thing here is to know a friend, and my relationship with him is getting better and better. My office is at Yuquanjiao. He always stands in front of the library, watching me go in and out, and always asks me two questions:

First, what are you doing in Zhejiang University? Second, what do you want to be in the future?

As we all know, under the leadership of President Zhu Kezhen, Zhejiang University is called "Oriental Cambridge". what would i like to do ? I think one day someone will say that Cambridge is the Zhejiang University in the west.

President Zhu was very depressed after listening to my answer, wondering how Zhejiang University found a madman to be a professor. He asked me, do you know what is happening in Zhejiang University? What are you going to do? I said the most important thing is to have a good team of professors. He said: At present, the professors of Zhejiang University are "vain, practical and kitsch, and only ask about distinguishing right from wrong, making fame and fortune correct, and appealing to both refined and popular tastes".

After listening to the old headmaster's words, I seriously thought about it. I said that our professor is "still alive, lacking in skills and enlightenment, and there is still hope." The teachers here should agree with my judgment, and most people will feel alive. As long as the weather is fine, there is no problem, and there is hope for this matter.

After listening, President Zhu said, "There is a thin line between hope and despair. Courage, wisdom and sweat are indispensable. It's no use shouting slogans all day. " So, he wants to discuss some details with me, perhaps to test whether I have a basic understanding of university teaching.

He said, "The purpose of college is not to let students get bread, but to make bread taste better." He asked me if I understood the meaning of this sentence. I said, I know a little about it. Translating your words into a language that ordinary people can understand is actually very simple. The purpose of modern education is to train people first, and then to train talents. First of all, we should educate "people" who are sound in body and mind, independent in soul and free in thought.

Man and harmony are unified things. But unfortunately, the current university education is often divided into disciplines, and more attention is paid to talents. This is the pursuit of the end. The purpose of our education is not to cultivate talents or teach students how to earn bread, but to learn how to eat bread and enjoy life. That's all that matters.

President Zhu said, I think China University should be divided into two categories: research universities and educational universities. Our Zhejiang University is definitely a research university. But isn't a college education needed? We can never forget what the fundamental task of a university is, which needs to be taken seriously.

I am deeply convinced. He added that China University has a very important task, which is to lead the development of China and explore a new way of life for mankind.

The history of China in the past thousands of years is very interesting. At the beginning, we were the first in the world, absolutely the first, and our farming civilization was insurmountable. But from the Opium War to the Sino-Japanese War, we in China knew that we were seriously backward. Now, we are trying to imitate the American lifestyle. Is it possible? Think about it, Americans account for 5% of the world population and use 40% of the earth's resources. We in China account for about 20% of the world population. If we really live like Americans, we need two earths ourselves, so I don't think it is reliable.

The task of a university must explore a new way of life. To do this, China needs Zhejiang University very much.

Zhejiang University has an interesting position among universities in China. Tsinghua of Peking University is rich in resources, and the school is doing well. It is also convenient for them to communicate with other countries. However, too many people care about them. Our Zhejiang University, hidden in the "Shan Ye", is more like a state of free growth, which is suitable for running a school with great concentration and will not make any noise.

Therefore, I am not completely crazy to come to Zhejiang University.

President Zhu said that I heard that China is impetuous now. What do you think of this? Impetuous environment should be very unfavorable for running a good university, right? I said, it's not that terrible. We can describe this era like this:

This is the best time, this is the worst time; This is the happiest time, this is the most painful time; This is the greatest era, this is the most obscene era.

Everyone can feel the impetuous characteristics of the times. In fact, there is nothing strange about this thing. Any great progress or retrogression in human history is like this. There is chaos ahead, and anything can happen. The course of history and its subsequent results depend on who will do things and how to do them. The current situation in China is that1300 million farmers enter the city. To run a university well, we must "clear our minds". Decisive thinking in the brain is the foundation of farmers, and universities can't do well.

In the face of constant "wisdom liquidation", how can ordinary people be at ease?

Of course, "clear wisdom" does not mean that farmers' things and traditional culture are not good. "Qing", don't cut off your cultural foundation and throw away inappropriate things at the same time.

Rational education and perceptual education

President Zhu asked me how to teach a "person" who is sound in body and mind, independent in soul and free in thought. In my opinion, first of all, we should understand the fact that people live in this world to pursue personal happiness. A beautiful society is to make as many people happy as possible.

What the people of China are doing now is ultimately to give everyone in China a chance to live a happy life. Everyone lived a happy life, and then a beautiful society was truly realized.

Happiness is a harmonious balance between desire and ability.

People who have no desires are not happy. Therefore, desire is not only not terrible, but also the basis of individual happiness. What we really need to do is to understand desires and managers' desires.

Desire and the ability to realize desire bring two ways to education. One is perceptual education, and the other is rational education. In essence, the two paths are interlinked, and it is absolutely difficult to take only one of them.

The Renaissance in medieval Europe was the awakening of human nature. For the first time, human beings said in a language that people can understand, why should I listen to God? ! Why should I listen to the church? ! Why should I listen to the emperor and nobles? ! I am who I am, I am responsible for myself, and I am responsible for my life. This is the awakening of individual sensibility.

However, Europe did not develop rapidly after the Renaissance. The real great development of Europe was in 18, 19 and the 20th century. 17-18th century, the second great event happened in Europe: the Enlightenment. The essence of enlightenment is rational enlightenment as well as scientific and rational enlightenment. This is a very remarkable thing.

China started to run a university at the earliest, and took these two slightly different paths. One way is the art education advocated by Mr. Cai Yuanpei, which aims to reach the individual's perceptual world directly. Mr Zhu Kezhen advocates scientific and rational education. Mr Cai invited a large number of writers, historians, philosophers and thinkers at that time. At that time, Zhejiang University, the core of President Zhu's team, was generally biased towards science and engineering.

Personally, I think this is the personality of Zhejiang University. Pay attention to scientific and rational education and pursue the development and perfection of human nature.

I think it is possible to realize human nature education through rational education. A person has formed a rational and truth-seeking outlook on life, and naturally has a personality that opposes authority and worships autocracy; Cultivating the unique perspective of professionals can be the basis of independent personality and unique personality. I think it's good.

On the other hand, I think perceptual education is to cultivate conscience, while rational education is to cultivate conscience.

What are the responsibilities of a professor?

President Zhu asked me that about 100 years ago, Mr. Russell had an evaluation of students in China: students were enthusiastic and eager to acquire knowledge, but they didn't know much and lacked training, dreaming that others could instill knowledge into their brains without blowing off dust. What should we do?

My answer is: "When a soldier is born, he must have a nest." The key is the professor.

Most professors in Zhejiang University want to guide students to study hard. However, it is useless to shout slogans. One of the purposes of this course is to broaden students' horizons. Let them see how many people in the world, in human history, have studied hard and finally lived a great life, a wonderful life and a brilliant life. The second goal of the classroom, of course, is to show all kinds of wonderful and splendid life trajectories, so that students can truly realize that there is a way to pursue the beauty of the spiritual world. Let students understand that "there is a road to learning mountains, but there is no end to learning the sea." Only by making students feel fun can education have hope and will not go against the fundamental pursuit of happiness in life.

I don't think it's right to build a boat with pain.

When it comes to teachers, the words "be a model" jump out. But I won't do that. I'm just a professional teacher and a professional scientist. I can't be a "world model". I came to Zhejiang University as a teacher. Why should I be a "model"? Do all the students like me? Is it possible? Can you learn?

I hope my students will act according to their conscience and conscience. It's meaningless to go with the flow.

What does a professor really want to do in running a school? In fact, there are two completely different but related aspects of the real professor's running the school. First of all, all professors have the knowledge of building Zhejiang University, and on this basis, they participate in the decision-making and administrative supervision of the school. On the other hand, each professor presides over a class and participates in the governance of a department.

When I first came to Zhejiang University, I proposed my plan to President Yang to teach physical chemistry for at least five years. Based on this, I would like to discuss the basic education of universities in China. But I won't pay attention to the outline, I will do my own thing. President Yang agreed.

I want to be the master of my class. This is the most fundamental place for professors to run schools. As long as you have a conscience, conscience and enough ability, every professor will give a good class. The basic education of Zhejiang University will naturally go up. On the other hand, an outstanding professor, I don't believe you will have no chance to make suggestions to run a school.

I think teaching is a way to practice life. I especially like Tayu Lo, and I think Jay Chou is not bad. I think our professors have one thing in common with them, that is, they all eat by expression.

However, there is a big difference between a professor and a singer. If Tayu Lo sings this lyric wrong on the stage at once, it will be a mess. We give lectures at Zhejiang University, and no one wants to give exactly the same class every time. We don't need to be the same as singers, even the same tone.

So our profession is much stronger than that of singers, and our profession is a very interesting one. We have a chance to perform every day, but our performance is likely to get a score. Of course, it is impossible to be completely unreliable.

Going to the podium every day is not to read according to the preparation notes, not to talk about PPT. I asked the students in my class before class this morning. I'm going to communicate with the young professor of Zhejiang University at noon. What message do you want me to take? The students' answers are varied, but one thing is recognized: teachers try not to watch PPT, and they hate it.

A competent professor is a student's frame of reference, not a life tutor. Our task is to tell students that this is how I live, and it seems that I am ok. As for the child saying whether you want to live like me, that's your business. As long as the students feel that I have provided him with a reference, that's good.

How is the professor right? I once went to Jiao Tong University to give a lecture. After the lecture, a famous professor stood up and asked, "Mr Peng, even the originator of chemistry (Gibbs) was questioned in your report. What do you want me to tell our students after this class? " This question surprised me a little. Later, I felt that the problem was not me, but him. Always want to be right. How is that possible? We know too little about the world. If we add up all human knowledge about the world, we can't reach the level of nine Niu Yi hairs in the world. Most of them are unknown, unknown. What we know now is only one-sided, temporary and static things in this world. Wrong. It's normal. It's normal.

Then how to do education? When my students come into my classroom, one of my tasks is to subvert his ideas. A good classroom can always subvert students' original ideas more or less.

I'll say what I think, and you can judge for yourself whether it's right or wrong. Science education is to let the educated stand on the "shoulders of giants" and look forward; The classroom of science education should be personalized and full of life.

Related to this, our current students have a pile of cerebral thrombosis. Where did it come from? Our professor should be responsible. The lecture is specious and hearsay; Class letter is true, without screening, naturally formed a "thinking cerebral thrombosis." Our task, just like a brain doctor, is to help them clear their cerebral thrombosis.

If you are not sure about something, you'd better explain it to the students. I think this can be done. At this point, I especially admire Mencius, who said that "it is better to believe in books than to have no books".

Let's see what a professor at Zhejiang University should look like. I think there should be two characteristics, scholars and teachers. First, first-rate second-rate third-rate scholars, and then first-rate second-rate teachers.

What is a first-class scholar? People who have changed the course of human history and people's view of nature by themselves are called first-class scholars. Are there any first-class scholars in Zhejiang University now? I don't think so at this time. I'm afraid this moment is gone all over the world. Like me, I can barely be considered second-rate.

Second-rate scholars are the so-called academic leaders. We regard a field as a table, and second-rate scholars are like the legs of the table; Take his work away from this field and it will collapse. This is the academic leader. A third-rate scholar is like a chessboard on the table. If you take it off, the function of the table will be gone, but it will still be there. This is an important contributor. A third-rate scholar is a flower on the table. His existence may make the table look better, but it is not that important. No flowers, just a desk. Below the third rate, there are scholars who are not flowing in. They are ashes on the table. Without the work of these people, would human knowledge change greatly? number

After talking about scholars, let's talk about another aspect of professors: teachers. First-class teachers teach to enjoy happiness and life. Second-rate teachers teach learning methods and thinking methods, while third-rate teachers teach knowledge. Of course, there are also poor teachers who read PPT textbooks.

A professor asked me, Mr. Peng, did you cover the knowledge points in your class well? I think this is crazy. If I teach knowledge, I might as well type into the computer. The knowledge that a computer can record is accurate and rich.

There is a simple way to check the teacher's work. That is, does your class leave an indelible trace of spiritual growth for students? A student who has attended your class and entered your classroom should be different from others.

Let's summarize the basic characteristics of professors. My understanding is that they should be independent individuals in civil society; Professional people in modern professional society love education; A profound and self-contained industry expert; Subversion and subversion, dare to start from scratch.

Can Zhejiang University be built into a modern university full of personality?

In view of President Zhu's problem, my opinion will be successful. However, Rome was not built in a day.

Our present national foundation is much better than that of Chairman Zhu's era (early 20th century).

Doing education is a matter of burning money. With money and leisure, education, especially higher education, is easier to develop.

China University has experienced three ventures. The first time was in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. President Zhu and his people of insight put forward the concept of university education. The second time was at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. We made clear the importance of talent training and vigorously developed the foundation of science and engineering. The third time was the reform and opening up, which established that science and technology are the primary productive forces, and began modern research on the basis of cultivating architectural talents.

I think we are starting our fourth venture now. This venture is the right way to return to college. The right way of modern universities is to cultivate "people" with sound body and mind, independent soul and free thought, and then cultivate "talents" of professionals and industry leaders.

The right path in the world is vicissitudes, but the right path in the world can reach far.