Chinese-style education will not work without reform

Because of a little girl, China’s exam-oriented education was once again whipped and tortured. Recently, a small place called Lianshui became popular just because of a 17-year-old female technical secondary school student, Jiang Ping. The local cultural and tourism department also understands traffic well, and has adopted the slogan “A small river is rich in academics.” In the 2024 Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition, 801 students advanced to the finals, among which Jiang Ping ranked 12th, a proven academic champion. The most important thing in China is academic masters. Why is she so popular? Because she is a top student who is seriously partial to academic subjects, and whose academic qualifications, background, and achievements are seriously inconsistent. She is a top student who should not appear in the exam-oriented education system. The competitors before and after her are all college students and even doctoral students from the world\’s top universities such as Qingbei, Cambridge, MIT, and Princeton. Jiang Ping comes from a completely inferior technical secondary school, and she is still studying fashion design. Yes, mathematics is a hobby. While everyone is praising Jiang Ping\’s talent and counterattack, I feel that she is an unfortunate genius in today\’s Chinese education system. Have you ever wondered why a genius ends up studying in a technical secondary school? The official explanation is that she wants to go to the same school as her sister. However, other explanations seem to be more reasonable. I took partial subjects and did not do well in the high school entrance examination. Although I could study in an ordinary high school, my family was poor and my father worked as a cleaner. For a person like her who comes from a grassroots background, it can even be said that the script of her life has been written, and she will most likely spend her whole life wandering around at the bottom after graduation. If there hadn\’t been such a math competition, or if she hadn\’t met Teacher Bole, who would have known that she was a genius. In reality, how many geniuses like her are stifled by exam-oriented education, and eventually disappear from the public. To put it more bluntly, the essence of exam-oriented education is to exclude geniuses who are partial to subjects. When we pay attention to Jiang Ping, are we not reflecting on the old-fashioned and single selection mechanism of examination-oriented education? Of course, the criticism that Chinese people have about exam-oriented education goes far beyond this. This year’s college entrance examination number is the largest ever, 13.42 million. In the past five years, the number of college entrance examination candidates nationwide has increased by 3 million. Fierce competition has even ignited the college entrance examination volunteer planning industry. For example, Internet celebrity Zhang Xuefeng passed The news that he could earn 200 million by volunteering for the college entrance examination in 3 hours was directly on the hot search. The mood of parents is understandable. Parents love their children and have far-reaching plans. They hope that their children can have a good job and a good future. This also reflects a cruel truth: there is nothing wrong with studying for employment, but it is obviously putting the cart before the horse and putting the cart before the horse. Education is regarded as a tool and a stepping stone as a goal. I think that by getting into a good university and studying a good major, I can sit back and relax. This short-sighted view of reading is essentially a kind of opportunism, which is understandable but not worthy of encouragement. Exam-oriented education has played a huge role in the relatively fair selection of talents in the decades when China has been severely short of talents. Many \”small town problem solvers\” have changed their lives against fate. But times have changed. As China moves from the catching-up stage of \”knowing how to copy\” to the stage of high-quality development of \”can create\”, the examination-oriented education, which is seriously involved in internal friction, is becoming a key point in burying talents, and even the failure of Chinese-style modernization. stumbling block. Domestically, there are currently many social and economic issues in the country, such as education, school district housing issues, employmentDifficulties, depreciation of academic qualifications, and even some industrial problems can all be attributed to the exam-oriented education system that “aligns everything with exams.” There are three big mountains above the contemporary middle class, and education is one of them. Compared with medical care and high housing prices, it can be said that the mountain of education is more caused by parents themselves. It is an anxiety and meaningless involution. For example, since childhood, we have been working hard to provide children with various cram schools. We are afraid that our children will lose at the starting line, but we rarely consider whether what they want to learn is what they like and are good at. The cost of raising children in Chinese cities is already the second highest in the world, and most of it is various education expenses. The result is that money is spent, but the results are not very good. The competitive situation of the children has not changed much. Because you are a chicken child, other parents can only be a chicken child. The only effect is to raise the competition threshold from 60 points to 60 points. 80 points, at the expense of the child\’s talents and other possibilities. It\’s like watching a movie. The person in front stands up to watch, so you can only stand up. You are watching the same movie, but your body is more tired. As for school district housing, it is more like an IQ tax under the banner of \”for the children.\” There is no public data to prove that children in school districts are better than other children in society. Moreover, school district housing is mainly related to primary and secondary school degrees, and these two stages play a limited role in children\’s growth. If it is to let the children mix with classmates and get in touch with the so-called circle, it is even more ridiculous. Really awesome families will not ask for housing in the school district. Those who ask for housing in the school district are middle-class people who are self-comforting. The purpose itself is to prevent the middle class status from slipping, nothing more. Besides, even if there are great people, how many contacts do you still have with your classmates in college, not to mention your classmates in primary and secondary schools? Real connections are exchanges of interests. People will not help you just because you are a classmate. You have to provide others with the same amount of value, at least emotional value, to be able to get help. Therefore, even parents themselves may not be able to tell whether they buy a house in a school district for their children, to comfort themselves, or to make money by speculating on real estate. Even if you are speculating on real estate, housing in a school district is not a good choice. Its investment logic is less driven by value than driven by anxiety. The most famous school district housing in Shenzhen, the capital of real estate speculation, Bagualing Dormitory, an old house from decades ago, has fallen by 70% in three years. The reason behind this is not that the value of the school district has disappeared, but that the emotional value has collapsed. A joke on the Internet is even more heart-wrenching: when I was taking the college entrance examination ten years ago, my class teacher said that people are not valuable, but talents are valuable; when I graduated from college six years ago, my counselor said that my undergraduate degree was not valuable, but my graduate degree was; three years ago, when I graduated with a master\’s degree, , the tutor said that a master\’s degree is not valuable, but a doctorate is valuable; after graduating with a doctorate this year, the boss said that academic qualifications are not valuable, but capital is valuable, but ordinary families have already paid tuition fees with their capital. There are objective reasons for the depreciation of academic qualifications. Everyone knows about the economic environment in recent years. The number of college graduates is at a high level. This year it reached 11.79 million, another historical high. However, we cannot blame everything on the environment. Just like Zhao Benshan complained, \”If you don\’t have the ability, just say you have no ability. Don\’t always say that the general environment is not good. Why is it that the general environment is not good wherever you go? You are the one who destroys the general environment.\” since 1After the expansion of university enrollment in 1999, another drawback of examination-oriented education that has been criticized is that it is strict in entering and lenient in exiting. This is true whether you are taking the college entrance examination, the postgraduate entrance examination, the Ph.D. examination, or even the public examination. Many people work extremely hard just to get into college, and then they become extremely indulgent. The mentality of many people is that as long as they pass the exam, they will be fine. Some people study in college for several years and basically ruin themselves. Looking back, they find that the time when they were most knowledgeable was before the college entrance examination. Therefore, although the number of college students in China is large, their quality is not high. They have academic qualifications but no ability, and are seriously out of touch with society. The above are some of the negative internal impacts of our country’s current education system. Externally, at the national level, it drags down performance in the game of great powers and the battle for national destiny. Why are we always stuck with the old America? Why is it that while we are still struggling to catch up in the chip field, a new round of artificial intelligence revolution breaks out in the United States instead of China, where the Internet is also developed? In one sentence, the United States is good at technological innovation, while China is good at model innovation. Technological innovation can produce some new things, while model innovation is simply copy and paste. Copy some new things from the United States and paste them into bicycles, restaurants, and vegetable vendors. For old men and women, it is euphemistically called \”sharing economy\” and \”community group buying\”. You know, OpenAI was established as early as 2015, but before the success of GPT, it can be said that no company in China had the idea of ​​​​making a large language model. All I think about every day is how to grab the business of physical stores on the street, mom-and-pop shops, and supermarkets, euphemistically called \”empowerment,\” \”integration,\” and \”ecological chain.\” Yelling the most high-end words and doing the most filthy things. What\’s behind this? Under the guidance of scores, it emphasizes rote memorization and neglects critical thinking and practice, and can solve problems by copying. No one wants to spend money and effort to innovate. Whatever seeds are sown will naturally bear fruit. Whether it is wrestling with the United States externally or solving economic development problems internally, science and technology is the primary productive force, and the key depends on the subjective initiative and creativity of the Chinese people. As Chairman Mao said, the key to determining victory or defeat is whether people are good or bad. things. Education needs to be reformed. This is a consensus from the temple to the people. The question is how to reform? It is obviously unrealistic to just flip the table, abandon exam-oriented education, and learn from the West. Exam-oriented education and the imperial examination system, which has lasted for more than 1,000 years, are in the same line. They have long been integrated into China\’s cultural genes and are difficult to eradicate. Moreover, this kind of shock therapy is also It is not in line with our governance characteristics. In fact, the education system has launched a series of reforms, let’s call it “minimally invasive therapy.” For example, the \”double reduction\” policy at the primary and secondary school levels has directly brought a devastating blow to the education and training industry, but this is not the original intention of the policy. The purpose of the \”double reduction\” policy is to free students from heavy homework. Develop in an all-round way, rather than becoming a nerd who can only solve problems at a young age. At the high school level, the division of arts and sciences is cancelled, and the \”3+1+2\” college entrance examination model is implemented. The advantage is that more choices are given to students, and learning is driven by interest. Students can focus more on what they like and on subjects you are good at. Compared with when I took the college entrance examination more than ten years ago, it is indeed a great improvement. Compare againFor example, the diversion of general vocational education can improve the status of vocational education and fill the gap in a large number of senior technician positions. It will provide the skills to establish a foothold for downwards and the hope for breakthroughs upwards. Another example is that university majors are also quietly reforming. On the surface, the 2023 college major adjustment plan only adds 3 majors, but the overall change is very large, with 1,673 new majors, mainly focusing on engineering software, computer applications, semiconductors, Medical research, electronic information materials, intelligent marine equipment, etc., while 1,670 majors were cancelled. Most of them are useless majors related to literature, history, politics and economics. In the past two months, the \”101 Plan\” promoted by the Ministry of Education focused on changing university teaching content from the original emphasis on book theory to emphasis on practical application. To sum up, we are pushing forward and pushing back, and we are transforming from exam-oriented education to quality-oriented education and practical education. We should be more pragmatic and less pragmatic. We will prosper the country through hard work and harm the country through empty talk. The country is indeed moving in this direction. Regarding China’s education, there is a famous question asked by Qian Xuesen: Why can’t Chinese schools cultivate outstanding scientific and technological innovation talents? As a scientific and technological leader who was born in China, became famous in the United States, and finally dedicated his skills to China, he has more say than anyone else about the differences between Chinese and American education. This question also completely tore off the fig leaf of exam-oriented education. In recent years, we have had similar questions, such as \”Why are there so many successful businessmen in China but so few groundbreaking entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Musk?\” Although we have thought about these issues, we don’t take them too seriously. The general explanation is that the United States is good at going from 0 to 1, and China is good at going from 1 to 10; the West is better at creating tools, and the East is better at using tools. The underlying logic of quality education is innovation, and the underlying logic of exam-oriented education is imitation. This is not sarcasm, nor is it flattering or belittling anyone. Because simple copying is the most cost-effective way to catch up with opponents when the economy is small, and it has also been the pursuit of political and economic unity such as \”stability above all else\” for thousands of years. The Westernization Movement launched more than 100 years ago, learning from foreigners and developing skills to control foreigners, was essentially imitation. After the reform and opening up, especially in the 20 years since joining the WTO, we have become the top imitator in the world. Once something is copied and produced on a large scale in China, other countries will soon be flooded with Chinese goods if they do not engage in trade protection. This is the root cause of why China can become the world\’s factory and the world\’s largest exporter. But there is a premise here, that is, China and the West cannot be at odds with each other. Because the imitator is a follower in the ecological niche, so no matter how strong our imitation ability is, we will never be able to escape the fate of being stuck. Without the foundation of basic innovation from 0 to 1, 1 to 10 is a tree without roots. The problem is that China and the United States are inevitably falling into the \”Thustides Trap\”, and now the American imperialists are determined to choke us. We can use the energy we used to develop two bombs, rockets, and satellites to tackle technical difficulties and break through stuck problems such as chips. But if we don’t change our educational thinking, there will be no end to this pursuit. The arm-wrestling between China and the United States is a marathon contest. As for GDP, it is just a numerical illusion. The final competition must be the thickness and capacity of talents.. For the United States to become the \”Chosen One,\” the self-weakening nature of Europe during the two wars, its geographical location bordering the ocean on both sides, and its distance from geopolitical disputes are only necessary conditions. An education system that liberates nature is the sufficient condition. Although the relative strength of the United States has been continuously weakened in many fields and the financial war has been unstoppable, its technological hegemony has been continuously strengthened. Jobs, Musk, Altman, and Jen-Hsun Huang, whether they are natives of the United States or immigrants, these top innovative entrepreneurs in the world are all concentrated in the United States. There must be a reason. Even China\’s top talents often have to go to the United States for gold plating. American education is like a huge magnet, continuously attracting talents from all over the world. There is a saying that goes like this: If you are a fool, you cannot become a genius; if you are a genius, you can easily become an American. Why do people generally think that American students are poor in mathematics, but Americans can produce world-leading things? Because the United States is a minority elite system, you rarely hear about the mathematical achievements of this elite, and because what people learn is real mathematics, what China learns is called problem-solving skills at best, but China’s education system now happens to be able to pass mathematics As a carrier to teach question-solving skills, if time goes back 200 years, the way to teach question-solving skills through Chinese language was the familiar \”eight-legged essay\”. Under the \”minority meritocracy\” in the United States, most people are indeed not smart enough. In this case, a small number of smart people are motivated and can more easily create epoch-making products, such as Bill Gates\’s Microsoft and Microsoft\’s Windows system invention. In the past, everyone had to use the Dos command line to operate the computer, which was very troublesome. Most people in the United States were indeed not smart and difficult to learn, so a few elites such as Bill Gates invented a simplified version of the operating system Windows, and Apple\’s Steve Jobs did the same. . Our country’s current education system is very good at mass-producing students with scores of 75-90 and other production materials. This has also directly contributed to decades of rapid economic growth. This corresponds to our country’s “majority meritocracy”. Most ordinary people Too smart, most of the very few top smart people have gone to the United States. In this case, it is unlikely to invent products such as Windows and Apple mobile phones. Although the products you make can be used, the key is that most ordinary people do not They will strongly recognize the products they have made, even though many of them have no chance of commercialization. Therefore, it is more likely that major companies in our country will use proficiency in the Dos system as one of the recruitment conditions, forcing diligent young people to become Dos system masters, making do with some things that are not easy to use but can be used. It needs to be acknowledged that there are huge differences in education between China and the United States. It is not shameful to admit the gap, it is shameful to bury your head in the sand. At the same time, we don’t need to belittle ourselves, simply blame it on race, culture, and system, and assert that we will definitely not be able to do something or catch up. A hundred years ago, we also experienced a brief period of great prosperity in education and culture. During that era, a group of talented people in partial subjects shone brightly, became university professors, and even became giants of the generation. Counting further ahead, ChinaThe four great inventions have been far ahead of the world for a long time. Effort determines the lower limit, and talent determines the upper limit. When the economy reaches a certain stage of development, when the upper limit gradually stabilizes and even shows involution, what we need most is to rescue the education system from the \”utilitarianism\”, \”score first\” and \”excessive pragmatism\” exam-oriented education to liberate this upper limit. , and promote talents in an eclectic way. The long pass of Xiongguan is really like iron, and now we are crossing it from the beginning, we will wait and see.