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Confucius is the earliest and most influential thinker and educator in China. As the first person of private school education in China, Confucius spent most of his life in educational activities other than politics. Confucius had incisive views on teaching rules and accumulated rich teaching experience. In the long-term teaching practice, the rich educational ideas accumulated by Confucius, such as "teaching without distinction", "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" and "teaching people tirelessly", still shine with wisdom.
On September 29th, 2005, the Executive Board of UNESCO officially decided at its172nd meeting that starting from 2006, the Shandong Provincial Government and the Jining Municipal Government will make an annual contribution of150,000 US dollars (the first five years) to establish the Confucius Education Award in UNESCO in the name of the China Municipal Government. This is the highest prize of UNESCO and the first educational prize established in the name of China people. Why did China educator Qian Qian Wan Wan set up an education prize in the name of Confucius? It is necessary for us to fully understand Confucius' educational thought.
First, the teaching philosophy of teaching without distinction
In the educational thought, Confucius clearly put forward the idea of "teaching without class" and thought that the object of education should be expanded. As long as you sincerely ask for advice, no matter whether you are rich or poor, you should be enthusiastic about teaching. "I have never been ignorant of self-discipline." "If a person is clean, he will make progress. If he is clean, he will not be guaranteed to go." Shuxiu is dried bacon, which was a gift from the teacher at that time. As long as he is willing to study calligraphy, that is to say, he is willing to learn from Confucius, Confucius will not refuse. Therefore, among the 3,000 disciples of Confucius, there are Meng, the noble son of Lu, and Zhang, the son of Zhonggong, who are called "bitches". There are Zigong, who made a fortune in Huo Zhi, Penghu tile, the primitive thinking that is stretched, and Yan Yuan, who lives in a poor alley and drinks a lot; Wei in the north and Zhang in the south. Confucius did not treat his disciples differently according to their origins, wealth, qualifications and nationality. Keiko from the south once asked Zigong, "How complicated is the master's gate?" Zi Gong replied: "A gentleman waits for it, and he will not refuse it if he wants to come, and he will not stop it if he wants to go. Moreover, there are many patients under the good doctor's door, and there are many wastes in hiding, so it is complicated. " It shows that Confucius' family is indeed a sage, and he believes that through education, fools can be turned into wisdom and evil into good. Confucius expanded the object of education, established private schools, and broke the monopoly of official learning, from "learning in the official" to "learning in the four foreigners" [1], which gave some civilians the opportunity to receive education, helped to get rid of the monopoly of slave owners and nobles on education, and accelerated the process of cultural downward movement, which was a great progress. "Educating without distinction" expanded the scope of educated people, spread culture among the poor, trained a group of talents for political, economic and cultural reform for the emerging landlord class, made contributions to the development of China culture, laid the foundation for a hundred schools of thought to contend during the Warring States Period, and had positive significance for strengthening national unity and promoting national cultural exchanges.
Of course, we must also admit that Confucius' education without distinction does not mean that Confucius advocates equality in education, let alone universal education. Although Confucius put forward "education without class", at least women were excluded. He believes that "only women are difficult to raise" ("The Analects of Confucius? Yang Huo), therefore, women must be excluded from the object of education by Confucius, and his practice of "coming to the whole" and "not going alone" is also a sign that he does not advocate the popularization of education.
But in any case, Confucius' educational practice of "teaching without distinction" made culture widely spread in China and among the people, and played an extremely important role in the popularization and vigorous development of education in China. At the same time, at the end of the hierarchical slave society, when Di Yi was regarded as a non-Han nationality, Confucius insisted on the teaching idea of "teaching without distinction" and regarded it as an educational object regardless of rank and rank, civilians, China and Di Yi, which fully showed Confucius' great revolutionary courage and boldness as an educator.
Second, teaching methods in accordance with their aptitude
Confucius was the first educator in China who advocated "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude". Although Confucius did not sum up the word "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude", Cheng and Zhu summed up from Confucius' practical activities and said, "Confucius teaches students in accordance with their aptitude." [2] However, from the perspective of Confucius' educational practice all his life, he is indeed the earliest, most complete and in-depth educator in the world who applies the method of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude to the teaching process.
Confucius' educational method of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude is based on "listening to his words and observing his actions" (The Analects of Confucius? Gongye Chang), based on an in-depth understanding of academic students' interests, expertise and abilities. He thinks that "you are fruitful" (generous), "giving is great" (Zi Gong is generous), "seeking is artistic" (Ran Qiu is versatile), "Chai is stupid" (Gao Chai is dull), "Shen Shilu" (Zeng Shen is not only honest and frank) and "a scholar is also a monarch" (.
Reading the Analects of Confucius, we can clearly see that when students ask him "benevolence", "politics" and "knowledge", they often give different answers according to their personality and individuality. In The Analects of Confucius? Yan Yuan records that Fan Chi, Sima Niu, Zhong Gong and Yan Yuan all asked Confucius about benevolence, and Confucius gave four different answers: Fan Chi asked about benevolence and Confucius said "love". Sima Niu asked about benevolence, and Confucius said, "The words of benevolence are also boring." . When Zhong Gong asked Ren, Confucius said, "Going out to see the distinguished guests makes the people like a big sacrifice. Don't do what you don't want, don't do it in the state, and don't complain at home. " When Yan Yuan asked about benevolence, Confucius said, "Self-denial is benevolence. If one day self-denial is benevolence, the world will be benevolence. ┅ ┅ see no evil, don't listen to indecent assault, don't say indecent assault, don't move indecent assault. " Fan Chi's qualification is relatively dull, so Confucius only talks about the most basic concept of "benevolence"-"love"; Because Sima Niu was "talkative and impetuous", Confucius warned him: Be a benevolent person, be careful and don't rush to express your position; Zhong Gong is not modest enough to be considerate of others, so Confucius taught him the way of loyalty and forgiveness, and he should be able to put himself in others' shoes. Yan Yuan, the first disciple of Confucius, was very virtuous, so Confucius asked him to observe, listen, speak and act according to the highest standards of benevolence, and his every move should conform to the norms of etiquette. In a word, Confucius gave four different answers to the same question according to each student's different foundation and attainments, which conformed to each student's ideological reality and the basic concept of benevolence. Looking at Confucius' disciples, it is precisely because Confucius respects students' individuality, gives full play to students' specialties and teaches students in accordance with their aptitude that they have their own strengths and achievements in morality, politics, language and literature.
The most amazing thing is that Confucius taught according to students' different psychological states and thinking processes, and became the first educator in the world to put forward heuristic teaching. Confucius believes that all learning, whether learning knowledge or cultivating morality, is based on students' conscious needs. He combined teaching students in accordance with their aptitude with heuristic induction, and started from students' reality, using heuristic induction method to give full play to students' initiative and enthusiasm. For such an important educational thought, or we can call it the art of education, Confucius only used a few words to express that "if you don't get angry, you will be threatened, if you don't get angry, you will be removed, and if you don't take a corner, you can't recover" (The Analects of Confucius? "and"). The word "inspiration" also comes from this. According to Zhu's explanation: "angry people, they can't get it;" If you are anxious, you will say what you want to say, but you will not say it. Send it, that is, reach its words. " [3] Confucius' heuristic education is based on cultivating students' thinking in the teaching process, taking students as the center, allowing students to be in an active position from beginning to end in the learning process, allowing students to ask questions and think about problems on their own initiative, allowing students to actively discover and explore, allowing students to draw inferences, requiring students not only to "smell one thing and know two things", but also to achieve the situation of "smell one thing and know ten things", and teachers just learn from it.
An important feature of Confucius' educational thought is to pay attention to students' psychological state and learning initiative in the process of learning, and to students' cognitive ability, which is reflected by heuristic education. It is in this way of education that students give full play to their subjective consciousness and finally reach the realm of being suddenly enlightened, unable to stop and thirsty for knowledge. It is precisely because of this that Confucius can cultivate a large number of important reasons for being independent and knowledgeable.
Third, learn from each other's teaching philosophy
In teaching, Confucius advocates that teachers and students learn from each other, discuss with each other and inspire each other, so as to achieve good results of learning from each other.
Confucius' teaching form mainly adopts the method of conversation, with many people talking together and some individuals talking. The Analects of Confucius records the mutual questions and discussions between Confucius and his disciples.
Confucius advocated teaching democracy, and its ideological basis was "nonsense, no need, no solidity and no ego" [4](p87). He suggested that teachers should not be presumptuous, arbitrary, opinionated and self-righteous in teaching. In conversation teaching, Confucius pays attention to creating a natural, friendly and sincere learning atmosphere. "If one day I grow up, I will grow up, if not", encourage students to express their opinions.
In the process of teaching, Confucius earnestly practiced the educational concept of "learning from others". Lutz, a disciple of Confucius, was straightforward and reckless. Out of his love for Confucius, he often made critical comments on Confucius. Confucius cared and cared for Luz very much and accepted his criticism sincerely. Yan Hui, as the most proud disciple of Confucius, never questioned and criticized Confucius. On the contrary, he aroused Confucius' dissatisfaction and criticized Yan Hui's attitude of "not helping me" [4] (P11). Ziyou has made outstanding achievements in killing Wucheng. When Confucius visited, he "laughed" when he heard the string singing, and talked about "how to kill the chicken with an ox knife". Ziyou immediately retorted, "Xi Zheyan also heard all the masters say," A gentleman loves others. When he learns Tao, a villain learns Tao easily. ".Meaning: I learned all my politics from your teacher. Confucius immediately said," The second and third sons, the words that are suppressed are also the ears of the preface "[4](P 182). Confucius was not embarrassed or disgusted with Ziyou's "different people have different opinions" [4](P 170), but immediately affirmed his opinion and admitted his mistake.
The equal communication between Confucius and his disciples has formed a relaxed and harmonious teaching atmosphere and narrowed the distance between students and teachers. The whole teaching process is not only the process of teachers imparting knowledge, but also the process of students mastering knowledge. Dialectical interaction between the two. As far as teachers are concerned, teaching is learning, and teaching and learning promote and improve each other. For students, while learning knowledge from teachers, they still need their own efforts to improve. Teaching benefits from learning, and learning progresses day by day because of teaching. So as to truly realize the "learning from teaching" and make progress.
Fourth, the teacher-student relationship of mutual love and equality.
Confucius' "dignity as a teacher" is based on equality and mutual love with students. Confucius is a saint, but he doesn't have the shelf of "the most holy teacher". He doesn't put himself above his students. He is humble and friendly to his students. His education of students is always carried out in outings and conversations with students. This is complete equality and democracy. Confucius' students respect Confucius fearlessly, worship Confucius fearlessly, speak freely to Confucius, and ask questions if they have any questions.
Confucius and his students have established a deep affection. Teachers and students are like father and son and friends. Confucius is very concerned about students' lives. Confucius criticized Zaiyu, who didn't make progress and slept during the day, seriously: "Rotten wood can't be carved, nor can the earth wall be carved" [4](P45). This heartless reproach is based on Confucius' strong sense of responsibility to his students as a teacher, and it is a kind of real affection. It is precisely because of Confucius' ruthless criticism and enthusiastic teaching that "Japan" has been achieved. When Boniu was ill, Confucius went to see him personally, "holding his hand with his own hands" and said with infinite emotion: "If you die, you will die. People also have their own diseases! People in Sri Lanka also have their own diseases. " [4] (P58) The feeling of sadness is clear and unspeakable. Confucius' favorite disciple was Yan Hui, but Yan Hui died young. "Yan Hui died and his son cried.". The follower said,' I'm so tired!' Say,' What's the matter? If it's not your wife's fault, who will? [4](P 1 12), Yan Hui's death made Confucius feel sad. Once he said, "Yan Hui was very studious, but unfortunately he died short-lived. There is nothing like him now. " Pity, sadness and nostalgia are sentimental.
Confucius' love for students also won students' sincere respect for him. When traveling around the world, Yan Hui fell behind. When he caught up, Confucius said, "I take my daughter as my death!" "He said," If I were here, why would I dare to die! " [4](P 1 17) The deep affection between teachers and students is evident. No wonder Mencius said, "Those who serve others with virtue are just like those who serve Confucius with seventy sons. " [5]
After the death of Confucius, the disciples mourned and kept the tomb for three years as a gift for the loss of their father. Zi Gong still could not bear to leave and kept it alone for three years. Later, disciples of Confucius, Lu and others led hundreds of families to live and settle next to the tomb of Confucius, hence the name "Kong Li" (Historical Records? Confucius family ")
Confucius showed great concern for every student and treated them equally, including a special figure, Kong Li, the son of Confucius. Chen Yuan, a disciple of Confucius, thought that Kong Li had received special teachings from Confucius, but after investigation, he found that there was no such thing. He said happily, "Ask one, get three, smell poetry, smell courtesy, and smell that a gentleman is far from his son." [4]( P 178) Confucius advocated "closeness" between father and son, but he didn't use it in the teacher-student relationship with Kong Li, which was really commendable.
Confucius' decades of educational experience, summed up through long-term teaching practice, is an important part of China's excellent traditional culture and a spiritual and cultural resource on which our people depend. Today, more than two thousand years later, in the process of education, we still feel that education in China and even in the world is still deeply influenced by Confucius' educational thought in many aspects. Confucius is indeed a great pioneer educator in the history of human culture, and his educational thoughts are more wise and valuable today after years of tempering and historical baptism.