Happy Camp proposes to give children a good education under two major systems, one is the ability system; the other is the cultural system. We will introduce the capability system in the next section. Let’s talk about the cultural system first.
Parents often say: We must train our children to be literate people. So what does it mean to be literate?
Culture is actually a complete system, including scientific culture, artistic culture and spiritual culture. The three major cultures complement each other and form a system, a complete system. According to the thinking of the three talents of heaven, earth and man, science and culture are at the "earth" level, it is about survival, and can enable us to have stronger survival skills; art culture is at the "human" level, it is about life, and can Let our lives be full of color and flavor; spiritual culture is at the "heaven" level and is about life. It can make our lives rich, live a valuable life, and live a wonderful life.
If we look at Yin-Yang thinking, the three cultures are actually one, originally non-dual and mutually inclusive. There must be scientific culture in art culture, as well as spiritual culture. Similarly, scientific culture reveals the reality of nature, human society and even the entire universe, so it must also contain elements of spiritual culture.
Let’s take the sine and cosine function curve in mathematics as an example. It seems to reveal a mathematical theorem that can solve mathematical problems and belongs to the category of science and culture. But it also contains rich spiritual culture and artistic culture. Doesn’t this kind of fluctuation curve also reveal the development laws of everything? For example, when something reaches its lowest point, never give up, because this is when things start to get better. It is the darkest time before dawn. If you give up, all your previous efforts will be wasted. If you persist, things will surely turn bright and clear. Isn’t this spiritual strength of perseverance and perseverance an important manifestation of spiritual culture? To put it another way, the sine and cosine function curve itself is a kind of beauty, the beauty of symmetry and the beauty of flow, aren’t they also the embodiment of art and culture?
However, in real education, because many parents do not understand the integrity and correlation of the three major cultural systems, the cultural education they give their children is fragmented or overgeneralized. How can such education be effective? Can it be called a good education?
Take science and culture as an example. Children acquire the most scientific and cultural knowledge from childhood to college, and parents and school teachers also value scientific and cultural knowledge the most. Chinese parents, schools and society attach great importance to learning scientific and cultural knowledge.
Why? the reason is simple. Scientific culture is the most practical and in greatest demand in today's society. From the perspective of human society, since humans entered industrial society, the development of science and technology has greatly promoted the upgrading of production tools, thereby improving human productivity levels and greatly enriching social material conditions. Mastering more scientific culture will help you find ideas to make a living in society and create a good material life for yourself.
However, a person's life is divided into three levels: "survival, life, and life". If we want to give our children education that is in line with life development, we cannot just focus on survival.
There is nothing wrong with attaching importance to scientific culture, but the understanding of scientific culture cannot just stay at the level of knowledge, but should rise to the level of wisdom. Because what many scientific cultures reveal is the reality of the universe and the laws and fundamentals of all things.
At the same time, using scientific and cultural knowledge also requires wisdom. Therefore, if you do not know how to draw inferences from one example, cannot draw parallels from analogies, and do not know how to connect with life, then what you learn can only be dead knowledge, and the child becomes a storage of knowledge.
Therefore, learning science and culture should be to use the medium of science and culture to open up wisdom, study and apply science and culture, and generate more wisdom.
With the development of the economy, various educational concepts are gradually introduced, and the country vigorously promotes quality education. Parents gradually realize that focusing only on science and culture is too narrow, and not all children can Achievements have been made in science and culture, so many parents have turned their attention to art and culture. Learning dance, music, art, handicrafts, calligraphy, etc. has become elective courses for children. Some parents even understand that quality education is science and culture plus some art and culture.
Because they do not understand why they should learn art and culture, and do not understand the significance of art and culture to a child’s life growth, many parents bring their understanding of science and culture learning to art and culture. To learn piano, you need to take a grade, to learn art, you need to compete, to learn calligraphy, you need to win awards... As long as you are studying, whether you are studying science or art, it is easy to fall into the misunderstanding of learning skills and learning abilities. The utilitarian thinking of education is in the study of art and culture. The impact remains far-reaching.
So what is the use of studying art and culture?
It is to nourish the life of children.
All art culture is actually a presentation of life and the essence of life. It is the creator who uses his own life to connect and collide with other lives, and uses poetry to express his feelings about truth, goodness and beauty. , music, dance, painting and other forms of expression are expressions of the nature of the universe and the reality of life. They all present a certain state of life. Often the closer to the essence of life, the more touching a work is.
Therefore, learning art and culture should not just stop at the level of technical skills. Art is the medium that leads to the essence of life, the reality of the universe, and wisdom. Art must be used to nourish children's lives.
Next, let’s look at spiritual culture. Using the three talents thinking left by our ancestors to look at the three major cultures, we will find that science and culture are "earth", art and culture are "people", and spiritual culture is "heaven". It is regrettable that for a long time, education has overemphasized the guiding role of scientific culture, and on the contrary, the edification of children's spiritual culture has been seriously ignored.
For the long-term harmony and stability of a society, it is far from enough to rely solely on abundant material conditions. The social hidden dangers caused by spiritual deficiency are more terrifying than material deficiency. People's hearts are not as good as they used to be, world moral standards are declining, and the moral bottom line has been lowered again and again. Is it not just the material conditions that can make up for this? For a life, the construction of the spiritual world is equally important.
It is often seen in various media reports that some children choose to commit suicide because they failed in the college entrance examination, some primary and secondary school students ran away from home after being criticized by their teachers, and some even killed their fathers and jailed their mothers, or poisoned their classmates. Behind such extreme behavior and these heart-wrenching incidents are spiritually desolate hearts and a lack of spiritual and cultural education.
Helping children build a strong spiritual world has become a very urgent task in current education. When Happy Camp was founded, it regarded this as a core task of youth quality education, because spiritual culture can support Starting a child's life can realize the unique value and meaning of each life. So what kind of spiritual culture should be given to children? How to give it?
Let’s start with cultivating children’s mental strength. Let children have the ability to love, let children learn to carry, let children have dreams, let children have six life abilities, help children open up wisdom, establish a set of intelligent thinking and consciousness systems, let children learn self-education, and realize the value of their own lives. While pursuing, bring truth, goodness and beauty to others.
To provide a child with a good education, he must be nourished by the three major cultural systems. These three major cultures each have their own emphasis, complement each other and penetrate each other, allowing children to travel freely among the three cultures and absorb comprehensive nutrition.
How rich and blooming is the life nourished by the three major cultures! Then let us work together to let our children truly become "cultured" people under the influence of the three major cultures!
——Cao Hui's "Parent-Child Wisdom"