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August 30, 2014

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Ridding kids’ texts of poems spurs debate

IT must be music to the ears of children who will start primary school on Monday. As part of the city’s efforts to ease the burden of young students, Shanghai Education Commission has decided to remove eight Chinese classical poems from the textbooks for first-graders, as well as reduce the number of Chinese characters the new pupils are required to learn.

However, the move soon raised great controversy and debate among parents and teachers. Those supporting the change say the poems are too difficult for first-graders to understand, while people who are against it think the poems are a great part of traditional Chinese culture and children need to learn early.

“Now I regretted that my daughter went to primary school last year,” laments Feng Bing, mother of an 8-year-old girl. “Have you seen the Chinese book for grade-one children before? It’s horrible. One lesson a day, and there are six to eight new words every day that my daughter has to recognize and able to write. It becomes such a torture for the whole family, as I have to sit beside her and repeatedly tell her how to read and write the words for about one or two hours.”

A similar experience is shared by Kathy Wang, who has an 8-year-old son.

“I don’t think it is appropriate to let a 7- or 8-year-old child write a whole page of Chinese characters every day. Their fingers are not so strong to hold a pencil and they are unable to concentrate for a long time,” Wang says. “My son said he hated writing Chinese characters, phrases and classical poems, as it takes him too long to do this. Now the new primary school pupils can feel a bit relieved.”

However, some parents of grade-one-to-be children are not happy with the adjustment.

“It’s a silly act,” says Gu Wenxi, father of a 6-year-old girl. “The poems are enlightening for literature. In fact, I have sent my daughter to some training classes even when she was in kindergarten, and she can already recite more than 10 classical poems. There is no difficulty for her to grasp them.”

It is a tradition among Chinese parents to teach their children classical poems even when they are only 2 or 3 years old. Some consider it a way to show the talents of their children.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong,” Gu says. “In fact, every time when my daughter finishes reciting one poem in front of relatives and friends, she receives much praise and applause, which builds up her confidence.”

Gu is among many Chinese parents who think their children “can’t lose at the beginning of their life.” They are busy taking the children to various classes, including Chinese, English, mathematics, dancing and singing, golf and swimming.

“I often quarrel with my daughter and son-in-law, as I am totally against such practice,” says Ma Lanxing, a retiree in her 60s who has a 5-year-old granddaughter. “My daughter and her husband are fully occupied with their work, so I have become the person to escort my granddaughter to different after-school training classes. But that’s not right. It’s too much for a little kid. When I argue with them, they just say that I am out of date, as all parents are doing the same thing. But I feel so sorry for my granddaughter, especially seeing her tired face.”

Today it is almost impossible to send children to primary school on a “zero base.”

“If you believe that, then you are an idiot, like I was once,” says He Xiaoming, a Shanghai doctor with a 9-year-old son. “At that time I wanted to give my son a happy childhood, so I didn’t take him to any training classes. He was exactly of ‘zero base’ when entering primary school.

Pressures still there

“But later I found I was totally wrong. Just take a look at the Chinese, English and math books. The teacher assumed that all the students already knew the basic skills, so it took me half a year madly catching up with the class. The boy even felt he was inferior to the others,” he adds. “Now I tell all my friends and colleagues to never start from zero, because the whole educational system and the atmosphere won’t allow you to do so.”

Her words are echoed by Gu.

“True, the local public schools deleted some contents, but what about those private schools?” Gu asks. “The private schools are even adding some stuff. Remember this: The students from public schools will eventually compete with those from the private schools for high school and college entrance exams. So do you still think that the deletion of some characters and classical poems work?”

Many experts and educators would answer “yes,” because “zero base” is actually beneficial to children’s ability of understanding, logical capability and imagination in the long run, they say.

Jia Wei, vice director of the Shanghai Education Commission, proves it with some figures.

“We did a survey in Jinshan District for students with and without ‘zero base.’ The result showed that those who hadn’t learned pinyin, mathematics, English and Chinese characters before entering primary school have more interest in studies,” Jia says. “When they enter grade-3 or 4, there is almost no advantage for those who learned more in preschool.”

But Jia points out that “zero base” doesn’t mean no preparation for the children before entering primary school.

“What to prepare? I think it should return to the nature of education — that is to follow the physical development of the child. The ability to study, like how to focus, logical thinking and memorizing ability.”

Yang Xiong, director of the Youth Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says Chinese parents should be patient and allow their children to make mistakes.

“Don’t pull up seedlings to help them grow,” Yang says. “Better not accelerate the natural ripening; it actually hurts a child’s brain. Psychologists already have proved that a 3- or 4-year-old child has the ability for diluting information. If he/she is brainstormed with several thousand characters too early in the mind, then the opportunity of a weary attitude toward study may increase. I want to tell the Chinese parents to return a happy and free childhood for their children.”

Wu Lingling, a Chinese teacher at a local primary school in Jing’an District, totally supports the idea of getting rid of some contents in the grade-one textbook.

“Previously, both the teacher and students were fully occupied. Now they can have more time to read. But it is a pity that the book deletes all eight classical poems. Actually it could still retain one or two to let the children experience the charisma of the traditional Chinese culture.”

Deleted poems

THE following are portions of three poems among the eight that were removed from the first-grade curriculum.

 ‘Grasses’

Author: Bai Juyi (Tang Dynasty)

“Boundless grasses over the plain,

Come and go with every season;

Wildfire never consumes them,

They are tall once again in the spring wind.”

‘Ascending the Stork Tower’

登黄雀楼

Author: Wang Zhihuan (Tang Dynasty)

“The sun beyond the mountains glows,

The Yellow River seawards flows.

To see a thousand miles,

Ascend a storey higher.”

‘A Call on the Recluse Who Is Just Out’

寻隐者不遇

Author: Jia Dao (Tang Dynasty)

“I asked the boy beneath the pine tree,

Who said, ‘The master’s gone to pick;

He must be somewhere around these cliffs,

Concealed unseen in the thick clouds.”




 

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