How to teach Chinese and history in American schools

It doesn't matter what you learn, but who you learn from, because what you learn will become obsolete sooner or later, and the ability to analyze and solve problems can be used for life.

Today I will talk to you about my life in America.

I went to my child's middle school to attend the parent-teacher conference last weekend. I accidentally listened to Luo Ji's thinking video "The Coming Class Society", in which Teacher Luo talked about American secondary education. I want to give you some supplementary information.

My children's school usually holds a parent-teacher conference at the beginning of each academic year, and once again at the end of the first semester and the second semester. At the parent-teacher meeting at the beginning of the school year, the teacher introduced himself and the teaching content, and the remaining two times were one-on-one discussion between parents and teachers on children's learning and other subjects. No matter what kind of parent-teacher meeting, communicating with six or seven teachers alone will be gone for half a day.

In the eyes of many domestic parents, American parents don't worry about their children, which is actually not accurate. The families introduced by Mr. Luo in that program, the environment is not very good, and they really don't worry about their children's affairs, but families with high social status spend more time on their children. In my children's school, many students' parents are CEOs and executives of Fortune 500 companies or some famous investors. Although they are busy at work, they always attend parent-teacher conferences.

Formally, the parent-teacher conference at the beginning of school is similar to that in China. The difference is that middle school students in China have fixed classrooms. During the parent-teacher conference, everyone sits in the students' classrooms and every teacher introduces them one by one. Private schools in the United States have a course selection system since elementary school, and each candidate's course is different. Even in the same class, students with different difficulties are in different classrooms.

Therefore, students in a class often attend classes separately, so it is good to go to various subject classrooms in class. It's a bit like an elective course in domestic universities. Although the administrative category exists, it is of little significance. Of course, there will be no fixed classroom. In this case, the parents' meeting is held in the classrooms of various subjects according to the order of their children's classes on a certain day. If a child has six classes, parents will go to six classrooms, and there will be a gap of 5 minutes every time they change classrooms. In this way, parents can experience their children's life in a day.

In the eyes of many people, middle school education in the United States is very poor, and students who don't slip at home can easily get straight A's in American schools. However, it's really hard to say which side has higher teaching quality if we compare the former 100 senior high school in the United States with the former 100 senior high school in China. Comparatively speaking, China has done many difficult problems in mathematics and physics, and American children can't compare with China in these three subjects. But when it comes to math and physics, you see who has learned more. The students in the best middle schools in China are not as good as those in the same grade in the United States.

My eldest daughter is not the best student in high school, but when she graduated from high school, she not only finished college calculus, but also learned linear algebra, complex variable function and probability theory. In biology, she completed university courses such as neuroscience. Later, she missed seven courses at MIT, indicating that her high school courses met the requirements of MIT undergraduate courses. There are many people who are better than her in her grade. However, the biggest gap between Chinese and American education lies in language, writing and humanities. American children are much better than China in reading, writing and expression.

So how do American middle schools teach children humanities and basic language, reading and writing skills? I can tell you about the educational methods and contents introduced by the kindergarten teachers in history class and English (language art) class.

Let's start with the history class. When I was studying history in middle school, I was deeply impressed by the fact that teachers only talked from books, while students recited knowledge points and conclusions. A good teacher (such as Shi Guopeng in No.4 Middle School) just gives interesting lectures. History lessons in American middle schools are not taught in this way, nor are students taught in that way. The teacher of children's history emphasizes that students must master four skills, namely, the research of historical issues, the understanding and analysis of materials, the writing of papers and the final presentation on stage.

In China, every historical question has a standard answer. There are often no standard answers to American historical questions, only good and bad, logical and illogical. The so-called good answer is a logical conclusion based on facts, which is not necessarily consistent with what the book says, nor with mainstream historians. The so-called bad answer is directly copied, and there is no evidence to support it.

In order to cultivate students' ability to give "good answers", teachers should let students choose historical topics they are interested in to do research and teach children the ability to consult and use materials. Children should write more than ten pages of papers, and then tell the results of their own (and group) research in class for a quarter of an hour. For example, my daughter's recent assignment is to analyze the reasons for the decline and fall of ancient Rome. After reading a lot of materials, she finally chose to finish her thesis from taxation. From this teaching method, you will find that it is very similar to the teaching of natural science. Good students in America are good at writing and speaking. This is not entirely English teaching, but has a lot to do with the requirements of writing in various subjects.

Next, I will talk to you about English. Of course, writing is also very important. But what interests me more is the topic of their composition, which is actually conveying a kind of values to children. My daughter's latest composition is about her thoughts after reading an article. The article reads as follows:

Charles is the star of the middle school baseball team. He is handsome, tall and strong. He likes Sarah, a girl in the first grade. It is a common phenomenon that American high school students are not forbidden to fall in love. And sports players are often the red man in the eyes of girls. However, Sarah likes another ugly, even a little weak tangle.

One day, Charles found tangle and wanted to teach him a lesson and keep him away from Sarah. Tagore said, call if you want, then take off your glasses, put them aside first, and then say to Charles, you're here. Charles went up with an old fist, which hurt his face.

The tiger didn't fight back (of course, it's no use fighting back). When Charles stopped playing enough, the tiger said, if you are all right, I will leave. Say that finish, tangle took off his glasses from one side, put on his face and left. Charles threw himself to the ground and began to cry when he saw the clean glasses on his black and blue, dirty and flowery face. He felt that he had never lost so badly.

My retelling is far less wonderful than the original, but you have understood the meaning of the text and the values it conveys are very clear. Speaking of which, I think of a remark made by Wu Jianmin, a diplomat who died not long ago, "Soft and hard are both means, which is more difficult? Soft but difficult. Push, you hit me and I'll kick you. Even this three-year-old can do it. There is no difficulty. Reasoning, negotiation and soft power, this is difficult. First of all, others should like you. " In modern civilized society, people need to convince others by reasoning, and this skill needs to start from primary school.

Going back to the topic that Teacher Luo talked about last time, a good education is an education of ability and quality, not as simple as opening some humanities courses and engaging in an extracurricular activity. But unconsciously pass on the good values suitable for our current society to children through daily courses (and extracurricular activities). At the same time, let children master the ability to analyze problems, think independently and express opinions through knowledge learning when learning every course, and become the elite of society in the future.

My memory is not bad, but most of what I learned in college and a small part of high school have long forgotten. I believe most of my friends are not much better than me. After learning some courses, I have forgotten the content, but I can feel that the level of problem solving has improved, while other courses have not improved except some fragmented knowledge points at that time.

Perhaps it is for this reason that MIT students generally believe that it is not important what they learn, but who they learn from, because what they learn will become obsolete sooner or later, and the ability to analyze and solve problems can be used for life.

Extended reading: how to teach history in American primary and secondary schools?

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Wen/Cheng (Professor, Delaware State University, USA)

How do American primary and secondary schools teach history? Although the author teaches history in the United States, he has never experienced undergraduate education and master's education in this country, and he knows nothing about how to teach the history of American primary and secondary education. Because of this, when I gradually understand the situation, I can't help feeling a lot.

Patriotism propaganda cannot distort the historical truth.

For the first time, I learned a little about how American primary school students understand history from my daughter. At that time, we were in Boston, talking about the historical allusions of the city, especially the "Boston Massacre" that took place in March 1770, when the British army shot and killed several protesting civilians. Based on this, Paul Revere painted a famous print. His daughter, who was in elementary school at that time, said: The teacher said it was an exaggeration, and it was the propaganda of the Boston patriots.

What my daughter said surprised me-why didn't American history teachers guide students from the standpoint of nationalism and patriotism and "inspire" hatred of national enemies and love for their country, but poured cold water on this "patriotism"?

Later, I learned that the truth is really like this. At that time, a small group of British soldiers panicked under the persecution and snowball attack of Boston residents. A soldier panicked and shot and killed five civilians. The whole incident is a conflict between the two sides that is out of control. After the incident, the British army took the soldiers involved to court. As for Paul Revere's paintings, on the one hand, they aroused the anti-British sentiment of Bostonians and were conducive to the independence movement; On the other hand, it portrays British soldiers as death squads and Boston residents as innocent victims, distorting the historical truth.

The role of history education here is not to add fuel to the flames under the established ideological premise (patriotism), not to prove the correctness of one's own side, but to deliberately exaggerate or ignore and cover up a certain aspect of history, not to achieve unscrupulous propaganda effect, but to understand the truth and analyze the essence of events.

History is a kind of unremitting exploration.

The case of "Boston Massacre" answers the big question "What is history" with a detail. "What is history" is a clear and repeated question in American history education from elementary school to university. This question invariably returns to the definition of Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, that is, "knowledge acquired through unremitting questioning." Such a process of pursuing knowledge is essentially open rather than closed. In principle, it requires to reach an understanding of the past through constant exploration, demonstration and excavation, rather than reaching a certain conclusion or proving a certain theory.

Accustomed to China's history education, we find that there are many differences from teaching to learning, but more importantly, we have different understandings of "history" itself. China's history education emphasizes the objectivity and usefulness of historical knowledge, that is, the past that is helpful to practical needs can be obtained through "scientific" methods. This historical definition emphasizes conclusiveness and practicality, which encourages authoritarianism and pragmatism in history education. Therefore, in the students' subconscious, the knowledge in the textbook is correct, important and useful, and the actual major historical events are bound to happen; For teachers, "teaching" is how to guide "learning" to reach that established conclusion by instilling this knowledge.

This kind of history education can hardly accommodate discussions without a unified conclusion (although this discussion reflects many aspects of history and society) and historical knowledge without practical effect (although this knowledge may enhance the understanding of the complexity of human nature), and the educated often show strong self-confidence and certainty in historical understanding.

American history education (especially in recent decades) emphasizes the process of exploring and understanding history, and what is achieved through this process is often not a conclusion, but an attitude towards historical understanding. This attitude emphasizes the complexity and diversity of the historical process and acknowledges the subjectivity in historical understanding and interpretation, thus questioning and criticizing any authoritarianism and pragmatism.

It does not boast of knowing the truth, nor does it aim at judging a historical event. On the contrary, it encourages students to explore various explanations of historical events and keep an open horizon to deepen their understanding of human nature. Fundamentally speaking, this kind of history education rejects the concept of "historical inevitability", and the educated often show confusion about historical truth and historical interpretation. It is this confusion that inspires their curiosity and interest in history and guides students to think in an open and pluralistic direction, rather than a single established conclusion.

How to carry out patriotism in American history education

History education in any country should implement the principle of patriotism, mainly to establish national identity and cultivate national pride. American history education also emphasizes the concept of "American", but the focus is not on "being an American" (otherwise, the problem of "being an American" will hardly appear), but on making students realize how the concept of "American" has evolved today.

The above-mentioned American History-From Pre-Columbian Times to the New Millennium begins by saying, "These stories about American history will help you ask such a question:' What are Americans?' And your thinking will help to answer this question. This statement does not set the identity of "American" a priori for students to understand and accept, but tells students that the concept of "American" is always open to every generation of Americans to think about, and their understanding and choice will help shape every generation of "Americans".

Like most countries in the world, as long as it is patriotism, it is difficult to get rid of the narrow, extreme and emotional influence. Many so-called manifestations of patriotism are actually ignorance and xenophobia to the outside world, and even racism, which is very prominent among some politically conservative people in the United States (many of them are concentrated in some relatively isolated places in southern and central China).

However, in the pluralistic American society, patriotic education is generally influenced by liberals. Not only is the color of preaching faded, but there is no aggressive posture. Educators (including textbooks) and students can feel a relationship of equality and trust. This can be felt from the above example of "What is an American". In fact, my greatest feeling in studying and teaching history in the United States is equality and trust.

As an international student, taking a history class in the United States can criticize American history and politics unscrupulously; As a foreign teacher or professor, the school authorities and colleagues never consider whether hiring you to teach liberal arts will have any ideological "side effects" and whether your lecture conforms to the "main theme" of American patriotism. The only qualifications for employment are academic background and standards, including diverse ethnic composition. The school will not risk being sued for saying that you have ideological problems (except, of course, those who openly challenge universal moral principles to defend slavery and racial persecution).

As an immigrant country, the greatest feature of patriotism education in the United States is to find the identity and needs of people of all colors, and to meet the similarities of this country's history and system, that is, to pursue freedom and affirm rights. This makes patriotism education in the United States actually very simple. Patriotism is not abstract, not top-down, not just dedication, but personal freedom and rights.