Dad, this is a school. I can't do it. The purpose of running this school is to destroy it.

On September 18, Liu Yang, vice president of Ugly Duckling Middle School in Yiliang County, Kunming, welcomed a man of about 50 years old. After consulting the enrollment situation in detail, the man nodded, "I'll let the child's mother come in and have a look."

He took out his mobile phone in the taxi at the school gate and dialed his wife's phone. He lowered his voice. "Come in and see how the dose is?"

"Dose" is the code word for him and his wife. In order not to arouse the suspicion of the son in the car, they told him that he came to Yunnan this time to borrow his father for a business trip, and by the way, let the "old Chinese doctor" on the mountain see if his son had any health problems.

This is a family of civil servants in a provincial capital city in northwest China. The only son in the family is tired of studying at home and addicted to games all day. The couple had to trick their children into going to school. After signing the contract, the husband and wife left quietly, and 12-year-old son stayed at school.

Ugly duckling middle school is a private junior high school that recruits children with various problems such as internet addiction, weariness of learning, suicidal self-mutilation tendency and rebellion. On 20 1 1 year, 14, Zhan Danian, the president of Hunan Public School, jumped out of the system and came to Yunnan to set up this school for students who were not suitable for traditional education. In the past ten years, more than 2000 "problem children" graduated from ugly ducklings.

Every year in the middle and late September, the opening season of ordinary middle schools has passed, and Ugly Duckling Middle School welcomes the peak of enrollment, and new students enter school almost every day. Most of these children come from economically superior urban middle-class families, and some even used to be students of local key middle schools, but they "slipped in the traditional education system" for various reasons.

In the view of principal Zhan Danian, Ugly Duckling Middle School is not a good medicine. It can't change a child immediately, but try its best to catch them and "return to normal life".

/kloc-in September of 0/8, a freshman entered school. According to the school practice, several old classmates will be sent to receive him. The girl picked up the hand of her new classmate. Beijing News reporter Li

"Cheating" students

"If you don't pick me up, I'll die for you!" Two days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hao Wei, a boy of 14 years old, cried hysterically at his father on the other end of the phone. Several classmates crowded him into the counseling room and began to persuade him.

Hao Wei comes from a key private middle school in Hunan, and her parents are executives from foreign companies. Before coming to Ugly Duckling Middle School, he dropped out of school and was addicted to games at home. He was also diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Father discussed with him that there is a school in Yunnan, and the study pressure is not so great. You can experience it. If you still don't like it for a month, you can choose to come back.

More than a month passed, and his father didn't come to pick him up. Hao knows that the children who send ugly ducklings usually stay for a whole semester.

In Ugly Duckling Middle School, most children are "cheated" by their parents on various excuses such as traveling and visiting relatives. Liu Yang, vice principal of Ugly Duckling Middle School, remembers that a police chief tied her child with a rope and put it at the school gate, and a mother who was a doctor gave her child a small amount of sleeping pills.

If the parents can't handle it, the school will send a teacher to pick it up directly at home. Ma Ge, a teacher in charge of logistics in a school, is experienced in picking up and dropping off students. When driving to school, he will pass a sign that says the name of the school. Marco will throw things in the car in advance and let the students bury their heads to distract them.

Life in Ugly Duckling Middle School is completely different from that in Hao Wei. I used to get up at 6 o'clock every day, have my first class at 7: 30, study by myself at 10 o'clock, and take a day off a week. Writing papers from morning till night every day, he described himself as having a "dead fish face". In Ugly Duckling Middle School, the study progress is very slow and there is no homework. Only take the exam twice in the middle and at the end of a semester. "Classroom discipline is lax and students don't study very much."

Hao Wei felt that she didn't belong here. After calming down, Hao Wei began to write to his father, hoping to send some teaching AIDS. "Only when teaching AIDS are around, I will feel less anxious."

Han Yun, a Guangdong girl, doesn't understand Hao Wei's anxiety. This is her second time to see the ugly duckling. She is often arranged to receive and comfort those deceived students. Han Yun sat on the edge of the playground, squinting at the sun. The sky was blue, and large tracts of white clouds were floating low.

Before coming to Ugly Duckling Middle School, Han Yun didn't go to school for more than a year. When she is in a bad mood, she goes to the bar to drink. Han Yun's parents divorced when she was three years old, and she lived with her grandparents. 12 years old, went to the hospital alone to find out depression. After leaving the ugly duckling last year, she went back to school in Guangdong and disappeared for several months. There were many rumors about her among her classmates, and Han Yun made a strong counterattack. "During that time, I fought several times." She said disapprovingly. In this way, Han Yun came to Ugly Duckling Middle School again.

This is the first private junior middle school in Yunnan Province, which is headed by Yiliang County Education Bureau. The school recruits students with various problems such as internet addiction, weariness of learning, suicidal self-mutilation, puppy love, etc. There are about 70 students in three grades. Ugly duckling middle school has enrolled more than 2,000 "problem children" students since it was founded on 20 1 1, about two-thirds of whom are from other provinces outside Yunnan.

On September 17, the ugly duckling middle school students were in military training. Beijing News reporter Li

Every summer is the busiest time in Ugly Duckling Middle School. The school will hold a one-month summer camp, and short-term custody training is very popular with parents. Except for children with severe mental illness, other "problem children" schools accept all orders. "50 places were robbed as soon as they were released." Liu Yang told the Beijing News reporter.

On campus, it is difficult for you to associate this group of students with "problem children". If you ignore the occasional tattoo and hair dye, they look just like ordinary middle school students.

The tuition fee of nearly 30 thousand yuan per semester is not cheap. Zhan Danian said that most of the students in Ugly Duckling Middle School come from the "three high families" in the city (high education, high income and high status). Some children used to be students of local key middle schools, and it is common to master at least one talent. Some of them can arrange music, some can play piano 10, some can draw great pictures, some can program ... On the afternoon of Mid-Autumn Festival, the school gave two or three classes time to prepare, and they can also hold a Mid-Autumn Festival party with dignity.

On September 18, in an English class in Ugly Duckling Middle School, three or four students formed study partners. Beijing News reporter Li

Different schools

Before establishing Ugly Duckling Middle School, Zhan Danian worked as the principal of a public school in Taojiang County, Hunan Province for 14 years.

At the age of 26, Zhan Danian became the principal, and his Yanglin Middle School in Taojiang County became a local "prestigious school". Every school season, all kinds of relatives and acquaintances will come to the school to say hello, and Zhan Danian can't wait to hide. When schools are not worried about students, they naturally have the choice of "selecting the best".

Gradually, Zhan Danian realized that this was wrong. "How can education eliminate people? Why do other children give you the best? " In 2000, Zhan Danian resigned and left public schools. At that time, it happened that my brother was doing business in Yunnan and invited him to run a school in Kunming. Zhan Danian agreed without much thought.

Around 2000, it was the peak of the wave of migrant workers entering the city. The resources of urban public schools can't meet the students' enrollment needs, and private schools are blooming everywhere in the city. Zhan Danian recalled that it was very easy to apply for the qualifications of private schools at that time. At that time, there were many "shack schools" in the center of Kunming. A black house, a black clay board, a piece of chalk, three children, a stool and a teacher with a junior high school diploma could run a school.

When running a school in Kunming, a student left a deep impression on Zhan Danian. "He is a very clever boy. His parents divorced. He drove all his classmates away from class because he wanted to sleep. " Later, the student disappeared from the class for two or three months and came back even more tired. Zhan Danian learned that the boy was sent to a school for "problem children" in Jiangxi Province, where corporal punishment and imprisonment were carried out.

Around 2009, the "Electroshock Therapy for Internet Addiction" in Yang Yongxin was exposed, which also opened the tip of the iceberg of various institutions for Internet addiction treatment and correction training for "problem children". Zhan Danian wants to run a different school for poor students. However, in the first year, his ideas diverged from those of his partners. The other party refused to take cultural classes and increased the intensity of military training. Zhan Danian thought it was a way to control students by consuming physical strength, so he chose to leave his home.

20 1 1 Approved by the Education Bureau of Yiliang County and other departments, a new school was established in a vacant school building in Gucheng Town, Yiliang County. Wang Yeju, then vice chairman, named the school "Ugly Duckling". Zhan Danian likes this childish name very much. He said on many occasions that the ugly duckling is a variant of the white swan. "The ugly duckling's children will fly to the blue sky in the future."

It was difficult to recruit students at first. Liu Yang remembers that they posted leaflets in the elevator of the community and advertised on the local TV station, with little effect. There were only eight students in the first session, six of whom were friends' children, and no money was confiscated, but the teacher recruited 14 of the students and later left.

Meng Bin entered Ugly Duckling Middle School in 20 13, when there were less than 30 students. His impression is that the school building is a dilapidated rural bungalow, the playground is a hard concrete floor, the hard iron gate is closed, and there is a heightened barbed wire. When the wind blows, it will be dusty. In such an environment, Zhan Danian began to carry out his ideal educational experiment drastically.

In Ugly Duckling Middle School, there are only three teachers in each culture class, namely, a liberal arts teacher, a science teacher and an English teacher. Liberal arts teachers and science teachers should take several courses separately. In the ugly duckling's class, students sit together in groups of three or four and become "study partners". Teachers design "study cards" to record the learning process in an open way and encourage students to explore independently. Academic performance is no longer the evaluation standard. Students like "interest classes" best, which are offered by the school independently, including guitar and archery. Zhan Danian sometimes attends classes in person. In addition, the school insists on "every festival must be over", and photos left by various water-splashing festivals and outdoor barbecues are posted on the activity display wall.

Zhan Danian advocated a relaxed concept of "whole person education", which seems to have a natural contradiction with the military training that emphasizes obedience, but he still kept the "military training" course. He found that many students were depressed when they first came in. "Military training and running exercise can help them restore their normal physique and regular work and rest." Only compared with other similar schools, the training intensity here is slightly weak.

Zhan Danian wants to create a relaxed and equal atmosphere. His requirement for recruiting teachers is "love to laugh and play". On campus, students call their teachers by their names or nicknames, and the principal's office is located at the stairs, which is convenient for every student to come to Zhan Danian. Compared with teaching seminars, "How to deal with students" is a compulsory course for every new teacher.

On the wall of the classroom of Ugly Duckling Middle School, the students' "heartfelt words" are posted. Beijing News reporter Li

"relationship"

The reason why he designed such a relaxed school for "problem students" is based on a basic conclusion he drew in this educational experiment spanning ten years: the root of "problem children" is the problem of "relationship", which is formed in the environment, and a more relaxed environment can promote the improvement of "relationship".

Before the outbreak, the school invited parents to come to school every year to do parent-child training with their children. Often at this time, Yangliu will capture some subtle moments of family members.

At the event site, Liu Yang took photos and videos with his mobile phone. Some parents turned their backs, and some parents simply left the scene and sat in the private car. Liu Yang realized that for many families, children studying in such schools are considered shameful after all. A student who has graduated for several years told the Beijing News reporter that during his years in Ugly Duckling, his mother in Kunming kept announcing that his children were going to study.

Li Guihong, the only psychological teacher in the school, told the Beijing News that the factors in problem children include family, school and society, but the family factor is the most prominent.

It was Han Yun's own choice to return to Ugly Duckling Middle School for the second time. She is one of the few students who transfer to another school. A year later, Han Yun will stay in Yunnan to take the senior high school entrance examination.

In the corridor of the school book bar, Han Yun told the Beijing News reporter about his past. Han Yun was born in a patriarchal family, and her grandfather was a famous inheritor of folk art in China. The combination of parents is not valued by his grandfather, and neither is Han Yun.

After her parents divorced, Han Yun's father almost never asked her, and her working mother had to send her to her grandparents' home. Grandma drove away the nanny with Alzheimer's disease, and the burden of housework fell on Han Yun alone. The old man got up early. At four or five o'clock every day, Han Yun would get up and cook. Later, she simply stopped going to school.

When Han Yun was first sent to The Ugly Duckling, she met her "only good friend", a girl who was also from Guangdong. She lived abroad since she was a child, and was sent to the ugly duckling after returning home because she could not adapt to the domestic education system. Han Yun's mother went abroad to study when she was a teenager. She often took her abroad after she gave birth to Han Yun, which made the two girls have many languages. The girl's parents also took care of Han Yun, but after a semester, her best friend was picked up by her parents.

"I want to change my family name with her, so maybe we are a family. I really hope that we are a family. " Han Yun felt that this was the first time he felt the warmth of his family.

Han Yun talked about a boyfriend at school. When she was talking about her boyfriend, she took out a piece of stationery that had not been sent. It was neatly written, and one of them said, "I hope you don't abandon me like my father abandoned my mother." "I cried when I wrote this." She put away the stationery and said, "I want to grow up quickly, stay away from my hometown and never go back."

In 20 14, Zhan Danian randomly investigated 100 "problem children", 74 of whom came from divorced families, remarried families, single-parent families and left-behind families. Zhan Danian explained that some parents are not necessarily divorced, but the family atmosphere is a big problem. The lack of family function of the father or mother and the poor communication caused by "not being understood" often become the deadlock of parent-child relationship.

The day after Hao Wei made the threatening phone call, his parents drove from Hunan and Guangdong respectively. Hao Wei's face suddenly sank when she saw her mother in the book bar. Hao Wei's father winked and asked Hao Wei's mother to leave for a while. The mother and son have not had any contact for more than a year.

Hao Wei's parents divorced in the fourth grade and he was awarded to his mother. He told the Beijing News reporter that he learned from his friends that his mother attributed the decline in grades at that time to being playful, so he asked his friends not to play with him again. Therefore, Hao Wei broke with his mother and "hacked" her.

In Hao Wei's narrative, he won the second place in the table tennis municipal competition, and his science scores were also good. He is looking forward to being admitted to Fudan University as a computer major in the future. During the chat, Hao Wei will mention from time to time which 985 school a cousin is studying in, and that he and Tsinghua's cousin are competing with each other in private to do the same set of physics papers, and he will inadvertently add, "We have the same scores, and I think I have better problem-solving thinking."

However, in the parents' version, this is a completely different story. Hao Wei's mother said that her son was not as good as he said. The second place in table tennis and the perfect score in science are all fabricated. He has been immersed in his own imaginary world. From the fourth grade of primary school, Hao Wei's grades went downhill, and later he became addicted to games. At the present level, I'm afraid he can't even get into an ordinary high school. She denied that Hao Wei alienated him from his friends. "His hatred for me may be a way for him to escape from reality."

On September 19, Zhan Danian recorded a short video in the school studio to answer questions from parents. He hopes to spread his educational ideas through short videos. Beijing News reporter Li

difficult position

Li Guihong has been in contact with problem children for ten years, and he has a very personal feeling, that is, "in the past, problem children had behavioral deviations, but now they have more mental illnesses." Even the "top students" of some famous schools were sent to Ugly Duckling Middle School because of mental illness.

In March this year, the China National Mental Health Development Report (20 19~2020) compiled by the research team of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that in 2020, the detection rate of adolescent depression in China was 24.6%, including mild depression 17.2%, severe depression 7.4%, junior middle school depression about 30%, and severe depression 7.

In a sense, the definition of "problem children" seems to be broader. Regarding the definition of "problem children", Li Zhenxi, president of New Education Research Institute and former president of Chengdu Wuhou Experimental Middle School, once asked Zhan Danian whether "problem children" itself meant labeling.

"I actually thought about this question, but I really haven't figured out how to avoid' labeling'. Can't wait until the unlabeled scheme comes out before running a school? Besides,' problem children' already exist. How different are the various statements and definitions? " In the official statement of the school, Zhan Danian simply called this group "students who are not adapted to traditional education".

According to media reports, in China, work-study education is regarded as the earliest measure to educate, correct and save "problem children". 1955, the first work-study school in China was opened in Haidian.

However, work-study schools have always been controversial. Before the 1990s, most of the students enrolled in reform-and-study schools were "police-dispatched students" who had minor crimes and had not been sentenced to reeducation through labor. In recent years, although some reform schools actively transform themselves and recruit "problem children" with abnormal learning, psychology and moral behavior, many parents are still biased against reform schools and are unwilling to send their children.

According to the statistics of China Youth Research Center and other units, compared with more than 200 schools in 1966, by the end of 20 17, there were only 93 reformed schools in China. Zhou Long, president of Chunlei School in Yueyang City, Hunan Province, wrote in his paper, "Running a special school is stressful and risky, with little support from all parties, and it is difficult to improve the quality of education. The return period of running a school is long, which leads to some special schools struggling to support and eventually stopping running schools."

On the other hand, various commercial organizations of orthodontics emerge one after another. Internet addiction is a prominent problem among "problem children". 20 14 The National Health and Wellness Committee made it clear that "China has not approved medical institutions specialized in treating Internet addiction", so most of the Internet addiction treatment institutions in the market exist in the name of "consulting centers" and "growing schools", and the relevant laws or industry supervision are still blank. In the past ten years, the media has exposed a large number of Internet addiction correction institutions that have been beaten, imprisoned and abused.

There are also students in Ugly Duckling Middle School who have been to this kind of correction institution before. A boy from Kunming told the Beijing News that his previous training institution had enrolled students ranging from primary school students to adults. The oldest "student" is in his thirties and was sent in by his parents and wife to quit Internet addiction. The school offers four courses: Chinese studies, law, musical instruments and calligraphy, which can be taught once a week on average, and the rest of the time is arranged for physical training. If you make a mistake, you are locked in a dark room, slapping your mouth, watering with a high-pressure water gun, running around the playground and drying your wet clothes. This kind of institutions charge more than 8,000 yuan per month, the first phase 1 1 month, and the incidental expenses are close to 654.38+10,000 yuan a year.

Ugly duckling middle school faces the same problem. Many parents will ask when sending their children, "Did you hit the students?" Zhan Danian replied: "My philosophy is never to hit children, but it is really difficult for me to guarantee that such a thing will never happen at school."

At the beginning of school, Zhan Danian recruited several life teachers from the police academy to take charge of students' training and life. Young people who have just graduated are in their early twenties, and their anger is flourishing. A post-90s life teacher once punished students for smoking and beat them with a belt. Many ugly duckling's children say that corporal punishment happens occasionally now, but it is rare.

In such a school, it is the most difficult to recruit and retain a culture teacher. According to the statistics of Liu Yang, there were six or seven teachers who resigned in early years because their students cried. At present, the oldest teacher in the school has been at school for less than five years.

Teachers can also feel parents' anxiety. Some parents send their children here, and the children are completely autistic and don't talk. Parents just want to get back to normal. When things get better, parents' first reaction is "learning".

In September this year, a fan of Zhan Danian was inspired by emotion and applied for the ugly duckling. She is a graduate student in a key university in Jiangsu. She quit her job and came to Kunming. After only working for two weeks, she was "fed up" and resigned and left.

On the afternoon of Mid-Autumn Festival on September 2 1 Sunday, the students of Ugly Duckling Middle School are rehearsing for the Mid-Autumn Festival party in the evening. Beijing News reporter Li

Character; function

Among the graduates of Ugly Duckling, Meng Bin is a well-developed one. I just graduated from a 2 1 1 university in Nanjing this year.

Meng Bin thinks it's hard to say what the "ugly duckling" has changed him. In high school, he still smokes and fights, and some bad habits still exist, but his mood is generally much calmer. He remembers that when he first entered Ugly Duckling, he was often "angry enough to kill people" and "felt that he was not understood".

On one occasion, Zhan Danian met Meng Bin with a red fist on campus. The boy gnashed his teeth at the director of moral education and said, "I want to kill him." Zhan Danian asked him calmly, "Then why didn't you hit him?" Meng Bin said, "I can't beat him!" ZhanDanian hug Meng Bin's shoulder, sitting on the playground. "Then give up, and it will be fine after a while." Afterwards, Meng Bin calmed down, explained what had happened to Zhan Danian and apologized.

Zhan Danian's three WeChat accounts have tens of thousands of friends and reply to dozens of parents' messages every day. Zhan Danian said that many parents came to consult and sent their children to find a dose of "medicine", which made him very embarrassed. In his view, Ugly Duckling Middle School is not an immediate prescription and cannot "improve" a child like a repair shop.

Zhan Danian believes that more often, Ugly Duckling Middle School plays the role of protector and companion sitting with Meng Bin. Fierce resistance is like a cold in adolescence, and it will heal one day. If nothing can be done, "just protect life."

In a peaceful environment, reconciliation is easier to achieve. Hao Wei's parents and their son spent the Mid-Autumn Festival at school. Hao Wei is the host of the Mid-Autumn Festival party in our school, and Hao Wei's father is filming on the edge of the stage with his mobile phone. After the party, Hao Wei took the first step and chatted awkwardly with her mother.

"At that time, in order to strive for a good life, it seemed that I only made money, changed materially, and lost too much spiritually." After discovering Hao Wei's psychological crisis, my father realized his own problems. Last year, he quit his job, hoping to make some compensation and changes.

But in reality, not all "ugly ducklings" can turn into "white swans" smoothly. Last year, a local student in Kunming was sent to Ugly Duckling Middle School for drinking. He left school in July for some reason and died unexpectedly after going out for half a year. A few years ago, a boy was kicked around by his divorced parents. While studying in Ugly Duckling Middle School, he asked for leave and never came back. He was later sentenced for robbery, kidnapping and rape.

For more than 2,000 children who walked out of the ugly duckling, Zhan Danian lacked an accurate and systematic tracking. He bluntly said that he has limited energy and tends to use emotional standards. "If a child can correctly understand himself and face life to measure the success rate, the success rate of ugly ducklings is 100%."

With the popularity of Ugly Duckling Middle School, there are also some controversial voices. Does the tuition fee of nearly 30,000 yuan a semester shut out more "problem children" from ordinary or poor families?

"In fact, I didn't want to run a general school." Zhan Danian said that the cost of running such schools is high, and the teacher-student ratio of 1 3 is much higher than that of ordinary schools. "The cost is 20 times that of other schools", and he does not intend to introduce capital.

For Zhan Danian, the existence of Ugly Duckling Middle School is a research base, and it is more convenient to control the number of students to do research under the existing scale. He intends to make a course platform and spread his educational ideas in the form of video. "If we can't solve the fundamental problem, it won't help to open 100 ugly ducklings nationwide." Zhan Danian said, "The purpose of running this school is to destroy it."

On September 24th, a boy of 14 years old showed the reporter the tattoo on his hand. He said, "tattoo a smiling face on your hand to remind yourself to be happy." Beijing News reporter Li

In July this year, Ugly Duckling Middle School moved from Gucheng Town to Shangsheng Village. Drive along the winding mountain road through farmland, fruit trees and clusters of vibrant bougainvillea, and you will arrive at the new campus on the mountain.

The window sill of the teaching building was sealed, and the cold barbed wire was replaced by environmentally friendly logs. The school wall was given to students, who were allowed to doodle freely. The canteen is designed as a book that they can read at any time. Next, Zhan Danian also plans to introduce a set of digital teaching equipment, "so that the walls of the classroom can write and draw, and you can share educational resources and video conferences with your parents at any time." Recently, Zhan Danian also took a fancy to the Na Pianhai1.950m venue outside the school. He is eager to move the classroom outside, "learning Chinese, physics, chemistry and biology from a fruit tree."

"Let's build a big classroom for the children-in the mountains, by the river, in the forest, in the wild cave ... where the blue sky and colorful clouds stay." Zhan Danian said.

(Han Yun, Hao Wei and Meng Bin are all pseudonyms)

Beijing News reporter Li Zhao

Proofread Wu Xingfa