Prof. Du Chengxian, from The Department of Education, ECNU
By the end of my career as a teacher, I feel gratified at my own choice. Not because anything else, it’s all about teacher, the job itself can bring satisfaction.
Mr. Ye Shengtao had a famous metaphor, he said:” Education is agriculture, not industry.” It means: industry makes the raw materials into products according to the standards and procedures; but agriculture sows the seeds in land, gives them sufficient conditions (water, sunshine, air, fertilizer, etc.), and lets them germinate, grow, flower and fruit by themselves. The nature of education is similar to agriculture.
Indeed, if students can be seen as seeds, and our education provides all kinds of growth conditions, this process itself is filled with fascination. Especially when the seeds blossom and bear fruit, it brings ecstasy to us farmers. For instance, when you are awarded as the most popular teacher by students, when students write good papers, publish and win prizes; when he becomes a professor and first to know you; when he shows you his girlfriend... All these feelings are untouchable if I am not a teacher. So, teacher is a job giving and receiving because students are not stingy, just like the seeds won’t live up to farmers.
I have already become an aged teacher before I knew it. Review my growing-up, I feel deeply that I was following my teachers’ steps along the way. I want to talk about them:
Mrs. Zhang Huifen is my undergraduate professor who taught us Chinese Education History. She looks weak. When she walked into classrooms, she was a little breathless. But when she stood on the platform, she was simply not herself, brimming with energy and vitality. It made us understand the meaning of “teaching” and “selflessness”. When the final exam coming, students badgered her time and again, hoping that she didn’t take the close-book exam. She agreed, but she set 30 questions which we couldn’t find any off-the-peg answers from books. Each question was required 300-500 words and there must be independent work which include our own ideas, typical and primary sources, and logical outline. It became our most painful and fruitful final exam and we read the largest number of books in this course during undergraduate, and it also let us know what is the effective examination evaluation and learning method.
Mr. Chen Guisheng is another undergraduate professor. He taught the Education of Marxism-Leninism. He is a teacher with specific character and his course was very charming. He still wrote articles and punished books over 80. In those days, there was a scenery of the Liberal Arts Building in ECNU: every morning, afternoon and evening, Mr. Chen went to his office from home, carring a thermos by the hand. Raining or shining and year by year, he was like a bookworm never bothering about the outside world. However, we saw the other side of him as a teacher. At a party, students chorused:” Prof. Chen! Play Boy! Prof. Chen! Play Boy!” Mr. Chen was over 70 at that time. He went to the platform genteelly, and sang Play Boy, the song of Zhou Huajian, very rhythmically. He is the teacher who can step into both knowledge and students. What influenced me the most is Mr. Chen taught us to analyze and recognize historically. The Historical Records record that Confucius had about 3000 students and among them, there were 72 people who mastered six arts. But Mr. Chen said:” That is impossible!” Take himself as an example, he had taught over 20 years’ graduates, less than 1000 people. So as the modern class teaching system, we could image the situation of individual teaching in the age of Confucius. During the Culture Revolution, people criticized that Confucius made schools like shops because he charged tuition. How could he be honored as a people’s educator! Mr. Chen said:” That is very ridiculous!” The tuition was just a bunch of jerky which was not enough to live decent. Charging tuition was just a ceremony meaning that students formally acknowledged him as master. And the problem is how could a school supported itself without tuition. The fund came from the feudal princes. Why were they willing to fund? Students were capital.
Mr. Zhang Ruifan is the older teacher. He taught us the Monographic Study on Chinese Education, an optional course. He said, the development of science reach as often happens in the cases which seem be all right. During the Culture Revolution, he participated in the work of proofreading the New Book of Tang. There is a sentence saying, the sisters of Lady Yang were powerful and prestigious, “they all have the beauty of national level”. It seems to be all right. But some people asked why it described their beauty to show how powerful and prestigious they are. There must be something wrong! Sure enough, it was “they all have the land of county” in other versions. The sisters were all granted by the emperor. That is a better explanation of their prestigious position. Moreover, why did Confucius put forward the idea of “providing education for all people without discrimination”? The usual explanation is Confucius adapted to a new age where culture was moving down, and it is also consistent with his idea of “selecting the men of virtue and talents”. Mr. Zhang thought this was not enough. In his opinion, that effected the lively activity of commodity exchange. Confucius had another saying, didn’t he? “I teach every student who have paid tuition.” It is typical that the principle of commodity exchange effects education. Zhangzai, a famous Neo-Confucian of Song dynasty said: “Question something all right, and that is making progress.” It is the description of Mr. Zhang, isn’t it?
Let me talk about my mentor Mr. Sun Peiqing. I remember when I became a teacher in ECNU, he told me:” You should work hard, spend 3-5 years to stand on the platform and prove equal to the job!” At that time, he and other teachers attend my first lesson for observation and evaluation. The criticism was relentless and made me blush and stutter. At the end of term, Mr. Sun and other teachers came again. They gave so much favorable comments this time, and even the director of staff room praised me that there was no need to observe and evaluate the lesson of Mr. Du. I felt complacent and thought: 3 or 5 years? One year is enough! But in fact, I was too naïve at that time. Now, when I am going to leave, I am not sure whether I am qualified for the platform. The longer I stand on the platform, the more difficult I feel. Another thing that Mr. Sun did made me admire happened 10 years ago. In order to cooperate with the 60th anniversary of ECNU, we were trusted the matter of compiling the collected works of the First President Meng Xiancheng. Mr. Meng is a great master, the top scholar in Modern China. But his outcome during 50s-60s is scarce. That is great pity. Mr. Sun told us, he has sorted out the notes of Mr. Meng’s lesson and the conversation records about the compile guidance, and now he gave them to us. We were just overjoyed! The academic speech of Mr. Meng was not only recorded, and after over half a century, it was preserved! That is amazing! These notes were collated into a volume more than 400,000 words. What Mr. Sun said makes me ponder over 30 years. It deserves to remember all my life.
These senior professors just like mirrors which accompanying and guiding us to step forward. In the presence of them, I dare not to entitle me a teacher. I am just a student. There are a lot of stories about them. That is our treasure, our tradition and our educational resources.
And today, how should we be a teacher?
Before 1000 years, Han Yu said: “The way of teacher hasn’t been handed down for a long time.” Today, we have the similar feeling. To solve the problem, Han Yu put forward the renewal of teachers’ way. He thought the duty of teacher can be summarized in to “preach, teach and disabuse”, and he took it them as the standard of a conscientious teacher. The meaning of “teach” is like giving lectures, and the “preach” and the “disabuse” are similar to cultivation. As Han Yu thought, if a teacher just gives lectures, he doesn’t achieve the requirement of teacher. When a teacher insists an equal approach of teaching and cultivating, he or she can achieve the way of teacher. Persist in giving lectures as the duty and spread social values though teaching. This can be called as “education”. There is no difference between ancient and modern. It isn’t outdated, and we can even hear the same rhythm at home and abroad.
95 years ago, American educator Mr. Dewey came to China. In the speech of The Duty of Educators, he said: “Giving lectures is not the end of teachers’ work. They should cultivate students’ interest and zeal for knowledge. For students, teachers are supposed to have the idea of the common interest, and treat students’ happiness and development as their own. From this, they gain the pleasure of their job. Teacher not only should be the teacher of school, also the teacher of normal people in society and the families of students. If Chinese teachers can have the awareness and carry out by actual effect, the future of China is filled with hope.” It seems that Mr. Dewey and Han Yu both have the similar idea. The words of Mr. Dewey just like what we say today.
(The speech of Prof. Du Chengxian in the opening ceremony of Faculty of Education, ECNU)
