A friend sent me this story, from The Shanghai Daily:
Ancient education surfaces in city
2006-07-12
A GROUP of parents have opened a controversial institute in suburban Shanghai that is modeled on the education system of ancient China to teach children.
Some university professors raised doubts about the legality of the Meng Mu Tang Institute in Xinzhuang, Minhang District, not to mention whether it could provide children with a solid education.
Lu Liwei, one of the initiators of Meng Mu Tang, said that several parents were inspired by ancient China's education system and felt like it could be used to raise their children into elite members of society.
About 80 percent of the curriculum revolves around self-study and the recitation of Chinese classics such as Dizigui, Yijing and Confucius mixed in with some English works by Shakespeare.
There are no lectures about Chinese language basics, math formulations or English class. Thus far, Meng Mu Tang has 12 students - aged four to 10. They read and learn the same course content. Tuition is 30,000 yuan (US$3,750) per year.
Now, I am fairly sympathetic to the idea of learning from the ancient texts, but this strikes me as silly. Copying the entire curriculum and, most importantly, style of teaching from some notion of "traditional" education is an exercise in denial. It seems that the point of this endeavor is to create an environment where children who might have a particular talent for rote memorization and self-direction will emerge:
"We do not require children to understand the texts," said Lu, who was formerly a primary school English teacher. "But we can find enough masters in China's history to prove that the system can cultivate a student's language and self-study abilities."
Perhaps the idea is to allow those who would "naturally" bloom into scholars do so, and forget about the rest. I can imagine that parents will send their kids, and pay the stiff tuition, in hopes that their children will be those special few who can rise to the top.
This is the danger of taking a desire to learn from the past too far. Note to Mr. Lu: the past is just that, past. The present has its own intellectual qualities and requirements. We cannot make the present bend to the past, but must shape the past to the present.
On the other hand, I would not go so far in my criticism as this fellow:
Gu Jun, a sociologist with Shanghai University, said many ideas the ancient works contain have been proven to be cultural scums that would harm children. Without a formal elementary school diploma, how could students be able to attend high school or university, asked educators.
"Cultural scums?" Sounds like the Cultural Revolution all over again.
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