THE VILLAGE EDUCATION MOVEMENT IN CHINA ¹

The Magnitude of the Problem

China is predominantly an agricultural country. According to popular estimates, nearly eighty-five per cent of her population, i.e., three hundred and forty million people, live in the villages. To educate and modernize the Chinese villagers and their children is one of the most gigantic undertakings of the Far East. Village education in China is a mass phenomenon that cannot escape the notice of any world-minded person. Whether it is for good or for bad, it affects one-fifth of the world population.

The Village Schools of the Present

The present schools actually found in Chinese villages cannot meet the demands. What they give to the children is nothing more than book knowledge. They make the farming population less productive. They make the rich poor, and the poor poorer;the strong weak, and the weak weaker. These schools belong to the past and are not serving the real needs of our farmers.The cry for change is heard from every part of the land. A new era is at its dawn!

The New Movement is Creative and Revolutionary

During the last few years, the National Association for the Advancement of Education has set itself to the task of evolving a type of village education which will meet the needs of Chinese village life. The authorities who have been charged with this study have taken the realities of village life as their guide. Deviating from former practices, they no longer cling to old methods nor copy foreign models. As a new nation is being born, a new education is needed to fit her farmers for the new life. Old conceptions and methods, inadequate to meet the new needs, have to be thrown away and new ones devised.Thus in many respects the movement has assumed a creative and revolutionary character.

Three Steps

Three steps have been conceived in carrying out the whole movement.The first and the most fundamental step is experimentation. Experimental schools of various kinds are being conducted in order to discover better methods and contents for village education. Second, on the basis of findings through experimentation, the right type of village teachers and other personnel are to be trained.Third, the movement is to be extended according to the number of these trained.

The Centre Schools

The movement starts with a few centre schools. The term centre school (chung hsin hsioh hsiao) derives its meaning from three sources. First, it takes village life as the centre of school life. Second, it forms the centre for reconstructing village life.Third, when the stage of training and extension is reached, it will naturally be the centre for normal training. All the centre schools are of an experimental nature. The National Association has under its direction three centre schools of elementary grade. The First Centre School is located at Swallow Cliff. It has six grades, a full elementary school according to the New System. The second, situated at Yao Hwa Men, has four grades, but the teaching is organized according to the double grades plan.The third is the Morning Village Centre School, which is an ungraded school run by one teacher.These schools are all in Nanking or its suburbs.

In spite of all the differences in organization and adaptation to local differences, these centre schools have certain points in common.

First, they have a common philosophy of education and life.They take village life as their centre and at the same time they become the centre of village reform. Not only this, they serve as the centre at which the little village meets the world at large.

Second, the principle of methods is common to all. Here the maxims are“Think when you work,”“Use your mind when you use your hands.”Active work becomes the centre of learning.

Third, tools are considered as a most important medium of education. Education for life demands life-tools. Real education is an education in life-tools. It implies how to invent tools, how to make tools and how to use tools. Books are considered as one kind of tool and no longer worshipped as the only tool.

Fourth, the principle of economy is emphasized from the start.The running expenses of these schools are not higher than the schools of the neighborhood. On the basis of average per capita cost, these schools try to work out standards which can easily be reached by other schools. It is due to this minimum cost that they are exerting a wider influence than the ordinary first-class schools.

Fifth, as the school is the village centre, so the school-master is the soul of both school and village. His personal example has the greatest influence over his students and the villagers.The school-masters of the three schools have three qualities in common:

(1)They all have a farmer's physique. They can do a farmer's work.These qualities have given them several advantages over ordinary school-masters. In the first place they thoroughly understand farmers' difficulties, hardships, and problems, and are in a better position to be a helping friend to them. Second, in utilizing their leisure time on a vegetable garden and the like, their low salary can be compensated for in part. Third, the possession of a farmer's hands enables them to take active interest in the villages, which offer them abundant opportunities to express themselves in actual deeds.

(2)They all have the mind of a scientist.They are all open-minded. They want to observe and experiment. They take interest in scientific agriculture and other new discoveries in science and are eager to introduce them to the farmers. This attitude of mind is essential to a village teacher in order to counteract the most conservative influence of the farming population.

(3)They all have the spirit of a social reformer.They make the school to serve as a social dynamo, sending light to every home, making the whole village bright. Even in the one-teacher-school, they never feel single-handed. Every pupil is a life-wire connecting the school and the community.The school is successful only when all the villagers become happy and truly patriotic.

Centre Schools at Work

The working of the centre schools may be rendered more concrete if actual examples are given of a day's activities.

The country children are certainly early birds. They usually come to school as early as six o'clock.The first thing they do is to make the school clean and put everything in order. The teacher and the pupils work as fellow comrades in sweeping, washing, dusting, and arranging. Each one is responsible for a certain area, and in less than half an hour the school looks as everybody wishes it to look. In this way one can readily see how our centre school has been able to dispense with the services of a janitor, who so often deprives the students of the opportunity fordoing practical work. It can also be readily seen how these schools save money for securing necessary life-tools in spite of the nationwide financial difficulties.

Then comes the Morning Exercise which consists of the raising the national flag, the revolution song, the principal's address, and finally the procession into the classroom.

The personal cleanliness of the pupils is examined by the teacher and elder students. This includes the examination of the face, eyes, teeth, fingers, etc. Washing the face, brushing teeth and cutting finger nails are done in school if they have not been done at home.

All are now ready for class work. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are each related to country life and to the material of the other subjects. We seize every opportunity to practice the use of language in meeting actual needs. For instance, when an illiterate farmer comes to ask us to write a letter for him, we submit it to the older pupils to write it out. After correction by the teacher, the best letter is given to the farmer. But all who write the letter will be given credit for language work.

Just half an hour before lunch, current events of national or world significance, or messages which affect the welfare of the village, or projects which call for the cooperation of all villagers are told to the student body. Most frequently, these are worked out in story form by the teacher and the older students. All pupils are required to tell the story to home folks and report their reactions.

The project on mosquitoes and the campaign against them may be given as an example of the work in nature study. Specimens of the various stages of development of different kinds of mosquitoes are collected by the pupils under the direction of the teacher. These are preserved and shown in tubes. In this way the pupils come to a real understanding of mosquitoes and are determined to fight against them.They are also led to see how frogs and other insects eat mosquitoes and to consider them their allies in the Anti-Mosquito Campaign.

Gardening is of two kinds:school projects and home projects. We have solved two of the most difficult problems in conducting school gardens.The first is the farmers' objection to having their children work on the school garden. They say,“We send children to school for study and not for work.”Many schools failed in introducing gardening into the curriculum just because of this stubborn objection. We know this before we introduce it. We call on the parents, telling them that the schoolteaches children to write, read and count according to what they grow in the garden. After they have taken part in gardening they will be able to read, write and count the thing as well as to grow it.They can either bring the produce home or sell in the market.The parents are pleased with the arrangement and the school garden goes on well.

The second difficulty is the teaching of gardening in an ungraded school where students of different ages gather in one class. We have tried to solve the difficulty by differentiating the processes of the project and making assignments according to the ability of the pupil.Thus every pupil is kept busy and interested in the work which he is able to do.

Handwork in these schools consists of repair work, and the making of simple apparatus and equipment.The carpentry and masonry work of the school is for the most part done by pupils under the direction of the teacher. Apparatus needed for teaching science is, so far as possible, self-made. So is some of the ordinary equipment for the school.

Health work is carried on by the teacher under the supervision of a travelling doctor. The teachers are taught to examine the eyes, to give vaccination of smallpox and a few other simple practices. Treatment of trachoma has produced very satisfactory results. In these schools individual wash towels, tooth brushes and drinking cups are provided. We hope to add a travelling nurse for the three schools.

An example of group projects is found in the arranging for a reception of welcome given in honor of a prominent visitor. As soon as the students knew he was coming they called a meeting and with the help of the teacher made preparations for the reception. A student leader was elected to take the chair and another to record the minutes.The program was outlined and items assigned: welcome address, music, speech by guest of honor, singing by the student body, etc. Two students were elected to write a letter of invitation and two others elected to take the letter to the guest. All this was done in half an hour. Twenty minutes after he received the letter he was ushered to the platform and the reception began. A picture was taken by a student after the meeting.

The school building is open to villagers for public uses. It is the meeting place for the Cooperative Society, for the demonstration of scientific agriculture, the Farmers' Boxing Club, wedding ceremonies, and above all, the farmers' evening class.The evening class was formerly carried on by the teacher. But it was decided that the teacher, after the day's strenuous work, should rest in the evening, so a better plan was devised. In every village there must be some intelligent, public-spirited person who can and is willing to serve as evening school teacher. This supposition becomes a reality. You will find that there are not only teachers, but good teachers. We have tried such persons in the Swallow Cliff School and the result is wonderful. The tool we use is the One Thousand Character Reader , edited for the special use of the villagers. By spending one hour a day, the average farmer will soon be able to read vernacular newspapers and write common letters. Here one can readily see how the elementary school can serve to teach the adult as well as the young.

The Centre Village Kindergarten

Kindergartens are especially needed in Chinese villages. During the busy months the farmer's wife is occupied with much more work than at ordinary times. She has to help in farm work, prepare food and drink for farm workers, and carry on all the other household duties. Older children of elementary grades are called home to help on the farm, but the little children under five become a burden. It would be a great relief to the mother if somebody could be found to take care of them for her. Sometimes an elder brother or sister is kept at home simply for the purpose of looking after them. At other times the mother just sends the little ones with a bench to the school and asks the teacher as a special favor to watch them for her. All she asks is to have the baby sit on the bench and not move about. Here we can see the need for a kindergarten and all the problems it could help in solving. The village kindergarten will be a relief to the mother during the busy months and it will help to keep those older children at school who would otherwise be needed to take care of younger brothers and sisters. But the kindergarten as it is can never hope to be introduced into the villages. For the ordinary kindergarten to go into the village is something like a camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle.The present-day kindergarten is aristocratic, foreign, and expensive. Before it can be introduced into the village, fundamental changes have to be made so that it may become more democratic, more Chinese and more economical. Various plans have been worked out in adapting kindergarten education to village conditions. The untimely death of our kindergartener, Mrs. Wang Lu Shenyü, has delayed the experiment for some time. But in the fall this experiment will be carried on in accordance with the policies mentioned above.

The Experimental Village Normal School

This school is located at the Morning Village, near to the Third Centre School, about one mile and a half from the First Centre School, and about three miles from the Second Centre School. This school aims to train village teachers so that they may possess the qualifications for village leadership.The objectives of the training are threefold:(1) To cultivate a farmer's physique. (2) To cultivate a scientific mind. (3) To cultivate the spirit of a social reformer.

The method adopted in the school is what we call“the combination of teaching, learning, and working.”The method of working determines the method of learning, and this in turn determines the method of teaching. For instance, farm work is to be done on the farm, therefore it should be learned on the farm and taught on the farm.This is termed the“combination”method, as opposed to the“divisional”method prevailing in Chinese normal schools. According to the divisional method, the normal students are supposed to spend three years and a half on academic studies, the last half year for practice teaching, and then carry on real teaching after graduation.The combination method demands that the students teach from the start. The students learn through teaching under real, responsible and supervised conditions. With this method the students are compelled to learn not only the knowledge but also the methods of transmitting the knowledge. It is only through making others understand a certain thing that we may readily understand it ourselves. According to our plan, each student is required to take full charge of a class for a week, under strict directions, in each of the three centre schools.

The curriculum covers the whole field of life. All curriculum is life and all life curriculum.There are no extra-curriculum activities;the term itself does not suit our philosophy.

The first group of activities is the life of the centre schools. This constitutes half of the credits. The ordinary normal school has practice teaching done in the“attached school,”which does not possess organic unity with the normal school. With us the elementary school forms the centre of normal training.The elementary schools are founded before the training school.They are the mother;they are the dynamo.The training in the activities of the centre school is divided into six parts, namely:language and arithmetic, citizenship, health, nature study, gardening,play and recreation. Each division is headed by a research supervisor.The normal students may choose one or two of the divisions and serve therein as assistants. Each supervisor, after having worked out the lessons and the methods, will hold a conference with the student teacher, demonstrate how it should be taught, observe how he teaches and help him to improve. The directing supervisor is appointed by the president and has control over the whole work.

The second group of activities is the administration of the normal school: clerical work, bookkeeping, business management, sanitation, and other work are being done by the students under the guidance of the supervisors. The whole school has only one laborer, who carries water. All other work is divided among the students and the supervisors. Even the cooking is done by themselves. This is rather a practical necessity because village teachers sometimes have to rely upon themselves to cook food when they are sent to communities not friendly to the new schools.

The third group consists of activities in controlling the natural environment. This includes scientific agriculture and forestation, fundamental handwork, and sanitation.

The fourth group consists of activities in village reform which includes village government, village mass education, cooperative societies, village surveys, and farmers' recreation. In doing social work, the area for the first stage is within a one mile radius from the school. For every village there are two persons designated to be responsible. There are now twelve villages included in this plan. As we have said before, our teaching and learning all centres at the doing, so this is the case with our social work. The course on village survey is not a classroom study but an actual survey of the twelve villages.The course on cooperative societies is also the actual promotion of such societies among the farmers, according to the strict principles required for the success of such societies.The other courses are run in the same way.The two persons for each village are expected to make friends with genuine farmers so that when these courses are conducted there will be sympathetic response from them.These two representatives from the school to the village form the vital link between them.

Fifth, there are the self-determined activities. These are planned and selected by the students themselves. They, for the most part, are concerned with the personal aspects of school life.

One of the outstanding characteristics of the school is that books are studied in the library.They are no longer studied in the classroom. Students come to the supervisor only when they meet diffculties in the books. Further, books are studied as references to the performance of life activities, and are no longer studied for their own sake.

Another characteristic is found in the fact that both supervisors and students appear in farmer's costume, sometimes with bare feet in straw shoes.The students are required to work as a farmer from the very day of their entrance examination. We have the conviction that we should be transformed into the farmer before we can transform him.

Then, you find little difference between the supervisors and the students. Here the demarkation is not sharp. Everybody teaches and all learn.“Teach others with what I know,”“What I do not know I will learn from others,”are among our mottoes.

We do not give diplomas to our students until they have run a school successfully for half a year.The connection between the normal school and its students is to be sustained even after they have left school for service.The travelling supervisor will keep the connection ever more vital.

The Department for Training Village Kindergarteners

The Experimental Normal School, beginning this fall, will create a department for the training of village kindergarteners.This department will centre in the activities of the Centre Village Kindergarten. It will admit girls from the villages for matriculation. The wife, fiancée, or relatives of the village teacher will be especially welcomed. Such a department has the following merits in its favor: (1) It will turn out kindergarteners to run the much needed village kindergarten. (2) It will open a new profession for educated girls in the villages. (3) If the village teacher's wife or fiancée would receive such training, he and she could both work in the same village. This in turn will have five important effects:(a) The village teacher will feel happier in the village;(b) since the wife is running a kindergarten, the economic condition of the home will be better;(c) the teacher's tenure of service in the village will probably be prolonged;(d) on account of the influence of the woman educator, female education in the village may make more headway than without her;(e) the teacher's home may serve as a model for the villagers. It is with these considerations that we intend to open the department in spite of all difficulties.

The Research Council

The Research Council of Village Education consists of research supervisors of the normal school and honorary research members.This council will make studies on all problems related to village education. It should be more emphasized in the future, as herein lies the hope of real progress in village education. College students have come in to serve as assistants in the council. It is hoped that as the council develops, advanced students will come in to take active participation in original researches for this most important undertaking.

Auxiliary Activities

The centre schools, the Experimental Village Normal School, and the Research Council on Village Education form the main pillars of the present movement of village education in China. Besides, there are a few other allied activities of the movement which should be mentioned.

(1) Dormitories for visitors . In the centre schools facilities are provided for persons interested in village education to stay for a shorter or longer period in order to acquire an insight into the working of these schools. Teachers from as far as Mukden ² , Szechwan, and Canton have availed themselves of this advantage.This arrangement will enable the movement to spread wider and faster.

(2) National League of Village Teachers .This is an affiliated institution of the National Association for the Advancement of Education. The members have now reached one thousand. After the political situation has settled down this league is bound to grow. It has adopted a Village Teacher's Creed of eighteen articles. It issues a bi-weekly paper entitled“Village Education,”which has a circulation of two thousand.

(3) Travelling Supervisor of Village Schools .The National Association has secured the service of Mr. Ting, a most successful village principal, to help schools in other communities to improve. Any school wishing to reform has to send its principal to make a careful study of the centre schools. Then our supervisor will go to his school to make an intensive study.Then they both work out a plan for reform which is to be carried out by the principal with the guidance of our supervisor.

(4) The Village Clinic . In the Morning Village we have established a medical clinic.The doctor, besides giving treatment to the village patients, trains the normal students on simple medical operations and conducts medical inspection of the children in the centre schools.

(5) The Farmers' Self-Defence League . Real farmers in the twelve villages are given training in Chinese Boxing. Military tactics will be taught to them as soon as the government gives permission to do so.

(6) A cooperative society on a small scale has been started at Yao Hwa Men. Another one will be organized soon in Morning Village. And it is hoped that the work of the societies will gradually develop and that farmers will be trained to organize similar societies by themselves.

This is a brief summary of the Village Education Movement in Nanking. Such work will be started at Canton, Wuchang, Chengtu, Peking, Mukden and Quenming as soon as possible. It is our hope that finally every province or even every suitable district will have a centre for this work. Our final goal is to train one million village teachers who will be able to lead the one million villages to the birth of a new life. WKEc3lyMjgPBo4tvOSwSamLwnSxxsl+hPZpI0JslsVQTT9ZUNircy4996eGCWfQa