The RCEF Blog 博客

Over 300 million Chinese citizens are smokers. According to a study reported in the British Medical Journal, 75% of Chinese men smoke and nearly 50% of them will die from smoking-related illnesses if present smoking levels remain unchanged. The problem is especially pronounced in rural areas. According to Professor Teh-wei Hu at the University of [...]

Third grade social studies teacher, Sun Huiguo, recently taught a great lesson on map-making and directions, with little help from the curriculum or textbook.  In a unit on “My Family”, one lesson is devoted to the geographic location of students’ homes and directions for getting there.  The textbook asks students to draw and describe the [...]

Recently, 6th grade students at Guan Ai Primary began drafting their first letters to their pen pals. This is the second year this class will exchange letters with students at Trinity School in Menlo Park, California.
This year the 6th graders will be writing their letters in English instead of having someone translate for them. As [...]

Ever wonder what life is like everyday at a rural boarding school in China? Well, below is the daily schedule at Guan Ai Elementary. When the days start getting darker earlier, the schedule is adjusted slightly so that students wake up a bit later and get ready for bed a bit earlier. The schedule is [...]

The government launched curriculum reforms several years ago. The curriculum reform promotes more student-centered teaching in which students are supposed to play a more active role in learning. Publishers have changed the way textbooks are written to facilitate this. There is less text that directly spells out the knowledge students are supposed to learn, and [...]

When I first arrived at Guan Ai, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of books in the library. In addition to the hundreds of books for students, there is also a significant collection of books on education and teaching methods. This year, I’ll be reading and reviewing these books and others to hopefully spark [...]

两天与市教育局的一位官员约好了一起去看看本市不同镇的几个不同的中学和小学，于是下午我们几个人便一同出发了。
路程不远，先到了××中学，这虽是一所小镇上的初中加小学，学生数大约不到200人，但宽阔的校园还是让我们“嫉妒”了好一阵。虽然有些破旧之处，但新盖的饭堂、学生宿舍、大面积的操场，甚至很大的教室，让人身在其中感到舒服自在。我们心想要是关爱小学放在这个校园里多好！
之后的另一所中学更让我们跌破了眼镜片，真是蛮“奢侈”。整个学校扩建过两三次次，有很老的房子，也有新盖的漂亮的教学楼，房子数量和质量都很不错，看得出政府还是很支持这个学校的，投入了大笔的资金。但问题是现在这个诺大的校园里，只剩下了寥寥的6，70个学生，校园里显得冷清，而星星点点分散在各个角落的学生们更衬出了一份落寞。守着这么一片地方，却没有很好的将它利用起来，真是觉得很可惜。站在校园里，我们开玩笑说：“为什么开始我们会选了关爱小学这么个小地方？”我甚至拍着杨校长的肩膀：“怎么样？自卑么？”
说实话，在我们在当地只是听说过比关爱小学更小，硬件条件更不好的学校，但实际从来没见过。这里面有包含着一些问题，比如：现在因为学校的合并政策，很多以前建的很好的学校现在都成了“空壳”，造成了资源的极大浪费。而第二个问题是由于现在教育体制的局限，很多学校的校长能力都不甚突出，按照和我们一同的教育局官员的话讲就是“不得力”。所造成的后果就是即使是硬件条件很好的学校，也可以因为一届校长的“不得力”而面临全面的萎缩。上文中的第二所中学就是面临着这样尴尬的境地，而离关爱小学不远的一所镇级初中，校园环境极端的优秀，大的可以和一所大专院校相媲美。而且校舍，绿化，操场，宿舍一应俱全，黄金时期有一千多个学生，而现在却因为同样的问题，学生只剩下了约100多人，老师仍有很多，但因为是铁饭碗，在这种情况下，混日子的也开始居多了，形成了一个恶性循环，实在是很痛惜。虽然政府可能会有动作挽救学校，但体制上的问题还是明显的暴露了出来。
这些问题的出现，我愿意把它们称为“阵痛”，是中国发展当中所面临的诸多难题之一，需要一个长期的转变过程。每个人，包括我在内都有自己所想到的化解问题的方法，但是我们也都知道事情永远没有那么简单。总之，教育的投入已经在见效，但仍有很长的路要走，而我们大家则应该以平衡的心态面对现实中的不平衡，做好自己的事情是最重要的。

目前，我们面临太多的机遇和挑战，能不能把握机遇，给自己一个学习改变的机会，那就要看自己有没有改变自我的愿望和积极主动的态度。也许有的老师感觉茫然不 知所措，这个也是正常的。势必接受新的事物也不是那么容易，主要是思想观念的问题。也许想一想，究竟哪种方法对学生的成长有利，哪些学习方法学生更喜欢 呢？让老师也少费劲，我们是不是值得思考？当然，我也知道老师们都有自己的顾虑，那主要来自考试和家长的压力。从关爱学校三年来的历程看，我们的教学成绩 始终位于中游，有人会提出考试不公平等种种理由解脱，但我们认为我们还是没走出自己的路子。如果我们总是被考试和家长束缚着自己的思想，不去尝试改变，那 我们的教育就没有意义和价值。与其这样，那还不如做出大胆改革的选择，最坏也不过如此，试一试也许会柳暗花明。因此希望我们的老师积极努力，不要放弃，共同努力，迈开步伐迎接黎明的曙光。
A Bold Decision
At present, we are faced with too many opportunities and challenges. Whether or not you are able to seize such an opportunity, to reap the benefits of change, that all depends on if you have a proactive attitude and are willing to improve yourself. Perhaps there are some teachers [...]