From ancient "monks learning" to modern "early education", enlightenment education is the same way - English Enlightenment Laboratory

Early education, is China's modern education for young children in the pre-school stage.

1 Ancient "enlightenment" and modern "sensitive period"?

Modern enlightenment "sensitive period" must have heard of, that is, children in the process of growing up in each particular period of time have a special ability to feel, so that they have a very good sense of a certain kind of knowledge and skills, fast absorption, in the sensitive period of teaching, it will be twice the result with half the effort.

The Italian early childhood expert Montessori created the Montessori method of education is based on the sensitive period of early childhood enlightenment, so that the child in the most suitable time to get the maximum growth.

And the ancient enlightenment, that is to say, children into the private school began to receive enlightenment education, mostly literacy, reading. In ancient times, the age of children's enlightenment is usually around 4 years old, ancient educators believe that 4 years old is the best age for children to learn Chinese characters, and from literacy to the age of 15 years old to enter the university before this stage is called the stage of monks, the child's memory is the strongest.

Lu Shiyi of the Qing Dynasty in the "On Primary Schools" said: "Since fifteen years ago, the material desire is not infected, the knowledge is not open, it is more memorization, less enlightenment ...... Therefore, all people who have something to when reading, are from fifteen years ago to make it familiar with the reading. If the year a little longer, not only refused to recite, and can not recite carry on."

See, the ancients believe that children before the age of fifteen, is not tainted with material desires, there is no enlightenment of knowledge, this time to learn more, more memory, reading as much as possible to read to read to recite, or else, older, not only unwilling to read, and it is difficult to recite.

Whether it is thousands of years ago in ancient times, or the prosperity of modern times, our concept of enlightenment and importance of education are more than ever, although there are slight changes, but the ultimate goal is still "to teach people, early oracle teaching.

2 Ancient "poetry" and modern nursery rhymes

The Book of Songs, known as the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry and the earliest collection of poetry, collects poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Annals (11th to 6th centuries before the Spring and Autumn Annals), and there are 311 poems in the Book of Songs***.

The contents of the Book of Songs explain knowledge about plants, animals and life, as well as songs about the twenty-four solar terms, astronomy, and mathematical recitations of beads and calculations.

The content of the Shijing gives full play to the rhythmic characteristics of the Chinese native language characters, and is written in a form that is both literal and catchy, making it an easy vehicle for children or beginners to accept and realize the dissemination of knowledge.

Modern children's songs and nursery rhymes have evolved from this, but with simplified textual expressions, clearer meanings, and more vivid and interesting content.

For example, one of the most familiar nursery rhymes for children is: "The little mouse went up to the lampstand, stole the oil and ate it, but he couldn't get down. Meow meow meow, the cat came, gibberish rolled down."

Nursery rhymes have a strong rhythmic and rhythmic content, with each line having a corresponding rhyme, a speech pattern that brings language interest to the child. At the same time, a children's song or nursery rhyme often tells a story, including the beginning, middle and end. This kind of story logic is more of a pavement for the development of children's comprehension and writing skills later on.

3 Ancient "children's books" and modern picture books?

Historical records show that the earliest literacy textbook in ancient China was the Western Zhou Dynasty's "Shi Zhou (zhòu)", which has now been lost. It can be inferred from Li Si's Cangjie Chapters of the Qin Dynasty that the Shi Zhou Chapters were probably organized according to the relationship between the meanings, with four characters as sentences and two sentences as rhymes.

After the Qin Dynasty, the three textbooks, Cangjie Zhuan, Zunli Zhuan, and Boxue Zhuan, all of which focused on literacy and writing, were developments of the Shi Zhou Zhuan.

After the Western Han Dynasty, there were new developments, and the Cangjie Chapters became the prevalent literacy textbooks of the early Han Dynasty, and the first widely used unified literacy textbook in Chinese history.

After that, the "Three Hundred Thousand Thousands", which is the abbreviation of "Three Character Classic", "One Hundred Surnames", "One Thousand Character Classic" and "One Thousand Poems", corresponded to the famous "Four Books and Five Classics", which is commonly known as "The Little Four Books of Enlightenment", or "The Little Four Books of Enlightenment". The "Little Four Books of Enlightenment".

These four books are after the two Song Dynasty, China's private schools in the general use of the enlightenment reading material, the popularity rate is very high. This kind of popular reading material, writing more serious, some also out of the hands of famous artists.

"Heaven and earth, the universe. The sun and the moon, the stars and hosts. Cold comes and goes, fall harvest and winter storage. The intercalary balance becomes the year, and the law regulates the sun."

This is the Thousand Character Essay, composed during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which incorporates knowledge of nature in a clean brushstroke.

The first four lines explain the laws of the universe of heaven and earth: the sky is greenish-black, the earth is yellow, and the universe was formed in a state of chaos and obscurity. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the moon is full and missing, and the stars fill the boundless space.

The last three lines describe the changes of the four seasons: the cycle of summer and cold, the harvesting of crops in the fall, and the storage of grain in the winter. Leap years are accumulated and combined into one month, which is placed in a leap year. The last part of the poem, "The Six Rhythms and the Six Rhythms of the Sun," explains that the ancients used the six rhythms and six rythms to regulate the yin and the yang.

The Thousand Character Essay is a lively and interesting text about natural knowledge, such as the sun, moon and stars, and the changing of the seasons. The Hundred Surnames, also in a four-character style with rhyming lines, contains the heritage of Chinese family name culture, knowledge of Chinese characters and understanding of social life.

In ancient times, literacy and writing were the main focus, and although they would try to be more interesting and lively in their language, the all-textual vestiges would still be boring and unattractive to small children.

In comparison, the modern picture books are also to teach different knowledge of the subject, but the form of expression has changed to mainly drawings, text as a supplement, the picture colorful, vivid characters, action exaggerated and interesting, more aimed at the characteristics of small children, to attract the attention of small children.

Previously, learning methods were generally taught by a teacher, a single form, and the knowledge received is easy to form a stereotyped mindset. The modern picture book has increased a lot of content forms, parent-child game interaction, audio input, 3D stereo ...... More able to stimulate the child's imagination and creativity.

4 ancient "learning" and modern learning atmosphere

Mengzi's mother, the world called her Meng mother. When Mencius was a child, he lived very close to a cemetery, and he learned some things like worship and played the game of mourning. His mother said, "This place is not suitable for a child to live." So the home was moved next to the marketplace, and Mencius learned things like trading and slaughtering.

The mother thought again, "This place is still not suitable for a child to live in." Again, she moved the family next to the schoolhouse. Mencius learned to know how to bow and curtsy and the etiquette of entering and exiting at court. Mencius' mother said, "This is the right place for a child to live." So she settled down here. When Mencius grew up, he learned the six arts and gained the reputation of a great scholar. The gentleman thought that this was all the result of the gradual education of Mencius' mother.

This is the story of the famous "Three Moves of Meng's Mother" recorded in history, in which Meng Zi's mother moved twice and three times in order to make her child have a really good educational environment. Meng's mother's focus on the learning environment and her cultivation of Meng Zi ultimately made Meng Zi a great scholar of his generation.

Anciently, the "talented" people who learned to play the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and who were multi-talented, often came from large families, and were not rich or wealthy, and the family of books, so that the family background environment will be inculcated in the children's personal cultivation from childhood, and the socialization of the children are also concerned with the "right family".

On the contrary, poor people may not be able to afford to hire a teacher to teach, not to mention the high branches, is likely to be unable to read a few words, in that education is not completely universal era, the environment has a decisive impact on education.

See, the ancients were not shorter-sighted than modern people. With the development of modern society, the popularization of education, schooling has become a necessary part of a child's growth, parents have become more and more important to the enlightenment of education, a variety of interest classes, spending money and connections into the aristocratic school, the international school of the commonplace, because of the high quality of education, outstanding personal ability, high-quality circle of friends is the determining factor in their future success.

The importance of the environment for human development is self-evident.

5 Become a man before you become a man

The most prominent of the ancient enlightenment education is the education of "benevolence", since the beginning of the school, in the beginning of the school stage (i.e., elementary school), the first emphasis is on the education of virtues, i.e., the morality of the children of the aristocracy to raise, teach them some of the moral code of conduct.

By the time of Confucius, moral education was given prominence. Confucius emphasized three aspects of cultivation requirements for the gentleman, the so-called "benevolence is not worried, wisdom is not confused, courage is not afraid", morality, wisdom and bravery are all necessary, but the most important thing is the gentleman's moral cultivation.

"Kong Rong Let Pear" teaches us humility; "Zeng Zi Avoiding the Seat" teaches us to honor our teachers; "Zeng Sen Killing the Pig" lets us know that parents should speak to their children as well as their words. ...... These are the classic stories of character and morality, possessing the universal values that are unanimously respected by everyone and are still widely circulated.

Modern education focuses on "moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and laborious", and also puts the virtue of being a human being in the first place. Because "virtue" is social, other attributes can be attributed to the self, but necessarily with the help of "virtue" and promote.

Beijing University matricide case, Fudan poisoning case, these are in a prestigious university, but there is no moral line of the people, even if they get even higher achievements, but also can not "adult", these radical behavior is the amplification of moral corruption.

The teacher taught us from childhood: find something to return to the original owner, see others have difficulties to be willing to help others, treat people to be sincere and kind ...... These things are small but all show the character and principles of people, only to be built on these excellent character of the personal development is meaningful.

Thousands of years have passed, the education system, the education method, the content of education are constantly changing, only the degree of importance of education has only increased, the enlightenment has become an indispensable accumulation and springboard in education.