On the Development of Rural Education

After a hundred years' development, rural education has different contents and meanings in the process of social changes. In modern times, the rural school founded by Mr. Liang Shuming in zouping county aims at realizing the unity of politics and religion, inspiring farmers' consciousness and thus realizing villagers' autonomy; In the new era, Professor Sun of China Agricultural University led the young teachers in Huixian to establish community colleges and develop adult education, aiming at awakening the local memory gradually weakened and marginalized by urban civilization and inheriting the roots of local culture. By comparing the differences between the two forms of rural education in construction background, content setting and influence, this paper explores the path choice of rural education development at present and thinks about the responsibility and value realization of several generations of rural education practitioners.

[Keywords:] rural education; Rural agricultural schools; community college

Mr. Liang Shuming once said, firstly, we should rely on rural people as the main force to solve rural problems; Secondly, only by combining people with knowledge, vision, new methods and new technologies can we solve the problem, and the combination of the two will inevitably depend on the establishment of rural education.

First, the background of the establishment of rural education

1. Establishment of rural schools

Liang Shuming believes that the essence of modern China problem is cultural imbalance, and the invasion of the West has made China people deeply realize their two shortcomings: lack of awareness of group organization and neglect of science and technology. The way to save the country is to "rebuild culture", that is, to reconcile Chinese and western cultures, absorb the advantages of attaching importance to group organization and science and technology in western culture, and retain the inherent spirit of China. Since 80% of the population is concentrated in rural areas, the burden of improving old China naturally falls on rural areas. Rural agricultural schools are both administrative institutions and educational institutions. It is emphasized that its administrative organs should pay attention to the combination of rural education and local autonomy, and put local autonomy in China into education, that is, villagers as students should pay attention to groups, care about village affairs and actively express their opinions. As an educational institution, it is embodied in the rural construction courses taught by teachers, mainly including the "spiritual refinement" to explain the "Chinese national spirit" and the "practical technology" to adapt to local conditions and keep pace with the times.

2. The establishment of community colleges

Since the reform and opening up, China society has undergone historic changes. Many elements of urban culture are impacting the countryside by leaps and bounds, thus rewriting the development track of "local China". In this cultural migration with the theme of "leaving the soil", the social ecology of rural areas is disintegrating day by day, and rural education is facing a profound crisis because of falling into the misunderstanding of "urban centralism". Since the end of 1990s, the large-scale merger of schools and the construction of rural boarding schools have led to the sharp disappearance of a large number of rural schools. In order to pursue better educational resources, it has become a common fact in rural areas that parents accompany their children to study in cities. This educational reform policy not only emphasizes educational equity, but also objectively cuts off the connection between children and rural areas.

3. Comparison of the two in the purpose of rural education.

Mr. Liang Shuming practiced an autonomous system of "integration of politics and religion", that is, he regarded rural agricultural schools as rural autonomous organizations at the same time. Rural agricultural schools take rural educational institutions and their mass education as the basis of the whole rural construction. They are both mass educational institutions and rural administrative institutions, aiming at arousing people through education and further developing rural construction. Professor Sun put forward the view that education is awakening. Through adult education and community education, the function of rural family education can be restored, so as to better continue the local culture. Different times and backgrounds make rural education undertake different missions. Whether it is to awaken people's self-awareness or to awaken their recognition and inheritance of local culture, it reflects the subtle influence of rural education on rural life.

Second, the content setting of rural agricultural schools and community universities

The nature of rural schools is a group organization with clear scope division, while community universities take rural schools as the center and extend the rural education movement to surrounding villages without geographical scope division. Due to the nature of the administrative machinery of rural agricultural schools, the four structures have clear responsibilities, rights and obligations, which have an effect on the whole, thus forming an organization and maintaining the stable operation of the school. It has a strict structure similar to the existing local legislative and judicial institutions. The institutional setup of community colleges tends to be flat, and there is no strict grade restriction, which is suitable for extension.

The curriculum of rural agricultural schools pays attention to spiritual cultivation, including stimulating farmers' awareness, cultivating villagers' public awareness and participation awareness, and emphasizing absolute obedience to principals and school boards. The courses of community colleges pay attention to the publicity and popularization of local knowledge, improve the villagers' recognition of their local culture, and then promote the recovery of family education function by example.

Third, compare the practical effects of the two operations from the perspective of functionalism.

Liang Shuming's rural education program takes the countryside as the basic unit, and the central link is to guide farmers to care about community issues and participate in political life through rural agricultural schools. On this basis, we will realize independent democratic politics in which power comes from the people. He believes that intellectuals with a high degree of traditional culture and mastery of modern western science and technology should and can lead China in chaos to the right path. The functionalist theory, which hopes that intellectuals will revive the countryside, is insignificant in the face of the great social changes suffered from foreign aggression and has lost the soil on which to live.

The operation concept of community college embodies the three levels of Parsons' action type division. Through adult education, we should first awaken the consciousness of local culture, let students re-examine the value of local things, and then accept them from the heart and put them into action imperceptibly, so as to achieve the goal of attaching importance to education and restoring the ninth grade with the family as the unit. That is, from recognizing the value of local culture, to judging its significance with appreciation, and then to setting an example and highly evaluating rural education.

Fourthly, the path choice of rural school education development today.

At present, the development of rural education should start from the functional orientation of rural education itself, change the basic setting of urban cultural orientation of rural education, and enrich the local cultural connotation of rural education, so as to find a way for rural education to adapt to rural society and coordinate with local culture. The author summarizes the following points: building a team of teachers with local complex, using community resources to create an atmosphere of local culture and education, and realizing the unity of local identity and social identity.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) The responsibility of rural educators from generation to generation.

Liang Shuming summed up his rural school construction as: "Although it is not all wrong, I am really wrong." Half a century later, various social and cultural problems appeared in rural areas of China, prompting people to reinterpret Liang Lao's rural education theory. "Only after the baptism of the field can students have their own understanding of sociology, love their majors and strengthen their sense of social responsibility", which is Professor Sun's educational concept of "adult training" for professional students. Sun led students into the fields to help villagers improve their ability to change the status quo and create a life. In short, this practical rural practice is an experiment to reduce poverty and get rid of poverty in rural areas by means of cultural intervention, and in general, it is looking for the road to rural rejuvenation.

In my opinion, although Liang Shuming and Sun have different purposes and paths in choosing rural education in different times, they are both obsessed with one thing: being an idealist, simple and pure, having the feelings of caring for and serving the countryside and the indispensable spiritual strength in life, still loving life and actively imagining beauty and wisdom in difficulties.

References:

[1] Liang Shuming, theory of rural construction-chapter on rural organization of rural agricultural school.

[2] Liang Shuming's autobiography-why do I have a chapter on rural construction.

[3] From the perspective of rural education, the separation and inheritance of local culture, Li Changjuan.

[4] On the rural schools founded by Liang Shuming.

[5] "Rural Education and the Inheritance of Local Culture" Lu Shiping.

[6] Cultural amnesia and the mission of rural education, Sun.

[7] "Educational Care for Research-based Teaching of Undergraduate" Sun.

;