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| Mencius Reborn in China |
| Parents found Confucian private school for their children |
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Xu Zhiqiang (xuzhiqiang)  |
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Published 2006-07-31 16:21 (KST) |
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Mencius (372 B.C. - 289 B.C.) is a famous Chinese Confucian philosopher. In his day, Confucian evangelizing private schools were all the rage. Could a Confucian private school prove popular in China today?
In Shanghai, a full-time Confucian private school recently opened, attracting 12 schoolchildren aged four to 12 years old, who were taught for more than 10 months. Mencius's Mother temple was established and supported by parents who prefer traditional Confucian education to the somewhat hidebound examination-oriented public education of today.
The name of the school originates from history. To turn Mencius into an erudite man, his mother moved three times, from the graveyard where his father was buried, to a noisy street, and finally to a place near schools and temples. There, Mencius focused on learning and became a great man.
The actions of Mencius's mother are reflected in the parents from the Shanghai school. Some of them are well-educated businessmen, teachers, and engineers; all are avid for their children to succeed. They believe, as Mencius did, that man is innately good, and that his nature can be enhanced or perverted by his environment.
To avoid the defects in the public education system, these parents organized Mencius's Mother Temple. Of course, they have added a few modern elements.
The basic tenet of the school is "Read classical Chinese, respect Confucius and Mencius, sing Shakespeare, calculate mathematics and physics." To give you an idea of the coursework, here is the study timetable for a 10-year-old child in Mencius' Mother Temple:6 a.m. to 7 a.m.: Get up, jog, and then read "junior norm."
7 a.m. to 8 a.m.: Breakfast and sweep the house.
8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.: Read and recite the core Confucian literature -- The Four Books (The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, Analects, and the Works of Mencius) and The Five Classics (Book of Songs, Book of History, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals).
1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.: Read and learn Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sonnets. In their spare time, they are taught Yoga, swimming, and science.
In the evening, programs often consist of reading a chess manual, writing in a diary, or watching teleplays such as China's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or Korea's "Dae Jang Geum."
"In public schools, the teaching is dull and a piece of normal text will crawl on for nearly one week," one boy said.
After four months at Mencius's Mother Temple, he said he could almost recite the Book of Changes and understand A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"I believe that after three to four years education in Mencius's Mother Temple, they will be outstanding in their future study and life," Lu Liwei, one of the founders, told the media.
Lu emphasized that a student's moral education is important and will be especially enhanced by Confucian study in private schools.
"Someone said it is a new experiment on the children. I don't think so," Lu said.
Confucianism dominated China's education system for more than 2,000 years, but was gradually discarded after the May Fourth Movement of 1919.
During the 10-year-long Cultural Revolution, which began in 1968, Confucianism was completely cast away.
Over the years that followed, gradual reform and the opening up of society changed China dramatically, but Confucianism remained submerged in the face of rampant commercialism. In contrast, the Confucian spirit was kept alive in other Asian countries such as Korea and Singapore.
In recent years, after the initial accumulation of fortunes, people finally began to rediscover the real values of Confucianism. They realized that Confucian ideals such as geniality, goodness, assiduity, and courtesy are precious to modern society. More and more scholars argued for the resumption of Confucian ideals in Chinese society.
It is in this context that Mencius' Mother Temple appeared.
"I read the Confucian books in 1997 and found that many things I learned in public schools were useless," a businessman said.
He wants to send his child to a Confucian private school.
But the future of Mencius's Mother Temple may be at risk. Educational administrators in Shanghai have expressed concern over the private school and pointed out that it violates the Compulsory Education Law, which requires children to attend public schools at a certain age.
"The Confucian private schools are not qualified to raise funds and recruit students. Personality education is important to children, but it also lacks the collective environment in which to grow up," one administrator said.
Mencius's Mother Temple is not the only private school in China. There are similar private schools in the cities of Xiamen and Guangzhou and in Hunan province that have carried on for some years -- but all of them intentionally keep a low profile.
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©2006 OhmyNews
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