關注社會:"棍棒教育"強勢回潮

"Parenting with a stick" returns with a vengeance.

“棍棒教育”強勢回潮。

Zhou Weili first heard about the "wolf dad" — a father who used a stick to beat three of his children into China's top Peking University — from the Internet, and the news made this vice president of Guangdong Education Press a rather queasy.

周偉勵第一次聽說“狼爸”是通過網絡上的新聞，也正是看到這條“把三個孩子打進北大”的新聞讓任廣東教育出版社副社長的他內心感到一絲不舒服。

Zhou had introduced ideas of quality education to China's book publishing industry over a decade ago, and he could hardly sit still seeing "wolf dad" books flying off shelves. It is difficult for him to understand why the abandoned "parenting with a stick" is returning to the public's eye with a vengeance.

十多年前，他第一次將“素質教育”這個概念引進了中國的圖書出版界。看見“狼爸”熱賣，這個老出版人有點坐不住了。令他不能理解的是：爲什麼已遭擯棄的棍棒教育又重新高調地進入了公衆視野？

"I'm not saying that parents should never discipline their kids, but I just cannot accept entire sets of educational principles built around beating them with sticks," Zhou Weili said as he punctuated every word for emphasis.

“不是說絕對不能打孩子，但‘狼爸’的理念，我不能接受。”周偉勵用近乎倔強的語氣一字一句地說。

Chen Hong, the director of the textbook division of Guangzhou Book Center, took the position in 1999. That year, she witnessed fevered scenes of parents rushing to buy reference books for their children before the start of the new semester and the end-of-semester exams.

陳虹現任廣州購書中心教育書籍分管主任，1999年入職。那一年，她親眼見證了開學前夕學生家長搶購教輔書籍的“火爆”場面。

But as entire floors of exam reference books emptied out, the five or six shelves reserved for quality education books were left untouched.

整層整層的教輔書籍一掃而空，只有五六面書架留給素質教育類的書籍，卻無人問津。

"There were only 100 books or so on quality education," Chen said. "Even that little stock could hardly be sold out."

“不過百來本，能賣出去就算不錯了。”陳虹這樣描述。

In the early 1990s, however, some people had begun to realize shortcomings of examination-oriented education. Some Chinese experts and scholars began to promote quality in education. But they did not get much support from the public.

其實，早在90年代初，人們已經意識到了應試教育的弊端。國內開始有專家學者提倡素質教育，但社會普遍認同度仍不高。

"As a publisher, my thoughts were not clear about a solution," Zhou recalled. "But I did feel that China's education needed a gust of fresh air from the other side of the Pacific."

“作爲出版人，當時我的思考還不太清晰，只是隱隱覺得，中國教育需要一股風，一股來自大洋彼岸清新而凜冽的風。”周偉勵回憶說。

Answering the call, in 1999, would be Huang Quanyu, a Chinese author who studied in the U.S. His book, where he compared differences between Chinese and American education, was published in December 1999, with the title: "Quality Education in the U.S." It did not attract much attention until in 2000, when a murder case shocked the country.

1999年，留美學生黃全愈從大洋彼岸給周偉勵帶來了這股風。這本書取名《素質教育在美國》，於當年12月出版；在書中，他描述了中美教育的天差地別。直到2000年，一場震驚全國的血案爆發，才讓這本書徹底“火”了。

Xu Li, a high school student in Zhejiang Province, could not bear the mounting pressures of strict rules, physical discipline and high expectations. He brought a hammer to his mother, killing her at the scene.

徐力是浙江省一名高中學生，因爲不堪忍受母親對自己管得太嚴、期望太高以及實行體罰的重重壓力，用一把榔頭將母親砸死。

Zhou Weili realized this incident may become the turning point of China's education. After much promotional efforts, Huang's book became a hit, reprinting 13 times and selling over 220,000 copies.

周偉勵意識到，這起殺母事件可能是中國教育的拐點。通過大量宣傳，黃全愈的這本書暢銷一時，加印了整整13次，總銷售量高達22萬冊。

Bestseller "Good Mother Better than Good Teacher" author Yin Jianli said that the development of Chinese family education is related with both China's history and its one-child policy.

暢銷書《好媽媽勝過好老師》的作者尹建莉說，中國家庭教育的發展，一方面和時代有關，另一方面和獨生子女政策有關。

She believes that though China's one-child policy began thirty years ago, only in recent years people began to realize the importance of family education.

她認爲，中國的獨生子女政策始於三十多年前，但是直到近些年，人們纔開始意識到家庭教育的功能原來如此強大。

There are several bestsellers in recent years teaching various educational concepts. Parents began to realize that the traditional way to teach children to be modest was not always right, and that they should not beat their children on their whim. Instead, they should respect their children and allow them free thinking.

這些年，出現了不少介紹各種各樣教育理念的暢銷書。人們開始認識到，要求孩子謙虛、動不動就打罵孩子的傳統做法並不都切實可行，相反，他們應該尊重孩子，給他們一些自由思考的空間。

Yin believes that most opposing voices of good educational concepts are driven by commercial goals instead of educational expertise. She has a strong aversion to "stick parenting." "This is just the trick of authors and publishers sewing emperor's new clothes," she said.

尹建莉認爲，在優質教育理念的傳播中，會出現一些異樣的聲音，但這往往並非出自教育自身的探討，多半是商業炒作行爲。對於“棍棒教育”的做法，她更顯得十分厭惡。“這不過是寫書的人和書商在縫製一件驚人的皇帝的新衣。”她說。

In mid-November, the bestselling books "That's Why They Go to Peking University" by the "wolf dad" and "Good Mother Better than Good Teacher" by Yin Jianli were both displayed on the first floor of Guangzhou Book Center.

11月中旬，廣州購書中心裏，“狼爸”的《所以，北大兄妹》和尹建莉的《好媽媽勝過好老師》同作爲暢銷書籍擺在一樓大廳。

Chen Hong, a mother working at the store chose Yin's book. She said she agrees with the idea of "patience and reason" in her child's education. "But as a bookstore, we should be fair and provide a variety of options to parents."

既是母親，又是廣州購書中心工作人員的陳虹選擇了尹建莉的《好媽媽勝過好老師》。用“耐心講道理”的方式教育孩子，她表示贊同。“但作爲書店，應該公平點，給家長各種各樣的選擇。”

Former Ministry of Education spokesman Wang Xuming said books from the "tiger moms" or "wolf dads" are not worth reading. He said these authors are only in pursuit of fame and fortune.

教育部前新聞發言人王旭明表示，諸如“虎媽”、“狼爸”這樣的書籍都不值一讀。他評價說，這些作者都只是在追逐名和利。

"Each family is different. There's no best education model, only the most suitable model," Wang said. "I have never seen the parents of the Nobel laureates write books. It is because the happiness and success are of many kinds."

“每個家庭之間不一樣，沒有最好的教育，只有最適合的教育。”王旭明說，“我從未見過諾貝爾獎獲得者的父母寫書，因爲成功和幸福有很多種。”

Wang said Chinese parents are generally lacking in knowledge of educational methods. He said emphasis should be on fostering environments and mechanisms for the overwhelming majority of people to find their happiness, rather than fixating on the so-called happiness and success models.

王旭明表示，中國的家長普遍缺乏教育常識，我們應該致力於爲最大多數的人創造幸福的條件和機制，而不是一種所謂的幸福和成功模式。