英语阅读：Letting the young learn from life
Chinese youths who live, study and work in Western and other foreigncountries surprised the world last month when they staged rallies to roar their
anger at the Western media's biased reports about the situation in Tibet and the
Beijing Olympic Games.
Their behavior also came as a surprise to domestic educators and media
commentators, who said they had not expected the Chinese youths, both at home
and overseas, to demonstrate so strong a love of the motherland.
In today's China, the young people in their twenties are called
"balinghou," literally '80-after, or post-1980s. These '80-afters are generally
thought to be selfish and indifferent to the fate of the country. Yet what they
did during the past month was an eye-opener for their parents and grandparents.
The elders went into ecstasies over the discovery of the patriotic
responsibility in the '80-afters and applauded their moves to safeguard China's
national dignity.
Meanwhile, there are appeals, from the elders, to the young people to keep
their "cool" and "express their love of the country in a rational manner".
Such reactions, whether praises of the youths or appeals for their sanity,
are definitely well-grounded. But we need to do more to understand the new
generation at this time as we reflect on what we did not know about them.
Especially, we need to review our educational culture.
In traditional Chinese educational culture, parents and teachers dictate
what the children should learn. The youngsters are crammed with ideas, knowledge
and mathematic puzzles-solving skills without being encouraged to think
independently. The elders also try hard to keep the children in an aseptic ward
walled by parental authority and ethical preachings against any evil influences.
At the same time, they pamper the kids with all kinds of material comforts.
This kind of ethics education leads to two results. Those children who are
obedient by nature may develop a sense of ethical purity but they may lack the
ability to think independently. This inability could prevent them from building
successful careers unless they learn to be creative later in their careers.
Those children who are defiant will try every means to escape the ward, only to
be influenced by various social evils which they may lack the immunity to
resist.
In fact, the ethics ward is only a result of the teachers' and parents'
wishful thinking. It never succeeded in protecting children from evil
influences. The youngsters nowadays have all kinds of access to these
influences, through Internet and the media, for instance. However, they get no
timely advice from their parents and teachers as they gain the accesses
secretly.
Youths are curious about anything new and have a strong interest in trying
them. Adults should not try to forbid them contacting these things simply
because they may involve danger, for bans can only incite a stronger interest
and a desire for secret accesses. Instead, they should allow kids some exposure
to the things and give them some advice at the same time. We should believe in
young people's ability to draw lessons from reality.
The maturity demonstrated by the young overseas Chinese in their actions to
protect the Olympic torch relay during the past month is a good example of their
capacity for self-education.
They have lived in Western countries for a few years and saw with their own
eyes the hypocritical face of Western democracy and the true nature of the "fair
and impartial media". They have learned that the rise of China is not always a
welcome thing for everybody in the process of globalization. They must have
realized that the slogan of "one world" is but still "one dream" .
E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn
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