Challenge and Response: Educational Reform in China at the Turn of the Century: Tomorrow's Education Library

Author: Gu Mingyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-08-01
Features: The topic of education is heavy yet full of hope, where we pray for tomorrow. After the dimming of expressions burdened by external pursuits, education returns to the warmth of life to seek its original purpose. Compared to fields like politics and economics that rely on a sense of power, education has a non-utilitarian dimension. This dimension allows education to remain independent of worldly "power" or "gain," preserving the (serenity) and completeness of life, thereby establishing its irreplaceable and non-delegable mission. Of course, education will not ignore the various demands from politics and economics, but its central focus remains education, which can never shrink its critical and transcendent nature. It responds to the concepts of politics and economics with its own concepts, but it does not want to serve as the servant of contemporary politics and economics. The multidimensionality of its mission is only because of the multidimensionality of life's value, and its essential content ultimately depends on the essential content of life. If we say that politics, in its proper role, aims to establish a reasonable order for society to realize the "justice" value expected by life, economics, in its proper role, aims to provide better living conditions for the nation to achieve the "prosperity" value pursued by life, ethics, in its proper role, aims at the "harmony" value, art, in its essence, aims to create another world through aesthetic forms to cultivate the "beauty" value desired by life, and the Dao, in its main purpose, aims to enable self-disciplined people to elevate their spiritual realm through reflection to nurture the indispensable "goodness" value in the introspective dimension of life, then the mission of education lies in guiding people's value consciousness, grasping the tension between multidimensional values to cultivate people's life. In the era of the knowledge economy, with the emergence of the internet, the globalization and integration of the economy, "education and science drive the nation" have become a consensus among countries worldwide, and our country has even made it one of its basic national policies. So, how can China's education "revitalize the nation" and how can it face this series of challenges? This book collects the insights of renowned experts and scholars from the fields of education, economics, and science in our country, including topics such as WTO and Chinese education, education in the internet age, innovation— the educational philosophy of contemporary education, and more.