Walk towards Wang Wenli

Author: Wang Wenli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: As is well known, the new curriculum reform sets its objectives along three dimensions: knowledge and skills, processes and methods, and attitudes and values, shifting the goals of China's basic education from "knowledge-cognition" to "the entire realm of life." So, how can we infuse vitality into our language education? How can we make our language education practice what Tagore said, "The purpose of education should be to breathe life into people"? Teacher Wang Wenli has given us the best answer with her classroom. Please take a look at her lesson, "Love"—In this lesson, Teacher Wang uses the children's poems "I Still Have One Foot" and "Keep Living" by a 9-year-old girl from Taiwan, who suffered from soft tissue malignant tumors and had one leg amputated while fighting the disease. She brings in the resilience and elasticity of life, encouraging students to recognize themselves, challenge themselves, and transcend themselves based on their perception of language. This gives us much inspiration: Language education should highlight the spiritual essence of language learning, emphasizing the spiritual experience students gain from texts and ultimately achieving spiritual growth; Language education should value the creation of engaging contexts, "seeking contexts that are captivating" and "contexts that reveal profound and significant spiritual meaning and true essence" (Hegel, Aesthetics); Language education should break through the classroom-based model of language learning, emphasizing holism and integration, taking classroom teaching as the core to expand and extend into all aspects of students' lives, organically integrating them with their school life, family life, and social life, transforming it into a comprehensive form of learning.