The Last Totem (Research on Value Orientation of Chinese Higher Education and School-Specific Development)

Author: Zhang Dongjiao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: People have two common perceptions about today's Chinese schools, especially public high schools: Gaokao (the national college entrance exam) dominates high education—thousands of schools face the same challenges, and countless courses share the same format; schools lack or barely possess their own individuality and characteristics. Yet in the 1920s and 1930s, Chinese education was highly distinctive, and schools were full of unique features. Why did this state of affairs not naturally continue? This book provides an in-depth analysis of the evolution of China's high school education's value orientation over a century and the three cycles of de-personalization and loss of distinctiveness in high schools. It reveals that in today's era of quality-oriented education, Gaokao will become the final totem, and the awareness of school characteristic development will truly awaken, offering hope for progress.