On the one hand China admits the need to produce students with creative thinking skills. On the other hand, China suggests the need for more thought control over students. These two positions are not reconcilable. One is academic, the other is anti-intellectual. One promotes academic freedom while the other stifles academic freedom. One promotes free and informed thought while the other merely programs human robots.
We have previously written that China views its institutions of higher learning as farms for the cultivation of future loyal party cadres. We were right.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-12/01/content_11635749.htm
Teaching students to think creatively
By Patrick Mattimore (chinadaily.com.cn)
An editorial last week in China Daily revealed that a survey of 21 countries, conducted by International Educational Progress Evaluation Organization, highlighted that Chinese students tied for last place when it came to using their imagination and were fifth from the bottom in creativity. Chinese students finished first in math.
According to the editorial, the survey confirmed what Chinese parents know, that their children rarely are challenged to use their imaginations to solve problems.
Undoubtedly, teaching students to think creatively is important. A July Newsweek Magazine article entitled “The Creativity Crisis,” concluded that the “necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed.” The Magazine cited a recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs which identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future.
There is a perception that Chinese education focuses on rote memorization at the expense of creativity. A November news story in an American newspaper promoting a joint exchange between the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) and Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) suggested that “for centuries, Chinese education has focused on memorizing information and practicing skills.”
UMF President Theodora Kalikow said the question Chinese educators most often asked her last month on a visit to Beijing was, “How do you teach creativity?”. Without providing specifics, President Kalikow hinted that American educators could teach Chinese professors a great deal about the subject.
Other recent reports suggest that China has already begun to teach creativity. The “Newsweek Magazine” story featured an exchange between Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University and colleagues at Chinese universities.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8995123/Chinas-vice-president-orders-more-thought-control-over-students.html
China’s vice president orders more thought control over students
Xi Jinping, the Chinese Vice-President, who is tipped to take over from President Hu Jintao later this year, has ordered universities to increase thought control over students and young lecturers.
By Peter Simpson, Beijing
His call for more ideological indoctrination comes amid a ratcheting up of propaganda ahead of next autumn’s keynote Communist Party congress, which is likely to see Mr Xi unveiled as China’s next leader.
“University Communist Party organs must adopt firmer and stronger measures to maintain harmony and stability in universities,” Mr Xi said told Communist Party members at a meeting attended by the country’s universities chiefs in Beijing.
“Daily management of the institutions should be stepped up to create a good atmosphere for the success of the Party’s 18th congress,” he added.
The Party’s grip on universities is seen as crucial in cementing its ideology among the influential middle classes – and campuses have long been regarded as source for discontent.
In the past, aggrieved students have received public sympathy and support, most notably during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protest which was crushed by PLA tanks and troops.
Mr Xi’s directive comes as the ruling Communist Party tries to engineer a trouble-free leadership transition amid growing internal threats to its political control.
The increasing number of riots, demonstrations and strikes sparked by official corruption, land seizures, widespread pollution and labour disputes over low pay has deeply unnerved the secretive government.
The Arab Spring uprisings, which led to online calls for copycat revolts in China, have also rattled the leadership.
And the increasing influence and popularity of internet social media sites – especially among young Chinese – is also causing great anxiety.
In response to the myriad of threats, the government has issued national orders for officials to get a grip on ideology and push “socialist core values”.
Mr Xi, the “princeling” son of Communist veteran Xi Zhongxun, also told university chiefs to closely monitor lecturers, especially those starting their academic careers.
“Young teachers have many interactions with students and cast significant [political and moral] influence on them,” Mr Xi said.
“They also play a very important role in the spread of ideas,” he added.
A paramount task for universities is to “instruct” the thoughts of young lecturers and recruit more of them as party members, Mr Xi said.
National newspapers were on Thursday also reporting instructions from senior leaders to intensify “propaganda work”.
Li Changchun, a Standing Committee member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, told propaganda officials to enhance “the ability of opinion guiding and international communication, and strive to create an objective and friendly international public opinion environment in favour of our country”.
It’s a special Chinese future that the country is controlled only by the CCP. So it can do anything it likes to prevent the people from subverting its rule. University students are the future of society. They are well-educated. As long as they are willing to be ruled by the party, the society will be stable. Meanwhile, thought control, commonly known as brainwash, is the most powerful and effective method. It’s for the political need.
On the other side, CCP stands for the direction of advanced prolificacy, as they’ve told us, so they should enhance the China’s ability of innovation in the world. That’s why the young are encouraged to think creatively.
So, it is not contradictory when we see the news. However, with thought control, university students will never gain the true ability to think creatively. The party will only accept the neuter and unharmed ideas. The only thing we have to fear is not only fear itself but also life threatening.
After reading the article, I ‘d like to share some of my opinions. Firstly, the news from chinadaily.com.cn indictes that china has realised the significance of creativity in education and it was not a evidence of the article’s main idea which is that China is taking extra control over the young. Secondly, not only majority governors’ words have been twisted by the foreign media, but many of the articles about china and Chinese issues especially on politics and education are kind of polarized and are not holistic. Often these foreign medias focus on the negative side of many policies in china. Also they like to reliterate the history of china again and again although the history is so important that we cannot ignore it and should learn from it. Finally, back to the creativity, creativity does not mean commotion or riots but in the foreign media’s perspective once the young obtain the ability of creativity they would go on riots and then turndown the current government which, for the most of the civilian, the unstable society may not be a desirable situation. In my opinion the development of a society can be achieved by peaceful pace in which both the civilian and the politicians could get benefits.
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There is an old saying “All roads lead to Rome”; the ability to think creatively guides us, and I think that diversity is exactly the reflection of creativity. So too much thought control obviously stops us from thinking creatively.
However, the government wants to do these, because not only he like it or want to benefit more, but also most Chinese people lack mainstream values and too much money in their eyes.
How to create a pure and free social environment is the key to solve the problem.
Most of my teachers are tired of ideological indoctrination, although they are told to do so. The class should be the most relaxed and have the most freedom. If the government wants more support from us, please be more open and comprehensive. We are far less concerned about politics than the students in the 1980s. Probably it’s due to the government’s strict limits on expression. We have always been told to do as what our parents and teachers instruct. Now it’s time for us to think alone and make our own choice.
I think the character “thought control” in this news is not accurate and mistake the original meaning.”Thought control” is to every one but the original meaning is to stress the main current’s control,so it has not deny the diversity of the students.
Most Chinese people believe money is everything, since CPC tells them religion is ignorance. In China a good mark means money in the future while a good idea means nothing. So you can never expect someone who don’t have a belief to think creatively, because all he wants is creature comforts. What CPC should do is to make students really believe in communism, and then they can control students and teach them to think creatively. But the foundation of a belief is the freedom of belief…
I always think that there are many drawbacks for China’s one-party system. when they are dealing with things or practicing some new policies, the first thing they consider is to conolidate its leading power but not the real interests of its people.I do hope the current situation can be improved,what a leading party should have always in mind is that their people’s interests and the purpose of their actions is to improve the live conditions of its people, then its leading power can be solidified in essence.
I’d like to share some of my opinions. Firstly, the news from chinadaily.com.cn indicates that China has realized the significance of creativity in education and it was not a evidence of the article’s main idea which is that China is taking extra control over the young. Secondly, not only majority governors’ words have been twisted by the foreign media, but many of the articles about China and Chinese issues especially on politics and education are kind of polarized and are not holistic. Often these foreign Medias focus on the negative side of many policies in china. Also they like to reiterate the history of China again and again although the history is so important that we cannot ignore it and should learn from it. Finally, back to the creativity, creativity does not mean commotion or riots but in the foreign media’s perspective, once the young obtain the ability of creativity they would go on riots and then subvert the current government, which, for the most of the civilian, the unstable society may not be a desirable situation. In my opinion the development of a society can be achieved by peaceful pace in which both the civilian and the politicians could get benefits.
It is really ironic to talk about “creativity” in China. As a chinese student, for many years we just have one rule in school that is information memorization.It is not surprising to know that we all do good math jobs.We can work out the problem after huge practices.In my view,”practice” is another word of memorization.
However, when we get into universities , we are criticized for lacking creativity which is essential for future development of our society.We both know that word , and we do not know what it is.
Thought control is not a new mean for the people in power of this nation. In the book The constitution of Liberty, the notion of a free society that Hayek wanted to put in front of us is the right to make decisions. We have no freedom to think , let alone the creativity ability. We can not let the history go backwards.