it should not be called "education" at all.

2010.3.28

Dear William,

Thanks for your ideas. And you had reminded me of a long forgotten ideal of
Labrary, which is a mixture of library and laboratory.

You said that:"Confucians believe that education should be available to all, and education content should be made to fit into everyone need, not into any model we have developed on the basis of any abstract ideas..... " are not correct.

"Education should be available to all" is a lie. Since the teaching materials and exam concents are determined by the ruling elite, then there was no freedom in education. The total aim of Confucius was not to promote knowledge, but to setup the mind for a better ruling, with this special way of treating people, it should not be called "education" at all.



with regards,

Leechard.


------------------------------------------

Leechard,

Your article on the education of Chinese and Western culture in Hong kong, and your fan article on that topic is very interesting. I think you are quite right to point out that the centre of gravity of our modern education follows the Western one, that we emphasised more on Western ideas, and less on Chinese one( or you may have it, the other culture one, when we are talking in different countries culture other than Western one.) The Western idea dominance in education, of course, has been criticised by many, including Gandhi, and 林語堂, our famous Chinese writer. They both argue that ignoring the local culture system in education could greatly restrict, and even close, the access of local culture to local students. Consequently, these local students lost 6 most precarious year in their life in learning the Western system and not the local one, and the human material of these students could be wasted. A hundred year has passed since these great gentleman has pointed out these problem, and yet the progress of solving it has not advanced a single step, in my judgement. I wish that more people could pay attention to this problem, which, as you have pointe out, is the core of all problems in our society.

I here wish to make my suggestion to solve this problem. The 9-year secondary schooling, which you are now supporting, is a good idea. We can learn deeper and broader in every fields which are interesting, and very useful to us. Medicine( not the do operation of course), Cookery, Chinese poems, Astronomy. But i am doubtful whether it can solve all problems in education. Some of you may complain that the length of education is too long, and that they should complete education earlier. Some of you, however, have found that there are too much to be learned, and they need more time, more than the proposed 9 year, to have a basic understanding of Chinese and Western culture. Therefore, to suit these party needs, i propose that the education term should be made flexible, subject to the students ability to learn. This is very important, even Confucians believe that education should be available to all, and education content should be made to fit into everyone need, not into any model we have developed on the basis of any abstract ideas. We should allow the abolition of boundary between primary, secondary and tertiary education. This could greatly enhance the flow of ideas throughout the three layer of students in existing system by teaching, discussion and other means. We should allow also a liberation of students curriculum. The existing one has writted away the tree of creativity and tree of good taste, and planted the tree of bad tastes in the society. We must allow them to have more choices of courses, based on their desire, not on availability of places. We should let them to see the highest in the mountain, and deepest in the sea, to train them to be best citizen of our places.

Only when our education is flexible can we begin our project of labrary, your proposal of merging laboratory and library. I am a full supporter of this proposal, and i really wish to see this idea to be carried out by the society. It is the idea that inspire me, and i think, to many people in this blog.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
William

Harry potter and 西遊記

Subject: Harry potter and 西遊記 2
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:55:40 +0800


Leechard,

I enjoy reading your analysis on Harry potter and 西遊記, and i am sure many of your supporters, fans and readers could find it interesting to read this piece of writing now appeared on blog. I wish therefore to thank you for making a good use of the idea set by me, the similarities between Harry potter and 西遊記, which, to the best of my knowledge, is the first comprehensive and inspiring one ever came in public eye. This is a still world open to us, and a treasure waiting for us to find. I am looking forward to reading this too.

Indeed, there is another similarities between Harry potter and 西遊記, which i think you should appreciate. In the final book of Harry potter, Hermione, Ronald and Harry went on for a journey to hunt down the death eaters and destroy horcruxes. In that journey, they had many disagreements on the way they view the world and settle the matters, improved the skills for combating in war against the Dark force at that time, and furthermore developed a better relationship between each other. On top of these the romance between Ronald and Hermione, (or you may have it, Harry and Ginny) is the brightest attraction to many fans( including me), and even many who have not heard of Harry potter story. The story of西遊記, of course is very similar. There is of course no romance between these men in sexual chemistry, and no Dark load dreaming to and working to dominate the whole world 西遊記 story is set. But, in this journey, 孫悟空, 豬八戒, 沙僧, 唐僧 all had disagreement over the way to be taken in finishing the tasks of the journey, and over the views of treating bad guys in the circumstance they had to face. They had used each and every methods available to them, ever the forbidden ones, to solve the crisis, which孫悟空had made the greatest contribution among all four of his team. They had nonetheless developed a team spirit in the end, just like what Harry team did, but in my judgment , Harry’s team has a higher team spirit than孫悟空’s team.

It is not hard to understand why it is the case. Excluding the power of romance taking part in Harry’s team( of which Ronald and Hermione, Harry and Ginny are largely responsible), many can see there is a sense of determination and good faith prevailing in his team. No body could even challenge what Harry was fighting for, They did not fight for the immortal glory in being the first group of people in beating down Voldemort. They did not fight for the amazing romance in shedding blood and treasure in a struggle against the Dark. They fought to restore the world they all loved to a original position, after tainted dramatically by the Darkest force at their world. They wish to preserve the fundamental values of their world, peace, love, and justice, and they understand that to achieve this, they have to offer blood, tears, toil and sweat until the victory is won( To coin a famous Churchill phase). In 孫悟空’s team, they have never got a united commitment, nor do most of them understand true spirit of humanity( except of course孫悟空). With their bias towards the world and imperfect knowledge about the world, they are always cheated by dark guys, and could do some silly things harmful to their own interests, as well as the interests of their friends and those they care for. I can say, with perfect openness, had powerful 孫悟空 been weaker than what he was portrayed in the story, had the merciful God turned his back to this team and refused to offer a single hand to them, had the dark guys made less errors or even blunders in their plan and action, the 孫悟空’s team had, as I can see, many opportunity of being defeated, and even doomed by a opponent both stronger than , equal to and even weaker than them in strength in every tasks they face in this journey. It is true that Harry potter team had a similar fate, but one can hardly see the defeat in孫悟空’s team scale in Harry potter team. When they were carrying out tasks for their world, they have a good understanding on what should be done, and what should not be done, and they did not lose their heart or even beg for a shameful settlement for peace with the Dark who happened to be in the power. They could rather die for the cause they truly believe in, die for the people they loved, than submitting themselves to bad faith and hatred in their world. In西遊記 ‘s world, a majority of people had no spirit of fighting against power that infringe their rights and properties, but to submit themselves wholeheartedly in powers that rule over them. This, I think, is the key difference between the two cultures, Chinese and Western, in their reactions against the power happened to be infringing their rights and properties.

It will be my pleasure if you can allow the two articles I wrote for Harry potter and 西遊記 to be posted on your Thinktank, where good articles are posted there. I am sure that it will be a very interesting topic for many your fans and readers to read and reflect on.

Do you think these two articles are right? I wish to hear your comment on that one.

Best wishes,
William

Dostoyevsky and Byron and Shelley

Leechard,

I am very glad to read your article on the great Russian writer, Dostoyevsky. It has drawn me into a deep insight into the Russian literature, a world so familiar to me, and to the nature of genius in the world. Very often genius in this time is described as people getting over 160 in a IQ test, and get a membership at four years old from a well-known Club dedicated to the intelligent people only. I think you are right, genius is not defined by any membership he get from any club, or any marks he get in a iq test, but the work he produced in making the Earth a better place to live in through his extraordinary intelligence, skills and courage. I am very glad to follow your advice to read the literature work of Dostoyevsky, and I am very pleased to invite my friends who have deep interests in story of genius, Russian literature, and the human nature, to have a interesting study of your article published yesterday. I think they will learn many from this article, just as what I have got.

In addition, I wish also you may consider publishing the article of Byron on your blog. A English noble, Byron is the great English writer in the turn of 19th century. His work influenced not only the English philosophizers, but also the European and American philosophizers, including Dostoyevsky. It was him and Shelley, who as two of the great leaders of Romanism school, brought to the eye of Europe many liberal ideas, equality, fraternity, liberty. Byron was a keen supporter of French revolution, and shown great affliction towards American democracy, whom he saw as the best government system at that time. He also attacked, like Beethoven did in his time, the French Emperor Napoleon, whom they both agreed that greedy had corrupted the great man soul. I am sure you will find it interesting, as you did on Dostoyevsky, to study the biography of Byron, and his great partner, Shelley. They are the star of their times, and with them, a new English culture, with liberalism as its core, was born, which at the Queen Victoria time, became one of the brightest icon you have ever seen in world history book, and bring tremendous change to human society since then.

I really cannot hesitate to read your analysis of Byron and Shelley, and I think many my friends cannot hesitate too. To facilitate your study on these great men, I have now attached in this file a copy of these men biographies.

Thank you very much in advance.

I welcome any idea or enquiries from you on this topic.

Best wishes,
William



Dear William,


Thanks for your good idea. I am now reading the biograpies you had sent to me.


Leechard