How about Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao's tutoring? These scientists, Chinese scholars, writers and artists bring revelations about the family education of modern celebrities
Yang Zhenning and his father are alumni of American universities, and their educational trajectories are very similar; Li Zhengdao dropped out of elementary school and middle school due to the war, but became a "doctor prodigy" at the age of 23. How are the tutors of Yang Chenning and Lee Tsung-dao, the famous Chinese scientists who won the Nobel Prize for the first time? In that era, what inspiration did scientists, Chinese scholars, writers, artists, jurists, and educators have for today's parents raising their children?
On the 27th, the 6-volume "Apocalypse of Family Education of Celebrities in Modern China" compiled by experts and scholars from the Shanghai Parent School Organization, including the National Open University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China Welfare Institute, Shanghai Open University Headquarters and Branches, was first released, bringing 80 Let's take a look at the family traditions, family rules, and tutoring of many people from different fields. Let's take a look at how "other people's families" teach by words and deeds.
On May 14, 2021, Chen Ning Yang, Yang Zhenning’s wife Weng Fan and Chen Xu, then Secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua University, at the donation ceremony. photo
Yang Zhenning's father, Yang Wuzhi, studied in the United States one year after he was born, and studied for a doctorate in mathematics at the University of Chicago. After completing his studies in 1928, he returned to China and was hired as a professor by Xiamen University. Later, when Yang Zhenning went to study in the United States in 1945, he also studied at University of Chicago.
Yang Wuzhi returned home and saw his son whom he had not seen for 5 years. He was very happy to find that he was smart and sensible. His father taught him subject knowledge from the West, such as using big balls and small balls to simulate the movement of the sun, the earth, and the moon, as well as the English letters "abcde", and some ancient Chinese arithmetic problems, such as "chicken and rabbit in the same cage" and " Han Xin orders troops."
"When I was nine or ten years old, my father already knew that I had a strong ability to learn mathematics; when I entered junior high school at the age of eleven, my ability in this area was more fully demonstrated." Regarding his son's talent, Yang Wuzhi early I was aware of it, but I didn't do anything to encourage it. Yang Zhenning once felt deeply about this: "There are many mathematics books in English and German on my father's bookshelf, and I often look through them." From "Number Theory" to "Theory of Finite Groups", "Because my foreign language foundation was not enough at that time, I could not Understand the details. I asked my father many times and he always said 'take your time, don't rush' and only occasionally explained one or two basic concepts to me."
Hong Yanlong, the author of this volume and director of the Department of Literature Education at Shanghai Open University, believes that Yang Wuzhi's educational philosophy of "take your time, don't rush" is the cornerstone of Yang Zhenning's comprehensive and healthy development of body and mind. Yang Zhenning also recalled his father saying, "In retrospect, if he had taught me analytic geometry and calculus at that time, I would have learned very quickly and would have made him very happy. But he did not do this." During the summer vacation, my father asked Yang Zhenning to teach "Mencius" to Yang Zhenning, a college student in the history department, "so I can recite the full text of "Mencius" in middle school."
On November 28, 2016, the founding ceremony of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and the International Scientific Symposium on Parity Nonconservation and Neutrino Physics were held at the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Photo by our reporter Haishal
According to Li Zhengdao's son Li Zhongqing's recollection, his father's career in physics was actually quite accidental. At that time, it was the Anti-Japanese War, and Li Zhengdao, who was still in elementary school, was forced to drop out of school. One day when an enemy plane bombed him, he hid with everyone in the air-raid shelter. Someone left a physics textbook behind. The young Li Zhengdao happened to see it and flipped through it, which aroused his interest in physics.
In fact, Li Zhengdao, who was born in Shanghai, failed to finish high school, but was admitted to Zhejiang University in the college entrance examination, which shows his extraordinary talent. In his sophomore year, classes at the university were suspended due to the war. Li Zhengdao entered the Department of Physics of Southwest Associated University and volunteered to study with Professor Wu Dayou. After finishing his sophomore year, Li Zhengdao, who was only 20 years old, was recommended by his instructor to study in the United States. Although he did not graduate from college, he passed numerous examinations and was admitted to the Graduate School of the University of Chicago. In his third year at the school, he passed the defense of his doctoral thesis.
Different from his father in arts and sciences, Li Zhengdao's eldest son Li Zhongqing is also studying at the University of Chicago in the United States, but he has a doctorate in history. He is an advocate of historical research in social sciences and a pioneer in applying social science measurement methods to analyze historical data. He and his research team connected historical and contemporary archival materials, social surveys, genealogies, inscriptions and oral histories, and created a large-scale individual data archive extending from the 18th century to the 21st century, which is one of the best in the world.
The author Dr. Hong Yanlong believes that Li Zhengdao inherited his father's educational philosophy and is not a parent who "hopes for his daughter to become a phoenix or his son to become a dragon". Instead, he has a tolerant attitude towards the development of his children and respects their children's own choices.
Compared with other great figures in the fields of humanities, arts and social sciences, scientists such as Chen Jiangong, Su Buqing, Hua Luogeng, Wu Youxun, Tong Dizhou, Yang Zhenning, Li Siguang, Zhu Kezhen, Wang Ganchang, Qian Xuesen and other scientists mentioned in the book often "do not describe". As for family education, Hong Yanlong said that when modern scientists educate their children, they will ask them to be mindful, kind and tolerant. They are also meticulous, rigorous and conscientious in scientific research, and often even give people a harsh feeling. "This kind of 'gentle yet firm' attitude is the best example of their family's personal teachings."
In the view of Wang Bojun, director of the editorial board of "Revelations on Family Education of Modern Chinese Celebrities", from 1912 to 1949, this was the mature period of the modern transformation of my country's family education. During this period, with the study of Western early childhood education ideas, systems and child psychology, domestic family education ideas underwent revolutionary changes, making the purpose, role, content and methods of family education all show distinct modern and contemporary characteristics. feature.
Wang Bojun believes that from the perspective of development trends, the general direction of China's four stages of family education transformation since 1840 is exactly the two changes in parents' education of their children: First, from focusing on filial piety, respecting elders and traditional rules of the family , to pay more attention to the personal development and free will of children, and to focus on rational thinking and scientific knowledge; second, to transform from traditional authoritative education to free, equal and scientific education, while promoting equality between men and women and respect for individual differences.
Pay attention to family, pay attention to tutoring, pay attention to family tradition. On the same day, the three-volume "Series of Mental Health Education for Primary and Secondary School Students" was also released for the first time. Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News reporter learned that in the years before and after the establishment of Shanghai Parent School, Shanghai Open University cooperated with Shanghai People's Publishing House and Shanghai Far East Publishing House and has so far published 15 series of family education books82 department.
