14-year-old Kobayashi recounts a series of events that took place behind the high walls of the academy. (Video screenshot)
Reading sage books has turned into rote word recognition, and teachers at the academy strip pants and physically punish young children …… Today, when institutional education on the mainland is not trusted by parents, academy education is quite a market, but it is accused of being equally contrary to the concept of traditional culture. Where is the way out for education?
Recently, a friend, Mr. Chen (a pseudonym), told the Epoch Times that a “Kangqian Academy” in the Congtai District of Handan City, Hebei Province, was forcing children to attend corporal punishment, and that a friend’s brother had been forcibly sent there by his parents, along with many children in compulsory education.
On March 28, Mr. Chen’s friend Wang Han, along with a few friends, picked up his brother from the school. But now parents and police are joining forces to arrest the children. on April 11, Mr. Chen’s friend was once disconnected from the news and communication devices were taken away.
Earlier, Wang Han asked for help and made a video “Who is discrediting traditional culture” calling for “Save the children!” The video pop-ups said, “What about future college entrance exams?” “Traditional culture is not so learned, are business.” “Heartbroken children, this is abuse.”
The video introduces Xiaolin, 14 years old, was sent to Kangqian Academy at the end of September the year before last, where he stayed for seventeen months, reciting ancient books such as the Four Books and Five Classics every day, corporal punishment and beatings are commonplace. Xiao Lin regretted it the first day he went there.
The brother Wang Han asked for help in real name, appealing to save the child. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
According to the description, there are about 10-15 teachers in the academy, including English teachers from the system and students from the previous academy. Students at the academy are allowed to go to the Wenli Academy after they have memorized 12 classics in English and Chinese by the age of 22 and only read and not interpret the scriptures. If they fail to complete 200,000 by the age of 22, they fail.
In response, Kobayashi said, “there he does not let you know (those ancient books) what it means. Really do not understand, do not know what is the use of learning these things?” “What’s the difference between this and reading words? And also the words used in the literary language, not commonly used in normal life.”
The tuition at the school is 40,000 yuan a year, and the food and accommodation conditions are poor, with Xiao Lin describing “basically no meat, the boiled food is very difficult to eat, and if you pick your food, you will be punished.” A dormitory of less than ten square meters with five beds, bunk beds for ten people.
Students are divided into levels, “the senior is responsible for supervision, can be punished 100 squat, the head of the University can be punished 200, more serious to find the teacher, will be particularly miserable.” He said.
Xiaolin said that in winter about once a month to take a shower, and in the summer is only one or two days to wash once. “Only let you rinse, wash your hair on the line. The teacher watches you wash at the door and will rush you, giving you two minutes to wash your hair.” Wake up at 5:15 a.m. and get to class at 5:30 a.m. or you will be slapped with a ruler. Classes ended at 8:15 p.m. and bedtime was 8:30 p.m. You had to lie in bed or you would be punished by doing squats.
Ruler, up and down squat, frog jump ……
Corporal punishment and scolding were exposed every day. “A day at least twenty rulers and a thousand up and down squats, and five laps (200 meters playground) frog jump often beat people, let you lie on the ground and snap. The teacher came in and you raised your head, you will be punished to go out and do 300 up and down squats.” Xiaolin said.
He said the beginning of the school year was a little better, reported video inspection when the beating is particularly serious. Recorded but have to be punished circle, beaten, all kinds of punishment. Last year, near the end of winter break, back to the book overtime people, the first day to start five laps of frog jumping, and then add a lap every day, to the end of the day, someone jumped more than 20 laps. “I also jumped. I didn’t go over time, but the teacher told me to jump, so I added a lap a day. Bounced 8 laps finally wrapped the book (back book video over).”
The younger children in the academy are seven or eight or eight or nine years old, dragon or rabbit, and some have been coming for several years. The older ones were twelve or three years old and belonged to the rat quite a lot.
Xiao Lin recalls, “I remember when I first came, the first book to learn the “Lunyu”, there is a little girl named Zhang Jiahui (sound), a particularly small little girl, when the class reading is not serious, the teacher directly picked her up and pressed to the lecture table, the pants stripped to take the ruler has been hit, really scared me dumb.”
“Last summer, a child named Xiaohu talked in the shower line at night, and was caught by the teacher Da Wang (nickname) and punished for doing 200 squats. Because it was not done to standard, the teacher pressed his head down, just like dribbling a basketball. And the older students all had the same expression as if they were used to it.”
“In February this year, a 10-year-old girl named Xiao Zhu, read the four words of the Book of Psalms a sentence, the last word in a somewhat soft voice. Liu Laoshuai, who leads the class, took a large ruler like a wooden sword and threw it directly onto her desk, dragging her to the ground and starting to stomp, scolding and beating at the same time, ‘I told you not to read the last word! ……’My God, it’s so cruel!”
“Teacher Liu also beat a little girl named Xiao Shuo, who was just five or six years old. There is a dirty table, she sat at the end has been to the top, Liu Laoshuai let her rub rub, she did not rub, Liu teacher pressed her on the knee to pick up the pants to play, Xiaoshuo has been struggling, and finally was violently beaten.”
In addition, boys are not allowed to talk to girls. Classmates denounce each other, control others, who made mistakes immediately reported, so that they can be seniors. “Once I saw with my own eyes that the teacher let the seniors beat people up.” He said.
Wang Han’s brother said he wanted to return to normal school life, “I am a little bit looking forward to normal school life, mainly because I want to learn knowledge.” He said.
After the video was released, some netizens said they had attended a similar college for five years, “This school has caused me very serious psychological trauma.”
The brother’s schooling was hampered by the school board’s request to delete the video
Mr. Chen introduced his brother Wang Han also spent three years in an academy when he was a child and felt impractical when he grew up. Recently, Wang Han searched a lot of relevant information through the Internet and contacted some relevant people, the process time and again felt shocked and angry, and finally made up his mind to bring his brother out.
Wang Han said in his letter of help that after he contacted the local education bureau, the local police station and the local women’s federation, there was no helpful response. As a last resort, he managed to forcibly pick up his brother from Kangqian Academy. The principal of the school, Mr. Wang Tang, agreed to the brother taking his brother away on the grounds of resolving family conflicts first, and recorded a video as proof.
Currently the brothers are temporarily settled in Shanghai, and Wang Han has been trying to resolve the matter of his brother continuing to attend junior high school, as well as communicating with his parents. In addition, Wang Han learned from his brother that more than 100 children inside the academy wanted to leave, and that there were many more similar academies. He felt helpless in the face of all this.
Wang Han’s brother’s enrollment did not go well. Mr. Chen introduced Wang Han’s brother’s school registration in Henan. “The day I went to the Education Bureau to communicate, the people there asked him to delete all the videos, and then you can get the school registration for his brother Wang Han.”
The brothers were also officially fishing. “A few days ago Handan local education bureau and police station contacted brother Wang Han, the attitude is very good said to rectify, investigate and deal with the school, and then he (Wang Han) thought it was okay …… night to go to the police station to take a statement results people have not let him go, but also informed the parents attempted to take his brother away. It was hard to run out.”
“Part of the stuff is still being held in the police, the entire police station recorded evidence are gone. Now the QQ group for rescuing the brother is also blocked.” Mr. Chen said the so-called rescue, is a few enthusiastic netizens, someone to lend him a car or something. As a result, he was also called and threatened.
At present, the relevant postings in Zhihu.com were also deleted. The reporter repeatedly called Kangqian Academy Wang and the local education bureau, all prompted “on the phone”, “busy”.
The reporter called another phone number of the Handan Education Bureau that reported illegal schooling and asked about the qualifications of Kangqian Academy, but the other party said they did not know, saying they had not checked the school. The other party said he didn’t know, saying he hadn’t checked the school because it used to be under the control of the local private education association, which has now been disbanded, so he wasn’t sure of the details.
Ancient education is whole-person education
In recent years, more and more parents are dissatisfied with the institutional education and turn to send their children to private schools, wanting to learn traditional Chinese culture while being confused about their children’s future. However, education bases similar to the Kangqian Academy model continue to explode with incidents of student abuse. As netizens say, “That’s not how traditional culture is learned.”
In an interview with the Epoch Times, Dr. Xia Prayer of Columbia University said that in ancient education, the temperature and paradigm of “human beings” were present throughout, not hardened specimens and the transmission of knowledge. Corporal punishment was mainly used as a form of discipline and regulation, and it had to be administered in accordance with the rules of moderation.
“Education in ancient China was a cultural inculcation of the whole person, from etiquette, archery, and imperial horseplay to music and mathematics, all of which were necessary connotations for a ‘scholar’; from one’s inner cultivation and knowledge to external manners, all of which the ancients focused on cultivating. Ancient education incorporated calligraphy and qin art, teaching the arts, a high level of education for the whole person.” She said.
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