Rational thinking on teachers' classic metaphors
What is a teacher? Faced with such a problem, there are some views that go deep into the hearts of teachers: teachers are preachers and dispellers; Teachers are "candles" and "spring silkworms"; Teachers are hard-working gardeners; Teachers are engineers of the human soul ... Throughout the ages, people have given teachers various metaphors. It should be said that these metaphors have played a certain role in people's understanding of the profession of teachers under specific historical conditions, and these figurative metaphors also have their beautiful positive side. But I don't know when these descriptive explanations about what a teacher is gradually evolved into such a value judgment of what a teacher should be. Our teacher training system thinks so, our society places such expectations on teachers, and our teachers themselves can only think so. Moreover, the social requirements of various roles are concentrated on the individual teachers. Teachers must integrate the requirements and functions of various roles, play the role of a perfect educator as a whole, and make themselves "perfect" and students "perfect"
First, teachers are the limitations of the times.
Since Han Yu wrote Teacher's Theory, "a teacher, so preach, teach and dispel doubts" has become a classic discourse to explain or explain the image of teachers, and it has also become the only rule that teachers have followed throughout the ages. To this day, when people talk about teachers, they all take this as a guide. At the same time, "words without deeds, faith without faith" has become a teacher's life criterion. In fact, while promoting this statement, we need to reflect on some hidden negative effects. First, it makes people feel that the teaching profession is an accurate or formal profession that can only be completed by having knowledge, being familiar with the laws of education and teaching, and strictly implementing the principles of education and teaching, and there is an absolute "truth" or corresponding "dogma" that applies there. On the contrary, teachers must deal with some problems that cannot be dealt with accurately in a seemingly accurate way. Teachers must pay attention to the social reality and absorb the knowledge of various disciplines, including the world and common sense, in order to roughly complete their mission. What's more, we have entered an information age. With the improvement of the educational environment and the introduction of various media, a class of students has far more information than a teacher. The feeling that "my life is limited and I know it is infinite" has never been so strong. Therefore, a teacher must be a person who keeps learning and always stands at the forefront of knowledge, rather than having a "red card" once and for all. Secondly, from a philosophical point of view, this statement reflects an idea of adaptive education, the essence of which is that teachers' teaching and students' learning should adapt to and keep up with the needs of the existing society. Its direct consequence is that many teachers do not think and expand their role image, but are only satisfied with completing three tasks and lack creativity. I don't know how a teacher who lacks creativity can cultivate creative students. ! What's more, the progress of science and technology has expanded the role of teachers, who will change from information sources and knowledge disseminators to promoters and tutors of students' learning. Teachers should have excellent knowledge updating ability, skillfully apply new information technology, especially computer education technology, and become the model of academic exploration, the leader of cooperative teaching, and the intellectual, social and emotional guide of students. More importantly, the teaching profession requires teachers to have a particularly sensitive response to ideas. Besides spreading existing ideas, they should also be able to create new ones. Third, this statement embodies the guiding ideology of teacher-centered teaching. Despite the constant calls for educational reform over the years, from primary school to university, due to the inertia of this concept, the real classroom is still the "centralization" of teachers, who are always the protagonists and in a dominant position, while students just listen passively, teachers are the initiative and dominator, and students are passive and obedient. Teachers, students, parents and even the whole society hold such a subconscious mind: students should listen to their teachers, and obedient students are good students; Teachers should control students, and teachers who can't control students are not good teachers; Teachers and students can't exchange opinions on an equal footing or even discuss scientific knowledge.
Second, the teacher is the tragic color of "candle, spring silkworm"
Teachers are "candles" and "spring silkworms". For a long time, this metaphor has almost become a teacher's "patent", which depicts the hardships and dedication of teachers' work. Today, many teachers still use it as their motto to motivate themselves to work hard, and many leaders still praise or ask teachers to do so. It is true that modern teachers still need to carry forward the spirit of dedication, but from the teacher's point of view, is his value just dedication? When we inadvertently use "candles, silkworms" as a metaphor for teachers, we need to further consider several problems that have been ignored after metaphor:
The first is the problem of teaching. Blindly taking the spirit of "candle silkworm" as the symbol of a good teacher violates the requirements of modern teaching laws. This is because: First, the spirit of "Candle" and "Spring Silkworm" implies the assumption that only by devoting all the time and energy can the teaching quality be improved and students be trained into useful people. The development of modern educational science and technology not only provides the possibility to win the maximum teaching effect in the least time, but also puts forward such requirements. Teachers should not only spend time on teaching, but also improve the efficiency of unit time. Secondly, overemphasizing the spirit of "candle silkworm" is not conducive to cultivating students' concept and ability of effective learning. The requirements of modern society for students are how to learn knowledge and how to learn knowledge. It requires students to spend the least time to get the maximum learning effect. If a teacher has no idea of effective teaching, it is hard to imagine that he will teach his students to study effectively. Thirdly, overemphasizing the spirit of "candle silkworm" is actually equivalent to "killing the goose to get the egg", which will be harmful to teachers' health. Teachers are people, not machines, so they can't run all the time. It is commendable to completely ignore your own "candle" spirit, but it is not desirable. It is often reported that middle-aged teachers die young. Is it sad? Imagine, if they live a long and healthy life, can't they make greater contributions to education?
The second is the issue of value orientation. Blindly regard "candle" and "spring silkworm" as praises to good teachers, and show utilitarian orientation in values: First, sacrifice small profits to gain big profits; The second is to objectively publicize the opposition between righteousness and benefit. Candle and Spring Silkworm are both guided by "giving one's life for righteousness" and taking righteousness for profit. This spirit is commendable, but it violates the basic moral principle of unity of opposites between righteousness and benefit.
The third is the issue of teachers' morality. This utilitarian value orientation conceals all kinds of conflicts and dilemmas faced by teachers when making moral behavior choices. As a teacher, he is not only influenced by the ideal personality of "candle" and "spring silkworm", but also influenced and impacted by the moral concepts of professional groups and other social groups. "Candle" and "spring silkworm" are teachers' ideal personality, the crystallization of teachers' moral principles and norms in our society, and the typical example of moral perfection. However, in today's increasingly diverse social values, this ideal personality is bound to conflict with the moral provisions of some teachers' specific personal personality, which makes them face various difficulties in choosing moral principles and norms.
"Candle" and "Spring Silkworm" are epic images of teachers, which more or less give teachers a tragic role to burn, cry and destroy one by one! From "burning oneself to illuminate others" to "dying" and then "draining the wick by candlelight every night", teachers can't achieve sustainable development by dedicating themselves, sacrificing themselves and destroying themselves, which is regarded as an inevitable duty of teachers by society, which is not conducive to the improvement of teachers' social status, and also violates the lifelong education thought and contemporary sustainable development concept advocated by the 2 1 century International Education Commission. Therefore, I think we should stop praising the teacher's "red candle" spirit. Who knows the hardships in those tears? Don't take "spring silkworm" as a synonym for a teacher. Who knows the sadness and distress of that spring silkworm? More importantly, teachers should be asked not to make candles and spring silkworms. Candles are mediocre and small, and their light is tiny and short-lived. Spring silkworms are closed, conservative and lack of innovation. As teachers, we should have more light than candles to shine on the world, more permanent and brilliant life than candles, and more unconventional spirit than spring silkworms.
Third, teachers are "gardeners".
In reality, many people (teachers) like to compare teachers to "hardworking gardeners", but what are the consequences of this metaphor? As we all know, almost all gardener's works seek artificial carving and uniformity according to personal will and aesthetic concept, with a lot of artificial traces. Anyone who has read Gong Zizhen's "The Story of the Sick Plum House" will surely see that what Gong Zizhen described and criticized in the article "The Story of the Sick Plum House" is probably what our teacher is doing. Don't we feel sorry for the students and teachers? Students are the flowers in the garden, the grass in the garden and the pillars of the future motherland. If the gardener just tries to fertilize and water and let the flowers and trees grow naturally, it may give birth to a forest. However, the gardener holds a hoe, a knife and a pair of scissors ... Similarly, teachers often cultivate, uproot and prune according to the unified pursuit, unified specifications and standards, and unified aesthetic needs. Students are passive and forced, and are not allowed to have their own freedom and personality under the care of "gardeners". In this way, the so-called wooden pillars I wanted to cultivate will inevitably become bonsai for people to appreciate and decorate. In other words, behind this metaphor, a series of problems are reflected, which are rarely realized by teachers so far. There are too many examples of emphasizing sex and killing personality with extreme sex. If the teacher only pays attention to one model, with the same requirements and standards as mechanical products, instead of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and paying attention to the development of students' personality, the harder the teacher works, the greater the harm. What's more, people have various development potentials and society has various needs. Education is to establish its own goals from the development of people and the needs of society. Calling a teacher a gardener often makes students' potential, interests and wishes irrelevant. Many students' childhood interests and personalities have long been erased and disappeared under the gardener's "pruning". In the hard work of gardeners, countless students with distinctive personalities have been "molded" into uniform "talents". This is the sorrow of education and the sorrow of teachers. In today's call for innovation, are teachers' social images and social roles just gardeners?
Fourth, the "material standard" thought holds that teachers are "engineers"
I'm afraid everyone engaged in education is familiar with this metaphor. As we all know, engineer is a word that is frequently used in industrial society, and the profession of engineer is admirable and desirable. The analogy of an engineer to a teacher is well-intentioned, but it also fully exposes people's potential mentality. In other words, this metaphor affirms the great role of teachers in shaping students-teachers are the designers and creators of students' morality and character, and also the makers or producers of students' personality-at the same time, it itself has fallen into certain misunderstandings. First of all, this metaphor compares the engineer to the teacher's superior concept. Obviously, the status of an engineer is above that of a teacher, and it is impossible for a teacher to reach the status of an engineer. Why can't you see an example of comparing teachers to other occupations? In people's minds, are teachers just "pediatrics"? Secondly, in this image of teacher-student relationship, the status of teachers and students is self-evident: teachers are the subject, students are the object, and students are the objects and materials of teachers' work; Teachers can give full play to their subjective initiative to describe, fiddle with and shape students, while students can only be passive, without great autonomy, let alone exert their potential and gain vivid and free personality development. Third, in terms of value orientation, this metaphor reflects the tendency of scientism. Needless to say, the nature of an engineer's work is very different from that of a teacher's, even a world apart. Because the engineer's work object is lifeless and cold matter after all, while the teacher's work object is living, growing, realistic, flesh-and-blood and emotional people. The way of treating things cannot be applied to people. If you insist on doing this, it will definitely be harmful.
What is a teacher? With the development of the times, we need to keep asking questions, but for now, don't compare teachers with other professions, and don't give teachers too many beautiful auras. In any case, we will admit that apart from our parents, it is our beloved teacher who has a far-reaching influence on our growth path. Teachers are teachers, people, professionals, teachers and learners, the unity of teachers and educators, and people who constantly promote self-reflection and development through dialogue with students.