How kids was taught in China in ancient time It is probably true that education and schools change as time goes on. Nowadays, although differences exist in the educational systems of China and those of the western world, they share many things in common.
But what did children in ancient China learn and how did they learn? Back to the time when countries were still isolated by physical distance and English was not a popular world language as it is today, education in China was completely different from education today. A brief history of schools in China Pictographic characters were invented in China in about 3000 B.C. This also marks the beginning of school education. Back then, education was provided only by the government. Two thousand years later, Confucius, one of the earliest and the greatest teacher in China,
pushed education a step forward. He valued education a lot and taught many students who later became highly influential in their fields. The ideas about education he proposed and practiced, such as “teach students in accordance with their aptitude” and “make no social distinctions in teaching” are still of significance for today. A great achievement of Confucius is that he established the first “private school”, which gave every one an opportunity to receive education. After him, there were two educational groups: an official and a private system. Partly influenced by Confucianism, (and partly by the dynasty regime), education in China has long been considered as a mean to start one’s official career and to help the emperor to run the country. The system also highly valued instructions from the previous great minds. Therefore, schools mainly taught classics from the ancient times. What’s Next? When a student has mastered all the basic classics, they would leave the elementary schools and move on to education institutions at a higher level. Some of these institutions were funded by the government, some were private. But no matter where a student studied, the final goal is the same: to take the national examinations level by level and become a public servant. This bottom-up examination system was a great invention of ancient China. It helped the government to select people with ability nationwide rather than just from a few elite families. But, because the examination only aimed to test candidates’ certain ability, such as their understanding of the classics and their writing skill, the system gradually locked people’s mind and narrowed down their horizons. This finally became a serious problem that slowed down and even stopped society’s progress. In today’s school education, classics is only a section of the Chinese literature class. But there is still a national examination system which allows students to get into university. However, parents still attach great importance to their children’s education and competition can be intense. Kids start to take different classes after school since they are very young. Times may have changed but traditions always go on. Get more useful information on this topic at: https://blog.lingobus.com/