Modern Tianjin Private School Improvement Activities

Sishu is the main form of the traditional education in China. Since Modern Times, new demands on talent has been made as the social transformation, but the Sishu education can't cultivate new talents, and the development of new education is limited because of the lack of teachers and funds. So it is necessary to improve Sishu and make it complementary to the new education. This thesis will research the reform on Sishu in Tianjin in Modern Times in three periods: the late Qing Dynasty, the earlier period of the Republic of China, the period of Nanjing Government.The reform on Sishu in Tianjin was proposed in civil society in 1902,which was earlier than in other place. The official promulgated the Act of the reform on Sishu in 1907 with the civil society's advocation. The reform on Sishu in Tianjin in the late Qing Dynasty included investigation and dissemination, holding observation workshop, training teachers in Sishu. Though made some achievements, the reform still had some problems. The government of the Republic of China continued to execute the reform policy. In the earlier Republic of China, such reform groups as the Group of the reform on Sishu and the Group of the research on Sishu were active, which promoted the reform of Sishu. And the teachers' training in Sishu is the focus in the reform on Sishu. The government held many tests to discriminate the teachers, and the qualified entered the Chuan Xi Suo to study, the Sishu was granted after their study. In order to insure the achievements, Quan Xue Suo also aperiodically investigated the reformed Sishu, and the excellent was finally granted as ready national school. Some Sishus were granted as reformed Sishu or ready national school in the reform, which was great achievement. However, comparing the amounts of Sishu and that of the small school, the ratio of the small schools is small, whose quality was low. It means that the reform on Sishu was an urgent and necessary task. In order to strengthen its regime, the Nanjing Government paid more attention to controlling education, which drove the new education develop rapidly and the reform on Sishu go deeply. In addition, to strengthen its one-party dictatorship, Kuomintang implemented "The Education of Party", which made the policy on Sishu severe. After the reform, Sishu was gradually under the control of the government, and the resource and right of nongovernmental education was increasingly controlled and penetrated by the political right. The class of teachers in Sishu gradually faded away, whose place was taken of by school teachers. And the educational colony of teacher made its conversion in modern China. The changes of teaching contents in Sishu was the symbol of modernization of knowledge system in the traditional education.