Research On Social Education In Nanjing

Words education is a process which uses books as media to eliminate illiteracy and inculcate common sense upon literates. It aims at raising popular education level and cultivating sound citizens. The education targeted elder dropouts and also catered to nationals as a whole. It roughly went through three phases. Literacy movement was first launched to arouse the masses. Then public schools were set up to wipe out illiteracy. In the end, popular library was founded and popular reading material was edited to smooth the process.Words education is a significant part of social education, which refers to a type of education other than school education and family education. Social education originated in the end of Qing Dynasty and the evolved into "civilian education" in the early Republican period and "mass education" in the period of Nanjing government. The objects of social education were also focused on elder dropouts and covered all citizens as well. Its goal changed from "enlightening the mass" and "being a new citizen" of late Qing Dynasty to "cultivating sound citizens" of Nanjing government period. Its content also altered several times during the process. In the beginning, it only contained words education and popular education. Later the content expanded and consisted of words education, career education, recreation education and other forms of education. Despite all these changes, words education still remained as the primary task of social education. Because words education is not only of great importance itself, it is also the prerequisite of other types of education. It’s essential for the "qualification of citizenship".There were numerous illiterates in Nanjing. According to a survey of1931, the number of illiterates was up to300,000, accounting for50%of the whole population. The existence of so many illiterates made Nanjing, then capital and prosperous metropolis, an "eyesore in the world". It also greatly deviated from the national goal of modernization. Therefore Nanjing national government and governments at all levels paid great attention to education, especially words education. Practicing words education and eliminating illiteracy were viewed as revolutionary causes. Liu Jiwen, the then mayor of Nanjing, once remarked,"The revolution will not succeed until every citizen can read." Words education in Nanjing was certainly fruitful. Until the outbreak of anti-Japanese War, about70,000people successively graduated from popular schools set up by municipal government. With other forms of education carried out by local organizations, the number of people who benefited from words education was far more than70,000. Nanjing’s social education, especially words education led the whole country. Other provinces and cities eagerly followed the example of Nanjing.The main body of this paper contains five chapters.Chapter one first points out the rise of words education in Nanjing, its background and leading organ. The rise Nanjing’s words education was related to national social background, such as the widespread illiteracy problem. It also had something to do with Nanjing’s social structure and at some level carried on the legacy of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic period. The subjects of the education were quite diversified, including Nanjing Education Bureau (Society Bureau), Jiangsu provincial Nanjing Popular Education Center and Nanjing municipal party branch.Chapter Two mainly discusses the literacy movement which initiates the words education. One major pre-condition, which is also a challenge in pushing forward the words education, is to arouse in readers the awareness of the significance of literary so that they choose to receive education in school more actively. That explains why it is of vital importance to launch a week-long literacy movement every time a school is being built. Before1935, demonstrations and promotions of large scale were the main methods applied in literary movement. The public was persuaded and encouraged to attend school. After1935, however, persuasion turned into compulsion. The government started to intervene in the literary movement by forcing people to attend school. Literary movement created many favorable conditions for the following movements aiming at wiping out illiteracy.Chapter three studies the methods applied by Nanjing in wiping out illiteracy and points out which kind of people can be called illiteracy. Word’s education was mainly based on two methods:school-teaching and home-teaching, and school-teaching ruled. Schools were said to have great efficiency in teaching the illiterate. And this chapter focuses on exploring the possible teaching methods taken by schools. In fact, word’s education is far more than teaching people to become literate, rather, it emphasizes the combination of literary practice and common sense popularizing. At the same time, it requires daily practice from the illiterate, hoping to create the all-rounded citizen.Chapter four sheds much light on the methods taken by Nanjing to promote the public’s cultural quality, such as build public library and examine public reading materials. Such actions not only offer the illiterate the opportunity to review the words that they had learned, but also provide places and opportunities to the literate to read and study. Moreover, these actions set limits on readers’ reading materials and aim at implanting in readers the idea of the Three People’s Principle proposed by Sun Yat-sen. As pointed out by people of that time, instead of realizing the original expectation, which was to increase people’s understanding and belief in the Three People’s Principle, teaching people to be literate contributed to spread of Communism.’Chapter five mainly studies the existing problems during the word’s education in Nanjing. The major difficulties lie in the following aspects:difficulty in recruiting and keeping students, lacking in financial support and teaching stuff. These problems which have existed for a long time will more or less influence the final results of word’s education in Nanjing.