The Study Of Zhou Fang’s Populace Educational Thought And Practice

Zhou Fang, called the populace educational leader in Hunan, is a famous populace educationist, who devoted himself to the career of populace education all his life, established the populace school and edited newspapers and periodicals to publicize populace education. He formed a plentiful and unique ideological system by summing up the experience of civilian education on the basis of long-term running school. Moreover,his family environment, his teacher education and experience of his joining the work-study mutual aid team and work-study program in France were contributory to the formation and development of his populace educational thoughts. He saw the education is backward in China, especially Hunan’s education; at the same time, he was inspired by the thought of populace education, so he decided to save the nation by education.Zhou Fang worked on civilian education and enriched and developed his educational thought in practice. He thought the populace education is the purpose of compulsory and popularization of voluntary education and mass education is not against each other but supplementary to each other. He reformed curriculum structure, emphasize the work-study practice, operated the social undertaking and regarded the students as the main part and teachers as the supplementary part; He extended the civilian educational object, which included children, women,farmers, soldiers, workers, prisoners and so on; He revised the populace educational textbooks and compiled five civilian reading books with civilian teachers; He drew up the implementation methods of the populace education and used winter and summer vacations to carry out civilian educations in order to enrich the forms of civilian education; He proposed a universal “three oriented” education system: First, using labor concept to strengthen nation’s body and mind; Second, using socialization of production to develop nation’s economy; Third, using socialization concept to train civil rights. The system made a great attraction of society.Zhou Fang is also a doer who always practices what he preaches. He launched Hunan Association for the promotion of civilian education,which became a key position for the movement of civilian education; He hammered at establishing populace education schools, which include Hunan Civilian Cram school, Civilian Women’s Vocational School,Civilian Model Women’s Vocational school and Feng Lin school, aiming at persuading the common people to acquire knowledge; He carried out some promotional activities of populace education and edited Hunan weekly magazine of civilian education and Feng Lin journal; In order to raise funds for populace education, he tried his best to strive for government funding and local gentry donations; He attended the nation’s annual meeting of populace education to promote convening of the Hunan civilian education. In other words, Zhou Fang played an importantrole in the formation and development of the civilian educational movement.Zhou Fang’s populace educational thought and practice had a great effect on the Hunan civilian educational movement. For example,popularization of populace education promoted the change of social concept and had a good effect on the Hunan autonomous movement.