Ask Two Incisive Questions Everyday

By Shi Yigong

Ask Two Incisive Questions Everyday

By Shi Yigong

After winning an award in Israel,I was invited to the celebration party at the Israeli Embassy.At the party, the ambassador talked with me about how Israelis attach great importance to education,and I told him that Chinese people pay great attention to education as well.

He looked at me with a big grin and said,“Your way of education is different from ours.”He cited an example of former Israeli Premier Shimon Peres,elucidating that when he was in primary school,every day when he got back from school,his mother would ask him only two questions:The first was,“Did you ask your teacher a question today which he failed to answer?”The second was,“Did you do anything to make an impression on your teachers and fellow students today?”

Hearing that,I sighed.I had to admit that when my two kids came back from school,my first few words would be,“Did you obey your teacher today?”

There are about 14 million primary and middle school teachers in our country.Though we keep on saying that we hope our children will develop creative and independent thinking,do the teachers really expect the children to ask more incisive questions? This is incompatible with the part of our culture that likes to observe the absolute authority of the teachers. It seems to me that we are severely fettered by the old culture while pursuing to build the bastion of creativity and innovation.

(FromYouth Times,October 2015.Translation:Liu Jie.)

我獲得以色列一個獎后，應邀去以色列大使館參加慶祝酒會。大使先生跟我大談以色列人如何重視教育，我也跟他談中國人是如何重視教育的。

他笑瞇瞇地看著我說：你們的教育方式跟我們不一樣。他給我舉了以色列原總理西蒙·佩雷斯的例子，說他上小學的時候，每天回家他的母親只問兩個問題，第一個是，今天你在學校有沒有問出一個問題老師回答不上來？第二個是，你今天有沒有做一件事情讓老師和同學們覺得印象深刻？我聽了以后嘆了口氣說，我不得不承認，我的兩個孩子每天回來，我的第一句話就是問：今天有沒有聽老師的話？

我們有1400萬中小學教師，我們雖然口口聲聲希望孩子培養創新、獨立思考的思維，但我們的老師真的希望孩子們多提一些比較尖銳的問題嗎？這和我們的部分文化如師道尊嚴又是矛盾的，所以，我們在創新的路上背負了沉重的文化枷鎖。（摘自《青年時代》2015年第10期譯：劉潔）

每天提兩個尖銳問題

施一公