Into People's Lives - The Rational Thinking Of The Comprehensive Practice Course

At present, the most serious criticism of curriculum is its deviating from real life. For a long time, the traditional curriculum has been unitary subject curriculum in which students are kept apart from their lives. The places only for students to act are classrooms in which they absorb knowledge by absolutely accepting. The relation between teachers and students is the one that students only are subordinate to teachers. So they two are more and more becoming two separate parts confronting each other.To analysis the cause, we can see, there are two major aspects. On the one hand, the education itself with the thought that living is a thing for future should be responsible for the consequence. On the other hand, viewing on the background of the age, the technical rationalism stemming from industrial economy is so pervasive that it is the main cause to prevent people in curriculum from their real lives. But the coming of knowledge-economic age with its tremendous force may strike at traditional ideas and activities. The diversion of the definition of a professional or successful man makes it possible for curriculum to go into real life. Then, what life should the curriculum go into or create in some sense? To me the answer is: life should be a whole, should be free, should be temporary as well as aesthetic. Comparing with subject curriculum, comprehensive-practical-activity curriculum which is a bright point of the present curriculum reformation can undoubtedly and mostly embody the idea of going into real life we are talking about In history, there has been existing such ideas. The main representatives are Rousseau's "natural education" and Dewey's "activity curriculum". Giving their respects to children, paying attention to children's interests, loves and needs, they advocated curriculum should be the one relating to living. But there also were somelimits. Rousseau stressed a natural life keeping children from social life. Dewey's idea of living inclined to some elements of controlling. He thought highly of social living and children's self lives were ignoredHow does comprehensive-practical-activity curriculum assimilate nutriment of activity curriculum and surpass it at the same time? Why do we say comprehensive-practical-activity curriculum as a curriculum going into life? Well, comprehensive-practical-activity curriculum may release students by their self practical activities, help them learn through their personal experience, what's more to experience life, rich life, acquire the skills of living. Students study in an opening process with open aims and contentions. Knowledge is constructed by self introspection and so do lives.At the same time, the expectation for comprehensive-practical-activity curriculum brings something that the curriculum must do and is difficult to do meanwhile. The things are as follows: the transformation of relevant ideas; the instructions of teachers; the difficulties in practice. All these problems need we educators and professions relative to probe into and to solute.