Research On The Secondary Education Thinking Of Zhang Po-ling

Zhang Po-ling(1876—1951), is praised as one of China’s prominent patriotic educators inmodern times as in his whole life, he spared no effort and enthusiasm in the development ofChina’s modern education cause. Mr. Zhang founded Tianjin Nankai High School, NankaiUniversity, Nankai Female School and so on. In his opinion, secondary education is a stagebetween primary education and higher education, which is very significant for training cadresand talents who can save the nation. Therefore, Mr. Zhang exerted his utmost effort insecondary education and spent a lot of time and energy on it. At the same time, the secondaryeducation thinking of Zhang Po-ling, which is the cohesion of his thought and concept abouteducation, became comprehensive during his long-term secondary education practice.The secondary education thinking of Zhang Po-ling, which formed in China’s modernsociety, is not only the collision spark of eastern and western education concepts, but also thecrystallization of personal practical experience and wisdom. The education practice andthought of Mr. Zhang is always attaching great importance on patriotism and reformation,which are great important features. When developing the education in the primary stage, Mr.Zhang had already announced the idea that present harm must be rectified no matter howpainful it would be and talents must be trained to save the nation. In1916, he exhorted hisstudents to breakthrough the tradition, try your best to make progress, construct a new China.After Nankai University was founded, the common motto of all schools named as Nankai is"dedication to the public interests, acquisition of all-round capability and aspiration for dailyprogress". It is because of this feature that Mr. Zhang thinks the education of Nankai shouldinsist on the idea of pursuing the social progress based on the national conditions. Thesynchronous education of virtue, knowledge and physical fitness is the symbol of Nankai as Mr. Zhang always persists in the harmonious development of virtue, intelligence, physicalfitness and art, which is the truly comprehensive education. Mr. Zhang opposed students tostudying mechanically. Instead, he attached great importance on experiment teaching, andrequired students to not only grasp scientific and cultural knowledge, but also own thecapacity of innovative thinking and the spirit of preparing to sacrifice for the science. After theMay4thMovement, Mr. Zhang got rid of the stale and brought forth the fresh. His founding ofTianjin Nankai High School has made great contributions to the promotion of China’s femaleeducation.Although Zhang Po-ling paid great attention on how education can put forward the socialdevelopment and thought to study was how students can show their patriotism, he barelythought about how modern China’s political condition, which was semi-colonial andsemi-feudal, can influence the education. Under such social circumstance, students werelimited to participate anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism activities. The secondary educationof Mr. Zhang can be regarded as a kind of talent education in many aspects, which attachesmore importance on cultivating cadre talents.But on the whole,Tianjin Nankai High School has cultivated a large number of excellenttalents for China, carved out a new way for private secondary schools, and promoted themodernization of China’s education. The secondary education thinking of Zhang Po-ling ispatriotic, pragmatic and exoteric, which is of great reference value for contemporarysecondary education.Based on the investigation and survey of Jiangpu Senior Middle School, this thesis aimsto find out the stances of the combination of Mr. Zhang’s thinking and contemporary demands,which mean that the education should pursue the harmonious development of virtue,intelligence, physical education and art, and cultivate talents who own abilities demanded inthe contemporary society. These stances reflect that the secondary education thinking of ZhangPo-ling enlightens present secondary education in following aspects, which include1. Thesecondary education should be well-grounded and have a definite clear objective. Theprincipal plays a role as a leader in virtue education, and the form of virtue education shouldbe various.2. The education of intelligence aims to cultivate people who have the desire tolearn, the ability to learn and the how-to-learn, meanwhile, the school should cultivate students’ interests and abilities to learn.3. The same importance should be attached on boththe spirit and the activity of physical education. The physical education should play the role instrengthening students’ bodies and improving their personal characters.4. The education of artshould be audible, visible and attainable. The form and content of art education should bediversified and offer more visual feeling and creative opportunities.