A ‘Forgotten' Educator

The rapid transformation of modern Chinese education has given birth to a large number of influential educators.Yuan Xitao is one of the representatives.He made important contributions to modern compulsory education,teacher education,higher education and many other aspects through his personal efforts and with the help of Jiangsu Education Association and other platforms.On the basis of fully excavating and sorting out the relevant historical materials,this study uses the methods of literature analysis,comparative research,case study and genetic science to discuss Yuan Xitao's thoughts and practice in the fields of compulsory education,teacher education and higher education,and to reveal their contemporary value.The author hopes to take Yuan Xitao as an example to analyze the reasons why some educators represented by Yuan Xitao are ignored and forgotten by later generations,so as to gain insight into the influencing factors of the long-term vitality of educators.Yuan Xitao is an expert who made systematic discussion and put it into practice on compulsory education in modern China.He attaches great importance to compulsory education.According to the differences between urban and rural areas,he advocates that the implementation of compulsory education should be based on the principles of adjusting measures to local conditions,step by step,and event-based systems.And He also stressed the law,funds,teachers' guarantee of compulsory education,and strengthened the cultivation of students' occupation in the stage of compulsory education.In the field of teacher education,Yuan Xitao successively served as the pioneer of the Academy reform in the late Qing Dynasty,the pusher of the nationalization of higher teacher education in the early Republic of China,the neutral of the reform of higher teacher education,and the advocator of rural teacher education.In the field of higher education,Yuan Xitao has a lot of attention and support for the establishment and development of Fudan Public School,Tongji Medical School,Southeast University and other colleges and universities.Such an influential educator is almost forgotten by later generations and lacks of special and in-depth research,which is closely related to the lack of a unique ideological system,the ‘broadness and insensitivity' of educational thinking and practice,as well as the limitations given by time,life length and personality factors.It is also worth pondering by all educators and researchers.