Beijing Daily Client | Author You Guozhen
During the Yan'an period, in order to adapt to the situation of the War of Resistance and the needs of the party's cause, our party independently established a revolutionary university with a united front nature - Shaanxi North Public School . Mao Zedong once pointed out profoundly that Shaanxi Public School "does not care about teaching in books one by one like other schools" but about "learning into one direction - political direction, and at the same time learning a style - work style." Shaanxi North Public School has distinctive characteristics in educational practice and has accumulated valuable experience for the party’s cadre education cause. It not only laid a solid cadre foundation for the final victory of the new democratic revolution and the construction of the new China, but also had a profound impact on the party's cadre education and even the higher education in our country since then.
clarifies the educational goals: "Education in the War of Resistance Against Japan is also the War of Resistance Against Japan"
The founding of Shaanxi North Public School was due to the needs of the revolutionary situation. After the outbreak of the entire nation's war of resistance, our party put forward the idea of "everything to serve the war of resistance" based on the severe situation of national danger and destruction, and made it clear that "national defense preparations in politics, military, economic and educational are all necessary conditions for the war of national salvation and resistance, and they cannot be delayed for a moment." In order to adapt to the new revolutionary situation, our party urgently needs a large number of intellectual youth to enrich the revolutionary team. Therefore, it has become one of the urgent tasks of the party to cultivate a large number of new cadres in a planned manner.
1937 Lugou Bridge Incident , a large number of patriotic young people rushed from all over the country to Yan'an, a revolutionary holy land. In order to meet the revolutionary wishes of young people and the needs of cadres in various base areas, the border government organized a group of educators to establish Shaanxi-North Korean Public School. Mao Zedong positioned the goal of Shaanxi Provincial Public School as "to create a large number of people, these people are the vanguards of the revolution. These people have political vision. These people are full of fighting spirit and sacrifice spirit. These people are frank, loyal, positive, and upright. These people do not seek personal gain, and are the only ones for the liberation of the nation and society. These people are not afraid of difficulties, and are always firm and brave in the face of difficulties. These people are not arrogant or limelighters, but people who are down-to-earth and practical. If China needs a large group of such vanguards, the task of the Chinese revolution can be solved smoothly." Mao Zedong attached great importance to the development of Shaanxi Provincial Public School and has delivered speeches at the school many times, pointing out that it is "set for the fight against Japan and save the nation." It can be seen that the purpose of the founding of Shaanxi Public School is to serve the theme of the era of the War of Resistance Against Japan. As the history of Shaanxi Public School said: "The establishment of Shaanxi Public School is the education of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the war of resistance in education."
On the premise of accurately grasping the theme of the times and the actual needs, Shaanxi North Public School adheres to the principle of less but refined, actively offers courses that combine revolutionary theory with anti-Japanese war practice, and cultivates a large number of cadres in the mass movement in a short period of time, greatly mobilizing the people's enthusiasm and initiative to participate in the Anti-Japanese War. According to statistics, from August 1937 to August 1941, Shaanxi North Public School trained more than 13,000 anti-Japanese cadres, of which more than 80% went to various base areas, and about 10% went to work in the rear. Mao Zedong made such a high evaluation of Shaanxi Northern Public School: "China will not perish because there is Shaanxi Public School ."
is equipped with the best teaching team: "Address wise men and clear theories"
In order to achieve the goal of cultivating mass cadres of the Anti-Japanese War in a timely manner, the Party Central Committee attaches special importance to strengthening the faculty of Shaanxi Public School. has equipped the best teaching team to the school through three methods: appointment system, external recruitment system and self-cultivation.
appointment system. In July 1937, the Party Central Committee appointed educators with rich school experience such as Cheng Fangwu, Wu Yuzhang, Dong Biwu, and Xu Teli to prepare for the Shaanxi Public School. Cheng Fangwu was appointed as the first principal and secretary of the Party Committee. Under the leadership of Cheng Fangwu, more than a dozen veteran cadres who participated in the Long March of the Red Army, including Shao Shiping , Zhou Chunquan , Liu Huidong, Jin Weiying, etc., also participated in the preparation and construction work. These people became the early cadre team and teaching staff of Shaanxi North Public School.
external recruitment system. After the establishment of Shaanxi Northern Public School, senior leaders and well-known scholars were invited to give lectures from the school through multi-party appointments.Central leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Dong Biwu have all visited the school to give reports, among which Mao Zedong was invited to give reports on the situation and policy for students from Shaanxi North Public School more than a dozen times. In addition, well-known scholars of National Government District , such as Ai Siqi , He Ganzhi, Li Fanfu , Xu Bing and others were invited to teach at the school. The setting of these courses not only broadened the students' horizons, but also expanded the influence of Shaanxi Provincial Public School, making it a school as famous as Anti-University in a short period of time.
cultivate yourself. As the school scale expands, Shaanxi North Public School also solves the problem of weak faculty by cultivating its own teachers. On the one hand, an advanced research class was established to improve the teaching level of young teachers through one year's rapid learning of " Marxism-Leninism " and other courses; on the other hand, a research room was established to improve the teaching level of young teachers by establishing the China Issues Research Office, the Political Economy Research Office and the Philosophy Research Office.
Through different selection methods, Shaanxi North Public School has equipped it with an excellent team of theoretical teachers in a short period of time. This team not only completed the teaching tasks and ensured the richness and effectiveness of the teaching content, but also innovated educational and teaching methods, allowing students to improve their theoretical and policy levels, and learn the ability to do anti-Japanese work.
Scenes of students in Shaanxi North Public Schools during class
Set up a curriculum system focusing on political education: "Three points of military, seven points of politics"
is consistent with the theme of "Education serves the War of Resistance Against Japan". Shaanxi North Public Schools mainly carry out revolutionary political education. Based on the principle of combining theory with practice, small but precise teaching content, and consistent teaching and learning, the school has built a curriculum system of "three parts military and seven parts politics" and arranged four aspects of teaching content, including the basic theory of the War of Resistance against Japan, the policies and methods of the War of Resistance against Japan, the basic knowledge of commanding the people to carry out armed struggles, and the understanding of the current situation. This distinguishes the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, which mainly trained military cadres and had a great influence at the same time.
Shaanxi North Public School has taken a series of measures to ensure the proportion of political education content in its curriculum. The courses offered by school are mainly political education, among which ordinary classes offer four main courses, including two political theory courses, "Political Common Sense" and " Anti-Japanese National United Front ", and two theoretical and practical courses, " Guerrilla War " and "People's Movement", mainly focusing on Marxism-Leninist enlightenment education and the ability to independently solve problems using these revolutionary theories. The advanced class has more categories and deeper content, involving basic Marxism-Leninist theories, history of revolution in China and the world, current affairs and policies, etc.
The school attaches great importance to guiding students to study the original works of Marx and Lenin, and distributed "Selected Works of Marx and Engels", " Selected Works of Stalin " to each class, requiring students to select several articles under the guidance of teachers and learn Marx and Leninism theory in its original form. In addition, the school also organizes students from ordinary and advanced classes to take party classes in a planned manner, and accepts new party members and conducts party education in a planned manner as the "most important work of Shaanxi Public Branch." To this end, the school specially compiled a mimeographed textbook "Communism and the Communist Party" as a basic reference material for party spirit education for students. These have accumulated rich experience in the development of systematic Marxist education in colleges and universities in New China.
Explore flexible and diverse educational methods: adhere to the combination of diversity and democracy
In order to take care of students from all directions and varying levels, Shaanxi North Public School has explored a unique educational method, effectively achieving the school's ideological and political education goal. Shaanxi North Public School adopts flexible and diverse ideological and political education methods to adapt to the complex and changeable environment during the War of Resistance Against Japan.
combines education with entertainment, integrates educational content into visual activities, and enhances attractiveness and appeal. The school organized young students to set up various clubs and teams such as the Anti-Japanese War National Rescue Room, Art Troupe, Ping Opera Theater, Yangko Team, and Theater. They adopted lively entertainment forms such as singing red songs, dancing Yangko , and storytelling to increase everyone's morale in fighting against Japan and saving the nation and win the support of the majority of farmers.
teaches students according to their aptitude and conducts targeted and effective ideological and political education. The school divides students into ordinary classes and advanced classes according to their cultural level, and receives different depths of course education, so that the level of students at different levels can be significantly improved.
Shaanxi North Public School has formed a revolutionary school spirit of "loyalty, unity, tension and liveliness" in the severe war environment. School adopts democratic ideological and political education methods to innovate talent training models, focusing on giving full play to the role of each teacher and student in school management and teaching methods. The school’s educational plans, teaching methods, extracurricular activities, etc. are discussed and approved by a certain democratic system, and the team leader, team leader, and class leader are also elected by the students themselves. The school has also established a life review system, that is, meetings are held every week in teams to conduct criticism and self-criticism, and students and teachers can make criticisms and opinions from each other. This democratic and self-management system mobilizes students' enthusiasm and initiative to participate in school construction, promotes their ideological progress and political unity, and lays the foundation for future innovation in talent training models.
Innovate the multi-comprehensive evaluation method: the unity of theory and practice
Shaanxi North Public School adheres to the principle of unity of theory and practice, pays special attention to adopting effective educational assessment methods and innovates the multi-comprehensive evaluation method. Shaanxi North Public School grasps the principles of the united front. In order to take care of students of different levels, it adopts a diversified assessment method that varies from time to place to person. The school’s written examination format is different from the traditional score examination. The examination method is held in an unsupervised free environment, and the examination questions are suitable for the learning stages of different students. In addition to novel written exams, classroom discussions, debates, Q&A discussions, study notes, subject collective creation, real-time communication, etc. are all ways and methods to examine students' performance. In addition, Shaanxi North Public School also attaches importance to examining students' knowledge mastery in actual work, and examines students' knowledge application level by organizing students to participate in public activities, election activities, military exercises and other contents.
The unconventional talent training model of Shaanxi North Public School has created a free and equal teaching environment, greatly promoting the improvement of students' ability to apply theoretical knowledge, ensuring the good results of ideological and theoretical education, and consolidating the united front of the nation's anti-Japanese war advocated by our party; on the other hand, it overcomes the drawbacks of the single evaluation of traditional education, which is the beginning of our party's independent exploration of the new education system practice. As Cheng Fangwu said: "Our political education, from the teaching content to the teaching methods, is fundamentally different from the old schools. We have gradually formed a complete set of revolutionary education systems and teaching methods in teaching practice, which is a pioneering move in the history of Chinese education."
Shortly after the closing of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping led the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to pay tribute to the Yan'an Revolutionary Memorial Hall, , and emphasized that "firmly firmly in the correct political direction is the essence of the Yan'an spirit." We must carry forward the great spirit of building the Party, carry forward the Yan'an spirit, strengthen historical confidence, enhance historical initiative, and unite and strive to achieve the goals and tasks proposed by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The educational practice of Shaanxi Public School contains the red gene of our party that attaches importance to ideological construction, focuses on cultivating correct political direction and excellent work style, focuses on taking political theory and original texts as teaching focus, and cultivates and practices the Yan'an spirit with fruitful teaching practice.
[The author is the director and researcher of the Institute of Marxism, Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. This article is a phased achievement of the major commissioned project of the Beijing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era (22LLMLA004)]
