4. Teachers are often considered to be engineers of the human soul. They are expected to spread knowledge, ideas and truth. There's one person in China who is called the "teacher of teachers". He is Tao Xingzhi, a Chinese educator.
Born in Anhui province, China, in 1891, Tao studied abroad for educational philosophy. When Tao returned to China in 1917 and began his own career as an educator, he did not blindly follow western education methods or theories. In fact, he changed the saying of "Education is life itself" to "Life is education". Similarly, instead of "school as society (社会)", he saw it as "society as school".
For Tao, education is an active experience in real﹣life instead of telling and being told. He supported "unity of teaching, learning, and reflective (反思的) acting".
Besides developing education methods, Tao also tried his best to improve mass education. After doing surveys in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai in 1921, Tao was surprised to learn that in China more than 70% of the people in the city didn't know how to read or write.
To solve the problem, Tao organized young workers and farmers to study while working. To deal with the shortage of teachers and money, in 1927, Tao set up Xiaozhuang Normal College in Nanjing to train teachers and educators, most of whom became teachers at schools in the countryside.
In January 1934, he started the "Little Teacher" movement in which young students were encouraged to serve as teachers to others, even to those older than themselves. Under Tao's guidance, over 18,000 "little teachers" were invited in Shanghai within 10 months. It later included 28 provinces and cities as a key nationwide education movement. Even in the fight against the Japanese army, Tao never forgot his dream. He founded a middle school in Chongqing and offered free education to poor children.
Maybe Tao's motto is the best explanation for his life. "Giving a whole heart, yet taking nothing in return, not even a leaf of grass."