The Revolution in Rural Education Must be Dependent Upon the Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants

It is worthwhile that we pay a great deal of attention to the experience the Shuiyuan Commune in Yingkow County had in carrying out the revolution in education. Chairman Mao points out: "In the countryside, poor and lower-middle peasants should manage our schools, because they are the most reliable ally of the working class." In action, the comrades at the Shuiyuan Commune in Yingkow County have already implemented this great instruction of Chairman Mao, by having poor and lower-middle peasants, as leaders, work with the revolutionary teachers and students to run the schools and to reform the educational system. There are some people who look at the revolution in education as something quite difficult to accomplish. The truth is, all we need do is follow Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line — firmly and unwaveringly, seriously but not perfunctorily — as well as to be good in summarizing experiences and lessons. Before too long, there will be noticeable results. Hasn't the outlook of the Shuiyuan Commune, which irrevocably carried out Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary thinking on education, changed completely in just a little over six months' time?     

This Commune has Carried Out the Popularization of Education

Chu-hsing Commune in Chin-shan hsien is located in a distant suburb of Shanghai. Before liberation, this was an out-of-the-way locality where culture and education were unusually backward. After liberation, although several primary schools were set up, there were still over 1,700 children of poor and lower-middle peasants in the whole commune to whom schooling was not made available because of the influence of the revisionist line in education. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution caused profound changes in the appearance of this commune. Under the guidance of chairman Mao's proletarian education line, the 18 production brigades in the whole commune all have schools, and every team is setting up primary school auxiliary junior middle school classes. All children of school age and young adults have entered school, popularizing the eight-year system of education.     

Hung-Ch'i Brigade is Concerned About all Aspects of the Growth of Educated Youths who have Gone to the Countryside

Hung-ch'i Brigade of P'ing-kang Commune in Huo-chin hsien, Anhwei, is an advanced unit for doing good work with educated youths in the countryside. This brigade, since 1969, has welcomed fifty-three educated youths to the countryside. In more than four years since then these educated youths, under the tutelage of the Party organizations and the poor and lower-middle peasants, have been tempered in the Three Great Revolutionary Movements of the villages. They have become good aides when the cadres and masses read and study, daring little generals in class struggle, attackers in the production struggle, and red vanguard soldiers in scientific experimentation. In the process of mutually uniting with the poor and lower-middle peasants, their thinking and their emotions have deeply changed: those who in the past did not want to go to the villages now love the villages; those who in the past did not have deep feelings concerning the poor and lower-middle peasants now feel that the poor and lower-middle peasants are very close. The cadres and masses of Hung-ch'i Brigade educated the educated youths, but they also learned many things from the young people; they especially learned that the young people are vigorous and enthusiastic, are the most willing to learn, have the least conservative thinking, have a revolutionary spirit of daring to think and daring to do, enabling the cadres and masses to make very great progress. The cadres and masses of Hung-ch'i Brigade, whenever speaking of the educated youths, become exceedingly excited, praising ceaselessly.     

Wholeheartedly Complete "Reeducation" Work

How is it that the brilliant directive of our great leader, Chairman Mao, that "intellectual youths be sent down to the countryside to receive reeducation from the poor and lower-middle peasants" has been realized completely throughout an entire hsien? The experience of Ch'ang-ling hsien in Kirin Province was that the leadership personally took a hand in relying on the poor and lower-middle peasants, in wholeheartedly doing the work, and in applying Mao Tsetung thought to the elevation of the level of reeducation.     

The Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants Have Acquired Socialist Culture

The poor and lower-middle peasants of this production brigade, under the leadership of the Party branch, have gradually become able to grasp socialist culture by employing many different forms of school operation. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao's thought on educational revolution, they have established through their own efforts brigade primary schools, village schools, and people's schools, so that those youths who have practical hardships are still guaranteed an education. In this way the great majority of the poor and lower-middle peasants and their sons and daughters are able to study culture, thus promoting, through active learning and usage, the extensive development of the mass movement that Chairman Mao has prescribed. This is a most welcome new situation that has emerged from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.     

Guest Editors' Introduction

The Ch'ao-yang Agricultural Institute is located in two valleys several li from the town of Ch'ao-yang. In this institute we have specialties in agronomy, pomiculture, animal husbandry and veterinary science, irrigation and water conservancy, and so forth. Guided by Chairman Mao's proletarian line in education, we run the school in the countryside and persistently enroll students who "come from the commune and go back to the commune," training new peasants who have socialist awareness as well as knowledge of modern science and agricultural technology. Since the founding of the institute in 1970, we have trained through short-term courses nearly 10,000 agricultural production technicians for communes and brigades. We have also turned out 167 graduates from our regular course, most of whom have returned to their respective communes and brigades to be peasants. Our schooling has won approval from the poor and lower-middle peasants. They say, "Graduates from the Agricultural Institute return to be peasants, which is what we desire."     

Persist in Running Schools with Diligence and Frugality to Serve Proletarian Politics

This article introduces a rural primary school which advances in the orientation pointed out in the "May 7 Directive." This school adheres to the policy of self-reliance and hard struggle and runs itself with diligence and frugality. It persists in taking study as its main task and learning other things at the same time and has the poor and lower-middle peasants take part in its management. Citing living facts, the article shows educational revolution definitely can succeed if Chairman Mao's "May 7 Directive" is put into practice.     

The Way to Train Engineering and Technical Personnel as Viewed From the Shanghai Machine Tool Plant

We recommend the following investigation report to all proletarian revolutionary comrades, broad masses of workers, poor and lower-middle peasants, student youths, revolutionary intellectuals, and revolutionary cadres in the nation. This report vividly describes how the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has produced a great change in the ranks of engineering and technical personnel and has demonstrated the great vitality of new socialist ideas. It is entitled "The Way to Train Engineering and Technical Personnel as Viewed from the Shanghai Machine Tool Plant," but it also points out the revolutionary direction of school education.     

A Network for Popularizing Socialist Education

In Nanan hsien, schools are run in front of the doors of the poor and lower-middle peasants, in the remote mountain areas, and on the off-shore islands, as demanded by the poor and lower-middle peasants. This has changed the former irrational distribution of schools. Besides, sparetime schools and political evening schools of various types have been set up throughout this hsien by such means as are appropriate to the local conditions. In this way, popular education for school-age children and teenagers is basically achieved and 80 percent of the adult commune members can also take part in the study. Experience of this hsien shows that it is entirely possible to popularize socialist education so long as we conscientiously carry out Chairman Mao's "May 7 Directive" and fully arouse the masses.     

Editor's Introduction

Resolutely carrying out Chairman Mao's instructions on the proletarian revolution in education, the poor and lower-middle peasants of the Layaotzu, Sungshukou, and Waisantaokou production brigades of the Aihui people's commune in Aihui County (Heilungkiang Province) entered the schools in November last year, seizing back the power in education in rural areas and smashing complete domination of the schools by bourgeois intellectuals. The poor and lower-middle peasants are masters of culture; they have become the main force in the proletarian revolution in education in the rural areas. They have carried out the recent instruction issued by our great leader Chairman Mao: "In the countryside, schools and colleges should be managed by the poor and lower-middle peasants - the most reliable ally of the working class."     

A New Starting Point in the Continuation of Revolution

I am the child of a worker, and in the old society my ancestors were illiterate generation after generation. My father was a miner, and under the exploitation and oppression of the foreman, who was a Chinese traitor, the whole family led a life no better than that of draft animals. Following liberation, Chairman Mao and the Communist Party saved our working class and poor and lower-middle peasants from the sea of bitterness, and I and my six sisters went to school with our satchels. The poor and lower-middle peasants are now sending me to college. This is something I never dreamed of in the past.     

How We Cultivated the Growth of Hou Ch'üuan Under the Leadership of the Party

It has already been a full ten years since Comrade Hou Ch'üan came from Peking to join our Tu-chia-ch'iao Brigade and make a home. In these ten years, under the education of the Party, Hou Ch'üan grew quickly and changed from an ordinary middle school student into the new type of peasant; she was selected by us poor and lower-middle peasants to enter the brigade leadership ranks and to become our good leader. This is entirely the result of being nurtured by the thought of Mao Tse-tung and is a victory of the revolutionary line of Chairman Mao. In the process of her growth, especially at pivotal times of struggle between two lines, the Party central leadership comrades and Party organizations on every level have shown very warm concern and provided education at the right times. From this process we poor and lower-middle peasants have been educated and stimulated, and even more deeply understand the importance of doing a good job of reeducation.     

As the Party Nurtured Me,so Will I Nurture the Educated Youths

Encouraged by the admonition of our great leader Chairman Mao that "educated youths must go to the villages to be reeducated by the poor and lower-middle peasants.… Comrades in villages everywhere should welcome their going," we at Nansa Brigade in I-ch'eng hsien, Shansi, welcomed twenty-three educated youths who came to the countryside from Peking in December 1968.     

Chairman Ma0 on Educational Revolution

In China, education has always been the exclusive preserve of the landlords, and the peasants have had no access to it. But the landlords1 culture (5) is created by the peasants, for its sole source is the peasants' sweat and blood. In China, 90 percent of the people have had no education, and of these the overwhelming majority are peasants. The moment the power of the landlords was overthrown in the rural areas, the peasants' movement for education began. See how the peasants who hitherto detested the schools are today zealously setting up evening classes! The texts used in the rural primary schools were entirely about urban things and unsuited to rural needs. Besides, the attitude of the primary school teachers toward the peasants was very bad, and far from being helpful to the peasants, they became objects of dislike. Hence the peasants preferred the old-style schools ("Chinese classes" as they called them) to the modern schools (which they called "foreign classes") and the old-style teachers to the ones in the primary schools. Now the peasants are enthusiastically establishing evening classes, which they call peasant schools. Some have already been opened, others are being organized, and on the average there is one school per township.     

The Farther One Goes on the Great Road of the "May 7 Directive," The Vaster it Becomes

Our great leader, Chairman Mao, has pointed out: "Education must serve proletarian politics and must be united with productive labor." The revolutionary committee of the First Middle School, with the assistance of a school-based workers' propaganda team, correctly and thoroughly carried out Chairman Mao's policy for proletarian educational revolution. By initiating revolutionary criticism in depth, by unswervingly taking the road of the "May 7 Directive," and by self-reliance and hard struggle, they have a base within the school for the study of industry and agriculture. At the same time, they have linked factory and school, and brigade and school, and have initiated organized, planned activities for studying industry and agriculture, thus achieving the three-in-one combination of teaching, productive labor, and scientific research, and completely changing the "three separations" situation of former schools. Having been reeducated by the workers and the poor and lower-middle peasants, and having been steeled to hardship in the Three Great Revolutionary Movements, the spiritual countenance of most of the teachers and students has profoundly changed, and their world view has been rapidly transformed. The whole school presents an appearance as lively and as fresh as early morning air.     

Four New Kinds of Schools

Following Chairman Mao's great strategic policy and great directive for the educational revolution to "prepare for war, prepare for natural calamities, and serve the people," all the hsien (shih) of Kwangtung Province, during the high tide of socialist revolution and socialist construction, exhibited a revolutionary spirit of self-reliance; they established 298 short-term industrial, agricultural, health, and normal schools, which break down into 59 industrial schools, 60 agricultural schools, 72 health schools, and 107 normal schools. More than 26,000 students were selected from among workers with practical experience, poor and lower-middle peasants, and teachers in active service.     

Teaching Environmental Awareness in Mathematics

The "Educational Program for Rural Middle and Primary Schools (Draft)" issued by the revolutionary committee of Li-shu hsien, Kirin Province, is published here for the purpose of discussion. This draft program has been drawn up by the revolutionary committee of Li-shu hsien and other concerned sectors. We have also canvassed the opinions of the poor and lower-middle peasants of some communes, and of teachers and students to make certain revisions. Notations have been made where views differ. It is hoped that the broad poor and lower-middle peasant masses of the whole country, the officers of the Liberation Army engaged in supporting agriculture, as well as the concerned comrades of the provincial, local, and hsien revolutionary committees, will actively participate in the discussions and make suggestions for supplements and revisions. In this way we hope that a broad spectrum of views can be collected, that experiences can be summarized, and, after distinguishing the circumstances and a certain period of discussions and revisions, that this educational program may come to be more in keeping with the practices in various places, as well as more substantive and perfect.     

How Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants are Managing Schools

We are publishing the investigation report made by the Kwangtung Provincial Revolutionary Committee on how poor and lower-middle peasants manage schools in the hope that it will draw further attention to the question of revolution in education in the rural areas from the revolutionary committees in all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, as well as at the administrative regional, county, and people's commune levels all over the country.     

Editors' Note

Since the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, millions of educated youths all over the country have answered Chairman Mao's great call that "educated youths must go to the countryside." With high revolutionary aspirations, they have made their way to the countryside and border regions. There they forge revolution and are reeducated by the poor and lower-middle peasants. Being tempered through the Three Great Revolutionary Struggles in rural areas, they are sturdily growing up.     

Border Region Government Directive on Admission Standards to be used by Middle Schools (May 8, 1944)

In order to assure that every middle school concretely carries out the "two-fold responsibility for raising the standards of cadres in office and cultivating future cadres," the standards for student admissions in the future should be constituted so that local cadres outweigh graduates of complete primary schools and poor children of workers and peasants have greater opportunities for entering school. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to children of other class backgrounds. The number of students on public scholarship for each school has been regulated; this regulation will now be changed slightly so that, aside from the system of public scholarships, subregions (such as Sui-te) may allow for a number of self-supporting students.