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Editor's Note
Recently, a junior high school principal had a heart-to-heart conversation with the junior high school students in the class meeting of the third grade.
What is learning?
What is hard work?
What to do when you encounter setbacks and failures?
Let's take a look at his answers.
(The author of this article is Zheng Gang, principal of the East School of Shanghai Jincai Middle School, and the content is based on his speech at the theme class meeting of the third year of the school, with modifications)
Zheng Gang, Principal of Shanghai Jincai Middle School East School
Students,
Good afternoon, everyone!
Today's junior third grade class meeting class by me to give you, the theme is "life is a process of constantly chasing goals, pursuing meaning and pursuing self", and talk to the junior high school students about their hearts.
The topic seems grand and esoteric.
Why are you talking about this topic today? I think it is everyone's special identity, a special stage, and everyone here is a junior high school student, facing an important turning point in life. Whether it is the middle school entrance examination or the third year of junior high school, it will not determine our life, but it will definitely affect our life.
The more important the point in life, the more we have to think about the path of life.
There are two questions worth thinking about each of us, one is to think about the meaning of learning, and the other is to think about the meaning of life.
Everyone pays the price for "choosing", and the decision to choose is based on a person's thinking, thoughts and value judgments.
The philosopher Socrates once said, "Life without reflection is meaningless." As we all know, with fire, language, and time, human civilization was born, and evolution happened.
An important sign of human evolution is also thinking and thinking, with thinking and thinking, human beings begin to chase goals, pursue meaning and pursue themselves.
Start with the movie "Flying Life"
Today I want to share with you the story in the movie "Flying Life", the protagonist Zhang Chi is a racing driver, and various racing awards have been soft. For quite some time, no one could surpass him, and he became the top of the racing world.
However, in an accident, he was banned from the game and became an unknown spectator on the field. After 5 years of long waiting, Zhang Chi regained the opportunity to compete in the arena, and in the ridicule and surprise of everyone, he once again stood at the top.
The reason why Zhang Chi can return to the peak is that he can withstand setbacks and failures, and the cliff-like situation has not defeated him and did not frustrate his fighting spirit; there is also a reason that he can keep lonely and lonely, 5 years of time, no flowers, no applause, no fans, only loneliness, he has no distractions, buried in hard work.
Sometimes our grades and learning will be repeated, good and bad; sometimes we will feel that we have tried our best, but our academic performance is still not ideal; sometimes we cannot break through and surpass ourselves, and inertia will pop out from time to time. We also have to face the complicated knowledge system of the four years of junior high school, and we also have to learn to transform this knowledge into understanding and application, and we feel that there are endless obstacles.
These are the norms we face in our studies, and they are similar situations that we will encounter in the future of our lives.
How to face all this, how should we correctly face setbacks and failures, and resist the feeling of powerlessness? How to face day after day, tedious tasks correctly, learn to be lonely and lonely?
When it comes to loneliness and loneliness, the real people are all accomplished in loneliness and loneliness.
Astronauts on missions in space overlook the earth and look up at the starry sky, and behind this magical and romantic exploration is a lonely environment and a lonely life.
When they train, for hours, days, weeks, a person, in the training module, there is no sound, no communication, can not distinguish between day and night, but also to complete high-quality operations.
All this tests a person's endurance, willpower, and how a person can face loneliness, loneliness and monotony.
Some classmates will say that I have no talent in learning, and I am not as smart as others.
In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a famous courtier named Zeng Guofan, who once said: "Life is always the first virtue." This "constant" is persistence, being able to persist in doing one thing for a long time. He confirmed this idea with the example of his writing with a brush.
Calligraphy is an extremely important "face" for a person to learn and cultivate in ancient times. He tried to write with a brush at first, but nothing changed. However, writing every day, without interruption, he soon found that there was progress every month, a little progress every year, and then it was very different.
We can not only feel a persistent spiritual force from Zeng Guofan's words, but also feel that we must face difficulties in what we must do.
I think that for each of our students, learning is a must-do thing, and we must also have such an attitude and thinking.
What inspiration can we get from icebergs?
Today, I would also like to share with you another picture, a picture of an iceberg, only a small part of the iceberg is exposed on the horizontal plane, and the vast majority of them are submerged underwater.
Hemingway said: "Iceberg sports are majestic because it is only one-eighth above the water." "The original meaning of this sentence is that his article is written just right, like the tip of an iceberg exposed on the surface of the sea, and the remaining seven-eighths in the water needs to be explored and understood by yourself."
In fact, there is a theory about the iceberg, which is a metaphor, that a person's "self" is like an iceberg, we can see only a small part of the surface, and a larger part of the inner world is hidden at a deeper level, invisible, just like the iceberg.
A person's comprehensive quality and ability is like an iceberg, knowledge and skills are only the iceberg exposed to the water, it is a very small part, only temporary, and 90% under the water surface can determine how far we can go in the future.
What is this 90%? It is a strong internal drive, strong self-discipline, strong curiosity, and strong autonomy.
Behind the fact that many students can achieve excellent results in learning, it is not because they are talented and have strong receptivity, but because they are the masters of learning, will control their own learning, have clear learning goals, and have strong internal motivation. These are all important factors that determine a person's academic performance, and they are also the underlying abilities that affect our life path.
At present, it is a "double subtraction" moment, we must reduce unnecessary homework burden and extracurricular burden, and at the same time put forward higher requirements for our learning ability and quality.
Many people in their respective fields, such as Yuan Longping, Tu Youyou, Zhong Nanshan, etc., have precisely these qualities to achieve outstanding achievements and benefit mankind, and it is in this perseverance that they answer the questions of life.
The philosopher Heidegger believes that it is in the process of inquiring about the meaning of the existence of himself and other beings in this world that man truly understands the basis of his existence and its meaning.
The meaning of life, in the final analysis, answers these questions: how to harmoniously unify the realization of personal value with the progress and development of society, and how to correctly handle the relationship between the "small self" and the "big me".
When you think about the meaning and problems of life, I think you will definitely have the feeling of "being at the top of the mountain and overlooking the mountains".
There is a saying that goes very well, study hard, not pain.
Some people think that learning is a painful thing, I think two reasons, one is the lack of internal motivation to learn, and the thinking that learning is external, a task imposed by parents or teachers.
It is a necessary way for us to understand the external world, enrich the spiritual world, resist the risky world, and obtain the world as it should be; it is also an important cornerstone for us to promote social development and assume social responsibility in the future.
Another reason is that they don't feel the joy of learning, because they are not actively engaged.
The joy of learning usually comes from immersing yourself in doing something, being engrossed, and engaging in the flow of self-awareness. When flow occurs, you feel free, transparent and bright, and of course, the joy of learning comes from the joy of success and harvest after hard work.
It is not slack for a moment, no matter what kind of tired pain it experiences, it will insist on learning; it is to form a strong interest in learning from the clear learning goals and pursuits; it is a good habit developed from independent management and reasonable arrangement, perseverance; it is a questioning attitude formed from continuous questioning and continuous reflection; and it is a learning method from the formation of the subject knowledge system and discipline thinking.