有通識無共識 / Consensus Lacking on General Education

有通識無共識 鄭培凱	Consensus Lacking on General Education Pei-kai Cheng
通識課程議定為香港高中必修科之後，引起許多家長的疑慮，也引發許多教師的不安。家長疑慮的是，「通識課程」是什麼？是「普通常識」嗎？普通常識的話，需要這麼大張旗鼓，在學校裡創立課程來教嗎？假如不是普通常識，又是什麼樣的「特識」呢？歷史、地理、物理、化學、生物、環保，科目清晰，家長聽得懂，「通識」好像孔子講的「吾道一以貫之」，愈聽愈糊塗，到底是什麼內容？	THE DECISION that General Education courses shall be made compulsory in Hong Kong’s senior secondary schools has stirred up misgivings in parents and uneasiness in teachers. The parents wonder what “general education” means, or whether it is simply about “general knowledge”. If it is, then they question the need for the fuss and fanfare about launching school courses to teach just that. If it isn’t, then they wonder what kind of “special knowledge” it deals with. They know well what is taught in classes of history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, and environment protection, as those course names are crystal clear. Yet they are bewildered about “general education”. That term sounds as elusive as the “One Principle” that Confucius described as running through all his teachings – but what on earth could that be?
就有教育家出來說，通識教育是不講內容的，講的是方法。學的不是內容，是學習的方法。方法學會了，一通百通，就是通識了。家長聽了更是起疑，天下哪有這種好事？這不是教孩子學投機取巧之道嗎？哪有不學知識內容，只學「一貫道」的？以前天天講「天下沒有白吃的午餐」，「一分耕耘，一分收穫」，怎麼現在來了個一百八十度，改弦易轍，說起「靈山龍華會上坐，一點靈犀萬念通」了？有的家長甚至懷疑，幕後是否有什麼高人在指點，要拿他們的子女作白老鼠，來證明「色即是空，空即是色」，山河大地如泡影，榮華富貴一場空。	Then came forth some educationists saying that General Education is not about what but about how, namely it doesn’t teach you things but shows you ways to learn things; and that once you get the way, you know everything in the world – that’s what General Education means. Hearing this, the parents are even more sceptical – isn’t that kind of “education” too good to be true? Isn’t it telling our kids to turn to tricks and cheats for quick-and-easy success? How could anyone not study for knowledge but just find a “master key” to all knowledge? All the time, our children have been told that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and “no gains without pains”, but how come here’s now an about-turn with a reversed counsel – “Just learn this, and all knowledge is yours”? There may even be a wirepuller backstage – as some parents suspect – who is dictating that the children be used as guinea pigs in some test just to prove “all is nought, and nought is all” – be it mountains and rivers on the earth, or prosperity and grandeur in this life.
警惕教師濫竽充數	Concerns about incompetent teachers
老師們則惴惴不安，不知道在靈山龍華會上，如何扮演點傳師的角色。要濫竽充數，假裝自己也會吹竽。嘴巴鼓鼓氣，手指胡亂撫弄一番，大概也不難。學習嘛，一要有方法，要有正確的學習方法；二要有態度，要有嚴肅的學習態度。嗯，先要集中精神，心無旁騖，「知止而後有定，定而後能靜，靜而後能安，安而後能慮，慮而後能得。」咦，不是古人早已說過了嗎？原來「一貫道」不難，順著古人的藤蔓就可以摸到瓜，依樣葫蘆，唸唸有詞，通識課程就有了方法。	The teachers are nervous too, unsure how they are to play the role of an enlightener under the new system. It shouldn’t be hard to feign competence among many others, they guess, just by pretending to do their job as expected. They could tell students that, to study well, one must first have a method that is correct, and then an attitude that is earnest. Well, they could tell students first to concentrate and let their mind rest amidst all distractions, then – “The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is set; and, that being set, a calmness is found; in that calmness, there will be a tranquil repose; in that repose, one can then deliberate; and that deliberation will bring about the desired result.” Aha! Wasn’t the same expounded long, long ago by sages of the past? So, trace the ancients’ thread of ideas and you get hold of the “master key” – what an easy job! Just murmur the magic spell and – hey presto – you see the way that General Education purports to show.
教育家說，不對不對，通識教育是 General Education，亦稱 Liberal Education，有人翻譯成「博雅教育」，是要把知識學習建築在寬廣的生活基礎上的。胡適時常說的，「為學當如金字塔，要能博大要能高」，如此就有博雅的文化修養，就不再是死學死背，而能融會貫通，化學習為樂趣，像王艮《樂學歌》所說，「學是學此樂，樂是樂此學」，豈不美哉？	But, no – objected the educationists – that’s not the way. General Education, aka Liberal Education, they said, means Boya Education as some call it in Chinese, literally “broad and refined” education. That means building up scholarship upon an extensive foundation in life, in the late Dr Hu Shi’s oft-advised way – “Pursue learning like a pyramid building; make the base broad and raise the top tall.” Then you will become refined and cultured, no longer plagued by rote-learning, but delighted to learn for an all-round understanding. It sounds like what philosopher Wang Gen said centuries ago – “Learning – it’s learning abut this delight; Delight – it’s the delight in learning.” Isn’t that nice and beautiful?
就有教師說，你們制定教育改革政策，當然美透了。我們當教師的知識不夠博雅，不是金字塔，不懂得文史哲數理化如何一以貫之，不知道面對著浩瀚學海，如何可以一葦而渡滄波，只看到眼前波濤兼天洶湧，駕著自己的一葉小舟，怕的是既無燈塔，亦無羅盤，連航海圖都沒有，淹不死那才是命大。	Yet, some teachers voiced their concerns. Sure, policymakers for the education reform could feel well and smug, they grumbled, but front-line teachers are just folks neither learned nor cultured enough to have a pyramidal grasp of all the liberal arts subjects. Academically, they are like those told to sail a dinghy across the ocean, yet not knowing how to tackle the huge waves out there or having any recourse to lighthouses or compasses – not even a nautical chart. They would be divinely lucky if they could escape drowning at all.
家長說話了，老師都不知道怎麼教，我們怎麼敢把孩子交給你們？拿人家的一生前途當兒戲啊？毛主席以前也玩過「上山下鄉」的遊戲，要知識青年上山下鄉，在廣闊天地創造人間樂土，與天鬥、與地鬥、與人鬥，其樂無窮。結果怎麼樣了？還不是瞎折騰。教育改革、通識教育，要方法不要內容，是不是瞎折騰啊？	And then, the parents expressed their worries – how dare they entrust their kids to those who don’t even know how to teach, thus risking the entire future for the young? The late Mao Zedong did tell the educated youth in urban China to go for re-education in the rural areas, with the vision that they would create a heaven on earth in that vast world through infinitely pleasurable fights against Nature and among humans. How did that turn out? – In a mess and distress, with lots of losses. Now here comes an education reform or General Education that’s all about ways but not things – isn’t that asking for disaster again?
不要讓學生成為白老鼠?	Will students become guinea pigs?
是不是瞎折騰，我們不知道；是折騰，大概少不了。折騰的原因，是過去的教育制度出了問題，學習完全僵化，會考成了教育的目標，學童的學習偏離了「德、智、體、群、美」的教育方向，因此，非改不可，要改就得折騰。	We don’t know whether that will end up in a mess and distress, but probably there’ll be chopping and changing. The problem lies in the old system of education – it has turned rigid and ossified, aiming at nothing but scores in the unified exams, and leading our children away from a balanced growth morally, intellectually, physically, socially, and aesthetically. Hence the necessity for reform, and reform calls for shifts and changes.
我倒是希望教育當局挑明了，說清楚不得不折騰的道理，而不是故佈疑陣，亮出「通識教育」這張王牌。通識教育也好，博雅教育也好，方向是對的，關鍵是教什麼，怎麼教，有沒有足夠的師資教，師資不足如何培訓，如何解除家長疑慮，如何啟發學生興趣，如何引導學童參與學習。	I would rather the education authorities were open and above-board about the need for changes rather than resorting to feints and ruses with the trump card of “General Education”. Now, general education – or “broad and refined” education – is fine in principle, but in practice the real issues remain in what to teach and how, whether enough qualified teachers are available or – if not – how more of them can be trained, how the parents’ doubts and worries can be cleared, and how the children’s interest in studies can be aroused.
有沒有一以貫之的學習方法？我看沒有。強調唯一的方法，即使是深思熟慮之後的最佳教學法、開放教學法，互動教學法，最後還是會僵化。只有在多元互動的機制下，留下相當寬容的空間，容許不同的實驗方式，假以年歲，才有可能發展出適當的教學方式與課程內容。學童會不會成為白老鼠？會。	Can there be a one-size-fits-all way of learning? I don’t think so. Any supposedly one-and-only way, however well thought out as the optimum solution, be it an open-end principle or an interactive method, would end up turning rigid and dead. Instead, a viable system of teaching and curriculums can only evolve over time through a pluralistic and interactive mechanism that allows sizeable room of tolerance for trials and experiments. Yet, in that process, will our children at school become guinea pigs, as is feared? Yes, they will.
我希望當局誠實一些，誠懇一些，不要騙老百姓。老老實實說，有一代學子會成為通識教育學制的白老鼠，但不是犧牲掉的白老鼠，是為了他們將來成為更快樂更幸福的人類。	I hope the authorities will be more honest and sincere instead of trying to fool the populace. They should tell people frankly that one generation of students will have to act as subjects for the experiment in General Education, but that they won’t be sacrificed like guinea pigs – they will grow up to be merrier and happier human beings in the future.
通識教育不能不做，已是共識。怎麼做？還沒有共識。大家要誠懇地交換意見，不要做「騷」，因為這是為了下一代。任何當前的利益，也比不上人類後代幸福來得重要。	General Education is a necessity; on this there’s consensus now. How, in practice, can that be done? There’s no consensus yet. All of us should confer and exchange opinions sincerely rather than making a mere show of it, because at stake is the future of our next generation. No current profits, however large, can possibly outweigh the well-being of posterity.
[原載《文匯報(副刊)》2004-10-28]	[The source text was published in Wen Wei Po (Supplement) on October 28, 2004.] (Translated by Allen Zhuang)