University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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36 THE LINGUIST status of education in China, which status cries unto the Occident for remedy. China is intensely eager for Vtiestern culture and civilization, and she will get it in one way or another. lf we are anxious that she adopt the good and avoid the evil of our civilization we must give her our best ideals along with our culture. And our best ideals are embodied in 'Christianity-but Christianity considered as an active force in daily conduct rather than as doctrine or dogtna, for China has had the latter for more than twenty centuries with what results we all know. We must teach the Chinese our ideals through example rather than by precept, and this can be admirably done by young men and women teachers who live Christianity. It matters not what onewishes-to or can teach. Thersubjects- are the same as in America. There is great demand for English a11d Science and History and Political Science. English increases the earning power of the student and is a required subject in the mission schools. Science--biology, chemistry, physics, are desired be- cause they are at the basis of our material, our medical and our agri- cultural progress. Teachers of medicine and of its preparatory sub- jects will find their efforts compensated in untold ways, for China has never had a medical science based on sound analysis. Though the Chinese are a virile race, they do get sick - horribly sick-and if they get well from the severe treatment of the native doctors it is just by chance. lf a baby happens to become sick, for instance, it is exposed to wind and weatherg if it lives, well and goodg if it dies it was probably demon infested, anyway, and so might as well be dead. Scabby bodies, scrofulous heads, infected teeth, trachomatous eyes. and other gruesome ills need attentiong and the Chinese must be 'taught our medicine before the race as a whole will be healed. Sani- tary engineers are also needed, for the Chinese must betaught sanitary hygiene. A step in this direction has already been made in the Pro- vince of Kiangsu, under the auspices of the provincial civil police. Professor C. W. Woodworth, provincial entomologist, has organized a Sanitary police, whose duty it is to exterminate the breeding places of Hies and mosquitoes and other disease-spreading insects. I The Chinese Q .cs il Some of the cells still stand. ' l. The work of these police has been cinematographed and eventually will he shown in other provinces of China and in the United States.

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'THE TEN PERCENT 35 The pay of the teachers is very uncertain, even in the universitiesg several times it has been necessary for the teachers to strike in order to get their pay. The government schools employ, with a few exceptions in special courses in the universities, only native teachers. Those who contemplate teaching in China, would do well to consider the various mission schools. The latter offer opportunities for teaching of all kinds, from the kindergarten to the university. Though the government has begun to educate, the missions still have an immense and permanent educational work to do. There is an enthusiastic and progressive and ambitious spirit in all their workg they are attempting work often beyond their physical capacity. The Chinese, in many instances, find the mission schools much better than those established by the governmentg and this will be so until the government devotes more money to education. English is an essential subject, required of all students in the mission schools, from the higher primary grades to college. VVith few excep- tions the teachers of English are foreigners, whereas in the government schools the teachers of English are Chinese. But English is not the only subject taught by foreigners. Any one burning with the sacred hre will find a candle to light, no matter what the subject he teaches. To present an adequate idea of all the education in China, a few figures of mission schools will be necessaryg accurate Iigurcs are hard to get, for all the year books vary. The China Year Book for 1921, 2, p. 816, gives the following for China, including Manchuria and Mongolia: Primary Schools, 6617, students, 184,481g Middle Schools, 2913 students, 15,2l3. This authority lists some 56 colleges and universities with a membership of 12,494, but this tigure will also include students of Primary and Middle School grade, since a great many colleges and universities have students of all grades' In comparison witn the ligures of the government schools, what the mission schools lack in quantity they make up in quality and stability. Besides the government and mission schools there are many private elementary schools maintained by only one teacher or per- haps two. Many of my students were put into such schools before they went to the mission schoolg or else their fathers had private tutors for them, tutors that had only a few pupils. No fair notion of the extent of education in China and of her educational needs can be had until we remember that her population 15 conservatively estimated at 400,000,000. The number of students, 4.5oo,ooo, is but a small percentage of the whole, only one and one- fourth percent! Contrast this with the United States where the children between seven and thirteen years of age who go to school are fourteen per cent of the population. In the United States about six per cent are illiterate. I have been unable to get any figures on illiteracy in China, but I think a fair estimate is ninety percent. E. A. Ross states t The Changing Chinese, p.342j that not one woman in a thousand and not one man in ten can read. So much for the C13 See also Educational Directory 8: Year Book of China, 1921, p. 16. C V

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THE TEN PERCENT 37 must :also be taught to plant trees and to care for them. Floods and famines will not cease coming until the mountains and the hill-sides are reforested. For this work, and that of the teaching of' agriculture, extension workers will be needed. and these must be trained. There is need-. also, for teachers of physical education, for the Chinese have never known the relation of exercise and athletics to health and morals. All the mission schoolsfaim to imbuet the Chinese with the'ideai of Western sportsmanshipg for a Chinese foot ball team will think nothing of walking oi? the gridiron in the midst of battle. The,colleges and universities are rapidly increasing in size-- Larger faculties and more buildings are being added as soon as money Can be had for the purpose. It must be remembered that these are Only about ten years old and that they have a membership on the- avcrage of about 350, the size of the average small college in America. 'l'he rate of progress of such schoo'ls as the University of Nanking, the XVest China Union University, the Canton Christian College, the Hongkong University, indicates that in not a very long time the mission and government universities will each number their students by the thousands. It seems to me that foreign teachers will always be- needed for university subjects and tor English in other grades, for the Chinese do not like to learn English from a Chinese teacher. Catalogs of many of the Chinese universities can be consulted in the libraries of all the large universities in America. They give an adequate idea of the scope of their teaching and their facilities, which are quite' similar to those of American colleges, except that Chinese language and literature are listed. They cannot give the hope and the joy and the spiritual satisfaction that comes from trying to teach a newly awakened people. But this must not be understood to mean that the Chinese are not like American school boys and do not want to work their teachers in the same way. They are as glad of a holiday and short assignments as any students. And sometimes the whole class will petition the instructor to relieve it of a tinal examination, one class at the University of Nanking even going so far as to invade the- teacher's home and after half an hour-'s characteristic preliminary polite small talk, present their petition. Strictness is always necessary 5. but it the students can not get what they want, they bear no resent- ment toward the teacher. They have a sense of humor, even. though they are sensitive and do not like to fail in class. The other day, the word blockhead appearing in the lesson, I asked the student who had been reading what the word meant. He evidently had not studied his lesson and could not answer. Ilet him stand for a few :minutes to give his brain a chanceg meanwhile the other students began to smile, being the more amused the more he exempli- hed the word. Because of the great difference between the English and the Chinese languages. teachers of the former are often exasper- ated at the seeming stupidity or uncomprehendingness of the Chinese. Sometimes their pronunciation is extremely difficult to understand and. I have to call upon the class to interpret. But their pronunciation of English is probably no worse than our pronunciation of Chinese.