Source|Yuanchuan Research Institute (ID: caijingyanjiu)

Author|Yu Peiying/Lu Shutian

Edit|Li Motian

Head Image|Visual China

In 2003, when the soulmate, readers, and the story club were still in a three-pronged state, an ancient hit was born called “I have struggled for 18 years before I sit with you and drink coffee”.

The author is a post-70s who was born in a rural area. He finished his master’s degree in Shanghai with a student loan and found a “job with an annual salary of 70,000 to 80,000 yuan.” She said that when she was in college, she “doesn’t know how to play an instrument, doesn’t know Hong Kong and Taiwan stars, has never read martial arts novels, and doesn’t know what a Walkman is.” This is a work on the topic of a horrible master, and it is also the earliest screen-breaking article on the Jianzhong Internet.

After 18 years of struggle, a farmer’s child won the right to sit on an equal footing with his peers in the metropolis. This is a true portrayal of a whole generation, and the inherent inequality mentioned in it is just right. The ground poked into the hidden pain of a huge group, so even though some counterarguments appeared, readers still empathized with the article and praised it.

In 2003, “unfavorable son” was a 100% inspirational vocabulary, but in 2020, this word was “to be a writer” full of jokes Replaced.

The full name of the tester is “the tester in the small town”, which refers to low-level towns or rural areas, enters prestigious schools through the sea tactics, firmly believes that reading can change your destiny, but can only barely gain a foothold in a big city after graduation Ordinary people. This term comes from a group on Douban that “shares 985/211 failed students”, with as many as 50,000 members. In the early days, there were self-deprecating and self-deprecating elements.

The vocabulary circulated in such a small circle is completely out of the circle in 2020. The reason is two hot events that “face value changes destiny”. The first is that Yang Chaoyue, who has a junior high school degree, settled in Shanghai, and the second is that Ding Zhen, a Tibetan teenager who “has not been destroyed by nine years of compulsory education”, was awarded the hometown tourism ambassador. These two events sparked a big discussion about the rationality of “distribution by face”.

The identification of special talents is disputedThe discussion is normal, but this time, a media published an article called “Why do you want to spread the grievances of the “protesters” on Ding Zhen”. The hat was put on the head of a person who criticized Ding Zhen slightly, mocking him and creating a sense of sight of “you are more ugly.”

The young people in the scroll never expected that the term “being a writer” would be used critically by the media.

This is not an isolated phenomenon. In the past two years, self-defeating words such as diaosi, beating workers, and clowns are often used as “identity tags” to be attached to certain groups. Some business executives in the past mocked that they could not afford Xibei with a monthly salary of 5,000. Later, some real estate daughters experienced life as a worker at station B. Frankly speaking, even in an authentic capitalist country, no one would dare to ridicule the working class.

Compared with the atmosphere when “Struggling 18 Years and Drinking Coffee with You” 17 years ago, the young people in this class seem to be less enthusiastic about the words “sounds tired” such as struggle, inspiration, and counterattack. , I like to lie flat, bereavement, Buddhism, these words that do not bring pressure. More importantly, many people are also suspicious of the “questioning” and the college entrance examination system of Ruo Guo.

Why do people question “questioning”? How to treat “questioning” correctly? Society owes young people an answer.

01. Selection: the essence of doing the question

Shortly after the article “Drinking Coffee” was screened, there was a TV series that became popular all over the country, and that was “Struggle” starring Tong Dawei, Ma Yili, Wen Yi and others.

About 2005 when “Drinking Coffee” and “Struggle” were screened, it happened to be the stage when the post-80s baby boomers just entered university or just entered the society, and it was also the stage when young people’s demand for “inspirational” was the strongest. . Ironically, what the “Struggle” intends to promote is completely opposite to the plot-the protagonist Lu Tao struggles successfully and finally relies on the real father of the real estate tycoon.

This later became the standard configuration of many domestic dramas: in the name of struggle, to show the happiness of people who don’t have to struggle. For example, in “Beijing Love Story”, Cheng Feng, played by Chen Sicheng, has a wealthy family, and the girlfriend who robbed the Phoenix man can still be “moral exemption.” Wei Wei was portrayed as a wretched uncle.

The plot of “I have saved 50,000 for three years and finally bought a house in Shanghai with the 9.95 million given by my parents” can not help but feel ironic and disappointing.

Actually the first in the 21st centuryFor the last time in life, give and ask fair.

“Through education, there is a high probability that fate and class can be changed. This window period will not be very long, and it may only be several generations… Now, everyone is naturally breathing in. Others have some copycats at most, so hurry up. Take a few more breaths and let yourself be a little bigger.” The person who said this was Han Han, who had dropped out of high school and had been in a society for many years. It was not like preaching, but it made people feel closer to the truth.

What further confirms this point of view is that attempts to circumvent “questioning=selection” seem to be unsuccessful.

In 2003, the Ministry of Education granted Peking University, Tsinghua University, People’s University and other colleges and universities a 5% independent enrollment right. It is hoped that major colleges and universities will recruit students with special skills based on their development characteristics and enjoy discounts for the college entrance examination score reduction. In the years when the “burden reduction order” was frequently issued, the education department issued a series of policies with a good starting point, but in the process of implementation, without exception, “take some detours.”

Ten years after the opening of independent enrollment, the National People’s Congress became the only college stationed by the Central Inspection Team during the first round of inspections. Cai Rongsheng, director of the recruiting and employment office, was taken away to “assistance in the investigation.” In their feedback, the inspection team said that the National People’s Congress “has weaknesses in the construction of the punishment and prevention system, especially in autonomous enrollment.” After that, Cai Rongsheng was sentenced by the court for accepting bribes of more than 22.3 million yuan.

After 17 years of experimentation amidst controversy, the independent enrollment policy was eventually replaced by a strong foundation program that emphasized performance and fairness. In the same period, although people are constantly picking up on the “questions” in “questioning”, the voice of quality education has almost ceased in recent years, and has even become a derogatory term. However, the voice of safeguarding the college entrance examination and even the examination-oriented education in China has increased. Come bigger.

People may be able to tolerate nepotism and rent-seeking in other areas of society, but the defense of the purity of the college entrance examination has become increasingly fierce. Chinese-style exam-oriented education is by no means perfect, and the Anglo-American education system is not lacking in advantages. But for the most common individuals in this country, the purpose of their education is not to broaden their horizons, not to meet celebrities, not to be among the elite, but to escape poverty.

The problem is still the only bargaining chip in their hands.

03. Belief: Active and Passive

The three representative coordinates on the educational map of China are Huangzhuang in Haidian, Hengshui in Hebei, and Maotan Factory in Anhui.

Huangzhuang is the product of the first-tier middle-class education arms race, while Hengshui Middle School is an educational machine built by the second and third-tier cities by pinpointing students; but if you don’t have the wealth of Haidian’s mother and the qualifications to sign up for Hengzhong, then Mao Tan In the factoryLearning is the last refuge for civilian families.

“China on the Bite of the Tongue 2” once visited Maotanchang Town, a town with a population of less than 40,000, and recorded the students’ only 10 minutes of lunch time each day. In order to enter the university, students’ schedules are strictly regulated: self-study at 6:30, get out of class at 8:05, and class end at 12 o’clock. After eating lunch in 10 minutes, class will start at 2 o’clock, get out of class will end at 5:10, self-study at 5:50 in the evening, and end at 10:50.

Maotanchang Middle School Ten Thousands Passing Exams, 2012

In addition to renting houses, the economic pillar of the town is the faith industry. Anta’s shoes, champion shops, fortune-telling booths, gods of any background can find a place. On the day of the college entrance examination, girls must sit in the first car, otherwise boys will “difficulty” for everyone; students of horses must ride in the first car, so as to be “successful”[13]. Under the centuries-old willow tree next to the school, called the sacred tree, incense ash is often piled more than one meter high.

As for this place rich in writing writers, public opinion is constantly criticized, among which the voices of “destroying humanity”, “distorting education” and “repressing individuality” are the highest. However, the undergraduate rate of more than 90% and the one-book rate of more than 50% still attract many parents. After all, there is no point in struggling with roadblocks in a life where there is only one way to go.

Mr. Zhang Guimei, who has just received the “National Imitation of Poverty Alleviation”, once said to reporters: “When a girl is educated, she can change three generations… If she is educated, she will throw her child away? Give birth to a girl? She won’t.” As for the question, she bluntly said: “…People say that the question is not good for the child, we can’t help it.”

So to be more extreme: For the vast rural areas and underdeveloped areas of China, there are not too many people who believe in “problems”, but too few.

04. Ending: Fair price

In this world, there is no fairness without paying a price, and the educational selection mechanism behind “questioning” is no exception.

This system is often criticized as the heavier burden brought by the industrialization of education. From 1999 to 2015, the national education tuition and miscellaneous fee income increased by 11.7 times, and the GDP growth was only 8 times in the same period. Educational institutions and training courses are blooming everywhere, from kindergartens to civil service examinations. The investment of Chinese parents in education is sufficient to stimulate domestic demand.

In “Education and Social Policy”, American scholar Lester Thurow summarized education investment as a kind of “defensive expenditure”: as the educated labor force increases, just to protect the current income situation, they We must improve our education level. If they don’t, others will. The larger the educated workforce, the more necessary such defensive expenditures.

Whether complaining or anxiety, the core question is: how much are we willing to pay to maintain this bottom-up channel?

In 2010, Southern Weekend published a report entitled “Reading to Lose Destiny: A Sample of Crazy Education in Huining, Gansu.” The story took place in Huining, Gansu, where the three main forces of the Red Army met. At the time, 63-year-old Wang Qingyuan trained three college students at the cost of a debt of 60,000 yuan. As a result, his youngest son, Wang Zhuo, was still on the verge of unemployment for half a year after graduating from university. The bank relentlessly included Wang Qingyuan on the credit blacklist.

In order to provide for their children to go to college, Wang Qingyuan’s family had to keep their monthly consumption below 100 yuan. His wife also died of a headache because of a headache, “for fear of spending money in a big hospital”. In an interview, Wang Qingyuan said, “Since I have reached this point, if I don’t confess the children, my wife will die in vain.”

In this small border town lacking in minerals, coal, water, or even wind, the government has devoted more than 50% of its annual fiscal expenditure to the construction of school buildings and teachers without hesitation. In the case of insufficient investment from the central government to education in the western region, education expendituresThe development of his field has stagnated for a long time in industry and agriculture. An official of the local education department said in an interview, “Apart from education, there is no way out [14].”

Huining, Gansu was once a famous “College Entrance Examination No. 1 County”

The Chinese people’s belief in the college entrance examination is obsessed with its fairness and longing for its “destiny-changing” attribute. Its appearance has changed the generation of national elites and the distribution of power, as well as the way individuals understand their own destiny and social situation. In the more than 40 years since the college entrance examination was restored, its fragile fairness has been carefully maintained, but the gap and injustice on a larger level have been magnified.

Whether it is the spread of wealth anxiety, the Versailles-style show-off of the rich first, the helpless jokes of 996 and the blessings are all manifestations of this injustice. What’s more frightening is that there are more people who are experiencing cruel silence in this chaotic and noisy Internet era. This is not a problem of education, nor is it a problem that the Ministry of Education can solve.

The hope of “the court is Tian Shelang, and the night is in Tianzitang” was once the source of vitality for the entire society. However, the rapid expansion of the scale of talents and the uneven distribution of resources have begun to shake the long-standing belief in “reading to change destiny.” The prerequisite for solving the problem is to face the problem squarely, rather than with an ironic tone, so that the poor background writer “adapts to a more three-dimensional social judgment system.”

The ridicule and denial of the questioner is a kind of betrayal. You know, those who still believe that reading can change their destiny are the most common faces in this country; those who worship the willow tree of Maotanchang Middle School as a sacred tree are parents who are not wealthy.

Reference material:

[1] Chatting with Mama Haidian: Subjectivity in ideals, cock fighting in reality, random fluctuations

[2] Luo Yonghao, the sinking of an idealist, why add salt?

[3] Han Han and his son: He and his 82%, men dress

[4] College entrance examination, Shi Yan, Jiading

[5] Analysis of Regional Discrimination, Endogenous Economic Growth and Welfare in Enrollment of College Entrance Examination in China, Liu Yuming/Zhang Qinghua

[6] Killing Matt and Sanhe Great God, random fluctuations

[7] It took me 18 years to sit with you and drink coffee, reader

[8] “Small town being a writer” has fallen into a trap set by indulging in learning domineering, China Youth Daily

[9] The dream of enrolling students and earning money, Sun Yifei

[10] 1978 Henan Liberal Arts No. 1 Liu Zhenyun: If it were not for the college entrance examination, I might be moving bricks, surging news

[11] Unbelievable invention, Southern Weekend

[12] The Tyranny ofNumbers, AlwynYoung

[13] Demystifying China’s No. 1 College Entrance Examination Factory, Sohu

[14] Reading to lose destiny: A sample of crazy education in Huining, Gansu, Southern Weekend

[15] On December 10, 41 years ago, the college entrance examination resumed, Curiosity Daily

[16] “College Entrance Examination Investment Immigration”Red Town Real Estate, China Youth Daily

[17] China University of Political Science and Law’s high recruitment indicators are allocated according to the population of each province, Beijing News

[18] Young people in rented houses in Beijing, China Youth Daily

This article is from WeChat official account:Yuanchuan Research Institute (ID: caijingyanjiu) , author: Yu Peiying / Lushu day