Editorial : Teaching of Chinese history
中史教育撥亂反正 專科專教提升師資
文章日期:2017年2月24日

雙語社評齊齊聽

英語 (足本收聽)

普通話 (足本收聽)

【明報專訊】WE GATHER that, to promote the study of Chinese history and traditional Chinese culture, the government will announce next week in the next policy address that it will provide secondary and primary schools with $125 million with a view to improving schooling and teacher training. The idea is to help students appreciate, receive and pass on the Chinese nation's culture. It is of course right for one to get to know the history of one's nation. Chinese-history classes are not just about how dynasties rose and fell. In them emphasis is put on how one should conduct oneself. The government should have had Chinese-history study beefed up and made Chinese history a separate subject. It ought to have done so whether ideas of making Hong Kong independent have emerged in recent years.

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政府為推動中史及傳統文化,據悉將在下周《施政報告》提出撥款1.25億元供中小學改善教學,加強師資培訓,協助學生欣賞和承傳中華民族文明。認識國家民族的歷史,理所當然,况且中史不僅鋪陳治亂興衰,更着重做人道理,政府本來就應當加強中史教育,讓中史獨立成科,不管「港獨」思潮近年有否冒起,亦屬應然。

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According to documents the Education Bureau has submitted to the Legislative Council, nearly 60% of those who teach Chinese history in the territory have received professional training of history. They are subject teachers who majored or minored in history in college. However, the percentage of those who majored in history is only 40%. Some educators have pointed out that 60% of those who teach Chinese history do so concurrently. Some of them did Chinese history in matriculation classes, but others did so only until secondary three.

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根據教育局早前向立法會提交的文件,目前全港中學中史教師,近六成曾受過歷史專業訓練,在大學時曾主修或副修歷史,屬專科教師,不過,如果只計主修歷史的教師,比例降至只有四成。有教育界人士指出,在中史教師中,有六成是兼教,有些教師尚有修讀預科中史,可是有的教師竟然只是讀到中三。

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Those who seek to promote the study of Chinese history ought to realise for what purpose they should do so. Nowadays, many have wrong ideas about the subject. For example some "judge the past by present-day standards". They look at what has unfolded in China over thousands of years from perspectives of the 21st century. In the words of the famous late historian Ch'ien Mu, they emphasise "opinion of the times" at the expense of "opinion of history". "He who uses bronze as a mirror can set right his clothes and hat; he who uses history as a mirror knows what causes the rise and fall of a dynasty, and he who uses others as a mirror knows what is advantageous and what is not." It is to understand what happens by using what happened as a mirror that one studies history. History is about what people did. As Mr Ch'ien pointed out, there are differences between Chinese-history ideas and Western-history ideas, and one of them is that, while Western historians traditionally attach greater importance to events than to people, Chinese historians traditionally tend to attach primary importance to people and secondary importance to events. Their different tendencies show Chinese people traditionally consider it more important to show in detail with historical stories how people should conduct themselves and how they can tell the upright from the wicked. If people have such knowledge, the lustre of humanity and hopes can be seen even in a period of turmoil when the wicked are in power and war disasters persist.

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推動中史教育,必須明白所為何事。今時今日,不少人對中史存在誤解誤讀,例如「以今度古」,以廿一世紀觀點去看待中國數千年歷史傳統發展,引用已故著名歷史學家錢穆的說法,就是過分強調「時代意見」而忽視了「歷史意見」。「以銅為鏡,可以正衣冠;以史為鏡,可以知興衰;以人為鏡,可以知得失。」研讀歷史,就是為了鑑古知今。歷史講人事,錢穆先生指出,中史與西洋史觀念頗有不同之處,其一就是西史傳統「重事多於重人」,中史傳統則傾向以人為主,事為副。取向偏重有別,反映中國傳統更重視以歷史故事細說做人道理,鑑別奸賢,即使在惡人當道戰禍不休的亂世,也能看到人性光輝和希望。這正是中史教育精義所在。

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Chinese-history teaching cannot be beefed up otherwise than by improving teacher training. Each school should have at least one teacher who specialises in Chinese history. The government made a right step when it decided to spend more than a hundred million dollars on beefing up Chinese-history and Chinese-language teaching in primary and secondary schools. However, Hong Kong boasts nearly a thousand government, subsidised and Direct-Subsidy-Scheme schools. Each of them will get on average just about $100,000. The government must, if it wants to have Chinese-history teaching beefed up, allocate more resources so that the subject will invariably be taught by subject teachers. One may say it is all talk unless it does so.

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改善師資水平,是加強中史教育的不二法門,每校最少應有一名專科專教中史教師。政府撥出逾億元加強中小學的中史和中文教育,是正確一步,惟全港官校、津校及直資學校近千間,設若平均分攤,每間學校所獲撥款不過10萬元左右。政府若想加強中史教育,還須增撥資源落實專科專教,否則只會淪為空談。

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明報社評2017.01.11

Presented by lecturers of Hong Kong Community College, PolyU and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Toby Chiu

Lecturer

www.hkcc-polyu.edu.hk/staff_directory/language_communication/CHIU,_Toby_Yim-tung-91.html

周文駿

講師

www.hkcc-polyu.edu.hk/staff_directory/language_communication/CHOW,_Raymond_Wen-chun-92.html

【Bilingual Editorial】