In Tungchi University, Shanghai
In Peking No. 23 Middle School
In a People's Commune

- China Pictorial 1968.2, p.22

The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" stated: "In the great proletarian cultural revolution a most important task is to transform the old educational system and the old principles and methods of teaching." A tremendous revolution in education is developing throughout the country.

It is an extremely profound one in which the proletariat overthrows the bourgeoisie in the field of education. It involves mass criticism and mass struggle against a handful of top Party persons in authority taking the capitalist road and their agents in educational circles. It aims at destroying completely the counter-revolutionary line they enforced, eliminating the baleful influence of the reactionary bourgeois academic ..authorities" they protected, putting an end to the domination of the schools by bourgeois intellectuals, and setting up a proletarian educational system of a new type that is part and parcel of the socialist system.

In his great practice of revolutionary struggle over the past decades, our great leader Chairman Mao has enriched and developed Marxist-Leninist theory on the- proletarian revolution in education creatively and with genius. His ideas on proletarian education are the most comprehensive and scientific in the history of mankind. Chairman Mao's gigantic blueprint for communist education is becoming a living reality through the practice of hundreds of millions of revolutionary people.

Chairman Mao, in a recent instruction, teaches us: "The proletarian revolution in education should be carried out by relying on the masses of the revolutionary students, teachers and workers in the schools, by relying on the activists among them, namely those proletarian revolutionaries who are determined to carry the great proletarian cultural revolution through to the end."

Revolutionary students, teachers and workers of universities, colleges, middle and primary schools throughout the country have taken "fight self, repudiate revisionism" as a guiding principle and have plunged enthusiastically into the great proletarian revolution in education. They think, speak and act with daring. They courageously break through and boldly create new things. They dare to turn their backs on all that is feudal, bourgeois and revisionist, whether ancient or modern, foreign or domestic. They are bent on smashing to smithereens the ideological and educational system of the old society. Clearing away the rubble of the exploiting classes, they will establish, in place of the old, a new proletarian educational system radiant with the brilliance of Mao Tsetung's thought.

The following articles give an account of the educational revolution at Tungchi University, Shanghai; No.23 Middle School, Peking; and Sheshan People's Commune in Sungchiang County, Shanghai Municipality.

In Tungchi University, Shanghai

In the unprecedented great cultural revolution, the revolutionary teachers and students of Tungchi University in Shanghai, holding high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung's thought, rebelled against the handful of Party persons in authority taking the capitalist road and seized leadership of the University. At present, in accordance with Chairman Mao's instruction, they have resumed classes while carrying on the revolution.

Tungchi is an architectural engineering institute. Prior to the cultural revolution, it was controlled by a handful of capitalist roaders who enforced a counter-revolutionary revisionist line. They placed the university under the domination of bourgeois reactionary academic "authorities" and bourgeois intellectuals whose ideology had not been reformed well. They peddled the sinister wares of feudalism, capitalism and revisionism to poison and corrupt the minds of the students, and encouraged them to aspire to become "authorities".

On May 7, 1966, our great leader Chairman Mao instructed us: "The period of schooling should be shortened. Education should be revolutionized, and the domination of our schools by bourgeois intellectuals should by no means be allowed to continue."

After classes were resumed, the revolutionary teachers and students of Tungchi, carrying out Chairman Mao's instruction, thoroughly destroyed the revisionist line in education. They wrote thousands of big-character posters which were like spears and daggers hurled at the handful of capitalist roaders headed by China's Khrushchov and at the counter-revolutionary educational line. A series of meetings were held in the various departments and faculties to expose and denounce the crimes of China's Khrushchov and the bourgeois intellectuals. Some of the students went to factories, communes and construction sites to solicit the opinions of workers and peasants on educational reform.

In his May 7th instruction Chairman Mao teaches us: "While their main task is to study, they should in addition to their studies, learn other things, that is, industrial work, farming and military affairs. They should also criticize the bourgeoisie."

In accordance with this instruction and other brilliant ideas of Chairman Mao on the proletarian revolution in education, the revolutionary teachers and students of Tungchi advanced some bold suggestions for reorganization of the university. They worked out a preliminary plan to transform the university into the "May 7th" Commune consisting of a tuitional unit, a designing unit and a building unit, that is, an integrated whole having a threefold function. This will change the situation prevailing under the old system, in which education was divorced from proletarian politics, from productive labour and from the labouring people. It will enable the proletarian revolutionaries to keep the leadership of education firmly in their own hands.

Refusing to admit defeat, the handful of capitalist roaders and bourgeois reactionary academic "authorities" put up a desperate opposition. This only served to heighten the militancy of the revolutionary teachers and students who kept in mind Chairman Mao's teaching that "to be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a good thing". Also, they realized that "new things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow ". With the invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung as their guide, they put the creative study and application of Chairman Mao's works before and above everything else. They have pledged to carry the great proletarian cultural revolution and the revolution in education through to the end.

The workers supported the revolutionary teachers and students of Tungchi University. "We workers hate the revisionist educational line from the bottom of our hearts," they said. "We must train successors to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat, and in order to do this, we must thoroughly carry out revolution in the schools."

With powerful support from the Shanghai Municipal Revolutionary Committee, the "May 7th" Commune was formally set up at the beginning of October last year. The Shanghai No.2 Municipal Building Company and the East China Institute of Industrial Design participated. The programme for transformation is being carried out on a trial basis at a construction site and is subject to improvements in the course of revolutionary practice. The revolutionary teachers and students are determined to build Tungchi into a great school shining with Mao Tse-tung's thought.

In Peking No. 23 Middle School

When the Party Central Committee issued the call for resuming classes while making revolution, the revolutionary teachers and students of Peking No.23 Middle School responded enthusiastically. Holding high the great red banner of Mao Tsetung's thought, they thoroughly exposed and denounced China's Khrushchov for his heinous crime in frantically pushing a counterrevolutionary revisionist line in education. This mass criticism deepened their class hatred and enhanced their political consciousness. They are determined to turn their school into a big, red school of Mao Tse-tung's thought.

They put above and before everything else the living study and application of Chairman Mao's works. This has powerfully promoted their ideological revolutionization and pushed forward the revolutionary transformation of their school.

Chairman Mao teaches us: "Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture."

The revolutionary teachers and students of No.23 Middle School concluded that, in accordance with this instruction, students must be infinitely loyal to Chairman Mao and to Mao Tse-tung's thought. They must set up a proletarian world outlook, share the feelings of the workers and peasants and establish a firm proletarian stand. To achieve this aim the school took as its main course the class struggle. They made arrangements with factories and people's communes to allow students to come to learn industrial work and farming. Teaching methods and subject matter were transformed accordingly. Some courses were dropped, some combined, and others concerning knowledge of industrial and agricultural production were added. Military sports were made part of the curriculum. Chairman Mao's works are the basic teaching material for courses in politics and Chinese. The physics course has been simplified. The teachers and students follow Chairman Mao's instruction: "Officers teach soldiers, soldiers teach officers and soldiers teach each other." They prepare lessons together, teach each other and learn from each other. Students are encouraged to think independently and to set forth their views. Workers, peasants and soldiers will be invited to give lectures.

Chairman Mao has said: "The masses have boundless creative power." In accordance with this teaching, the proletarian revolutionaries who seized power in the school trust the masses, rely on them and respect their initiative. The process of teaching and learning is being transformed in the course of practice. Under the radiance of Mao Tse-tung's thought, a new No.23 Middle School will arise and develop.

In a People's Commune

Since last May, a vigorous proletarian revolution in education has been waged in the schools attached to Sheshan commune, Sungchiang County, Shanghai Municipality. It was launched by-the revolutionary teachers and students together with the poor and lower middle peasants, following closely the strategic programme of the great leader Chairman Mao.

The revisionist line in education imposed by China's Khrushchov and his agents caused a great deal of harm and spread poison far and wide in the countryside. They clung to the old educational system with might and main. They tried to keep out the children of poor and lower middle peasant families, and when this failed, they worked hard to turn them into successors of the bourgeoisie.

Once the educational revolution got under way, a "people's war" to criticise and repudiate this revisionist line was launched under the leadership of the revolutionary committee of Sheshan commune. It was waged in towns and production teams by actively publicizing Chairman Mao's thinking on education and exposing the crimes of China's Khrushchov in education in the rural areas. The revolutionary teachers and students spoke at public gatherings, drew cartoons and set up billboards for big-character posters. Moreover, at various meetings in schools, they concentrated fire on the evil consequences of education divorced from politics, from practice and from the labouring people, citing examples from their own experience. They delved into the origins of such education, and found more to criticize. Repudiation meetings were also called by production teams and brigades.

The harm done by the revisionist line in education opened the eyes of the poor and lower middle peasants and cadres. They saw how imperative it was to take the leadership of culture into their own hands. When the comrades of the Fulin brigade announced that the primary schools were being placed under brigade leadership, others followed by tightening their control over culture and education.

In many brigades, poor and lower middle peasants, cadres, revolutionary teachers and students organized groups to carry out the transformation of education. They agreed to establish a leading body under the commune revolutionary committee to be responsible for the educational work of the whole commune, for implementing the Party's policy on education and for promoting ideological remoulding of the revolutionary teachers and students. It will also draw up an overall programme for the development of education and recommend worthy children from poor and lower middle peasant families for promotion to schools of higher level. These measures will put to an end, once and for all, domination of the schools by bourgeois intellectuals.

On the basis of what they learned through investigation and mass criticism, cadres of the commune and brigades, together with the revolutionary teachers and students made proposals for opening up schools of a new type, in accordance with Chairman Mao's "May 7th" instruction and his other instructions on the revolution in the field of education. They drew up a programme for transforming the whole school system, teaching materials, curriculum, and students' out-of-class activities, reorganizing the distribution of schools, and revolutionizing the teachers' ideology. The programme has been put on trial. They are determined to give full prominence to the thought of Mao Tse-tung in education and to train successors to the cause of the proletarian revolution.