Re: [xmca] Purposes and processes of education

[Tony Whitson <twhitson@UDel.Edu>]

On Sun, 17 Jan 2010, mike cole wrote:

> Can anyone help point me to key resources to understand relation of
> schooling practices
> to society in ancient China and India?
>
> Are there any examples of deliberate instructional practices that do not
> involve reading/writing?

Mike's original question asks about
  relation of
> schooling practices
> to society in ancient China and India?
and
> deliberate instructional practices that do not
> involve reading/writing?

This depends, I guess, on what counts as "instructional," and whether you 
are really interested in practices only that are in school.

In China, there are practices for practical arts ("shu", including 
"wushu," the military arts like "kung-fu" that have deliberate 
instructional practices, as well as the practices for training Taoist and 
Buddhist monks.

For broader education, outside of particular arts or disciplines or sects, 
there's actually a substantial emphasis on this, although "schooling" 
practices are very much involved with reading and writing.

A central theme in the Confucian classics (e.g., Da Xue, Li Ji) is the 
education of all people into harmonious social relations. The literate are 
taught that from the Emperor down to the father in a family, the superiors 
are to model virtuous relations as a way of teaching those who will learn 
from their example. The literate elites will be informed by classic 
literature, but the illiterate masses will learn from the example of their 
superiors.

The Li Ji teaches rites or rituals as forms of behavior that embody social 
norms that will be internalized through practice.

Aside from his teaching and scholarship, Zhu Xi was also a civil 
administrator; and he considered the civic activity conducted under his 
administration to be a mode of education for the general populace.

It's hardly too much to say that Chinese literary cultrue is all about 
education, not limited to schooling or to literacy.
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