Throughout the millennia, students of all ages in China have had to endure the miseries of learning by rote. Teachers have stifled creativity in the pursuit of the accumulation of facts, and parents have forced children to spend mind-numbing hours cramming for exams. But for the past year, the government has been experimenting with what could amount to revolutionary changes in China's classrooms. The aim is to make education more pleasant, more useful and, above all, to challenge students to think for themselves.

　　What has prompted the reforms is a belated recognition that China's education system is failing to produce enough innovative thinkers. In addition, students are deeply unhappy. A survey conducted by the Education Ministry five years ago found more than 80% of students disliked school. Dropout rates have been rising in rural areas—partly for economic reasons but also because of the stultifying atmosphere of their classrooms. Exam pressures frequently lead to suicides. According to a survey last year among senior secondary-school students and university freshmen in one area, more than 50% had considered killing themselves.

　　Several other countries in East Asia, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, are grappling with similar problems. But the implications of China's reform efforts are particularly profound. China's traditional education methods are ideally suited to a political culture that requires citizens to submit blindly to authority. By encouraging students to question their teachers and regard them as equals (even official literature now talks of fostering a “democratic” atmosphere in classrooms), China could be ushering in a new kind of relationship between the rulers and the ruled.

　　整個幾千年,在中國所有年齡段的學生不得不忍受苦難的死記硬背。老師扼殺創造力的追求事實的積累,和家長迫使孩子花的小時死記硬背的考試。但在過去的一年里,政府一直在嘗試什么革命性的變化在中國的教室。目的是使教育更愉快、更有用,最重要的是,挑戰學生獨立思考。

　　什么促使改革是一個遲來的承認,中國的教育系統是無法產生足夠的創新的思想家。此外,學生感到非常不滿。五年前教育部進行的一項調查發現,超過80%的學生不喜歡學校。農村輟學率一直在上升的經濟原因,還因為愚蠢的教室的氣氛。經常考試壓力導致自殺。去年的一項調查顯示,在高級中學學生和大學新生在一個地區,超過50%的人認為是自殺。

　　其他幾個國家在東亞,包括日本、韓國和臺灣,也面臨著類似的問題。但中國的改革努力的影響尤為深刻。中國傳統的教育方法是適合一個政治文化,需要公民提交盲目權威。通過鼓勵學生質疑老師和把他們視為等于(甚至現在官方文學對話培養“民主”的氣氛中在教室),中國可能成為引領一種新的統治者和被統治者之間的關系。