又到一年开学时,央视的“开学第一堂课”引发社会热议,很自然地想起六年前,儿子到澳大利亚不久进入中学时的“开学第一堂课”。

儿子就读的中学St Peter’s College创立于1849年, 是阿德莱德一所历史最为悠久的著名的私校。学校的开学第一课,是为期一天的“入学教育”。

我在国内学校工作二十六年,还担任过多年中学校长,也算得上是个老“教育工作者”。对学校通常组织的“入学教育”并不陌生,无非是关于校纪校规方面的“集体训导”,不少学校还辅以“摸底考试”和“队列操练”(高中实行统一军训),目的在于给学生“收骨头”、“立规矩”,让他们从一开始就对学校产生敬畏而变得更加“自觉”和“听话”。我揣摩St Peter’s College的入学教育大抵也不会有什么新花样。

按照学校规定的时间,早上八点我驱车把儿子送到学校,放下孩子就转身离开了(没有家长逗留)。说实在的,对儿子能否适应这里的“入学教育”,“入学教育”又会给儿子带来怎样的感受,心怀不少疑虑。最担心的是,儿子能否在短短的一天里适应全英文背景下学校全新的管理要求。孩子来澳时间还不长,很多地方还没有完全适应,万一“入学教育”的“高标准、严要求”第一天就就给了孩子一个“下马威”,让孩子对学校产生了“入学恐惧症”,很难想象未来五年的中学生活会是顺利和愉快的。

学校安排的“入学教育”原定三点半结束。因为总有些不放心,三点不到我就早早回到学校,期待接到一脸灿烂的孩子。接孩子的地点在礼堂,走去一看礼堂里空无一人。于是就独自在校园里漫步,享受这久违了的校园气息。庄严厚重的教堂式的礼堂、古朴典雅的欧式教学楼、绿树成荫的宁静庭院、广阔如茵的广场草地,成群野鸭和鹳鹊在草地上悠闲自在地栖息觅食……,校园里一切既充满了陌生感,又仿佛是那么熟悉而亲切。

不经意间,抬头远远看到儿子正与其他四五个同伴一起从礼堂一侧的大楼门庭处走出来,手里都拿着一张纸、一支笔,脸上呈现着轻松的微笑,我沉重的心放下了一半。为了不妨碍孩子的活动,我默默看着孩子渐渐走远的背影,继续我的校园观光,十来个与儿子年龄相仿的朝气蓬勃的孩子们正奔跑在操场的绿茵上学打棒球,让宁静空旷的校园里多了一份生机和活力,但却没有一丝喧嚣。

三点半,很准时,我看到孩子们陆续从礼堂里开始出来。我急于向儿子了解的是:一天的入学教育究竟做了些什么?知道了学校的哪些校纪校规?

当我用自己的学校经验向儿子求证的时候,儿子回答我:哪有什么集会、讲什么校纪校规?随后他带着略显兴奋的语气告诉我,所谓“入学教育”完全都是由学生们分组进行的课程体验和游戏活动。五六个学生被分列为一组,在一天的时间里分别安排了英语、美术、戏剧、科学、工艺和体育等内容丰富、充满趣味的课程体验。

英语课上,孩子们在老师的指导下学习朗诵校歌的诗文 " Your School"。转录全诗如下:

Your school knows the names of places-

Nepal , Lichtenstein, Ottawa and where they are.

Your school know where rivers rise and which seas they grow into.

Your school knows the height of mountains

disappearing into cloud.

Your school knows important dates,

the days when history turned around

to stare the human race straight in the face.

Your school knows the poets' names, long dead ohn Keats, T.S. Eliot,Sylvia Plath and what they said.

It knows the paintings hanging in the old gold frames in huge museums

and how the artists lived and loved who dipped their brushes in the vivid paint-

Your school knows the languages of the world-

Hello, namaskar, ciao, sayonara, salut

-it knows the certainties of science,

the living are of sport.

Your school knows what Isaac Newton thought,

what William Shakespeare wrote

and what Mohammed taught.

Your school knows your name and who you are.

Your school knows the most important thing to know:

You are a star and which star.

我的英文水平不足以读懂校歌的内容。问过儿子,再“有道”一查,大致知道渗透在校歌学习里的,用我们的话说就是学校的历史文化、教育理念和办学特色,也是对每一个学生的殷切的期待和激励。

戏剧课上,老师让孩子们根据老师给出的命题学习即兴表演。当然因为仅仅是体验,老师给的题目一般很简单,但每个孩子都要参与。比如给你几个生活中常见的事物,孩子们五六个人进行创意组合来加以表达呈现等等。

美术、工艺(国内的劳技课)、科学这些课程则主要是在参观相关的课程专用教室和实验室,让孩子们亲自动手来体验课程的乐趣。比如用笔在电脑上画画创作,通过体验式的小实验来观察磁性等等。最令孩子感到惊讶的是,在国内最不受重视的“副科”---诸如劳动技术等动手实践的课程,在澳洲的学校实验室里,工具琳琅满目、专业齐全,不亚于国内一所优秀的中高级职业技术学校。

体育课,先是参观篮球馆、游泳馆等学校体育设施和场馆,然后就是学习棒球。每一位孩子都有握杆学习击打的机会,这对从没有握过棒球杆的儿子来讲也格外新鲜。原来,我在散步时看到草地上学打棒球的就是正在进行体育课程体验的两组新生。(开学后的第三天,学一天的大部分时间被安排为游泳活动。上午是一节游泳课,下午是8年级全体学生参加游泳比赛,紧接着的第二周也有两节体育课是游泳课。除了全校各年级游泳课程之外,每天3点半后还有游泳各个“HOUSE”----类似国内兴趣活动小组----的游泳训练活动。仅以游泳为例,足见学校的体育场馆都不是奢华的摆设,一切为学生服务,利用率极高。)

除了以上课程之外,还有一堂富有趣味的“校园寻宝”游戏活动课。每一组同学都会拿到一张纸,然后根据纸上标注着的校园里的不同场所去寻找相应位置,并了解这个位置的学校机构和职能。我先前在礼堂一侧看到儿子时,他正和同伴们一起寻找着他们手里图纸上的位置呢。

活动休息的午间,初次相识的师生们又一起动手,享用了丰盛的烧烤午餐。

接到儿子的时候,他的神情是轻松的,脸上洋溢着愉快的笑容。我问儿子感受和自己在活动中的表现如何?儿子兴奋地给这次活动打出了90分。

看似轻松游戏般的“入学教育”,实际非常务实,既给了儿子充满趣味的体验,又在不经意间为孩子们未来四年的学习做了必要的启蒙和铺垫。通过校歌学习,让学生们了解了学校的历史文化和教育理念,点燃了他们心中求知的渴望和进取的自信;充满趣味的课程体验,为他们打开了学校丰富的课程殿堂的大门,让他们初步感知到课程所要求的学习方式,激发起他们进一步探究的好奇和兴趣,从而对新的学习充满了期待;至于那个看似“小儿科”的“校园寻宝”游戏,不知不觉中让每个学生对原本完全陌生的校园环境,在短短一天中一下子变得熟悉而亲切了。与国内中学不同的是,St Peter’s College的课程都是像大学一样实行流动走班制上课,学生每一堂课都需要根据课程安排到不同的教室上课,不同的教室又往往分布在不同的教学楼里,“校园寻宝”的游戏,为学生们在之后的流动走班中熟练地找到相应的教学点提供了有效的帮助。

一天的所有课程活动都由学生小组合作完成,没有领导讲话,也没有老师参与,陌生的孩子们第一天就在潜移默化中进入了自主体验式的学习状态,就有了互相了解互相学习的机会,团队合作也从第一天就成为了同学之间校园生活中共同的相处方式。

入学的第一个周末,儿子在他的QQ日志上第一次写下了一篇英文日记,记下了他自己对开学第一课的真实感受。引录如下:

One day of St Peter's College

I visited the St Peter's college on 9th December. I felt very exciting and nervous because I have heard from my parents that St Peter's college is the biggest and the oldest school in Adelaide.

When I arrived at the St Peter's college, I wanted to say,'Oh my god! How big that school is!' Then I ran to the hall to meet my teachers. There were many students here. Most of them were from the St Peter's Primary school. There were many Asians here, too. I guessed most of them are Chinese. After 30 minutes, we were divided into different groups. Each group has a teacher and has different classes.

Our first class was PE. We followed the teacher to a oval to meet our PE teacher. The PE teacher showed us four main oval in the school, the changing room and the sport centre. In the sport centre, there are a big swimming pool, the PE teachers' office and a indoor basketball court. After that, we played baseball. We had a lot of fun. After PE, we had drama. Our drama teacher let us act anything, such as kangroo, shoes and phone. The most difficult thing was all of these needed to be 3D. That's why other country's children have the imagination.

Then we had recess time.The teachers made many foods and drinks. they were very delicious. After recess, we had art. In the art room, there are many beautiful pictures. The Year 11 and 12 drew these pictures. Then we went to another room. There are many computers in this room. I thought we will have computer class. But when I turned on the computer, I knew I was wrong. We can draw anything on the computers. I have ever seen taht in China. That's very awesome.

Then we had English class. Our English teacher gave us a poem "our school" and wanted us to read it as loud as we can. Then he wanted us to find the subject in this poem. That class was very boring, but it's much better than the class in China.

Then we had lunch time. We had a barbecue near the oval. The food was very delicious. After that we had science. Our science teacher did a experiment about electricity. We can't do that because the teacher said it's very dangerous. Then he said many things about electricity. But I can't understand what he was talking about, so I didn't know what we were doing. I'm not quite sure what we had at the end. I think we had geography. Our teacher gave us a sheet. There were many questions on the sheet. We need to find the answers in the school. That spent us about 30 minutes. After that, I still can't remember anythings in the school because this school is so big.

I had a great time on that day. I very exciting and glad to be the St Peter's college's student. The school is much different from the school in China. In China, I think we can only find the specialist tools in technical school. But in Autralia, we can find many specialist tools in every high school, such as the computers that we can draw pictures.

读了儿子的日志,我知道开学只短短的一周,儿子已经喜欢上了这所他将要在那里度过四年学习生活的新学校。究其原因,恐怕“开学第一堂课”的入学教育功不可没。

“入学教育”的背后是教育的理念,不一样理念就有不一样的教育方式。

有人说“教育的真正作用在于点燃”,St Peter’s College“开学的第一堂课”没有说教、没有灌输、没有强制训练,却让孩子们很快感受到了老师的亲近,学校的亲切,并爱上了自己的学校,还从心中暗暗燃起了对探索未知学习领域的激情,这无疑是“润物无声”事半功倍的成功的教育。

学校是学生时代生活的重要精神家园,也应该是学习成长的乐园。学生,既是教育的出发点,也是教育的归宿点。一切的教育活动设计都应该心中装着学生,从学生观点出发,才能被学生所接受,才是有效的教育,这或许正是 St Peter's College 开学第一天“入学教育”中蕴含的教育真谛。