Teenagers are the future of the country and the hope of the nation, as well as the key group to carry out national defense education for all. How to focus on young people and let national defense education really enter the campus and become a required course for young students is an urgent and realistic examination question of the times before the whole society.

In recent years, the military and local governments of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, have paid attention to solving the contradiction of national defense education for young people in terms of mechanism, content, methods, etc. They have embedded the red classroom into the teaching curriculum, integrated it into daily learning, and planted patriotic feelings in the hearts of young people.

In this issue of "Viewpoint", we went to some primary and secondary schools in Zhengzhou to carry out field research, sort out and summarize their experience and methods, and understand the practice and thinking of Zhengzhou military and local forces in answering questions of this era.

National defense education starts from the students. What is the most missing lesson on the curriculum?

"Heart strengthening course" enters the curriculum

On the morning of March 25, 44 students from Class 10, Grade 7 of Foreign Language Middle School in Zhengzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Henan Province, led by 13 students from the flag class wearing "military uniforms", solemnly raised the national flag and sang the national anthem. Later, they entered the classroom and gave a national defense education lesson on the topic of "If I were born in 1937".

"We want to create a famous school, but also a model school for national defense education." Jin Junliang, the president of the school, said that national defense education should not be like a gust of wind. Leaders should stress the urgency for a while, and leaders should not ignore it. We must turn "soft indicators" into "hard leverage".

Later, Jin Junliang talked about a period of experience of the change in understanding of national defense education.

Two years ago, in August, leaders of municipal and district education departments attended the opening ceremony of freshmen military training organized by the school. Standing in the sun for less than 20 minutes, some students in the team squatted down or fainted.

"Nowadays, students' physical quality is too weak."

"Can children endure hardship?"

Seeing this scene, the teachers on the court were worried, and the parents off the court were worried.

Shortly afterwards, a group of survey data on youth national defense education was put on the school leaders' desk: less than 30% of students' cognition of national defense knowledge came from the mass media, and less than 2% came from school education.

"Teenagers are in the early stage of booting up. What is more important than learning knowledge is to take up the most basic national defense education course for adults to become strong in heart, body and ambition." The leader of Zhengzhou Education Department opened the school's teaching plan and asked meaningfully: Why can't the national defense education course be seen on the students' full curriculum?

Soon after, the lack of national defense education in primary and secondary schools also attracted the attention of the main leaders of Zhengzhou. An Wei, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee of Zhengzhou and the First Secretary of the Police Area, proposed at the Military Assembly of the Municipal Party Committee that "youth are the future of the country and the hope of the nation, and national defense education must start from the campus."

In view of the fact that national defense education activities can not be grasped and carried out in primary and secondary schools, the Municipal Education Bureau, together with the Political Work Office of Zhengzhou Police Area, carried out activities to establish model schools for national defense education and evaluate high-quality courses for national defense education in the city; The education department incorporated national defense education into the inspection and assessment system of ideological and political courses in primary and secondary schools, and linked it with school performance evaluation; The school includes national defense education in the teaching plan, enters the curriculum and classroom, and regularly organizes joint evaluation and examination

"We can't wait for the sound of guns to remind us of national defense education." Jin Junliang led the teachers of the Teaching and Research Department to introduce a "strong heart" plan for the development of the school. They organized and carried out national defense education activities such as "respecting heroes and martyrs, learning history, and telling stories" in combination with important time nodes such as Tomb Sweeping Day, Martyrs' Memorial Day, and National Memorial Day, to create a strong cultural atmosphere for national defense education.

The school has opened a research travel route. How should students go out of the campus and into the society?

The "outdoor classroom" is steaming

In the past two years, the former site of Zhengzhou Railway Workers Night School where Li Dazhao gave lectures has become popular. More than 60% of the visitors are primary and secondary school students in the city and surrounding schools.

Last year, five primary and secondary schools near the former site of Zhengzhou Railway Workers Night School set up a demonstration base for research travel here, which became an "open-air classroom" without walls for students.

At the beginning of this year, Chuangxin Street Primary School in Guancheng District organized students to visit the former site of Zhengzhou Railway Workers Night School. Li Tianhao, a third grade student, said with emotion after listening to the explanation, "I didn't expect such a moving revolutionary story around us."

The popularity of the Red Education Base has soared, which has something to do with the Zhengzhou Education Department's implementation of the research travel teaching plan for primary and secondary schools. The research and learning route has also gone through a "detour" when it entered the red education base.

A few years ago, when the school was starting a research trip, the relevant leaders of Zhengzhou military and local governments went to a key middle school to investigate national defense education. After reading the research program formulated by the school, they fell into meditation.

According to the schedule, visit Zhengzhou Science and Technology Museum, Henan Art Center, Henan Art Museum, and experience activities such as mountain sports, summer camps and so on.

"Children should go to these places to broaden their horizons. Should they also visit and study in our red places?" The leader of Zhengzhou Police Area suggested.

"The combination of research line and national defense education will make the 'outdoor classroom' more red and green and more 'smoke of gunpowder'." The leaders of the municipal education bureau also agree with this view.

There are more than 100 revolutionary bases and battle sites scattered in the lofty Songyue Mountains. Zhengzhou military and local governments jointly explore a new way of integrating research, learning, travel and national defense education in primary and secondary schools. They guided the school to establish a joint education and education mechanism with the red education places within the jurisdiction in combination with activities such as naming red education bases and revolutionary sites in Zhengzhou. More than 20 red research routes were opened, allowing teachers and students to enter the place where the martyrs fought and have a dialogue with the martyrs.

"The steaming classroom can ignite the boiling chest." At Weisan Road Primary School in Jinshui District, the reporter opened the school's 2024 research schedule and found that: coordinate the garrison to organize military "summer camps", coordinate the garrison to carry out "barracks open day", invite garrison officers and soldiers to carry out military training... Every month there is a research activity plan, and 90% of it is related to military and barracks.

For the change of the research plan, the leaders of the school have deep feelings: "Some books need to be read carefully; some roads need to be walked with feet. National defense education is important in moistening things silently. In the research travel activities, students can improve national defense awareness through personal experience of national defense education and ideological edification, and the effect is better."

The Memorial Tower of the February 7th Strike is a landmark building in Zhengzhou, built to commemorate the Beijing Han Railway Strike. In early spring, Qingshan Road Primary School in Guancheng Hui District organized students to visit and study here. Hearing the music "Dongfang Hong" coming from the top of the tower on time at the hour, a teacher said thoughtfully: "This is not just a song, but more like the" class bell "of red education."

The reporter also learned from the interview that Zhengzhou military and civilian areas continued to promote the normalization of national defense education in schools, effectively forming a strong atmosphere of social respect for the military and military, and there was a general trend of students joining the military and applying for military schools.

What kind of environment should national defense education create for students?

"Education soil" intensive cultivation

The portrait of the space hero walked into the playground, and the pictures of big powers' heavy weapons were hung in the classroom... Before the spring of 2024, Zhengzhou Bayi Middle School set up a special "landscape".

"The kind of environment, the kind of students will be cultivated." Cheng Shixi, the president of the school, told reporters that recently he led the relevant personnel to change the three drafts of the "National Defense Education Corridor" scheme provided by the design unit, focusing on creating a national defense cultural environment, and cultivating and shaping people with cultural atmosphere.

This is a group of helpless data: a middle school conducted a questionnaire survey on students' outlook on life. In terms of idols, more than 60% of them worshipped celebrities such as Jobs and Musk; In terms of career, more than 40% of them hope to be online celebrities and bosses, while only about 20% of them choose scientists and soldiers.

Someone once shouted that if the spacious classroom could not hold a national defense desk, and if there was no national defense lesson on the full schedule, our final national defense education classroom might be the battlefield!

"In today's prosperous, civilized, free and open world, cultivating young people with a sense of hardship and a sense of family and country is the test of the times." The leader of Zhengzhou Municipal Education Bureau said that improving the national defense education system for young people in the new era is the need to cultivate China's strength and nurture the national spirit.

In August last year, Zhengzhou military and local governments selected a kindergarten, a primary school and a middle school that are well constructed in an all-round way, and renamed them "Bayi Kindergarten", "Bayi Primary School" and "Bayi Middle School" respectively. They embedded the national defense culture in all aspects of the campus, from the classroom to the playground, from the canteen to the dormitory, from the window content to the wall motto, and integrated the images and images of the "national defense concept" into the teaching objectives in an all-round and systematic way, so as to light up the national defense "beacon" in the students' vision.

German philosopher Jaspers said: "The essence of education is that one tree shakes another tree, one cloud pushes another cloud, and one soul calls another soul."

This is the spiritual collision of a "big tree" shaking a "small tree".

In the middle of December last year, Bayi Middle School organized a New Year special consolation activity of "feeling for border and coastal defense officers and soldiers", and students made greeting cards for border guards and soldiers stationed on Kunlun Mountain. Li Tianjian, a student, said: "The heroes who defend the country and defend the border use their bodies to build a security shield for the motherland where they can't even eat enough oxygen. They are the idols we should worship most."

"Dear sister Liu Yang, brother Chen Dong, brother Xinlin... We will follow your example, take the same steps as you, and realize our China's space dream..."

Not long ago, 54 students from Class 4, Grade 8, Bayi Middle School collectively wrote letters to heroic astronauts Liu Yang, Chen Dong and Jiang Xinlin, telling their feelings. After receiving the letter, the relevant personnel specially called back to the students to encourage them to be successors in the new era with ideals and pursuits.

According to the leaders of Zhengzhou Recruitment Office, more than 40% of the college students who applied for military service in frontier defense and highland forces volunteered in the past two years, which is directly related to the integration of national defense education into the mind and heart.

Picture ①: The students of No. 2 Primary School on Huanghe Road in Zhengzhou came to visit the Red Education Base of Zhengzhou No. 3 Trunk Rest Center.

Figure ②: Zhongyuan District of Zhengzhou organized the pilot observation of the national flag raising ceremony in primary and secondary schools and the national defense education on campus.

Picture ③: Veterans were invited to Henan Military Area Command Kindergarten to tell red stories for children.

Figure ④: The military and civilian joint organizations in Zhongmou County, Zhengzhou City organized military camp open day activities. The layout design of this photo is provided by Wang Gencheng: Wang Qiushuang