Step into independence新生开学第一课:走向独立导读:9月第一周,各大高校已陆续进入开学季。近日,清华大学在校园内拉起“家长止步”的警戒线,其提倡新生独立报到的举措引发公众热议。有人认为这是新生学习独立的第一步,很有教育意义。
When Tsinghua University’s new 2013 freshmen arrived on campus late last month, the first question they were confronted with at the registration desk was: “Did you come alone or with your parents?”
八月末清华大学迎来了2013届新生,他们在报到时遇到的第一个问题便是:“你是自己来的还是跟父母一起来的?” According to statistics released after the first batch of the freshmen enrolled in the university, more than half of the 539 students came alone. In a letter to freshmen this year, Chen Jining, the president of Tsinghua University, encouraged them to “start this new adventure by standing on your own two feet.” To help freshmen grow up, some universities have thought of new methods. At Tsinghua, for example, freshmen need to register and find their dormitory by themselves. The process requires two to three hours, during which volunteers take parents on a tour of the campus. At Zhejiang University, a banner hanging in the information center says “Parents let go please; let us escort your children.” Lu Guodong, dean of undergraduate studies at Zhejiang University, coined the slogan. “Often parents like to do things or make decisions for their children. In their eyes, children never grow up,” said Lu. “But at university, growing up is the goal for all students. Growing up is the biggest success. In China, students grow up too slowly as parents are always in charge. Students never think about what path they should take and why,” said Lu. Zhang Yanxue, a senior student studying Chinese language and literature at the Communication University of China, is the president of the Self-improvement Society. Together with the other members of the society, Zhang welcomes freshmen at Beijing Railway Station. Although most students can finish the registration process by themselves, their parents usually prefer accompanying them to the university. “This is the third time I’ve welcomed freshmen and I didn’t see much change in that regard,” Zhang said. “The number of students who came alone is the same as in previous years. I saw two girls who came without their parents, that was really impressive.” Later, another girl arrived at the railway station with all her luggage and looked around for her university’s welcome team. She was Jin Hongting, 19, from Hebei province and will study industry and business administration at Beijing Union University. Jin soon found the welcome team, but when they offered to carry her luggage she politely refused their help. “It’s not heavy. I can do this myself,” she said. When asked why she came alone, Jin said: “It only takes four hours from my hometown to Beijing. There’s no need to bother my parents to help me.” Sometimes, however, the distance between university and home is so great that many parents are too worried to let their children travel alone. To reassure parents, Renmin University of China introduced a new method. It asks senior students to return to their hometown and accompany freshmen back to the campus. This helps freshmen get used to living independently. “Students should have an independent character and a dream. Learning how to use that independent character to achieve their dream and finish tasks assigned by the country is very important,” said Tsinghua University President Chen. |
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