"Sunlight shines bright, the rooster crows thrice, flowers wake up, birds busy with their grooming... Learn from the magpies to build new homes, learn from the bees to gather honey, the joy of labor cannot be fully expressed, the creation through labor is most glorious."

A children's song titled "Labor Is Most Glorious" is an unforgettable childhood memory for several generations of Chinese children, and it is also the earliest memory that guides them to appreciate and love labor. Recently, the Ministry of Education has released the "Compulsory Education Labor Course Standards (2022 Edition)." Starting from this autumn when the new school term begins, labor classes will officially be upgraded to an independent course in primary and secondary schools.

After the standards were published, some parents expressed strong support for the upgrade of labor education, while others worried about issues such as a lack of teaching aids and equipment, outdated educational content, high teaching risks, and superficial evaluations. Will the new labor class revert to being a burden for parents? Xinhua News Agency conducted an investigation into these concerns.

Upgrading Children's Labor Education Requires Both Establishment and Reform

The new curriculum standard divides the content of labor courses into three major categories: daily life labor, production labor, and service labor, setting up 10 task clusters. The difficulty gradually increases, from sweeping and mopping floors, washing clothes, growing plants, raising small animals, making cold dishes, reheating steamed buns or dumplings, boiling eggs or water dumplings, learning to use small household appliances and paper crafts, clay modeling, fabric arts, weaving, etc., for lower grades in primary school, to independently preparing 3-4 dishes, performing simple disassembly, cleaning, and maintenance of home appliances, practicing aquaculture and rice field farming, becoming familiar with a craft such as pottery, paper crafts, fabric arts, experiencing woodworking, metalworking, electronics, and even experiencing new technologies like 3D printing, laser cutting, and numerical control processing for junior high school students.

Parents and teachers in multiple places have indicated that the new curriculum standards for labor education are rich in content, clear in hierarchy, systematic and scientific, with a noticeable "upgrade feel." However, to truly achieve the educational effect of guiding children to appreciate and love labor, it is necessary to first overcome some long-standing problems in the field of labor education.

Some parents excessively protect their children, overstepping their roles. "In six years of schooling, my child has never participated in a school clean-up; it was all done by the parents," said Wang Dongming, a citizen of Changchun, who, as a representative of the parent committee, would organize parents to do the work for the children during every school clean-up. "Tasks like moving desks and chairs for classroom changes, making class signs for sports meets, and looking after items, these student labor tasks, are all taken care of by parents."

Some teaching content is disconnected from labor practice. A parent of a second-grade student at a primary school in Changchun, Guo Xiaolu, told reporters that not only did they have to complete various comprehensive practical activity assignments arranged by the class, but they also had to stage photos for the child to "meet the requirements." "The teacher teaches pure theory in class and then asks the child to cook at home, how to cut vegetables, turn on the stove, use oil, the child has no experience, what if they get hurt? In the end, it all falls to the parents."

Some teaching difficulties do not match the student's level. "Sometimes it's really too much!" A parent from Hefei said, previously the school arranged for elementary school students in lower grades to manually make rocket models. "How can children make rocket models? It ends up being the parents doing it." Reporters also learned that due to the difficulty of the homework assigned by the school, which parents couldn't complete or feared would be of poor quality and thus be outdone by other parents, they chose to buy finished handicrafts online to submit as homework.

There is still a bias in some family educational guidance. "If you don't study well, you'll end up selling your labor in the future." Xu Jing, the executive principal of the East Campus of No. 168 Rose Garden School in Hefei, Anhui Province, said that the purpose of experiencing various forms of labor, especially physical labor, is to establish in children the correct values of appreciating and loving labor. However, this has become a negative example used by some parents to "scare" their children into studying hard, significantly affecting the child's proper understanding of the value of labor.

Implementing New Curriculum Standards for Labor Classes Still Requires Addressing Concerns of Parents and Teachers

Some parents, teachers, and schools have also expressed concerns to reporters about the safety, professionalism, and complexity of related courses in the new curriculum standards for labor classes.

Is the difficulty level too high? Zhang Xuedong, a parent in Changchun, said that many courses, if not taught under the guidance of professionals using professional equipment at school, would be difficult for parents to operate at home, such as repairing home appliances, woodworking, and metalworking, which many parents have no experience with. "Let alone new technologies like 3D printing, laser cutting, and intelligent numerical control."

Is the risk level too high? Cooking classes require the use of fire and electricity, as well as knives for cutting vegetables; repairing home appliances requires screwdrivers and welding; growing vegetables and raising poultry may involve the use of pesticides. Many of the tools and items involved in the new curriculum standards carry higher risks and are strictly controlled by schools. "What if a student makes a mistake during the operation and injures themselves or others?" said a vice-principal responsible for teaching at a primary school, "The school bears very heavy responsibility pressure."

Moreover, a teacher with years of experience in labor education said that even when cooking classes are held in the school cafeteria, the food made by students often isn't cooked properly, burnt, or has excessive salt and other seasonings, posing food safety risks. If all the food is discarded, it could lead to food waste.

Will the teaching pressure be too heavy? Reporters found that many part-time teachers in labor education at primary and secondary schools across different regions do not specialize in labor education. To meet the detailed requirements of the new curriculum standards, the pressure is significant. "I am the only labor education teacher in the school, responsible for all grades. If I need to follow the new curriculum standards, it would be very challenging," said a labor education teacher at a public school in Changchun.

Upgrading Children's Labor Education Requires Systemic Optimization

Education experts and frontline teachers believe that as long as safety measures, course content, evaluation systems, and other issues are considered in advance and optimized systematically, the upgrading of children's labor education can be successfully completed.

Prioritize Safety Education. Wang Wei, the head of the Comprehensive Practice Department at Jilin University Affiliated School of Lianwang Experimental Primary School, suggested designing safe teaching tools, such as using ceramic knives or plastic knives for cooking classes, and using crochet hooks instead of knitting needles for weaving classes. Strict safety procedures and teaching processes should be established, along with preventive and emergency response plans. "Especially before the start of the class, safety knowledge and precautions should be clearly explained to the students, and teachers should monitor the entire process."

Expand Labor Education within the School. Fangling Primary School in Shenhe District, Shenyang City, has developed gardens for herbs, flowers, and grains around the school building, teaching younger grades to plant vegetables and grains, and older grades to grow flowers and medicinal herbs. Guodian Middle School in Fengtai County, Anhui Province, has set up a labor practice base called "Bai Feng Yuan" on campus, dividing it into different activity zones for each class, allowing organized labor activities.

Design Courses More Scientifically. Erjing Second Primary School in Shenhe District, Shenyang City, arranges for students to learn one dish from each of the eight major regional cuisines of China every semester starting from third grade. "By gradually increasing the difficulty of cooking courses, many students can master several signature dishes by the time they reach higher grades," said Principal Zhang Yan.

Make Evaluation Requirements More Practical. Zhang Lihua, a labor education researcher in Shenhe District, Shenyang City, suggested that labor education evaluations should combine daily accumulation with performance-based assessments at the end of the term, implementing differentiated evaluations. Xu Jing recommended that relevant departments provide specific training and guidance on evaluation standards for labor education, which would help grassroots schools implement them effectively.

Utilize Teaching Resources More Fully. "The core driver of upgrading children's labor education is the teacher," said Wang Juan, principal of Fangling Primary School. The school employs a teacher with a horticulture background as a full-time labor education teacher and arranges for lecturers from Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to give specialized lectures once a week. "With teachers having special skills within the school and professionals providing guidance from outside, a continuous energy field is formed to empower the upgrading of children's labor education."

Wang Wei suggested that parents should cultivate a sense of labor in their children from a young age, guiding them to do their own things and assist in household chores within their capabilities. This way, labor education can achieve a seamless connection between home and school, achieving twice the result with half the effort.