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Comparison Essay

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Along with ethics and civics textbooks, Chinese language arts of this period shared the responsibility of promoting citizenship education. Between 1912 and 1913, the Commercial Press published Gongheguo xin jiaokeshu xin guowen (Chuxiao) 共和國新教科書新國文 <初小> (Republican Chinese Language Arts for Lower Primary Schools) (8 vols.) and for Gaoxiao 高小 (Higher Primary Schools) (6 vols.) (see Appendix A).These two sets were similar in scope and viewpoint but for the lower primary students the language used was simpler. It sold more than 70,000,000 copies within ten years (Shi, 2011, p. 7).
Texts for the lower primary school were mostly concerned with students’ daily life, ranging from household activities, games, animals, plants, geographic and …show more content…

Other topics introducing practical knowledge included traditional productions such as growing tea trees, silk making, pottery making, cotton plantation, mining, and pearl hunting, as well as modern economic knowledge such as public bonds, monetary policy, rent tax, insurance, and business. Traditional Confucian education ignored and even despised industrial pursuits. But after the humiliating encounter with the West, the Chinese began to realize the importance of industry. Both the 1906 and 1912 Educational Aims emphasized respecting for industrial pursuit.
Promoting social awareness among children was another important goal of Chinese Language Arts textbooks. Lower primary school series were primarily focused on traditional ethical virtues, such as filial piety, caring for younger siblings, honesty, repaying favors, perseverance, diligence and frugality, etc. Modern ideas of freedom, equality, rights and responsibilities were incorporated into the textbooks as well. In the lower primary school Chinese Language Arts, texts included the Republic (lesson 3, vol. 7), Equality (lesson 4, vol. 7), Freedom (lesson 5 & 6, vol. 7), the Republic (lesson 3, vol. 7), Patriotism (lesson 13, vol. 8), Voting Rights (lesson 15, vol. 8), Charities (lesson 36, vol. 8), Laws (lesson 36, vol. 8), How to Treat Foreigners (lesson 48, vol. 8), etc. These themes were

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