The Epoch Times

Nov 02, 2004

(Epoch Times)

(Epoch Times)

What is the purpose of education? Is it to teach students basic academic skills? Is it to prepare students for the work force? Is it to develop critical thinkers? Is it to teach respect and build understanding toward others in the community? As a teacher for the last 12 years, I have found that the classroom is one of the best places to teach respect and tolerance.

Many classrooms in China no longer foster an environment to learn respect or develop understanding towards others. Instead, the Chinese Government forces its teachers to instill fear and hate in the minds of their students, from the elementary to university level. It forces teachers to indoctrinate students in the government's propaganda about Falun Gong, making the school system part of the attempt to "eradicate" Falun Gong.

Children practice Falun Gong meditation as they take part in the annual Chinese New Year parade in Washington, D. C. In China, these children would be punished. (Alex Wong/Newsmakers)

Falun Gong teaches meditative exercises and living life according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Because it rapidly grew in popularity - according to a government survey done in 1998, 100 million were practicing - Jiang Zemin, China's former dictator, began persecuting it in July 1999.

The size alone of the educational system campaign against Falun Gong is impossible to conceal. For instance, on July 30, 2004, schools in the southern province of Guangdong initiated a one-year plan to make 70,000 youngsters attend a "camp" located in a scenic area in Sihui City that covers 370 acres.

So what happens at a camp like this? Students of all ages are saturated with propaganda intended to instill fear and hate toward Falun Gong practitioners. They are inundated with lies about Falun Gong and made to repeat slanderous statements about the practice and its founder. This camp will poison the minds of thousands of young people and spread fear and hatred instead of building understanding and peace.

Schools in Hebei Province make every student write an anti-Falun Gong article for summer vacation homework. The assignment even applies to children as young as 6 years old. In some cases, students are threatened that if they do not verbally slander Falun Gong, police will take them away or their parents will be hurt. Imagine a six-year-old being forced to sign a pledge denouncing a peaceful meditation practice. Imagine the pervasive abuse of power needed to make treating a six year old in this way possible in the first place.

Abuse of power is exactly what is keeping this campaign alive. Many teachers have been fired and students expelled for not betraying their conscience by going along with the lies and hate. Since 1999, in Tsinghua University alone, more than 300 professors, lecturers, graduate and undergraduate students have been illegally detained, fired, expelled, or directly sent to slave labor camps for practicing Falun Gong.

Human rights advocate John Jaw, the director of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (W.O.I.P.F.G.), tells of the case of Chongqing University graduate student Wei Xingyan, a 28-year-old Falun Gong practitioner. "Because she was suspected to have been involved in arranging balloons and banners containing positive messages about Falun Gong on campus around the time of World Falun Dafa Day, she was abducted on campus on May the 11th, 2003. In the evening of May the 13th, at the Shabaping District Baihelin Detention Centre, a policeman raped her in front of witnesses."

Zhang Siping, Vice-President of Chongqing University: "We would not expel students because of their beliefs, except for Falun Gong."

Zhang Siping, Vice-President of Chongqing University: "We would not expel students because of their beliefs, except for Falun Gong."

After Ms. Wei's case was revealed on the Internet, Chongqing University tried to claim Wei was not one of its students and the university even claimed it did not have courses in the academic subject she was studying. In fact, Chongqing University authorities removed information about Wei's academic subject area from its website to avoid responsibility. After a thorough investigation, W.O.I.P.F.G. concluded that Chongqing University does have courses in Wei's area of study.

China's Former Education Minister Chen Zhili introduced the practice of making the schools a tool for the persecution of Falun Gong, flooding the Chinese school systems--from elementary to college levels--with anti-Falun Gong materials. Staff and students of schools were asked to take an oath slandering Falun Gong under the threat of being sent to brainwashing classes or labor camps if they refused.

Chen also launched the infamous "million-signature campaign" that was designed to force everyone involved in the school system to pledge their support for the persecution of Falun Gong. Administrators, professors, principals, teachers and students were forced to sign a pledge that they would not practice Falun Gong, while declaring they agree with former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin's initiative to "Eradicate Falun Gong."

During China's Cultural Revolution, atheism was glorified and an attempt was made to destroy China's traditional culture. Since the Communists first took power, they have been threatened by the Chinese people embracing spiritual ideals. The campaign against Falun Gong is the most recent, and extreme, instance of this hostility to the spiritual.

At a time when we need to be teaching children tolerance, the Chinese government is doing the opposite. At a time when we need to help our youth think critically and broadmindedly, the Chinese government is using propaganda against Falun Gong to teach fear and hatred. Let's hope that someday soon China will use its educational system to teach its students to embrace the concept of respecting others.

Source: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-11-2/24134.html