Six Ways to Read

First, goal-oriented, develop a systematic reading plan

Making a systematic reading plan for yourself is the first step in reading. Analyze your reading history, examine the books you have read, and study whether your reading structure is reasonable. You can make a relatively complete reading plan for yourself based on the basic reading list of Chinese people and your knowledge structure, according to the reading law of "romance-precision-comprehension", you can use the plan to read some basic classics to make up for some missing You can use the plan to read some basic classics to make up for the lack of knowledge structure, the plan can be specific to the month or week, regularly check the implementation of the plan, and summarize and adjust once a year.

For example, if a child is still in kindergarten, parents can select 100 titles for young children to read and take the child to read them one by one. If the child is in elementary school, the same can be done for a reading plan. If you are an adult, you can also make a reading plan for yourself. One month for one month, one year for one year. For example, I read one children's book a day and write down my experiences, which are published on my Weibo and headlines, called "Zhu Yongxin's Children's Books Through My Eyes". In recent years, I have also read through the works of Dewey, Sukhomlinsky, Montessori, Tao Xingchi, and other famous educators, writing notes as I read, just as if I were in dialogue with these great thinkers. At the same time, every year, for my work, including political participation as a member of the CPPCC, I will choose some books and read them in a planned manner, which I think is very important.

Second, the problem, combined with the actual need to read

Although reading is not possible "instantly", but can be combined with the actual needs of the appropriate "urgent first learning".

During my tenure as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the National People's Congress has a very important task, which is to discuss the adoption of some important laws and regulations. Generally, after receiving the notice of the meeting, I have to spend more time reading the corresponding professional literature, familiar with the background and focus of the law, to be able to speak reasonably and to the point.

Later I wrote a book of 1.3 million words called "My Five Years at the NPC" to record every speech, every observation, and every day of the meeting in its original form, which I included. The new education experiment I initiated is to conduct in-depth research around an educational issue every year, and it is also one of my compulsory reading courses to do related reading around this educational issue every year. For example, this year we are studying the issue of moral education, helping children to develop good moral character. To do this, we need to read a lot of books on this subject, study it in the context of reality, and read in the context of reality. I then systematically read Turgot's "Moral Education", Pinker's "Blank Slate" and other works.

Third, the combination of learning and thinking, do not move the ink not reading

Reading requires thinking. The Analects of Confucius says: "To learn without thinking is reckless, to think without learning is dangerous." How are learning and thinking combined? A very important way, I think, is writing. If reading is a kind of learning, is to draw; then writing is a kind of thinking, is to express. Learning and thinking are combined so that reading can be more effective.

I once said that reading is to stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, and writing is to stand on your shoulders and climb up. Real thinking begins with writing, and writing is very useful for consolidating the results of the reading.

The ancients emphasized not reading without moving the pen and ink, that is, they believed that careful circling, annotating, and recording when reading is of special significance to improve the effect of reading. Therefore, when reading, you should take the method of intellectual reading as much as possible, to have a deep dialogue with the ideas in the book and grasp the essence of its main meaning. This can be done through excerpts, mind maps, and other methods.

Fourth, there is a combination of detail and sketch, browsing, and intensive reading

Indeed, human energy is limited, and different books have different reading methods. We can't read all the books intensively, so we choose different books to read and different methods to read in combination with the needs of our work and the characteristics of our research. That is to say, according to different contents, to take different methods of browsing and intensive reading. For example, I sometimes finish three books a day, and these three books are not all rough reading, some of them are more in-depth, and not all the chapters in a book are read intensively, that is, according to my research and writing needs to be read.

For some difficult books, at the beginning of the choice of intensive reading, may be difficult to carry on, then first rough reading once, after a suitable time to read intensively, the effect will be much better, and will not hinder their reading interests and habits.

Five, focus on accumulation, become a small expert in a certain field

This point is also very important. It says to slowly form your reading field, and reading characteristics, which is very beneficial to enrich one's spiritual life.

I have always believed that if one can consciously focus on one or two key areas, take into account the specialization based on the breadth, and read in a focused manner for a long time, one can become a "small expert" in a certain area. My original specialty is the study of the history of Chinese psychology, but due to the needs of my work, I have been reading books on education and thinking about important issues in the field of education, and gradually I have gained some influence in the field of education, thus providing strong professional support for my work. I also ask the young people in the political participation department of the DPP Central Committee to insist on reading systematically about a certain field and become a small expert in a certain field.

Sixth, read together, drive everyone to read together

The new education experiment especially advocates reading a book together. To live in different languages is to live in a different world; to read a book together is to create and have a common language and code. To read together is to truly live with people who read the same book.

The author I mentioned earlier who wrote "Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for America's Children" also wrote another book called "The Making of an American". Why did you name my book The Making of Chinese People? I want to tell you that people from different nations and countries have their own cultural genes and their cultural traditions. To make Chinese people is to share the greatest books that fit Chinese values, traditional Chinese culture, and Chinese temperament.

I remember very clearly that in 2012, we held a conference on the new education experiment in Linzi District, Zibo, Shandong Province. A father at the conference told me the story of his shared reading with his daughter: he said he was an entrepreneur and had more social engagements every day, so he did not have time to read with his daughter, but the teacher asked the father to read with his child, so he had to take time to read with his daughter. After a month he found that reading was much more interesting than socializing, and he had a common language with his daughter, and now he reads with her as much as possible. Once, at a family gathering, his daughter suddenly said, "Dad, who's your Shiloh?" The other fathers in the room looked at each other in disbelief, but he was pleased to hear that they had just finished reading a copy of Charlotte's Web and understood what his daughter was talking about. This is the language code that daughters and fathers share. This process of reading together is also often effective in subliminally forming shared values and a common culture, avoiding the embarrassment of becoming strangers living under the same roof.

In short, reading is the most important path that makes everyone, and it is the basic path that makes us Chinese. Reading helps us to be stronger, helps us to have common values, and a common language, and helps us to have cohesion; reading stimulates national creativity and advances social justice. Therefore, reading for all is indeed the most direct, effective, convenient, and cheapest path to improve the quality of the nation.