The poor understanding of two thought cultures

In particular, the focus on rote learning of the Chinese classics from a very early age has unique benefits that can be rivaled nowhere else in the world. No other country can access such rich classical writings and wisdom recorded more than two thousand years ago in a language that can still be understood and used today by people using the contemporary version of the ancient language. Based on recent experience over three months at Sihai Academy, where classical rote learning begins at three, the benefits can include:

1) Knowledge.The primary benefit of the rote learning of classical texts is a rich and widely shared knowledge base at the beginning of life. Reaching back thousands of years this knowledge ensures a deep grounding in historical awareness and the vicissitudes of human life. Encompassing diverse habits of thought, such as reflected in the Lunyu, Yijing and Daodejing, it offers a lifetime protection against the simplistic and limited thinking habits that have captured Western peoples.

2) Judgment.A related, benefit is that this profound and character building knowledge base is stored and accessible in the conscious and sub-conscious at a very young age. This is long before a child is likely to have to make serious judgments and decisions. Life can be approached with an early mature confidence and sense of relevant experience.

3) Spirit.Another major benefit, which is easy to overlook, is the joyful and spiritual energy this learning seems to give young children. The mastery of these standard bearers of Chinese civilization at such a young age seems to give them an easy sense of a place in the world.

4) Learning. The early mastery of habits of memorizing and studying classics orientates children naturally towards lifetime learning practices that give them an edge amidst the complexities of the modern world, creating an appetite for further learning that turns what are chores for others into a form of sought after nourishment.

5) Flexibility.Contrary to Western stereotypes, the early introduction to texts as different as the Lunyu, Yijing and Daodejing ensures that real life problems are examined in different and contrasting ways. The limitations of inadequate abstractions and rationales in Western economic and other theories can be easily identified, mastered and used to advantage. These diverse influences can nurture a remarkable fluidity of thought, even as this is hidden by rituals of behavior that ensure harmonious social relations and discreet personal reflection.

6) Wisdom.A lifetime store of diverse classical wisdom, which can be called upon when the appropriate occasion arises, provides a reserve of possible responses to new challenges without any further and belated research to handle the unexpected. The classical texts are so diverse and rich that their full meaning and use may only reveal itself many decades later.

7) Community.An easy and reassuring sense of a child's place in family and society and an early grounding in the responsibilities of later life is another central feature of the tradition. This leads to the ease with which Chinese integrate into almost any community or society, adopting unfamiliar values while losing little of their own identity.

8) History.Rote education in classic texts develops an instinct for addressing contemporary issues in the context of the most diverse and rich record of human behavior imaginable and in a manner that always returns to the fundamentals of human nature. This takes on a particular importance at a time when the cults of progress, science, human rights and other "universal values" have distracted many from an understanding of their basic human qualities. A deep and timeless knowledge base is the best protection possible from the danger in the contemporary world of becoming a puppet of rapacious forces that are rarely identified, let alone understand.

9) Discipline.An early acceptance of rote learning disciplines nurtures social forms of behavior that both facilitate productive relations with others and also provide ritual forms behind which one can protect individuality of character and thought. This proves to be much more effective in practical terms that the misleading hype about individual rights and freedoms that characterizes much Western political comment and debate. It also develops an unrivalled, if discreet work ethic, capable of committing to a goal and working with purpose to achieve it in a practical manner.

10) Language.Early rote learning facilitates a very succinct and powerful form of language use that characterizes Chinese classics and chengyu. This develops a foundation for communication skills that are authoritative and profoundly expressive. It also seems to foster a capacity to accept the discipline of learning other languages where habits of rote learning can be invaluable.

Amongst other beneficial qualities that can be derived from rote learning, one might identify habits of joy, intuition, confidence, trust, focus and ritual, all working to nurtue human talents largely neglected by contemporary Western education with its emphasis on narrow professional functionality.