Throughout the millennia, students of all ages in China have had to endure the miseries of learning by rote. Teachers have stifled creativity in the pursuit of the accumulation of facts, and parents have forced children to spend mind-numbing hours cramming for exams. But for the past year, the government has been experimenting with what could amount to revolutionary changes in China's classrooms. The aim is to make education more pleasant, more useful and, above all, to challenge students to think for themselves.

数千年来，在中国所有年龄的学生都不得不忍受痛苦的死记硬背的学习。教师扼杀创造力的积累事实的追求，和父母强迫孩子花费大量时间死记硬背考试。但在过去的一年，政府一直在尝试什么可能在中国课堂的革命性变化。目的是使教育更加愉快，更加实用，最重要的是，鼓励学生为自己着想。

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What has prompted the reforms is a belated recognition that China's education system is failing to produce enough innovative thinkers. In addition, students are deeply unhappy. A survey conducted by the Education Ministry five years ago found more than 80% of students disliked school. Dropout rates have been rising in rural areas—partly for economic reasons but also because of the stultifying atmosphere of their classrooms. Exam pressures frequently lead to suicides. According to a survey last year among senior secondary-school students and university freshmen in one area, more than 50% had considered killing themselves.

是什么促使改革的是一个迟来的承认，中国的教育系统未能产生足够的创新思想家。此外，深受学生们的不满。五年前，教育部进行的一项调查发现，超过80%的学生不喜欢学校。辍学率持续上升，部分农村地区由于经济上的原因，也因为教学氛围单调乏味。考试的压力导致自杀。根据去年的一项调查表明，高中学生和大学新生在一个地区，超过50%曾考虑自杀。

Several other countries in East Asia, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, are grappling with similar problems. But the implications of China's reform efforts are particularly profound. China's traditional education methods are ideally suited to a political culture that requires citizens to submit blindly to authority. By encouraging students to question their teachers and regard them as equals (even official literature now talks of fostering a “democratic” atmosphere in classrooms), China could be ushering in a new kind of relationship between the rulers and the ruled.

其他东亚国家，包括日本，韩国和台湾，也面临着类似的问题。但中国的改革努力的影响是特别深刻的。中国的传统教育方法非常适合于政治文化，要求公民提交盲目的权威。鼓励学生质疑老师，把他们作为平等的(即使是官方文学现在谈话中培养“民主”的课堂气氛)，中国将迎来一个新的统治者和被统治者之间的关系。

The problem is making it work. The government has set ambitious targets with few resources to ensure that the country's more than 10m primary- and secondary-school teachers acquire the skills and determination to change the habits of a lifetime. The reforms started in September 2001 with about 420,000 primary- and junior secondary-school students (out of a national total of more than 215m) taking part in 38 experimental zones around the country. In September this year, participation increased to 9.1m pupils in 572 zones. These figures will double next year. The Education Ministry's original idea had been to implement the reforms nationwide by 2010. But according to Liu Jian of the ministry's National Centre for School Curriculum and Textbook Development, employers from a variety of enterprises said they wanted a quicker timetable. So now the target is 2005. In 2004, similar experiments will start in secondary schools.

问题是它的工作。政府已经制定了雄心勃勃的目标，以较少的资源来保证国家的超过1000万小学和中学教师的能力和决心改变一生的习惯。改革开始于九月2001约420000小学和初中的学生(从一个国家超过215m总)以38个试验区在全国部分。今年九月，参与增加910万学生572区。这些数字将增加一倍，明年。教育部的本意已实施改革的全国2010。但根据该部的国家中心的刘健学校的课程和教材开发，从各种企业的雇主说他们想要一个更快的时间表。所以现在的目标是2005。2004，类似的实验在中学开始。