Li Qingping (www.xinhuanet.com): Nowadays, there is a kind of strong passion for traditional classics among children. By pushing forward classical education, schools want to make money sometimes. Parents want their children to learn more Chinese characters and to learn to behave themselves, edified by traditional culture. As for the values conveyed by these masterpieces, neither schools nor parents seem to be interested. This is not good for the students, so something must be done to help them come to a better understanding of these classics. It's necessary for the government to standardize these programs.

Affecting development

Tu Keguo (www.xinhuanet.com): Cultural masterpieces like the Students' Rules and The Three-Character Classic have been important and enlightening reading material for children for centuries. These books impart moral codes as well as historical and cultural education. At first, today's students may feel confused about the content, but gradually, they will begin to benefit from cultural edification from thousands of years of historical accumulation.

Meanwhile, we have to admit these books do include outdated concepts like unconditional obedience, men's superiority to women, and so on, which contradict core social values today. As far as these traditional masterpieces are concerned, we must inherit their teaching critically. Nevertheless, I still hold that students should be able to recite the complete passages. It's incorrect to tear a complete passage into parts and only extract what individuals think are right. To help the students get the correct understanding of these masterpieces, teachers' explanation and guides are needed. This process will actually help to improve students' ability of judgment.

Zeng Zhenyu (www.xinhuanet.com): Before we do the screening and filtering work, we should first make clear what are outdated concepts and then delete them, but it seems no one can resolve this question. When reading traditional Chinese masterpieces, we should try to understand them against the background of their times, and what we need to do is to extract the good from them that is helpful to us. Trust our teachers and our children. They know how to read and make use of traditional masterpieces.

Xiao Xingguo (The Beijing News): If teachers only use portions of a complete masterpiece, students will be unable to absorb its essence and at the same time lose the opportunity to realize which concepts are outdated or harmful. Artificial screening of traditional masterpieces will mislead students.

Zhou Jie (www.xinhuanet.com): People argue it's time to standardize the current passion for traditional masterpieces, to help children build correct values. But, to focus on traditional masterpieces is not enough. To create a healthy cultural environment, we need joint efforts from schools, parents and society. What affects students' values are not books, but external direction. I've been a teacher of Chinese for 20 years. Not a single one of my students has ever tried to commit suicide for love because of texts such as Romeo and Juliet. What affects our students are the methods of education, rather than textbooks.

Qian Wenzhong (Zhengzhou Evening News): I'm opposed to this kind of excerpting. What we need is critical explanation. If this is problematic, then it means a good chance for readers to analyze and criticize. In such a process, students will discover the complexity of traditional culture.

Xie Xizhang (www.china.com.cn): Recently, Shandong Provincial Department of Education issued a document, requiring schools to "extract the essence and discard the outmoded" when carrying out traditional Chinese classics teaching. Meanwhile, schools in central China's Hubei Province are directly required to recite traditional masterpieces only after outmoded parts are deleted.

These moves imply education departments hope to offer the purest cultural content to students. This is a good ideal. We hope we live in a vacuum without any dirt, but it's totally impossible. These moves are unlikely to achieve set goals, as no one dares to claim they are able to properly keep the good and discard the bad. History tells us, in many cases, the "essence" that has been extracted turns out to be "outmoded." This keeps happening throughout history. Even if what is extracted is really the essence as far as one person is concerned, in the case of another person, it is total poison. So the key does not lie in these books, but in the method of education and imparting knowledge. In most cases, it's better to encourage students in discussing and debating than to cram their minds with knowledge. After debating, students will reach a better understanding of the content, and the outmoded content may serve as useful material to inform students what's right and what's wrong. This is undoubtedly more helpful to them than simple rote learning and recital.