The first time she brewed gaiwan tea independently, Luo Xinxin's hands were a little stiff. "Enjoying the process of making tea is far more important than memorizing the essentials. Under the guidance of the teacher, the 27-year-old "tea white" practiced repeatedly and finally brewed a fragrant gaiwan tea. In the thick of tea, young teachers and students sat around the table, brewing skills and learning tea table etiquette together, and light laughter came from time to time.
This is a scene from the tea art class of the "Canal Night School" in Rencheng District, Jining City, Shandong Province on the evening of January 27. As an important hub of the Grand Canal, Jining has the reputation of "Canal Capital". Today, this Chinese New Year's Eve school, named after cultural characteristics, is trying to explore the "code" of history and present, youth and future development.
It is also the first Chinese New Year's Eve school in Jining, which has opened more than 180 classes and 35 youth thought forums since its opening in November 2023, and more than 3,000 young people have gained joy and growth.
In addition to being busy during the day, I am still busy, and I will feel bored after a long time when I stay at home and swipe my mobile phone at night. As an office worker, Luo Xinxin expressed the appeal of many young people: how to make life outside of 8 hours rich and interesting?
If you want to learn something, but you suffer from the lack of platforms, teachers, and high fees for market-oriented courses, many confusions among young people are the driving force for the Youth League to take the lead in establishing the "Canal Night School".
Everything starts from scratch. There is no venue, and the staff of the regimental district committee keep running and coordinating; There are no teachers, so they start with friends who have artistic expertise and teaching experience; If there are no students, they will be advertised one after another in the WeChat circle.
The first WeChat group of 500 people quickly filled, and then the second and third were built. Everyone was pleased to see that night school really has such a great attraction to young people, and the "people-friendly price" of 9 yuan to 49 yuan per class is also one of the attractions of night school.
Unlike the older generation, who learn skills and re-enter the workforce through night schools, we want to run (night schools) that young people really like and love, which is the 'infrastructure' for young people in the city, and also their exclusive 'children's palace'. Qiao Weijia, head of the operation team of the "Canal Night School", said that he led a team of eight people with an average age of 29 years old to design "fun" and "magical" courses for the night school.
In the past three months, the curriculum has been continuously enriched and iterated, from the earliest three courses of psychology, oil painting and "Sheniu Magic" to 35, including interest-oriented calligraphy, floral art, traditional Chinese medicine meridian health, drama, quyi, Baduan brocade, silver jewelry, incense seal and other courses, as well as Douyin anchor and interview skills courses for the actual needs of young people, in addition to interspersed with special courses such as tooth brushing classes and red wine tasting.
In addition to being fun, trendy and effective are also incorporated into the course design concept. For example, the calligraphy class no longer teaches the traditional horizontal and vertical writing essentials, but allows everyone to use national tide calligraphy to "draw" a pair of Spring Festival couplets; The silver jewelry class teaches everyone to make a ring of their own originality; The dance class allows everyone to learn the popular "subject three" ...... recentlyIn short, let the young students learn something and enjoy it.
Let young people teach young people - a team of teachers with an average age of 35 years old has also become the "exclusive IP" of this night school, some of them are teachers from colleges and universities in the jurisdiction, teachers from mass art museums, and many of them are art shop owners. Energetic and able to "play with memes", the participation of these young teachers adds a bit of vitality to the "Canal Night School".
32-year-old Miao Ke is one of them. The oil painting class she taught was very popular with the students, and the fastest one, after the registration process opened, all the places were "seconds" within 20 minutes. In her class, drawing is not a serious and rigid thing, and by designing interesting interactive sessions, she encourages students to relax and express themselves.
The premise of making students feel interesting is that we should be interesting teachers, and I enjoy the process of growing together with everyone on such a new platform for spreading aesthetic education knowledge. Miao Ke said.
The 90-minute course is divided into 5 subsections, each subsection refines the corresponding keywords, 28-year-old tea art teacher Liu Mengdi will carefully prepare each lesson, and has also gained a group of young friends who are willing to share and spread tea culture in the past few months.
Canal Night School" has become popular, and the refreshing poster slogans have contributed to it: "Work during the day, learn art at night", "Eating a night snack is not as good as going to night school", "It doesn't matter what you teach, the important thing is fun" ......They were created by Xie Yujie, a first-year student majoring in visual communication design at Shandong Youth University of Political Science, who signed up as a student when she returned home from winter break.
Xie Yujie was surprised more than once by the teachers' familiarity with Internet buzzwords such as "dddd" (meaning "know everything") and the "alternative" teaching methods, "This is what can really impress our young people".
Chang Zheng, a 28-year-old employee of a state-owned enterprise, was one of the first batch of students of the "Canal Night School" and now comes to the night school almost every day, "It is no exaggeration to say that going to night school has become an indispensable part of my life."
In addition to changing his previous lifestyle, Chang Zheng also advocated the social role of night school, bringing together interesting souls who also love art and life, so as to find a group of like-minded friends. In a relaxed and open atmosphere, Chang Zheng pondered applying to open classes here, sharing his cloisonné enamel paintings with more people, and is preparing for this.
According to the school-running method of "being very cultural during the day and Jining at night", today's "Canal Night School" is not only a carrier for young people to learn, but also a new position for organizing, uniting and serving young people, and realizing the "breaking circle" of youth socialization. Up to now, a total of 38 "Top Ten Youth Activities" have been carried out here, such as "Fireside Meeting", "Boat Viewing Party", "Spotlight Action", "Canal Students' Homecoming and Dream Building".
In order to ensure the normal and long-term development of school-running activities, the "Canal Night School" relies on the Canal Memory Youth Home and the Rencheng District Home for the Elderly, signs a tripartite cooperation agreement with the venue management party and the third-party operator, and promulgates the "Canal Night School Management Service System (Trial)" to institutionalize and standardize the registration mechanism, organizational structure, fund management, teaching management, etc. At the same time, personal accident insurance is purchased for young students and teachers to provide all-round security for teaching activities.
Starting from accelerating the construction of a youth-friendly city, we focus on the practical needs of young people for socializing and flexible learning, and solve problems such as raising funds, recruiting teachers, mobilizing young people, and renewing venues, so as to continuously improve the attractiveness of night schools. Li Wenwen, deputy secretary of the Jining Municipal Party Committee of the Youth League, introduced that this year, while further expanding the campus, a number of flexible teaching points will be set up, and more flexible socialized fundraising methods will be innovated to ensure that the night school can better meet the needs of young people.
According to the work plan of the Tuanjining Municipal Party Committee, in 2024, Rencheng District will be used as a pilot, and the Chinese New Year's Eve School will be fully rolled out in 14 districts and counties in the city.
Unexpectedly, more and more young people who grew up drinking canal water and worked hard outside began to see the Chinese New Year's Eve school on their doorstep as a "reason to go home". "When I graduate, I will definitely choose to come back and build my hometown into an enviable state. Xie Yujie said firmly.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Xing Ting **China Youth Daily.
*: China Youth Daily.