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Learning from life

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-01 07:56

Social practice has long been deemed a necessary channel for university students to get to know about the real world and apply what they have learned to practical work. It is important for them to go down to factories or villages to see and feel for themselves how practical work is done. But it is equally or even more important for them to conduct research on practical problems, and it is also a social practice.

What the seven students in Renmin University of China did for the post-quake reconstruction sets a good example of how students can engage themselves in social practice even on the campus.

The seven students, six of whom are from Sichuan, did a lot of research about reconstruction after natural disasters around the world and came up with a report on reconstruction in just two weeks. The report was then delivered to the State Council and caught the attention of relevant leaders. Then the report was sent to the Sichuan provincial government.

This most disastrous earthquake in three decades has provided an opportunity for university students to test their will and gain practical experience by doing voluntary work in whatever ways they can for quake survivors.

Luo Jie, one of the seven students, has a plan to go back to his home province to conduct on-the-spot investigation for a further study on their report.

Apart from those who have been to the quake-affected areas to do voluntary work on their own, the central committee of the Communist Youth League has organized more than 1,000 volunteers to help with post-quake rehabilitation.

Students on campus should never isolate themselves from what is happening in the rest of the world.

Students today who were born in the 1980s were mostly single children doted upon by their parents and grandparents before entering universities.

What many volunteers have achieved during their practical work in helping with the post-quake rescue and rehabilitation sends a message that they could grow up better psychologically after they involve themselves into painful realities of life.

What the seven students have done suggests that showing real concern for what is happening in society can also be a practical way to develop one's sense of social responsibility.

It is unimaginable that university students without due social responsibility will be able to adapt themselves easily to society after graduation.

(China Daily 07/01/2008 page8)