“Like me at the beginning, they know nothing about Chinese and Mathematics… And the more children get good grades, the less happy they seem to be.”

Gangwei Town, Southeast of Longhai City, Fujian Province. According to the native Jiang Chenxi, this is a place that is “too ordinary to be ordinary”. Separated from Xiamen by a sea, this urban-rural fringe is neither a prosperous city nor a village; The only criterion for children’s learning is to immerse themselves in their grades every day; If the results are not good enough and face criticism from parents and schools, many children will be afraid of learning and have no chance to exercise their comprehensive literacy. When Jiang Chenxi was admitted to college across the sea from here, she suddenly found that learning was not the only way. Others were developing their own interests and understanding the world outside the window, and the lack of knowledge outside books made her have a deep inferiority complex

She felt that an educational gap lies between urban children and herself.

Jiang Chenxi

In 2015, after graduating from University, Jiang Chenxi and two classmates returned to Gangwei to create “big children”, to carry out educational activities such as reading, science, art and outdoor study tours for local children aged 3 ~ 12, make up for the local educational gap, and let the children here also have access to education beyond knowledge and examination. But in the urban-rural fringe, there is no money for money and no one for important people - parents believe that “education is to study in school”. Do educational innovation? They not only have to worry about survival, but also are destined to move against the current.

Until 2016, when she joined the study of the islands education accelerator project (and the islands education innovation and entrepreneurship support project, hereinafter referred to as the islands accelerator or islands), Jiang Chenxi and her partners found that their educational ideas coincided with the “social learning” method advocated by the islands and the innovative concept of “Education 3.0”, and met educational innovation partners from all over the country, “We understand that this is not a stupid thing. The person who does it is not alone.”. They learned a series of innovative and entrepreneurial methods from the islands, helped older children upgrade iteratively, launched a series of children’s social exploration activities, reading and science courses, and promoted and influenced the children, parents and even the whole town’s real perception of “what is good education”.

Children of older children are in activities

In fact, older children are just an epitome of many educational innovation start-ups. They face various challenges in the process of Educational Innovation: insufficient social recognition, uncertain funds, lack of support for entrepreneurial methods, no companions, exploring and moving forward alone, and even many bystanders believe that “they will be gone in less than a few years”.

In 2016, the Beijing Office of Macao Tongji Charity Association and AHA Institute of social innovation launched the “archipelago accelerator” project, which introduced the concept of “long-term companionship and entrepreneurship acceleration” in the field of educational innovation for the first time. With the support of the archipelago, more than 70 institutions, including older children, have gradually transformed into an influential network of educators with entrepreneurship, reflecting the characteristics of the new era and innovative methodology, and attracted more people to participate in educational reform through layer by layer ripple communication.

It is difficult to face the problem-solving road of educational innovators

I thought that Gangwei town was what the world looked like. In the end, I found that it was a forgotten corner.

Since entering the city, especially after being admitted to Xiamen University, Jiang Chenxi’s feeling has become stronger and stronger. The closer the children are to their hometown, the more likely they are to see themselves - they know nothing about the outside world except the knowledge in school books; In addition to practicing questions and exams, I was at a loss. Take another look at this small town with an area of 69.6 square kilometers. “In the past ten years, although the material conditions are not scarce, there has been no library, museum and children’s palace, and there is a blank of children’s public learning space and cultural resources.”

Therefore, at the beginning of their founding, they chose “reading” as the starting point.

They hope to take their children to learn knowledge in reading and society, explore the world, and guide them to become knowledge creators who can “ask real questions and find answers independently”. And hope to explore a set of sustainable operation mode, so that institutions can make their own blood, rather than relying solely on public welfare funds. In 2015, the three people “started doing it without a penny.” The start-up funds and venues all rely on the trust and support of relatives and friends, but these are only the difficulties in the initial stage.

At that time, Jiang Chenxi and his partners spent a lot of time on curriculum development. They thought, “if you do well in class, are you afraid you can’t recruit students?” At that time, the parents of the whole town did come to the door, and the children who came to the older children to read one after another. However, the reason is not that they agree with their own courses as they think, but - “we think that if we don’t pay 100 yuan, we can let the children have a place to play at ordinary times without worrying.”

The “save the bookstore” activity for older children opened in 2015. At that time, I investigated with the children why there was no bookstore at the end of Hong Kong. Do we need a bookstore

In order to obtain the ability to have lifelong happiness, children need higher quality educational services and companionship. However, the educational resources in Gangwei town are very limited. “The way for most parents is to make money and apply for remedial classes for their children”. Jiang Chenxi recalled, “children in older children have expectations for good education, like reading and have their own thinking and expression, but in primary school, parents often take them from here to cram school, and our ideas have not been effectively transmitted to parents.”

At the same time, older children also encountered another bottleneck: insufficient manpower. “The urban-rural fringe can’t recruit the teachers they want at all, because excellent teachers have left here long ago.” In the early stage of growing up children, everyone fell into a very busy state, constantly taking children and classes, thinking about the development of institutions, mediating with the traditional educational ideas of parents in the town and sticking to it alone.

In 2016, older children were selected into the archipelago education accelerator project (hereinafter referred to as “archipelago accelerator”) jointly launched by the Beijing Office of Macao Tongji charity and AHA Institute of social innovation. Launched in 2016, the project focuses on educational innovation and entrepreneurs based on social mission, and selects about 20 Educational Entrepreneurship teams at the start-up or growth stage every year to provide them with support from educational concept, product design to organizational form.

Archipelago accelerator proposed “teaching”