Original title: Why did the "600-yuan anti-comparison shoes" appear? Local authorities respond to CNR

　　CNR Huaibei, May 10 — Recently, some students' parents reported that a primary school in Huaibei, Anhui Province, distributed a questionnaire to parents soliciting their opinions on "the school's plan to uniformly purchase 600-yuan athletic shoes for students in order to prevent comparison." The incident quickly sparked heated discussion and soon trended online. Is it true? What is the real story? On May 9, a CNR reporter traveled to Huaibei to investigate the whole course of the "anti-comparison shoes" incident.

　　Parents: The questionnaire is real, but the purpose of the survey is unclear

　　On the afternoon of May 7, a parent in Huaibei, Anhui Province, posted a video online stating that on that day, Huaibei Shoufu Experimental Primary School distributed a questionnaire to students' parents soliciting their opinions on "the school's plan to uniformly purchase 600-yuan athletic shoes for students." The video also "showed" a questionnaire bearing an official seal. The questionnaire had two columns for "parents' opinions," namely support and do not support. In addition, after the do-not-support column, several reasons for not supporting were listed for parents to choose or fill in.

Huaibei Shoufu Experimental Primary School

　　It is understood that Huaibei Shoufu Experimental Primary School is a public primary school under the jurisdiction of the Huaibei Municipal Education Bureau. On the afternoon of May 9, when the reporter arrived at the west campus of Huaibei Shoufu Experimental Primary School, parents were arriving one after another to drop off their children.

　　"It happened. Our child received the questionnaire, and the content was the same as online." At the school gate, a third-grade student's parent recalled that because the purpose of the questionnaire was unclear, she chose not to support it. She said she asked her child at the time whether the teacher had said the school was going to buy shoes for everyone, and the child said no.

　　A fourth-grade student's parent who also received the questionnaire said that at noon that day, the child said, "The teacher said this questionnaire has to be filled out, whether you support it or not, according to the actual situation."

　　Afterward, the parent read the questionnaire carefully and guessed that it was simply a survey. But because she "still had concerns," she quickly called several parents she knew in other classes. "One parent told me that the teacher in his child's class directly said they could fill in 'do not support.' Then I felt relieved and chose 'do not support.'"

　　In fact, among the more than ten parents interviewed by the reporter, most said they were "unclear" about the questionnaire or had "heard of it but did not receive it themselves," and only a minority clearly said they had received it. However, regarding the price of 600 yuan, most parents said it was hard to accept. They believed that primary school students grow quickly and a pair of shoes might no longer fit after half a year, so spending 600 yuan on shoes was somewhat wasteful.

　　School: Received a task from the education bureau and surveyed four classes

　　What was the purpose of the questionnaire? And where did the 600-yuan price come from? With these questions, the reporter conducted an exclusive interview with the school's person in charge.

　　Yang Li, principal of Huaibei Shoufu Experimental Primary School, told the reporter that the school had only conducted a questionnaire survey to collect and feed back information, and that the school itself had never intended to uniformly purchase athletic shoes.

　　Yang Li gave the reporter a detailed account of the "whole course of the questionnaire." She said that on the morning of May 7, the school received a task notice from a relevant department of the Huaibei Municipal Education Bureau, saying that considering children's healthy growth, they wanted to conduct a questionnaire survey on campus health shoes, and Shoufu Experimental Primary School was one of the "sample schools" they had selected. Yang Li said that at the time, relevant staff of the education bureau clearly stated that the questionnaire survey was intended to collect actual data for relevant feedback work.

　　Subsequently, among the school's 65 classes across six grades, the school selected four classes from the third and fourth grades to conduct the questionnaire survey, and distributed the questionnaires to more than 200 students that morning.

　　"The content on the questionnaire was sent by the relevant department of the education bureau, and we printed and distributed it," Yang Li said. She stated that before organizing the distribution, school leaders had briefed the homeroom teachers of the four selected classes on the background of the survey and required them to explain it properly before distributing the questionnaires.

　　However, she also admitted that the school's work had indeed been insufficiently careful. Yang Li said that when she first saw the 600 yuan on the questionnaire, she was also a little surprised, but since it was just a questionnaire survey, she did not look into it further. In addition, the school did not supervise whether teachers accurately explained the background of the questionnaire to students on the spot; at the same time, it did not fully consider whether younger students were capable of understanding it and fully conveying the school's survey purpose to their parents.

　　"It would have been better if every teacher could have directly communicated with parents that day and clarified the survey background," Yang Li said. She stated that the school had now recovered all questionnaires and promptly done a good job explaining the matter to parents.

　　Education bureau: The 600-yuan price was our work error

　　After investigation, the reporter learned that the "relevant department of the education bureau" mentioned by Yang Li was the Equipment Department of the Huaibei Municipal Education Bureau, whose head, Wei Chengchao, accepted the reporter's interview.

　　Wei Chengchao introduced that the Equipment Department of the Huaibei Municipal Education Bureau was the department that fed back the research topic "to eliminate students' psychology of comparison, it is suggested that schools equip students with uniformly styled campus health sports shoes." This questionnaire survey was organized and carried out by the department on a small scale in certain schools and certain classes in order to collect data and do relevant feedback work, and there was no intention to require schools to uniformly purchase athletic shoes. However, in the specific implementation of the work, a major error did indeed occur.

　　"The price of 600 yuan in the questionnaire was our work error," Wei Chengchao explained. In the above research materials, there had been wording such as "at the current stage, comparison in dress exists among middle school students; according to research, the average price of their shoes is relatively high, around 600 yuan," but the staff of the Equipment Department misunderstood the relevant content, treated 600 yuan as a "price" and directly "moved" it into the questionnaire, and mistakenly set primary school students as the survey subjects and distributed it to some schools.

　　"We are deeply sorry for this incident. Because of many errors in our work, the current result has deviated significantly from our original intention for the survey," Wei Chengchao said during the interview, repeatedly expressing self-reproach and apology. He said that at present, this screening survey had been completely terminated.

　　"The original intention of the relevant work—reducing and even eliminating students' psychology of comparison—was itself positive. However, because our relevant staff lacked sufficient ability to understand the survey materials, the methods used to advance the work were inappropriate, the work process was not careful enough, and in addition the review and verification were not strict, this incident ultimately occurred," Zhuang Weijun, director of the Information Center of the Huaibei Municipal Education Bureau, told the reporter. Next, the Huaibei Municipal Education Bureau will also seriously hold relevant responsible persons accountable.

　　Experts: To prevent comparison, correct guidance is key

　　In addition to the "600-yuan anti-comparison shoes," the issue that triggered widespread discussion this time also included "students' psychology of comparison." Through visits and reviews of materials, the reporter learned that the phenomenon of comparison on campus has appeared nationwide, and the content of comparison is not limited to shoes. So how can adolescents be prevented from developing a psychology of comparison? What should education departments and parents do to effectively prevent comparison behavior? The reporter interviewed two experts and scholars on this matter.

　　In the view of Wang Yunfei, associate professor at the School of Sociology and Political Science of Anhui University, the psychology of comparison comes from human nature itself, and it is unavoidable for adolescents to have such problems during their growth. A general psychology of comparison is normal and will not have much impact, but it is necessary to guard against the emergence of a higher-level, unlimited psychology of comparison, which, if serious, may even trigger a series of moral problems.

　　"It is normal to have a psychology of comparison, so it is very difficult to eliminate it completely; it can only be reduced as much as possible," Wang Yunfei said. "This requires solving the problem from two aspects: external regulations and guiding self-reflection."

　　Wang Yunfei believes that schools and education departments can, to a certain extent, ease the emergence of an atmosphere of comparison by formulating some mandatory regulations. In addition, positive education should be used to encourage adolescents to reflect, thereby achieving a certain level of self-discipline and also reducing the formation of a psychology of comparison. "Of course, this cannot be solved by schools or family education alone. The whole society should also advocate positive values and create a positive and uplifting environment, and news media, social organizations, and others should also strengthen publicity and guidance."

　　"Children are the feet, and education is the shoes." Lin Lin, one of the nation's top ten social psychological workers and president of the Hefei Adolescent Psychology Research Association, said she agrees with some schools' requirement for uniforms, but they must not blindly pursue uniformity, as this does not meet the needs of adolescent psychological development. "Every child is unique and should have his or her own unique ideas."

　　"After coming into contact with many children, I found that comparisons among them appear in all aspects. Therefore, it is impossible for us to eliminate children's comparison in some way. More important is to teach students according to their aptitude, give them more psychological satisfaction, and choose the most suitable educational methods and paths for them," Lin Lin pointed out. Whether in family education or school education, it is necessary to carefully fit the "shoes" of education to the "feet" of children, rather than seeking uniformity and instant success.