作者：熊小芳 编辑：王梦梦 责任编辑：罗志飞 鲁慧文
教育，本应是启迪人心、传播真理、塑造人格的神圣事业，然而中国共产党深知若想控制一个民族的思想，必须从孩提时代抓起。于是，共党将教育变成了一种维护政权的工具，一种驯化人民的手段。
我是一个80后，自幼在红旗下长大，从小被灌输“听党话、跟党走”的思想。小学二年级，我被选入学校合唱团的时候，心中就充满着荣耀。我们反复唱着《没有共产党就没有新中国》、《我们是共产主义接班人》、《东方红》、《少年先锋队队歌》等“红歌”，在一次次的合唱比赛中，我深信“党的恩情比山高比海深”，并高喊“为共产主义事业奋斗终身！”。在我们的课本中，也充斥着“毛主席是最伟大的人”，共产党“解放了全中国”等政治标语，那时的我，对这一切我从未质疑。
后来，我先后在小学、中学、大学任教，始终成为中共思想的传声筒，那些灌输给我的内容再重复给我的学生。大学期间，我曾担任“思想政治理论课”的教师，继续将“听党话、跟党走”作为自己的信仰，并信以为真地生活着。
没想到一次偶然的香港之行，竟然彻底地颠覆了我的观念。彼时的香港，尚有相对自由的言论空间。街头传单、书店书籍，带给我强烈的冲击与不安。此时，我开始接触更多知道真相的人，并通过翻墙了解墙外的世界。从“六四”、“文革”、“大跃进”到“法轮功”，我看到了无数从未在课本中出现的历史。这些真相不仅让我震惊，更让我羞愧——一直自诩受过良好教育的我，竟对这些重大事件一无所知。
这时的我不仅是一位教师，更是一位母亲，我开始关注孩子正在接受的教育。“大跃进”饿殍遍野，可历史课本却将其轻描淡写为“宝贵经验”；“文化大革命”摧毁了无数知识分子，却被包装成“探索道路”；“六四屠杀”更是被彻底封锁，仿佛从未存在……这样的教育，不是在传递真理，而是在灌输谎言。
当我三岁的小儿子回家唱着“把我们的血肉，筑成我们新的长城”的时候，当我看到大儿子每天戴着红领巾，背诵着被篡改的历史的时候，我内心无法平静。我问我自己，难道我的孩子也要成为维护专制政权的“螺丝钉”吗？我听到了内心斩钉截铁的答案，绝不！
痛定思痛之后，我做出了两个决定，一是让两个孩子退学，进行家庭教育；二是辞去大学的“思想政治理论课”的教学工作。因为我既不能容忍自己的孩子在谎言中长大，更不可能再违背良知地站在讲台上传播谎言。
在中国像我这样的80后太少，大多数人被动地接受教育，从未思考和质疑，以至于把洗脑当作“爱国”。但我想，真正的教育不是为党培养“接班人”，不是驯化的“优等生”，更不是制造没有思想、没有自尊、唯命是从的工具人，真正的教育是培养敢于独立思考、敢于质疑、能够自由表达的人。
当你开始问：“为什么党总要我们感恩？”“为什么每年‘六四’前后气氛如此紧张？”“为什么李文亮要被训诫？”——那么，恭喜你，你已踏上觉醒之路。
觉醒，不意味着反叛，而是意味着开始做回真正的自己，而不是政权的复制品。
教育的使命，是唤醒人的自我意识，激发理性思维，鼓励个性发展，而不是教人歌颂权力、抹去历史、麻木顺从、保持沉默。愿我们每一个人，都从反洗脑教育开始——唤醒自己、唤醒孩子、唤醒整个社会。
熊小芳
2025年6月30日
“I Refuse to Let My Children Become Cogs in the Machine”
— A Mother Raised Under the Red Flag Awakens to and Resists CCP Education
By: Xiong Xiaofang Editor: Wang Mengmeng Executive Editors: Luo Zhifei, Lu Huiwen Translator: Lu Huiwen
Education is meant to enlighten minds, convey truth, and shape character. Yet the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long understood that to control a people’s thoughts, it must begin with their children. As such, the CCP has transformed education into a tool of political control and ideological domestication—a means of keeping its authoritarian grip firmly in place.
I was born in the 1980s and raised under the red flag, indoctrinated from an early age with slogans like “Obey the Party, follow the Party.” In the second grade, I was selected to join the school choir—a moment that filled me with pride. We sang “Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China,” “We Are the Successors of Communism,” “The East Is Red,” and “Young Pioneers Anthem” over and over. Through countless rehearsals and performances, I came to believe deeply that “the Party’s grace is higher than the mountains and deeper than the seas,” and I shouted with conviction: “I vow to fight for communism all my life!”
Our textbooks were filled with messages like “Chairman Mao is the greatest man” and claims that the CCP had “liberated all of China.” At the time, I never questioned any of it.
Later, I became a teacher—first in elementary school, then middle school, then university—repeating the same ideology that had been instilled in me. At university, I even taught political theory, wholeheartedly spreading the message of “obeying the Party, following the Party,” believing it to be the truth, and living by it.
Then one unexpected trip to Hong Kong completely shattered my worldview.
Back then, Hong Kong still had a relatively free space for speech. The leaflets on the streets and the books in independent bookstores left me stunned and unsettled. I started meeting people who knew the truth and began climbing over the Great Firewall to access the world beyond it. I learned about Tiananmen, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, and Falun Gong—countless historical truths I had never seen in any textbook. I was not only shocked but deeply ashamed: I had always thought of myself as well-educated, yet I had known nothing of these major events.
By then, I was not just a teacher—I was a mother. I began to scrutinize the education my children were receiving.
The Great Leap Forward starved millions, yet history books gloss over it as a “valuable lesson.” The Cultural Revolution devastated countless intellectuals, yet it’s portrayed as “a time of exploration.” The Tiananmen Massacre is so thoroughly censored that it is treated as if it never happened. This is not an education grounded in truth—it is a system built on lies.
When my three-year-old son came home singing “With our flesh and blood, we shall build a new Great Wall,” and when I saw my older son wearing a red scarf and reciting distorted versions of history, I felt deeply unsettled. I asked myself:
Will my children also become cogs in the machine upholding authoritarian rule?
And I heard my heart answer firmly: Absolutely not.
After much soul-searching, I made two decisions.
First, I withdrew both of my children from school to homeschool them.
Second, I resigned from my university position teaching political theory.
Because I could no longer allow my children to grow up in a system of lies, and I could no longer stand on a podium and spread those lies myself.
There are far too few people like me in China’s post-1980s generation. Most passively accept the system, never stopping to reflect or question. Many have confused indoctrination with patriotism. But I believe real education is not about training successors for the Party, nor producing obedient “model students,” nor creating docile tools with no mind or dignity of their own. True education cultivates individuals who can think critically, question authority, and speak freely.
The moment you start asking,
“Why are we always told to be grateful to the Party?”
“Why is the atmosphere so tense every year around June Fourth?”
“Why was Dr. Li Wenliang reprimanded for telling the truth?”
—at that moment, you have begun to awaken.
Awakening does not mean rebellion. It means becoming your true self—not a copy of the regime.
The mission of education is to awaken self-awareness, inspire rational thought, and encourage the development of unique personalities—not to glorify power, erase history, numb minds, or enforce silence.
May we each begin by resisting brainwashing—
Awakening ourselves.
Awakening our children.
Awakening our society.
Xiong Xiaofang
June 30, 2025
