Recently, I have been reading a book of Yu Qiuyu on culture. Instead of explaining different "ways of life", Yu examined a critical question: What is culture? Not only did he answer the question by defining the word "culture" theoretically, he analyzed its importance from the perspectives of our social context, history and our nature. To summarize the meaning of "culture" and add gist to this book, we may simply define "culture" as a kind of ecological community embracing different spiritual values and lifestyles. It shapes our characters through accumulation and guidance. In the end, culture is the "collative personality" of humans in groups.

Based on Yu's definition of culture, it's hardly surprising to find that if a school does not have its own culture, it loses its soul and individuality. School culture is constructed by the experiences shared inside and outside the school. It is about the "school characters" that teachers and students build through their collative memories. School culture is important because students spend most of their time in the classroom. The culture offers them the skills beyond what they can learn from books, and helps shape their values, beliefs, commitments and personalities. Researchers suggest that school culture is the most important element in improving school performance. School culture is undoubtedly essential for school development. However, educators find it extremely challenging to attain a positive school culture when schools cannot stand aloof from society at large and they are greatly influenced by the community's values. Scholars have long defined school culture as a kind of "sub-culture", which is "derived or decided" by the peripheral environment. Values that are generally accepted by society do have great impact on school culture.

The question is: How are these values developed? Most of the time, the rulers or the authorities of a community have the power to induce different values. Take Hong Kong's education system for instance. The Education Bureau has been putting significant emphasis on public examinations, imposing an "exam-oriented culture" on our society. Inevitably, academic achievement has become our parents' top priority for their kids. Schools have no choice but to follow such culture blindly. As a result, students nowadays have gradually become overly focused on exams. Achieving decent results in exams in order to qualify for admission to university has become their only motivation. Secondary schools are ranked by the number of their graduates entering university. Those with more students entering universities are considered better schools, and they can attract better students, when viewed from an academic perspective. When examinations dominate other aspects of learning, schools have less time to promote school culture.

Despite continuous effort by schools on "value" education, today's media remain powerful voices to influence student thinking. The media does have a positive impact on our education. We can learn about different parts of the world through television and the Internet. The media is an effective way to spread knowledge, information and news from one part of the world to another. Our children like to learn through the media because audio and visual programs make knowledge quite easy to understand. However, a common problem with the media is the tendency to publish news or carry programs with a sensational slant, intent on attracting the attention of people. The responsibility of educating the public is out of their purview. Values embedded in television programs will certainly be part of our social culture and, consequently, influence school culture.

"You Are The One" is a recent popular program for setting up blind dates for single men and women on the mainland. Single men joining the program will have a chance to stand in front of 24 single women and be judged by them. Each group of participants (one man and 24 women) will have some time to communicate with each other under the guidance of the host. If single women are unsatisfied with the man, they will switch off the lights in front of them to show they are "not interested" in him. Very often, the women use cruel and direct words to judge him, and the audiences are drawn to these debasements. However, is this what we want for our children? Do we agree with such values when our children come to seek love and form relationships? If the younger generation does not have critical thinking and proper guidance while watching this program, young people will be "brainwashed" by the values promoted by the media. In the 21st century, what is school culture? What roles should the media play? And how should educators develop school culture?

The author is vice-chairman of Education Convergence.

(HK Edition 01/31/2013 page9)