北京将实现中医进小学课堂

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记者从北京市中医药管理局获悉，为了在学生中普及基础中医药知识，下学期起，北京市各小学将统一开设中医课程。“中医文化进校园”是北京市开展中医药文化建设年工作的内容之一，由市中医局、市教委、市文化局、市卫生局等多部门联合举办，旨在在校园内传播中医药传统文化。

Primary schools in Beijing will open Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) classes during the following semester in order to spread knowledge regarding basic TCM among students, according to the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration Bureau.

In an aim to popularize TCM culture on campus, this new program is to be carried out as part of the TCM Culture Construction Year and is spearheaded by several municipal government departments including the Beijing TCM Administration Bureau, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health.

An official has stated that the TCM classes will not feature on the students' official curriculum and will solely focus on the popularization of the topic, the class will also not be listed as a test subject.

Teachers for the courses will be selected from applicants who possess previous experience teaching biology, Chinese, history, or traditional culture. After they make it through the selection rounds, they will attend a training course provided by TCM departments.

New TCM education textbooks will be introduced to Beijing pupils next semester. The textbooks for primary school students feature various short stories and cartoons about traditional Chinese medicine and teach the children about body care, psychological well-being and traditional culture through school courses, interest classes and onsite-practice in herbal gardens.

"The TCM program is not merely an introduction to a certain knowledge, but a cultural inspiration as well," said a source from Beijing's TCM Administration Bureau. "Both classroom teaching and herbal planting are aimed at improving students' physical and mental health."

Meanwhile, the bureau has set out to pilot TCM education in several Beijing middle schools. A unified TCM textbook for middle school students will be compiled as soon as next year.

In one of the pilot schools, the Beijing No. 5 Middle School Junior Branch, students apply their newly gained TCM knowledge in various optional courses such as cooking and martial arts. In those classes, they learn how to brew healthy herbal teas or do some shadow boxing to reduce stress, said some students.