On May 26, 2022, the "People's Education Edition Mathematics Textbook" boarded a hot search, which triggered a heated discussion. Judging from the pictures circulating on the Internet, the illustrations in these textbooks have strange eyes and no aesthetic feeling. Compared with other versions of textbooks, there are obvious differences. Netizens said that the audience facing the textbook is primary school students, which will subtly affect children's aesthetics and need to be treated with caution.
On May 28th, 2022, the Ministry of Education responded to "Illustrations of Primary School Mathematics Textbooks by People's Education Publishing House". The Ministry of Education said that it instructed People's Education Publishing House to immediately rectify and reorganize professional forces to draw illustrations of teaching materials to ensure the use of new teaching materials in the fall semester of 2022. The Ministry of Education will organize a panel of experts to conduct a strict audit. On May 30th, the Ministry of Education set up an investigation team to thoroughly investigate the illustrations in textbooks.
On August 22, 2022, the Ministry of Education issued a circular on the investigation of illustrations in primary school mathematics textbooks published by People's Education Publishing House. According to the Regulations on Accountability of China Production Party, the Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of China Production Party and the Law on Administrative Punishment of Public Officials in People's Republic of China (PRC), the relevant units and 27 dereliction of duty were seriously held accountable.
What are the influences of illustration on people?
Image is a medium, just like telephone or email. Images are a way to communicate with others. They are created by people, and almost every picture you see is someone who tries to influence you. The image you absorb may affect you. Because your subconscious brain will absorb all the visual information it provides, whether you like it or not.
Images will strongly affect our behavior. Because we process visual stimuli at lightning speed, images are likely to trigger strong emotions and then trigger actions. In one study, researchers at Michigan State University found out which parts of the brain were active during a series of visual stimuli. They found that the visual cortex can make decisions like the "higher" areas of the brain.
Before this study, it was generally believed that the related cortex, which was famous for its advanced functions, was mainly responsible for making choices. The visual cortex is responsible for the low-level and less complicated tasks of processing visual information. It will explain to the brain what you see. But their research found that the visual cortex not only controls the interpretation of images, but also has the decision-making power.
In the process of receiving this information, children are the most vulnerable, because they have the worst ability of critical reasoning and context understanding when judging whether the information is correct or not.
Children's concern for the environment in the process of development may lead them to absorb these propaganda indiscriminately because of their development process of understanding the world. In addition, children are very imitative and may imitate some behaviors in illustrations.
In short, in books used for education, illustrations are designed to make it easier for students to understand and learn. But if this illustration is mixed with some bad things, then these illustrations may have an unintentional impact on students. Therefore, we must be careful and cherish the illustrations used by students.