Advance Along the Glorious Path of Chairman Mao's "July 21" Directive

Abstract

In the pair of opposites - political work and vocational work - political work is the principal aspect of the contradiction. The fundamental principle for the successful operation of schools is to adhere firmly to putting proletarian politics in command and carrying out the "May 7 Directive." Divorced from this principle, one would go astray toward revisionism. This article shows that in the process of operating a school, it is imperative to overcome the two kinds of one-sidedness - to slight practice or to slight theory - pay attention to enlarging the worker-students' basis of practice (from the part to the whole, from proficiency in only one part or work procedure to understanding the various processes of production and their inter-relations), raise the worker-students' theoretical level (by studying higher mathematics and the relevant courses of vocational theory with problems in mind and on the basis of practice), promote the unity of study and application, the particular and the general, theory and practice, and give impetus to technical innovations.