Recently, in a class group in Huanggang, Hubei, due to multiple parents not ordering milk, a teacher angrily scolded the parents, saying: “You all don’t order milk, how can we carry out our work.” He also claimed, “In the future, if you have requests, don’t look for teachers; we won’t respond to every demand.” After the incident was made public, the involved school claimed that “the higher authorities put pressure on the school and teachers. Not all students need to order, only about fifty percent, so please understand each other.” However, the local education bureau stated that “ordering is voluntary,” and that milk is exclusively for students. Such contradictory statements have long ceased to deceive students and parents; previously, student milk was pointed out to be only slightly higher in standard than ordinary milk or flavored milk, yet the price was generally high, with bizarre requirements such as not allowing students to take it out of school. Some places even required students who did not order milk to obtain a diagnosis certificate from hospitals above the county level stating that they are not suitable for drinking student milk. These coercive measures are merely to force students to purchase milk. Why is the education department so crazy?
Marx said: “The bourgeoisie has erased the sacred aura of all professions that have always been revered and awe-inspiring. It has turned doctors, lawyers, priests, poets, and scholars into hired laborers paid by it.” In capitalist society, teachers, as intellectuals dependent on the bourgeoisie and living off surplus value allocated by the bourgeoisie, instill ideology favorable to the ruling class in students. Today, with frequent economic crises and the increasingly unsustainable capitalist mode of production, the so-called “middle repair” (Zhongxiu) no longer confines itself to spiritually enslaving students through the education system but has become more reactionary, directly plundering students and their parents materially, treating the education department as a vast market for commodity sales, serving the increasingly difficult realization of commodities. As a result, from education bureau officials to ordinary teachers, they all transform into salespeople for commodities, leveraging the monopoly position of the education sector to force students and parents to comply with their demands. This allows dairy companies to monopolize the high-priced sale of “student milk,” earning higher profits than ordinary milk. According to the “National ‘Student Drinking Milk Program’ Promotion Plan (2021-2025),” the average daily supply of student milk was 21.3 million servings in 2019-2020, reaching 27.75 million by 2023. The plan aims for an average daily supply of 32 million servings by 2025, noting that the penetration rate was only 17% in 2019—far below Sweden’s 95%, Japan’s over 90%, and the US’s over 80%. It is clear that the dark hand of the so-called “middle repair” still looms over students. Under the pretext of improving the health of adolescents, the so-called “middle repair” education system pushes student milk, but this system, characterized by heavy coursework, is the main cause of high myopia rates and declining physical fitness among youth. Without solving the reactionary rule of the “middle repair,” the oppression of students will only deepen, leading to both spiritual and material hardships.
http://www.ce.cn/cysc/sp/info/202012/23/t20201223_36147133.shtml