Tao Xingzhi and "Cave Education"

During the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Guilin was not only the capital city of Guangxi and the political, economic, and cultural center of Southwest China but also the target of Japanese troops' aerial bombings. Since the second half of 1938, several or dozens of Japanese aircraft had dropped bombs in batches to Guilin every three or five days, each lasting tens of minutes or more than one hour. Whenever the alarm was sounded, people of all ages in Guilin would swarm into the nearby natural bomb shelters — the caves. The movement was thus called "hiding the alarm".

On November 30, 1938, to avoid the Japanese troops' air attack, Tao Xingzhi hid in the cave with other citizens. This experience enlightened Tao Xingzhi: Among the people in the cave, there were more than 10,000 intellectuals as estimated. So, at least 1,000 of them could be mobilized to participate in education popularization. Later, Tao Xingzhi published the article, Suggestions on Popularizing Education in Caves, in which he suggested regarding each cave as a school for people during the wartime, and organizing Guilin's wartime universal education groups — a universal education group should manage a big cave, while small caves should be managed by sub-groups established by the universal education group. Authorities of Guangxi attached great importance to these suggestions and set up the Steering Committee of Guangxi People's Education in Wartime. Soon after, the steering committee announced launching of "cave education".

"We see the caves as our schools and alarm as the school bell." When people promenade around the Zenggong Rock, the rear rock of Seven-star Rock in Guilin's Seven-star Park, the slogan "Enemy Is Bombing, We Are in Classroom" can still be clearly seen on the wall of the cave.

陶行知与“岩洞教育”

抗战时期的桂林，作为广西的省府所在地和西南地区的政治、经济、文化中心，是日军飞机轰炸的重点目标。从1938年下半年开始，每隔三五天就会有几架或几十架日军飞机分批空袭桂林，持续时间几十分钟或一个多小时。每当警报拉响，桂林城老老少少成群结队地涌向附近的天然防空洞——— 岩洞，那时叫做“躲警报”。

1938年11月30日，因为日军空袭，陶行知与桂林市民躲进了岩洞，这触发了陶行知的灵感：进岩洞躲警报知识分子估计有一万多人，在这些人中，至少可以动员一千多人从事普及教育的工作。这之后，陶行知写了《岩洞教育的建议》，建议每一个山洞为一个战时民众学校，组织桂林战时普及教育团，依据山洞数，每一个大的山洞由一个普及教育团负责，小山洞由该团组织力量分团负责。当时的广西当局很重视，成立了广西战时民众教育指导委员会，随即，广西战时民众教育指导委员会宣布开展“岩洞教育”。

“岩洞是我们的学校，警报声是我们的上课钟”，当人们漫步在桂林七星公园的七星后岩——曾公岩时，在岩洞的石壁上依然清晰可见有“敌人在轰炸，我们在上课”的标语。