Pressure from middle-class parents and economic reformers has led to a list of '40 forbiddens'- words once used to scold and harden students

BEIJING - New rules in a Beijing school district have listed '40 forbiddens' - words, phrases, and sentences - that teachers may no longer fire off at their trembling charges.

The language alert is a part of even more changes brewing in China's schools.

While public school teachers in China are venerable icons, they are also known for their tough language, used in an effort to harden students for competition.

Yet, it is no longer acceptable to say, for example: 'If I were you, I would not continue to live. You are hopeless', or 'You are a wood post with two ears. Get out.'

Banned, too, is a phrase students say is among the most unpopular phrases: 'Whoever teaches you has the worst luck.'

The new mandates derive partly from a growing middle class of parents bringing pressure against a harsh experience for their children, and partly from China's economic reformers wanting graduates to be competitive in a world of high-tech accomplishment, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

With both parents and Communist Party officials concerned that the verbal authority of teachers needed curbing, 20,000 Beijing students and teachers were surveyed last year to come up with 5,000 phrases heard in class that were considered harmful.

The Chaoyang District Education Committee boiled that down to get its 40 forbiddens.

The language alert is only a part of larger changes brewing in China's schools.

For the past year, school officials here have been mandated to emphasise student 'personhood' and 'participation'.

In urban schools in Beijing and Shanghai, emphasis is being placed on parental involvement, reforms so that students not headed for college can take a different test to demonstrate their accomplishments, and experiments with curricula that stress more creativity and less memorisation.

But central to the new moves are efforts to change the traditional teacher-student relationship, where teachers are treated as supreme authorities.

Along with the 40 forbidden phrases no longer tolerated in Chaoyang district schools, the education committee has also come up with 108 phrases that are encouraged.

They include 'Keep working hard', and 'Let the teacher help you'.

But officially, the 108 'good' phrases have been given less importance by the central Education Commission. Insiders say that officials do not want to 'constrict' teachers.

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