Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China

Abstract　"Four matters of confidence" are the core and ideal foundation of socialist construction. Taking Northwest A&F University as an example, this paper analyzes and explores the cultivation path of "four matters of confidence" around the education problem of "four matters of confidence" of agricultural and forestry college students, in order to improve the value identity and belief of "four matters of confidence" among college students of agriculture and forestry.

Key words　Agricultural and forestry colleges and universities, "Four matters of confidence" education, Cultivation pat

1　Introduction

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "The whole Party should be more conscious of strengthening road self-confidence, theoretical self-confidence, institutional self-confidence, and cultural self-confidence. It should neither follow the old road of being closed and rigid nor follow the evil road of changing banners, we will maintain political determination, persist in working hard to rejuvenate the state, and always adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics."Adhering to the "four matters of confidence" is the internal motive force for pushing forward the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and is also the fundamental guarantee for building a well-off society in an all-round way and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The four matters of confidence place a higher demand on the university to carry out the ideological and political education work in the new era. Especially for the university students of agriculture and forestry, how to cultivate "four matters of confidence" in them is a severe challenge to the educators of agricultural and forestry colleges and universities[1].

2　The ideological connotation of "four matters of confidence"

The "four matters of confidence", that is, the road self-confidence, theoretical self-confidence, institutional self-confidence and cultural self-confidence of socialism with Chinese characteristics, are the creative development and perfection of the "three matters of confidence" of socialism with Chinese characteristics put forward by the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his important speech at the meeting to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China: "In today’s world, the Communist Party of China, the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese nation have the most reason to be confident if it is asked which political party, country, and nation can be confident. The most fundamental reason why our party must adhere to the "four matters of confidence" of socialism with Chinese characteristics is that socialism with Chinese characteristics does not fall from the sky, but is a fundamental achievement by the party and the people through all the pains and efforts at great cost. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is not only a great cause that we must constantly advance, but also a fundamental guarantee for our opening up the future." From the perspective of historical materialism, the "four matters of confidence" are a unified and interrelated whole, and these four are unified in great social practice. Among them, road self-confidence originates from the exploration of the Communist Party’s road, road innovation and road self-consciousness, which embodies the Chinese people’s adherence to and defence of the socialist road. The road relates to the party’s lifeline, to the future of the country, to the destiny of the nation, to the happiness of the people, no good dream can come true if the road is not chosen correctly. We must adhere to the Chinese road, neither follow the old road of being closed and rigid, nor follow the evil road of changing flags and banners, so as to realize the common ideal of the rise of China and the prosperity of the country. Theoretical self-confidence originates from the Communist Party’s theoretical exploration, theoretical innovation and theoretical self-consciousness, which embodies the Chinese people’s logical recognition and value identification to the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Under the condition of market economy, multiple values collide with each other, various trends of thought stir with each other, money worship, hedonism and other erroneous ideas begin to appear and occupy a place. In view of this, we can resist the erosion of erroneous trends of thought and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation only if we adhere to the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics and do not waver. Institutional self-confidence originates from the practice of the Communist Party’s system reform and system innovation, which embodies the resolute maintenance of the Chinese system by the Party and the people. What kind of social system a country chooses is determined not only by the national conditions and nature of the country, but also by the historical process of its economic and social development. The socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the fundamental institutional guarantee for the development and progress of contemporary China. Only by adhering to the socialist system without wavering, slackening, and blindly obeying, can the various social reforms and practices be steadily and smoothly promoted, and the national prosperity and the people’s strength be finally realized. Cultural self-confidence is the rational understanding, conscious development and active practice of national culture. It is also the thought source and value base of national development and national progress. Only by adhering to China’s cultural self-confidence, accelerating the pace of "going out" of culture, establishing the discourse system of contemporary China, telling Chinese story well and spreading Chinese wisdom can Chinese culture stand in the forests of world culture[2-3].

3　Analysis on the difficulties of "four matters of confidence" education for students in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities

3.1RealdilemmaIn order to accurately grasp the data related to "four matters of confidence" education of students in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities, College of Marxism of Northwest A&F University carried out a rolling survey of the ideological status of all undergraduates in the school in 2014. The survey was conducted in the form of questionnaires. The total number of students in 2014 was 4 998, accounting for 90.3% of the total number of students in 2014. The effective rate of the questionnaire was 98.2%. Male students accounted for 50.0% while female students accounted for 50.0% of the respondents; urban students accounted for 51.0% while rural students accounted for 49.0%. It covered 20 colleges and the disciplines covered liberal arts, science, engineering and agriculture. The survey shows that 80.8% of the students agree that the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only way for China to develop and become prosperous and strong; 79.6% of the students hold the attitude of "actively striving" in joining the Party; 50% of the students choose "have confidence in the ruling position and concept of the Party", "seek for political honor" and "pursue ideal and belief" on the motive of joining the Party; 81.5% of the students believe that the current society is normal, not only having a good side, but also having an inadequate side.

The above data show that most students have a high degree of recognition of the socialist road, the leadership of the Communist Party, and the development of socialism, and firmly believe in the "four matters of confidence". However, in the course of the survey, it is also found that the "four matters of confidence" education of college students still faces many problems that can not be ignored. These problems are mainly as follows: some college students have a strong practical and utilitarian understanding of the "four matters of confidence". For example, nearly 20% choose "disagree" and "cannot tell clearly" for the view that "the socialist road with Chinese characteristics is the only way for China to develop and become prosperous and strong"; 15.5% of the students hold the attitude of "indifference" in joining the Party; 13.9% of the students think that without money they can not enjoy life, and they can not achieve spiritual pursuits; 23.6% of students believe that human value depends on "money", "power" and "comfort in life".

3.2Causeanalysis

3.2.1Little attention paid by the students. Some students in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities do not have strong professional thinking and lack sufficient interest in the majors, especially the students who have been transferred and have the tendency to change their majors neither have an early understanding of the majors, nor actively increase their understanding of the majors after entering the university. In addition, in the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the majors, some students have make subjective judgement that the employment prospects of the major are not good, thereby producing a negative attitude to the major. Students’ refusal to accept the major will affect their emotional acceptance and value recognition of the "four matters of confidence" in their minds. Individual students even have a conflicting emotion in their minds, who hold a repulsive attitude toward the "four matters of confidence" education, and their enthusiasm for active learning is not high.

3.2.2Inadequate guidance in theoretical education. At present, most colleges and universities, including agricultural and forestry colleges and universities, regard the cultivation of students’ "four matters of confidence" as the important content of ideological and political education, and bring "four matters of confidence" into the ideological and political teaching system. But for agricultural and forestry colleges and universities, the input to ideological and political education is limited, and the teachers of ideological and political education are limited. At the same time, the situation of carrying out "four matters of confidence" education through traditional indoctrination is still quite common, which ignores the students’ main position in teaching and the internalization of students’ thought of "four matters of confidence".

3.2.3Impact of social trends of thought. At present, with the deepening of market economy and the continuous influx of Western ideology and culture, all kinds of thoughts presented in the society have a profound impact on the formation of values and the establishment of political beliefs of students in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities. Many students in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities come from the countryside, their growth education experience is simple, and the citizen quality and moral consciousness is relatively poor. They are easy to be guided, but they lack firm character. The impact of the bad trend of thought in society makes some students lose themselves. All of these have brought the negative influence on the "four matters of confidence" education. In addition, the rapid development of the network, on the one hand, has brought a lot of convenience to the education of agricultural and forestry colleges and universities; on the other hand, it has also brought a negative impact on the development of "four matters of confidence" education in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities. For example, bad network public opinion aggravates the students’ fear of choosing jobs in the future, and makes some students question the education of "four matters of confidence", and misleads students to identify with the mainstream ideology and the mainstream values[2,4].

4　The path of cultivating "four matters of confidence" for college students in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities

4.1Carryingout"fourmattersofconfidence"educationthroughideologicalandpoliticalclassroomandbetterplayingthe"mainposition"functionofideologicalandpoliticaltheorycourseCollege students are in the crucial period of the formation and shaping of world outlook, outlook on life and values. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the "main position" of the ideological and political education in agricultural and forestry colleges and universities, and the "four matters of confidence" education should be carried out through the ideological and political classroom. In teaching, we should follow the principle of "three forms of entering", so that the "four matters of confidence" enter into the textbook, into the classroom, into the mind. And it is necessary to innovate teaching methods, subvert the traditional knowledge indoctrination, so that students take in the "four matters of confidence" from the idea and emotion. Taking Northwest A&F University as an example, in order to arouse the students’ enthusiasm for study, the teacher uses various teaching methods such as flipped classrooms and micro-assistants to enliven the atmosphere of the classroom, and discusses with the students the spirit of "Xinong" and the culture of "Southeast kiln" in the concrete teaching, so as to cultivate the students’ firm belief in "four matters of confidence" in an imperceptible way.

4.2Promoting"fourmattersofconfidence"educationthroughextracurriculareducationandeffectivelyexpandingthespaceofideologicalandpoliticaleducationIt is not enough to strengthen the education of "four matters of confidence" of agricultural and forestry colleges and universities only relying on dozens of classes and dozens of school hours. Therefore, we should attach importance to and strengthen the extra-curricular ideological and political education. Extracurricular ideological and political education is a necessary supplement to classroom ideological and political education, is the expansion and extension of educational space. Specifically, the first is to strengthen social practice. Social practice is conducive to promoting students to understand the society, understand the national conditions, strengthen their value identity on "four matters of confidence". The second is to strengthen the construction of campus culture. A good campus culture is conducive to cultivating students’ sentiment and creating a good cultural atmosphere for the "four matters of confidence" education. Taking Northwest A&F University as an example, for many years, College of Marxism has carried out the survey and research on the subject of students returning to their hometown in the summer vacation, so that the students will strengthen their identification with the "four matters of confidence" in the actual research practice.

4.3Strengtheningthe"fourmattersofconfidence"educationthroughthenewmediaplatformtorealizetheintegrationofnetworkandideologicalandpoliticaleducationGeneral Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the conference on ideological and political education in colleges and universities: "To do a good job in ideological and political education in colleges and universities, we must advance with times to consider the fundamental question of who to train, how to train, and for whom to train." New media brings opportunities to the ideological work of agricultural and forestry colleges and universities, but also brings severe challenges. Therefore, in the "four matters of confidence" education, we should make great efforts to set up a new media platform, make full use of new media such as microblog, Wechat, news website and network community to carry out the "four matters of confidence" education which is new in form and integrates theory with practice, realize the interaction between network and ideological and political education, and guide college students to think deeply about the "four matters of confidence". Taking Northwest A&F University as an example, College of Marxism pushed the Communist Manifesto to the university students through the column "Readers", which was set up by the official microblog in the form of reading and interpreting, in order to arouse the students’ enthusiasm for the study of Marxist theory and improve the students’ understanding of the "four matters of confidence".