When Donnie Pei was applying to foreign graduate schools 20 years ago, he got only one scholarship offer: to study the Olympics. He was disappointed.

'I only knew about the Olympic Games but not about the movement,' says Mr. Pei. 'It seemed like a waste of time.'

But the Beijing native took the scholarship at the University of Western Ontario and became a believer in the Olympics ideals -- and in the need to put them back into the center of the Games. Since returning to take a job at Beijing's Capital Institute of Physical Education, he has become a driving force behind 'Olympic education,' an effort to bring Olympic ideals and history into Chinese classrooms.

Initially viewed skeptically by sporting and educational officials in China, it is now spreading widely. More than 500 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide, including 200 in the Beijing area, are adopting Olympic education in their curriculum, a significant development in a country where most schools still aim to cram students with information to be regurgitated in standardized tests. Key to this success: The central government has endorsed Mr. Pei's efforts, approving a change to the official school curriculum, especially in the Beijing area.

The growing embrace of Mr. Pei's program belies notions that China is only using the Games for nationalistic purposes. Mr. Pei's ultimate goal is not to teach Chinese children about the Games themselves, but to improve their morals by teaching them about the Olympic ideals; that fair play and good sportsmanship, for instance, are more important than winning medals.

'Far and away what Donnie has done in China eclipses what has been done anywhere else in the world' for educating students on the Olympics, says Robert K. Barney, founding director of the Olympic studies center where Mr. Pei studied. In the West, Mr. Barney says, 'Mostly it's talk but no walk.'

Even before China won its bid to host the 2008 Summer Games, Mr. Pei and a colleague were pushing for their ideas, going from school to school, asking teachers what they thought about the Olympics. 'They thought it was just a sports competition,' Mr. Pei says. 'No one cared.'

After China won its bid in 2001, interest slowly grew. People began to wonder what exactly the Olympics were. A couple of top-flight schools in Beijing began to teach students about the Olympics, even staging mock opening ceremonies or torch relays.

But such schools were rare until 2005, when Beijing Television gave Mr. Pei's campaign a big boost by putting him on the air in prime time, delivering a lecture about the Olympics.

Officials from the Beijing Olympics organizing committee saw the show and were excited. They helped Mr. Pei and his colleague organize funding for teacher workshops. Suddenly, the two professors were giving as many as 20 lectures a week to elementary and middle-school teachers. The government backed their plan for textbooks explaining the Olympic movement.

The textbooks are currently in use in Beijing and a handful of other cities. They recount the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin's 19th-century struggle to spread the movement and explain the Games' history in ancient Greece. The books also describe the various Olympiads, highlighting the good and the bad. Three sets of textbooks have been published, one each for elementary, middle and high-school students.

Another reason teaching about the Olympics has been welcomed is a growing dissatisfaction with the standard curriculum at Chinese schools. 'They only pay attention to physics, mathematics and chemistry,' says Mr. Pei. 'We want to put it in balance.'

His efforts were on display one day in late January in the town of Shunyi on the outskirts of downtown Beijing. During a weekend retreat, Mr. Pei and other speakers addressed a group of 50 rural elementary-school teachers.

One of the speakers was Yi Jiandong, a professor from Beijing Sports University, who brought up a taboo topic: Chinese sporting officials' obsession with gold medals.

'There's a saying among those officials, 'A thousand silvers don't equal one gold,'' Mr. Yi says. 'That's wrong. Why do you think we have silver and bronzes? The idea is that winning isn't everything.'

He points out that China usually gets far more gold than silvers or bronzes -- an inverted medal pyramid. Most countries have more bronzes and silvers than gold, showing a broader base of competition that isn't driven exclusively toward winning gold. 'Only China puts exclusive emphasis on gold medals,' he says.

The teachers, many of them farmers who have never traveled outside their township, take notes furiously. Afterward, they discuss the speakers and share ideas.

Wang Yujie, a physical-education teacher at the East Wind Elementary School in the township of Yanshan, says the lectures have helped her understand the Olympics better. She hopes to start teaching her students about the Olympics later this year and already has plans to start a torch relay for her pupils.

'I think the Olympics helps the children understand the world a bit better,' Ms. Wang says. 'Talking to a foreigner, like I am now doing to a foreign journalist, is rare. I've never talked to a foreigner before in my life. The Olympics lets us see the world a bit.'

Mr. Pei hopes Olympic education will continue after the Olympics are over. He also hopes other countries will start teaching the Olympic ideals -- few Western countries currently do. If the games become just another sporting event, he says, cynicism will grow and the Games will be threatened.

'People think the Olympics is just a money-making machine. This is very dangerous,' he says. 'If it's just this, it might disappear, like the old Olympics in ancient Greece.'

当20年前裴东光申请到国外读研究生时，他只收到了一份有奖学金的录取通知：学习奥林匹克。他当时对此深感失望。

裴东光说，当时我只知道奥林匹克，但并不了解这项运动。我感觉这纯属浪费时间。

但这个北京人最终接受了加拿大西安大略大学(University of Western Ontario)的奖学金，成为奥林匹克精神的信徒，并致力于让这种精神重新成为奥运会的核心。自回国到首都体育学院任职后，他就成为“奥运教育”背后的推动力量，将奥林匹克精神和历史引入到了中国的课堂。

最初中国体育界和教育界人士曾对此表示怀疑，但现在它已在中国广为普及。中国有500多所中小学都开设了奥运教育课，其中北京地区就有200所，这在大多数学校格外看重应试教育的中国无疑是个巨大的进步。成功的关键在于：中央政府认可了裴东光的做法，正式批准对学校课程进行调整，尤其是在北京地区。

裴东光的课程越来越普及，这也驳斥了中国只是将奥运会用于民族主义目的的说法。裴东光的最终目标并不是教授中国孩子具体的奥运知识，而是通过向他们宣传奥林匹克精神而提高他们的道德观；比如，公平竞争和良好的运动员风范比赢得奖牌更加重要。

曾就读的奥林匹克研究中心的主管、创始人罗伯特•巴尼(Robert K. Barney)说，裴东光在中国的行动无疑让世界其他地区对学生进行的奥林匹克教育相形见绌。巴尼说，在西方，经常是说得多，做得少。

即便在中国赢得2008年奥运会主办权之前，裴东光和一个同事就已经在推广他们的想法，走访了一所又一所的学校，询问教师们对奥林匹克的看法。裴东光说，他们认为这只是一场体育赛事，没人关心。

在2001年中国赢得主办权后，对奥林匹克的兴趣开始慢慢增加。人们希望了解奥林匹克到底意味着什么。北京的几所一流学校开设了奥运课程，甚至举行了模拟开幕式和火炬接力。

但一直到2005年前，这样的学校还只是凤毛麟角。那一年，北京电视台在黄金时段播出了裴东光有关奥林匹克的演讲，大大推动了奥运教育活动。

北京奥组委的官员看到了这期节目，感到非常兴奋。他们帮助裴东光和他的同事筹措了教师培训的资金。一夜之间，这两位教授每周最多要给中小学教师讲授20节课。政府也支持他们出版奥林匹克运动教材的计划。

如今北京市和其他几个城市都在使用这些教材。这些教材讲述了法国男爵顾拜旦(Pierre de Coubertin)在19世纪宣传奥林匹克运动的艰难历程，解释了古希腊奥运会的历史。这些书还对历届奥运会进行了逐一介绍，重点点评了成功和不足之处。这套教材共分三种，分别面向小学生、初中生和高中生。

开设奥运课程受到欢迎的另一个原因是，人们对中国学校的传统课程越来越不满。裴东光说，他们只关心数理化。我们希望能均衡发展。

1月底的一个周末，他们在北京郊区的顺义组织了一次活动，裴东光等人对50名农村小学教师进行了培训。

其中一位授课者是北京体育大学的教授易剑东，他谈到了一个比较禁忌的话题：中国体育官员对金牌的热衷。

易剑东说，这些官员中有一种说法：一千枚银牌也赶不上一枚金牌。这是错误的。如果这样，我们为什么还要设银牌和铜牌呢？我们认为获胜并不代表一切。

他指出，中国获得的金牌通常远多于银牌或铜牌，形成了一个倒金字塔形的奖牌分布。大多数国家的铜牌和银牌数都高于金牌，显示出并非只受金牌驱动的广泛竞赛基础。他说，仅有中国只重视金牌。

这些教师中许多都是从未离开过家乡的农民，他们认真记着笔记。课后，他们同授课者进行了讨论，交流看法。

燕山东风小学体育教师王玉洁（音）说，这些培训让她更好地了解了奥林匹克。她希望能在今年晚些时候开始向学生教授奥林匹克知识，并计划在学生中开展模拟火炬传递。

她说，我认为奥林匹克能帮助学生更好地了解世界。同外国人接触，就像我现在这样同外国记者交流的机会很少。我以前从未与外国人交谈过。奥林匹克能让我们多看看世界。

裴东光希望奥林匹克教育能在奥运会结束后保持下去。他也希望其它国家能够开始讲授奥林匹克精神，目前还很少有西方国家这样做。他说，如果奥运会只是一项体育赛事，冷嘲热讽就会增多，奥运会就将受到威胁。

裴东光表示，有人认为奥运会只是一台印钞机。这种想法非常危险。如果是这样的话，奥运会就可能消失，象古希腊时的奥林匹克一样。

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