Video loading...
Beijing, 21 Apr (Xinhua) -- On 21 April, the Xinhua Daily Telegraph published a report entitled "Teachers of 'Cattle Herding Classes' in Mountain Villages."
The sun shines through the spring bamboo sea and gently spreads on the elementary school playground. Boys and girls stood in a row, bent down, and washed their hair with the help of the teachers. The foam refracts colorful colors in the sun, the breeze blows, and the playground is full of fragrance...
It's like a slow motion with a telephoto warm tone. The scene in front of you, like a movie frame, is frozen in the mind of Shan Jiamin, a 26-year-old teacher.
Two years ago, she had just graduated and came to the foothills of Siming Mountain to become one of 12 teachers at Luting Township Central Primary School in Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province. In this mountain village primary school, there are six grades, and now there are only 22 students.
Under this almost "luxurious" ratio of teachers and students, one by one lonely "left-behind teenagers" are watered with love in the campus and let courage grow.
Luting Township Central Primary School is holding a sports meeting. The pictures are all taken by Zheng Mengyu, a reporter of Xinhua Daily Telegraph
Empty school buildings
"The first thing I felt when I first came here was that the air was so good. The school is so big and the facilities are good. Shan Jiamin said, "But there are very few students, and at the beginning they feel lost and can't find a sense of accomplishment." ”
The school has a history of more than 70 years. After several mergers, it became the only school in the township. More than 10 years ago, more than 800 students made this established school a buzz. Four-storey teaching building, 12 classrooms, administrative building, library, dormitory, canteen, plus playground, an area of about 9800 square meters.
Now, there are fewer students and the school seems to be bigger.
Large class sizes are no longer applicable. Since last year, with the exception of Chinese, Mathematics, English and Science, all other subjects have been taught in co-curricular classes.
After the start of the school year this year, there is only one student left in the first grade. In the empty classroom, there was only one chair, and a small school bag was hanging crookedly on it.
The bamboo sea is also transformed into a classroom. In addition to learning textbook knowledge, the school uses local materials to teach students to understand bamboo culture, make bamboo wind chimes, and dance bamboo dance.
At 6:50 a.m., the school wakes up the mountain by getting up to the music. In art class, the part-time teacher is playing the documentary "Little Boy" to all the children. Every day, the class schedule is accompanied by expanded content. At night, most of the children stay here.
The average age of the school's 12 current teachers is 32 years old. Lu Shuangying is the "post-90s" principal of this school.
Seven years ago, Lu Shuangying returned from the city to the mountain village primary school near his hometown through the examination. Her father was also a mountain teacher. Since she grew up living in a school dormitory with her father and growing up on the playground, the mountain school still brings her kindness and cuteness.
She is also well aware of the helplessness of these children who are left where they are. Once when she went to the city to participate in a collective recitation competition, she saw the timidity in the eyes of the children offstage, "there is no light in the eyes." The childlike city students pointed at them and said, "These people are from the mountains," and the sensitive children showed panic, making her feel "deeply stinged."
We must not let them become inferior and forgotten people, but we must do a good job in educating children who stay in place, and bring them the courage to grow with love and warmth - this is the beginning of the story between this group of teachers and students.
Students waiting for classes at Luting Township Central Elementary School.
"Troubled Teenager"
Of the 22 students who remained here, 19 were left-behind children, most of whom had been "troubled" "troubled teenagers".
Lu Shuangying said that with this group of children, I feel that "every day my heart is tied to the waistband of my pants." Like her students, she slept in the school dormitory for days.
Without the company and discipline of parents for a long time, many children's personalities inevitably have a paranoid and wild side. Lu Shuangying recalled that when he first contacted them, many children had poor grades, bad family backgrounds, and were accustomed to venting their emotions through fights.
Du Zhenqi, a backbone teacher who came here from a city school to support teaching, is also gradually adapting to here. In a keynote speech, she told the children to "thank their parents" and said that she "giggled" in her heart — some of the students had not seen their parents for a long time.
The school organizes a sports day, but the children who are usually lively and active are twisted and unwilling to participate. When the teacher visited the home, the child finally said the reason: "There are no suitable shoes at home." ”
The family is not around, there are no other children in the village, even the basketball is out of breath, and the students have no choice but to admit that "what can I do without playing mobile phones?"
After several home visits, the teachers learned more about the students and the students had more trust in the teachers. Du Zhenqi began to adjust her teaching style - she should speak more cautiously and be warmer to students.
There are several lessons that Du Zhenqi attaches great importance to: the third-grade text "Applause", which tells the story of a disabled girl hiding in a corner who receives applause in a public speech, so as to get out of the predicament and face life; the fifth-grade text "The Boat of Father's Love", some students frankly admit in the class that their parents are "a kind of harm" to them, but they are determined to face up to the shortcomings in their hearts and learn to pluck up courage.
Faced with the composition topic, students who lack life experience do not know how to write, and teachers can only create scenes, take them to make mooncakes, wrap mugwort dumplings, and weave bamboo baskets.
In life, teachers teach young children to wash red scarves and tidy up their housekeeping. Senior girls face physical development, and Shan Jiamin will give them physiology classes and buy physiological supplies and underwear. The mountains are cold, the children's homes do not have good bathroom conditions, the girls' long hair will be tied in winter, Shan Jiamin will take them to wash their hair in the sun in the labor class, and then blow dry one by one, braiding the girls. At that moment, teachers and students were very happy.
"These kids are simple. Although they lack love, they all have sound personalities. Missing parts of life that they can find in school. Lu Shuangying said that their world is very simple, so it is easier to be content and grateful.
On the day of the reporter's interview, the school was holding a sports meeting, which was a group photo of some teachers and students.
Two-way love
Two years ago, Du Zhenqi, a senior teacher working at Lanjiang Primary School in Yuyao City, had cooperated with the paired School Luting Township Central Primary School through Internet teaching. "At that time, I felt that the students were very polite, the teachers were friendly and helpful, united and driven."
After coming here to volunteer, she more fully verified the concept of education. She took only 3 students in her grade, and she sat with them in each class, listening to everyone's speeches, often receiving surprises from living individuals.
Here, "Pay attention to the growth of every student" is no longer a slogan or a vision, but a reality that happens all the time. The school held a team committee election, and one student could only score 10 points, but he was warm and of good character, and still won everyone's support and trust, "everyone has the possibility of realizing their wishes."
Du Zhenqi decided to put in more patience: to face the students, praise and laugh at least once a day; grade homework without crosses, only ticks; call them "baby" or nicknames. Children are often unexpected when they first hear it – they have almost never been called "baby" in their previous upbringing experience.
Although families can't choose, in school, they are treated as "babies" and loved and cared for by teachers, "so that their six years can grow up in warmth, and only after going out can they have the courage to face the wind and rain."
The simple kindness, helpfulness, innocence and happiness of the students also bring rich feedback to the teachers. Graduates often return to school to visit their teachers. In fact, not only students cannot do without teachers, but teachers cannot do without students. "In the process, we also feel dependent, and we confirm the meaning of our existence." Du Zhenqi said.
The second-grade boy Xiaozhen crossed his waist, small, always had to be taken care of by his older brothers and sisters, and now learned to wash his own clothes. The fourth-grade girl Yilin did not know where her mother was, and felt that although a person's class was lonely, she thanked the teachers for teaching her to learn and wanted to be a painter in the future.
Xuedong, a third-grade boy, said: "I used to argue with the teacher, but now I have become more obedient. Ah Rong, a sixth-grade boy with a bright eye, likes to read, and is a little shy, he said: "The teachers are very kind to me, if I don't come to school, I will be bullied." He hopes to "be an ordinary person" in the future.
The reporter asked Principal Lu Shuangying: When all the students in the sixth grade have graduated, have you thought about the future here?
"I want them all to go out and be independent people," she said. All we can do is bring these 22 students, and even fewer later. (The names of the children in the text are pseudonyms)