Mailbox full of letters
"Dear Teacher Wei, I have been a little unhappy lately, and I only quietly tell you this secret..."
"Headmaster, my annoyance is that I want everyone to play with me, but I'm always very unconfident!"
One morning at the end of April 2022, Wei Li, principal of Chucai Primary School in Hanyang District, Wuhan, took out more than 10 letters from students from the green principal's mailbox as usual.
What can a schoolboy think about? Since November 30, 2020, Wei Li has received more than 1,700 letters, feeling the "little secrets" that children do not know and love. At the same time, she replied to more than 700 letters, accumulating more than 100,000 words, which means that, excluding winter and summer vacations, she replied to an average of nearly 20 letters per week.
Mailbox where you can "make lunch appointments"
In 2022, Wei Li's 29th year of teaching, after graduating from Wuhan First Normal School, she entered Wuhan West Street Primary School and served as a Chinese teacher for 17 years, in July 2010, Wei Li was recommended to come to the newly built Chucai Primary School in Hanyang District, where she successively served as the director of the teaching department, the director of teaching, and the vice principal of teaching.
In August 2020, Wei Li was appointed as the principal of Chucai Primary School, as the head of the school, she shouldered a heavy burden, as a party member, she was even more responsible. However, Wei Li could not help but have a little doubt in her heart: from the first day she walked on the podium, she had come face to face with the students, and after becoming the principal, was she estranged from the students? If you can't face each other face to face, how can you connect hearts and minds?
Thinking about it, Wei Li decided to open the principal's mailbox. "You are welcome to write to me often to share your studies and life, your joys and worries, or your suggestions for the school." At the flag-raising ceremony on November 30, 2020, Wei Li officially announced the establishment of the Principal's Mailbox and distributed "invitation letters" to all students in the school.
Wei Li's mailbox is not the same, she will not only seriously reply to the letter, but also open a "principal's lunch" every Friday, as long as the student writes, they have the opportunity to have lunch with her and communicate face-to-face.
What Wei Li did not expect was that in the first week of the principal's mailbox, she received 28 letters, of which 16 came to "have lunch" with her. Recalling the feeling of that moment, Wei Li remembers it vividly: "It feels very happy to be trusted and close. Students trust you and like you, and your words and deeds will be effective. ”
Wei Li who was reading the letter
The letter paper has different colors, various shapes, some folded into love, some are notes, some are drawn stick figures, the content is not only dreams and learning confusion, but also reflects the contradictions between classmates, gives suggestions to the school, asks the principal for praise... Wei Li did not expect that the students had so many words to say to themselves, holding these letters, just like holding the innocent children's hearts, as light as a feather, as heavy as a thousand pounds, thin letter paper carries the children's full of trust and expectations, need to respond with sincerity.
Every weekend, Wei Li will take at least half a day to write back to the students, the text is clean and tidy, the language is easy to understand, this is Wei Li's "careful thinking" hidden in the letter, hoping to set a good example for the students through words and deeds. For the students who wrote to ask for the "principal's lunch", she would record them one by one, queue up in order, and try to arrange them.
Every Monday afternoon is the most anticipated moment for many students. Wei Li would write the recipient's class and name on the envelope, assign a student to be the "Happy Little Postman", and send the reply to the students in each class.
Open new doors to spend time with your child
Once, a fifth-grade student Li wrote to Wei Li: "Not long ago, there was a distressing thing that happened to me, I was really sad and regretful, I didn't take good care of my two-and-a-half-year-old brother, let him get hurt, for this I was scolded by my parents, it seems that I will take good care of my brother next time." ”
Wei Li wrote back: "You still have a younger brother and mother?" It's great, I also have a younger brother, and we played together when we were kids..."
Wei Li's reply, while comforting Xiao Li's classmates, also brought her great encouragement.
Xiao Li wrote letters to Principal Wei since the 4th grade and received 12 replies. The father, Mr. Li, inadvertently learned of this incident and was very emotional: "I didn't expect my daughter to write so many letters to Principal Wei, and she never said many things to me." After obtaining his daughter's consent, Mr. Li read Wei Li's reply and began to realize that since the birth of the second child, the family was busy taking care of his brother, ignoring his daughter's feelings, and paying less attention to her than before, and he felt a little guilty.
"When the little girl reaches adolescence, she may have less communication with me, can I also learn to communicate with her by writing letters?" Mr. Li made a special trip to the school and talked face-to-face with Wei Li about the children's education. For Mr. Li's idea, Wei Li expressed support.
In this way, Mr. Li and his daughter became "pen pals", he remembered the words of Principal Wei, and tried to use an equal and kind tone between the lines, mainly encouragement, and established a sense of trust with his daughter. Gradually, Xiao Li's letter to his father became longer and longer, and sometimes he told some small secrets, and the feelings between father and daughter became more intimate.
Wei Li's words and deeds not only affect children, but also let parents see the importance of "listening". Not only Xiao Li's father, but also the parents of many classmates were also infected by the letters, feeling that a new door to get along with their children was opened.
Weilly and the kids
When I grow up, I will be you
The silent effort of moisturizer nourishes the soul of each child. Some students encounter words that they can't write, and they will be very anxious to look up the dictionary, because every letter from Principal Wei is a serious reply, and they can't live up to the principal. In order to write letters, some students began to pay attention to the accumulation of good words and sentences, and they also preferred to read extracurricular books.
For Wei Li, the student's letter is like a "small blessing" in work and life, happy and warm. In March 2022, Xiao Xu, a fifth-grade student, drew a little fairy in the letter: "Principal Wei, I think it is wonderful to listen to your text reading aloud!" You are very young and beautiful, like a little fairy, you can't say that you are older in the future, if you want to say that you are 18 years old, hahaha! Principal Wei should be smiling at this moment, and keep smiling every day. ”
The corners of Wei Li's mouth involuntarily raised slightly, and the reply was also full of joy: "After reading your letter, I also sent a circle of friends, haha!" I was so touched! Every day when I look at you and think of you, I am very happy, you are so cute! Because of you, I will always be 18 years old! At the end, she also painted a portrait of a beautiful girl "gifted back".
Equally joyful is the principal's lunch every Friday. At a lunch in May 2022, Xiao Gu said: "Principal, I remember that you said before: as long as I work hard, I will definitely be a principal. Wei Li smiled and touched Xiao Gu's head: "Why do you want to be a headmaster?" "I think I can eat with the kids." The sincere and cute answer made Wei Li can't help but be funny, and she wiped off the small grain of rice on the side of Xiao Gu's mouth: "Awesome, then eat well now, grow up fast." ”
Some people record history with paper and pencil, some people use struggle to build dreams, and Wei Li uses letters to convey the temperature of love to students. She was afraid that the students would hit their heads when they submitted the letter, so she deliberately pasted a collision angle on the principal's mailbox, and the money in the letter, which she most commonly used, was: "Your friend, Principal Wei." ”
With the number of letters coming, some people suggested that Wei Li set up grade mailboxes, assign the reply task to the teachers, or print the reply letter, and the principal only needs to sign it at the end. But Wei Li said that this is what she wants to do, and once the teachers take over, it will become the principal to assign tasks to the teachers, which may lead to the exchange of letters being limited to the form and less of the original meaning. She said: "Primary school students are the golden time to learn to write with a pen, and I hope that when children receive a reply, they will feel that people are like their words, words are like their people, write every word well, and do every job of themselves." ”
"If many years later, students still turn to the letters written to them by the former principal, it is our 'gift' to each other." In Wei Li's view, this is a very romantic thing, seemingly traditional things, often can bring people the greatest warmth. She hopes that in this era of faster and faster pace, through her insistence on "slow", she will build a bridge of spiritual communication with children and let them take every step of life.