"You can knock me down, but you'll never beat me. Knocking me down is my physical fall, but you can never defeat my heart. This sentence of the American writer Hemingway, for Zhang Chen, a teacher at Anqing Special Education School, is like a true portrayal of life.
On June 18, 2022, Zhang Chen spoke at the graduation ceremony
From congenital amblyopia, to retinal detachment at the age of 13, resulting in complete loss of light, to obtaining the country's first master's diploma in vocal music for blind people... In the face of fate, Zhang Chen always cherished dreams and worked hard to move forward, and her story touched countless people.
September 10, 2023 is the 39th Teachers' Day in mainland China and the 18th Teachers' Day in Zhang Chen's life, she said: "Every year Teachers' Day is very happy, students will sing around me, when listening to them sing 'Flowers Love Rain Dew We Love Teachers', that happiness is indescribable. I know they love me, I love them too, and I really hope that these lovely children will make their lives wider and broader through education, and have more choices in the future. ”
"I can't see it, it's not that scary"
In 1986, Zhang Chen was born in an ordinary dual-income family in Anqing City, Anhui Province, and her parents attached great importance to education and never relaxed their training of her. Although he was born with amblyopia and his vision was only 0.3, Zhang Chen said that his childhood was extremely happy.
In school, Zhang Chen can sing and dance well, and his academic performance is also among the best. "When I was a child, I was relatively strong, and I always hoped to get good grades and get into key high schools." To this end, Zhang Chen redoubled his efforts to study, and unexpectedly directly caused fundus congestion and retinal detachment. "Walking on the way to school, my eyes suddenly became blurry, like a fog, and everything in front of me was only a silhouette." It was the last light in her memory.
My father took Zhang Chen to the best hospital in China to find the best doctor. Unfortunately, the operation was not successful, and although the retina was attached, her vision was not restored, and she could no longer see. That year, Zhang Chen was only 13 years old. She felt that the whole world was collapsing, completely unable to accept reality, she locked herself in her room, tears could not stop flowing, she asked herself over and over again, "Can I still read?" "Can I still play with my friends?" "Am I just going to be in the dark all the time?"
Such a trough lasted for several months, and his father and mother were inseparable from Zhang Chen. Dad said to her, "Life is long, some things need to be done with eyes, and some things do not need to be done with eyes. Being out of sight is already a reality, you have to adapt to the days of blindness, a lot of things need to start all over again, and Dad believes that you can definitely do well. The company and encouragement of his relatives allowed Zhang Chen to walk out of the most difficult time.
In September 1999, Zhang Chen walked into Anqing Special Education School accompanied by her parents, and at first, she was a little reluctant. But after arriving at school and contacting her classmates, she was a little shocked, "Although the classmates can't see it, they move freely, and many people are very optimistic and laugh very brightly." Zhang Chen said, "I finally feel that I am not an outlier, nor the loneliest person, here I have a sense of belonging, because they are all as invisible as me, and I am even luckier than some of them, because I have seen the blue sky, seen the sea, seen this colorful world, I like it here." ”
After studying at school, Zhang Chen found that many of the teachers here were also blind, and at that moment, she had a fantasy that she might stand here and teach others lessons in the future. At that time, I didn't dare to think about it, it was a fleeting thought. Zhang Chen likes to take Chinese classes and music classes, but his favorite is the class teacher's class. In the class teacher's class, the teacher never says "touch the book", but "read the book". The teacher will teach according to the personality characteristics of each student, she will teach Zhang Chen to learn Braille, always put praise on the lips, every time he gets praise, Zhang Chen's motivation to learn is stronger, in just one week, he has mastered the basic methods of Braille.
It is precisely such a little by little progress that makes Zhang Chen look forward to his future life. She also realized that there were many different ways to reopen the world in front of her. Braille is one, and so is music.
"The moonlight shone on the surface of the river, on the surrounding woods and mountains, and I was immediately immersed in that beauty." In her first intimate encounter with French composer Debussy's piano piece "Moonlight", she had a figurative picture, which was an unprecedented feeling: "The music was like a light, shining into my heart, making me feel that I couldn't see it and it was not so scary." ”
With the encouragement of his parents, Zhang Chen began to learn the piano, and with the efforts of the whole family, he pooled 14,000 yuan and carried the piano home. Since then, she has been taking a four-hour bus every two weeks accompanied by her family to Hefei to find professional teachers for lessons. The teacher is more strict with her. She touched one note after another with her hand. Others can play while watching the sheet music, Zhang Chen must first memorize the score completely, find it on the piano tone by tone, find the relationship between each chord, and then put the two hands together, bar by section, aligned with the position. Practice repeatedly until muscle memory is formed before you can play a complete tune.
"At that time, I had to practice the piano every day, it was very hard, and like many children, I would find various reasons not to practice the piano, and when I didn't practice well, I would also be irritable and smash the piano, but most of the time, sitting down to play the piano, my heart was still very calm, maybe this is from the bottom of my heart!" Zhang Chen said with a smile.
In 2002, 16-year-old Zhang Chen was admitted to the piano major of the Music Department of the College of Special Education of Changchun University with the first score in the country in professional courses, becoming the first blind college student in Anqing.
"Being a music teacher has been my dream since childhood"
In this way, in the College of Special Education of Changchun University, Zhang Chen began his college life.
"When I was in college, I felt that the world was open, in addition to communicating professionally with a group of like-minded classmates, growing together, and making many friends from other courtyards, I participated in many competitions, debates, campus singer competitions, and participated in many networking activities." Recalling his college life, Zhang Chen said happily, "In addition to the care and guidance of my teachers, the four years of college life have made me significantly improve my major, and the most important thing is that I have jumped out of the original small circle, made my personality more courageous, and dared to try new things." ”
Zhang Chen gives music lessons to students
In June 2006, on the eve of graduation, Zhang Chen completed her graduation concert in an auditorium of 2,000 people, in which she performed piano solo and solo solo and won a full house, and many people were touched by her spirit.
After graduation, Zhang Chen got a lot of job opportunities, can enter the disabled art troupe to perform in various places, and there are also local schools in Changchun that hope that she will stay and teach... However, knowing that Anqing Special Education School lacked music teachers and relatively poor music activities, she returned to her alma mater without the slightest hesitation. You know, the salary of the school at that time was meagre, in addition to the very low basic salary, the lesson fee for a lesson was only one and two cents.
When she walked into the classroom as a teacher to face the students for the first time, Zhang Chen was particularly excited, there may be students who were as depressed as herself, she wanted to pass on the magical power of music to the children, so that they could find their own happiness in music. "Little mouse, little mouse, little mouse, blue clothes, twitter, twitter, Big-faced cat big-faced cat with long beard, meow mimi meow mimi. A thin and long tail..." Zhang Chen chose "Blue Mouse and Big Face Cat", the theme song of the cartoon that children know, she discussed the animated image of the blue skin mouse and the big face cat with the children, and then let the children role-play, and finally she divided the song into two voices, in this atmosphere of continuous singing and performance, everyone learned to sing the song, and the students said, I didn't expect to be able to take music lessons like this, it was really interesting.
This is the music teaching method that Zhang Chen himself explored, focusing on hearing, and then through the assistance of imagination, senses and touch, so that students can have a full range of cognition of the work and compensate for the visual defects of blind students. For those students who have never seen the world and have no concept of color, Zhang Chen makes them feel color through music.
Once, when teaching a piece of music to a student, a student said, "Teacher, this music made me experience white, very pure." You said that white is pure and holy. Some students who had never seen the color said that the prelude to "Prairie Pastoral Song" reminded him of the green of grass and the feeling of dewdrops. This is Zhang Chen's happiest moment, because music makes them feel the colorful world.
At school, more and more children like to take music lessons. With Zhang Chen's efforts, Anqing Special Education School established a choir. At first, there were only 7 students in the choir. When a student sings "Seven Colors of Light" by chance, she said, "There are seven colors of light, and each of us happens to be one color." There are 7 notes in the music, and each one is also a note. And just like that, the name of the choir was born - "Colorful Spiral".
Slowly, the choir grew from 7 people, everyone worked hard to practice the basic skills, practice the chorus, rehearse the first blind children's musical in China..."Because our students are blind children, the conductor cannot be seen when singing, we can only convert the instructions into what they can feel, such as using a certain kind of piano cue to transmit to them, including physical coordination on stage, all need a lot of rehearsals, let them feel, so the students say that rehearsal is painful and happy." Zhang Chen said.
In 2009, Anqing held a choir competition for primary and secondary school students, and with Zhang Chen's hard work, the choir qualified for the competition ten days before the competition, and competed with ordinary school students, and the students were very excited. In this way, they stood on the final competition field with their original song "We Have Grown Up", and everyone was looking forward to the choir's first competition.
"They sang very well that day, everyone was trying to sing, trying to express, I was very moved." But what Zhang Chen didn't expect was that the final score of the competition scene was bright, and the choir did not have a bright score. It wasn't until after all the prizes were awarded that the Organizing Committee announced that they had won a special prize. Although they won the award, the children were a little confused. "Teacher, what is a special award? Is it special because we can't see? "Teacher, no matter how much effort we put in, can we only win special awards?"
Zhang Chen said to the children: "I promise you that there will be no special prizes in the future. After that, Zhang Chen will communicate with the relevant departments before the competition: "Please score according to our real level." In the second year's municipal primary and secondary school students' choir competition, the colorful choir impressed all the judges with the song "Let the World Be Filled with Love" and won the highest score in the competition. They also slowly walked out of Anqing, into Anhui Province, and went to the whole country.
In February 2013, the 4th National Art Exhibition for Primary and Middle School Students was held in Xiamen, and Zhang Chen and the students of the choir won the first prize of Group A of the middle school in the art performance category. In Xiamen, Zhang Chen took the children to the beach. "Listen, it's the sound of the sea, it's vast, and its voice is gentle like a snoring kitten that sleeps, maybe it meets someone who can calm itself, and it also becomes no longer growling." The students were playing and laughing on the beach, and someone said loudly, "Teacher Zhang, I heard the sound of seagulls." "Children's eyes cannot see the magnificence of the sea, but the sea that their hearts feel is invisible to many people, and it belongs to their splendor.
"I 'saw' the most beautiful love"
In 2013, Zhang Chen needed to adopt a guide dog, so she came to the Chinese guide dog base in Dalian, and just like that, guide dog trainer Tang Wenze entered her life. Leo's Tang Wenze is confident, patient, shining like the sun on the people around him, and also makes Zhang Chen feel warm all the time, she said, "For love, I was hesitant, I always thought that it would be difficult for me to fall in love and enter marriage, until I met him, and it was Mr. Tang who healed me." ”
In 2016, after more than two years of long-distance relationship, Tang Wenze quit his job in Dalian and went to Anqing to start a family with Zhang Chen. Tang Wenze said: "I appreciate Zhang Chen's optimism and positivity the most, we seem to have endless words. In school, as long as she is there, there will be laughter, she can always bring happiness to everyone, and I am very happy with her. ”
The choir students participated in the special choral performance of primary and secondary school students in Anhui Province
Now, Zhang Chen teaches music lessons to nearly 100 visually impaired children in more than 10 classes in the school, 16 lessons a week. The longer she taught, the more challenges she had to face. In addition to the visually impaired, there are also students with multiple disabilities. At that time, there was a student with autism and poor vision, behaved strangely, and did not speak, no matter how Zhang Chen communicated, this student just did not say a word, in the face of this type of student, Zhang Chen was a little helpless, always thinking of improving his comprehensive ability from the all-round to help more students in need.
In 2020, after careful consideration, Zhang Chen set himself a new goal - to enter graduate school, not only to improve his teaching ability, but also to set an example for students, so that they can see more possibilities for the visually impaired, and do not set limits on their lives. Her decision was also absolutely supported by Tang Wenze, and in order to help his wife review, he translated the study materials into Braille, or read the materials aloud and recorded them to his wife. Converting the paper material to word format allows her to listen to it through screen reading software. Sometimes it is also printed in braille with a braille printer to read, and some board books or other picture formats in video tutorials also need to be reprinted in word documents. Tang Wenze said.
In those six months, Zhang Chen was studying in addition to work. I wake up at 4:45 every day, study from 5 o'clock to 7:30 o'clock and start teaching students after 7 o'clock, and then brush up on questions and memorize words during recess. In the end, she was admitted to the 2020 master's degree in discipline teaching (music) of the Conservatory of Music of Anqing Normal University with the first score in the first and second examinations, becoming the first blind graduate student in Anhui Province to pass the national unified examination, and also the first blind graduate student in the vocal music direction of music teaching in China.
From special school to general school, Zhang Chen longs for equal treatment, and she takes the initiative to live in a dormitory, take classes with her roommates, and take exams together. For each exam, she needs to explain and apply for an electronic version of the test paper to the teacher in advance, the teacher talks about the music score, and the information that her vision cannot receive, Zhang Chen will find classmates to tutor after class. She gave up bringing a guide dog into school, because if she brought a guide dog, the school would need to arrange a separate dormitory for her, so that she would have less time to communicate with other students.
From the school level to the international, Zhang Chen has participated in many competitions, and has also been invited to participate in more than 20 activities such as the International Blind Day Public Benefit Concert, and published original songs "Firefly" and "Centennial Heart Language"; And has won the first prize of the International Vocal Open Competition, the first prize of the National Disabled Literary and Art Performance, and the Bronze Peacock Award of the Peacock Cup National Vocal Music Exhibition...
After graduating from graduate school, Zhang Chen returned to Anqing Special Education School again, saying that only when she returned here and listened to the laughter of the students would her heart be extremely peaceful. Over the years, Zhang Chen has won many honors, such as "China Youth May Fourth Medal", "China Self-improvement Star", "Anhui Province Outstanding Graduate Student"... She said that these are honors, but also responsibilities, motivating her to better lead her students. From 2006 to the present, Zhang Chen has worked in the school for 17 years, and the happiest thing is to receive the "good news" from former students to her, some students went to Wuhu Special Education School to become music teachers after graduating from university, and some students took the general college entrance examination and were admitted to universities in Beijing...
"I want to dedicate my passion to my students, and I want them to be able to see more light and feel the beauty of life just like me." Zhang Chen said, "Although we can't see it, we can still touch, smell and feel, we must have pursuit, and we must live the color of life." Youth needs to struggle, I will continue to work hard. In the future, I also hope to cultivate my students into good young people in the new era who have ideals, dare to take responsibility, can endure hardships and are willing to struggle. ”
Author: "Children of China" reporter Liang Wei
Editor: Chen Xi
[ This article was published in China Sons and Daughters Magazine, Issue 9, 2023 ]