At the 2004 "Moving China" Annual Person Award Ceremony, CCTV famous host Bai Yansong presented an award to a volunteer teacher from Liaocheng, Shandong, and at the scene, this polite Shandong youth chatted with the host about his story, which moved the audience who listened to the audience to tears and applauded continuously; in the award speech, there was such a passage: "From the bustling city, he walked into the depths of the mountains and used the young shoulders of a newly graduated college student to shoulder the responsibilities that did not belong to him."
Xu Benyu /Image source network
Who is this winner from Shandong? How could he have earned such a high honor? Today we will talk about it!
Award-winning Xu Benyu/Image source network
In 1999, a young student walked into Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, Hubei Province, this person is the protagonist of this article - Xu Benyu, he was born in Liaocheng, Shandong Province, a poor family, his father taught in the local rural primary school, because he is a private teacher, the salary is not high, the minimum time is more than ten yuan a month, the most time is only two hundred and seventy yuan; such family conditions for a college student to study the difficulty can be imagined, fortunately Xu Benyu got the love and help from the school and society. Huazhong Agricultural University gave him a subsidy for special hardship students, he also won a scholarship through his excellent results, and usually worked and studied to earn living expenses;
Huazhong Agricultural University/Image Source Network
I remember that in the winter of my freshman year, when the parents of hu Yuan, a roommate at the same window, came to visit their son at school, they gave the two clothes they had originally brought to their son to him who only wore a thin shirt, which warmed his cold heart in winter and planted the seeds of love for him; it was precisely because of these love Xu Benyu who was able to continue to complete his studies, and he also wanted to pass on this love and help others; During college, Xu Benyu gave full play to the advantages of the peasant children's love of labor to participate in voluntary labor and volunteer service, always not afraid of suffering and tiredness; free blood donation, He even donated the money he earned from his work-study to five people in need and joined the Chinese Communist Party.
Built in a cave for the people primary school/image source network
In December 2001, by chance, Xu Benyu saw an article published in China Junior Daily, "When the Sun Shines into the Cave...", and was moved to tears by Wu Daojiang, who donated funds for school in the article, and also remembered that a mountain village called Dog Hanging Rock in Dafang County, Guizhou Province, had the idea of doing something for children who were studying hard; in the summer of 2002, Xu Benyu and his classmates Liu Shengpeng, Xiang Hua, Chen Xingjie brought the donated clothes and books to the Weimin Primary School in the Dog Hanging Rock Cave to do volunteer teaching, the local poor living conditions and the teaching environment of the students shocked Xu Benyu, and could not help but send out the feeling of "there is such a poor place"; and because of the poor foundation of the children, a lot of the knowledge he talked about the children could not understand, but the children's eyes on the desire for knowledge were deeply imprinted in Xu Benyu's heart, and Xu Benyu, who was also a bitter child, understood them very well.
Xu Benyu and the children/image source network
When Xu Benyu and his party left Dog Hanging Rock, the school's teachers and children surrounded them with homemade small red flags, stuffed the hard-boiled eggs into their backpacks, and sent them to the Yangchang Dam three kilometers away. Xu Benyu also couldn't help but cry and loudly told the children: "When I am admitted to graduate school, I will come back, and I will definitely come back to teach you", at this time Xu Benyu's heart has remained in the mountain.
After returning to school, Xu Benyu was admitted to the master's degree in agricultural economics and management through his own efforts, but Xu Benyu, who originally wanted to change his life through knowledge, made a surprising decision: to give up the opportunity to study in graduate school and go to the poor mountainous areas of Guizhou Province to teach. In order to support Xu Benyu's decision, the school made an exception to reserve his graduate school admission qualifications and provided him with financial assistance during his teaching support.
Xu Benyu in dog hanging rock / image source network
After coming to the dog hanging rock in the mountains of Guizhou, the children waiting for him were very happy! But the local poor living conditions make Xu Benyu very uncomfortable, there is no water and no electricity, can only light candles at night, eat water to a far place to pick, eat corn rice with sour soup and peppers, and the hygiene is very poor, sometimes there are bugs in the eating bowl; it did not take long for Xu Benyu to get stomach disease, even so Xu Benyu did not agree to the village to open another small stove for him.
Xu Benyu in volunteer teaching/image source network
In addition to the extremely poor living environment, the closed mountain and the gap from the city to the mountain village made Xu Benyu feel nostalgic for his family, classmates, and friends in his heart, and the life like an isolated island once made him wake up from his sleep twice; Xu Benyu, who had no object to talk to, could only resolve his inner loneliness and make himself feel better by writing letters, writing diaries, and looking at photos with friends and classmates over and over again; even so, Xu Benyu did not give up, but gritted his teeth and persevered Later, he told a childhood story in an interview: When he was a child, the family had no money to buy vegetables, it was the mother who borrowed two yuan from the neighbors to buy vegetables, and the mother often nagged about this matter, so that Xu Benyu understood a truth: when others have difficulties, stretch out your hand, only by helping others can they be worthy of the people who have helped you, and they are also worthy of themselves. Perhaps it was his mother's teachings that made Xu Benyu not retreat, bent on being a grateful person, and Xu Benyu, who wanted to help more people, insisted on doing so for two years in the mountains!
Xu Benyu takes classes in a humble school building/image source network
The difficulties of volunteer teaching life and the inner loneliness Xu Benyu can still try to adapt and overcome, but the teaching environment in poor mountain villages always worries him, the conditions of the primary school built in the cave are simple, the light is dim, and the environment is noisy; and he has to attend classes six days a week, 8 hours a day, Chinese, mathematics, English, sports, music shoulder to shoulder, he wants to pass on the knowledge to the children as much as possible, but the children's foundation is too poor, a two-hundred-word composition can appear dozens of typos, complete ignorance of the outside world What made him even more anxious was that the children would drop out of school because of the poverty of the family, and he had to use his spare time and weekends to go door to door to persuade the children to return to the classroom to complete their studies, and whenever he saw the children living in poverty, he felt very helpless and always couldn't help but cry.
Xu Benyu made a home visit/image source network
In April 2004, Xu Benyu was invited to return to his alma mater, Huazhong Agricultural University, to give a report. He stood on the podium, his hand holding the microphone trembling, his lips pursed, and he said the first sentence: "I am lonely, very lonely, very helpless and painful inside, several times I woke up in the middle of the night, tears wet the pillow, I felt that I could not hold on...", the students who thought they would hear the passionate rhetoric were stunned, silent. On the second day of the report meeting, Xu Benyu quietly returned to Dog Hanging Rock alone, back to the children he was worried about.
Xu Benyu in class/image source network
In 2004 Xu Benyu came to Dashi Village Primary School in Dashui Township to teach, the conditions here are more difficult than dog hanging rock, once Xu Benyu went to the township government to print test papers for students, has been busy until more than four o'clock in the morning, on the way back, Xu Benyu was extremely tired, while walking while dozing off, the difficult mountain road did not know how many times he fell back to Dashi Primary School; sometimes in order to do home visits a day to walk more than a dozen miles of mountain road; in order not to let the family worry, Xu Benyu did not mention these words when writing to his family. In order to make a long-distance call and send a letter to the family to go more than a dozen miles, but it is difficult to answer the home phone without saying a few words to hang up, not only because the phone cost is expensive, but also do not want the mother to know too much and worry, after hanging up the phone Xu Benyu will always be sad and tearful.
Xu Benyu walking in the mountains / image source network
In June 2004, Professor Peng Guangguang and Teacher Fan Jingqun of Huazhong Agricultural University went to Guizhou to visit Xu Benyu, and when they saw the harsh local environment, they were so shocked and moved that they could not imagine how Xu Benyu persevered; later they received a call from the school: "The school decided to donate 80,000 yuan to help Xu Benyu to build a new school building for the local primary school", everyone rejoiced, and Professor Peng Guangguang even titled Xu Benyu's deeds as "Two Rural Primary Schools and One Volunteer Teacher" The article was written and published on the Tianya Forum, which quickly caused a huge response, with a hit rate of more than one million in just 9 days; and e-mails from all over the country to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and even overseas requests for donations and donations were stuffed with mailboxes, and thousands of netizens were moved by Xu Benyu.
Xu Benyu gives lessons to children in a simple school building/Picture source network
In July 2004, Dashi Primary School also received funding from the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, plus 80,000 yuan donated by Huazhong Agricultural University and 370,000 yuan from social benevolent people to build a new school building, and soon After, Dashi Primary School was renamed "Huanong Dashi Hope Primary School".
Xu Benyu and the children in the new school building / Image from "Jingchu Network"
Xu Benyu said something like this: Because others have helped me, I also want to help others, although I have no money, but I have knowledge; it is this simple and unpretentious idea that makes him walk into the mountains without hesitation, stick to it for two years, Huazhong Agricultural University also reserved two years of school registration for him; he has been lonely, has suffered, has wandered, but he really can't let go of the children in the mountains, he wants to do something for the children, he wants the children to know that they are not worse than anyone, and wants them to go out to the outside world to see.
Xu Benyu in the new school building/image source network
After work, Xu Benyu never stopped caring for the children and contacting the teachers in the mountain village; in his spare time, he took the "Benyu Volunteer Service Team" into the welfare home, walked into the blind school, and passed on love to more people.
"I am willing to be a drop of water, although I am very small, but when the sun of love shines on me, I am willing to reflect to others without reservation" This passage is a true portrayal of Xu Benyu, his deeds have touched the mountains, but also touched China, but also the model of our new era, his spirit of self-improvement, optimism, gratitude, hard work, and dedication is worth learning; as Ling Zhijun, a member of the jury of "Moving China", said: "If the younger generation does not have idealism and impulsive passion other than themselves, The country and the nation have no bright future, and Xu Benyu should be commended."
I would like to pay tribute to the volunteer volunteers!!!