From teaching 85 years of happiness

After teaching books for 85 years, he is still taking graduate students and is still the oldest "online course anchor". He said that "the most gratifying thing in my life is that my name ranks among the teachers", in his view, "the teacher is the happiest person, after the student he will always be your student, the teacher-student relationship will always exist". On August 4, 2020, Xiamen University celebrated the centenary birthday and held an academic forum for Professor Pan Maoyuan, the founder of Chinese higher education. At the centenary birthday party, Professor Pan Maoyuan still said this kind of voice: "If I still have an afterlife, I am still willing to be a teacher."

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Pan Maoyuan, born in 1920, is a senior professor of liberal arts at Xiamen University, and the founder and founder of higher education in China. He was the vice president of Xiamen University, won the first prize of the National Excellent Teaching Achievement Award of Higher Education, and was named a national model of teaching and educating people in 2014, mainly editing "Lectures on Higher Education" and "Higher Education".

The first time as a teacher failed, I decided to go to teacher training

When I was 15 years old, I worked as a teacher at the private Shude Primary School in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, where I worked part-time. At that time, because I wanted to accompany the second brother back to my hometown to recuperate, I took care of the second brother in the morning and went to class in the afternoon, usually two hours, an hour of arithmetic and an hour of Chinese, at that time the teaching was not good, and some students were very naughty. In the past, the students were not necessarily all small, some were small and some were old, especially the children in the countryside, some of whom were still in elementary school at the age of fourteen or fifteen, so some students were older than me at that time. Some students in the lower grades came to primary school at the age of 5, when private schools were not so strict and did not have too many hard rules.

I love being a teacher because I failed to be a teacher for the first time. I asked myself: Why can someone else be a teacher and fail? Why are other people's classes and students are very well-behaved, and my students are chaotic? Why is it that someone else's class is arranged so well from beginning to end, and I have prepared it for a long time to go up and go up to less than 20 minutes to finish it, and there is nothing to say?

In order to solve this problem, I looked at the books of the teacher and the newspapers and periodicals that talked about teaching methods, and decided that I must be a good teacher in the future. Later, I went to college for four years, majoring in education, and through work-study, I didn't leave the podium for four years. After graduating from university, I have been working as a teacher, doing some research and administrative work, so I have been a teacher all my life.

At that time, I was determined to study teacher training, and my belief was that "failure is the mother of success", and only by not being afraid of failure and persevering can we succeed. At the high school level, I did not go to the general high school, but decided to enter the secondary normal school. At that time, there were relatively few ordinary courses in secondary normal schools, but there were many educational courses, such as "Introduction to Education" in the first grade and "Teaching Methods in Primary School Textbooks" in the second grade, which were just in response to my shortcomings at that time and felt very useful. And there is a "educational psychology", although the content is very simple, but psychology is not in my past contact, so I am very interested, realize that as a teacher must learn educational psychology well.

In 1938, the second year of the Anti-Japanese War, the enemy bombed, my school was suspended, and I had to go to a rural primary school, Puning County Quicksand Ruins Nijiao Township Kunjin Primary School to teach and serve as the director of training. At that time, there were about six or seven teachers in the generally complete primary schools, basically each teacher was responsible for a class, and the director of academic affairs, the director of training, and the director of general affairs were all part-time. There are also no full-time workers in the school, generally students take turns to clean, teachers are also on duty, but also responsible for cooking; some school teachers take turns to go to the students' homes to eat pie meals, this student's family eats for a day, and the student's family eats for a day. I remember that I had only eaten this kind of pie meal arranged to the student's house once. When I was the director of training, in addition to often publicizing the War of Resistance to students, I mainly led students to carry out labor.

In the rural areas during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there were not many rules for teaching, and the curriculum was basically in accordance with the prescribed curriculum, but the teaching materials did not necessarily buy the prescribed textbooks. I remember that the principal of Theonium Elementary School at that time was an underground party member, and there were also underground party members among the teachers. Although I am not an underground party member, I have the opportunity to read many progressive books, and under the influence of progressive ideas, I participate in the activities of the Youth Resistance Association under the leadership of the underground party. The content of textbooks during the War of Resistance often involves anti-war stories and songs. Usually, people also discuss teaching methods, and carry out criticism and self-criticism. I was also responsible for teaching a new script, which was to write local languages in pinyin script. We often use Teochew dialect to take classes, using Teochew dialect to annotate pinyin, children like it very much, because they only need to learn more than 20 pinyin symbols, and it is very convenient to learn pinyin to read and write. One hour of writing class every week, ten hours a semester, even the first grade children will write letters. After I left elementary school to teach, I often corresponded with elementary school students in new language. At that time, we also had night schools at night, and the students were young and middle-aged people in the townships, and the lectures were mainly about how to fight guerrillas when the Japanese came, and the knowledge learned from Mao Zedong's "On Protracted War."

By the first semester of 1939, I was still teaching in the rural primary school, when the life of the primary school was quite difficult, there was no dormitory to live in the ancestral hall, the middle of the ancestral hall was the hall, there were two small houses on both sides called the ear room, one ear room could live in a teacher, other teachers lived in the ancestral hall hall, and there were also teachers living in the students' homes. In 1940, I taught another semester book, and in the summer I walked from Jieyang to Changting, Fujian province to apply for Xiamen University, and I was not admitted in the first year, because my mathematics, physics and chemistry were a bit weak, and after a year of self-study, I entered Xiamen University in 1941.

At Xiamen University, he worked as both a student and a teacher

When I was in college, I studied and taught part-time. From 1941 to 1942, when I was a freshman in college, Xiamen University had a Minxi Relief Fund to help poor students. Receiving benefits is a service that is required, and I remember very clearly that a place is 16 yuan per month, and due to the large number of applicants, I only get 8 yuan for half of the place. The first semester of the service mentioned was to appoint me to help Professor Shi Jingcun, a first-year Chinese language teacher and famous literary scholar. At that time, there was only a mimeograph machine and no photocopier, and Professor Shi Jingcun only needed me to copy some things for him, sometimes to engrave lecture notes, and sometimes to help him copy reference materials from newspapers and periodicals. Because I was a student of the Department of Education, I was assigned to teach at Leyu Primary School in the second semester, right next to Xiamen University. Leyu Primary School was equivalent to the affiliated primary school of Xiamen University at that time, and many children of Xiamen University faculty and staff studied there. I attended almost two hours of classes a day, and the two sons of the then principal, Saben dong, both of whom studied at that school, and now they call me teacher. When I was a sophomore, I was introduced to the county Zhongshan Elementary School to teach part-time for more than half a year, and in the second semester of my junior year, I went to the county middle school as a teacher, teaching two classes of Chinese language and citizenship in one class. The president is Mr. Chen Shiqi, an alumnus of the Department of History. At that time, many teachers and students of Xiamen University were part-time teachers in primary and secondary schools in Changting, and I was half a teacher at that time, I could get half a salary, half a carton of rice a month, and a little salary, enough to buy stationery and make clothes.

At that time, chinese language classes were about 6 hours a week, but a teacher had to teach 16-18 hours a week, so he had to teach history, geography, or civics classes at the same time. Civics classes are mainly about civic knowledge. At that time, while studying in the education department at the university, I was teaching outside, and I more or less applied some ideas to practice. For example, when I was teaching Chinese language classes, I took students outside the school to teach how to write essays.

Changting has a Merlin, which is a leisure place, where everyone plays, watches the scenery, and then writes over there. At that time, I used my brain to do some teaching tricks like this. In his senior year, Changting County changed a principal, Kang Xi, who was a student of Professor Li Peiyuan, the head of the Department of Education of Xiamen University. He had already hired a dean, but before the start of the school year, he suddenly wrote a letter saying that he could not come. The president went to Professor Li Peiyuan, and Professor Li Peiyuan introduced me to be the dean of academic affairs. So I was nervous enough to write my graduation thesis, to take classes at university, to be the dean of academic affairs, and to teach. I was teaching a zoology course, teaching while preparing lessons, and borrowed many taxidermies from the Biology Department of Xiamen University. The students were happy and wondered each time what specimen the teacher would take. The specimens ranged from birds flying in the sky to fish swimming in the water. Later, one of the students also became a famous ichthyology scholar. At that time, Xiamen University moved to Changting to solve the problem of teachers for local schools, and it was not difficult for college students to become teachers.

In addition, since my junior year, I have also served as the director of the Social Service Office of the Department of Education of Xiamen University, the president of the Department of Education, and other work, which can be said to be a combination of study, teaching and administrative work, and social activities. Changting County left me with good memories of my youth. Although it has been 80 years now, some of the people and events of that year are still fresh in my mind.

It has been an academic salon for more than 30 years

In the long-term teaching process, I have realized a truth: the guidance of the tutor is not necessarily in the classroom or thesis guidance, but more in the usual teacher-student conversation. To this end, I have established a family interview system with graduate students.

Weekend evenings are my time to host graduate students, and everyone is free to participate, from the world's major events to personal lives, from academic arguments to working methods, a cup of tea, everything is discussed. Sometimes there are predetermined themes, sometimes there is no predetermined content, and there is no restraint on everyone expressing their opinions, so it is easy to talk about many real ideas, and it also closes the feelings of teachers and students. Graduate students are very interested in this and feel that they have a lot to gain from it; in fact, the tutor can also get a lot of valuable knowledge from it.

It wasn't very clear to start a salon, and I was mainly inspired by two things. One is that when Wang Yanan was the president, he often gathered his graduate students together on weekends to talk and talk, and his graduate students felt very beneficial; the second was that many scientists' inventions were chatted at lunches or cafes. I was living in the East Village of Xiamen University, and behind the East Village was the dormitory of the graduate students, and everyone was very close, so they came to my house on Saturday night. In the past, it was only closed on Sundays, and on Saturday nights, everyone was more free, so they got together to talk. At first there were only a few people, and then there were more than two dozen people, and everyone felt that they could solve the problem: some problems and some ideas needed to be talked to, and here was a place to talk about; some people got stuck when writing papers, they couldn't write, and some questions were not clear, so they came to me. I said, don't come to me alone, let's go to the salon together, so slowly a tradition will form.

Later, I moved to Qianpu, more than ten kilometers away from the school, and I thought what to do with The Salon in the future. If you don't find a classroom in the school to talk, but when you go to the classroom, it will feel like a class, and students will think that they must come, increasing the burden, or it is more intimate and natural to change the environment at home. At that time, I was worried that it was inconvenient and time-consuming for students to travel back and forth at night, and there were still many people who came later, and it was rainy, sometimes it rained, sometimes it was very cold, how could they still be willing to come? Some people say that it is very lively to take the car together on Saturday nights, and after talking, they often argue on the way back. This road is a very scenic roundabout. Everyone is also very conscious, each time to come to the general more than 20 people, at most more than 60 people came, then there is no way, had to sit in the living room aisle.

I think this salon form is free and good, sometimes there are topics; sometimes a guest comes outside and asks him or her to talk; sometimes who goes outside and has any experience to talk about; even sometimes there is nothing, you can come, we can talk about others, talk about life, talk about hobbies. Once it was the European Football Championship, and the salon was also held that night, the students also came, and everyone else went to see the football game, so let's watch the football game. Other teachers have done the same, each with a difference, some in the classroom, some several times a year, and many who become teachers after graduating from graduate school and have begun to organize their own salons. Everyone thinks it's very rewarding. Because studying in college is not only to learn a little knowledge, but also to learn ability, do internships, practical training, but the university is not only these, but also should form an academic environment to educate people. We believe that this environment is silent and natural for people to influence. When a young person grows up, the influence of the environment plays a role in all aspects of personality, for graduate students, they have entered the hall of scholarship, then the edification here is good, knowledge is good, will let them invisibly get a lot of benefits. So when I presided over the Institute, it was stipulated that there must be an academic seminar on Monday morning, inviting experts or teachers and students of the Institute to make academic reports; other times can engage in some salon-style academic activities, and now graduate students themselves also organize some salons, although not very often, but this has formed an academic atmosphere, which is of great benefit to the future. Many graduates now forget a lot about what they learned in the past courses, but they are obsessed with the environment of the salon.

When the teacher tea is never cold

This year I am 100 years old, from teaching for 85 years. What I am talking about is not the 85th anniversary of teaching, basically teaching, basically teaching, the real stop may be the years when I was the director of academic affairs of Xiamen University, about 1960-1963, the department of education was adjusted to Fujian Normal University, Chinese, history and other departments no longer train teachers, no students of their own. But I want to find a way to teach, what to teach? At that time Chinese department and economics department stipulated that they should study logic. At that time, there were no logic teachers, so I volunteered to teach logic in the Department of Economics and the Department of Chinese, and many students from the Department of Economics and the Department of Chinese took my classes. So it's a very distressing thing for a person who is a teacher to have no students. It wasn't until the 1980s that I created the discipline of higher education myself, and later recruited graduate students, so in the 1980s I had my own students to supervise. I tell my students that there are benefits to all walks of life, but I personally prefer to be a teacher, and this profession is different from other professions.

I am often asked: What profession is the happiest and happiest? As far as I am concerned, of all professions, the profession of teacher is the happiest, or the profession that produces the greatest sense of happiness. Because some other professions are against boring numbers, all day long against abacus or computers, etc.; some are against things, against machines and products, not at objects with feelings. Doing business is against customers, there are contacts in business, and sometimes they show enthusiasm, but "as soon as people go, the tea is cold." Being a teacher, tea is never cold.

Teachers face lively children, teenagers, and energetic youth every day. This happiness does not come from the income and status of money. A large amount of money income may suddenly make people feel happy, such as winning the lottery, but this happiness is temporary, after a while you may be distressed, and now suddenly have a large amount of money, how to deal with it? Put it at home for fear of being robbed, deposit it in the bank worried about depreciation, and invest for fear of losing. Teachers look at living children, teenagers, and young people, and watch them grow up when they are with me, just as parents watch their children grow, and they are the happiest. Of course, each teacher may experience something different.

Now some people have surveyed many countries to see which countries have the highest happiness, and the result is that the happiest countries are not the strongest and particularly rich countries. Happiness is not directly related to wealth and status, but feels worthy and satisfied. Therefore, it is easy for teachers to become the happiest people, students will always be your students even if they graduate, and the teacher-student relationship will always exist. Of course, if teachers are restless and distressed all day long, comparing themselves with others, it is difficult to say. If you don't love students and feel that students are troublesome and burdensome, then you have no sense of happiness. So I think teachers are most likely to be happy, but they have to turn this possibility into reality on their own. You care about them, they care about you, naturally. For example, when Dr. Bago, who had graduated, returned to Tibet, she first called to tell me that she had "arrived home", and a few days later she called me again to tell me that she was going to Shigatse to attend a training class for a primary school principal, and that she was going to give a report. Some students organize parties after graduation and they also invite me to go. I went to Zhanjiang Normal College for a meeting, and there were many of my students, Lu Xiaozhong, Han Yanming, Zhang Yingqiang, Liu Zhiwen, etc., half of whom graduated from different periods, and now they all have a place in the theoretical research of higher education, so I think it is a rare opportunity to be with them. Students' achievements are also our achievements, of course, there are students who have no news after graduation, and I will often inquire about their news.

Students often say that I care about them, in fact, students give me more, care more about me, such as Diao Yu, Chen Chen, Wu Binru, Chen Bin, etc., my living habits they are more familiar with than me, several times when I was sick and hospitalized, they took care of me. Once went to Wuhan to investigate, suddenly cooled down and snowed, Wu Binru hurried to buy me a down jacket, in fact, I brought thick clothes, this kind of mutual care between teachers and students is very natural, the difference with parents and children is that there is no blood relationship, children without blood relations are not necessarily not close, the day after tomorrow may be more important than the innate. At present, the relationship between teachers and students in some universities is becoming more and more indifferent or more utilitarian, which will occur under the conditions of market economy. I used to say that the market economy is a double-edged sword, but whether it is good or bad is not what people choose. We have to adapt, play to its positives as much as possible, and reduce its negatives as much as possible. For example, the competition mechanism of the market economy can promote social development faster, but it does produce all the negative effects of money, and the relationship between people is indifferent and utilitarian, we must see this and try our best to reduce its negative impact. In the market economy environment, we should make the relationship between teachers and students as close as possible. Now there are more students, which is also a reason. At present, there are fifty or sixty students in one class in primary schools, and in the past, there were only a few students in our higher education center, and now there are twenty or thirty students in one class. I used to be the principal of a primary school, stipulating that each teacher should make a home visit to each student once a month, when a class was about 20 people, rarely more than 30 people, in the afternoon after school teachers can go to visit two or three homes, now a class of fifty or sixty people, it is not easy to do home visits. In any case, career is not just something you have to do in order to get a salary, as long as you love your profession, you can get happiness and fun in your career.

Just in June this year, I also became an online course anchor. At the invitation of the Ministry of Education, I gave a report on the development of universities online. If I were given another choice, I would still choose to be a teacher in the next life!

(The author is affiliated with Xiamen University)

China Teachers Daily, August 19, 2020, 1st edition

Author: Pan Maoyuan Dictated by Zheng Hong