(Source: Xinhuanet)
Xinhuanet, Wuhan, June 14 (Reporters Shi Yongfeng, Tian Yu, Liao Jun) The following text is the recording of our interview with Zheng Qi, a retired teacher in Dangyang City, Yichang, Hubei Province. Let us listen to the monologue of this 65-year-old teacher——
(1) To be honest, I never thought about being a model, and I never even dreamed that I would receive so many honors. When you are a pawn, you can only do good things, not bad things. I'm really embarrassed. I feel that what I did was not as perfect as they said in the report, and some of the small plots were not as touching. For example, when I brought the candies handed out on the plane for the children to eat, I brought them back for them, but I didn’t “quietly put them on their pillows.” They told me that this was all possible in order to liven up the article. The neighbors around me know what I have done, and I am really afraid that when I go back, they will call me a "Japanese guy" (dialect: a person who tells lies and boasts about himself). I am an ordinary rural teacher, graduated from junior high w88 casino, with limited educational level. For more than 40 years, I have taught Chinese to first- to fifth-grade students once, several times to first-to-fourth grade students, and generally taught first- and second-grade Chinese. I learned Pinyin well. One of the biggest problems for rural teachers is that they are not good at Pinyin. I am good at this aspect.
What I can do now is largely due to the influence of my mother. My mother is 92 years old this year. Before liberation, she studied at Dangyang Chengguan Town Higher Primary w88 casino. After graduation, because she had some musical talent, she stayed in w88 casino and became a music teacher. When he taught w88 casino until 1957, he was mistakenly classified as a rightist due to his father's influence. He did not implement the policy of retirement until the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. My mother was treated unfairly, but she never instilled in us the idea of being antisocial. She taught my elder sister and me to remember the good and see the hope.
Mother loves her students. I remember that when life was particularly difficult, our family took in several poor students. There was no electricity at that time, so my mother often mended clothes for students under a kerosene lamp, and made the big clothes at home into smaller ones for them to wear. She often visits her home, and sometimes when it’s too late, she takes me with her to keep her company. When I was a teenager, my sister also became a teacher. Like her mother, she is also a teacher who is loved by her students. The subtle influence of my mother and sister has made me feel the glory and sacredness of being a teacher since I was a child. I have always longed to be a good teacher like them when I grow up.
I became a teacher in 1958. As soon as I started my job, I fell deeply in love with this profession. During the 15 years since I was forced to leave my teaching position because of my protest against the unfair treatment of students, my heart has always been with the children. Not long ago, when the Hubei Provincial News Team came for an interview, a reporter asked me, why can you continue to teach and educate people wholeheartedly after you were wrongly fired from public office and went home to farm for 15 years? I answered: In order to prove that I am a good person and to prove to society and the people that I am not a bad person, my heart is loyal to the motherland and the people. At this point, my tears couldn't stop flowing down. My education for my children is entirely out of love for society and the Communist Party. In my heart, the ideas of the Communist Party are all good, and the current strength and prosperity of our country is enough to prove this. This makes me full of love for society, hoping that society will always be peaceful and that everyone will be a good person.
(2) In total, I have been teaching for more than 40 years and have taught more than 500 students in total. I have done both good and bad things. Regardless of whether my grades are good or bad, I will help as long as I can. I just want the children to be good people and helpful to society.
Among my students, there are more than a dozen with high academic qualifications. Some have passed the postgraduate studies of Tongji Medical University, and some have passed the military academy and served as regimental commanders in the army. But the vast majority are ordinary people. Some of them now go out to work, and some are farming in the countryside. I have invested a lot of energy in providing basic education to children. The country has also proposed universal nine-year compulsory education. I think even ordinary people must have basic knowledge and at least learn how to behave.
However, there are some who are not taught well. There is a man named Xiaohu who once served as the captain of the w88 casino and got good grades. However, after entering junior high w88 casino, he became obsessed with game consoles and his grades plummeted. Now he has become a lothario in society. There is also a child who lives next door to my hometown, and I have never taught him. Both of his parents died, and he was too lazy to harvest the fields he was responsible for, so I helped him harvest on Saturdays when I went home for a break. The harvesting was not finished until dark, so I called him to my house for dinner. I wanted to impress him, but he stopped harvesting again the next day. Later, he stole, robbed, and killed people in the Jingmen area. He hid back in Miaoqian Town to raise fish. He told the story while drunk, and was shot the year before last. This incident shocked me greatly. I always thought that I failed to fulfill my responsibility to him and failed to help him.
I am ashamed to say that my second son was arrested by the police station for stealing a bicycle in 1995 when he was working as a worker in Dangyang Cotton Mill. I thought at the time, I taught other people’s children to be good people, but my own children broke the law! The second child was detained for half a year. I went to visit him in the detention center and found that there were many children his age detained there. I felt very sad, so I proposed to the director of the detention center that, in the name of a parent of a child, I would like to talk to these young people incarcerated about my feelings and educate them to abide by the law and not do bad things. The director of the detention center agreed. I prepared at home for a day and gave lectures for several hours. I told them that you are still flowers of the motherland, just flowers that are sick and infested with insects. I talked about it emotionally, and the children were also deeply educated. I really hope that more young people can be good people.
One of my students named Yu Jianming is a famous "naughty guy". When teachers and parents mention him, they shake their heads. I felt very uncomfortable. I took him into my home and treated him like my own child. I took care of his life, helped him with tutoring at night, and took him with me during home visits to chat with him. At first, he didn't appreciate it. One night, he sneaked away while I was in a meeting. I drove more than 10 miles and dragged him back from the bamboo forest. On the bumpy dirt road, I fell down several times and was covered in mud. This child later got rid of his bad habits of playing and fighting, his academic performance gradually improved, and he became an "outstanding young pioneer" in the w88 casino.
This incident made people around me know that I have some methods for teaching "naughty" students. Later, parents often sent their children who could not be controlled to me, and I was very happy. Later, whenever I heard about which child was naughty, which child was left unattended, or which child was too far away to go to w88 casino, I would bring them to me. Over time, there are always a group of children around me, some staying for a week or two, and some staying for several years.
When I visited homes in the countryside, there were naughty children at home. As long as the parents said that Teacher Zheng was here, the children would become well-behaved. Sometimes I don’t go, and parents educate their children in the same way. When I mention this, I don't mean that the children are afraid of me, or that I beat them. I have prestige among the children.
(3) Lei Feng and I are the same age. After seeing the reports of Lei Feng's deeds, I was moved. I think what he can do, I can do too through hard work. I bought a notebook specifically to copy Lei Feng's diary and write down my learning experience. I treasured Chairman Mao's inscription "Learn from Comrade Lei Feng". I also cut out the photo of Lei Feng published in the newspaper and posted it in my room.
Let me read you a paragraph from my diary at that time: As an ordinary rural teacher, I cannot accept the baptism of blood and fire like the heroic warriors on the front line, nor can I make earth-shattering achievements like the famous scientists, but I can devote my love to teaching children well and make my contribution to the healthy growth of children.
A bit bookish, right? But this is my sincere opinion. I later established the "Red Scarf Voluntary Delivery Station", founded the "Off-campus Youth Home", and established the "Jinggang Primary w88 casino Red Scarf Foundation", which all started from this. In 2000, I was about to retire, and my three children asked my wife and me to live in the city. When I think about leaving the podium and the children, I feel an indescribable loss. I couldn't bear to leave like this. I thought to myself: Can I buy a house near the w88 casino and build a place where students can read books and do activities, so that the children who have no one to care for after w88 casino have a good place to go. I sold my original house, pooled some money with my children, and bought a "three-unit courtyard" near the w88 casino. The Education Bureau's Working Committee was very supportive and put up a sign called "Jinggang Primary w88 casino Off-Campus Tutoring Station." Now, there are 6 signs hanging at my door, including "Youth Activity Center" and "Care and Support Youth Workstation". I am retired, but I am not lonely.
Whether it is teaching, running a tutoring center, or building an activity center, I believe that helping others means making myself happy. I have done a good deed and made a contribution to people. Although it is tiring, it is worth it. Spending time with children has made my retirement life more fulfilling than other retired teachers. I have to farm, worry about my children's affairs, and have extensive contact with the society. I am very busy, but my life is fulfilling. Many old colleagues say that I am "boring". If you ask me if I am worried that when I get older, no one will take over, or that my children will have no one to take care of, I really haven’t thought about this. I just want to do a good job in educating minors in my lifetime. There are so many enthusiastic people in the society, and I also hope that more people will care about children and that more people will participate in ordinary things.
I now hope to build the counseling center into a youth activity center like the ones in the city, add some equipment, and build a pavilion or something. When one day I couldn't move anymore, I handed over this activity center to the public and dedicated it to society. (End)
