Heart-warming teacher stories

25 SEPTEMBER 2018

Teachers' Day is celebrated across China on 10 September; enjoy these heart-warming

stories of teachers going above and beyond

Man goes extra mile to help students

After graduation in 2001, Zhang Yugun sacrificed an opportunity to enjoy a better life in
the city and instead to work in the relatively impoverished countryside.

Over a 17-year period, Mr Zhang has seen many teachers come and go in Heihumiao
village, in a remote part of the central Chinese province of Henan, because of the poor
conditions, but he has stayed on and made every effort to educate students and help
them out of difficulties.

Mr Zhang and his motorcycle keep ferrying textbooks and exercise books from the city
to the school via rugged mountain roads. And to help those students whose parents
have left the village to find work in the city, his wife quit her job to cook and clean for the
students.

Teacher makes map for home visits in villages

Lan Songlin, a science teacher for 16 years in Tashi junior high school, with his hand-
drawn map for village home visits, in Quzhou city, Zhejiang province, on 4 July 2017.
Lan Songlin, a science teacher for 16 years in Tashi junior high school, solved the
problem of finding homes of students in villages by drawing a handy map in June 2017
that works better than navigation apps.

The families of the school’s 583 students are mostly scattered in 130 villages in a
mountainous town of Quzhou city, Zhejiang province. Some are remote and some lack
transport.

Names of villages are constantly changing because of mergers. Many names of roads
have yet to be uploaded on to the digital map. All these add to the difficulties of home
visits, especially for a dozen or so non-local teachers who are unfamiliar with the area.

A new teacher was led to a cemetery by the navigation app during a home visit. While
others thought it was funny, Mr Lan decided to create a map after hearing the story.

Having been to each and every village where the students live, Mr Lan was able to
show their location because of his years of experience. Phone calls were made to
village committees to confirm the names.
At the teachers’ meeting before last year’s home visit, Mr Lan showed the hand-drawn
map and received praise from his colleagues and leaders. Since then, a copy has
become a must for travelling teachers.

Famous scientist leads simple life

Li Xiaowen teaching in the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Li Xiaowen, former director of the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications of the
Chinese Academy, died in 2015. A photo of him dressed in simple clothes while
teaching a class once went viral.

Though he was famous in the remote sensing field both at home and abroad, he still led
a simple life and always wore simple clothes.

Students familiar with Mr Li said he had a chivalrous spirit, and enjoyed drinking. He
never said no to his students’ opinions, and always encouraged them to try new ideas.

Teacher uses hand-drawn lesson plans

He Xinpu, geography teacher at the Lushan International Experimental School,

Changsha, Hunan province, who has handwritten her lesson plans for 36 years, on 15
May 2018 CREDIT: LUSHAN INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL
He Xinpu, a geography teacher at Lushan International Experimental School,
Changsha, Hunan province, has hand-written lesson plans for 36 years and every page
embodies her hard work and dedication.

She not only writes words in her lesson plans but draws a large number of detailed
illustrations, many of which are not simply copied from textbooks but created by her. All
her lesson plans are presented on A4 paper instead of the notebooks provided by the
school as she thought they were too small.

Part of He’s geography lesson plans on A4 papers CREDIT: LUSHAN

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL
Neat and exquisite, He’s lesson plans have left deep impressions on everyone who has
seen them. An expert from the Changsha Institute of Educational Science praised her
thick stack of lesson plans for preparing students for the gaokao (college entrance
exams) as he looked through the A4 papers during an inspection last year.

Besides looking good, the lesson plans had useful and concrete content. For example,
she recorded common mistakes the students made in geography and came up with
ways to help them realise and correct them.

What is perhaps surprising is that Ms He was a political science teacher before.

“Everything can be done well if you love it and put your heart into it,” she said.
Though Ms He is going to retire in a few months after teaching 18 years at the school,
meanwhile is still teaching her class every day.

Teacher sacrifices her life to save students

Li Fang visiting a student’s family in Henan province

Li Fang, a 49-year-old rural teacher working in a primary school in Dongjiahe town,
Xinyang city, in the central Chinese province of Henan, sacrificed her life to save her
students on 11 June 2018.

On the way home from school, a tricycle full of watermelon jumped a red light as
schoolchildren were lining up to cross the street. Ms Li screamed at the children to get
out of the way and ran to save them. The four students she pushed away received only
minor injuries, but she suffered serious injuries and died the next day.

Yao Zhongling, a mother of one of the students whose lives were saved, said: “I told my
child that no matter how high he ends up in the future, he should never forget Miss Li. A
teacher who protects students with her own life deserves utmost respect.”

Rural teacher instructs generations of students

Wu Wanyin plays with his six students at Shawan primary school in Hongya county,
Meishan city, in the south-western Chinese province of Sichuan, on 3 September
2018 CREDIT: VCG
Shawan primary school, in Shawan village, Meishan city, in the south-western Chinese
province of Sichuan, is located in mountains more than 2,000m above sea level and
more than 100km from the county seat.

The school has seven people in total: six students and 61-year-old Wu Wanyin, the only
teacher. He has spent 42 years at this rural school and taught thousands of students,
spanning generations – from grandparents to grandchildren.

“I don’t expect anything in return, let alone any honour. I just hope to do my small part to
help rural children leave the poor area someday and become something in society,” Mr
Wu said.

This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. View the original
article at chinadaily.com.cn