Author | Benbo Erba
In the postgraduate entrance examination boom that has just subsided, there is one person who breathed a sigh of relief in addition to the millions of candidates - Xu Tao.
It is not easy to understand him. As a famous political teacher for the postgraduate entrance examination and a popular education blogger with 7.84 million Weibo followers, he has left very few traces on the Internet and can collect very little information. The only place
frequents is Weibo, where he spends at least 3 hours a day editing Weibo, replying to private messages, and answering students' academic and emotional problems. This is still the result of being urged to update by students.
On the first day of the postgraduate entrance examination, Xu Tao said on Weibo that he believed what he was doing was good.
In fact, he deliberately kept a distance from circles outside the Internet and education fields.
The rapid development of the Internet and short videos has indeed created an opportunity for the rise of Internet celebrity teachers, allowing them to spread their voices and teaching and research results further and be seen by more people.
But after more than ten years in the industry, Xu Tao still reminds himself constantly to be a good teacher and not to be overly alienated by the Internet. This "alienation" refers to sacrificing what teachers should do in a flow-oriented manner.
What he wants to accomplish is very simple, that is, while coaching students to prepare for exams, he can also share some thoughts from his limited life experience and some different perspectives on problems.
Besides, he doesn’t want to get out of the circle.
Opinion
In 2005, during the hottest season of the year, Xu Tao took a long-distance bus from Nanchang to Guangzhou to find a job for 18 hours.
From June to November, from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, all the resumes he submitted were in vain. Being rejected every day became the most unfamiliar thing he experienced in a strange city.
When all the classmates around me have somewhere to go, work, go to graduate school, study abroad, or take over family businesses. He is the only one holding this diploma and asking himself repeatedly every day why he is the only one who has no whereabouts.
Xu Tao is at the entrance of Suzhou University
His expectations are not high. He just wants to find a job that matches his major, electronic information engineering.
But just like he still hasn’t figured out why he couldn’t find a job at that time, he also couldn’t explain where his obsession with his profession came from, and why he persisted with such an unreasonable idea for 5 months without giving up.
In Xu Tao’s past life experience, “there are many such ideas without much rational support.”
In middle school, because he liked the Hong Kong drama "Genesis", he left his first choice position for civil engineering, which he thought was related to real estate agents but was not very relevant.
Stills from "Genesis 1: Real Estate"
When he was in college, because he liked Beyond, he started to form a band; and because he stubbornly liked Cantonese culture, he went directly to Guangzhou to find a job after graduation without much thought. Although
is a mystery, he can still find some clues as to why he can't find a job. For example, he missed the school recruitment because he only focused on playing in a band and holding performances every day.
Outrageous, emotional, nonsensical, characterful, and unconventional. Looking at the past events Xu Tao uncovered, it is difficult not to have similar strong and distinct feelings. But when you put these seemingly scattered and disorganized elements together, you will find that -
This is a life full of "opinion".
’s so-called “opinion” is reflected in the fact that every step of his life was actually his own idea of how to go and what to do.He always dares to try and make some "unreasonable persistence" in the things he wants to do and likes to do.
Xu Tao playing guitar on the stage
is like the college entrance examination choice. Although it is mainly the parents who make the decision, the first choice is his place.
For another example, he later took postgraduate entrance examinations while working, and after finishing his Ph.D., he went to work within the system and then resigned. At each stage, he would hear opposition from around him, but he never flinched.
Back in November 2005, Xu Tao still couldn’t find a job. To be precise, he couldn’t find the professional communications position he wanted.
In the end, he spent almost all his savings and felt that he couldn't hold on, so he finally decided to accept the job offer from China Southern Airlines, a position that still had nothing to do with his profession.
Exception
The social clocks of all his peers were running normally. He was left alone to swing in place in a strange city for more than 5 months. Although he was depressed, all the pain was still within the range that Xu Tao could bear.
In his growth process, this experience of abandonment was not the first time.
He was familiar with this feeling. Growing up, every time there was a campus event to be held, his name would always be omitted from the roster in the teacher's hand so accurately.
In the first semester of 15-year-old Xu Tao's sophomore year, the whole class started to apply for CET-4 and CET-6. By the end of the fourth and fifth rounds of exams, he was the only one left, and he was only one or two points short of passing the test each time.
"Everyone can do things well and smoothly, but I have become an exception. So that if any accident happens to me later, I will not be too surprised."
His life experience told him not to take chances.
also told him that the passing mark of 60 points, only about 60 points is not enough. To get what you want, you have to be more cautious and work harder than others.
After joining China Southern Airlines , Xu Tao was engaged in a business-type job, which was considered a good result by the people around him, but for him, it meant completely giving up the professional study he had invested in for 4 years.
The feeling of unwillingness soon resurfaced, which strengthened his idea of taking the postgraduate entrance examination - to change to a major and career that he really liked and was willing to pursue. It was at this time that he became interested in economics.
"Why do the prices of air tickets keep fluctuating?" When he was rotating in the warehouse control department, no one could answer Xu Tao's question. He had to read the book himself and find the answer from economics.
Xu Tao ran with him in the first year, and came ashore in the second year. In addition to the failed experience in his senior year, this is his third postgraduate entrance examination. Although the process is a bit tortuous, the result is not bad.
In this way, Xu Tao gave up 2 years of work experience and began a 5-year study career with a master's degree and a Ph.D.
His life once again became an exception among his peers, and the feeling of abandonment became a completely perceptible fact that he had to face.
At class reunions, no matter whether he is present or not, there will always be topics about him: "Why can't I go to class and go to study again?" "What's the use of reading so many books?" "When should I finish reading?"... …
This is indeed a very popular argument in society. Compare a person with a high degree of education but a low income with a person with a low degree of education but a high income or even a big boss, and then deduce: Reading more does not necessarily mean you will do well.
Regarding this issue, Xu Tao has his own understanding: "You can't compare two people. Reading is not the only factor that determines a person's achievement. You should compare yourself with yourself. As far as I am concerned. "Reading more is definitely better than not reading at all."
In his current work, he is still very grateful for the academic training he experienced when he was studying for a Ph.D., which allowed him to have a holistic, systematic, and dialectical way of thinking.
Xu Tao in lecture
But for him, "doctor" only refers to a kind of cognition and thinking.
Another five years after graduating with his Ph.D., he resigned from the system. He encountered greater resistance than when he resigned from China Southern Airlines. He also heard many voices saying to himself: "You have a Ph.D., it is a pity to be a training teacher."
This kind of pity does not exist in his perception: "I don't think becoming a doctor means that you should have a certain status, position or treatment."
He refuses to let academic qualifications become a shackles for him.
answer
It can be said that every decision Xu Tao makes to resign has nothing to do with anything else. It is always based on that "unreasonable persistence": to find a professional field that he likes and create substantial help for more people.
stood on the podium and was his answer. It is precisely because he listened to his inner voice and took every step firmly that he became known to the public today as "Xu Tao, a graduate student in politics." How does
establish its own coordinates among the numerous voices?
In essence, the problems that Xu Tao once experienced are also what countless young people are experiencing today, but he has touched the outline of the answer, while they are still on the road, looking for their own book of answers.
Xu Tao took a group photo with the students while holding the "Core Examination Plan"
Under "Postgraduate Entrance Examination Politics Xu Tao" on Weibo, thousands of private messages flood in every day. One after another, postgraduate entrance examination students have become accustomed to using this as a tree hole to express their anxieties and worries, even if they have graduated.
Xu Tao often selects common questions and answers them carefully. After the Weibo post was released, thousands of comments and tens of thousands of likes were received, all proving that certain subtle youth emotions are actually common.
"I don't know why I always feel like I've been left behind by the world. My peers can say nice things at the dinner table and support the scene on important occasions. I sit there like a junior high school student." "I find that I really have a strong desire to win and lose. I always want to compare with others, better than others, better than others, better than others, and better than hardworking, but sometimes there are many in many ways. People who are better than me in every aspect." "How can I not be influenced by what others say?" "How can I not envy other people's lives?" "I don't know why I study every day..." Judging from these shared questions, during the preparation period, for many candidates, understanding themselves and their relationships with others is a more difficult subject than learning professional knowledge.
Xu Tao shared many questions from the candidates on Weibo
Since childhood, we have been used to being compared with other children by our parents or teachers. When we grow up, it seems difficult not to look at the people and things around us from the perspective of competition and comparison. Sometimes we secretly compare and self-dislike this behavior. Over time, we lose our sense of direction and are at a loss.
This may be the experience of any generation of young people in the past, but Xu Tao clearly saw that although the problems are similar, the challenges faced by this generation of young people have their own unique complexity: the scope has expanded, and the feelings have deepened.
In the past, young people might just compare themselves with the kids in the next class or next door neighbor, but now as long as they go online, netizens across the country can become a source of competitive pressure; on the other hand, many secret and subtle emotions that were not expressed in the past are now analyzed vividly and concretely, making people feel deeply.
In Xu Tao's view, as a social animal, it is impossible for humans not to compare with others, but they cannot compare with others in everything. What is more important is to improve one's cognitive level and better understand oneself and the direction in which one is going to work hard.
How to find the direction in which you can work hard?
"Practice more and think more. You will find that all the directions I have found are derived from practice. Doing nothing and sitting there and thinking about things is meaningless. It is just a wish, not a direction."
"Practice After finishing it, you must think about it. Only by reviewing and examining the things you have experienced can you extract patterns and true knowledge to guide your future life. Otherwise, it is just a story. "
The improvement of cognitive ability requires a process, and many problems may not be able to be understood clearly and in the long term.
In 2019, Xu Tao was at the Weibo education site
Xu Tao’s growth experience told him that you can put aside what you don’t understand, and you can temporarily put aside what you can’t see far away, and first do what you can do at the moment and within your ability.
Just like when he graduated from college, he got a job that he didn't want. Although he stayed with an attitude of constantly searching, he had no intention of being perfunctory with the work he was doing.
So in specific practice, many views on things were constantly refreshed, and many judgments about the future were constantly changed, allowing him to finally meet the major he really liked.
window
The so-called growth is actually a journey of repeated battles with pain.
Xu Tao recalled that when he first learned guitar, his fingers would always be cut many times by the steel strings, which hurt so much that he almost wanted to give up. Until the frequency of practice increases, calluses begin to form on the fingers, and the pain passes.
When he wanted to give up again, it was because he felt that the more he practiced, the harder it became and he was no longer as happy and proud as when he first learned the first song. But he still persevered, and his guitar skills improved a lot.
Xu Tao plays guitar
After thinking about these things, Xu Tao made some interesting discoveries - it turns out that when a thing makes people feel the most painful and want to give up the most, it is often the time when it is making great progress.
At that time, that young man who was in pain because of learning guitar, that young man who wanted to find a job in his major but could not find it, might not have thought that his life would be so colorful: science in high school, engineering in college, because of his knowledge of economics Interested in further studies, he later became a famous political teacher for the postgraduate entrance examination. Last year he published a book called "The Face of History"...
All along, his only weight was some "unfounded persistence" and perseverance. But due to various chances and coincidences in life, he finally stepped onto the podium and is where he is today.
Even those who do not take the postgraduate entrance examination or have little interest in political subjects can easily read the course content recorded by Xu Tao. He can talk about "the dialectical unity of inevitable and accidental " from love, from friendship to " contradictory identity and struggle", and can use "baozi" in various ways to illustrate the "production of surplus value".
Xu Tao at the launch of his new book "The Face of History"
Once upon a time, they were just blunt knowledge points that existed in textbooks, but he could always weave them together with vivid stories.
For him, helping students pass exams is an important goal, but it is not the only goal.
"I think the role of a teacher is to provide a more real and interesting perspective, allowing students to re-examine and open up their interest in a certain subject. As long as the students are interested, whether the teacher teaches or not is secondary."
This is a course given to him by all the teachers who have a profound impact on his growth. Therefore, when he becomes a teacher, he hopes that he can also share some different perspectives on problems with students.
Xu Tao and his students
Although he has made some achievements in his professional field, Xu Tao occasionally thinks that one day he may leave the podium and leave his job as a teacher.
As the post-2000 generation takes over from the post-90 generation generation to become the main force in the postgraduate entrance exams, he can already deeply feel that the requirements of each generation of students for teachers and courses are not exactly the same.
Some of his past achievements in the education industry can only show that his teaching philosophy and teaching methods are suitable for past students, but whether it is still suitable for the new generation of students in the future is unknown.
"It can only be said that I have been working hard. At some point, no matter how hard I try, I cannot adapt to the needs of students and the development of the times, and I will accept my mediocrity. But even so, I still feel that it is nothing, because it is not easy to accomplish one or two things in a lifetime."
The experience of standing on the podium for more than ten years made Xu Tao feel a real happiness.
Xu Tao received flowers from students
One of the reasons why he likes his current job is that it has more windows than other professions and positions.
"Many of the behaviors and words of young people, as well as many strange and eccentric ideas, are for me a rare window to observe the times and the world."
If possible, he hopes to continue doing things related to the growth of young people.
(Part of the pictures in the article are from the interviewees, and some are from the Internet)
Editor | Jiang Suren
Coordinator | Peng Yukuan
Typesetting | Fei Fei
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