They have been teaching in Xihaigu area of Ningxia for 24 years
They are the prototype of the teaching teacher in the TV series " Mountains and Seas "
As one of them, Lin Yangqiong's life path has changed due to teaching
At the World Youth Forum, her story interprets the power of education
Lin Yangqiong took a photo with the children while teaching.
Lin Yangqiong is looking through the children's message book. (Photo by our reporter Zhang Qihui)
version text/Reporter He Wuhen, Intern reporter Huang Yinan
version map/Respondent provided (except for signature)
school season in September, Lin Yangqiong returned to the lecture hall she loved and familiar with. As a teacher at the School of English Language and Culture at Jiageng College, Xiamen University, she is affectionately called "Amy" by her children. But what happened this summer made her look back and examine her teaching experience 15 years ago. On July 21, she participated in the World Youth Development Forum. At the theme forum of "Inclusive and Fair Quality Education", Lin Yangqiong shared her experience as a member of the 9th postgraduate teaching team of Xiamen University . As the prototype of the teaching teacher in the TV series "Mountain and Sea Love", Xiamen University graduate teaching team has been rooted in the Xihaigu area of Ningxia for 24 years.
Xihaigu region was once defined by United Nations as "one of the most inappropriate areas for human survival." 15 years ago, Lin Yangqiong went to Guanqiao Middle School in this area to teach for a year. Her life path changed because of this experience. She became a true educator and wrote the power of education with her own stories.
[From the Origin]
"Teacher, what is a pavilion?"
This question made her decide to teach Xihaigu
In 2007, Lin Yangqiong was on the phone with her senior sister who was teaching in Ningxia. The senior sister accidentally mentioned a small episode during class - when she taught architecture, the children naively asked a question: "Teacher, what is a pavilion?"
This question made Lin Yangqiong feel incredible at first, and even thought it was fake for a while, but soon she realized the weight behind this problem.
This casual and carefree girl wants to cry when she mentions this. She has a lot of questions in her mind about the children here and the lives here. This problem is like a stone thrown into her heart, constantly rippling, and the consequence is that she has to go here.
She still remembers 15 years ago, after graduating from undergraduate, she and her companions took the train to Guyuan City , from Guyuan City to Haiyuan County , from Haiyuan County to Guanqiao Village, singing all the way with high enthusiasm. The dust was flying on the rural roads, and it was already evening when they arrived. She ate a bowl of noodles in a small shop next to the school, which was spicy.
Lin Yangqiong is from Pingtan, Fujian. Of course, she can’t get used to chili peppers. This is just the first trivial thing she is not used to. Here we rely on a water cellar to store water, and we use a dry toilet, and we rely on a furnace to cook. In the first week after coming to Guanqiao, Lin Yangqiong was bleeding from his nose. But these things were not as good as Lin Yangqiong's first night when he arrived - he looked up and saw the invisible stars in the city. That night, she did not suffer from insomnia, and fell asleep with her heart full of hope for the next life to teach.
There are singing everywhere. A child started to speak, and the singing spreads. This is also the first time Lin Yangqiong has known that there is such a special "opening method" in class.
The children who grew up in this yellow land have a natural good singing voice, and their loud singing also broke Lin Yangqiong's imagination of this place before coming. In addition to drought and barrenness, Guanqiao has its own tenacity and optimism. She and her teammates also worked hard to open a bigger window for this optimism - they subscribe books and newspapers for the children and set up weekend learning interest groups for students with learning difficulties; bring games into the classroom, so that the children can try to discuss in groups and exercise critical thinking; start physical education classes with lack of teachers and integrate dance into the aesthetic education classroom... Perhaps education cannot completely change children's lives, but it has its own warmth and strength.
Every weekend, Lin Yangqiong will visit his home. In this process, what she did most was not to communicate the children's learning situation, but to persuade the children's parents to agree to their continued study.She clearly remembered a family she visited once. The child's mother specially wore her best clothes, but she wore a pair of shoes with 5 holes on her feet. Because the living expenses are only 5 yuan a week, the child simply went to school barefoot to save transportation costs and would not get worn out.
This is the first time Lin Yangqiong faces such a real world. The change in her mentality caused her to have a bottleneck period in her work, and she doubted the significance of her teaching, and what kind of changes her tiny power could bring to her.
transition occurs on an ordinary afternoon. Lin Yangqiong passed by the local Zhangwan Primary School. The principal knew that she was a college student who came to teach, so he enthusiastically opened a graduation book to introduce her to the history of the school.
This is just an ordinary graduation book. The photos are placed in chronological order. They are full of photos of graduates, smiling, not smiling, and some people's eyes closed... There are only seven or eight boys on the first page, and they are turning back one by one. There are more and more students, and the proportion of girls is getting bigger and bigger. There are more than 30 graduates on the last page, including nearly half of them. Over time, the changes are clearly visible.
Whether it is local educators, companions who come to teach, or even these children, they are acting in a persistent way with confidence in the future. On this barren yellow land, Lin Yangqiong saw hope to grow.
【Action】
"Teacher, do you think Xiamen is better or here?"
Her actions make the children's hometown better
Xiaohua and Lin Yangqiong take a photo at Xiamen University.
Education cannot be achieved quickly, but it is real for children to lose school due to poverty. Faced with such contradictions, Lin Yangqiong and his partners decided to take action.
She opened a blog to record her teaching life in Xihaigu in the form of a diary. She recorded the folk songs she learned to cook on the stove here, the old man who drove a donkey cart sang, and more about the story of her and her children. During the teaching period of
, Lin Yangqiong established and improved the database and student aid system for poor students, and raised funds for them to aid. She asked the children in need to fill out the application form, while she used every weekend to check the children's application status and left a record of text and photos.
During the year she taught, nearly 100 students submitted applications and all received funding. The love-assistance system has also been passed down by Xiamen University's graduate teaching team one by one, and has now sponsored nearly 20,000 children from poor families.
"Teacher, what do you think is better in Xiamen or here?" Lin Yangqiong was almost stumped by the students' questions when he came to Guanqiao Middle School in his first class. It was 2004 that Xiamen won the " United Nations Habitat Award ", and the playground outside the window was covered with yellow sand.
Finally, her answer was exchanged for the children's happy smiles, "Everyone loves their hometown, this is your hometown, and it will be my second hometown in the future. We can work together to build it better!" Behind this representative question of
is the second thing Lin Yangqiong wants to take action.
Lin Yangqiong chats with the children in many hours outside of the classroom, no taboos, and no teacher's airs. The children asked everything, they cared about their life outside of Xihai Gu, and whether Lin Yangqiong had a boyfriend, and they also habitually complained about their youthful distress. In their eyes, Lin Yangqiong is not like a teacher, but more like a sister. Her existence also brings another possible face of education to these children. In addition to the strict supervision of "for your good", education can also be a gentle encouragement.
She uses her own way to make timid children brave. In class, when children cannot answer questions or are naughty, Lin Yangqiong will "punish" them to sing to everyone after class. Once, a girl named Ma Xiaohua was particularly shy. She couldn't answer the questions and was embarrassed to sing. Lin Yangqiong said, "Go is owed first, when will you save enough courage? Then come and return it to me."
【Echo】
"Teacher, when will we meet again?"
Her agreement inspired the little flowers in Xihaigu to get into the Xiamen University
In order not to affect the children's emotions, Lin Yangqiong chose to leave quietly one morning, but she had her own way to say goodbye to the children - when the genius was about to dawn, she set off, climbed up the mountain with her hands and feet, and there was an unknown little tree on the mountain.
Every friend who comes here to teach has mentioned this little tree intentionally or unintentionally. This is the only small tree in the loess nearby, so it is affectionately called "the small tree of Guanqiao". In Lin Yangqiong's eyes, this little tree is not only friendly, but also very similar to the people and things she felt here, the kind of free and tenacity.
has been here for Guanqiao for so long, this is the first time Lin Yangqiong has approached it. She sat under the tree, and it was already dim at this time. She opened the message book given to her by the children, which contained the children's sincere feelings. The first page of the message book is the word "Xiaohua". She said, "I feel honored and happy to have a teacher like you."
Lin Yangqiong read it carefully, and she buried a small box under the tree. It was her wish, hoping that it would get better and better here.
In fact, it seems that Lin Yangqiong was changed more by Xi Haigu. After returning from Xihaigu, her life track has shifted forever - she was casual and suddenly and firmly wanted to become a teacher, and many of her friends were sponsors at the time, or followers of her blog. What's more, even her lover met because of this period of time.
Lin Yangqiong was actually quite "confident" when interviewed. She said that she really didn't do anything. But her experience in Xihaigu is like the butterfly flying through the Amazon rainforest. After gently waving her wings, she accidentally set off a subsequent storm, which swept her herself and gently carried the fate of others.
When Lin Yangqiong was about to leave after his teaching, Ma Xiaohua brought a bouquet of wild flowers and sang a song to Lin Yangqiong seriously. She said: "Teacher, I'll give you this song back. When will we meet again?" Lin Yangqiong said: "Let's keep in touch, come to Xiamen University in the future to find me." Many years later, Ma Xiaohua walked out of the mountains with the first place in the county and was admitted to Xiamen University.
Now Lin Yangqiong is a teacher at the School of English Language and Culture, Jiageng College, Xiamen University, and is still standing on the three-foot podium to help students find themselves. After graduation, Ma Xiaohua chose to return to her hometown and become a teacher. In Jiageng College , Lin Yangqiong's student Chen Sining also questioned what he could do for the world, but in chatting and dating with Lin Yangqiong, he gradually believed that the individual's strength was not weak. Now he is a senior, he has participated in charity activities organized by international NGO for two years, helping more than 200 Nigerian students return to school.
html More than 0 years later, Lin Yangqiong returned to Xihaigu to attend Xiaohua's wedding. She was happy to see that the little tree was still there and had grown a lot taller. Its existence is like a metaphor. It turns out that life efforts are not all futile. If you don’t believe it, just look at this little tree, or look at Lin Yangqiong and the children around her.Lin Yangqiong on Guanqiao teaching podium.
[Reporter's Notes]
The meaning of persistence
In the Xiamen University graduate teaching team and Xihaigu for more than 20 years, the Xiamen University graduate teaching team has been rooted in the Xihaigu area of Ningxia for 24 years. 345 team members are constantly contributing their youthful strength to the development of education in the western part of the motherland with year-on-year relay. Students in Xihaigu area have gradually entered high school, university, and into society... Today, Xihaigu area has been completely renewed, and children have brand new school buildings.
Behind this story, of course, it is also inseparable from the persistence of local educators and the love relay of the teaching support group year after year. But Lin Yangqiong gave this story another meaning, that is, ordinary people don’t need to be that great, as long as you are willing to do the right thing and persevere, it is also a kind of power.
Now Lin Yangqiong is active in another life journey. Her lively, happy, and challenging life philosophy and her qualities of truth, goodness and beauty have continued from Xihaigu to Jiageng College. She is more like a friend than a teacher. In addition to teaching, she strives to help children clear away the fog of youth, find a direction to move forward, and also pay attention to a broader world.
This is often the case in life. Sometimes an inadvertent action not only changes the fate of others, but also reverses the direction of one's own life.
Source: Xiamen Daily
