Chapter 30 the joy of being a teacher

I have only been a teacher for ten years.It was 1926 when I returned from studying in the United States and became a lecturer at the Chinese Department of Yenching University, my alma mater.At that time, most of the directors and teachers in the department were my teachers.There are also my teachers in other subjects and departments in the school. In short, all the teachers in the school are my teachers!Therefore, during professor meetings, I always choose a seat at the extreme edge and corner, and shrink aside in fear.Everyone laughed and called me FacultyBaby (faculty baby).I was under twenty-six that semester.

It's quite different in the student group, they are my good friends.I teach Chinese as a compulsory subject in the first grade, and I use ancient Chinese textbooks.There are many first-year male and female students, and they are not very old, probably between seventeen and twenty.The Chinese class is divided into five classes, each class has 30 to 40 students, because they come from all over the country, and the students from Fujian and Guangdong do not understand the Jiangnan language of director Ma Jian, Zhou Zuoren, Shen Yinmo, Gu Sui, Guo Shaoyu and other old gentlemen. Accent, so the Academic Affairs Office assigned this part of the students to my class.Looking from the podium, all the red and childish faces looked at me, the "little gentleman" with a smile and curiosity - at that time, teachers were generally called "sir".These smiles are familiar to me, the same as those of my younger brothers and cousins.I opened the roll call and asked them to sign up, and I corrected their accents one by one. Amidst all the laughter, we became very familiar and affectionate at once!The first composition topic I gave them was autobiography, firstly because everyone has something to write about under this topic, and secondly, through this autobiography, I can learn about each student’s family background, habits, temperament etc.After reading the papers, I always only mark the scores, not write comments, but focus on having extra-curricular conversations with everyone within half an hour, so that they can tell me: how they wrote, and I can also tell them what I think The opinions and thoughts of this article have been communicated, and we are quite satisfied with each other.

I also taught a class of "exercises" for students above the first grade.I want the students to practice writing various literary forms, such as novels, poems, and letters, and sometimes there are translations—I found that students with a good foundation in Chinese can translate more smoothly—the final exam is to ask them to hand in a copy of the "Publications" can be of any type, such as art, sports, and so on. But there must be a cover design, the purpose of the journal, articles, photos, etc. Students in the same class can contribute to each other.You can also request manuscripts or photos from students outside the class.The students all thought it was very fresh and interesting. The "publications" they handed in at the end of the term were very consistent in content and title, and very lively and gratifying.

Recalling those years of teaching career, what makes me most attached is: the students and I have become close friends.At that time, both teachers and male and female students lived on campus, and extracurricular contact was very frequent.We often row boats on the Weiming Lake, hold various seminars on the stone boat by the island in the middle of the water, or have individual conversations.These individual conversations went deeper, such as personal career and marriage choices, etc. At this time, several happy couples suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, such as Zheng Linzhuang and Guan Ruiwu, Lin Yaohua and Rao Yusu, and so on.In some cases, I went to their wedding ceremonies as a "big matchmaker", and in some cases, I invited the parents of both parties to a banquet to match them.That's half a century ago.More than half of them have already entered another world before me. As I write this, I have an indescribable feeling in my heart!

I should stop writing. What I said was neither "respecting teachers" nor "loving students". I just think that "teachers" and "students" should be friends who respect and love each other. On the morning of heavy rain on July 7, 1986