Retired teacher shows no signs of slowing down
Print Edition
A retired teacher continues to spread knowledge and the love of learning with a kind heart and endless patience in Changning District.
Zhuang Guantong, 76, has taught Chinese classes for decades and couldn’t bring himself to idle away his retirement days sitting around his house in Xinjing Town. So he volunteers to do what he does best — teach.
Before retiring, Zhuang taught at Wujiang Normal School in Jiangsu Province, winning several teaching awards for his work. In 2002, his family moved to Shanghai to help his son and daughter-in-law take care of his granddaughter.
Zhuang moved to Xinjing from Yangpu District in 2005 after his granddaughter entered primary school. Since then, he has taken part in the community’s education affairs and has lead a group focused on reading. He is praised by neighbors for his commitment to the young generation.
In 2007, administrators of the Fuquan neighborhood committee approached Zhuang, hoping he would be willing to give lectures to students in the community upon learning about his background as a teacher.
Zhuang accepted the invitation without hesitation and since then he has been teaching writing classes as a volunteer. He also helps parents give feedback on their children’s homework when he has the time.
Then Zhuang came up with the idea of setting up a regular class, so he established the “70.12 Happy Reading Class” with the support of the Fuquan neighborhood committee in the summer of 2010. The number 70 referred to his age at the time while 12 referred to the average age of the students in his class. Students can sign up for free.
Zhuang teaches six sessions during the summer vacation and one during the winter break. He selects both classic and contemporary Chinese literature to improve his students’ reading skills.
In the meantime, he also asks the students to write an essay in class instead of assigning homework. He corrects punctuation and structural errors carefully.
Zhuang prepares every lesson at home, collecting background materials and supplementary information. He prints all copies of these materials for the students at his own expense.
In 2013, Zhuang started another “70.12 Happy Reading Class” at Xinjing Middle School and enrolled 27 children whose parents are too busy with work and cannot help them with schoolwork. He tutors the students for an hour every Friday after school.
“I was born in a farmers’ family and my parents were totally illiterate,” Zhuang says. “I could never have become a teacher without the help of others. It’s my pleasure and honor to make some small contributions with my experience and knowledge.”
Not only is he a great teacher at school, Zhuang is also keen in educating his own granddaughter.
Zhuang isn’t like other grandparents in the sense that he doesn’t spoil Qiuqiu. He has emphasized education at home from the start.
Although he is strict, Zhuang is also friendly and good at drawing the best from his granddaughter Qiuqiu.
For example, when Qiuqiu was in grade one, the teacher asked her to practice calligraphy every day. As a former Chinese teacher, Zhuang says he was very strict with his granddaughter’s handwriting, so he was always by her side when she practiced. If a stroke or the structure was wrong with a character, he would ask her to rewrite it no matter how difficult.
Sometimes it was too difficult and she would cry and her father would intervene on her behalf. This is when Zhuang discovered that the “2H” pencil she was using had a harder pencil lead and was quite tiring for her age.
He went out and bought a “1H” pencil and planned practice sessions according to her ability.
With his high standards and persistence, Qiuqiu won the first prize in the district’s pen calligraphy competition.
Zhuang wanted to share his successful experience in education with others.
He has designed a parent-child game plan with the 12 parts of the series published in Picture Talk magazine in 2008. Seven of his writings about family education have also been published in books and newspapers.
He has also been writing an education blog on guangming.net since 2011. Thus far he has contributed more than 700 articles, which have been categorized into nine volumes and sent to families for free.
In addition, he has established a volunteer workshop in family education to help parents in the community.
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