Hello Kitty! A rural teacher鈥檚 calling
Print Edition
Huang Shengen tied a small blackboard to his motorcycle, together with all his teaching materials, slung an alarm clock with a Hello Kitty bowknot on it around his neck, and turned the ignition.
鈥淭he villagers thought I had opened a new grocery store,鈥 the 53-year-old veteran rural teacher said.
Huang has worked as an elementary school teacher for 35 years in Yichun City, east China鈥檚 Jiangxi Province.
People could only find Huang at home on weekends, since he always left for work every Monday and returned after school on Fridays, riding more than 15,000 kilometers over 18 months on winding mountain roads.
As the only teacher in Shaniping Primary School, which has not reopened yet due to the coronavirus outbreak, Huang headed to 7-year-old Zeng Yufen鈥檚 place. The first-grader is the only student in the school who lives with her grandmother in a mountain village.
The local education authorities have required all primary school students to have online courses at home. However, Huang found that the network signal was poor at Zeng鈥檚 residence when he delivered textbooks to the girl at the end of February.
He tried to help with the network debugging but found it was difficult to catch a stable signal.
鈥淚 tried again and again, but it didn鈥檛 work. Zeng asked me what she should do if she couldn鈥檛 attend classes online,鈥 Huang recalled.
In order not to let her down, Huang came up with the idea of a mobile classroom and showed up at Zeng鈥檚 home the next day with a blackboard tied to his motorcycle, a ruler and a chalk box in the trunk.
Every morning since then, Huang rode some 15km up the mountain road to Zeng鈥檚 home. Class started with the roaring of an approaching motorcycle when the girl rushed out to her teacher.
Huang鈥檚 motorcycle trunk has become a 鈥渢reasure case,鈥 with school objects, boiled eggs, snacks, toys and medical supplies such as surgical masks.
And the Hello Kitty-style alarm clock was used as a school bell.
鈥淓ven if there is only one teacher and one student in the class, a 鈥榮ense of ritual鈥 is still needed,鈥 Huang said. The teacher and the student would play homemade 鈥渂owling鈥 together in the front yard after class, throwing a softball at 10 pins made of plastic bottles. It was one of the leisure activities Huang prepared for his student.
Huang also moved his art class to the field. The teacher and the student would set up an art board, took out a paintbrush and drew the colorful landscape of the mountain village.
Huang lives alone in the countryside. Only two years before retirement, Huang cannot leave his only student.
鈥淚鈥檓 a rural teacher, and my job is to teach her so that she might someday leave the mountains and live a better life,鈥 Huang said.
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