In the late 1980s, after graduating from normal school, I was assigned to teach in hilly areas more than 100 miles away from the county seat. I was 22 years old that year. The work unit is Tashang Town Junior High School, which is located on the sunny slope of a big ridge. At the entrance of the hospital is a north-south road, with two rows of tile houses on both sides, student classrooms in the east and teachers' dormitories and offices in the west. At that time, the conditions of the school were still relatively poor. Although electricity is on, it is often cut off, and candles or kerosene lamps are needed for lighting at night. Most of the houses are buildings in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which are very simple. When it rains, the roof still leaks. I remember that it rained one summer night, and my office and dormitory leaked a lot of rain. I had no choice but to move my bedclothes to the classroom with my roommate's teacher and sleep on the students' desks all night.
Although the office and living conditions are poor, our mental state is good and optimistic. We never complain about others and devote ourselves to teaching. There are more than twenty teachers in the school, most of whom are far from home. They usually live in school and go home only on Sundays. After dinner, sometimes I prepare lessons and read books, sometimes I take a walk on the nearby hillside, and there is no entertainment. After dinner, I visited students in various villages, and I was deeply impressed. Many of them are still fresh in my memory.
There are many kinds of home visits. A general home visit is when several teachers go to a village together after dinner. These teachers are not in the same grade. When you go to a village, you can basically visit the junior high school students in the village, because the population of the local village is not too large. This kind of home visit is to tell parents about students' study, discipline and work at school, and also to ask students about their situation at home, including whether they often help their parents with farm work and whether they can read books in their spare time. Through home visits, we can also learn about the production and living conditions of local people and the economic situation of students' families.
At that time, home visits were not mandatory by the system, nor were they deliberately arranged by the leaders. It is the teacher's voluntary behavior. This is not only a habit, but also a consciousness. Walking on the rugged mountain road, blowing bright moonlight, breathing the smell of crops and weeds in Yuan Ye, listening to the leisurely cries of grazing cattle and sheep, and watching the bright lights of farmers, we feel that this is also a kind of happiness in life.
Parents and students are very welcome to visit our home. Most of the local farmhouses are simple and tidy, and the villagers are very enthusiastic and practical. They regard the teacher as a very learned person, and the arrival of the children's teacher seems to brighten their home and make us nervous. When we entered the room, the students moved chairs and stools, the parents poured water to make tea, the students' fathers chatted with us, and the students' mothers made a fire in the kitchen and fried some peanuts for us to eat. Eating crispy peanuts, chatting with parents, and sometimes helping students solve some homework problems. At this time, the teachers' mood is like a mountain flower blooming in the spring breeze, just like nourishing a lush green stream. In the harmonious and comfortable conversation among teachers, parents and students, I hope my life was born.
There are also home visits under special circumstances. One winter, I served as the head teacher of grade two. One day, a female student came to ask for leave, saying that her father was injured digging stones and lived in a township health center. A few days later, a student in the same village as the female student told me that her father died and her mother was from the south. She left a few years ago and disappeared. It is already very difficult to have only elderly grandparents and a five-or six-year-old little brother at home. It's even worse now. That girl student may not come to school. After listening to this, I feel depressed. That female student knows how to work hard in her studies, and she has good grades and is very sensible. It would be a pity if she really dropped out of school. I asked several teachers who taught our class to discuss a home visit to her. We chipped in forty or fifty yuan to help her family make a transition. At that time, our wages were very low. 1988 when I first started working, it was more than forty yuan a month.
After dinner, three of our teachers went to the students' home. That day, cloudy, cold northwest wind, sporadic snowflakes. When it was completely dark, we came to her house. Hedge walls, adobe houses, mud stoves that pass through the kang, born in the house, the wind blows the window paper. When the schoolgirl saw us, she first smiled and then shed tears. With our persuasion and encouragement, she and her family promised to stick to school.
From her home, there was a thick layer of snow on the ground, and the snow on the ground was shining under the mapping of lights. The female students sent us a long way back. When she graduated from junior high school, the female student did well in the middle school entrance examination. Her grandmother asked us to help her volunteer and finally chose a normal college in the city. At that time, attending normal colleges was free. Now, she teaches in a primary school in the mountainous area of our county, and we are in constant contact.
When teaching in mountainous areas, parents always help us enthusiastically when encountering difficulties. One summer vacation, one of my relatives taught in nearby Yanchuan Township. During the holiday, the school will make up lessons for the students in Grade Three. My relative has something to do at home, so let me take his place in class for a month. The school is not big, and the teachers who have classes on holiday are all nearby. They all come home from school, and the chef who usually cooks doesn't want to cook for me alone. My home is far away from there, so eating becomes a problem. At first, I could only eat some steamed bread and cakes brought by my family, which solved the hunger problem.
One afternoon two days later, two parents of students found me. They heard the children say that I came to class from far away and the food was not good. They specially invited me to stay at their home for a few days. I felt embarrassed at first and didn't want to disturb others. But parents are really sincere, but they can't refuse. They have been there several times. Although people were not rich at that time, my parents provided me with delicious meals. What impressed me most was the local handmade noodles. Noodles are rolled by women on the panel with a rolling pin, which is very laborious. The cooked noodles are vigorous, generous and moist, as well as cauldron dishes such as green beans, homemade bacon, tofu and vermicelli. They are really delicious and have a delicate aftertaste. Students' parents' deep affection for teachers made me feel a long and mellow touch.
I have taught there for more than ten years and traveled to every village there. Which student has a tall Toona sinensis tree at home, and which family has a heavy stone mill in front of it; Which river is easy to rise after heavy rain, and which mountain road is difficult to walk after snow; I am familiar with where there are bamboo mountains and peach blossoms, and where there are clear springs and waters.
I have been away from there for nearly twenty years, and then I have been to that school twice. When I stop on the rolling hillside, I always think of my hard and happy teaching career. I can't forget the diligence and tenacity of the students there, nor can I forget the simplicity and enthusiasm of my parents. When visiting relatives at night, the lights in the hedge often appear in my memory, so bright and warm.
(Author: Vocational Education Center of Lingshou County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province)