At the beginning of last month, Liu Fang’s autobiographical youth inspirational novel Pomegranate Qingqing, which was conceived and written in three years, was published.
This 170,000-word novel, with the western rural education in the early 1990s as the background, depicts the ideals, work, love and friendship of a group of young teachers engaged in rural education. Among them, there are not only daily stories of Liu Fang and her students, but also Liu Fang’s experience in rural education.
"Someone asked me what novel I wrote when my eyes were out of sight, and who read it. I firmly say, write to yourself, to the discerning, to the blind, to those who have gone through youth and have dreams, to see a lost youth and to see a bright world in the eyes of the blind. " Liu Fang wrote this in the preface to Pomegranate Green. She hopes that this book can bring more teachers’ college students and future teachers touch and think, and let more people pay attention to rural education.
Not long ago, our reporter walked into Liu Fang’s new home in Dijing Jiayuan Community, Baiyun District. The sunshine from the balcony makes the clean and tidy room particularly bright. Liu Fang is wearing a long cotton dress embroidered with white flowers and a black belt with a golden metal chain. Her long hair is tied in a low ponytail behind her head, and she walks slowly from the room with a smile on her face, which is gentle and beautiful.
She warmly greeted us to sit down in Mandarin, which had not changed her accent. Although her eyes were invisible, she was very energetic. During the interview, her humorous and joking words made us laugh again and again.
★ Character file
Liu Fang, born in 1970, was born in Hubei. At the age of 5, she and her mother came to Baiyun District with her father to support the construction of the third line in Guiyang. He used to be a first-class Chinese teacher in Baiyun No.3 Middle School in Guiyang, and now he is a psychological counseling teacher in this school. Director of China Disabled Persons’ Federation Blind Literature Association, member of Guizhou Disabled Persons’ Federation.
Rooted in rural education for 21 years, he began to lose his sight gradually due to retinitis pigmentosa in 1997, but he still insisted on cultivating the three-foot platform. Won the title of the second "Moral Model of Dedicated Service in Guiyang" and "Good People Around Guiyang" in 2010.
★ Dialogue with Liu Fang
Reporter: Although you have lost your eyesight, you are so optimistic, humorous, cheerful and strong. What is the biggest pain you face?
Liu Fang: Actually, I am not optimistic myself, but I am optimistic and strong for others. I just found out that I had a great psychological impact when I was sick, and I couldn’t sleep at night. It was very painful to think about what parents, children and husbands should do if they were really blind in the future.
When I encounter specific difficulties, I will also be very painful. For example, other teachers use pens to correct papers and exercise books quickly, but I have to get close to see them clearly. I feel that such a simple thing can be so laborious; When I accidentally fell into the ditch while walking, I would feel so sad.
When my eyesight is declining and my son is growing up, I find that other pains are not pains, and the most painful thing is not to see what the child looks like. Because the most selfless love in the world is maternal love, how can you show maternal love when children can’t see it? After my son was six or seven years old, I didn’t know what he looked like. I heard that he was handsome and heavy-eyed, but I couldn’t see him.
Everyone has their own ideals, but I can’t see, and I can’t do many things I want to do. I still feel very sorry.
Reporter: You wrote Pomegranate Green to appeal to the society to pay attention to rural education and rural students. What do you think rural education needs now, and what should society and individuals do?
Liu Fang: I have been engaged in education in rural areas for 21 years, and I really feel a lot. At present, the unbalanced development of education is most prominent in rural areas, unlike the schools in the city, which are very balanced in terms of teachers, hardware and equipment.
I think rural education needs teachers first. At present, many normal college students have no firm belief in teaching in the countryside. If every normal student is unwilling to go to the countryside, how can the teachers in the countryside be balanced?
Secondly, public opinion should have more positive publicity on rural education. Nowadays, we always promote good famous schools and famous teachers, and few people pay attention to why we can’t build a good school in the countryside and lead famous teachers to the countryside. Instead, the countryside has trained a good teacher and sent it to the city, so public opinion has neglected the propaganda of rural education.
Third, rural students need to be concerned. Now, in the class where I am the deputy head teacher, 26 of the 44 children are left-behind children, and 30 of the 50 children in a class in the school are single-parent families. Who will supervise and care about their mental health after returning home? Many children go to Internet cafes and are swallowed up by the demons of many black Internet cafes in society.
The turning point of life from "white" to "black"
When she was in Guiyang Teachers College, Liu Fang was a little night blind, but she didn’t pay much attention. In 1993, at the age of 23, she was assigned to Baiyun No.3 Middle School (then known as Maijia Middle School) as a Chinese teacher and a class teacher. She was absorbed in her work and didn’t take night blindness seriously.
However, night blindness is getting heavier and heavier, and ripples begin to appear in front of your eyes during the day.
One day in August 1997, she came to the provincial doctor. "You have retinitis pigmentosa. This is a difficult medical problem in the world. There is no medicine and surgery to cure it. In the future, you will slowly lose sight and become blind. " The doctor’s conclusion, like a bolt from the blue hit Liu Fang on the head, she was stunned and her legs and feet were weak …
After returning home, Liu Fang did not tell her family about her illness. "Some pains will be magnified when they are spoken, which will make more people suffer together." She works, does housework and takes care of the children as usual, but with the aggravation of eye diseases, she will get caught on the edge of the bowl and the table when she is picking vegetables, even if she is equipped with myopia glasses.
In 1999, Liu Fang’s invisibility spread from night to day. She wanted to see the most beautiful scenery before she went completely blind, and went to the World Horticultural Exposition being held in Kunming alone. Up to now, she still remembers the beautiful scenery that made her "amazing".
In 2000, the family knew about Liu Fang’s illness. In order not to let her family worry too much, she tried to make herself stronger.
In 2006, Liu Fang got a disability certificate. But she thinks that although her eyes are disabled, she can still work and take care of herself. "I am not invisible at once, and many living habits are gradually formed." She walks freely at home now, washing clothes, cleaning and bathing dogs by herself. She is not blind at all.
Don’t give up the "three-foot podium dream"
"My primary school teacher taught me love, my junior high school teacher taught me rigorous scholarship and strict requirements, my senior high school Chinese teacher taught me to read, love books and revel in teaching, and my college literature introduction teacher made me understand that I should constantly cultivate myself." Liu Fang said that when I first joined the work, my goal was to "be a good teacher like my favorite teacher".
Therefore, she never gave up the "three-foot podium dream".
In September 2001, after reading Jin Yong’s the legendary swordsman, Liu Fang could hardly see clearly. She began to listen to books on MP3 and radio, and installed software for the blind on the computer to read books. In a year, she "read" more than 20 books.
Before, Liu Fang memorized all the key points and difficulties in the key articles of Chinese textbooks for junior high school for three years with her remaining eyesight.
She explored a set of her own teaching methods, such as composition class. Her composition comments are very rich, and some students write "Miss Liu, I look forward to reading comments" at the back of the composition. Later, it was very difficult to correct the composition, so she took the students’ compositions to the classroom and let them read them first, and then the whole class commented, revised and graded them together …
When writing on the blackboard is difficult, she takes advantage of her strong imitation ability to combine the stories and jokes she has heard with teaching and tell them to students vividly. Speaking, learning, teasing and singing in cross talk, life, Dan, purity, ugliness in Beijing opera are also skillfully used in teaching by her. There is always laughter in class, and students say, "It’s very happy to attend Teacher Liu’s class."
During her 21-year teaching career, Liu Fang has been a class teacher for 14 years, and most of her classes are "double-poor classes" and "problem classes". However, in the senior high school entrance examination, these classes often ranked first in the parallel classes of the school, especially in the 2005 senior high school entrance examination, and the top three scores were all in the classes she brought.
Transform into a "spiritual mentor"
In June, 2008, the last senior high school entrance examination for students led by Liu Fang ended. Since the beginning of the new semester, she has stopped taking classes and teaching Chinese, but has transformed into a psychological counseling teacher in the school.
"I can’t see with my eyes, and I can’t change my exercise books, compositions and test papers. The new Chinese textbooks have changed and become more numerous. If I continue to teach, I will teach a language that is lacking." Although it was painful to give up her beloved Chinese teaching, with the encouragement of school leaders and colleagues and the trust of students, Liu Fang chose to transform.
"Some people don’t need you to help them solve their problems. They just want to find a psychological spillway." To this end, Liu Fang had the idea of establishing a "growth record bag" for students. The students designed the cover of the file bag themselves and put their hearts in it. "Just put the thoughts and secrets in it and let it go."
Nowadays, in Liu Fang’s psychological counseling room, rows of "growth record bags" with different covers are neatly placed. Some students took them away after graduation, and some still stayed in the psychological counseling room. There have been hundreds of them in recent years.
"Some children came to me with psychological problems. After giving them counseling, the teacher told me that the child was much better, and I was particularly fulfilled. This is my happiest thing." Every day, many students come to Liu Fang’s psychological counseling room to chat and talk with her.
Every semester, Liu Fang will attend classes in 25 classes in the whole school at least twice, give psychological counseling to students on common problems, give some lectures irregularly, and occasionally be invited by other teachers to be a guest teacher of composition. Every week, she will go to the moral lecture hall of the rural children’s palace to tell students moral stories.
Support the blue sky of students with love
"Liu Ma, how are you recently? You should take care of yourself! " Hu Xin often calls to care about Liu Fang, and sometimes buys a lot of fruit to visit her at school.
He is a student of Liu Fang’s class of 2003, but he dropped out of school in the second day of junior high school to work. "Teacher Liu is very kind to us. After I dropped out of school, she always advised me to continue studying. Now I regret giving up my studies, but I am very grateful to Teacher Liu for her love for me." Now 27-year-old Hu Xin drives an excavator in Baiyun District, and often helps Liu Ma. Liu Fang wants to refuse, so he says, "Teacher Liu, I am your son, and we are all your sons. It is right for her to help her."
"Children will encounter troubles when they grow up, especially left-behind children, children of floating population, children from single-parent families, and students with learning difficulties. Using’ love’ can help them and give them strength and courage." As long as students are found to have difficulties, Liu Fang will help them, donate clothes and school supplies, and help them pay tuition and clothing expenses.
Yuan Fengmei unfortunately became an orphan in the third grade. Liu Fang approached her, comforted her, supported her and gave her family warmth. A few years later, she was admitted to Beijing Normal University and chose to be a teacher. Now she often comes to see "Liu Ma" as a teacher in Huaxi Tsinghua Middle School. "Last year, I had surgery and she stayed with me for one night. In the morning, she quietly put 300 yuan under my pillow and wrote’ My daughter gave money to my mother’." Liu Fang said.
Today, Liu Fang is still as popular as ever in Baiyun No.3 Middle School. Before class, the students will take the initiative to pick her up to the classroom. If she appears in class in advance, the students will scream with surprise.
Simple life and devoted writing
Every day, after getting up and eating breakfast, Liu Fang went downstairs and went to school with her colleagues who came to pick her up for work. After school in the afternoon, she was sent downstairs by her colleagues. After having a rest after dinner, she will exercise on the treadmill on the balcony for an hour, take a hot bath, sit quietly on the floating window of the bedroom and start writing novels …
This is Liu Fang’s life now, simple but full.
"I like writing. In the past, I mainly wrote prose and poetry. Later, I listened to more novels and began to write novels myself." Liu Fang said that her second autobiographical novel Ten Years of Flowers has written 50,000 words. She arranged chapters according to the flower language. The first chapter "Roses Bloom" wrote about the time of love, the second chapter "Lilies Bloom" wrote about newly married life, the third chapter "Sunflowers Bloom" wrote about the birth of children, and then there was "Jasmine Bloom" …
She said that she should write down her marriage, family and love in the ten years that she could not see from sight.
★ She in their eyes
Zhu Weiran (son of Liu Fang): In my heart, my mother is both strong and fragile. I want to be my mother’s "little crutch" all my life.
Ye Zhiya (Vice President of Baiyun No.3 Middle School): Liu Fang is an excellent teacher with a strong Chinese foundation. Although she can’t see with her eyes, she still insists on attending classes, which is amazing and admirable. She regards the school as her home, and she is also very enthusiastic about her colleagues. She can remind me of something difficult to say in a kind way, and she is a very wise person. She cares about her students very much, and her classmates like her very much, calling her "Liu Fang’s mother".
Zhou Libo (Liu Fang’s student): "Liu Fang’s mother" is a very kind and strong person. She is very kind to every student. She can find the bright spots in us. She teaches Chinese best. She moves us with her heart and influences us with love, which brings us a lot of fun and warmth. She is brave in the face of life and full of positive energy, which deeply affects us. Thanks to fate, I met such a good teacher. Besides my mother, she is the person I admire most.
Mao Yanhong (colleague of Liu Fang): Liu Fang is very thoughtful in teaching. She often gives us guidance in teaching methods and treatment of students. Her composition class is very distinctive. It’s really a pity that she can’t teach Chinese now. She has an open mind and a good attitude. She will lend a helping hand whenever her colleagues need help. She is charitable and enthusiastic about public welfare, and she is a person who takes pleasure in helping others.