Chapter 90 Examination
Lin Xuezhou attached great importance to this practical test.
The next morning, he changed into a dark blue Zhongshan suit, combed his hair meticulously, and carried the lesson plan he had copied in neat regular script overnight under his arm. He arrived at the classroom early.
Shu Ran sat down in a seat at the back of the classroom as promised, ready to observe carefully.
The school bell rang, and Lin Xuezhou walked steadily to the podium. He first scanned the classroom, frowned at a few children whose posture was not upright, and then cleared his throat to begin: "Classmates, today we will begin to learn a beautiful ancient poem. Poetry is a treasure of our Chinese culture. Learning poetry can cultivate our sentiments and improve our cultural literacy."
Most of the children in the audience looked blank. Terms like "cultivating character" and "cultural literacy" were too abstract for them. Only a few older children with a slightly better foundation tried to sit up straight and attempt to understand.
Lin Xuezhou turned around and wrote the poem title and author on the blackboard: "Jiangnan" (South of the Yangtze River), a Han Dynasty folk song.
“Now, read the topic and author’s name after me,” Lin Xuezhou demonstrated.
The children repeated after them, their voices scattered and disjointed.
Lin Xuezhou frowned again, emphasizing, "The voices must be loud and clear, and in unison! One more time! 'Jiangnan'—Han Dynasty Folk Song—"
This time, the children put in all their effort and shouted it out. Lin Xuezhou seemed somewhat satisfied and began to explain.
"Jiangnan is a beautiful place in the south of our country. There are rivers crisscrossing the area, lakes dotting the landscape, and a warm and humid climate, where many plants that cannot be found in the north grow."
He tried his best to explain in what he considered simple language, but these words were completely unfamiliar to the children who had only ever been to the regimental headquarters and whose world consisted only of the Gobi Desert, salt flats, and scattered grasslands.
"The poem we're going to learn today describes the beautiful scenery of lotus picking in Jiangnan. 'Lotus can be picked in Jiangnan, how lush and green the lotus leaves are...'"
He drew a river on the blackboard and then drew some oval leaves around it. "The lotus is an aquatic plant with large leaves that float on the water. In summer, it blooms with pink or white flowers called lotus flowers, which are very beautiful. After the flowers wither, the fruit that grows is the lotus seed, which can be eaten."
The more detailed his description, the deeper the confusion on the children's faces.
Ayman whispered to her older brother Adil beside her, "What is a lotus? Does it look like a camel thorn?"
Adil frowned, trying hard to imagine, but finally shook his head; he had never seen it either.
Tiger stared at the circles and leaves on the blackboard and muttered, "Is this a cracked egg? The leaves look like burnt pancakes from my mom's cooking..."
Several children couldn't help but secretly laugh.
Lin Xuezhou noticed the commotion below, his face darkened, and he tapped the blackboard with chalk: "Quiet! Listen carefully! Now we will study the meaning of the poems line by line."
"Lotus can be picked in Jiangnan," meaning that lotus pods can be harvested in Jiangnan. "How lush and green the lotus leaves are!"
He spoke until his throat was dry, trying to paint a picture of a Jiangnan water town with words. However, no matter how he described the lotus leaves, how he compared them to jade plates, or how he depicted the lively fish playing among the lotus leaves, he couldn't make the children imagine it. The largest bodies of water they had ever seen were flooded dams, and the greenest plants they had ever seen were the weeds and tenacious red willows along the ridges of fields. Fish? They were rare sights.
The classroom atmosphere gradually became dull. The children's eyes began to wander, Shuanzhu secretly yawned, Xiaoya played with her fingers, and even the most attentive Shitou had a look of confusion in his eyes.
Adil completely gave up trying to understand. He lowered his head and began to draw the sheep and sheepdogs he knew so well in the corner of the scrap paper with a pencil.
Lin Xuezhou's forehead was beaded with sweat. He had anticipated that the children's foundation would be weak, but he hadn't imagined it would be this bad. His meticulously prepared lesson plans and his proud literary analysis had all vanished in that instant.
He finally couldn't hold back any longer and pointed at Shi Tou, who was sitting in the front row and looked the most serious: "Shi Tou, tell me, what kind of image comes to mind when you think of the poem 'Lotus leaves are so lush and green'?"
Shi Tou stood up awkwardly, trying hard to recall Teacher Lin's description, and stammered, "It was...it was a lot of...big...green...leaves...in the water..."
"Anything else?" Lin Xuezhou pressed, a hint of hope in her voice.
After hesitating for a long time, Shi Tou finally blurted out, "...Can...can it be used to feed the sheep?"
The classroom erupted in laughter. Even Shu Ran in the back row couldn't help but raise her hand to her forehead and sigh.
Lin Xuezhou's face instantly turned ashen. He felt that his profession and ideals had been mocked and trampled upon like never before.
He slammed his lesson plan on the podium, the sound instantly silencing the classroom and leaving the children speechless with fear.
"Nonsense!" Lin Xuezhou's voice was filled with suppressed anger. "This is poetry! It's art! You...you are simply..."
He looked at the little faces below, all staring at him, and ultimately couldn't bring himself to say the words of reproach, but disappointment and frustration overwhelmed him.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, but his subsequent explanation lacked the initial passion and became dry and monotonous. The class ended hastily in an awkward atmosphere.
When the bell rang, Lin Xuezhou immediately packed up her things and left the classroom without saying a word, without even glancing at Shu Ran.
The children dared not make a sound, but exchanged glances and whispered among themselves about the lesson they had just learned that they couldn't understand and the new teacher who had lost his temper.
Shu Ran remained seated, not leaving immediately. She looked at the poem "Jiangnan" on the blackboard, and at the confusion and fear on the children's faces, her heart heavy.
She knew that Lin Xuezhou's failure in this "standard lesson" was not due to his lack of personal ability, but rather because his educational philosophy was seriously out of touch with the realities of this land.
He brought "refined and elegant music," but the children here haven't even fully mastered "common music."
The results of this practical test are already quite obvious.
Shu Ran stood up, walked to the blackboard, picked up a piece of lime, and wrote the two big characters "useful" on the page of "Jiangnan".
She turned to the children who were gradually gathering around her and said, “Classmates, we learn knowledge to make ourselves better and to make our lives better. Whether it’s learning about lotus leaves or the camel thorn in our Gobi Desert, as long as it helps us understand the world and can be used in our lives, it is useful knowledge. The poem that Teacher Lin taught today is very beautiful, but it may be a little far removed from our current lives. That’s okay. Let’s learn what we can grasp right now. When we travel further and see more in the future, we will naturally be able to understand the lotus leaves of Jiangnan and appreciate more and more beautiful scenery.”
The children nodded as if they understood, but Shu Ran didn't go to Lin Xuezhou immediately. She knew that Lin Xuezhou needed time to process his defeat, and if she went to him, he might see it as a show of triumph.
As usual, she led the children in cleaning the classroom and tidying up the teaching aids that Lin Xuezhou considered inferior.
In the afternoon, Shu Ran continued her classes as usual. She didn't deliberately mention Lin Xuezhou's teaching, but instead followed the original plan to teach the children about the growth, germination, and care of crops. She brought some wheat grains and alfalfa seeds for the children to look at and touch, and drew simple pictures on the blackboard to explain how seeds sprout from the soil.
“Just like when we learn knowledge,” Shu Ran pointed to a few grains of wheat and said to the children, “Today we learn a word, tomorrow we learn a number, just like a seed sprouting in our hearts, slowly growing, and one day it will become useful food.”
The children's eyes were filled with wonder and understanding. They could touch it and connect it to the crops in the field, and this knowledge took root in the ground.
The classroom atmosphere returned to its usual liveliness. After class, Shu Ran was cleaning the chalk dust off the podium when a voice rang out at the door.
"Comrade Shu Ran."
Shu Ran looked up and saw Lin Xuezhou standing at the door. His face was still somewhat unpleasant, but the previous anger had faded, replaced by a complex expression.
He changed out of his Zhongshan suit and into a worn-out work uniform, seemingly trying to blend into the environment.
"Teacher Lin," Shu Ran put down the blackboard eraser, "Is there something you need?"
Lin Xuezhou walked into the classroom, his gaze falling on the simple line drawings on the blackboard that had not yet been erased and the seeds on the teacher's desk.
He was silent for a few seconds before speaking, his voice somewhat hoarse: "This morning's class... was something I didn't consider carefully."
Shu Ran was somewhat surprised that he could admit this. She didn't reply, waiting for him to continue.
“I…I may not really understand the actual situation of the children here.” Lin Xuezhou pushed up his glasses, a habitual action of his. “But I still believe that basic education needs to be systematic and cannot remain at the level of recognizing work points and livestock forever. This…this is ultimately not a long-term solution.”
His tone was full of confusion. His established educational philosophy had been challenged, and he could only try to find a balance between ideals and reality, or rather, a reason that could convince himself.
Shu Ran watched the children playing, and Adil was gesturing something to Bayan and Saidar.
“Teacher Lin,” Shu Ran said without turning around, “I never intended to stay stuck on recognizing work points and livestock forever. I just believe that education is like building a house. Here, we need to lay the foundation that will allow the house to stand. This foundation is the trust that children and their families have in their teachers. Only when they know that learning is closely related to their lives, that it is useful, and that it can bring about positive changes, can we build a systematic culture on top of that.”
She turned to look at Lin Xuezhou: "You say this isn't a long-term solution. Then what is a long-term solution? Is it to let a set of textbooks and standards that are out of their understanding extinguish their newly ignited interest in learning?"
Lin Xuezhou opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but found herself at a loss for words. The bewildered and fearful faces of the children in class that morning flashed before her eyes again.
"I...I need more time to observe and think it over," he finally said, his tone no longer so firm. He glanced at Shu Ran, his eyes filled with complex emotions, and finally turned and left.
Shu Ran knew that this debate was far from over. Lin Xuezhou's "observation" and "reflection" meant that he would not easily give up his ideas. He was only temporarily frustrated, and once he found a way that he believed was suitable, he would definitely try to promote his formalization again.
The attitude of the company leaders was also ambiguous. Secretary Liu's conciliatory approach, Company Commander Ma's pragmatism, and Zhao Weidong's welcome checks and balances... all of this meant that the future of Qiming Primary School would not be easier because of the addition of a professionally trained teacher. On the contrary, the clash of ideologies might add more variables.
That evening, Shu Ran was preparing her lessons under the kerosene lamp. Xu Junjun came in with a first-aid kit to change the medicine on her hand—the long hours of making teaching aids had caused new injuries to her fingers.
"I heard that Teacher Lin got the short end of the stick today?" Xu Junjun asked in a low voice while applying ointment to her, with a hint of schadenfreude.
"It's not a case of being thwarted," Shu Ran shook her head. "It's just that his methods didn't work here."
"I think he's just a bookworm! He thinks he's something special just because he's read a few foreign books, and he looks down on our old-fashioned methods." Xu Junjun snorted. "Ranran, you can't let him lead you by the nose! The children only trust you!"
“The issue isn’t about who’s leading whom by the nose,” Shu Ran said calmly, looking at Xu Junjun. “It’s about what methods are truly beneficial for the children. Teacher Lin has his reasons, but he needs time to understand what my reasons are.”
As she spoke, a smile appeared on her lips: "However, it won't be so easy for him to replace my 'traditional methods' with his 'formal' ones. After all, here, only the cat that catches mice is a good cat."
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