As mentioned above, the restoration of the College Entrance Examination(CEE) took place at the early beginning in 1978, and when we got to the Zhengji Middle School(ZMS) in September 1980, three examinations had been held. Tongshan county had two provincial-level key middle schools, namely Houji Middle School(HMS) in the east and ZMS in the northwest because this county was the largest one in Xuzhou District. The other 7 counties had only one key each. The advisers of the Education Bureau held the view that the two key middle schools in one county could compete with each other and the officials of the bureau could sit in their office, profiting from their strife and maintaining the top position in the whole Xuzhou District. In 1980, the result of the CEE of Houji preponderated over Zhengji. Historically, Zhengji used to be the first one and Houji the second. Now the second exceeded the first, which made us feel very big pressure. When we just got to Zhengji, some leaders and teachers said that Houji was very aggressive and emitted the boast that they wanted to throw Zhengji far away behind them, making Zhengji bow the head to profess allegiance. The purpose of Zhengji selecting “soldiers and generals” from the whole county was to stand up again and preserve No. One position. In that year Senior Grade Two was the graduating one and had only four classes, three being science classes and one arts class. In addition, three revision classes were enrolled, two being science and one arts. We pair both undertook the English lessons of the classes which would take the CEE in the summer of 1981. I took the English lessons of three graduating classes and Meilan Zhang the ones of the revision arts class, plus that of one class of senior grade one.
The two of the three graduating science classes were fast classes and the third one slow class. In fact, the two were good classes where a lot of clever boys and girls were gathered while the third class was poor one and the teachers who knew it was not willing to undertake its lessons, not alone the class teacher. I was such a person as not to inquire, not to take care and not to get touch with the leader. As a result, the scald sweet potato was handed to me. I held the position of the class teacher and it indeed took me a lot of time to administrate. However, my main energy was spent in teaching English. Every day I used my head, preparing my lesson and compiling all kinds of exercises for the students to practice so that they could grasp words, phrases and grammar. My difference from most other teachers was that I liked to use my own head to think of exercises in order to add to the pertinence. A lot of exercises for the students to consolidate what they had learned were designed by me myself. I could compile a lot of exercises according to what was taught in the process and the actual accepting ability of the students. Just as a Chinese medicine doctor wrote a prescription, I could act appropriately to the situation, trying my best to achieve the ideal effects. Most of the teachers got used to buying a lot of reference materials and extracting some exercises from them. Sometimes, they used little of their head, copying the exercises from them. All of us had the team spirit and shared all the exercises once they were printed. This was, what we called, exercises were designed by each and shared by all, avoiding operating independently. We could hear the two typewriters being typed in the office without pause. Early in 1978, I was familiar with the keys of the typewriter and typed it with ten fingers blindly, the speed being the quickest. Some young teachers typed it with only two index fingers, which looked ugly, but however they finished typing a lot of exercises. The school was afraid of the disaster of printed too many materials because every subject teacher wanted to use the students’ time by asking them to do their exercises, affecting the overall situation. Therefore, the number of the printing materials and the time of coaching were controlled. We English teachers emphasized our specialty and try to print some more exercises. What was disadvantageous for English teachers was that only 50% of the English test result was counted into the total scores. It would last three years before 100% of English result could enter the total scores as other subjects.
In order to improve the teaching effects in the class I read some articles written by famous educators, among which the teaching thought by physicist Jici Yan affected me quite deeply. He said, “As a teacher, the first element you should own to success is your courage. Once you are on the rostrum, you’re not allowed to be bound and hesitant. If you repeat what the book says, or always write on the blackboard, the students are bound to nod off. You should behavior as an actor. Once on the stage you should “regard yourself as the No.1 authority in the world”, with “your nose in the air” and explain what the book says in your own words, bringing all positive factors into play, vivid and dramatic. As a result, you act as if you’re dancing for joy and your face is lighting up, so that the students were attracted by your wink and expression. In order to turn such effects into reality, the know-how is that you should prepare your lessons ahead of time, and gain such a thorough understanding what you’ll lecture as you can say it from its top to its bottom and from its bottom to its top as well. The lesson which could take you one year could be taught in a month because you can explain it in detail and can also shorten it. According to what Master Yan said, I got used to prepare my lesson at least one week ahead of time. As time went on, it’s unnecessary for me to write the teaching plan in detail. What’s the most important is that I should arrange the content I’ll teach in an appropriate order. Before I entered the classroom I would write the outline down to make the lesson systematic, the subject definite, the content continuous and the logic strict.
After one year of industrious work and full cooperation among teachers, there was jubilation in the ZMS when the result of the CEE was made public. The fact was that Houji had not thrown us far away behind them but we had thrown HMS far away behind us instead. Our number of students whose total score was above the senior college line was more than 60, while that of HMS was only twenty plus. Our average English score was much higher than theirs, creating the condition of appearing some students whose total scores were among the top students in Xuzhou District. We have a number of high-score students and they were instructed to be distributed to all the famous colleges and universities of the whole country when they were filling their wishing tables. The girl student in graduating class two, Shuhong Zhang, the top one of our school, was also the foremost student in the eight counties of Xuzhou District, who was enrolled by the Department of Chemistry of Beijing University. She was also a graduate student of BJU and an assistant lecturer as well. Later she passed TOEFL and GRE and entered Yale University of the United States and won the PhD degree. After the graduation she worked in a factory making essence in the state of Connecticut. The graduating students of ZMS in 1981 were distributed all over the world, playing a leading role in their organizations.
Working in the key middle school, I got excited when the CEE gained such an achievement. Seeing so many students entering famous colleges and universities, we naturally thought of our own kids. At that time, our two sons were very young. Lili began the fourth year in the primary school and Liangliang was in Nantong, living with grandparents. We had the intention to work in the ZMS for years, letting our kids receive good education and enter an ideal college or university.
The achievements of the ZMS were relatively stable, but it was very difficult for it to reach the first rank every year. The scores were fluctuating very often and you could not identify why. In the final analysis, all schools, teachers and students were working hard, making the competition very fierce. Nobody could become a constant victorious commander. In 1982, senior classes were transferred from two years into three years, so there were no graduating classes. In 1983, I worked as a class teacher and more than ten students reached the score line of undergraduate enrollment. Nobody reached high score. In the next year I undertook English lessons of two arts classes and coached some students who were willing to major in English in the college or university. In 1984, one of the students coached by me entered Beijing Foreign Studies University, one Xi’an Air Forces Academy, two Suzhou University, one Xuzhou Normal University. In 1985, Meilan Zhang sent two students into Beijing Foreign Studies University, one into Guangzhou Foreign Studies University and one into Xuzhou Normal University. The scores of CEE of the ZMS were average in the Xuzhou District, although still holding the first place in the Tongshan County. No miracle appeared until 1987, when almost 30 students of a revision class outside the school got to the score line of undergraduate enrollment. The total number of the students entering colleges or universities was among the best of Xuzhou city. The results of the CEE of the following 1988 and 1999 were not prominent. Some of us tried comparing such a phenomenon to apple harvest. It was said that apple harvest appeared one year rich and another poor. If it was a poor year, the fruit farmer could not get in many fruits even if they tried their best. Meilan Zhang worked in the ZMS for 9 years and I just a decade. We became more and more timid when talking about the English teaching in senior grades, never daring to boast. You tried your best but the result was not ideal. You didn’t lay heavy stress on it or use your head wildly, and the score of the students might be quite ideal. It was kind of taste of “A watched flower never blooming, but an untended willow growing.” Some young teachers became proud when the students he or she taught gain high scores in one CEE. I believed they were too young. Nobody could turn into a shoo-in. A lot of factors functioned in the CEE, such as the atmosphere of the school, the basic knowledge of the students, the level of the leading students, the work of class teachers, and the cooperation between teachers of relative subjects. On the long-term view, I shifted my main efforts and gave up the ambition to win the first place in teaching English. I continued to read the classical English works and other popular books imported from abroad and began to write some compositions to contribute to English papers and magazines, taking a road distinguished from other teachers. Technically, research and teaching were not contradictory and they could promote each other, but it was not an easy job to unify them successfully, which I would write something in detail later.
Jan. 19 2009, in Melbourne
Completing and proofreading on Feb. 13 in Chicago
Uploading on Aug. 4, 2023 in Xuzhou
