To improve the school’s admission rate and prevent teachers from wasting their energy on non-academic and disruptive students, the administration at my school set the seating arrangements according to the grades achieved among junior high school’s second and third-year levels.
Approximately nine rows were set out in each classroom, and for students like my friends and I, who sat in the last three rows, we were abandoned by the school. They only stipulated that we would not disturb the other students sitting before us. The teachers didn’t care to check on the students sitting in the last three rows, so we slept in class, skipped class, and didn’t bother handing in our homework.
In this environment, I started my third year of junior high school. At that time, in class, I sat in the second last row. I was seen as an out-and-out gangster who hung around bad friends who didn’t study. I fought, skipped classes, dyed my hair in various colors, and bangs hung past my eyebrows. After study class, I would hang out with my girlfriend in the evenings. No one cared about me, and I just let myself go. Even my parents had given up on me.
I didn’t know why, but one day, the class teacher started to pay special attention to me. She no longer allowed me to sleep in class, skip class, or read novels. Some people even suspected my family had given the teacher a “red envelope.” Of course, what she did to me was incredibly “ridiculous” in the eyes of all the other teachers. Other than her, no other teacher cared about me. If I skipped a class with my girlfriend, she came out and caught me.
When I skipped a class to smoke in the restroom, she occasionally waited outside the door to catch me. While others were doing their homework in the evening study class, I had to go to her office for a “heart-to-heart talk.” Due to my stubborn and constant wrongdoings, she was perceived by students and other teachers alike as wasting time trying to help such a hopeless gangster like me.
Finally, one day, her persistence turned me around. I took myself to the hairdresser’s, dyed my reddish-brown hair black, and cut my super-long hair short. On weekends, I stopped drinking with my friends. I had not studied for years but became a legend in the class because I started studying like crazy. Therefore, the students in the back three rows regarded me as a monster, and those in the front rows treated me as a joke. Nevertheless, who would have thought I would already be sitting in the second front row of the class almost three months before the high school entrance examination?
However, my long-term bad habits were hard to change as I still experienced moments of anger and threw punches. There were also times when I stood up to confront a subject teacher irritably in class. I had always been in love, but my girlfriend changed from someone who smoked and drank to a quiet girl who loved studying. My parents went to the school with $500 in cash to thank the teacher.
What I didn’t expect was that she refused my family’s gift at a time when it was common for teachers to accept them. She left an indelible mark on me. Ultimately, I passed the high school entrance examination with complete mathematics, physics, and chemistry marks. I was admitted to the “First Senior High School,” a prestigious honor in our small county. Later, I went to college, graduated, and got a job. Now, as I look back to those who were my so-called friends, some took drugs, messed around, and others were jailed. I realized a good teacher can change a student’s life.
At the time, I didn’t realize what an impact her efforts to save a student and the image of her virtuous conduct of not accepting gifts of red envelopes had on my once naive self. After my transformation, I got along with my teacher and became friends. Whenever I returned to my hometown, I invited her for a drink. I also changed how I addressed her from Teacher Zhang to Auntie Zhang.
Once, I asked her: “Why did you go to so much trouble to take care of me back then?” She said: “There are many good and bad students, but not all are good. Not everyone bought food and drink for Yizhihua.” She saw me buying food for Yizhihua, so she decided to save me.
Yizhihua was a poor sole in our area. She was dressed in rags and had mental problems. She didn’t know how to beg and relied on dumpsters for food. Many times when I saw her rummaging through the trash, I couldn’t bear it, so I went to the nearby supermarket to buy her bread and water. It was considered silly to purchase food for a mentally ill homeless person. If my classmates found out, they would probably say: “Look at that idiot, buying food for her!” Fearlessly being humiliated, I secretly gave her something to eat.
In an era when all teachers concentrated on cultivating students with good grades, Aunt Zhang used her time and energy trying to save me. Also, when all teachers accepted the red envelopes, Aunt Zhang’s refusal to accept them was probably the most foolish thing in everyone’s eyes. I was most fortunate to have a teacher when I was still young and developing my views of the world, who changed me and profoundly impacted my future values and life.
Auntie Zhang, in hindsight, I have realized what you have always tried to teach me: “Do good deeds and don’t worry about the results.” Isn’t that right?
Translated by Cecilia and edited by Maria
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