“Only by keeping your original aspiration in mind can you achieve your goal. It is easy to have an original aspiration, but difficult to keep it.” When Ms. Xu Peiqi from Ming Chen Lu Zhongde Memorial Middle School in Miao Fa Temple of Yuan Xuan College interacts with students, she always gives people a feeling of care, warmth and intimacy.
Let positive energy permeate campus life
Teacher Xu shared that she has always encouraged herself to stick to her original intention of teaching and educating people. She hopes that through teaching and daily activities, positive energy of kindness and upwardness will permeate campus life, have a positive impact on students’ future development, and cultivate students into people who understand cause and effect, know good and evil, understand things, and are kind, happy, compassionate and wise.
In her 17 years of teaching experience, Ms. Xu admitted that many students usually don’t pay much attention to philosophical concepts, and she is inevitably discouraged when teaching, but she insists on the educational philosophy of practicing and practicing in parallel to help students cultivate their character and interest in learning. After Ms. Xu transferred to Chen Lu Zhongde Memorial Middle School in 2020, she planned to build a meditation room in the school, and organized a series of novel positive energy teaching courses in response to the situation of students of different grades, combined with reality, and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude.
On weekdays, students at Chen Lu Zhongde Memorial Middle School will have more experiences in related courses, including meditation, painting, and bead stringing. In addition, Teacher Xu has designed a fun course activity called “Pearl Milk Tea Zen” in a unique way, encouraging students to observe carefully and experience the ordinary little thing of “drinking milk tea” with their heart, and cultivating their concentration to extend to their daily study life. This activity has been well received by students. Many students have reported that Teacher Xu’s class not only makes them feel peaceful, but also relaxes their body and mind in their busy studies, and can also improve their concentration in learning.
When Teacher Xu first arrived at Mingchen Lv Zhongde Memorial Middle School, the epidemic was severe. As a high school class teacher, she found that a student in her class always wandered around and was in a daze during lunch time. After asking her carefully, she learned that her father lost his job due to the epidemic, which made her often unable to make ends meet. For this reason, Teacher Xu took the initiative to go shopping with her in the supermarket and told her to “eat more and concentrate on class.” Teacher Xu has always provided students with help within her ability in this gentle way. She said that the amount was not much, and seeing the student’s shy expression with a little joy and relief, “everything is worth it.”
“Thank you, Ms. Xu, for appearing when I was in Form 4. I am grateful for this fate because she has changed me a lot.” Luo Jingtong, a Form 6 student who just finished her DSE exam, said that she was once a rebellious student and admitted that she was always unwilling to admit her mistakes because she wanted to “save face”. She described her junior high school life as “enduring it”, thinking that no teacher understood her and even wanted to stop going to school after graduating from Form 3.
Use heartfelt communication to influence rebellious girls
In the eyes of Teacher Xu, Luo Jingtong is a quiet, well-behaved and kind classmate. Teacher Xu recalled that Luo Jingtong had always refused the gifts she prepared for her students and was unwilling to communicate with her, as if she was immersed in her own world. Luo Jingtong’s alienation, silence and distrust did not make Teacher Xu give up the idea of communicating with her. Instead, she patiently persuaded her and used a “soft” education method. She chatted with her slowly after class, deeply understood her inner thoughts, and then made some suggestions. Teacher Xu emphasized: “I think we should give her more time and get to know her better, so that she knows that the teacher is willing to care about her and listen to her voice.”
Luo Jingtong said that no matter how busy she was with teaching, Teacher Xu always took the time to listen to her troubles patiently, guided her to develop a correct sense of right and wrong, and made her understand the principle of correcting mistakes. Gradually, Luo Jingtong began to open her heart, focus on the classroom, enjoy campus life, and get along well with teachers and classmates in the school. Now, she and Teacher Xu have become friends who share their thoughts with each other. “In my mind, Teacher Xu is a unique teacher.”
Teacher Xu believes that teaching is like sowing a seed in the field, fertilizing and watering it, and letting it take root and sprout. In her eyes, there are thousands of ways to teach students, but “love” is the only way. Integrating knowledge and action, Teacher Xu integrates her religious beliefs into her daily teaching work, so that students can understand the principle of “do no evil, do all good”, and become a kind, compassionate, upright and peaceful person.
Ta Kung Pao reporter Lu Jiuru