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墨書 Inktalez
Entering the new school, the first ones I became familiar with were not the classmates around me, but rather a group of young teachers. Some of them were our Subject Teachers, while others were simply young individuals who lived on campus every day. As a student following my father, I gradually became close to them and became one of their "little friends."
These teachers, full of vitality due to their youth, were in the almost "blank slate" environment of Garden Middle School. My father, as the principal, had educational philosophies that somewhat exceeded the prevailing trends of the time. He encouraged young teachers to explore teaching methods and improve their personal qualities. Their youth and energy thus became even more pronounced, attracting us students who had just entered junior high school.
Although I spent only two short years at Garden Middle School, under their intentional and unintentional guidance, I laid the foundation for my life. Looking back now, several young teachers left a deep first impression on me:
The first teacher I encountered was our class advisor, Teacher Li Yunzhao. Strictly speaking, he wasn't very young; he was born in the late 1950s. However, as our class advisor and someone we interacted with the most, his educational philosophy leaned more toward traditional "strict teacher" types. Yet he effectively grasped students' psychological characteristics and taught according to their needs, achieving remarkable teaching results that ranked among the best in the entire school and even the district.
He taught us mathematics, and I clearly remember being able to slowly recite or write out everything we learned in a semester under his guidance—every theorem and definition without missing a single one. I understood the context and knew when to apply them. If my mathematics education could have continued like this, perhaps my life's path would have been entirely different. Unfortunately, I only studied under him for a short time during the Second Day of the Lunar New Year and Third Day of the New Year; my high school years became somewhat superficial.
Teacher Li's teaching abilities were recognized by everyone, yet he remained a private teacher. I heard that he had failed multiple attempts to transition to a public position. While we felt sorry for him, we also harbored some dissatisfaction with this system. Fortunately, after I started working, he finally entered Hunan Education College through special recruitment for further studies and soon transitioned to become a deputy township head in rural leadership roles.
The Chinese language teacher Liu Dazheng was the first teacher who led me into the true world of language. Coming from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, he likely had a solid foundation in classical literature due to this background. His relatively strict training at Vocational School also provided him with clear methods for educating students. When I first entered junior high school, my best subjects were Chinese language and mathematics; thus he often gave me extra guidance, encouraging me to read classic works like the Classic of Ancient Literature and advising me on using quotes, idioms, and rhetorical techniques in my writing.
Teacher Liu was genuinely a young teacher; at that time, he was not yet twenty years old. Due to his youthfulness, he would blush when speaking in public settings, leading some to jokingly compare him to a girl. Although his home was just about a kilometer away on Garden Street, he often chose to stay at school instead of going home, seemingly preferring to spend time with us students and other young teachers rather than returning home.
Perhaps he was reluctant to face a home with "two mothers" (his father was an old Chinese medicine doctor who married two wives before New China was established); perhaps he genuinely wanted to spend more time interacting with students and teachers while delving into teaching.
Interestingly, Teacher Liu's sister married Teacher Li Yunzhao; she married him as a doctor supported by state resources while he was a private teacher from rural origins—breaking social barriers at that time.
For decades afterward, Teacher Liu remained dedicated to teaching; later on, he became a key Chinese language teacher at Dongkou County's top high school. It can be comforting for him that although my Chinese language grades were mediocre during school and my essays fluctuated without much merit for him to be proud of, after entering work I engaged primarily in writing tasks and even managed to publish several books.
As for English class, although I completed one year at Stove Middle School as an introduction to the subject, my grades barely reached passing levels. In this situation, English teacher Yang Yanmei's efforts stood out even more. At that time she had a child around two years old; her husband worked far away at the Changling Oil Refinery in Yueyang. She lived in a small room next to our classroom where it was convenient for me to consult her during breaks.
However, Ms. Yang's teaching skills were not particularly outstanding; coupled with my lack of interest in English which never seemed to improve significantly, my academic performance barely placed me among the upper-middle ranks of the class.
Throughout middle school, there was only one instance where I mistakenly found myself among the top ten students; by high school my English still lacked coherence and hindered me during college entrance exams. Even in university, my English level remained at an extremely low level among those who struggled with spoken English. After we graduated, Ms. Yang left Garden Middle School shortly thereafter; I heard she transferred to work at her husband's factory and no longer pursued teaching.
In addition to Subject Teachers, several other young teachers left deep impressions on me:
Class advisor for Class 49 Li Dongqiu became familiar with us because he often spent time with our group of boarding students and because he was also the advisor for Class 49 next door where his nephew excelled academically. Consequently, I frequently visited Class 49 to see what assignments they had or how their curriculum differed from ours.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Teacher Li abandoned his teaching career to start his own business—initially engaging in trade before establishing a factory processing plywood using bamboo resources—becoming a moderately successful entrepreneur.
Teachers Deng Bochun and Zeng Mingzi taught Chinese language during New Year's Day classes. Perhaps it was because of my fondness for Chinese language or because they often discussed teaching methods with Teacher Liu Dazheng that made them relatable; or perhaps it was due to my father's support for their continued education that these two teachers spent considerable time with me outside class.
Teacher Deng lived on Nanjia Bay Road near where I frequently passed while going home or heading back to school; many times when returning home alone without my father accompanying me, I would walk partway with him and occasionally visit his house for snacks. Later on he transitioned into politics and became director of a certain bureau in Dongkou County; I've heard good things about his reputation among locals but due to his late entry into politics without strong connections or background he did not advance further.
Teacher Zeng was the youngest among these teachers; coming from another family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners unlike Teacher Liu’s father who practiced on Garden Street—his father Mr. Qian Desheng was a renowned physician at Dongkou County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital while his brother reportedly was the first student from Garden Middle School to attend university—he had quite an academic lineage himself. He was particularly ambitious and pursued higher education through vocational college followed by undergraduate studies; later when I transferred into Dongkou No. 1 High School he had already graduated with his bachelor’s degree and joined as a middle school teacher there; subsequently Teacher Zeng went on to pursue graduate studies before entering Xinhua News Agency where he worked in Beijing until eventually reaching a leadership position at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—making him one of my junior high school teachers with both significant achievements and highest rank.
Teacher Deng Luyan taught English during New Year's Day classes as well—a lively girl fresh out of university who also taught several music classes. Her room was adjacent to Ms. Yang Yanmei’s where we often heard pleasant songs emanating from her tape recorder (sometimes it played music automatically while other times she sang herself). Her fashion sense seemed capable of setting trends along Garden Street; some older teachers expressed discontent but thanks to my father's open-mindedness as principal she did not face exclusion or criticism like some beauty-conscious peers from normal schools did. Shortly after we graduated she married someone from Beijing but continued working in education.
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