Seizing Opportunities: A Teacher’s Cultivation Stories

(Minghui.org) I was a high school senior class teacher. When my class got first place in the final exam for the first time, I was secretly happy, thinking, “Many practitioner teachers have done so well, and their classes scored among the best on every exam, and now I’ve done the same!” But after that, things took a dramatic turn for me.

I was an easygoing person, and the students were pretty relaxed in my class and often laughed. A colleague reported to the principal that the discipline in my classroom was poor. The principal said to me. “Your teaching methods are poor, but the students’ grades are good. Perhaps your class takes up a lot of time from other things in your life.” Upon hearing this, I felt aggrieved. The principal even hinted that I might be fired, and he soon arranged for all the school leaders to observe my class.

I thought, “No other teacher in the school has ever been treated like this, so it must be an opportunity for me to validate the Fa.” I prepared well and incorporated traditional ethics and values into my lecture. On the day of the lecture, there were dozens of people in the back of the classroom. After class, I was given unanimous approval.

Just as one wave settled, another arose. Starting from the second exam, my class ranked last almost every time, and the final unified exam scores were unbelievably low, despite the fact that I prepared my lessons carefully and often tutored students. After ensuring that there were no major problems in my teaching, I considered it a test. I looked inward and realized: I was busy with work and did not put the Fa first, I was affectionate toward my students, I had a desire to compete with other classes, and I had an attachment to fame and fortune. I thought: “I will rectify my shortcomings in the Fa and not allow Dafa’s name to be damaged. I also should clarify the truth at school.”

From the beginning of the year until graduation, other teachers kept dropping in on my classes to listen to my lectures, which they praised highly: “Your class is so wonderful! I have been teaching for decades, and it’s so rare to see a class like this!” “Emotional and rational. I have learned a lot from your class!” “You have made the rigid syllabus lively!”

In addition to the pressure from the school leaders, I was ostracized by a colleague who made things difficult for me. I thought: “She must have gone through a lot in history in order to meet me today. Whatever she has done to me was designed to help me be successful, so I should not resent her.” Other practitioners and I found ways to help people quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Eventually, the colleague who ostracized me became my friend.

Later, I talked in class about the CCP’s persecution of beliefs and how differently Falun Dafa is viewed in China versus abroad. I did not clarify the truth thoroughly because I was worried. Yet the reaction from the class was great. One student stood up and said, “When I visited the United States, I saw a big parade. They said that heaven will eliminate the CCP and that one can be safe by quitting the CCP organizations.” Another student said, “I think the CCP is the biggest evil cult.” These two students who dared to stand up were rewarded for their courage: One of them used to have the lowest grades in the class, but he performed exceptionally well on the college entrance exam and was able to enroll in a prestigious school. The other student scored 20 points higher than usual.

We had a long discussion in that class. Some students said, “Teacher, there are some things I only want to tell you, because you have a belief.” After the class, I clarified the truth to several students and helped them quit the CCP’s youth organizations. After they graduated, two students who didn’t usually communicate with me wrote to me. One said, “Recalling your class, I don’t know why but I was inexplicably moved.” Another said, “In your class, I learned things that were not mentioned in the textbooks.”

Some of the students who came to visit me after graduation had not had a chance to quit the CCP, so I used every possible opportunity to advise them to withdraw from it.

Once I dreamed that a former student who had quit the CCP was waiting for me in a classroom. In my dream, he burst into tears when he saw me, and I joked, “Why are you crying? You must not have missed me since you did not contact me after you graduated.” “Teacher, it was not that I did not want to talk to you,” he said. “It’s the arrangement, and it’s fate.” He gave me a book as a gift. The title of the book was Seizing Opportunities.

In the future, I will do my best to consider others first and save more people.