(Minghui.org) I retired from a special education school in 2010. In the summer of 2011, I was invited by the school to substitute in first grade math for someone who was on leave. I accepted the offer without a second thought. Although the salary was only 500 yuan per month, I was as conscientious and responsible as I used to be.
The students were either deaf or mute. Although they were only 7 or 8 years old, they had to leave their families to study in this school. I am the age of their grandmothers. Because they were little and disabled, their families rarely let them do any housework. I cleaned up the classrooms for them and watered the plants. I helped them wash their hands, face, and feet. I also repaired their backpacks and sewed buttons back on their clothes.
Two girls who had not reached school age came to my class. To teach them how to count, I patiently taught them to count their ears, feet, eyes, nose, and the number of doors and windows. After finishing schoolwork, I taught them to say “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance is good!”
My hard work was rewarded. After more than 40 days, the kids were polite and neat. They were able to study by themselves and finish their schoolwork. The classroom was also clean. Two students moved up to second grade with flying colors. I always clarified the truth about Falun Dafa to their parents and helped them quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The parents said, ”We may not believe what others say about Falun Dafa, but our teacher is such a good person. We believe everything she told us.”
I was invited to be a substitute teacher again in March 2012, because another teacher took leave. It was a math class for 6 th grade students, which was very demanding. I still accepted the offer without any hesitation. It is a teacher's duty to carefully prepare for the classes, arrive on time, give good lectures, and grade all the homework. Today, however, with its deteriorating morality, this was seen as something “special.” Students and teachers from other classes constantly came into my classroom to listen to my well-presented lectures and see my neat writing on the board.
One of my colleagues said, “These students are so lucky. Their substitute teacher is as diligent as we used to be. We should hire her back and fire the rest of us. In our school, besides teachers A and B, no one else teaches like this anymore.”
I knew that both A and B were Dafa practitioners and that this colleague had heard the truth about Falun Dafa before. So I told her about the popularity of Falun Dafa abroad. I told her that our Master taught us to be good people and to hold ourselves to the high standard of Falun Dafa, even if nobody checks on us, because divine beings are watching us.
She immediately understood: “That is why! I have been wondering why Falun Dafa practitioners are all so good!” I gave her a set of DVDs of the 2012 Shen Yun Performing Arts show and she said, “You are so kind! So many programs, for free! Falun Dafa is so good!” I told her, “This show can cost several hundred dollars per ticket in other countries. But no one can watch it in China no matter how much we want to pay. It is really precious. Pass them on to your friends and families. Never damage it.”
A teacher in another classroom was very happy to see me back at school. She asked for my phone number and said, “If I come late, would you please take care of my students.” I agreed and gave her a set of DVDs of the Shen Yun show.
One morning when I was teaching, a student came to the class with his grandma. This student had been with this class since 1 st grade, but he did not know anything. His grandma told me, “I dare not tell anyone but you, because we are the same age. Everyone in our family is illiterate and we live on a mountain. My poor grandson's parents are divorced. Please teach him. We do not have great expectations. It will be good enough if he can count with his fingers.”
Looking at the hope in her eyes, I immediately agreed. During the following days, after I gave lectures to the 6 th graders and they were working on their own, I taught this student to count from 1 to 10. He could only count to 7 and could not even do very basic addition. I was determined to teach him. He was eager to learn and wrote the numbers again and again.
There are quite a few Falun Dafa practitioners in this small school. Since the persecution of Falun Dafa started in 1999, the school has had three different principals. All of them recognize Falun Dafa, and 80-90% of the teachers and their families have quit the CCP. The teachers have the highest expectations of practitioners. They expect us to do better than any outstanding teacher recognized at the city or county level.
When our behavior was even slightly off from the Fa, they looked at us in a strange way. We were then alerted immediately and rectified ourselves. If one of us did not realize it, the rest of us would remind her, because cultivators always demonstrate the beauty of Dafa.
I was a teacher for more than 30 years, have practiced Falun Dafa for nearly 10 years, and have been retired for more than two years. During the couple of months as a substitute teacher, I was saddened by the changes in society. I still have a long way to go to clarify the truth! In this society with its deteriorating morality, only Falun Dafa provides a pure land in the human world. I hope that people will find out the truth about Falun Dafa and quit the CCP, so they will have a safe future.
