“We Need More Teachers Like You”

(Minghui.org) I am a middle school teacher. Since I practice Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), I follow its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Falun Gong has helped me to be a better person and a better teacher.

Energetic and Willing to Help

My colleagues admired that I always thought of others and had ample energy.

Because we are understaffed in my teaching subject, the principal had a hard time finding a substitute whenever a teacher in my subject asked for leave or called in sick. I was always willing to fill in for others. Sometimes I gave seven consecutive lectures in one day without becoming tired.

I was always willing to swap shifts with my colleagues and they appreciated me, saying that Falun Gong practitioners are outstanding.

The principal said emotionally, “My job would be much easier if all teachers practiced Falun Gong.”

Changing My Teaching Approach

I changed my style from criticizing and ranking students to patiently explaining the content. I kindly remind a student if he or she isn’t listening to my lectures attentively. When students are rude or have poor attitudes, I look inward to find out what I did not do well or whether my words hurt have hurt their feelings.

I treat with every student with kindness and respect. Once when I distributed a handout to students, I found I was short one copy. The student who did not get one happened to be one with poorer grades. I ran into other classrooms on the second and third floors to find an extra copy for her.

As I handed a copy to her, she said with tears in her eyes, “You are so nice! No other teacher has treated me so well since I started going to school.”

Not only do my students like me, but the academic scores of students in my class are always the highest among all classes.

Not Vying for Promotion

I have taught the graduating class for ten consecutive years. But I have never been awarded “model teacher” or promoted. Some of my colleagues let me know that they felt this was unfair.

One colleague said to me, “Just doing a great job is not enough for awards and promotion. You need to offer bribes.” I told him that I was a Falun Gong practitioner and must act righteously. I cannot make deals and bribe officials for personal gain, or compete with my colleagues and give the principal a hard time.

He said I was a little silly. I asked him, “If there is only one chance for promotion between you and me, I would let you get it. Do you still think I'm silly?” He answered with a smile, “It is great to have a colleague like you!”

Refusing Profits for Tutoring

The subject I teach is preparation for the high school entrance exam. There are many students asking for tutoring in addition to regular teaching. Not wanting to exploit parents for extra money like other teachers often do, I offered make-up lessons at no charge for students who missed a lecture due to illness.

Many parents of my students nonetheless asked me to offer additional teaching, fearing that their children would fall behind, as other classes offered it. Thus I began offering additional teaching. Since I didn't charge, the parents gave me gifts or gift cards.

I eventually started to charge the students according to the market price for additional teaching. However, I let the parents split the cost between them, so it cost them very little. I was doing it to help the students, not for money.

Later I was teaching a large class. Many students wanted additional teaching in all four subjects for the high school exam preparation. The head teacher started to handle the teaching fees and allocated the profit to each subject teacher. I wrote down the telephone numbers of my students' parents and returned my share of the profit to them later. They were very grateful.

When they learned that I practiced Falun Gong many said, “We need more teachers like you!”