Memories of Suburbia (1979——1999)

On August 27, 1979, carrying a letter of introduction from the Bureau of Culture and Education, I and eight other comrades reported to Suburban Middle School. It was my first time in my life to go to a suburban middle school, and I was the newly appointed principal of a suburban middle school. Everything in the suburbs felt fresh and familiar to me.

? The suburban middle school faces south. Entering from the gate, a dirt road runs through the north and south. The dirt road is full of potholes, which are the traces of people coming and going on rainy days. There are two rows of red brick and blue tile bungalows deep in the campus. The first row is two classroom buildings, and the second row is offices, dormitories and canteens. In front of the classroom is a wheat field and behind it is a vegetable field. There is a well in the northwest corner of the vegetable field, which is the only water source in the school. The school has no walls, only Gangju and Xiaogou nursing schools. Before I registered, I had heard that this school was formerly an agricultural junior high school. It was moved here less than two years ago from Huazhuang Village. It has four classes in the junior high school, three classes in the senior high school (including one class in the agricultural high school), and two classes in both the junior high school and the senior high school. In the annual system, students are all from urban and rural areas. Most of the better students find connections to study in urban middle schools, and most of the better teachers find connections to be transferred to urban schools. Therefore, the society jokingly calls suburban middle schools like water culverts. The campus I see now covers an area of ??more than 30 acres. It is empty and deserted. On my first night in the suburbs, I guarded a kerosene lamp and thought a lot. I never imagined that I would work here for 20 years and turn it into a hot land that I have dreamed of throughout my life.

It was a sunny day when I woke up. In the first year of life as a principal, from the first day, no matter how complicated and difficult the work was, we always held on to the center of teaching. We believe that this is the embodiment of "shifting the focus of work" in the school. After a year of hard work, a good harvest is in sight. In the 1980 college entrance examination, five students passed the exam in a key class, which showed the morale and hope of the teachers and students in the school.

When I became the principal of a suburban middle school, I was a high school graduate of the 67th class of Baoying County Middle School. When the college entrance examination was resumed, I was already a public teacher and missed the college entrance examination. But the party and the people have not forgotten us. In 1984, I was admitted to the cadre training class of the Yangtze Education Institute. Two years later, I was appointed as the principal of a suburban middle school as an outstanding graduate of the Yangtze Education Institute. At this time, I was not only able to organize teachers to focus on teaching. Center, and I can also show my talents in classroom teaching. At that time, the school lacked not only funds but also teachers. For the nine subjects of the college entrance examination, we have no geography teachers, history teachers, and biology teachers, and there are not enough English teachers, politics teachers, and Chinese teachers. We have borrowed from brother schools and recruited from the society, but we mainly rely on our own cadres, who serve as both cadres and teachers, and one person can do the work of two people. Since 1986, I have taught political courses for seven high school and junior high school graduating classes, and my teaching performance ranks among the best in the township and even the county. In 1988, I took the National Adult College Entrance Examination and was admitted to Southern Normal University with the second best score in Yangzhou City. Three years later, I graduated as an outstanding student again. In 1990, my teaching and research paper "Application of Multiple Choice Questions in Ideological and Political Courses" was published by Shaanxi Normal University's "Middle School Political Teaching Reference" and was listed as an important article and recommended to readers across the country. In 1991, I was hired as a special researcher by the Yangtze University of Education, the only one among the two graduates of the cadre training class of the Yangtze University of Education. In the spring of the same year, at the county-wide teaching work conference, my speech "To be a good principal, you must first be a good teacher" won long and warm applause from the attendees. The principal is a teacher's teacher. The kind of principal is the same kind of teacher. Every teacher in a suburban middle school attaches great importance to his or her teaching performance, teaching and research results, and academic level. By the mid-to-late 1990s, "Love students, practice hard, be dedicated, and strive for excellence" had become the motto of every teacher in the suburbs.

After Deng Xiaoping’s speech during his southern tour, suburban middle schools entered the fast lane. Starting in 1992, the suburban middle and high schools have been expanded year by year. In 1995, it was expanded to 6 tracks, and in 1998, the 6 tracks were completed. The quality of teaching has increased simultaneously with the size of the school. In this year's (1999) college entrance examination, Suburban Middle School ranked 11th among 66 schools in the city, surpassing several newly approved provincial key middle schools, adding a beautiful scenery to the Baoying College Entrance Examination.

In the 1998-99 school year, Suburban Middle School *** had 31 teaching classes and 1,936 students, the largest number of students of its kind in the county. Among so many students, what people see is "diligence in study, inquisitiveness, good thinking, and hard practice." These many students, whether they come from the city or the countryside, are always like seedlings. , thrive on this fertile soil in the suburbs.

In suburban middle schools, from the principal to the head teacher, from teachers to every student, they all practice the school motto of "seeking truth, being pragmatic, innovative and striving for the first".

? Excellent school spirit, teaching style and study style are not only an educational resource, but also an intangible asset. Compared with tangible assets, it is extremely precious.

? From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, the tangible assets of suburban areas increased hundreds of times. With the direct concern of the county party committee and county government, relying on its own economic strength, the suburban area was expanded by 10 acres, and tens of thousands of square meters of teaching buildings, laboratory buildings and student dormitories were built, including classrooms, laboratories, and computer rooms. , language room, library, music room, stadium and other facilities and equipment are not only available, but also all up to standard. The staff dormitory is nearly 6,000 square meters. 60 households of teachers and staff moved into their new homes at a price far below the cost, and they no longer have to worry about anything. The old suburbs have become memories, and the new suburbs are emerging.

In the tide of socialist market economy, we have not only made full use of relevant policies, raised tens of millions of education funds, and improved school running conditions and living conditions; we have also made great efforts in the internal management of the school. A complete set of management models and operating mechanisms adapted to the market have been established. We start with management by objectives and use weekly inspections and monthly assessments as the basis. We link the terminals of semester assessment and academic year assessment with living wages, selection of advanced candidates, job appointments, etc. We reward diligence and punish laziness, and reward excellence and punishment for inferiority. This greatly stimulated the enthusiasm and vitality of the faculty and staff, and truly achieved "self-motivation without raising the whip".

By the mid-to-late 1990s, the three-tiered structure of Pan, Cao and Jiao Middle School had taken shape. At this time, Jiao Middle School was no longer what it used to be. Keep pace with each other. As the principal of a school, if I still stay at the existing cultural level, it will be impossible for me to bring Jiao Zhong to a new platform and create new glory. In the second half of 1996, I got the opportunity to study at Beijing Normal University. Beijing Normal University was the institution of higher learning that I had longed for. I devoted myself to my studies there and filled four books with 100,000 words of reading notes in one semester. In the final exam, I was the oldest but had the highest score (95 points). A year later, I took the self-study examination for social studies and studied for my second undergraduate degree. In the spring of this year (99), I scored a high score of 93 in the self-study examination of "Selected Ancient Literature", ranking seventh in Jiangsu Province and first in Yangzhou City. Now I have successfully passed the two more difficult subjects of the "Chinese Language and Literature Major". It was difficult first and then easy, and the momentum was overwhelming. It should not be a problem to obtain the second undergraduate diploma (obtained in the first half of 2002), although I have been transferred from the suburban middle school and no longer serve as the principal of the suburban middle school.

1979-1999 was the 20 years of reform and opening up in the 50 years of the Republic of China. The development and changes of suburban middle schools in the past 20 years, as well as my personal growth and progress in the past 20 years, have all been deeply marked by the times. Without reform and opening up, I would not be what I am today; without reform and opening up, there would be no suburbia today. At the dawn of the new millennium, with the east wind of deepening reform and expanding opening up, the stars in the suburbs will be more dazzling, and our own lives will be even more brilliant!

? On November 30, 1999, he resigned in the principal's office at Suburban High School.

? Reprinted in Shengshi Jiayuan North Study Room on December 18, 2020