The Story of An Excellent Teacher

Prologue

During New Year's Day 2000, a local county policeman discovered my plan to go to Beijing to appeal and arrested me.

Dozens of policemen at the Jingniu Police Station interrogated me day and night. They said, "So many teachers and leaders from your school have come to bail you out, and told us that your students wrote in their compositions that they missed you. Being such a young schoolteacher, you are supposed to fulfill your responsibility of teaching school. But instead, you wanted to appeal for Falun Gong. How does that make you an excellent teacher?" I replied with a smile, "Making an appeal to the authorities is a right that the Constitution grants me. Moreover, I used my personal vacation time to deliver a letter of appeal and this did not affect my work. You are the very reason why I am not at work right now. Because I am a teacher, I want to be responsible to my students. If I do not speak the truth for fear of endangering myself or my interests, letting the TV and the radio defame and slander Falun Gong, how can I be worthy of my title of 'teacher'?"

They pounded on the desk and barked, "Did you teach students Falun Gong?" I said calmly, "I have not taught them to practice Falun Gong yet. Nobody should force another person to believe in anything. I practice Falun Gong because I want to be a good person by following the requirements of Dafa [the great law]. If the children do not like me as a Falun Gong practitioner, they would not have accepted me with affection, miss me, or want to visit me when I am in police custody. I only teach them to be good children at home, to be good students at school, and to be good people when they grow up. After all, one should strive to follow the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Because everyone calls me "an excellent teacher" this is also their opinion of me as a Falun Gong practitioner."

The school management and fellow schoolteachers came to visit me. They tried to persuade me privately, "Don't be a fool. They are collecting evidence against you. Think of your child! He is only four years old, and your husband works in another city. Who is going to look after your child if anything should happen to you? Just tell the police a lie so you may go home." I said, "I have done nothing but teach my students moral values in their spare time. If I teach my students one thing, and do another, I would not be cultivating 'truthfulness,' would I?" As a result, I was detained in the police station for 50 days.

In April 2000, local policemen tried to pressure me to defame Dafa on a TV program as a young schoolteacher, in order to increase the credibility of their propaganda. I sternly refused their request. For this reason I was again put into a detention center.

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Before I practiced Falun Gong, I was becoming increasingly selfish in the muddy stream of society. I was willful, and fiercely competitive. I had turned the lecture podium into a battlefield for fame and personal gain.

However, on November 4, 1997 all this changed. I learned the Buddha Law and began to practice cultivation. Teacher said, "On the contrary, we ask everyone to cultivate your mind and to be kind. We ask you to be considerate of others when you do something and to do your job well in any working environment. You should be a good person in the minds of others…How could you be a good person without doing your job well?" (From "Lecture at the Fa-Conference in Canada.")

I became a completely different person, and started my teaching career over again. From November 1997 to December 1999, I experienced three significant episodes in cultivation.

1. A Turning Point for My Temper and My Career as a Schoolteacher
One day in November 1997 I said to my students, "I apologize for my bad temper, which must have made your school days most unpleasant. Now I have started to practice Falun Gong. My Teacher teaches us to conduct ourselves according to Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. From now on, I will treat everyone in the class with compassion to facilitate a pleasant learning environment for everyone." At first, the entire class looked at me in disbelief. After the students saw the changes in me, they finally accepted what I had told them. They said to me, "You have really changed. You have successfully improved your temper."

In December 2000, I was forced to become homeless in order to escape the persecution. I came across the parent of a student, who asked me, "Why don't you teach our kids anymore? Many parents have inquired about the reason for your absence from school, and the school said that you voluntarily quit your job." I explained to him the real reason why I was unable to teach school. He sighed, "That propaganda on TV may have confused a lot of people, but I am completely aware of your improvements due to cultivation of Falun Gong. It is really a shame that they did this to you. People who try to improve themselves should not be persecuted for such an admirable cause! What has the world come to?"

2. Love and Compassion
I love my son but I also love and spend more time with my students. Teacher said, "A mother loves her son dearly. The human world can't do without maternal love. But as a cultivator, we should have this love become more noble and broader, we should allow more people to feel the compassion, we should have all children feel the compassion of Dafa disciples, and make our hearts expand so that we are compassionate to all. That would be even better." (From "Lecture on the Fa at the U.S. Midwest Conference.")

Teacher's words reminded me that I should be compassionate to my students and be responsible for them. I spent nearly 10 hours a day with my students. In educating them, I kept reminding myself to display the compassion of a Dafa practitioner.

2.1. Morality Education
Teacher said, "A person doesn't have any ordinary human thoughts when he's born from his mother's womb. He only knows milk and crying. Everything of everyday people that's instilled in him comes postnatally. In the old days, people paid great attention to family education. I think the parental discipline that children of Caucasian families received back in those days was excellent. Yet nowadays, the degree to which children are indulged--especially in the United States--is beyond description. Those children have absolutely no manners. Their entire education has failed. To be responsible to humankind, people have to educate their children. Tell them what is good and what is bad, and they'll take all of it into their heads. It's just like a handbag. If the bag is filled with gold, people will say that what you have is gold; if your handbag is filled with dirt, they will say this is dirt. So people are just like this. If you've taken good things into your head, you're a good person, and when you do things your thoughts are bound to be good ones. If you fill your head with bad thoughts, what you do and what you think are all bad, ill thoughts. This is the fundamental distinction between good people and bad people." (From "Lecture at the Conference in Europe.")

To help make kids understand moral values, I spent a lot time during the holidays finding affordable yet excellently illustrated books and magazines with interesting morality-promoting stories at secondhand bookstands. In addition, some students loaned us some books of a similar nature. Together we set up a book corner at the school.

Parents told me that the students read the stories and went back home sharing these stories with them, who then became educated on the subjects as well. After a while, the students' compositions and exams showed evidence of inspiration from these morality-promoting books. I combined the forms of telling stories, reading seminars and explanation of the principles of Dafa together. Every day I told them stories with Teacher's words. I taught them to tell right from wrong based on Dafa principles using often-encountered issues as examples in order for them to enlighten to their pure nature.

When students quarreled or fought with one another, I asked them to be tolerant like Han-Xin, and to consider others first.

Children are pure. Their pure and compassionate hearts are assimilated to the nature of the universe, Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. A student wrote a sentence in his composition, "Our schoolteacher, Ms. Liu, looks like an ordinary person, but she is a person with high morality." Another wrote, "Today we went outside to have dinner. My parents fought with other customers over a table in the restaurant. When they were about to start a fight, I remembered our teacher's words and stopped my father. I said to him, "You forgot the words of our teacher. Our teacher said a person should act in accordance with Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. If you fight you are not being compassionate or forbearing!" The parents later told me the story filled with emotion. The father said, "Our son never heeded any of our advice no matter how hard we tried. He was truly spoiled, but your words of advice improved not only him, but also us. My child has become wiser so quickly, and I have you to thank for this."

Once, a student of a higher grade beat up a smaller student, but I did not scold him. Instead, I enlightened his compassionate nature by quoting Teacher's Fa. Later that student cried and said, "Teacher, I am sorry. I will never raise a hand against others again." I told them why cultivators should not retaliate against a physical or verbal attack. I taught them that attacking others physically or verbally is wrong and causes one to lose De [energy matter of Virtue]. After some time, the students of the higher grade rarely bullied the students in my class. Moreover, the students in my class almost never bickered or fought with one another.

Once, a boy in my class beat several kids in a row, including a class representative. I silently recited Teacher's words to myself, "...for a practitioner must be tolerant. Some people will lose their temper in disciplining children and yell at them, making quite a scene. You should not be that way in disciplining children, and neither should you, yourselves get really upset. You should educate children with reason so that you can really teach them well." (From "People with Great Inborn Quality" in Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun.)

I eliminated the anger rising in my heart, and decided not to criticize him for the fights. Instead, I called a class meeting to discuss the problem. At the beginning they glared at each other angrily. Then a student said, "They are both wrong. The taller student beat the other first. He did not conduct himself with compassion. But the other student was wrong to fight back for he did not conduct himself with tolerance." Some students said, "The teacher told us that the whole class of 56 students are like a family. We should love and help each other. We must never fight each other."

I was deeply touched by their honest and pure words. All students involved in the fights were moved to tears. They admitted their own faults and reconciled with each other. From then on, the atmosphere in the class became more and more harmonious. In less than one semester, fighting and bickering had almost become extinct.

Some students told me that for a long time after I was arrested, each day the cadres of my class asked the classmates who did not conduct themselves according to my requirements, to stay after school. The cadres would talk with them, asking them to look inward for areas of improvement. They said this was the assignment from Ms. Liu. Many fellow schoolteachers also told me, "Of the three sixth-grade classes, my class is the most obedient one. They are really pure. That class is growing to be like the teacher in personality." I smiled contentedly at these comments.

2.2. Cultural Education
The curriculum of today's students is heavy. From studying the Fa, I realized that students must be motivated in their hearts to study diligently. On one hand, I often tell them little Dafa disciples' difficult cultivation experiences as examples to show them that studying warrants hard work. I told them that they would naturally go to college if they study diligently. I also told the stories of ancient people and hardworking modern people to show them that the knowledge they learn today will be useful in the future. On the other hand, I continued to improve the quality of my teaching and reduce homework to enhance and maintain their interest in education.

My composition class received a multitude of praise from the school principal, my fellow teachers and parents. The students in my class became more and more proficient in writing. I explored many methods to strengthen their composition training. It was really demanding and tiresome work. Whenever I felt I could not bear it anymore I would remember Teacher's words, "When it is difficult to endure, try to endure it. When it looks impossible and is said to be impossible, give it a try and see if it is possible." (From "People with Great Inborn Quality" in Lecture Nine of Zhuan Falun.) Then I kept on working diligently on proofreading students' compositions. Since New Year's Day 2000, when I was detained in the detention center, the students in my class poured their hearts into writing to let me know how much they had missed me. Their letters touched the hearts of all the teachers, parents and even the policemen. In addition, the average score of my class climbed from the last to the top of all the six-grade classes. That is the result of the continuous hard work by my kids and me.

3. The Last Lesson
Because Jiang Zemin persecutes Falun Gong, I do not have the opportunity to teach my students anymore.

The day before the 2000 New Year's Day, I told the class, "Today is very likely my last day as your schoolteacher." All of the kids were struck speechless by the sudden news, and demanded to know the reason. When they heard that I wanted to go to Beijing to validate Dafa, all of them started to cry. They feared that the accomplices of the evil would beat me to death, and that they would never see me again. Then all of them held back the tears. Their eyes became swollen but they did not tell the reason to their parents when they returned home in order to keep my plan secret so that I could reach Beijing safely.

As my son and I were stepping out of the school, I found that all of them were following me. They wanted to see me off.

When I was held in the detention center, the police and the leaders of the education committee required parents and students to "draw a clear line with me" [It is a phrase that was used frequently during the Cultural Revolution to separate oneself from another person who had fallen out of favor with the authorities.] However, some students still came to the detention center to visit me. Although they were never allowed to see me, they always told the police, "We miss our teacher. Our teacher is a good person. Officer, please release her." Their parents also told me, "We adults did not dare to go there, but we didn't think that the police would put little kids in jail."

When I was finally released from jail but put under house arrest, several dozens of students came to visit me. They were embarrassed to say that they had missed me, but they did not want to end their visit. I told them, "Just remember one thing. Falun Dafa is good. Dafa practitioners are all good people like me." The kids nodded, and said they would never forget my words.

When I became homeless, I came across some parents and students. They invited me to live in their homes, and offered me money. I declined their gestures of compassion, and told them that our Teacher advised us not to take anything from them. As Teacher said, "I just want your heart to be good and want you to be able to move up." (From "Lecture in Sydney") A parent sighed, "My son cried many times and said he missed you. If there were more people like you in our society, then the entire society would improve in their morals."

When I was detained in the labor camp, my family members came to visit me and cried, "Your students called from far away to greet you. Other students wanted to pay you a visit but the higher authorities would not allow it. They wrote a letter and asked me to bring it to you. They said, "Ms. Liu, we miss you! We truly miss you!"

Gradually, people found out from various sources the things I have done for less fortunate people. I took orphans into my home for weekends and bought them eyeglasses that they needed, wishing to give them the feeling of having a home. I used all extra bonuses from school to help the underprivileged students pay their tuition fees or class fees. I brought a student who had a stroke to the hospital within 5 minutes and saved his life in time at the cost of breaking one of my high heels while running. I spent my holidays giving students extra classes. I declined any gifts or money from their parents. When they heard that I still endured the unfair persecution with compassion, they gradually changed their views of Falun Gong.

If it were not for this evil persecution, I would not mention all of the good things that I have done in the past for ordinary people, or for even my family members because I have not done any of these good deeds for fame or gain. I did all these things just because I felt I should help them the best I could.

One day I heard a news report of an elementary school student reporting to police that a Dafa practitioner posted truth-clarifying materials, which led to the arrest of that practitioner. Upon hearing the news, my heart ached so much that it almost burst. Who had planted the evil thoughts of hating Dafa and hating good people into the hearts of young children? Who had promoted committing such crime as persecuting good people among these children? They were pure and innocent. Let us create a pure environment for the children and let them choose a correct and beautiful path in their life.

Epilogue
I urge all kindhearted schoolteachers to share with your students the truth about Dafa and Dafa practitioners that you may have experienced. Move the children far away from the lies and let them remember that Falun Dafa is good! Everyone needs Truth-Compassion-Tolerance in his life!

[Editors note: In China, because of the government sponsored propaganda and the trend of pursuing money, the teaching of virtue and morality in public education has ceased to exist. The only standard for measuring the effectiveness of a teacher is the exam scores of the students. The author of this article brought virtue back into the educational system, at least for her particular class.]

Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/8/27/18308.html