Remembering my favorite teacher

06/05/2009

When my son Andy and daughter Amy came home on the last day of school, I was more curious than usual to find out how the last day went.

“Too bad school is over. Fifth grade is my best year ever. I had so much fun,” Andy commented.

“How did you and all students say goodbye to the teachers?” I asked.

“The teachers lined up and watched us get on the school bus and leave.”

“Did anyone cry?”

“Everyone in my class gave our teacher a hug. Some teachers almost cried.”

Thankful for the wonderful teachers my kids had in school, I couldn’t help but thinking about my own teachers, especially my favorite teacher in high school almost 30 years ago.

The path of my life, starting from my hometown Suzhou to Beijing, the Capitol of China, to the university of Heidelberg in Germany, and then to the Untied States, is nothing but a miracle in my mind, thanks largely to my high school English Teacher Mr. XuangGuang Sheng.

In high school, I was very interested in learning foreign languages. My dream was to pass the national entrance exam and to go to one of the best universities in the country for studying English.

However, the high school I went to in my neighborhood was not the best in town. Passing the national entrance exam in China requires enormous dedication, efforts and preparation from students, parents and teachers. Staying in my own high school would mean I had no chance to fulfill my dream.

It so happened that one day I heard from a friend mentioning a very unique English Teacher at a different high school. His students had excellent exam results.

One year before my entrance exam to college, my mother, who was a math teacher in my own high school, talked the school administration into approving my transfer.

After an interview with Mr. Sheng, he also agreed to accept me in his class. Apparently I had impressed him as a good and sincere student.

Mr. Sheng was indeed very special and unique in many different ways.

He went to school very early, an hour or two before the regular class started, and he didn’t leave the classroom until every student was gone, usually 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening.

Since many students didn’t have quiet space for study at home, they often went to school to study early in the morning or after dinner in the evening. Mr. Sheng was always there ready to help everyone.

Unlike other teachers, he had his desk in the classroom where he spent more time with the students than at his other desk in the teachers’ office.

Mr. Sheng had home visit at least once every semester for every student (we had about 50 students in one class). He kept parents informed about their child at school. And he got to know the families through home visits.

Mr. Sheng was not only a unique teacher, but also a somewhat strange and mysterious person in my young eyes.

He was not married and had no children. That was very unusual in China at that time. He ran several miles early in the morning from his home to the school while holding his bicycle in hand. He wore just a shirt even in cold winter.

During his home visits with students, he didn’t even drink a cup of tea that was usually offered to the guests in China. Yet when students visited him at his home, he offered them treats.

When Mr. Sheng was not at the school, he often tutored students at home who were referred to him by friends and friends of friends. He didn’t have the heart to refuse any young person who was eager to learn. His room was full of books, mostly old books, and his necessary furniture was all very old and worn out.

He spent his own meager salary on English books, note books, pencils or other supplies and gave them to good students weekly as incentive for their hard work as shown on the weekly test results, while he never accepted any gifts from any students or parents for any reason. He spent more on his students than on himself.

His devotion to his students and his selfless acts towards others were incredible, unreal and hard for me to understand at that time. His world seemed like a mystery to me.

Thanks to Mr. Sheng’s teaching and devotion during that one year, and my own hard work, I was able to pass the entrance exam.

The exam was a big annual event in China, because it was the turning point in many young people’s lives. My score was high so I was accepted by the Beijing Foreign Studies University, the best known university in China for its foreign language programs.

Most of the graduates from this university hold positions as diplomats, foreign correspondents, and language instructors at the universities or dealing with foreign affairs in other government organizations. I have an older cousin who graduated from the same university. He worked for the UN in New York and Geneva, Switzerland for many years. It was certainly a dream come true for me.

I was very grateful for Mr. Sheng, yet he never took any credit for anything his students achieved. He always said humbly, “It is due to your own hard work and talent.”

At the age of 17, I left Suzhou for Beijing in 1981. With the long twenty hour plus train ride to Beijing, a new chapter of my life began.

I studied German at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Only about 40 students were accepted during that time every year. English was my first choice, but due to high demand, there was not enough space.

After graduation I got a position at Chinese Central Television to help start a German Language program. A German program was to be added to the existing programs. At that time three languages, English, Japanese and French, were offered on the TV and were very popular. China was just starting to open its door to the western countries, and after so many years of isolation, people were eager to know more about other countries.

One year later I went to Heidelberg, Germany to further my studies on a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Program.

After almost of 10 years of studying German, fate brought me to the United States.

Meanwhile I had forgotten my English learned in high school and had to start all over again, but I had never forgotten Mr. Sheng.

In fact, I kept in touch with him till he passed away a few years ago. Whenever I sent him letters or cards, he always wrote me back. His handwritten letters could be more than 10 pages long.

Living in Germany and the US opened my eyes for things I was not aware of in China as a young person. One of them was the Christian faith.

Years later, when I heard that Mr. Sheng was a Christian and he had graduated from a university in my home town that was founded by the American Christians, the mystery about him was solved. He had simply lived a real Christian life, though he never talked about his faith with his students, because religion was verboten and a taboo. People could go to prison for that.

My hometown Suzhou near Shanghai is a famous city known in China as “paradise on earth.” Suzhou is famous for beautiful gardens and silk embroidery. When I think of my hometown and the 17 years I spent there, Mr. Sheng usually comes to my mind. Even though he was my English Teacher for only one year, the impact he had on my life was enough for me to remember him forever. My admiration and respect for him can only grow as time goes by. Just as his name in Chinese means, Shining Light, he had certainly lighted my life and had shined some light in a not so bright world.

I always wanted to write an article about my favorite teacher. Today, the last day of my kids’ school rekindles that idea.

On this very same day, I finished reading a book a friend recommended me out of blue recently, titled “When God winks at you.” It is about the power of coincidence and how extraordinary little events in your life happen for a reason.

Now I think back about my favorite teacher and my life, I know God has winked at me many times.

Let this article serve as a remembrance to my favorite teacher and a thank-you to all teachers out there.

Please remember, whatever you do, big or little things, you can touch and change lives in ways you might not even know.

As you say good-bye to your students who are leaving you after spending almost a year together and you can’t help shed a few tears, please know, there might be former students of yours who shed a few tears every time they think about you and how you have impacted their lives.

I am one of these former students.