"Reading, the world is in front of your eyes; if you don't read, your world is in front of you." Chen Liangwei, the principal of Qihang School in Qidong County, Hunan Province, always talks about this sentence when dealing with children.
September 5, 2022 is the seventh "China Charity Day" in my country.
On the same day, Pinduoduo's "Reading for You" charity donation action entered Qihang School, and sent the school's students a "scholarly gift package" consisting of more than 8,000 exquisite books and 210 sets of sporting goods, and invited famous children's literature writer Xie Lejun. Share the power of reading with your children.
farewell
Qihang School is located in Dayuan Village, an hour away from Qidong County. There are more than 1,600 left-behind children here, accounting for nearly 90% of the total number of students.
Principal Chen Liangwei, who calls himself "the first generation of left-behind children in China", grew up in the countryside with his grandfather.
Some children are silent and autistic because they are accustomed to no one to communicate. Some children are naughty and rebellious, but just long to be seen. Chen Liangwei knows well: "For left-behind children, vision and self-confidence are more important."
In such empathy, the first left-behind children's choir in Hunan Province was established in Qihang School.
The criteria for selecting members has nothing to do with tone, appearance, or talent.
Only choose children who are withdrawn, rebellious, or have a particularly difficult family.
These children sang all the way from the mountain to the provincial capital, to the National Grand Theater, and to the stage of the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Ox.
The media once called the story of this left-behind children's choir the Chinese version of "Spring in the Cattle Class".
In the movie "Spring in the Cattle Class", music teacher Matthew used chorus to change the fate of a group of marginalized children. "Education is not only for knowledge, but love is the fruit."
At Qihang School, more left-behind children are affected not only by the classroom and art, but also by reading and the related spiritual care.
▲On September 5th, Pinduoduo's "Reading for You" charity donation action entered Qihang School.
"Books always give me warmth and strength." Mao Weihao from the fifth grade (27) class likes to tilt his head and share Cao Wenxuan's "Bronze Sunflower" with his classmates: "Sunflower is so pitiful, bronze is very kind. It's so difficult. Under the same conditions, both bronze and sunflower can live a strong and optimistic life, and this story is very touching."
No one can say exactly which day a child who has read Bronze will become a "Bronze".
"Yesterday, during the military training, a classmate in our class felt uncomfortable. He immediately took off his jacket and gave it to the classmate." In the eyes of classmate Chen Jiali, Mao Weihao is not a "bronze" beside him.
"I want to go beyond this ordinary extravagance, I want to live in full bloom..." This is the wake-up music of Qihang School at 2 pm every day.
The afternoon sun covered the stone carvings of books on the south side of the playground.
Most of those who entered the classroom were warm and confident faces.
Sailing's "farewell" sent away the loneliness, loss and inferiority behind the label of "left-behind children".
sowing
Reading, in Chen Liangwei's view, is seeding in the hearts of children.
"Beginning in the first grade, the teacher taught us to read and write. From "Snow White", I saw her kindness, beauty, and her friendship with the Seven Dwarfs; in the second grade, the idioms like "waiting for the rabbit and the class" Stories have taught me a lot of useful principles; when I grow up, I will look for stories like "Pippi Longstocking", "Lena Fox", and "Anne of Green Gables"." In the "Reading for You" example In the reading sharing class brought by Xing Xing, Deng Ke from the sixth grade (23) class talked eloquently about those growth stories related to reading.
Not all children have a good reading environment.
A year ago, Chen Qing returned to his hometown Qidong from Haikou and became a Chinese teacher for the fifth grade (27) class of Qihang School.
He has been engaged in teaching for more than ten years. However, when it comes to setting sail, Chen Qing is still worried: parents who go out to work pay more attention to their children's food, clothing and housing, and do not pay much attention to their children's spiritual needs, so as to effectively guide their children to develop good reading Habits are even more extravagant, "many families don't have extracurricular books at all".
"My parents won't buy me books, they want me to borrow them from my classmates." Kuang Linggan, a sixth grader, only has two fantasy online novels, "The Stars Change" and "Peerless Unparalleled".
At the beginning of the year, after receiving more than 100 yuan of lucky money, Liu Yunjian from the sixth grade (23) class spent more than 20 yuan to buy a copy of Kafka's "Metamorphosis": "I like to read books, but there are no books at home."
Reading equity is an important part of improving education equity. Chen Qing understands that a large number of high-quality books must be accompanied by them.
▲The Qihang School established the first left-behind children's choir in Hunan Province. These children sang all the way from Dashan to the provincial capital, to the National Grand Theater, and to the stage of the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Ox.
At the beginning of the communication between the "Reading for You" project team and Qihang School, He Juanjuan, the principal of the primary school of Qihang School, also expressed a strong intention: rather than the number of donated books, he is more concerned about the high-quality content of the books.
"I love Shen Shixi's "Wolf King's Dream"." Guan Yaxuan from the fifth grade (27) class lit up when she learned that Shen Shixi's animal world series novels were among the donated books.
"Wolf King's Dream" is a story about life, love and dreams. "It makes people believe that as long as you work hard, move forward bravely, and never give up, your dream will come true in the end." After sharing with others, Guan Yaxuan chose one Ben, sitting at the desk, quietly read.
The book list donated this time has been discussed and studied repeatedly by the school's teaching and research team and the "Reading for You" project team, only to select high-quality books suitable for all ages.
This is also one of the characteristics of the "Reading for You" charity donation project. Each time the donated books are customized point-to-point according to the actual situation of the school, and people in the educational and cultural circles are asked to screen and confirm.
Seeing the light in the children's eyes, He Juanjuan's face was filled with indescribable joy.
"With good books, there will be more beautiful reading stories."
Reading is like the wind, moisturizing things silently.
He Juanjuan found that gradually, those children who were naughty and mischievous on weekdays could become quiet as soon as they came across their favorite books; gradually, the children's expression skills improved...
According to reports, since the launch of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province in April 2021, the footprints of "Reading for You" have spread all over the mountainous areas of Tibet, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Anhui, Yunnan, Hubei, Jiangxi and other places. Elementary schools and special schools have donated nearly 300,000 books so far.
Tomorrow's sun will still shine stubbornly ordinary; the sun that is planted will eventually be as gorgeous as a dream.
convention
For more than a year, Pinduoduo's "Reading for You" charity donation campaign has continued to enter the most remote plateaus, mountains and villages in China, donating books to children in primary and secondary schools, and inviting well-known domestic writers, scholars, and children We read together.
This time, when I walked into Qidong, Hunan, the "Reading for You" public welfare action invited Xie Lejun, a famous children's literature writer, to share "The Power of Reading" with the children.
"A broken book made me fall in love with reading." Xie Lejun's opening remarks aroused the curiosity of the children.
Xie Lejun recalled that on his way to school in the second grade, he picked up a broken book on the side of the road, with no front cover or back cover.
"I stood on the side of the road and watched for more than an hour, but I forgot to go to school. When I ran to the school, it was already in class. The teacher asked me why I was late, and I said I was reading by the side of the road. The teacher thought I was lying, and I was in a hurry and put the book The story is told.”
Xie Lejun danced and reproduced the story in the broken book.
Under the podium, the children immediately realized that it was "Monkey King Three Beats the Bone Spirit".
After class that year, young Xie Lejun was called to the office by the teacher.
Xie Lejun thought he would get some scolding, but the teacher handed over a book with a cover and only made one request: "Read it carefully, and then share the story in the book with the students."
"I am also a child in the countryside, with three earthen houses and five teachers. This is the environment I grew up in when I was a child." Xie Lejun said that he came out of the countryside and would like to thank him for reading.
At the end of the sharing, the curiosity of the children made Xie Lejun have to "drag the hall".
▲ Xie Lejun, a famous children's literature writer, shared "The Power of Reading" with the children. After the sharing, the children lined up to ask Xie Lejun questions.
"Is there any other way to read besides learning Lu Xun to eat chili peppers?" Some children expressed their confusion: sometimes after reading a book, they will forget the content of the book.
Therefore, Xie Lejun gave all his money to teach reading methods.
"If you didn't come across that broken book in second grade, would you still be a writer now?" a child hypothesized.
Maybe another book.
Xie Lejun said that as long as you keep reading and improve yourself, you can also take this opportunity to change the way forward.
More kids ask:
"Why is Mount Everest the highest mountain in the world?"
"If we can move to the moon in the future, will the water on the moon be drinkable?"
Xie Lejun was not in a hurry to answer, but asked them to look for it in the book, because "a lot of reading, there will always be an answer".
When they parted, Xie Lejun agreed with the children: "In another 20 years, you can tell me your reading stories, okay?" Just like the teacher who encouraged him to read back then.