Author: Miao Zhiyong
They get up at 6 o'clock every morning and get busy. In addition to normal teaching, they also have to take care of the students' lives full-time. They can't rest until the children are asleep at night. Sometimes they have to stay up all night to take care of sick students.
Children from Yuanding Elementary School.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
In Nanjiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province, on the border of Sichuan and Shaanxi, there is a Yuanding Mountain at an altitude of 1,400 meters. Yuanding Primary School in the mountain is a well-known "left-behind children's home". In the school, there is a couple named Chen Guo, Zhang Rong’s "post-70s" teachers and couples have voluntarily taken care of the study and life of nearly 1,000 left-behind children while teaching for 20 years. Weekends and holidays are no exception. They are called "Fruit Dad" and "Mother Zhang" by the students. .
With their meticulous care, the growth of these children left deep in the mountains is no longer monotonous and lonely. They live in the loving Wen Wei family, and more than 60 students have become students in key universities across the country.
Returning to the hometown to run schools so that left-behind children have books to read
Chen Guo and Zhang Rong washed clothes for the students.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
More than 20 years ago, after graduating from high school, Chen Guo worked as a substitute for a primary school in the urban area of Bazhong City.
In order to make a living, he changed his career to start a business and open a restaurant, and his life was prosperous.
In 1999, Chen Guo and his wife Zhang Rong returned to the village. It was the time for students to study, but several school-age children were out of school to play at home.
Upon questioning, it was learned that these children did not go to school because their parents were working outside the home and the school was far from home.
"After returning to the city, he was very worried about the children who were out of school in his hometown. After repeated consideration, I supported him to return to the village to run school." Zhang Rong said.
In the autumn of 1999, a family school appeared in Yuanding Village.
The couple’s original idea was to allow students to study nearby. Later, children from other villages also came. They wanted to stay at home, so they vacated two rooms for students to live in for free.
With the increasing number of boarding students, the teaching and living conditions of family schools can no longer satisfy more students for study and accommodation.
In 2005, Chen Guo and his wife transferred to the public Yuanding Village Primary School as a substitute, and dozens of students in the school also transferred to the school.
Zhang Rong takes care of the younger students to drink water.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
After the arrival of Chen Guo and his wife, Yuanding Elementary School opened a new school-running model-full-care boarding.
While the school is responsible for the teaching tasks from kindergarten to the third grade of elementary school, it also undertakes the full care management of left-behind children in the village and nearby villages.
The school became their "home"
The students are eating lunch.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
“In fact, we are busiest on weekends. In addition to getting up early in the morning to ensure the children’s daily meals and homework, we also need to bathe, wash clothes, carry out extracurricular activities, and help children and their parents. Talking on the phone...have been busy until late at night." Zhang Rong said while washing clothes.
Every weekend, she must wash all the students’ clothes and quilts, so as to ensure that there is more time for the children to teach during the formal class.
Zhang Rong smiled and said that she often did such heavy physical tasks, and her body became stronger and stronger, and her thin arms had also developed muscles.
“Actually, we have a total of 47 left-behind students here who come from more than 10 nearby towns and villages. Their family background is not very good. Some are single-parent families, and every student has a sad story!” Speaking of which, we are working for the children. Teacher Chen Guo, who was cooking lunch, sighed and stopped talking, her eye circles started to moist...
Chen Guo teaches the students.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
On weekends and holidays, Chen Guo and Zhang Rong will find ways to improve the food for the children, so that these children whose parents are not around all the time can feel the warmth and love of home.
Chen Guo said that the culinary skills that he trained before opening a restaurant can now be used again.
"Due to the new crown epidemic this year during the Spring Festival, several parents of students working in Wuhan were unable to return, and the children spent the year at our home." Zhang Rong said that this year, Yuanding Primary School accepted 57 left-behind children, including some Forty-seven of them live on campus, ranging in age from 2.5 to 16 years old.
Except for the Spring Festival, the children boarded at school throughout the year, and the school became their "home".
No pain no gain
Chen Guo cooks for the students.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
Singing all the way through hardships.
The story of this couple of teachers attracted the attention of the "Jack Ma Foundation".
In 2015, Chen Guo and Zhang Rong won the "Ma Yun Country Teacher Award".
In 2016, both husband and wife were hired by the Bazhong City Education Bureau as lecturers in the "Bazhong City Poor Village Primary School Teacher Training Class", sharing the topic of "village school experience and caring for left-behind children" with village primary school teachers across the city; in 2017, In Bazhong City’s Good Family Deeds and Family Education Story Sharing Meeting, they shared the story of their “left-behind children’s home”; in 2018, the two were hired as guests of the “Most Beautiful Family Deeds Tour” in Sichuan Province. Provincial tour to share the story of "rooting rural education, caring for left-behind children, and helping poverty alleviation".
In the same year, Zhang Rong was named "National Excellent Child Companion Mother", and represented 353 child companion mothers across the country to report and share in Beijing.
"Thank you for your attention and help from all walks of life. In fact, we only did what we wanted to do, and wanted to create conditions for these poor children in the mountains to get out of the mountains and become useful talents in the country." Chen Guo and Zhang Rong stated their original intention of running the school.
Even though I'm tired, keep going
Zhang Rong washes hair for young students.
Photo by Miao Zhiyong
"To be honest, we have been tired after all these years! I hope that more society will be able to care about the growth of the left-behind children..." The "post-70s" couple said their heart after a long silence.
"However, when we are tired, the children (will) fight (for us) beat their backs, and when they are thirsty, they fight for us to drink. Every time all our fatigue is wiped out." Chen Guo said. Some of the children who go out of school have finished high school or university, and some have already joined work.
"Every holiday, they come back to visit us and call out'Dad Guo, Mom Zhang'. This is when we are happiest and feel that all our efforts are worth it."
"Someone once hired me to change careers at a high salary, but I politely declined them because these children cannot do without us, and we don't worry about them." Chen Guo said, from running a family school to becoming a teacher in Yuanding Village Primary School, their income has not been high. Even so, they have not charged these left-behind children's care fees.
Although they lived a poor life, they did not shake their persistence.