Every afternoon, the school gathers together.
Photo by Zheng Ziyu
■Our reporter Zheng Ziyu
On the morning of October 27th, Zhang Juncheng was demonstrating how to fold a quilt to Xiaofeng, who had just entered school in the dormitory.
He measured the thickness of the quilt with his hands, stuck, folded, corrected... the previous "Hanajuan" became a "tofu block".
The 45-year-old Zhang Juncheng is the principal of the Changzhi Technical Secondary Vocational School in Shanxi Province, and the 17-year-old Xiaofeng’s first friend after arriving at the school.
In 1995, Zhang Juncheng became a security guard at Peking University.
Three years later, he obtained a diploma from Peking University for self-examination and was hailed as "the first security guard at Peking University."
In 2015, Zhang Juncheng opened Changzhi Technology Secondary Vocational School.
After serving as the principal, he adopted "paramilitarized management", which is different from similar schools in the local area. One of them stipulated that the quilt should be folded into "tofu pieces."
Xiaofeng, a young man from Jiangsu who dropped out of school for two years, was sent to this school by his grandmother.
Xiaofeng admires the principal in front of him, and keeps in mind what he said "you are straight, you forgive, and you know more."
Recently, Zhang Juncheng participated in a variety show and once again appeared in the public eye.
Now he has completed the transition from security guard to teacher, and then to the principal of a vocational school.
Some people have found their goals from his inspirational stories, and some have questioned whether Zhang Juncheng, a security guard with the aura of Peking University, can be a good principal.
Zhang Juncheng ignored these comments and only regarded the school as a place to prove himself. This is also the battlefield where he leads Xiaofeng and other students to achieve a counterattack in life.
Peking University
In 1995, Zhang Juncheng came to Beijing from a small village in Changzhi, Shanxi.
After 26 days of military training, he was assigned to Peking University and became a security guard.
In the 1990s, many foreigners came to China.
Just a few months after Zhang Juncheng started his post, he met a few foreigners who wanted to visit the campus.
Zhang Juncheng doesn't understand English, so he can only salute and stop them with a picture.
The foreign friends retreated to the opposite side of the road and gave Zhang Jun a thumbs up together.
Zhang Juncheng was a little puzzled, thinking that the other party was complimenting him for being serious and responsible, but at this moment their thumbs swept down and turned down.
"This is provocation and insult." Until now, Zhang Juncheng was still a little bit aggrieved about this matter.
When he changed shifts, he returned to the lounge, slammed his security hat on the table, picked up the phone and called his home mother.
After hearing the discouraging words of her son, the mother asked: "When you left, you said you wanted to be famous, then you are now famous?" Zhang Juncheng was speechless for a while.
When he hung up, he put his hat on his head again.
After work, Zhang Juncheng bought English books from scratch.
Sometimes, he reads aloud when the night shift is scarce.
One day, a teacher said to Zhang Juncheng: "I have been reading for several days, and thought you were speaking German." He was a little disappointed.
A few weeks later, the teacher appeared in front of him again and took out two attendance certificates, one for GRE pre-test training and the other for adult college entrance examination training.
It turned out that this teacher was Cao Yan, a professor of the Department of Western Languages at Peking University at that time.
She was moved by Zhang Juncheng's studious, and knew that his salary could not afford such courses, so she deliberately got two free attendance certificates for him.
In the end, Cao Yan told Zhang Juncheng: "I don't want you to be moved, I want you to act."
Since then, Zhang Juncheng shuttles between the security post and the classroom every day.
In order to ensure that work and study are not delayed, he only sleeps for an average of three or four hours a day. Excluding the time he is on guard, he takes a book to study.
After a while, many teachers and students from Beijing knew that there was Zhang Juncheng, a security guard who loves to study in the west gate.
At that time, Professor Zhang Xuecheng of the Department of Eastern Languages learned that he was going to major in law, and helped him contact the teachers of the Department of Law and asked Zhang Juncheng to listen.
Professor Zhang Yushu of the Department of Western Languages often finds Zhang Juncheng for a walk after dinner.
Once, Zhang Yushu's wife Dai Shumei asked Zhang Juncheng: "Do you know why my husband always takes you for a walk?" Zhang Juncheng thought at first that it might be that Professor Zhang feels safe with him. After all, he is a security guard.
Dai Shumei reminded Zhang Juncheng: "Philosophy makes people smart, and being able to look at problems dialectically is good for one's life."
Zhang Juncheng never thought that a small security guard himself could receive such care from Peking University professors.
Not only did he get a diploma from Peking University for the self-examination of law, but he also publicly told his story on the stage of Peking University.
Under his leadership, more than ten security guards were preparing for self-examination or adult college entrance examination.
Podium
In 1999, Zhang Juncheng returned to Changzhi and went to the talent market to find a job.
Although he holds a diploma from Peking University, he dare not have high demands and only looks forward to finding a job that doesn't work hard.
In the company that set up a stall, he saw a vocational school at a glance, and immediately applied for a school administration post.
Back home from the big city, the working environment is completely different.
There are no historical buildings accumulated over the years in the school building, only some half-new and not old teaching buildings.
In the office, Zhang Juncheng will not take the initiative to mention his experience at Peking University, "I am afraid that others will ask how I got here when I studied at Peking University, and I am afraid of being separated from others." Zhang Juncheng said.
He looks forward to someone else chatting with him about philosophy like on the campus of Peking University, but it is difficult for him to find a common language with the teachers around him.
The most different is the students in the school.
They are not polite college students, but a group of "backward" students who can't get into high school.
Many people do not like to learn and often violate school discipline and school rules. They enter vocational schools just to learn some skills in finding jobs.
Many students in vocational schools seem to be "abandoned".
For a long time, he lived with the sense of gap.
There are also philosophy classes in vocational schools.
He flipped through the textbook and felt that the content in it was relatively simple, and they were all concepts that he had heard on the shore of Weiming Lake.
This aroused his desire to give lectures and wanted to share what he had arrived at Peking University with the children in his hometown.
He immediately applied to the principal, and then carefully prepared and lectured.
The school organized the class evaluation committee specially reviewed Zhang Juncheng's class.
His class made everyone's eyes shine and passed unanimously.
So he turned from an administrator to a teacher and stepped onto the stage.
His class has also been recognized by the students. With 6 full classes, he can arrange 4 periods a day on average.
He attended the school's Marxist philosophy class, politics class and law popularization class.
He stood on the podium and talked, as if returning to the podium of Peking University.
When he first entered school, Zhang Juncheng always had a straight suit, and almost everything related to learning was tight. He walked, sits, and lays and demands himself according to military standards.
This is what he requires of himself, and he is afraid that if he is not strict and cautious with himself, he will be biased towards the students.
The boys saw him and learned to keep his waist straight.
In the following teaching career, Zhang Juncheng has the deepest memory of a class.
At that time, he found that a student in the class was absent, and immediately mobilized the whole class to search for this student in the city.
After a while, news came that the student was selling guest meals in a small shop opened by a relative's house.
Zhang Juncheng came to the entrance of the shop and saw this student working shirtless.
By 12 noon, when the shop was busiest, Zhang Juncheng walked in, and the students saw their head teacher at a glance, and the unskilled movements were even more unfavorable.
This is exactly what Zhang Juncheng wanted.
He sat down and said to the students, "I'm hungry." When he finished eating, Zhang Juncheng said again: "Go home and pack things, and come back with me first."
The relatives saw that it was the head teacher who came to pick up the child, and thanked him repeatedly: "Can you sell the rice for a lifetime? You still have to ask you to take him back to study." Zhang Juncheng discovered that the parents gave up because of helplessness and the students gave up because of helplessness. How can the teacher give up the student again?
He set himself a goal: the number of people at graduation should be equal to the number of people at the start of the class.
In May, the college entrance examination is approaching.
The principal of another school approached Zhang Juncheng and hoped that he would change his job. The conditions offered were attractive-a promotion and a doubling of salary.
The news reached the students, and they believed that Zhang Juncheng was leaving.
What Zhang Juncheng thought was: When he was at Peking University, the up-and-coming professors and scholars didn't mind that he was an ordinary security guard. Now, he shouldn't abandon this group of children.
After thinking about it for two days, he decided to stay.
Counterattack
In 2015, 39-year-old Zhang Juncheng decided to start a secondary vocational school in a joint venture with a friend. He served as the principal and opened auto repair, animation, flight attendant and other majors.
From the security guard to the teacher to the principal, this means a new counterattack.
All the trivial matters in the school fell on Zhang Juncheng.
In the past, it was only necessary to teach a lesson, bring a class, and manage the students well, but now it is also responsible for the diet and daily life of the teachers and students, professional courses and all kinds of affairs.
On October 25 this year, Zhang Juncheng rushed from the main campus of Changzhi Technology Secondary Vocational School to the South Campus less than 3 kilometers away.
He will give a speech for teachers and students, the theme is "Knowledge changes destiny, struggle changes lives".
The content of the speech was mainly about Zhang Juncheng's own experience of studying at Peking University.
On that day, more than 80 students in the classroom were from three grades. They were all the first time they heard the headmaster's own story about studying at Peking University.
Zhang Juncheng has spoken publicly about his experience at Peking University countless times.
Since 2010, Zhang Juncheng has been interviewed many times, and many colleges and companies have invited him to speak, but he always feels that it is a bit weird to tell his story in front of people close to him.
After becoming the principal, Zhang Juncheng found that enrolling students was a difficult task.
Only more than 200 students were recruited in the first year.
Until later, someone reminded that Zhang Juncheng's own story was the best sign.
Therefore, Zhang Juncheng's podium was extended to the school.
This has become one of Zhang Juncheng's solutions to the enrollment problem: relying on the halo of Peking University graduation.
Parents and students expect that his story will have a positive impact.
Now, there are more than 1,400 students in the school.
On the podium, Zhang Juncheng was wearing a dark suit and bright black leather shoes.
His former student and later colleague Liu Jianbo said that the teacher had a military temperament that was not irritating and presumptuous, and Zhang Juncheng required the students to obey the head teacher.
In Liu Jianbo's eyes, Zhang Juncheng has "carried" this image for some years.
Until recent years, when he wore a suit, he would habitually unbutton the button, "Looking at it is very professional." Liu Jianbo said.
In recent years, vocational education has developed rapidly.
Zhang Juncheng divides students into two categories. One is the employment after graduating from secondary vocational schools. Students who have spare capacity can be trained by the company and even assist in their advancement. Research-oriented talents with vocational training.
In order to provide children with multiple outlets, Zhang Juncheng has been thinking of ways to contact enterprises in big cities and organize school-enterprise cooperation projects.
He has joined with more than a dozen airlines and technology companies in Beijing.
He believes that his students will slowly "be in short supply."
Correct
In August this year, Zhang Juncheng received a letter from Shanghai.
The letter was written by Feng Hongying, the grandmother of a child.
Feng Hongying said in the letter: Her grandson Xiaofeng dropped out of junior high school and has been wandering in society for two years.
She said that she had read Zhang Juncheng's inspirational story in the newspaper and wanted to ask Zhang Juncheng's vocational school to give Xiaofeng a chance.
After reading the letter, Zhang Juncheng called back immediately: "Let Xiaofeng come and have a look first."
After learning about this, Xiaofeng and his parents reminded Feng Hongying: "How can the principal call you back? Be careful of being deceived." Feng Hongying asked Xiaofeng to visit the school to make a decision.
After arriving at the school, Xiaofeng saw that the uniforms of this vocational school were camouflage uniforms. He also asked that the quilts in the dormitory were folded into "tofu blocks", that he had to run in the morning and gather before meals, just like being in a military camp.
This is a major feature of all schools with more than 1,400 people-paramilitary management.
What made Xiaofeng's eyes bright was that there was a collection number at 2:10 every afternoon.
All students in the school finished their lunch break, organized their housework, and ran uniformly to the playground to gather on the class as a unit.
In addition to counting the number of people, the school motto should also be called out in unison.
The school also stipulates that from Monday to Friday, all head teachers must be in school, eating and living with their students.
The paramilitary management model originated from Zhang Juncheng's military training before taking up the post of Peking University security guard.
In his previous teaching experience, he found that the behavioral norms and study habits of students in vocational schools need to be corrected, and that relatively strict military management is effective.
Within two days, Xiaofeng made up his mind to return to campus.
In the first two days after arriving at the school, Zhang Juncheng worried that Xiaofeng would not adapt to the campus life under paramilitary management. He came to the dormitory specially and opened a small stove to demonstrate how to fold the quilt into "tofu cubes."
"The way you choose yourself, you have to walk down on your knees. To this school, I don't care what you used to be, but here you are tofu." Zhang Juncheng folded the quilt and used the quilt as a metaphor, like Xiaofeng. Understand and nod.
Calling like this, Zhang Juncheng will integrate it into the daily teaching, such as taking advantage of the preparation bell to enter a classroom and say some inspirational and philosophical words, and he can run through almost all classes in a week, and the cycle repeats.
Zhang Juncheng said: "Education is a project of conscience. I always remember how I got out of poverty and how I received the teachings of my teachers at Peking University."
There are two desks in Zhang Juncheng's office, one is his own and the other is the secretary's.
The secretary is concurrently held by students who have not yet learned their skills.
"This is my most proud invention." Zhang Juncheng said.
In many education cases, some parents send children who don’t like to learn to the construction site to let them experience the hardship of moving bricks.
Zhang Juncheng found that this trick might not work for the children in his school. They would rather move bricks than sit in the classroom.
To this end, he designed the "Principal Secretary's Office" to allow this group of students to serve as secretaries concurrently.
When Zhang Juncheng worked, he asked his little secretaries to follow him, helping solve problems, searching for information, and copying texts or inspirational quotes when he was free.
He feels that the students just don't understand that learning can change their destiny, so they use their parents' hard-earned money but don't work hard.
Using a part-time secretary can subtly wake them up, which not only hurts students' self-esteem, but also promotes their ideological progress.
In the past few years, there have been countless students who have worked in secretarial positions. To his satisfaction, they have returned to the classroom without exception.
Liu Jianbo's class has a rule that is exactly the same as Zhang Juncheng's back then-the class teacher must be obeyed.
After Zhang Juncheng found out, he smiled and asked, "If the principal and the head teacher are not in agreement, who would you listen to?" "Listen to me," Liu Jianbo said.
Zhang Juncheng saw his shadow from Liu Jianbo, and Liu Jianbo also inherited Zhang Juncheng's class style. While teaching professional knowledge, he also asked students to learn the most basic use and repair of photocopiers and printers.
"Speaking of small, this is a workplace skill; when it is bigger, if you don't sweep a house, how can you sweep the world?" Zhang Juncheng remembered these details.
But not every student can be firmly grasped, and not everyone can agree with or practice Zhang Juncheng's educational philosophy.
As the bell rang after class, Zhang Juncheng's office door was knocked frequently.
Some people report their work and submit documents, and some people ask him to review with a reimbursement form.
There was also a head teacher holding a stack of forms to ask him to sign. The form was related to the stay of a student. Because of a fight outside the school, the student would be dismissed in accordance with the regulations.
All relevant personnel signed the form, leaving only space for the principal to sign.
Zhang Juncheng took out a pen and read the contents of the form repeatedly with the tip of the pen and his eyes, but he was reluctant to write.