Supporting a school with one arm
Updated: 2007-09-10 12:00
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A man abandoned the chance of being a civil servant to stay in a reclusive mountain and teach students there for 30 years. He never regrets his choice even though he lost an arm when doing hard labor for the tiny school.
In 1978, He Meiji was the only literate person in his village when he came back to his home in the Kuzhu Mountains bordering Hunan and the then Sichuan provinces in 1978 after graduating from high school. He was determined to get out of the big mountains and out of poverty.
His dream came true the day he received a job offer from the finance bureau of the county, but when he packed up heading for the bright future, dozens of villagers flocked to his home and tearfully begged him to stay and work as the only teacher for children in a local primary school.
It was a difficult decision but he finally destroyed the paper with his job offer and began teaching at the Friendship Primary School, which had been abandoned for four years. In the early years, He taught all the 20 plus students in four grades, and made chalk, rulers, parallel bars for gymnastics, and other necessary teaching tools himself.
He lit up the windowless classroom by burning firewood, but years of soot impaired his eyes. In order to provide a better study environment to students, He made his home a temporary school and applied to the local education bureau for a new school. He received 200 yuan for the project in 1983, but the money was only enough to buy bricks and tiles, so he and some villagers started to make wood planks and other materials themselves.
When villagers rushed him to the closest hospital in the nearest town and collected enough money for his treatment, the wound had deteriorated so seriously that doctors had to amputate the arm.
But the loss of his arm didn’t deter He from being a good teacher -- he managed to write and teach with his left hand. During the winter, the one-armed teacher carried students on his back to go through dangerous mountainous paths, and in the summer he went deep into the forest to catch poisonous snakes for money to fund impoverished students.
Though his salary was no more than 100 yuan per month, He financially supported more than 200 students, with 8,400 yuan in total.
Now many of his students have left the big mountain, and the 54-year-old teacher is very proud that one of them has become a college teacher.
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