Society
After the tragedy, the trauma still a challenge
By Hu Yinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-17 06:45
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And when teachers' performance is evaluated on results, the teacher-student relationship is also destined to go bad, she said. "One student told us he wanted to strangle someone to death because that person got five more marks than he did in an exam."
After the murder in January, the victim's class - so-called the "pearl class" because of the group's academic quality - turned down an initial offer of therapy because "final exams were coming and teachers said all eyes were fixed on them", said Li Guandang, a CAS aid worker. Classmates of the alleged killer were given a two-hour outdoor session on Jan 20.
"The students' time now, educators argue, is for the future but rehabilitation after a trauma needs to be present- and past-oriented. We must respond to the victims' every demand here and now; only then can we show them the meaning of a future," said Long. "Rehabilitation is to help reconstruct meaning. The trauma of a disaster breaks that meaning into pieces. When people can't put them together, they'll behave chaotically."
Shen Jibin, 42, a former principal who lost his wife of 16 years in the earthquake, took his daughter Tingting out of Beichuan Middle School shortly after the earthquake. "Her class suffered many fatalities and she was under a great deal of psychological pressure, so I asked her to stay away. The death toll put the survivors under significant stress."
Emotions are infectious, and stress is often passed from school leaders to teachers to students, he said.
Shen is now deputy auditor of the Beichuan education and sports bureau. Close to his office is what used to be a psychological aid center for teachers. Set up by a Hong Kong charity, the center has long been closed. It is now empty except for piles of brochures and unpacked boxes. "These centers are just a formality," he said. "I don't need anyone to rehabilitate me. The rehabilitation stuff is just fancy tricks. If it was for real, that killing in January would not have happened."
Although he refused to talk about his private life, a profile of Shen obtained from the local government says he has remarried. "Whatever happens, you have to depend on yourself. You have to be full of confidence about your own life. Live well with each passing day, do your job well and relax," he said.
Ultimately, only the earthquake survivors are truly qualified to evaluate the progress of their mental recovery, said Long. "It's increasingly unnecessary and useless for us, as outsiders, to evaluate so many lives that we are not acquainted with and an environment we do not know about," she said. "But of course that is not to say an evaluation cannot be done. If I can help these children to recover from this tragedy, I'll have accomplished my life's goal."
Hu Yongqi and Yu Chenkang contributed to the story
