BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- In the 1990s, no child in Xue Fagen's classroom knew about Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes," which for Xue, was disconcerting.
2008 marked the 30th anniversary since Xue started teaching Chinese at Shengze Experimental Primary School, a countryside school in east China's Jiangsu Province. Two decades ago, he became the youngest national senior teacher in Jiangsu.
When he taught Aesop's fox story again in 2017, students rushed to reply, and some answers surprised him.
The "sour grape therapy" has been applied in hospitals, a student said, having researched on the Internet. Another student said the fox could not eat the grapes but the excuses he gives serve as a type of wisdom.
"In the Internet era, our kids' capacity and consciousness of learning are far beyond our imagination," said Xue. "Kids are changing so fast. A qualified teacher must always be curious and engaging."
"Many famous schools in urban areas have offered me a much higher salary. But I think rural areas need good teachers, so I decided to stay," he told Xinhua.
Several of Xue's students come from migrant worker families who face extreme financial difficulties. Xue said his school paid for their school uniforms and fees for outdoor activities.
Xue said that nothing makes him happier than when his former students return to the rural areas to work. "Some have even become respectable teachers in our school."
In both urban and rural areas, the belief that education can change lives has been pervasive.
It has been two years and five months since Chen Liqun, a former principal from east China, taught at a high school in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
Among the first batch of college graduates since the reform and opening-up, Chen started to teach at a countryside school right after completing college.
He became the principal in 1985, and before his retirement, Chen headed one of the country's best high schools, Hangzhou Xuejun, in east China's Zhejiang Province.
Chen accepted the principal position in Guizhou without receiving any salary in 2016.
"I decided to volunteer in one of China's most impoverished areas because I was born in the rural area too," Chen told Xinhua.
"Every child has just one life. It's only through studying hard that they can create a better life in the future," said Chen. "I don't want their life journey to be made in vain."
Chen noted his students in Guizhou are very smart. "I hope to help them transform intelligence into wisdom."
His contract in Guizhou was scheduled to end in 2017. Chen said the eagerness of his students touched him, so he decided to stay.
Chen's mother is 91 years old and lives in Zhejiang. He makes numerous trips between Guizhou and Zhejiang each year, sharing his time with his students and his family. A one-way trip takes eight hours.
Chen's family has always supported him. "My son studied in the United States and during vacation, he and his wife visit me in Guizhou," Chen said. "My daughter-in-law's have even come here to give lectures to the kids."
When Chen arrived in 2016, 60 students dropped out. "This surprised me because, in Zhejiang, such a huge number of school dropouts does not happen. But my colleagues in Guizhou said the typical number was 100."
Through Chen's efforts, very few students drop out now. "There are also an increasing number of fathers and mothers who attend parents' meetings nowadays."
"My greatest sense of accomplishment is students who study well, before walking out of the mountains to chase after their dreams," Chen told Xinhua.
Tao Wenzhao, almost 80 years old, now an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been continually teaching undergraduate students at northwest China's Xi'an Jiaotong University.
Between 1980 and 1982, he studied at the Heat Transfer Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Minnesota and chose to return to China after graduating.
Since 1983, over 6,000 students have taken Tao's class.
Tao still remembers one of his graduate students from the 1990s. Back then, Tao's research team only had one personal computer. "Students used to have to wait in line to use the computer, and one of my students, Wang Liangbi, even slept in my lab so he could use the computer late at night when it was finally free."
"I was deeply impressed by this," said Tao. His hard work paid off, and Wang now heads the Key Laboratory of Railway Vehicle Thermal Engineering at the Ministry of Education.
For Tao, teachers have a huge influence on their students' lives. "Inspired by the head teacher of my high school, I did well on my graduate entrance exams and then studied overseas."
"My family did not have good economic conditions when China was recruiting graduate students in 1962. So I had no plan to register for the exam," he said.
Professor Gu Fengshi, who often helped answer his questions after class, convinced Tao to sign up.
"Without him, my life would be on a completely different track," Tao said, who is now endeavoring to help his students to accomplish their own goals, just as he was helped decades ago.
Tao often works until 2 a.m. He once had cataract surgery but stepped into the classroom the same day to deliver his lecture, until his students intervened, asking him to take more rest.
"Being a teacher is very fulfilling, especially when students go on to accomplish something great," Tao told Xinhua. Enditem
