Wang Yuanchu resumed his work in the spring semester of 80.

Considering that he was 51 years old and would retire in a few years, the district education committee originally planned to arrange him in the Yanchong Primary School in the village.

This primary school was also founded by him that year, and it is close to home, which is very suitable for retirement there.

But Wang Yuanchu insisted on going to the primary school in the mountainous area where the conditions were the most difficult and the teachers were most scarce.

I hope that in the last ten years of my teaching career, I can contribute my meager strength to the cause of education in the mountainous areas, so as to repay the party and the government for their reconstruction.

It just so happened that there was a primary school called Hongshiwan in the jurisdiction that lacked national teachers, and Mr. Wang's initiative to ask for help also solved the urgent need of the leaders of the Education Commission.

He was also promoted to one level, increased his salary by one level, and concurrently served as the principal of Red Rock Bay Elementary School.

Wang Shichuan sent his old father to his post, and the father and son set off early in the morning, climbed over more than a dozen mountains, and took a ferry for more than ten miles, before arriving at the rural primary school deep in the mountains at dusk.

A thatched cottage with four or five adobe grass roofs is the entire building of this school.

In the whitening mud and stone playground, a few female students were jumping squares, and when they saw the two visitors from outside the mountain, they all came forward curiously.

Under the ancient locust tree on the side of the playground, there is a scrap iron ploughshare, which should be the signal bell for the end of this school.

Under the misty sunset, a wisp of cooking smoke rises, and you can faintly smell the aroma of food.

The teachers of this primary school are preparing a reception banquet for the newly arrived Principal Wang.

"Dad, this mountain is too remote! How good it is to teach in Yan Chong's hometown!"

Wang Shichuan picked up a load of his old father's luggage, looked at the Hongshiwan Primary School on the mountainside, and smiled regretfully.

"It's so much better than I thought it would be! Wait and see, I'll be able to make a big difference in two years!"

Wang Yuanchu looked ahead with a bamboo cane in both hands, his eyes were full of longing and affection, as if he had seen his first love after a long absence.

"This looks like a school! Our production team's cowsheds are better than it! Hey! Dad, you really know how to choose a place! Hahaha!"

This mountainous primary school is so small and dilapidated that it can't be compared with the rural primary schools in the fence on the hill outside the mountain, and even farmers like Wang Shichuan can't look down on it.

"The mountains are empty, the sunset is like smoke! This place is a good place to pick up and pick up, what a good place to read!"

Wang Yuanchu looked around at Siye and sighed loudly, while eagerly speeding up his pace.

With the same mountains and grasslands, he and his semi-literate son saw a world of difference.

"It's not convenient for you to go back to Yanchong! I'll send my mother over next month and make you a companion! Oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, I'll buy it for you from outside the mountain!"

Wang Shichuan trafficked timber and shuttled back and forth between the inner and outer mountains of Dabie Mountain every day.

But it was the first time he had come in such a remote mountain, and he couldn't help but worry about his old father's daily life.

"Don't worry! I haven't suffered anything in my life! I'm sure I'll be able to live a few more years at this Red Rock Bay Elementary School! Hehe, Shichuan! Next time you come and bring me a set of carpenter's tools, I'll be useful!"

The resumption of Mr. Teaching's official position filled Wang Yuanchu with fighting spirit and passion.

The swineherd of the production team, whom everyone dislikes, has become the respected head of a school.

Such a change in life opportunities, no matter how big the difficulties in life, in the eyes of Mr. Wang, who has just turned over and liberated, it is not a matter.

While the father and son were talking and laughing, the teachers and staff came enthusiastically to take the pick on Wang Shichuan's shoulders and greet their Principal Wang.

The next day, Sunday, Wang Yuanchu organized a meeting of all faculty and staff, the first time he had performed public duties after a 20-year hiatus.

He found that the situation and difficulties of Redstone Bay Elementary School were far greater than he had previously imagined.

There are only four employees in the school, including him, and the other three are private teachers.

Teacher Xiao Che is a girl, the daughter of the secretary of the Red Stone Bay Brigade, who just graduated from high school two years ago.

Mr. Wu and Mr. Zhang are both veteran comrades with more than ten years of teaching experience.

Teacher Wu, who was in charge of the school's work before, briefly reported some of the school's situation to Wang Yuanchu.

There are currently more than 40 students in the school in five grades, but there have been few students in the district's junior high school over the years.

The vast majority of the children are just small cattle herders, and they all drop out of school before they graduate from primary school.

At the back of the school building, there are five or six acres of mountainous fields.

When the primary school was first built, the brigade could not afford the education funds, so the mountainous land was allocated to the school, and the teachers led the students to half farming and half learning, so as to ensure the daily expenses of the school.

At that time, the rural primary and secondary schools seemed to have school fields, ranging from five acres to ten acres, which was also a tradition preserved from the old era.

It can not only provide vegetables and food for the school canteen, but also give the schoolchildren a base for labor practice classes.

Let them do it themselves, participate in the whole process of cultivation, planting, and harvesting, and they can understand the hardships of Jiaxuan at a young age.

In the past, this kind of farming system was of little educational significance, and there were no peasant children who did not do household farm work when they came home from school.

But in contemporary times, the children are getting farther and farther away from the farming civilization left by their ancestors, and it is the time for the school field system to show its skills in cultural inheritance and cultivating the spirit of farming and reading for schoolchildren.

It's a pity that this teaching tradition of the unity of knowledge and action no longer exists!

Every two years, the district sends public teachers to Hongshiwan Primary School, but it is so remote that you have to walk dozens of miles to buy catties of coarse salt.

Therefore, this primary school can't retain talents at all, and the teachers who came over basically stayed up for a semester and a half, and then all tried to transfer them away.

"Lao Wu, there is no shortage of stones, wood, and clay in our mountains, why don't you organize the students to do it themselves and build a few more adobe school buildings? In this way, we will not occupy the students' classrooms as teachers' dormitories and offices! And this desk, which is all made of adobe bluestone slabs, how can it be done? It is not safe! There are also those school fields and slopes, I think they are all abandoned! There is no public grain to hand over in these dry lands, so take the students to clean them up, and our teachers will have three meals a day, and we can also subsidize a little noon food for the children who are far away! ”

After listening to Mr. Wu's introduction, Wang Yuanchu had a stomach full of questions.

He didn't understand how this Hongshiwan Primary School, surrounded by mountains and bamboo gardens, and there was no shortage of wood and clay, could be like a pigsty run by Comrade Wu.

All the teachers did not have an office space to correct their homework, and he, the principal's dormitory, was still a patchwork of a classroom that Mr. Che led a few students to temporarily separate from each other.

After listening to Wang Yuanchu's question, Teacher Xiao Che smiled empathetically, stared at a pair of beautiful big eyes, and looked at the new old principal and Teacher Wu seriously.

Teacher Zhang didn't care about himself, filled the dry tobacco bag with tobacco leaves, and took a sip.

"Old Headmaster, you are new to the school, and there are some situations that you don't know yet. Lao Zhang, Xiaoche, and I are all private teachers, and our monthly salary is only seven yuan, and we have a family to support. Hehe, we turned down and ate and drank enough at school, and the family was going to drink the northwest wind. Unlike your national cadres, who eat commercial grain, their wages are many times that of ours!"

Principal Wang's kind question, with obvious criticism, made Mr. Wu a little unable to raise his head, and he was very aggrieved to defend himself.

"The children in the mountains are not like the outside, as long as they can write their own names when they come to school!

When Mr. Zhang was young, he should have been a good young man with ideals, and he was also a rare junior high school student in this Dabie Mountain, but he still spent time in vain in this poor and isolated mountain.

So he has an obvious pessimistic attitude towards the children in the mountains going to school.

"Hey, it's not easy. These babies, and we teachers. I myself have been the "old four" for more than 20 years, and I have been feeding pigs in the production team for 20 years, and I was just rehabilitated two months ago. Hehe. ”

Wang Yuanchu had already seen the mood changes of the three teachers, so he quickly changed his tone, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and handed one to Teacher Wu and Teacher Zhang, and the atmosphere of the scene eased down.

"But the school must have the appearance of a school, not only to be attractive to the children, but also to have a sense of belonging and accomplishment for us, the teachers! The current situation of Hongshiwan Primary School, don't talk about you young people, I am an old bone, and I can't stay any longer! How can we run a school like this? What's wrong with Shanliwa? Shanliwa can't go to college and have a career? Many big people were born in peasant families in the mountains! You all know how many generals of the Republic have gone out of this Dabie Mountain!"

Wang Yuanchu stood up and spoke earnestly to the three colleagues.

"Principal Wang, what do you say!

Teacher Xiao Che is a young man, and she is still full of hope for her future life, and she looked at Wang Yuanchudao with reverence.

"Yes, old headmaster, how do you lead us to do it!"

Teacher Zhang and Teacher Wu echoed that they didn't want to face this lifeless school with rotten cowsheds at present.

"Well, I'll rely on the support of the three of us in the future, hehe. Others don't dare to say that I, Wang Yuanchu, have regarded this as the cause of the rest of my life anyway. Teacher Che, you can count the list of students who have dropped out of school this semester, and we will visit them one by one, and also visit the rivers and mountains in this area of Hongshi Bay by the way!"

At this end of the academic affairs meeting, Wang Yuanchu handed Zhang and Wu a cigarette to each teacher.

This kind of cigarette at the front door is a dime a pack, and he is usually reluctant to smoke it.

"Okay! I'm going to get ready!" Teacher Che happily went to the classroom.

"Old principal, let's go to my house at noon today! I hunted a badger last month, and there is still half a pig's leg left, let my wife clean up at noon, and our brother and son have a good drink!"

As soon as I heard that Mr. Zhang came to the spirit of the home visit, he was good at hunting, and the home visit brought a shotgun, and harvested two or three pheasants and hares along the way, and the oil and water on the dinner table at home in the next month were guaranteed.

"Okay! Tie the guy! I'll be respectful, it's better to obey my fate! Hahaha! Old Wu, where is there a supply and marketing cooperative? I'll pack the water and wine at noon!"

Although they have only been working together for a day, Wang Yuanchu already feels that he and Lao Wu and Lao Zhang are very right.

And Mr. Xiaoche is smart and lively, just like his daughter Yingzi.