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中文翻译在英文后面。这是在山西永济进行的RCEF 2008 暑期支教项目一系列活动之一。This is one of a series of posts chronicling the RCEF 2008 Summer Volunteer Program.

Sun Pengpeng and Jiang Peng have been leading the Community Research module at Nan Zheng Primary School. Both the older and the younger classes get two class periods in a row everyday for doing their research projects. Students from the older class just finished writing research reports. The four groups researched (1) the history of the village wall (2) the stream in the village (3) general history of the village (4) education in the old days. I’ve typed out the report on “education in the old days” below.

Next, the older students will research the natural environment of the village. This will be a collaboration between Sun Pengpeng, Jiang Peng, Annie (who teaches the science module and will take them out to collect plant specimens) and Karen (who teaches art and will teach them to draw plants and other elements of nature they observe).

孙鹏鹏和江鹏在南郑小学在进行社区调查课 。较高年级和较低年级学生每天有二个课时进行他们的调查项目。较高年级的学生已经完成写作调查报告。四组研究报告 (1)乡村围墙的历史(2)乡村的小溪(3)乡村的历史(4)过去的教育。以下有关于“过去的教育”报告。

紧接着，较高年级的学生将调查乡村的自然环境。这是由孙鹏鹏、江鹏、周洋之间互相协作。周洋上自然科学课并且与学生一起到外面去栽种样本）。同时Karen上美术课，教学生画植物以及他们所看到的自然的其他的东西。

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English translation follows the Chinese original.

通过对这几位老人的调查，我们得知：

他们那时的学费虽然只有二元，在现在只能吃一顿饭，但在那时可着实来之不易，据说这钱是有国家补贴的，他们还要交伙食费，总共是十元。那需要多少日日夜夜的辛苦劳作！

一般天刚亮，他们就起床，步行到学校，一到学校便抓着书就读。早上九点吃饭，一般早上学数学。因为那时一间教室有四个年级，只有一个老师，为了教和学更方便，如果教一年级上新课，那剩下的三个年级就做题。他们就这样利用教学资源。

他们的大考试跟现在的一样，不过，老师们也会安排很多次小考试，通常是写在黑板上，他们一人一张纸，旁边放着石板，先做容易的题，剩下不会做的在石板上打草稿，还要反复验算，觉得结果正确才敢写上纸。

上小学时，听一个老校长说，那是穷得没纸，老师给一张小纸片，纸片上写两个字，学生用竹枝夹着制片站在窗外反复念这两个字，知道会念、会写。那时的老师很严，字如果学会了晚上可以回家，如果没有学会只能晚上留下来继续学，学会才能回家。

那时他们没表，不能准确知道时间，只是知道从家到学校大概要走上两个小时。初、高中比这好些，因为到那时他们大都住宿，省去了路上的时间。不过上到高中的人很少，总共到了六年级很多人就辍学了，到九年级毕业就算是有文化的人了。

那时人们很穷，观念落后，很多孩子不上学，因为要么没学校，要么太穷，上不起，只能给别人打工养家。

他们晚上自习九点以后也读书，但阅读小说等杂书老师是绝对不允许的。

说到上学的年龄，他们说，那时卡得很严，只有满8岁才准许上学，相对现在小孩三岁上幼儿园，那时的学习条件相对辛苦。

他们周一到学校，带去一代馒头，一罐咸菜，放两天便馊的馒头他们就托师傅用锅溜一下，接着吃，又酸又苦。听我的初中老师说，那时蒸一块米，蒸好后还要放在水里泡，直到泡得米涨到最大，一次切一块，但不久就饿了，因为吃进去的全是泡在米里的水，真正有营养的只有一点点米。

有个老人说起了当年周总理吃一粒掉在桌上的米，感慨万千，只希望我们抓紧时机，努力学习，要对得起现在这样优厚的条件。

贾蓓蓓 怱芬 韩媛媛 李甜 贾梅 王林贝 李豆豆 李哲

(Translated by Mike Thomson)

By surveying several elder people we were able to learn that at that time, even though tuition was only two yuan, which these days is only enough to buy a meal, then it was very hard to come by. It is said this money was subsidized by the country. They had to pay for canteen meals which altogether came to 10 yuan. How much hard work around the clock would this require! Normally at first light they would get out of bed and go to school on foot. As soon as they got to school they would grab a book and start to read. At nine they would eat breakfast and normally would study maths in the morning.

Since at that time each classroom had only one teacher but taught four grades, in order to make studying more convenient, if the first grade was being taught a new lesson, the remaining 3 grades would do exercises. In this way they would utilize study resources. Their main exam was the same as it is today. However, the teachers also organized a lot of small quizzes which were normally written on the blackboard. They would have one piece of paper per student and at their side would be a stone tablet. First they would do the easy questions with the remaining harder questions being drafted on the stone tablet and repeatedly calculated until it was felt the result was correct before finally writing it onto the paper.

When I was at primary school I heard an old schoolmaster say at that time the scshool was so poor there was almost no paper. The teacher would give one small piece of paper with two characters written on it. Students would use bamboo sticks to hold the paper and would stand outside the window repeatedly reading aloud the two characters until they knew how to read and write them. At that time the teachers were very strict. If by evening time you knew the words then you could go home. However if you had not learned them you had to remain and continue to study. Only when the words were learnt could you return home.

Back then they didn’t have watches and so couldn’t accurately tell the time. They only knew that walking from home to school took around 2 hours. Junior high school and Senior high school were comparatively a bit better because they could, for the most part, live in accommodation and were able to save on the travelling time. However, the number of people going to high school was a lot less. By the sixth grade, a lot of people had quit studying. If someone finished grade nine he would be considered very well-educated.

At that time people were very poor with backward ideas and many children did not attend school. This was because either there wasn’t a school or because they were too poor and could not afford to attend and could only work for others and raise a family. They would learn by themselves in the evening and after nine would read books but the teacher absolutely would not permit them to read novels or books not connected to their studies

When talking about their time at school they said at that time the regulations were very strict and it was only when you were eight that you could go to school. Compared to kids today who attend nursery school at three years of age, the study conditions then were relatively tough. Upon arriving at school on Monday they would take one bag of steamed-bread and a jar of salted vegetables. After two days they would ask the Teacher Fu to stir-fry the spoiled steamed-bread and then eat it. It was sour and bitter.

I heard my junior high school teacher say that after a portion of rice had been steamed, it would also need to be soaked in water until it had swollen to its biggest. Then cut off one piece at each meal. However it wasn’t long before people were hungry again because what they were eating was mainly water from the swollen rice. The only real nutrition was from the little bit of rice.

One of the elder people said that at that time Premier Zhou ate a piece of rice that had fallen onto the table. He sighed emotionally, and made the comment that he hoped that we grasp this opportunity, study hard and be worthy of these superior conditions.

Students who contributed to these reports: Gu Beibei, Cong Fen, Han Yuanyuan, Li Tian, Gu Mei, Wang Linbei, Li Doudou, Li Zhe