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孙会苗是关爱小学的发起人之一。她参加过两次RCEF的暑期支教项目。以下是她写的一些感受。 Sun Huimiao is one of the founders of Guan Ai Elementary School, RCEF’s main program site. She has participated in two years of RCEF’s Summer Volunteer Program. Below are some reflections she wrote after this year’s program. English translation’s available here.

截至今天RCEF的短期支教工作基本结束。今年的暑期短期支教和去年相比，最大不同的是支教点设得比较集中，便于联系和沟通，及时发现问题并解决问题。其次是当地老师的参与人数多了。

今年分了三个队，分别住在附近的三个村，寨子、王庄和南郑。他们各有特色，像小虎说的：寨子队勤劳，王庄队认真，南郑队创新。的确是这样的，志愿者也很努力，不怕苦，不怕累。为了给孩子上好课，晚上备课讨论到很晚。及时调整自己的课，像鲍小虎，在复杂的情况下，妥善地处理了问题。他们的勤劳和开阔的胸怀令大家佩服。看到他觉得农村的教育后继有人，心里很高兴。还有听鹏珠说，有一个孩子，别人都认为他有问题，不和他说话，鹏珠对特殊孩子的耐心另老师们刮目相看。像这样的故事还有很多……在这次活动中，有些老师积极参与，感受到了志愿者的热情与活力，他们不同的思维方法、灵活的教学的方法，开朗的性格特点影响着老师，开阔了老师的视野。还有一些老师的不积极参与是因为他们不太了解RCEF，不知道他们的目的。也因为刚刚考完试，身心还比较累。姜慧会5种语言，我想知道她是怎样学语言的，所以和她聊得比较多，教侯杰学汉语，才知道教成年人和孩子是完全不一样的，因此请教了姜慧很多问题，他给了我不少建议。

短期支教给农村的孩子带来了快乐，学到了一些课外知识。农村的暑假没有人组织学生的一些活动，即使有一些都是补习班之类的，学生不喜欢。孩子放假后基本主要是看电视，南郑的调查说明暑假孩子看电视的时间超过4小时，还有乱跑，也不太干农活。像志愿者上的认识自我课，我觉得挺好。因为家长经常也不太鼓励孩子做自己想做的事，如果孩子有些做法大人不喜欢，就骂甚至打。因此农村孩子不自信，自我课能让孩子认识自己的优点，找到自信，热爱自己。像健康课，学生能学到一些基本的保健知识。30号那天中午，王庄的一些孩子来关爱看他们的老师。我不知道还有什么比这个更让人感到满足？

29号是各队成果展示，欣悦和林志美奔忙于各队之间。林志美从来关爱一直咳漱，但每天晚上还是工作很晚。欣悦那天因为太热，结果中暑了。我看她的时候，李大姐已经给她喝了雪水。她的头上放着湿毛巾，躺在床上，但怀里还抱着电脑在写东西。我不知道该怎样劝她，只是把她弄到外面的楼房上躺下。

培训完后，志愿者陆续离开来啦，最后一车是魏涛、姜慧、思嘉、小虎等人。我们一次次握手、一次次告别，好像以后不能再见似的，难分难舍，上车快走了，我的眼眶湿润了……

短期支教给了孩子快乐，给老师开阔了视野。但农村教育长期的工作需求难以满足，希望有意愿的志愿者能长期帮忙合作，谢谢！

–孙会苗, 山西永济关爱学校

Teacher Sun’s Reflections on SVP

Today RCEF’s Short Volunteer Program has finally come to an end. Compared with last year, this year’s summer program was much better organizedwhich improved communications allowing problems to be diagnosed and solved more promptly. Secondly, many more local teachers took part.

This year we were divided into three groups according to the three nearby villages: Zhaizi, Wangzhuang and Nanzheng. Each one has its own characteristics. As Xiaohu said, Zhaizi is industrious; Wangzhuang is earnest and Nanzheng is creative. That’s just how it was along with volunteers who were so hard-working neither flinching from pain nor tiredness. In order to teach the kids as well as possible they would stay up late discussing lesson plans. When necessary they would alter their lesson plans and, like Xiaohu, deal appropriately with complex situations. Their diligent care and broad-minded attention deserved everyone’s admiration. It really warmed the heart to see people still working for rural education. Peng Zhu told how there was a student who everybody else thought was retarded and no one would speak to him. But the patience with which Peng Zhu treated the child made the other teachers all sit up and take notice. And there are many other stories like this. During this program we saw some teachers who actively involved themselves and felt the kindness and energy of the volunteers. Their various ideas, flexible teaching methods and relaxed personalities influenced the teachers and broadened their point of view. If some other teachers did not throw themselves so positively into the program it was because they were unacquainted with RCEF and its goals. Also because they were fresh out of college they found the work very exacting. Jiang Hui can speak five languages so I wanted to pick her brains about language-learning. Only when teachingChinese to Hou Jiedid I realise that teaching adults and teaching children are two entirely different things so I had many questions for Jiang Hui and she gave me a lot of advice.

SVP has brought the children a lot of joy and also taught them extra-curricular skills. In the summer vacation, nobody organizes any activities for the students - there are extra tutorial-style lessons but the students don’t like them. When the schools break up for the holiday, the children are principally watching television (a study in Nanzheng showed children watch more than four hours a day in the summer) and running about outside, but not doing any farm work. I thought the volunteers’ ‘Self-Awareness Class’ was brilliant. Parents rarely encourage their children to do the things they want, and often scold or even hit them for doing things the adults don’t like. Because of this, rural children have very little self-confidence, and the self-awareness class can teach the children to recognize their own good points, to become self-confident and learn to love themselves. The ‘Health Class’ was also useful for teaching students some basic healthcare knowledge. On the 30th at midday, a few children from Wangzhuang came to Guan Ai to see their teacher. I don’t know what can compare with this! Is there anything more satisfying?

On the 29th, each group had to exhibit their results, Xin Yue and Lin Zhimei were busy rushing about between the groups. Ever since coming from Guan Ai, Lin Zhimei had had a cough, but still worked late every evening. The same day, Xin Yue got heatstroke. When I saw her, Auntie Li had already given her ice water to drink, put a wet cloth on her head and made her lie down. But she still had her computer there and was typing away! I didn’t know how to persuade her to rest, and could only make her lie down in the outer building.

When the training was over, one after the other, the volunteers all left. In the last bus was Wei Tao, Jiang Hui, Sijia, Xiaohu etc. It seemed as soon as we shook hands we were saying good bye. It felt like we would never see one another again and it was very hard to part. When they got on the bus, my eyes were brimming…

The SVP has made the children happy and expanded the minds of the teachers but the needs of rural education are harder than that to satisfy and I hope those volunteers who want to will come back and help on a more long-term basis. Thank you!

Sun Huimiao, Director of Shanxi Yongji Guan Ai School.

Translated by Jeffrey Sheldon and edited by Mike Thomson