Every Sunday morning, the "Grade 3 Junior High School Love Tutoring Class" of Shinan Middle School in Huangpu District starts on time. Math teacher Wenying Wang, Chinese teacher Weiqun Wang, Chemistry teacher Xiuhong Chen, English teacher Yanlin Yan, and Physics teacher Wenjun Gu take turns entering the classroom every week to give lectures on middle school entrance exam review. The more than 40 students who attend the class come from different schools; they are all children with disabilities or from impoverished families. This is the only free middle school entrance exam tutoring class in the entire city specifically for the children of special families, and it has already entered its eleventh year.
In July 1999, several teachers at Shinan Middle School heard that there were a few children from disabled families at the school whose lives were relatively difficult. Their parents had little education, so even if their academic performance was not ideal, they had no conditions to receive private tutoring or attend cram schools like other classmates. Therefore, the teachers discussed and decided to carry out "intelligence-assisted learning" for these special family children, using weekends to start the "Grade 3 Junior High School Love Tutoring Class." Not only did they accept Grade 3 junior high school students from their own school, but they also welcomed students from other schools to attend the classes and help them prepare for the middle school entrance exam. Over the past decade, more and more teachers have participated, and hundreds of students have benefited from this love activity. The teachers often paid out of their own pockets to buy stationery and tutorial books for the students attending the class, helping them overcome difficulties in life and study.
Recently, Cui Jiaqi, who just won the Excellent Middle School Student Scholarship Gold Award from the Shanghai Education Development Foundation, is a first-year student at Shibei Middle School. His smooth admission to the key municipal high school was largely due to the great assistance provided by the teachers of the "Love Tutoring Class" at Shinan Middle School during his middle school entrance exam. Cui grew up in poverty since childhood, with a disabled mother and a father with meager income. However, at this critical moment when he graduated from junior high school, he was fortunate enough to meet the teachers at Shina Middle School, who helped him with systematic review, enabling him to achieve excellent results in the middle school entrance exam. According to school statistics, in recent years, one quarter of the students from the "Love Tutoring Class" have been admitted to key municipal and district high schools, and the proportion of those admitted to regular high schools has exceeded the city average. A parent of one of the assisted students wrote in a thank-you letter: "A drop of water's grace, repaid with a spring of water. The special care from the volunteer teachers will surely brew the sweetest spring of the soul in our hearts."
This year, students who came to participate in the tutoring class by reputation are from various districts such as Huangpu, Pudong, and Luwan. More touching is that influenced by the teachers, a group of academically excellent high school and junior high school students from Shina Middle School have also spontaneously organized 11 "intelligence-assisted learning" groups, also using each weekend to provide academic tutoring door-to-door for the children of 11 disabled families. The baton of showing love is being passed on enthusiastically among many teachers and students at Shina Middle School...
By reporter Wei Wang