As we all know, Australia is extremely sparsely populated. In many places, dozens of families form a small village, and the needs of education, health care and shopping are usually met in nearby towns or big cities. But how can educational needs be met if you live on an almost "isolated" island? Today's story takes place on the French island of (French Island), next to Melbourne.
When it comes to France, few people probably know, but if it comes to Philip Island, the famous Penguin Island near Melbourne, you may be impressed. Unlike Philip Island and mainland, it takes about two hours from Melbourne to Philip Island to get to France, and then 30 minutes of ferry to arrive. The private ferry can only take two cars to France at a time.
Anita Harding, the only teacher on the island, was the only teacher on the island. She first studied tourism management, and later decided to become a teacher who, by coincidence, she became one of the smallest schools in Victoria, and only seven of her students.
It's because it's a coincidence that she's not a school teacher, but all the teachers in front of her have rejected the job. Even when there was a good teacher at that time, when it was known that no ferry would return to Melbourne on the island for an overnight life in the presence of a strong wind or a heavy rain, the job was rejected. Then Anita was ordered to take the job.
Anita said the first impression of the school was that it was in the bushes. In fact, not just schools, the whole island is in the woods because there are only 119 permanent residents and there is not much human activity. This is completely different from what Anita did when she went to school in Sydney.
The first difficulty Anita encountered here was that although there were only seven students, the seven students had to be divided into three different grades, so that Anita had to prepare for three times. And Anita has always been unhappy with those who think teachers are easy jobs, because teachers don't have as many holidays and short hours as they think. In fact, behind an hour of teaching time is three hours of preparation time.
In addition, unlike other teachers, government only pays 38 hours a week, but in fact Anita has to do more work and spend more money. For example, she needs more time to commute, and does some maintenance work for the whole school, and she often uses her own money to buy school supplies, such as books and so on.
The second and even greater difficulty is that on the remote and desolate island, there are many difficulties Anita has never experienced at all. Once she went to school and found that she couldn't turn on the lights. It was the first time she knew that the school's electricity was supplied by an engine, and it was the first time she knew that she had to refuel the engine. Since then, she has often checked the school's oil stock, and then ordered the oil in advance, each time ferry will supply 44 gallons of oil.
On another occasion, a student went to the bathroom and ran into Big Tiger Snake (tiger snake). The snake is a highly poisonous species, and if a person is bitten, he or she dies in minutes. Unable to determine whether the viper was leave, Anita blocked the doors and windows with all the tables, chairs and sundries to protect the child. Later, when she learned that the viper was under the building, Anita had to take the students to the road to make sure she was safe.
And sometimes Anita had to sleep on the island because ferry was canceled. She said that one semester, when ferry was cancelled every Tuesday, she put an inflatable mattress on the floor and went to the island's only convenience store to buy some hot food or cook with some frozen food.
But Anita said she loved life on the island and learned a lot. She used to think that teaching was just about passing on knowledge to students, and the challenge was to find the most efficient and effective way to teach it. Now she wants to help students grow more, and the course is just part of it. In class, she will constantly guide them to do what they want to do and become who they want to be.
And parents on the island are different from other parents who used to be teachers. Parents on the French island have more respect for education and knowledge. Because children grew up in a carefree paradise, and knowledge is their biggest weapon when they come to the outside world in the future. In addition, parents here have less' control 'over their children, and their children climb trees or play with sharp sticks without relationship.
The children of France are also lucky because they have teachers like Anita who keep an eye on them and love them.
There is also a group of such happy children in China. In Shuida Village, Longxi Town, Pengshui County, Chongqing, there is Xia Changquan, a country teacher who rides motorcycles all the year round. Xia Changquan, who graduated in 1996, came to Paddy Field Primary School in a remote village. Even if salary was only a few dozen yuan a month, he never thought about leave. In 2004, Mr. Xia bought a motorcycle on credit and became a free purchasing driver and a driver to pick up and pick up the students.
And in school, Mr. Xia is also a teacher who speaks more than one course of English. Because of the shortage of teachers' resources, Mr. Xia said, "if he leaves, the school may withdraw."
He rides a motorcycle to a town 11 kilometers away every week to buy food for the children for a week, all the year round.
He will also take the children to see the outside world, and even drive the children to Chongqing to listen to lectures on Chinese studies and take part in various study competitions in the county seat. The children did not disappoint him, and another student won the first prize in the county.
The villagers of Shuatian Village said: "Paddy Field Primary School can have today, all rely on Mr. Xia." "and Mr. Xia used his motorcycle, which was more precious than his dream, to carry the children out of the mountains, but he stayed in the depths of the mountains and continued to give his life selflessly.
Although in two different countries, there are teachers who are willing to give for children in remote areas. At the age of graduation, in order to have more decent work and a better living environment, people poured into big cities, but they "retrograde" to remote areas and silently set foot on a different road from their peers. What they do is difficult but indispensable to society as a whole!
People often ask, "will our education get better? will the world get better?" The answer is yes, because as long as there are people like Anita and Mr. Xia, their students will still have access to knowledge, the change world.
As Anita wrote on the wall at the work table, teacher: Teachers are people you can count on (is someone you can trust and rely on.) it is because of their existence that the world has endless hope!