A huge thank you to Shi Liu Ma for her enthusiasm in organizing this! And a huge thank you to all the friends who have already done so much to help with this but didn’t want to leave their names behind!
I know quite a bit about the girl with congenital heart disease, and I’d like to add a few more details about the origin of the incident.
The first time I met this girl was on the afternoon of June 21, 2008, in Qunxin Village, Hanwang Town, Mianzhu, Sichuan. The Ren’ai School had moved into the bamboo forest and had been in charge of classes for about half a month, and I had been in charge of the school for a week.There is a log that records those days., so I can now recall the exact time.
Log of June 21stThe record says: “In the afternoon, a special girl named Pan Yuli came to the school on her own and wanted to register for school. She was thirteen or fourteen years old, the age for middle school, but she had not been to school since kindergarten. Her mother brought her to this village after she remarried. She has a congenital heart disease and feels exhausted after a little strenuous activity (such as walking a few hundred meters in one breath) and needs to squat down to rest. She lacks basic communication skills. We learned all this from the side. We sympathized with her situation, but did not dare to accept her registration rashly, so we asked other children to invite her mother to the school. Her mother said that due to the difficult family conditions, Surgery has been unavailable for this child (doctors reportedly believe it’s possible), so her condition persists to this day, with no school willing or willing to accept her. We told her mother that the school welcomes her to attend classes and study at any time. She can choose whatever class she wants, regardless of her abilities, and doesn’t have to adhere to a curriculum (we recommend starting with the lower grades). Based on our brief observations, she has some learning and communication skills, and a strong desire to learn. We hope her parents will overcome these challenges and try to pick her up every day. If that’s not possible, ask other students to accompany her to and from school.
The girl came on her own, wanting to attend the class. It was clear that some of the children disliked her, and Teacher Xiong Ying, who was familiar with the villagers, was hesitant to accept her. Honestly, I was quite puzzled, because I believed that anyone willing to attend could start regardless of age. So I asked another child to find her mother. Her mother didn’t seem too keen on the “inconvenience” of having the girl come, but the girl was desperate to come, so I persuaded her mother to find a way to send her.
That afternoon, in the photo taken before school, she was in the photo, the girl in crimson clothes:
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From that day until we evacuated the school, she insisted on coming to school. In fact, when I was walking the group of children home on the afternoon of the 21st, I discovered that her home was very close to the school, perhaps even the closest. But even on this short walk, she would squat down and rest three or four times. The other children were running furiously, and I asked them to slow down and wait for Pan Yuli. They were reluctant at first, but seeing my persistence, they agreed to wait for her.
Log of June 22The record reads: “3. In the afternoon, the interest and reading class at Qunxin Village School continued as usual. The girl named Pan Yuli refused to go home at noon, so another little girl, Tang Yi, accompanied her, reading and drawing together. Pan Yuli’s mother and stepfather also arrived at the school, and her mother brought her some dry food. I chatted with them again and learned that this girl had been depressed and silent for over a year, and I didn’t know why. I observed her and found that she really couldn’t read and read books entirely by looking at pictures. So I took her to borrow a book, and she said she wanted to read “Snow White.” I found her a copy and read to her, and she listened with great interest.”
I took several photos of her that day:
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There are still two children reading books at noon in Yu Middle School
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The library is still a paradise
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Special cooking
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The child refused to go home at noon, so his mother had to bring him some dry food.
Honestly, I was quite anxious during those first few days, desperate to find some way to help this girl quickly get into reading. So I asked the other volunteer teachers for help and offered her some private tutoring. But she primarily came to listen to our storytimes, staying in the Grades 1–3 class. If the teacher wasn’t telling a story, like leading the children in poetry recitation, she’d wander off to the side to flip through the pages (or look at the pictures). Whenever one of our volunteers had a free moment, they would go over and help her read a story or two. I also tried getting her to recognize characters simultaneously, only recognizing three characters on a page before turning it over. But even with those three characters, she’d get impatient after a few pages. Judging from her reactions, I think her basic intelligence wasn’t bad, but I was certain she’d never received serious instruction before. Her attention span and patience were both very limited, except when listening to a story.
Log of June 23I wrote: “Today I paid special attention to Pan Yuli (a few days ago I mistakenly wrote her as Huang Yuli, as she takes her mother’s surname) who suffers from congenital heart disease. She truly has a deep desire to read. Although she rarely speaks a word, she pulls me to read to her whenever she has the chance. If I’m too busy, I ask a child with better reading ability to read to her. Seeing her desire—a desire to draw nourishment from words—I feel I really should do something for her.”
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The child is reading to Pan Yuli
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The girl on the left in the back row has gradually integrated into the group of children
What made me particularly happy that day was that this girl was gradually being accepted by the other children, primarily the younger ones in grades 1–3, who were kinder and less prejudiced than the older ones. Whenever I saw other children intentionally or unintentionally rejecting her, I felt bad. I thought it was so unfair…
Look at the girl standing on the left side of the back row with a smile on her face in the photo. Can you imagine how difficult life is for her?
Log of June 24th“Today I arranged a special lesson for Pan Yuli. We found a picture book without a cover. It contained Disney stories, and Alice in Wonderland particularly captivated her. The book has large print and pinyin. I read it with her page by page, trying to point and read, asking her to follow along. As long as she recognized three characters on each page, we would continue. At first, she struggled, but gradually got better. However, perhaps due to physical reasons or habit, she only made it past five pages. Even so, her progress was significant, and she can now read several sentences relatively completely, which is very difficult for her. Compared to younger children, her ability to understand the story is slightly better, but her ability to imitate language is much weaker. She struggles to follow along and often has to repeat herself. I think reading to her as often as possible is the only way to overcome this problem. Perhaps there is a better way. I have invited all the teachers in the school to make time to read to her.”
On the morning of the fifth day, I specifically called Professor Zhang of Sina Early Childhood Education to discuss a better approach for this girl. Professor Zhang suggested that since I couldn’t devote a significant amount of time to teaching her to read and write, it would be best to focus on having her listen to stories—the more the better—to cultivate her interest and allow her to gain wisdom from them. I felt this advice was sound. If her health issues weren’t addressed and her family couldn’t be more proactive, a short-term cultural program would be virtually pointless. I had already planned to leave on June 28th and return on July 10th, but time was running out.
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Teacher Chen Chao tutors Pan Yuli individually
In the following days, I didn’t try to teach her words one by one, but instead tried to get her to listen to and participate in more stories. Other volunteers also took time to help her, but there was really only so much we could do.
I left Zhulin Academy on June 28th and never returned. Inspector Carrot continued to preside until the entire academy was evacuated on July 5th.
The rest of the story is Shi Liu’s mother’s.
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