Jack Ma: The future has come

Chapter 23 Our Responsibilities (6)
Teachers have a greater impact on people than we can imagine
Today I call myself the spokesperson for rural teachers in China. 30 years ago, I was admitted to a normal university.During the four years of college, I thought about how to not be a teacher after graduation, because at that time I felt that being a teacher was worthless.As a result, after being a teacher for six years, I found that I had changed. I began to feel that the profession of teaching is the most meaningful and warmest profession.Because all teachers want their students to be promising, hope that their students can become county magistrates, become scientists, and hope that their students can become outstanding entrepreneurs.Although I left the teaching position later, I never gave up.I feel that I can still share my experiences and ideas with more people.

A teacher's influence on a person is beyond our imagination.When I was in the third year of college, I went to a village to work as a substitute teacher for more than a month.When I got there, I was deeply shocked by the environment and the quality of the students.Six or seven years later, among my twenty-odd students, three were admitted to universities, and several were admitted to technical secondary schools. They wrote to me to thank me for the encouragement I gave them in the past two months of work.Therefore, the profession of teachers can test how strong, warm, and sunny we are to change and influence others, and children are the easiest to be influenced.

Although the teaching level and teaching equipment in rural schools are not as good as those in cities, we can spend more time on children's sports and aesthetic education.I believe that the learning ability of rural school students should be cultivated in the experience of life and teamwork.Teamwork comes from sportsmanship. In the process of playing basketball and football together, children will realize the importance of the team.If we understand music, we can experience beauty, kindness, and friendship, and find inspiration in loneliness and pain; if we understand art, we can open our horizons and release our imagination.

I believe that as long as people have the ability to learn, it is only a matter of time before they acquire knowledge.Therefore, I hope that our rural teachers can work harder on "education".

It's just the beginning, and there's still a lot we need to do.I hope we can help more rural teachers through the mobile Internet, mobile phones, computers, and television.I have the responsibility to speak for rural teachers, and I feel very honored for it. This is also the greatest blessing in my life-the first project my public welfare fund participated in was the Rural Teachers Program!

Editor's note:

On September 2015, 9, at the Student Activity Center of Beijing Normal University, Jack Ma, founder of the "Zhejiang Jack Ma Public Welfare Foundation", and 16 rural teachers at the scene jointly launched the "Jack Ma Rural Teacher Program and the First Jack Ma Rural Teacher Award" project.The project plans to set up the "Ma Yun Rural Teacher Award" with a fund of 150 million yuan from the public welfare foundation. It will search for 1000 outstanding rural teachers in the six provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Yunnan, Ningxia, and Guizhou. Each winner will receive a prize worth 100 yuan The award of RMB 10 in cash and professional development support worth RMB 9 will be distributed over 1 years.Thereafter, the event will be held annually.

11. "Teaching" and "Education" in China

Are people inherently good, or are they inherently evil?I think people are born half good and half bad.However, because of education, the good side of people is constantly awakened and expanded, while the bad things are contained.It is the teacher's job to awaken people's kindness and wisdom.In our lives, the people who have the greatest influence on us, besides our parents, may be our teachers.

Every teacher has the opportunity to light a lamp in someone else's heart
Being a teacher is an opportunity to discover and develop stars.When I was studying, I was not a good student, but I was certainly not a bad student.My elementary school was in Zhongbei No. [-] Elementary School in Hangzhou, not a key elementary school. The school's teaching goal is to turn elementary school students into middle school students step by step.I don't think I'm a very good student, and I believe my teacher at the time would never have thought that one day a student named Ma Yun would become what he is now.

What is a very important job of a teacher?It is to help children find self-confidence and let them learn to be human.A good teacher will find good qualities in children.If the teacher can awaken the potential of the child, these things will always inspire him in the child's future life.

I remember very clearly that my Chinese teacher, Mr. Sun, had a great influence on me.When I was in elementary school, I often got into trouble. My family and classmates scolded me. Only Teacher Sun told me what was right and what was wrong.When I first went to college, I thought my oral English was good, even better than the teacher, but I didn't expect that my oral English test was judged to fail by the teacher that year.My most proud subject actually got 59 points!I was so angry that I even went to the head of the department to comment. More than 10 years later, I realized the teacher's intentions.Because I was very arrogant at that time, if the teacher hadn’t slapped me like this, I would not have known that there is a sky beyond the sky, and there would be no Jack Ma today.It was the teacher who woke me up and told me that I must be careful in everything I do.

I am different from many other entrepreneurs in China. One important reason is that I am a teacher.Teachers have a very important character that cannot be possessed by other professions: teachers always hope that students will surpass themselves.

Learn the principles of life from "the beauty of sound and body"

The issue of education is very complicated and should be viewed in two parts.China's "teaching" is quite good, but China's "education" is not enough. Our primary and secondary schools don't pay much attention to "education".In fact, what students are most likely to remember throughout their lives is the principles of life they have learned from music, art, and sports.Knowledge can be taught, and a lot of knowledge can only be obtained through hard work, but culture is often developed and learned from playing.Today's children have too little time to play, and teachers have very little time to play. If I were to reset China's education system, I would require kindergarten children to understand music and learn to appreciate music, because a lot of wisdom can be obtained from realized in music.In the West, music was first transmitted from churches, and music is so important to people.

Where is art important?The important thing is that it can develop children's imagination.Children without imagination are scary.I hope our teachers can tell children how it feels to fly for the first time, and tell them what is the sea and what is the sky.If the teacher has no imagination, how can the child have imagination?Drawing is an important way to develop imagination. Some teachers say that I can't draw, but it doesn't matter. Let the children think and draw.Only those who are not necessarily good at painting can teach painting, because painting itself is to develop imagination.

Sports are also important.I remember one time when I was eating at a restaurant in Beijing, I could see from the window that a teacher was giving physical education lessons to students on the playground of a school.I am very angry.why?Boys stood on one side, girls stood on the other side, I ate for 20 minutes, the teacher lectured there for 20 minutes, then the girls ran 3 laps, the boys did a few push-ups, and the physical education class was over.People say, why are you so interested in football?I am not interested in football itself, but what football brings to China's future is very important.Many families in China now have only one child. These children do not know how to work in a team because there are few opportunities for them to learn how to cooperate with others.In Chinese sports, we are very good at one-on-one competitive events, such as table tennis and badminton, but we are not good at conflict sports.Many sports are conflictual. Everyone collides and deals with problems in conflict.A nation that cannot exercise cannot be healthy, physically healthy, and mentally healthy.

Mathematics is very important, Chinese is also very important, but just learning these is not enough.In order for a child to truly become a person, rather than a learning machine, he must learn music, sports, and art well, which can enrich and express our emotions.

Accomplishing children is the teacher's virtue

I especially encourage children to be able to play.The smartest child can both play and read; the second-brightest child is good at playing, but may not be able to read; the child who can read but cannot play is very troublesome.My company has recruited tens of thousands of young people. Looking at it in general, I found a very interesting phenomenon: most of these promising young people were very playful and mischievous when they were young.A naughty child is easy to succeed, but a naughty child does not please the teacher-why is this child so naughty-a scolding may kill his nature.

"Teaching" and "education" are two concepts.Today society expects too much from teachers and schools. The main body of "teaching" is the teacher and the school; the main body of "education" is the family, followed by the school, so we must pay attention to the role of parents in "education".Dad saw something wrong with the child, did he pat the table?If the son does not teach, it is the father's fault. Parents are very important.Whether it is a parent or a teacher, treat children with appreciation.As parents, we can ask ourselves, when you send your child to school, what is your number one requirement for the teacher?Of course, it is to love children, respect children, and be able to discover the advantages of children.

When I first started my business, I didn’t do well. One very important reason was that I looked down on businessmen in my bones, and always felt that making money was only for profit, so I didn’t succeed in the first 5 years.Later, I felt that the money earned by businessmen is also a resource, a resource that can promote the progress of the entire society, create more job opportunities, and make others happier through other methods.You have to appreciate your students, appreciate your products, love what you do, and don't care what others think.

The reason why teachers are respected is of course because this profession is very important, but the more important reason is that teachers are creating value for society.A word or two that a teacher says to a child at the beginning of their life can change their life forever.

What teachers can do is to ignite themselves and discover others.In my company, I sometimes hear people say that a certain employee is particularly annoying. I think he can join our company because he is better in a certain way, but we have not paid attention to it.Good boys are praised, and sometimes good employees are also praised.Of course, when he should fail, he still has to fail.

The textbook talks about the principles of being a human being, and imparts knowledge through the principles of being a human being.When children are in elementary school, they have a strong desire for knowledge, and we must guide them to learn knowledge while playing.In junior high school, children have the strongest memory, so guide them to memorize more when it is time to memorize.In high school, to cultivate their interest in discovering themselves, young people must find points of interest for future development.Even if you can't find it temporarily, encourage him, it doesn't matter, you will definitely find it one day.When you arrive at a university, you study knowledge structure and system; graduate students study direction; doctoral students study philosophical thinking...these should run through the entire education system.

Editor's note:

On January 2016, 1, the first award-winning rural teacher award ceremony of the "Jack Ma Rural Teacher Program" was held in Sanya.Ma Yun returned to the classroom and interacted closely with hundreds of rural teachers to exchange educational ideas.

(End of this chapter)