Rural teacher Wu XiuCong

During the 2013 volunteer teaching program held at Qidou Village in Hunan, Thin & High volunteers became acquainted with 70-year-old rural teacher Wu XiuCong.

Teacher Wu, who received high school education, had dedicated the past 49 years of his life to teaching rural children in remote and poverty-stricken Miao villages.  A substitute teacher all his life, he had gotten little recognition, acknowledgement and monetary compensation for doing the job that no one else wanted; despite all of that, Teacher Wu has persevered and endured the various hardships to continue teaching.

 
Blind in one eye and crippled in one leg, Teacher Wu has to trek through 5 kilometers of rocky trails every day to impart knowledge to his young students in Qidou Village.  When asked why he had chosen to undertake what many see as an arduous task, Teacher Wu simply replied that “every child needs knowledge and discipline”.  He also added that he hopes to give rural children a chance to break out of the poverty cycle, if not to succeed in life.  When asked when he would retire, Teacher Wu said he does not believe in retirement, and would like to teach until he is unable to do so.
 
Touched and inspired by Teacher Wu’s devotion and commitment to his vocation, Thin & High officially nominated him for an Outstanding Rural Teacher’s Award organized by Beijing Green & Shine Foundation, a Chinese NGO dedicated to improving rural education in China.  Shortly after the nomination, Teacher Wu was selected out of more than 100 nominees as the top of 15 award recipients because “he was the oldest, has taught for the longest time, has received the least compensation and has endured the most hardship”.
 
It was indeed a proud moment for Teacher Wu to visit China’s capital Beijing for the first time in his life, where he was presented with a medal in a ceremony on November 30, 2013 and finally recognized for his outstanding contributions over the past five decades.  Click here to read Li DeMing’s blog on Teacher Wu’s journey to receive the distinguished award.