This is an ordinary primary school. It is not on the top rank of primary schools in the City of Chongqing, perhaps never will be. However, it is a school we would dreamily desire. It is a school of love. Zou Xianlian, the headmistress, and her outstanding faculty team make this small sanctuary come true.

"Xingyuan" stands for traveling far away as a wish to primary students. In this picture, Zou is reading 30000 watermelons escape, a classical picture book to kids around. (Photo by Xingyuan Primary School)

“No one will be left behind”

It was July 2. In Liangjiang New Area, Xingyuan Primary School was holding an online closing ceremony for the semester. The campus was big but quiet, making Zou Xianlian feel unfamiliar. She took a deep breath, standing on the teaching building overlooking the playground. In two months, the school will welcome its fourth class of students.

Xingyuan Primary School, established in 2018, was initially seen as a lack of experience in elementary education, especially compared to those famed old schools in Chongqing. After three years, parents change their attitude towards this school, from initial distrust to gratitude. Struggling as the path appeared, the fruit was precious to both sides. How did the faculty shape parents' views about them in such a competitive field where the big ideas of elementary education are widely known by primary educators? The difference is in their willpower and execution.

For Zou, she insists on the idea that every child is in her mind regardless of their intelligence, character, or physical condition, “No one will be left behind,” Zou’s saying was proved by a campus fire drill once held.

One night in 2018, Zou Xianlian sent a message in the faculty Wechat group: “to me, this fire drill was failed” She pointed out one boy who had trouble moving around because of polio was left in the classroom during the day’s fire drill. She didn’t find that boy while watching the recording.

Zou questioned teachers on duty. “Everyone thought Hao (the boy’s alias) was supposed to be in the classroom due to his issue.” “We did it out of consideration of ensuring the fire drill and Hao’s safety.” Those were the answers she got. Then she sent out that message on the Wechat group.

“For Hao, what would he think? For other kids, will they learn to help each other from this fire drill, or will they just tell adults to do what they should be doing?”

On the first school day after the weekend, the school rang the fire drill alarm again. This time, Mr. Tan Lin, the teacher, carried Hao on the back, running out from the main building. It was the faculty team that reorganized this activity.

Mr. Tan is running out of the building, carrying Hao on his back. Hao uses a napkin to cover his nose. (Photo by Xingyuan Primary School)

This experience deeply impressed Zou Xianlian. “Because it gave a great lesson to all of Xingyuan members,” she said.

“Every child is promising”

In school, children called Zou “mother headmistress.” They talked to her about their thinking of life or concerns about the study. This nickname came from a photography event when new students and Zou were to take pictures. To relieve nervous children, she told them to see her as their mother.

Xingyuan Primary School is located in Renhe Street, with communities lived by re-settler families from the countryside. Hard-working as they are, those parents share an education idea that is gradually behind the times – they don’t pay much attention to kids’ thinking and emotion, which makes the proportion of children with psychological problems rather big.

That was the problem inspiring Zou to think. Her solution was to create a class outside the regular system – the Geese Initiation Class project. The wild goose is the school's mascot, symbolizing the wish to children - flying far to see more. The project selected children who needed mental or behavioral guide to joining, not to distinguish them from other children because they still followed the general schedule, but to give them extra care that they might not get from normal study. Zou became the tutor of the class, cooperated by psychological teachers in the school. There were no fixed contents in this class. They talked to children about their life, concern, and wish.

Zou is interacting with kids in Geese Initiation Class. (Photo by Xingyuan Primary School)

Tiantian, the student from class 4 of the second grade, is one member of the Geese Initiation Class, also is very famous for his extraordinary naughty among the school. “This boy always tends to hit other kids. He was hyperactive and was bad at self-control,” said Zhou Xianfeng, the new headteacher, recalling his feeling after taking over Tiantian’s class.

Tiantian was not welcomed by other students’ parents, either. “They sent messages on the Wechat group, angrily calling us to transfer Tiantian to another school to stop bullying their children. Even the old headteacher of Tiantian suggested me to do the same,” recalled Zou Xianlian, “I was in doubt. Tiantian needed to be educated. But wouldn’t we harm him if we label him as a child with problems? Which schools would want him if we kicked him out from here?”

Bearing the stresses from parents and teachers, Zou did not transfer Tiantian. After several conversations with Tiantian’s father, Zou invited him to stay at school for two weeks to observe and regulate his son’s behavior. She also discussed with the new headteacher how to tame this naughty boy. “Every child is promising,” a word of Zou enlightened Mr. Zhou Xianfeng to start his work. He gradually found what’s special and outstanding on Tiantian. This boy was hyperactive but super clever, just loving to behave himself.

In the Geese Initiation Class, Zou Xianlian talked to Tiantian about what he did to others. Tiantian realized that he was isolated from other kids because of the fear, and his father became disappointed in him, which became a breakthrough to reflect his behavior. Zou did not choose criticism to regulate this little boy. Instead, she openly praised Tiantian’s progress in helping other students at the weekly assembly, letting him feel that he was encouraged to do something good. Now, Tiantian saw Zou as not only a good teacher but also a good friend. He often goes to Zou’s officer to talk to her. He is becoming more disciplined and scores better grades.

Strength from the inside out

There is another girl in the Geese Initiation Class, Yuanyuan, who was suspected by the hospital of having autism. When she transferred to class 1 of the first grade in Xingyuan Primary School, she felt uncomfortable about the strange environment. She always did her things in the corner, unwilling to approach other kids. Teachers usually got silent feedbacks from her when they called her name in class. Miss. Cheng Jiao, the headteacher of class 1, began to think about how to get into this girl’s heart, to let Yuanyuan feel that she belonged to this class. Cheng decided to put extra attention on this girl. She would hold her hands to go downstairs or upstairs if there were any outside activities. She encouraged other students to talk and play with Yuanyuan. “Yuanyuan seldom talk to anyone, including me. Now she will talk to Miss Cheng,” Zou said, “but we are all cautious about looking after this girl, avoiding anything that may hurt her confidence.”

Yuanyuan was overboard on certain subjects. She could get a 90 on a Chinese test but only got ten on math, which made her feel hard to catch up with other students in the beginning. Nevertheless, Cheng discovered that Yuanyuan’s interest lay in literature, so she encouraged her to read and write. It turned out that she found Yuanyuan was talented in creative writing.

The green grass by Jiang Xiyuan: Sun holds the grass like kids, / Wind is ever-changing like the Monkey King. / Human shadow dyes the stream black, / Dew lazily sits on the grass. / It drops as it sounds “pool” / laugh and smile jump on the green grass.

Miss Cheng found that Yuanyuan was hidden far behind the class team when the school held a sporting event. She encouraged Yuanyuan to participate in a running game, meantime discussed with other kids how to give Yuanyuan confidence. Yuanyuan constrainedly stood on the starting line. She began to run. She heard cheering from the auditorium, where it grouped with her classmates and teacher. The cheering sound lasted until she ran to the end. Miss Cheng held Yuanyuan with her arms. Then she saw a bright smile. “That moment, I felt a breakthrough, a brilliance, a strength that exuded from the inside out,” Cheng wrote this sentence in her work diary.

Not only Yuanyuan but Hao also went to the playground to finish the whole course of morning exercise with the help of teachers.

“You can’t imagine how touching that scene was to me, to the work I’ve done. I think our faculty team is a truly great one,” Zou said. She plans to tighten the cooperation between the school and the local community, viewing this as the core task in the next year. “Once communities join our mission to educate children in a better way, we can finally say that the quality of education is improved.”