the everlasting changes in ordinary people’s dialect｜“pocket garden” records the childhood of three generations of the family
2024-09-30
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the kindergarten is small but full of joy. photo by lu zihua
cai haizheng plays with the children
"this is a very magical thing. a kindergarten has witnessed almost all the growth experiences in my life." - cai haizheng
she is an alumnus and teacher of the no. 2 kindergarten on fuxing middle road in huangpu district. she has taught in the kindergarten for 36 years and was selected as the key young and middle-aged teacher in luwan district in the first phase of the "tenth five-year plan". fuer kindergarten was founded in 1954 and is a public first-class kindergarten. cai haizheng, her uncle, cousin, and son, three generations of their family have studied here.
there are many people coming in and out of exit 5 of the "yidahuizhi·xintiandi" station of metro line 10 every day, but unless they pay special attention, few people will notice that there is a kindergarten "next door". the no. 2 kindergarten on fuxing middle road hidden in the busy city is small, but for cai haizheng, it is big enough to store her memories of nearly half a century - in 1974, when she was 4 years old, she walked into the kindergarten door for the first time. ; in 1988, she graduated from the early childhood teacher training school and returned here to become a teacher. unconsciously, she is now reaching the age of retirement.
what's even more amazing is that her uncle, cousin and son also spent part of their childhood here. the memory is like a revolving door, overlapping warm images in the hearts of three generations.
same place, different identities
cai haizheng's uncle is the first graduate of fuer kindergarten. "this year our kindergarten is celebrating its 70th anniversary. an alumnus posted a graduation photo of the first class of students in the group. my cousin saw it and posted it to the family group, and my uncle found him right away. only then did we you know, it turns out that three generations of ala people have studied here!” cai haizheng said that her uncle’s memory of the kindergarten has been blurred, but from the old photos, it can be seen that fuer kindergarten was almost as it was when she entered the kindergarten.
"ala xiaochenguang, it's nothing compared to now!" cai haizheng recalled that the classroom was too small to get out of bed, so during lunch break the teacher would take mats and spread them on the floor of the classroom, and when the weather was cold, he would spread a layer of "cotton tires." there are 6 children in a "floor bunk". your head is next to my feet, so lie down obediently. some classes don't have enough mats to sleep on, so several tables are put together to make makeshift beds. in the eyes of children, "sleeping on the table" is a kind of "reward", which means that they are good and will not fight and roll off.
there was no air conditioning or fans at that time. in the winter, a stove was lit in the middle of the classroom and surrounded by wooden fences; in the summer, the teachers shook their cattail fans and patted the children's backs with their hands, creating a peaceful and beautiful afternoon.
perhaps because of his fond memories, or perhaps because of the influence of his family of teachers, when he graduated from junior high school, cai haizheng applied for the early childhood education major. once, the school held an expert training, and the person sitting on the podium was the female teacher yan wenxia who she remembered as being very funny. what surprised her even more was that teacher yan recognized her at a glance when she grew up.
since the 1990s, fuer kindergarten has taken the lead among kindergartens in the city to explore "baby learning computers". more than 30 computers are majestically filling the computer room. the children excitedly follow the teacher to learn to input commands and "command" the computer to draw. cai haizheng's son transferred to fu er kindergarten when he was in the first grade, and he was quickly fascinated by the magical world of computers. today, his work is also related to information technology.
still happy in "snail shell"
"building a dojo in a snail shell" has been going on for decades. the "snail shell" is still compact, but the "flower sutra" in every inch of space is becoming more and more transparent. "laozao kindergarten actually has two sister buildings, but there is no connection between them. now the two buildings are connected, and the roof is a terrace. the children are the happiest. they run up and down and feel that the kindergarten is like a maze." cai haizheng said with a smile.
having settled in the "platinum" area of the city center for 70 years, the playground of fuer kindergarten is regarded by many as a "patio" at best. the two "patios" add up to only 200 square meters, but the children have never lacked time for exercise. . when cai haizheng was a child, the teacher took everyone out of the alley at the back door and jogged along the street every day. there were not many sports in the "patio", so the children rode small three-wheeled bicycles in circles. unexpectedly, cai haizheng was welcomed. the "highlight moment" - in september 1975, the newly completed shanghai gymnasium held a city-wide children's sports performance. she was lucky enough to be one of the young riders. the photos and reports also appeared on the front page of the newspaper that year. nowadays, teachers at fuer kindergarten are using their creativity to design sports programs based on local conditions - there is not enough ground space, "slides" grow in sand pits, rope ladders hang from big trees, and hooks are installed on the walls...
cai haizheng said that when he was a child, the happiest thing was helping teachers "do things". for example, every time after nap, everyone rushes to help the teacher roll mats. nowadays, children’s “proposal plans” are posted everywhere inside and outside the classroom, in the corridors, and on the terrace of fuer kindergarten. the children are very serious about “doing things” with the encouragement of their teachers. "when i first became a teacher, everyone was used to following the instructions. later, as the concept changed, we knew that we should let children try and explore more." cai haizheng said.
reporter lu zihua
