(Minghui.org) I am an elementary school teacher. Jiang Zemin began the persecution of Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) in 1999. I refused to give up my belief and was fired. The authorities confiscated my teaching certificate, so I worked as a private tutor.
Dealing with a Difficult Child
A friend introduced me to a nine-year-old second-grade girl, Meimei. Her parents were divorced, which had made her rebellious. She had a short temper and was disobedient. She hated to do her homework. No one, including her teacher, parents, or grandparents, could make her behave.
Meimei’s father told me on the first day that there were 54 students in her class and that her exam scores were the third-to-last the previous semester. She almost failed math. He didn't have high hopes—it would be fine if she just did her homework every day.
I thought that it would not be difficult for a child to finish her homework. I didn't expect it to be so difficult for Meimei. She didn't understand the questions and freaked out when she got a wrong answer. When it took long, she got mad, screamed, and cried. When she got tired, she cursed the teacher who gave her the homework assignments. Sometimes she refused to finish. When I insisted, she yelled at me.
I talked to her father and said that we needed to be patient, that we couldn't push her too hard. From Dafa’s teachings, I understood that beating or scolding the kids will not change them if they are not told what they did wrong. If we tell the child what is right and what is wrong, the child will want to choose to do the right thing.
I noticed that her legs would tremble every time she talked about her teachers. Obviously she was not confident. This meant she needed encouragement. She wanted praise and assurance. So, whenever I saw a little progress, I praised and encouraged her.
Meimei’s father was supportive of my idea of educating her based on Dafa’s principles. I also clarified the truth of Dafa and the facts of the persecution to him. He agreed to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
I did not use a forceful approach. When Meimei was tired, I let her take a break. During the break, I told her “Falun Dafa is good” and stories about Chinese divine culture. I also told her how evil the CCP was. Meimei withdrew from the Young Pioneers. I told her if she followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, she would definitely grow up to be a good girl. Meimei and I made a pact that she would grow up to be a good girl. Whenever she did not behave, I said, “Meimei, you promised to be a good girl.”
Changing into a Good Girl
Gradually, Meimei changed. She let go of her fear of doing homework, and her academic performance improved. After a month, she ranked 33rd in the mid-term exam. She became more confident and said that she wanted to do better. On the final exam she was 25th in her class!
Meimei is now about to graduate from elementary school. She has developed good study habits and is doing well academically. Sometimes she makes hundreds in math. When she got the award for getting a perfect score, she expressed happiness for the first time. Meimei says we are good friends. Meimei’s father often thanked me, because he no longer has to worry about Meimei's education.
Meimei's Family Benefits
When she was in the third grade, her grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was comatose during her hospitalization and her family had prepared for her funeral. Meimei was raised by her grandmother, and they had a special bond. I visited her grandmother in the hospital and brought her an amulet that said “Falun Dafa is good.” I told her that if she sincerely recited “Falun Dafa is good,” she might recover.
Meimei's grandfathers and grandmothers were members of the CCP. I told them that the Party persecutes Dafa and heaven is going to punish it, so they should quit and not be implicated in the Party's atrocities when it falls from power. They agreed. A few days later, the grandmother was discharged from the hospital. Later, she was able to walk and cook for her family. Three years have passed and she no longer experiences any health problems.
Another Insufferable Child
Meimei's father remarried in 2017. His new wife had a 10-year-old boy called Maodou. Because she saw how Meimei had changed, she asked me to tutor her son.
Maodou was like the old Meimei. He wanted good grades but had a very bad temper. When he gave the wrong answer or did not do well in his homework, he screamed, tore the homework notebook apart, yelled, and rolled around on the floor.
I was a little overwhelmed. In the evening, when his mother came to pick him up, I expressed my feelings. She said that she did not have any hope that he would ever do well in school. But she failed to discipline the boy. She was very sick and emotionally hurt by her previous marriage. She was worried that taking care of Maodou would destroy her health. She cried, “It would be fine if you just take care of him after school. His grades are not important.”
I'd had the same experience as her in my marriage. I told her how I benefited from practicing Falun Dafa. After telling her the facts about Dafa, she chose to withdraw from the CCP.
I tell every student of mine what Falun Dafa is, about the importance of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and why they should quit the Young Pioneers. I did not treat Maodou any differently than my other students.
“If a student can follow the principles of 'Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,'” I said to Maodou, “he will be able to do school work well and have no difficulty in his studies.
“For elementary school students, the 'truth' means truly learning and studying seriously. When you study, you can't have any distracting thoughts. Thinking of other things when you study is not truly learning. 'Compassion' means being kind to others, to think of others first, to not let your mother down, and to be worthy of your teachers' efforts. 'Forbearance' means enduring the discomfort of learning.
“Learning is hard and exhausting. You have to forbear and suppress the desire to pursue comfort when learning. If a student can do this, he will be a good student.”
Dafa Changes Maodou
Maodou was very interested in Dafa and repeatedly asked me to tell him more about it. I had him listen to the audio recording of Master Li Hongzhi's Guangzhou lectures. Every Saturday and Sunday when he came to my house for tutoring, he spent 10 minutes listening to Master's lecture recording.
After a while, Maodou started to change. He would tell me what happened at home and at school every week.
He once said, “I did something bad this week.” I was surprised and asked what happened. He said, “One of my classmates lost his pen, and I laughed.” I smiled. He shares a lot of things with me.
Learning That Our Actions Affect Others
One day, Maodou looked sad and said, “Why is your city so good, and mine is so bad?” I knew that his celestial eye was open, and he could see other dimensions in his and my fields. Since he did not understand the concept of a field in another dimension, he just called a “field” a “city.”
Maodou said, “There are thousands of people and three TV stations in your city. People are learning Dafa by watching TV. And there are so few people in my city. They are watching bad things.”
I told him it was because what he usually read and played with were not good. He destroyed a new toy in the image of a skeleton that played horrible music. Later, he threw away a binder that had pictures of guns killing things.
Maodou's father has money, but he cheated on his mother. Maodou hated his father for abandoning him and his mother, and he wanted to kill him and the woman he had the affair with. One day, he told me that he saw through his celestial eye that there was war in his city. Many people were dying, and many were escaping. He said one person asked him, “Why did you start a war?” “How did you answer?” I asked him. He said, “I was speechless.”
Another time, there was an earthquake in his city. When I asked him what happened, he said that he'd asked his grandmother for two yuan (about 30 cents U.S.), and she only gave him one. He lost his temper and yelled at her.
Changing into a Good Boy
We both looked inward. He said that he had lost his temper because of his fighting mentality, which led to wars and earthquakes in his city. When there was a minor earthquake in his city later, Maodou knew that it was caused by his unstable mind.
One weekend, Maodou said that he'd had a conflict with his cousin. In the past, he'd hated his cousin, because their grandpa liked his cousin but not him. This time, his cousin took some of his belongings, but Maodou didn't fight him like he used to. He held his temper and shared his things with his cousin. He told me that now that the war in his city is over, people are no longer escaping, and 80 people have settled down in his city, which is getting more and more prosperous.
Maodou's mother saw the big changes in him. Maodou became considerate and appreciative of his mother's hard work. He no longer threw trash on the floor and started to call his stepfather “uncle” instead of by his name.
His mother called me and told me that she is very happy with his behavior. She said his school teacher often praises Maodou for his improved grades and behavior. She thanked me again and again. I said that I don't have any special tricks, that it is because he has embraced the principles of Falun Dafa that he now understands how important it is to be a good boy. It has also helped him let go of his hatred for his father.
In the past, Maodou studied Dafa behind his mother's back. His mother now supports Maodou and he studies Dafa at home.
Problem Children No More
These two lovely children were born into troubled families. They were not educated based on traditional culture. Because of that, they were mean and did not know how to behave.
By being exposed to Falun Dafa, these children have gotten rid of their bad habits and become good children with high standards.
Their parents no longer have to worry about them. They've learned to respect their teachers and to study hard. Their families have benefited from Falun Dafa, too.
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