The Dilemma of Being a Teacher in Today's China

Teaching is a respected profession, and it is a teacher's responsibility to impart knowledge and truth to one's students. Teachers help shape peoples characters and the ideology of the next generation. One of the most important aspects of a teacher's character is honesty. Speaking the truth should be a teacher's most important virtue. In other words, even under pressure, a teacher still needs to tell the truth.

What is happening to teachers under China's current educational system? Three teachers in the city of Liupanshui in Guizhou Province have being driven from the lecture podium and sent to a brainwashing centre for informing people with the true facts about Falun Dafa. In the brainwashing centre, these teachers were forced to write the "Three Statements" comprising of, a "Guarantee Statement" to stop practising Falun Gong, a "Repentance Statement" for revealing the true facts about Falun Dafa to people, and a "Disclosure Statement" to denounce the "crimes" of Falun Gong.

These three teachers were responsible professionals and had a positive effect on the educational system result and their students and in return their students respected them. They were forced to leave their jobs because they believed in Truth, Compassion and Tolerance and thought highly of Falun Dafa those who practised Falun Dafa.

Ms. Wang once told her students that people today often commit crimes because of their low morals. Ms. She said, "Any student has the right to question the authority, including the teachers. This is something that students should not casually give up. One's opinions should be based on the truth, not someone else's opinion, and one should draw conclusions based on one's own thinking and analysis. The truth about Falun Gong can only be spoken by those who have read the Falun Gong books, practised Falun Gong, or know people who practise Falun Gong." At the end of class, Ms. Wang wrote a poem called "Weight" on the chalkboard which read: "She put her life on the line on the scale of life, making everyone else seem weightless." Ms. Wang asked her students, "If it is was time for you to put yourself on the line on the scale of life, would you do it?"

This is was Ms. Wang's last class. She has not yet been allowed to return to the podium, where she'd had been lecturing for ten years.

Under political pressure, there are many teachers in China who have told countless lies, perpetrating misinformation and poisoning the minds of their students. How many of them have read the Falun Gong books? Not many. What they know are just the facts that the government-sanctioned propaganda has splurged through all the media channels. Some of them have taught their students that Falun Gong is political. Some teachers, in order to keep their jobs, say they had no choice but to go along with the lies that the Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin has instigated. According to their thoughts they are, "Only a teaching tool."

Teachers are also in the difficult position of defending indefensible claims in textbooks. The textbooks contain accusations against Falun Gong that are totally unreasonable, and the students have doubts. In China, no matter how the teachers deal with this issue, there are only two potential outcomes. Those who say that Falun Gong is good may lose their teaching qualifications and their jobs. These teachers may be sentenced to forced labour camps and might not come out alive. The alternative is to slander Falun Gong as required, and continue as usual.

When I walked into the Liupanshui City First Middle School, the words written on the first chalkboard I came across were by Mr. Tao Xingzhi, a well-known Chinese educator: "In everything you teach, you teach people to be truthful; among everything you learn, you learn how to be a good person." Ms. Wang, who had just being removed from her teaching position, was sitting in the library on the third floor. It was June, the time for potential teachers to take their qualifying exams. Each new teacher is faced with a difficult choice -- follow the basic requirements for being a good teacher, or succumb to the pressure of slandering good people?