Clarifying the Truth in a Middle-School Writing Class

By a practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I teach Chinese in a middle school in China. Besides teaching regular Chinese, I have taken the opportunity to expand on the curriculum to clarify the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong. Particularly in the writing class, I have explained the facts of Falun Gong to students in order to offer them salvation.

I take careful steps to have students write on topics that closely relate to the three words, "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance." Of course I cannot do so directly and have to be sensible about it. From ancient times to the present, as Master tells us, all of humanity has come for the Fa (1), so I take full advantage of what society provides to spread the Fa and clarify the truth. For example, from a popular advertisement that mentions "faith," I let the students write an essay on faith. In addition, I've also used the words of Liu Bei, an ancient king: "Do it, even though it is a small, good deed. Don't do it, even if it is a small, evil deed." I have had the students write an essay on "Good and Evil." Referring to certain stories and textbooks, I had the students write on the topic of "Forbearance." For each assignment, from topic selection to final comments and discussion, I always manage to bring the comments around to Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, who simply try to be good people by following the principles of "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance." In this way, I help the students realize the irrationality of Jiang's persecution of kind people.

I tell the students that "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance" was pervasive in our ancient culture. If these three words were taken out, the whole of Chinese culture would not exist. I also point out that nowadays there is an odd phenomenon, namely, that "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance" are only used separately and are not allowed to be used together. If you use them together, the government is going to charge you with a criminal offense! How ridiculous! "Nevertheless," I told them, "I firmly believe that one day these three words can be used together again." When I said this, the students were also moved and had smiles on their faces. "So," I emphasized, "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance are the criteria for being human. Let's take them as our guide and try to be good people." Before the beginning of each class, I send forth righteous thoughts first to eliminate all evil interference.

Once, I gave an assignment to write an essay on controversial topics in this country. Just before the writing class, I sent forth righteous thoughts first as usual and then began the instruction. A student asked, "Teacher, what are 'controversial' topics?" I replied, "There are many such 'hot' topics in our country today, such as layoffs, unemployment, expanding admissions in universities, graduates' employment, transfer of discharged soldiers to civilian jobs, Falun Gong, corruption, counterfeit products, environmental protection, and others." Then, I instructed the students, "Let's take Falun Gong as an example, which is being treated with the gravest injustice in centuries! Practitioners are all good people! How can one imagine a group of good people suffering such a bloody persecution? Jiang Zemin has committed a blunder, a horrendous mistake, against natural laws and reasoning. His actions have already been strongly reprimanded by nations that value justice. The criminals that persecuted Falun Gong have been sued in many countries and will hopefully be brought to justice in the international courts. We must recognize that this persecution against good people is wrong. This is a very significant event!"

Then I let the students write a first draft. Two days later, I reviewed all the drafts. The students addressed a wide range of topics. Many students wrote about the injustice against Falun Gong. Because he believed the slander and propaganda against Falun Gong on CCTV and state-sponsored radio broadcasts, student A wrote an anti-Falun Gong essay. He used all the vicious words that CCTV used to attack Falun Gong. I felt so hurt, but at the same time I felt mercy in my heart and strengthened my determination to clarify the true situation to my students. First, I let those students who understood the truth talk to student A. Afterwards they reported to me, "He is so stubborn! He made it clear that anything can be talked about except for Falun Gong."

One day during an evening study session, I stopped in front of student A to send forth righteous thoughts close by to eliminate the evil factors behind him. The student sitting in front of A said to me, "Teacher, you may sit in my seat. I will take the empty seat over there." I felt surprised, since I hadn't ask that student to move, but I understood right away and sat down. Before I started, student A asked, "Teacher, what do you think about Falun Gong?" I said, "Falun Gong is great!" Then I told him why Falun Gong is great. He asked, "If Falun Gong is so great, how come the government wants to crack down on it?" I told him how Master Li Hongzhi had spread the Fa since 1992, and related many things, leading up to the appeal on April 25, 1999, and from July 20, 1999, to the present. He sighed and said, "Teacher, I totally understand now!"

The next afternoon I asked student A to come to my office when there was nobody else there. I further clarified the truth to him. At last he said, "Teacher, please give me back my essay." I returned his essay book to him. He said excitedly, "I believed what I heard on the CCTV and radio stations. I used to hate Falun Gong, but now am totally awakened by your explanation! Teacher, I will tear up the anti-Falun Gong essay and rewrite it!" He tore the Falun Gong pages out of his essay book. Two days later he turned in the essay book. I looked at it and found his rewritten essay full of admiration and praise for Falun Gong. I felt so happy that this student finally understood the truth.

Not only did I clarify the truth during writing instruction but also while we evaluated the writings. To be better prepared, I wrote down quotes on different topics from the students' essays.

On the day for the writing evaluation class I asked my practitioner spouse to send forth righteous thoughts at home to strengthen me. I also sent forth righteous thoughts as I walked into the classroom. The teacher in charge of this class had recently been auditing lessons in all the disciplines, but she decided not do so in my class. When she walked out, she also said to herself, "I will close the door so you may start." What's amazing is that this day the electricity was off, so the electronic classroom monitor was off. All these were Master's protection of his disciples.

During the first half of the class I read the quotes from students' essays on different topics. During the second half of the class, I read quotes from the essays on Falun Gong along with the comments I had made. Here are two examples:

One student wrote, "The Constitution of China states very clearly that the citizens have freedom of religion and freedom of belief, and the government has no right to interfere; the reality, however, is different! No freedom of belief at all! To crackdown on Falun Gong, all the newspapers and TV and radio broadcasts framed accusations against it, such as the Self- immolation on Tiananmen Square. We heard about the bloody cases in Beijing, so weird, so ridiculous! They tried to stir up hatred of Falun Gong and find excuses for persecuting Falun Gong. We watched the truth-clarification CD distributed by Falun Dafa practitioners. It opened our eyes. Who would still believe the lies the government-directed people have faked?"

I commented on this essay, "Very insightful! Very keen! You can say a fair word for Falun Gong. Very good! It shows that you can uphold justice and are not fooled by lies and delusion. You wrote at the end, 'Together, hand in hand, let's create a wonderful future,' and I am sure that wonderful future belongs to you."

Another student wrote in his essay, "One day I received a video CD and watched it right away. I began to doubt what they say on government-controlled TV and newspapers about Falun Gong. In the Tiananmen Self-immolation case, why did the police come immediately with fire extinguishers? They reacted too quickly for it to be logical. Wasn't it arranged? The immolation had so many loopholes! It is not hard to recognize that it is a farce that turned real when played!"

My comments on this essay: "An old saying is 'Partial listening leads to darkness, open listening leads to light.' Drawing a conclusion simply from CCTV and newspapers that are controlled by the government can be wrong; correct conclusions can only be drawn by analyzing a situation from many angles and not being taken in by lies. You can find out the truth. This is your gain. This is very important for your future."

After this writing lesson I asked the students to write a postscript. They all realized that this writing assignment had opened their eyes. They understood many things they had questioned, especially what the government says about Falun Gong.

(1) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.

August 20, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/21/82292.html

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version