By Huang Zhiling (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-05-19 17:54

Yi Jiaqi (front), a fourth grader in the Anchang Primary School in Mianyang, northern Sichuan, attends a class Monday in Class 6 of Grade 4 in the Paotongshu Primary School in Chengdu. [Huang Zhiling/chinadaily.com.cn]

CHENGDU -- Shen Yonghong could not help bursting into tears Monday morning when she saw all the 55 students in Class 5 of Grade 4 in the Paotongshu Primary School in this capital of Sichuan province stand up and applaud to welcome her 10-year-old daughter Han Wenjing to become a temporary member of their class.

Han, a fourth grader in the Beijie Primary School in Dujiangyan, about 40 km from Chengdu, came to the city with her mother Shen, a 33-year-old saleswoman of fire-proof dope, two days after the earthquake took place, turning both her school and home into dangerous buildings with big cracks, and lived in the home of a friend of her mother near Paotongshu.

"As May 19 is the day when all primary and high schools in Chengdu resume classes, I bring my daughter to Paotongshu to see if she can become a temporary member of Grade 4," Shen told www.ming7.cn.

"I do not know anyone in Paotongshu, which is one of the top primary schools in Chengdu. But it admitted my daughter within minutes after school officials learned our plight, which took me by surprise and moved me deeply," she said.

Paotongshu admitted five primary schools students from outside Chengdu Monday whose schools had either been reduced into rubble or become dangerous, said Chen Qun, deputy headmistress of Paotongshu.

Soon after admitting the five students, Paotongshu held a grand ceremony at 9:am to raise China's national flag and then lower it to half-mast to show condolence for the victims of the killer quake. All the school's 2,600 students, including 11-year-old Yu Zhishang who supported himself with crutches because his leg was hurt while playing basketball before the quake, observed the ceremony.

"The ceremony is aimed at fostering the love for the victims from students, the younger naive students from the first and second grades in particular," Chen said.

Although nobody in the school was hurt in the quake and only a few ceramic tiles on the wall cocked, Paotongshu took action to eliminate every trace which might remind students of the quake to give them a sense of safety.

Before classes resumed Monday, the school had removed all the tiles and covered the wall with beautiful paintings done by students. When students fled the school buildings in the wake of the quake, books, stationery and schoolbags fell on the ground, turning classrooms into a mess.

"Teachers had picked up the books and stationery, placed them into schoolbags and put the schoolbags on desks before the school opened today (May 19)," said Chen who together with all the other school officials stood near school gates to welcome every student when they opened at 8:20 am.

Soon after the ceremony to lower the national flag to half-mast, a short video about the quake, its aftermath and public response to it was shown in each class. Then teachers explained to students the cause of an earthquake and what the earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan, impressed them most.

Wang Wuyou, an 11-year-old girl in Class 6 of Grade 4, told his teacher Qiu Jingping a doctor she saw on the TV moved her most.

"The doctor lost nine family members in the quake but he worked as a volunteer to help others in needs in a county hit hard by the quake," said Wang whose narration won the praise of Qiu and fellow classmates.

"Today (May 19) the school does not teach students any normal subject. Instead, we teach them knowledge about the earthquake, how to protect themselves in it and teach them to be adamant and love others in times of a disaster," Chen said.

Before Han Wenjing entered Class 5 of Grade 4 Monday morning, its teacher Li Wenfang had told her 55 students not to ask her anything about the earthquake and her family members for fear the topic would traumatize her although nobody in her family was hurt.

Instead, Li asked her students to offer Han help such as showing her the way to the toilet and the dining room.

According to Chen Jing, a teacher of psychology in Paotongshu, Fang Xing, a professor of psychology at Peking University and nine other prominent psychologists had been sent by the Ministry of Education to Sichuan to give lectures to local teachers on how to help students traumatized by the quake.

"Primary teachers of psychology in Chengdu like me attended a lecture by professor Fang Monday. She and other psychologists are in Mianyang (a city in northern Sichuan) to give lectures,” he told www.ming7.cn.

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