In 1979, the third year after the resumption of the college entrance examination, it was not easy to be admitted to a normal college. I was studying at a high school in the county seat, and there were only 17 girls in our key class of 52 students. Although my results are not among the top ones, they can be said to be good. During the college entrance examination, the top students in our class were admitted to engineering colleges, the middle-level students were admitted to normal colleges or medical universities, and the other students were admitted to financial schools, nursing schools, police academies and other technical secondary schools. Half of the students did not pass the college entrance examination. At that time, it was a pride to be able to be admitted to a university or a junior college.
In fact, the social status and salary level of teachers at that time were very low. I graduated from university in 1983, and at that time, we were paid very little as teachers, and we couldn't compare with my classmates who worked in companies. When I received a fixed salary of several tens of yuan, my classmates could get more than 100 yuan, and in addition to the salary, they could also get bonuses. I still remember one time, I took my three-year-old daughter to the mall, and she fell in love with a stroller for 18 yuan, she wanted it very much, but I really couldn't afford it. So she rolled on the ground and cried. I had to borrow six dollars from someone else to buy the stroller. Looking at my daughter's happy expression because she got the stroller, my heart was mixed.
I was one of only two of the 10 teachers I was assigned to the school and who survived and retired. At that time, many first-class organs and institutions went to the school to recruit personnel, and courts, procuratorates, etc. also came to recruit people. Many people choose to work in the public security department, some are transferred to large enterprises through connections, some go to the tertiary industry department of the school to engage in business activities, and some even quit their jobs and start their own businesses. There are really not many teachers who can stick to the front line of teaching. We have experienced one teacher after another, but I persevered to the end, not only because there were no other opportunities for development, but also because of my belief in education. It's really not easy to stick to it.
The country's growing emphasis on education has played a big role, and our teachers have benefited a lot from it. Ten years of trees, a hundred years of education, education is regarded as the hope of the country, and the atmosphere of respecting teachers and valuing education has gradually prevailed. Families have begun to attach importance to the education of their children, and the state has also begun to pay attention to the cultivation of talents. All these factors provide a favorable opportunity for our teachers to improve their social status. The status of teachers has been improved, the salary level has also increased, and we teachers have finally tasted the sweetness. However, there are also some gossips in society, claiming that teachers can make a lot of money by making up classes, that the salary is too high, that teachers can be rated as senior titles, and that pensions are even higher than those of civil servants. This kind of rhetoric is really unfair. It is very likely that the people who say these words do not understand the hard work of the teachers in the past, and it is inevitable that there are some people with ulterior motives. As a mid-to-senior teacher before retirement, it stands to reason that female teachers can retire at the age of 55, but I chose to retire at the age of 60. During these five years, I was the same as the young teachers, teaching and working as a class teacher. Every day, when the students study in the morning, I already arrive at school, and I don't go home until the evening self-study is over. I work more than ten hours and I put all my energy into the teaching career I love and my students. Not only do I want to teach, but I also want to educate people, and I want to be worthy of my profession, my students, and their parents. In June last year, I was honorably retired, bidding farewell to the podium after 38 years, and I was really reluctant to give up.
Now I have nothing to do at home and enjoy the beauty of retirement. I am grateful to the country and the country for attaching great importance to the cause of education, and to them for giving our teachers such a generous retirement package. At the same time, I would like to thank myself for my hard work when I was younger. After ten years of hard study, diligence and enterprising, I was finally admitted to the university, stepped onto the three-foot podium, and became a teacher. I can proudly say that my pension is not low, and I fully deserve this honor.