Chapter 64 The Wind of the Outside World (First Order Request)
Every Friday always makes students happy. After all, after today's classes, it will be time for a happy weekend.
The break passed in the thick atmosphere of chess playing in the class, and soon it was the last class of the afternoon, which was Wen Susu's art class.
Every Monday starts with Mr. Wen’s Chinese class and ends with Mr. Wen’s art class on Friday. The most popular teacher starts and ends the week’s study life, and the students in Class 1 and 2 feel it is full of a sense of ritual.
As usual, Wen Susu always comes to the classroom early to decorate the blackboard. She almost never stays after class. Rather than taking up students' time, she would rather come early herself. This is very different from other teachers.
"You guys are still playing Gobang?"
When she walked into the classroom, she saw the same scene as in the morning. The classmates were lying on the table in groups of three or five, playing Gobang with geometry books. Wen Susu was both angry and amused.
"Teacher Wen, do you want to play with us?" Some brave students even invited her to play games.
"I don't want to play!"
Although she said so, in fact, the girl who had just graduated from university had already walked down from the podium and stood behind Fang Wei with her hands behind her back, watching him play chess with Jiang Yuanxin.
Wen Susu walked quietly. The small group of students who were concentrating on watching the chess game were startled when they looked up and found her standing behind them. Jiang Yuanxin hid the geometry book in his hand as if by reflex.
"Mr. Wen?"
"Keep on raining. It's not finished yet. Who's going to leave now? Fang Wei?"
Fang Wei was calm. Jiang Yuanxin looked at Teacher Wen and saw that she was smiling and didn't seem to be joking, so he became bolder and took out the geometry book that he hadn't finished playing chess with.
"Ha ha……"
Wen Susu smiled creepily, "You are quite skilled, Jiang Yuanxin. You are the discipline committee member. Are you playing chess secretly during class?"
"No, no! Mr. Wen! I definitely didn't miss class!"
"Then why are you so nervous? Just finish it quickly."
"Oh oh..."
With Wen Susu supervising the game, other students soon gathered around Fang Wei and Jiang Yuanxin to watch them play chess.
Fang Wei was calm, but Jiang Yuanxin was extremely nervous. The situation was originally evenly matched, but now he lost three games in a row. His chess was so bad that even Wen Susu, who was watching the game, couldn't help but say something to him.
The chess game was over when the bell rang for class. Without Wen Susu's instructions, everyone quickly returned to their seats.
"stand up--!"
“Hello, teacher——!”
"Hello students, please take a seat."
Wen Susu also returned to the podium. She did not criticize too much the Gobang atmosphere that suddenly became popular in the class. Instead, she thought it was a good thing. Of course, this was only during the break between classes.
"You can play whatever you want after class, but you must not play during class. Do you understand?"
"understood--"
Wen Susu naturally understood the principle that it is better to loosen than to block, and because she has always been deeply loved by the people, other teachers dare not say it, but Teacher Wen's words are still quite effective.
"Hey, this class is art class! What are you doing with your Chinese books?"
Wen Susu, standing on the podium, saw the students taking out their Chinese textbooks one after another. For a moment, she didn't know whether to be relieved or speechless.
What? You really want to take an art class?
Logically speaking, isn't art class a self-study class?
Since this is Mr. Wen’s art class, it must be a Chinese class...
Most students think so.
This cannot be blamed on them. After all, this has always been the impression of art classes. Art teachers in elementary schools are often teachers of other subjects. It is an additional course, a course that even the teachers themselves do not care about, let alone the students.
Everyone then realized that Wen Susu, who came to class, did not bring the Chinese lesson plan, but instead brought a sketchbook, some white paper, and various brushes and paints.
"Put away your Chinese books. We are in art class now. Put away your other textbooks and homework as well. This is not a self-study class!"
Seeing that Wen Susu looked a little serious, everyone hurriedly dug out the art textbook that was buried under the pile of books.
There is only one art class every week, and this is also the first time for everyone to take art class.
After the art textbooks were distributed and people just glanced at them casually, most people simply put them under the pile of books and never touched them again. By the end of the school year, there were only two results for many students' art textbooks - one was that they looked like brand new; the other was that they were simply lost, because they were either used as draft paper or torn off while playing.
Because this was Mr. Wen's art class, it was the first time that the students in the class took this class seriously. They all looked towards the podium curiously, not knowing how the art class was taught...
Wen Susu was not in a hurry to start the lecture, but instead introduced herself to everyone again as if it was the beginning of the school year.
"Although I am your homeroom teacher and your Chinese teacher, I actually majored in fine arts in college. I don't think many of you would be able to guess that, right?"
"hiss……!"
"Teacher Wen, are there any students who specialize in painting in college?"
"Of course. In fact, fine arts does not only refer to painting. It also has many subdivisions, including..."
In fact, even Wen Susu herself did not expect that she would become a Chinese teacher after graduation. Her original dream was to become an art teacher, but these days, especially on remote islands, almost no school would recruit art teachers.
In fact, if she just wanted to be an art teacher, there would be more job opportunities in schools in big cities. With her professional ability, there would be no problem for her to teach art in high school.
The reason why I chose to come to such a remote small island is that, like many teachers who are willing to teach in the deep mountains and in poor places, this kind of thing cannot be explained by simple material rewards.
As for ideals and ambitions... they are too far away. Wen Susu doesn't dare to say that she is selfless and dedicated. She just thinks that she is doing something very meaningful.
Compared with her previous affluent life, the countryside on the small island lacks everything and is inconvenient at all. However, the short half month she has spent here has been the most fulfilling time she has ever had.
Wen Susu thought so, so she came.
It was like a breeze blowing in from the outside world, blowing into the small world of the boys and girls, bringing the breath of faraway places.
……
"So, the content of our class is to teach you to recognize art, understand art, discover beauty, and capture beauty."
"This is a collection of some of my previous personal works. You can pass them around and praise them."
Wen Susu picked up the picture album she had brought with her and handed it to the students in the first row of the first group, asking everyone to pass it around.
Are you very confident in your work?
Like many of his classmates, Fang Wei stretched his neck curiously to take a look at the album before it was passed to him.
The two students in the first row of the first group who were the first to appreciate Teacher Wen’s paintings were stunned when they opened the album.
"Teacher Wen, are you a painter?!"
“How can you draw the feeling of light with just a pencil?!” “This person’s drawing is just like that! It’s exactly like what’s in the photo!”
"Wow! A big city! Is this Shanghai? It feels like the Magic City!"
"This is... Baitan Bridge! When did you draw the Baitan Bridge, Mr. Wen?"
"The pier! Baitan Pier!"
"Great painting! Teacher Wen, you really are a painter, right?!"
Faced with everyone's praise, Wen Susu felt a little embarrassed, but her mood was very good, and her eyebrows were narrowed with joy.
Ever since she started studying art, her paintings have been praised a lot by others, whether it be compliments, politeness, or praise, but never like this, the kind of sincere admiration and yearning from the young boys and girls when they saw her paintings.
“It’s not that great.”
"Teacher Wen is already the best painter we have ever seen! He must be a painter!"
"Hahaha."
It was rare that Wen Susu's pretty face turned red and she became shy when her classmates praised her as a painter.
Although what everyone was holding in their hands at the moment were only Teacher Wen's own paintings, the boys and girls were very careful when passing them around, as if they were holding a beautiful, fragile crystal ball. They were always clumsy and were afraid of damaging or dirtying the album.
After much effort, the album finally reached Fang Wei.
When it was passed to the fourth group, it was passed from the back. After the album reached Fang Wei's hands, Ye Xiaoli and Wang Qiaoyun at the front table could no longer hold back and turned around to look at the album in Fang Wei's hand.
Even Liu Zhiyi, who was usually very quiet and calm, leaned over and looked at him in amazement.
"Teacher Wen draws really well..."
"It's really good."
Fang Wei doesn't understand art or painting, but even though this was the second time he saw these paintings, he was still as amazed as the first time.
He didn't understand composition, artistic conception, and color, but he had the most instinctive feeling. His eyes followed the pictures, and it seemed as if he could see the scenery, the characters, and even feel Wen Susu's thoughts and emotions when she was painting. She was really good at discovering and capturing beauty.
"Zhiyi, could your previous art teacher draw so well?" Fang Wei asked curiously.
"Well……"
Liu Zhiyi shook his head and said strictly, "Anyway, I haven't seen their works."
There is no better way to demonstrate one's ability and arouse the interest of young boys and girls in art than to directly show their works.
After a while, the class finally finished passing around Wen Susu's album. The little girl in the first row of the fourth group, holding the album in both hands, walked up to the podium with a very respectful look, and carefully placed it back on Teacher Wen's desk.
"Teacher Wen, is there any future for learning painting?" Someone in the class asked.
"Of course."
Wen Susu gave a positive answer: "If you stick to an interest to the end, it will become what others call a talent; if you do something to the extreme, you will naturally have a way out; this is true for art, music, study, and sports. Only half-baked bamboo baskets will end up with nothing."
She actually knew that the boys and girls on the island had very little room for choice, but that didn't mean she could deprive them of the right to have their own interests and hobbies.
Art class is just a trivial course in junior high school, and its importance is not even as great as physical education. But who can guarantee that among the 42 students in her class, no one is interested in art or has talent for art? As long as they want to learn and are willing to learn, Wen Susu can even give them free art lessons.
After appreciating Teacher Wen’s paintings, everyone became more interested in art, and almost no one looked down on art classes anymore.
Of course, Wen Susu didn't expect everyone to learn art well. The core teaching purpose is to let everyone face up to their own interests and hobbies, learn to discover beauty and capture beauty.
Mr. Shangwen’s classes are always interesting, and art class is no exception.
Wen Susu asked a few classmates to come on stage to play the game of "You Draw, I Guess". Isn't this much more fun than Gobang?
"Lv Jialiang, what the hell is this picture of a rope tied to a brick? And the brick is flying in the sky?"
"Kite! It's a kite! What brick!!"
"Xu Cailing, is this a lizard or a gecko? Why does it look a bit like an earthworm?"
"Four-character idiom! Four-character idiom! It's so obvious!"
"What..."
"Superfluous!"
Everyone laughed happily.
Soon, the class came to an end.
Normally, classes are never kept after class, and today is the last class on Friday, so Wen Susu naturally wouldn't keep the class after class. However, when she finished the lecture, the classmates were a little reluctant to leave.
"Okay, let me assign the art homework!"
"Hey! Art still has homework?!"
"Okay, you don't want to do it, right? So you were just trying to coax the teacher, right?"
"No no!"
When communicating with classmates, Wen Susu never put on airs. She just said loudly:
"Do you remember what the Chinese homework I assigned to you this morning was?"
"Write an essay about 'beauty'. It can be about seasons, scenery, animals, or people. Then, our art homework is that after you finish writing your essay, you have to draw a picture for yourself. It doesn't matter how you draw it, but you have to draw it. Do you understand?"
"understood--"
Fang Wei also responded loudly. Perhaps only Wen Susu could combine Chinese homework with art homework. Isn't this a 'drawing composition'?
In the past, when writing essays in elementary school exams, students often had to accompany a picture and then write based on the content of the picture. But with Wen Susu, it was the other way around. She wrote first and then accompanied herself with a picture.
The bell rang.
"Okay, get out of class is over, I wish you all a happy weekend!"
"stand up--"
"Thank you, teacher. Goodbye, teacher—"
"See you on Monday, and be safe on your way home!"
……
(End of this chapter)
