93-year-old music teacher

Yan Mingyou was born in 1929 in Dingyuan County, Anhui Province. After being discharged from the army in 1952, he had a stable job elsewhere but decided to return to his hometown and become a teacher. Mr. Yan has taught many subjects, including politics, music and Chinese. After nearly 40 years of teaching, Mr. Yan retired in 1990.

Knowing that the local schools lacked music teachers, this teacher volunteered to teach. Currently, at the age of 93, he is still in charge of the job.

“Every week, I have 11 music lessons at two different elementary schools,” said Yan.

In order to make the lecture content more attractive and attractive to students, in 2006, Mrs. Yan, then 77 years old, took piano lessons in Beijing from her own pocket every summer vacation. After a few months of practice, Mr. Yan was able to play the piano.

At the age of 80, Mr. Yan felt that he was too old to teach, but before the love of his students, he continued to go to class. “My students wanted me to teach music, so I decided not to quit,” said the 90-year-old teacher.

Every summer or winter break, the children come to study music with Mr. Yan. Not only teaching them how to play the piano and sing, she also cooks for them.

Mr. Yan leads a simple life, often spending his savings to buy musical instruments for schools and using his pension to financially support poor students.

Liu Dandan, now a university graduate, was one of the students who received Mr. Yan’s help. More than a decade ago, Liu, then a 5th grader, thought he had to drop out of school because of his family’s economic difficulties. Knowing Liu’s plight, Mr. Yan helped Liu pay for tuition and living expenses during his high school and university years.

“I do everything I can to help the children,” Yan said.

Teaching music is the happiest thing in Yan’s life. He said, for children whose parents went to the city to work and had to stay in the countryside with grandparents and relatives, music is not simply a song but also a means of expressing emotions, a constructive way. confidence and instilling in them dreams.

Dawn (People’s Daily Online)