In December 1976, I was transferred from Qianzhuang Middle School to the County Education Bureau, serving as the head of the teaching and research office, the leader of the middle school teaching group, and a Chinese language teaching researcher. From the restoration of the college entrance examination in 1977 until December 1982, I also served as the deputy director of the county admissions office. The bureau leadership decided to dispatch outstanding teachers and skilled lesson planners from various middle schools in the county to strengthen the teaching staff at Pingyao Middle School, and I was assigned to Pingyao Middle School to focus on college entrance examination work. Pingyao Middle School is my alma mater. Principal Wang Shulu, Deputy Director of Education Lü Xuguang (the director position is currently vacant, and Teacher Lü is in charge of the education office), and others earnestly implemented the requirements of the national restoration of the college entrance examination, achieving significant results by focusing on teacher team building and classroom teaching reform.

Teacher Lü Xuguang

Teacher Lü is one of the founders of the factory run by Pingyao Middle School, a renowned physics teacher, and the head teacher of the senior class, overseeing the teachers. During his tenure as deputy director of education, with his strong organizational skills and rich teaching experience, he made great efforts to restore normal teaching order. He proposed three target measures for reforming classroom teaching: first, changing from traditional lecturing to focused teaching with more practice; second, shifting students from passively receiving knowledge to actively acquiring knowledge; third, transforming students from passive listening to using both hands and minds, strengthening practical and experimental teaching. He personally led by example in demonstrating lessons. At the same time, he organized a competition for demonstration lessons throughout the school, where each teacher taught a demonstration lesson, and a review group composed of subject researchers from the county teaching and research office, school leaders, teachers, and student representatives conducted assessments on a hundred-point scale to identify the school's teaching experts. Teacher Lü and I attended classes daily to listen and provide feedback. At just 30 years old, I felt exhausted, while 47-year-old Teacher Lü was energetic, working day and night on the front lines of teaching. A group of provincial-level teaching experts and model teachers emerged, including Miao Jihua, Liu Fuchang, He Changeng, Wang Zhenfang, Shi Siguo, Cheng Weijuan, Yang Yiding, Wang Zheng, Ma Zhuying, and Song Zhenwu.

The author and friend Zhang Chengyi visit Teacher Lü Xuguang

The author with Chairman Liang Xinwen and friends Liu Chunsheng and Zhang Chengyi at the company

Since 1977, the quality of teaching in various subjects has increased significantly year by year. The quality of education and teaching ranks among the top in the province. In August 1982, the pass rate for the college entrance examination in Chinese and politics exceeded 95%, ranking first in the province, while other subjects such as physics, chemistry, history, and foreign languages also ranked among the top. In August 1982, Teacher Lü represented Pingyao Middle School at the county education work conference to introduce the experience of reforming classroom teaching and was honored with the title of "Model Educator," receiving recognition at the provincial, municipal, and county levels. Teacher Lü laid a solid foundation for Pingyao Middle School's five consecutive championships in the college entrance examination, making outstanding contributions to establishing it as a prestigious school in Shanxi Province! The author—former director of the office of the Pingyao County Procuratorate, Hou Minxin.