One of the advantages of living in the 21st century is that we can hear numerous buzzwords. The most common one is Tanding (淡定), which means calm down basically. However, language is usually more complicated than it seems to be. There’s something lost if we simply translate it into English as calm down.

Tanding is an ideal state of mind, which not every one can achieve. Its connotation is far richer than the literal meaning. My understanding is: No matter what happens, you would always react naturally and properly, not so excited as to forget yourself, not so sad as to wish to die, neither too proud when favored nor too upset when humiliated. In one word, you have to be composed even under great pressure.

Maybe the expression chill out could be a better version for Tanding, for it gives us the feeling of being completely relaxed instead of feeling angry, tired, or nervous. Recently I heard people say 我真的hold 不住了, meaning I really can’t control my feelings. Life can be hard and sometimes even unfair. We do need to have such a state of mind. If we cannot handle various situations appropriately, at least we should be able to manage our moods.

Last year we got a new principal. She made a very good impression on me. Frankly she is a nice person as well as a talented leader of a unit. She came early and personally inspected the morning reading period. In my memory she is the first principal who came down to attend our teaching group’s meetings. Things began to change, however. It was all due to the results of this year’s college entrance examinations. She came with great ambition to do something big, but the results turned out to be the worst ever. She began to be unable to hold herself. She sang songs which were sentimental and sad at the dinner party for Teachers’ Day. Stricter rules were carried out to regulate the behaviors of teachers. At the weekly faculty meeting, she will say something like you may have to leave if …

To tell the truth, the so-called bad results didn’t have much to do with her, for the overall quality of students who just graduated this year was relatively poorer, as simple as that. No principal could possibly have prevented it. Nowadays the outflow of excelllent students is not uncommon. Almost all the public schools are facing fierce competition from private and locally run schools. On the other hand, teaching or education is not something you can do successfully or make fundamental changes overnight. It takes time and involves many aspects. The management of students, good teaching and learning environment, teams of quality teachers, good teaching methods and concepts, and measures of rewards and punishments are all important factors.

Being a teacher is not easy nowadays. You have to “serve” the students well, and at the same time have to make the administration satisfied. Teachers’ work is hard to measure by concrete standards. As a teacher, we are supposed to respect and cooperate with the administrators. However, positive and happy environment is vital not only for learning but for teaching as well. And encouragement is always needed not just for students. Actually we are willing to cooperate and do the job well. No one would like to see the school going downwards.

Truth be told, I understand her as head of a school. Being Number One means enormous responsibility. She just wants to do her job well. And it’s natural to be unable to hold oneself once in a while. After all we’re all humans. May God bless us! Hopefully with more mutual understanding, things will change for the better.