The infamous motto and more

Like millions of mainland Chinese of about my age, I had no choice but spent too much time of my first ten years of pre-college education outside the classrooms, going out on farms "to be re-educated by farmers" as the infamous motto had stated across the country, going to the factories "to be re-educated by working class". Each year one month was spent in the countryside, one month in a nearby factory, a week or so on the fields during harvest season, at times a day or two to save Chinese cabbages if a heavy frost had fell down unexpectedly the night before, and two weeks on school ground to be trained by army people.

 

I remembered, at one time, the sixth graders were trained by some soldiers for a marching match. They were lined up neatly and commanded by their commanders, lifting up their chins, staring straight, shouting out some slogans now and then as they were marching around on the open ground and changing formations. In my child's perspective of a second grader, all the sixth graders were tall like trees and strong like rocks. They looked smart and authorized, occasionally sending out a proud, authentic, brief stare from the corners of their eyes to the bystanders who were mostly underclassmen and innocently admired their upperclassmen. I recognized some the marchers the sisters and brothers of my classmates and admired them for quite a time thereafter like now the young people trailing after their idols.