Hi... below is an essay I've written for my English class. It is due tomorrow, so you won't say I'm cheating by asking you guys to help me in correcting it. :D Hehe... so I think you got what I mean right?
I know this essay is not perfect, but I do not know how to correct any part of it anymore. I've done the best I could. So if you guys would be kind enough to help me by reading it and point out mistakes I've made or give me suggestions in improving it, that'd be great. :)
Thanks first~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a humid noon, the school ground was filled with laughter from the elementary school students. Suddenly, a scream echoed throughout the squad and an eight-year-old boy fall to the ground covering his bloodied nose. An older boy about eleven was standing beside him with a soccer ball in his hands.
A few minutes later, a boy ran out from the school building and hurried to a girl who was laughing with her friends. They talked for a while and the smile on the girl’s face disappeared. Then both ran back into the building like there was a fire behind them.
At the hallway of the school building, a group of students were discussing something fiercely before a chalkboard that said “Score of the Day for Each Class”. The girl that was in the school ground earlier, who was identified as the monitor of a fifth grade class, was talking in a loud voice. “Ok, let’s just go back into class and talk to our substitute teacher about this. We are just scaring ourselves and making a traffic jam standing in the hallway.”
This was an elementary school in China. The chalkboard was used to write the scores each class received on that day. This score was determined by the behavior of the class and their classroom’s cleanness and was used to decide the “Best Class of the Year”. The school system in China was different from the one in USA. In China, the students were assigned to a permanent classroom that they will stay in for the rest of the school year. The students in the same classroom would have the same subjects in the same period inside the classroom. There was also a form teacher for each class to be in charge of it, and a class committee formed by students selected through election, which was headed by a class monitor.
The students that were standing in the hallway arguing were classmates. Their class had just been given a zero for that day’s behavior because one of the boys named Yue had violated the school rule of not playing soccer during lunch break and in the process had accidentally knocked over a lower grade boy. The class confronted Yue in their classroom and he replied that the boy playing soccer was not him. As their form teacher was away attending a meeting in Beijing, the substitute teacher, Ms. Chen, told the class to investigate this matter and talked to the dean if this was a misunderstanding.
So the class committee got together and decided that the dean must be wrong and that Yue would not tell such a lie. Many classmates were agitated because their class’s reputation was ruined. The class was in an uproar when the monitor said that she would go to the dean, as everyone wanted to be with her. Finally the monitor selected a few classmates, some were in the class committee, and went to the dean’s office.
After getting permission from the dean to enter her office, the monitor explained to the teacher that she should give the class their score back since Yue had done nothing wrong. But a few hot-blooded classmates yelled at the dean in their excitements and demanded the teacher to clear the class’s name. The dean was very angry with their behaviors and called Yue to tell the real truth in front of the class and the teacher. Yue admitted that he had played soccer and lied to his fellow classmates.
All of a sudden, the office grew so quiet that you could hear a needle dropping. Everyone stood in front of the dean with their heads down, hands behind their backs, like criminals caught red-handed in the crime scene. You could also see the hurt in some classmates’ eyes because they felt betrayed by Yue and were embarrassed by their previous actions. The room was filled with tension.
At the same time, the principal entered the office. After hearing the little “adventure” the class had, she said, “I am very displeased with your behaviors. All of you had rushed into decisions before truly understanding what had happened, and you were also very rude to teacher. Who told you to do this?”The monitor answered, “Our substitute teacher told us to investigate about this. So we asked Yue what had happened and he denied hurting the boy or playing soccer. I am sorry that we behaved so badly and were rude to the teacher. But please understand that we just want to protect our class’s reputation, though the method was wrong.” Meanwhile, the hairs on the monitor’s back stood up as she felt dagger-like sights from different directions cutting into her back.
After returning to class, the classmates that went to the dean’s office started accusing the monitor for being a traitor. Yue’s lies were forgotten as the classmates accused the monitor to be unfaithful to Ms. Chen and sold her out. (Ms. Chen was very popular and well respected among the class.) They asked the monitor why she didn’t just tell the teachers that the class was sorely responsible for their actions. They declared her to be a two-faced liar and a teacher’s pet because she was polite to the teachers when others were impolite.
For the next few weeks, the class isolated the monitor. Her friends turned their backs on her; no one would talk to her; some even publicly humiliated her by making fun of her both in front of and behind her back; and they ignored whatever she had said.
The disturbance ended when the class’s form teacher returned from her meeting. She found out from other teachers what had happened during the time she was gone and hold a class meeting one day after school. She scolded the class for being reckless and rude to the teacher and cautioned them to be careful and found out the real truth before jumping to conclusion or took actions. She also named a few students who were very disrespectful to the monitor and said, “While the teacher was gone, the monitor was the head of the class. What she did was right. If all of you were rude to the teachers, you might be suspended from school for a few days. No matter in what situation, you should always be nice to your elders. Your actions towards the monitor were totally wrong and childish, so you should apologize to her.” She concluded the meeting by saying, “However, your loyalties to the class should be praised, though your method of showing it was wrong.”
Above is a true story that had happened to me when I was still in China. Although I could laugh about it easily today, I was very hurt at that time. I believed that saying the truth was always right, but from that event, I’ve learned that not all people like to hear the truth. Most would gladly accept lies just because lies are easier to believe and they would not hurt feelings. I had also trusted my friends in that they would support me no matter what, but they betrayed me and marked me as a liar like the rest of the class. I spent weeks in school with no friends, no one to talk to, and no shoulders to cry on. Everywhere I turned I would find people looking at me with despise in their eyes, like I had sinned greatly. Life was so miserable that I wanted to find a cave and hide myself from society for the rest of my life.
You would think I would hate, or at least dislike my classmates because they had misunderstood me, right? Actually, I did not hate them. I understood that they loved our substitute teacher very much, just like I did, and they were only trying to protect her using the only way they could find, though it resulted in hurting me and blacking my reputation. I forgave them for their actions, and hoped that they would learn from the misunderstanding and would not make the same mistake again.
In fact, they did learn something from it, just as I did. If you thought about what we’ve gained from this experience, it might worth the suffering I’ve went through. My mom had told me before that “What you learn best is from personal experience.” We learned that we should not judge people too harshly, or jump to conclusion without knowing the truth. Furthermore, we also learned that we should handle a situation in calmness, not in recklessness. The event also helped me in becoming a stronger person in spirit. I learned that the best way to solve a difficult situation is not to be a coward and run, but to accept and face it bravely. A little hardship could not be avoided, but always I would remember, “There will always be a rainbow after a storm.”
B.L.
