Six years back Lillian Lui cancelled her retirement plans to teach in a school for children of poor families. The rewards seem to have more than made up for the measly pay. Frannie Guan met her.

At 49 Lillian Lui Lai-hung stood on the threshold of a glorious retirement, sandboarding across the dunes of Dubai, then off on a round-the-world vacation with her husband. But five little kids in need changed her plans, and for Lui the outcome was far more rewarding than the vacation of a lifetime.

They were five underprivileged children, living in distant Yuen Long. They had lost their teacher and their kindergarten was about to close.

Lui cancelled her vacation and accepted the job of kindergarten teacher and principal at the school, for the measly pay of HK$4500 a month, which was all the school could afford. She was drawing over HK$30,000 a month at the international kindergarten in Discovery Bay where she taught earlier. She wanted to help the children and it didn't matter that the pay was poor.

They, in turn, added something special to Lui's life that she thought was priceless. It was a world of experiences she had been missing out on, having taught only children from affluent homes until then. The sense of personal growth she obtained from her work at the Yuen Long kindergarten inspired her to stay. This is Lui's seventh year in Yuen Long.

"They really cared for each other. They were like a family. And the more I came to know them, the more I realized that it would have been cruel to separate them," said Lui. "If one of them did not come to school, classmates would ask the next day 'why didn't you come yesterday? I was so worried about you.'"

One afternoon the kids were given candies as part of afternoon snacks. One little girl dropped hers and started to cry. An older child, 4-year-old Siu Suet, gave her candy to take away the little girl's distress.

"I am sure Siu Suet gave away a treat she would have loved for herself" Siu Suet lived in a squatter hut with her parents and a sister. Her aged father was a construction site laborer and her mother, a mainlander, was still waiting for Hong Kong permanent residency.

Caring and sharing

Since she took up her duties at the school, Lui has spent most of her time with the children.

"Well-off families always treat their kids as the apples of their eyes. They spoil them. Many such kids do not know how to take care of themselves, let alone taking care of others," said Lui. She remembered a little boy at one of the schools she taught before coming up to her at the end of the day, asking for help with having the school satchel hoisted on his shoulders.

Things are markedly different at the school she is with now. The first time she heard the kids reminding each other not to play on the slide in summer because the iron surface would be super-hot in the blazing heat, Lui was not only touched by their consideration, but also felt embarrassed that she had not thought of cautioning the kids herself. She felt she had learned something about consideration for others that day.

Lui wanted to add her own contribution to the children's social development, and make them aware of the community-minded people whose kindness had kept the school going, making it an even more cheerful place.

The 10 ride-along cars, all neatly lined up and the two sets of outdoor tables and chairs in the kindergarten's playground were all donated by kind-hearted individuals and companies. The paintings of animals and fish and the penguins on the walls were the contributions of 100 volunteers six years ago. A fruit seller from Yau Ma Tei would deliver fresh imported fruits to the kindergarten every Tuesday at no charge. Not only did the students get to taste the delicious fruits from around the world, but after snack time when the teachers would tell them about the country the fruits came from, they got a sense of the world that went beyond the information contained in the textbooks they read.

"For students at the international schools I taught at, traveling abroad was nothing special. For these kids a visit to downtown Yuen Long was an event to celebrate," Lui said.

Under Lui's management the school flourished. The shabby classroom once infested with rats is now furnished with clean tables, chairs and book shelves. There are now four full-time teachers working under Lui. The number of students has shot up from five to 64, studying in grades K1 to K3.

Lui remains the only English teacher at the school. She draws the same meager pay she was getting six years ago. However, her enthusiasm for her work and her love for the village school has remained undiminished, despite many setbacks and challenges.

Challenges never cease

Not everyone in the community shares the same public spirit as those who helped rebuild the school and keep it going. One would expect publishers of children's textbooks to care about kids and their education. But when Lui asked a local publisher why he had not delivered the free books promised against an order she had placed with him, the firm's owner was outraged that she should raise the question at all, given she was buying just six copies.

He mocked her as a teacher of an insignificant school, oblivious of her efforts, and unaware of the fact that Lui's small effort on behalf of a few needy children likely outweighed any contribution that would come to a man contemptuous of poor children and blinded by the dollar signs in his eyes.

Lui said it was these bumps on the road that has made her emotionally stronger.

One day in 2011 a father came to pick up his son. Lui thought the man looked like a gangster. The father took a textbook out of the boy's bag and yelled, "What did you learn today? Read it!"

"How could the son answer when he was so scared?" said Lui. To her horror, the father, having failed to elicit any response from the boy, slapped his son across the face, while other students and teachers watched in utter dismay.

"He yelled at us saying 'Do you know how to teach?'" Lui could not hold back any more. She stepped forward and raised her voice. "Beating kids is against the law. If you do it again, I will call the police."

She was secretly terrified. "But I needed to hide it and be tough, because I need to protect my children, all of them," says Lui. She told the father that if he thought Yuen Kong Kindergarten could not teach his son well, she could have him transferred to another school nearby.

"It turned out that the father just had a bad day, so was venting his bad mood," said Lui. The father did not transfer his son to another school. Lui later received the father's apology and a thank-you letter expressing his gratitude to the principal for being a teacher to both father and son.

Lui has psyched herself to be patient and considerate with the parents. Most are grass-roots, working-class people traditionally known to be a bit rough with their children compared to the affluent, university-educated people in white-collar jobs. Lui is trying to make them see the benefits of trying a softer approach, which she believes might go a long way in easing the tension between parents and children.

Lui said she is getting tougher and also, paradoxically, gentler, since she began working at the school. She reserves the tough persona to deal with the difficulties and challenges facing the kindergarten while her gentler side is used to watch over the kids, all set to begin their life's journey.

Contact the writer at frannie@chinadailyhk.com

Lillian Lui's efforts to breathe new life in a primary school inspired other people to donate funds to spruce up the campus. Photos by roy Liu / China Daily

Lui has received many thank-you letters, in which people encourage her to continue the good work.

Students put their photos on the board every morning to register their attendance.

Around 100 volunteers painted gay images of animals on the walls of the kindergarten making it an even more cheerful place.

Lui accompanies students to the school gate, waiting there until each one has been picked up by her parents.

 

The principal's office is in a corner of a classroom.

(HK Edition 06/30/2015 page7)