Everything is in the past, I told myself. The expedition team went there, and a journalist wrote about it, proving they were safe. That nightmare would not replay itself. Really? Would it really not happen again? Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure. Because “it” might not have been truly eradicated; from a certain perspective, “it” still lives, right here in Shanghai, the city where I live.
I have decided to write down this story, believing that once I finish, I can truly free myself from the shadow of the event that happened a year ago. So, let’s go back to a year ago. The summer of 2001. The educational system in mainland China has always had various issues. Students often bear academic pressures several times that of their peers in other countries, yet their actual capabilities are far inferior. In light of this, in recent years, the intensity of educational reform has been increasing, along with louder calls for reducing the burden on students and promoting quality education. This spans from preschool to university.
The Nightmare Reappears (2)
In the summer of 2001, a peak time for promoting quality education, it was the media’s duty to pay attention and drive this initiative forward. However, for a newspaper like the “Morning Star,” which primarily targets office workers, dedicating large sections to elementary and middle school students’ quality education isn’t feasible. Therefore, aside from covering the general situation of educational reforms, the focus had to be on university students’ quality education. As a “free line” reporter, I was instructed to pay more attention to news leads in this area and to develop any valuable ones into in-depth reports.
