I Can Talk to the Internal Organs-Chapter 165 - 138: Teaching Traditional Chinese Medicine? I Communicate Directly with Kids’ Five Organs
Lu’s Clinic.
Since Lu Jiu took a day off, after returning to the clinic, he just tidied up a bit, then locked up and went home.
Seeing patients every day recently, he indeed needed some time to relax.
At the same time, he also needed some time to prepare for the upcoming evaluation.
A traditional Chinese medicine teacher?
Hmm!
Lu Jiu asked himself, and he thought his traditional Chinese medicine knowledge was quite solid.
But as for how to teach kids, Lu Jiu had no clue for the time being.
If the evaluation involves how to teach kids and he wasn’t prepared at all, wouldn’t that be a complete loss?
But there’s no one around him who’s a teacher, so how could he gain some experience?
Eh?
Isn’t Jiang Xue going to a normal university, and she has also obtained a teaching certificate, so she should have experience with school internships, right?
Would asking her be a good idea?
With that thought, Lu Jiu opened his WeChat and located Jiang Xue’s chat box.
It seemed like it’s been two or three months since they last chatted.
"Jiang Xue, how do you think one could teach kids to be more interested in learning things?"
After sending the message, Lu Jiu didn’t pay much attention to it.
But just after a few seconds, his phone rang and then kept vibrating continuously.
"Teach kids?"
"Lu Jiu, are you changing careers?"
"No way."
"Aren’t you studying traditional Chinese medicine?"
"Why are you thinking about becoming a teacher?"
"Oh gosh, let me tell you, don’t become a teacher."
"The salary is too low, really!"
"I heard this from my colleagues during my internship."
"Working hard for three or four thousand yuan, more classes, more money, fewer classes, less money."
"..."
Lu Jiu opened the messages, and his forehead instantly went black.
Did he inadvertently open someone’s chatterbox?
In less than half a minute, Jiang Xue sent him a dozen messages.
Lu Jiu wanted to say, typing so fast, aren’t your hands sore?
"Alright, alright."
"I’m not here to chat about salary; there’s a policy to introduce traditional Chinese medicine into primary and secondary schools here, and they’re recruiting TCM teachers, so I signed up."
"The evaluation is mainly through interviews, and I’m worried they will ask questions about how to teach kids, so I want to ask for your advice."
Hearing this, Jiang Xue was surprised, holding onto her phone.
"A TCM teacher."
"It’s the first time I’ve heard that, are elementary schools introducing TCM courses now?"
"Amazing, amazing."
"Lu Jiu, you want to know how to teach kids TCM, right?"
"Simple, just play!"
"You just integrate TCM knowledge into games."
"Hold on, I’ll find a file."
"[Rainbow Bridge]"
"There, Lu Jiu, open this file and take a look."
"This is a recess game we prepared for kids."
"We prepare colorful square tiles, and each kid holds two pieces."
"After taking them, they place them on the ground and step on them."
"The kid behind also takes two tiles, and with the help of the first kid, steps on the tiles, then places their own tiles in front."
"Continue like this until everyone steps on the tiles and lines up in a row; then the game is over."
"The game isn’t complicated, but it’s highly interactive, and kids love it."
"Moreover, we use a two-team PK mode to race when doing this game."
"The winning team gets a reward, and the losing team gets a punishment."
"Lu Jiu, I think you can combine TCM knowledge with such games."
"As I recall, isn’t TCM about Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth?"
"Just write these five words on the tiles and let them build the Five Elements Bridge."
"Follow this order, and the ones who make mistakes or are slow will lose."
Eh?
This indeed is a good idea!
Learning the interaction of the Five Elements during the game means if you change the order, these kids can also learn the conflicting relationships of the Five Elements.
But isn’t this game a bit too simple?
"It’s quite good, but do you have anything a bit more complex?" Lu Jiu asked.
Jiang Xue quickly replied to the message.
"I wouldn’t recommend anything too complex."
"Kids have limited comprehension, and games with too many rules can be cumbersome to play."
"You’ll find that after talking about a bunch of rules, when they play, they all break the rules."
"Kids can be a handful, so simple and with a bit of competitiveness is enough."
"At worst, you can just change the content. Like the game of ’Drop the Handkerchief’ can be innovated."
"Have them stick Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth on their backs, and the ones running must stick to the correct order to avoid being caught."
"If they paste wrongly or get caught, they have to recite some TCM knowledge, which works too."
Wow!
This is not bad either!
Lu Jiu suddenly had an idea.
"Then could ’Hopscotch,’ a game we played as kids, also be innovated?"
Jiang Xue sent a smart-dog emoji.
"Yeah, games like this attract kids the most."
"And learning knowledge while playing is the best method too."
"Speaking of which, Lu Jiu, how did you study TCM before?"
Lu Jiu, with a bitter smile, sent six dots to express his feelings.
"By rote memorization."
Jiang Xue sent over a chuckling dog emoji.
"That’s rough."
"But Lu Jiu, just relying on play to teach is not enough."
"Interest is the best teacher, but persistence is the most important."
"Games can only play a supplementary role; to really have them seriously learn TCM, games aren’t enough."
"Traditional Chinese medicine is so abstruse, I feel you’ll find it hard to teach."
Jiang Xue remembers when she passed by Lu’s Clinic as a child, wanting to find Lu Jiu to play, she would always see Lu Jiu standing by the clinic wall, getting his hands caned by Grandpa Lu.
But she never saw Lu Jiu cry, not even once, nor did she ever hear him complain about not wanting to learn TCM.
Every time she asked Lu Jiu why he was being punished, Lu Jiu would just smile and say it was because he didn’t remember, so he had to be punished.
It was because of seeing Lu Jiu study TCM so diligently, Jiang Xue said that wanting to teach these kids wouldn’t be an easy task for Lu Jiu.
In the current teaching environment, you can’t even think about hitting kids, not even scolding — no, you can’t even say a harsh word.
At the school where Jiang Xue interned, there was a teacher in her twenties who just joined as a homeroom teacher. While teaching sixth graders, he said some harsh words to a kid who didn’t hand in homework for a long time, then punished him by having him stand at the classroom door, only for the kid to immediately say the teacher was punishing him and that he would tell his parents to complain to the principal about the teacher.
Of course, this was just an individual case, but indeed, corporal punishment is something that can’t be done now.
When he saw this sentence, Lu Jiu couldn’t help but chuckle.
"No worries, let me pass the evaluation first, and as for whether I can teach, that’s something to think about later. Playing games is just to spark their interest in TCM, whether they want to learn afterward is entirely up to them. I won’t force them."
Lu Jiu understood the principle of not pushing when it comes to teaching.
He didn’t expect that after becoming a teacher, he must teach all the students in the class.
That was impossible!
But if just one or two are willing to learn, Lu Jiu would definitely give his all.
"Alright, Lu Jiu, let’s chat another time, I have to study now," Jiang Xue said.
"Okay, when will you come back to Jianghan?" Lu Jiu asked.
"Probably for the teacher’s exam, although I told my mom I’ll be teaching at Experimental Primary School, I reckon even if I pass, I’ll likely be assigned to teach in a township school, but that’s okay, at least it’s closer to home," said Jiang Xue.
"When you’re back, I’ll treat you to a meal, and we’ll invite Jiang Tao," Lu Jiu said.
"Yeah, yeah, I’ll eat you out of house and home!" Jiang Xue said.
"Haha, alright, that’s it, bye-bye," Lu Jiu said.
"Bye-bye," Jiang Xue said.
He turned off the phone.
Lu Jiu pondered seriously.
Games... interest...
What if they aren’t interested in these games?
Are there other ways?
Lu Jiu had already put himself in the role of a teacher.
Only by doing so, could he fluently express his ideas during the evaluation.
This is called having confidence inside so you won’t panic when speaking. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
Eh?
How did he forget!
Suddenly, Lu Jiu remembered his advantage.
When he takes the pulse, can’t he hear the conversation among the patient’s Five Viscera?
Then he could just take the pulse of these kids, inquire with their Five Viscera, and find out what these little fellows like. A little display could really astonish them.
Show them the wonders of TCM, plant an indelible seed in their young minds, wouldn’t that spark their interest?
Uh... might he, by doing this, cultivate a whole batch of potential TCM enthusiasts!?
