BRUCE

Bruce quotes a famous sentence by Confucius: The good teacher sees the sleeping mind in each student and seeks to awaken him. Teaching is to wake up a sleeping mind.

And he also knows much about the works by other Chinese ancient educators and thinkers such as LaoTze and Mencius.

As Chinese, we know only a little about our own wisdom and culture from Ancient China, So, we feel a bit ashamed.

Bruce is always dressed properly and behaves well. Every day he wears a different shirt and suit, and in the upper pocket of his suit, there is a handkerchief that is folded very beautifully.

One day a teacher in the office asked Bruce jokingly how many T-shirts he has. Bruce said a dozen or more.

Then he explained why he wears different suits and T-shirts and has a handkerchief of different colors to go with.

In the American culture, it is very important to dress properly and behaves well. Dressing formally and good behaviors can show you are well educated and you are a gentleman.

At the same time, it shows your respect for others and for your career. Bruce is indeed a gentleman.

Every time we go in and out of our office with Bruce, he always lets ladies go first. Bruce is particular about his food.

Every morning he drinks a big glass of fruit juice first, and half an hour later he drinks another big glass of vegetable juice,which are made by himself.

He stresses that ginger root is very helpful to our body, so his vegetable juice must include it every day.

He thinks that when we fry vegetables in hot oil, the energy will disappear. Thus the amount of energy in our fried vegetables is almost that of a piece of paper.

We Chinese people put too much spices into our vegetable dishes, which cause them to lose their natural taste.

In western countries, people steam vegetables just like we cook rice in a special cooker.

They heat them gently, in this way, the energy will not be lost. Now we understand why Bruce is always full of energy and why we easily get tired. We also believe we are what we eat.

Bruce is patient and strict with his students. He has American humour, vivid facial expressions and body language to make his lessons lively and interesting, So most students like him very much.

But, sometimes some students, whose English is not good,will make noise or do something else in class, Bruce will raise his voice and enforce discipline. Once in a while he will lose his temper.

Once a boy made trouble by interfering with his neighbour. Bruce was quite angry and asked him to leave the class.

We had a discussion about the problem after class, Most teachers in the office thought Bruce should ignore him.

But Bruce said if he does not study and interfere others, he should not stay in class, he insisted he was right.

Later, the boy came to our office and made an apology sincerely and Bruce accepted it and forgave him.

Such is Bruce, an energetic and learned American, who lives a busy but happy life, just like the song he taught us

Row row row your boat,

Gently down the stream,

Merrily merrily merrily merrily,

Life is but a dream,

Trala! Bruce,

67, is an American.He is my workmate. We have been working together since the beginning of this term. We have learned a great deal from him, not only from his lessons but alsofrom his character.

Bruce is a person full of energy. He has 34 lessons every week, on the average 7 lessons each day. But he never feels tired.

Because the content of his lesson is the same during the whole week, we thought it would be very terrible to have the same topic repeated again and again.

But, in fact, he never simply repeats it. Every time we listen to his lessons, we find something new and different.

This is because he is a good teacher, who can adjust his teaching contents according to different students. Last, but not least, he is always full of energy.

Even though when it is his seventh lesson, he looks as if it were his first. In addition, during his breaks, he seldom takes a rest.

The teachers in our office always ask him questions and we always discuss many things together. Compared to him, most of the teachers in our office only have two lessons each day.

After each lesson, we always say we are tired. In truth, we lack interest and passion for our teaching.

As Bruce says to us, if we put our mind totally into one thing, we won’t feel bored or tired. Minds love to give and receive. This connects us to others.

Bruce is a learned person. We have learned much not only from his lessons but also from our conversations with him.

We often ask him questions. He patiently explains his answers to us sometimes repeating these more than twice.

He seldom simply answers our questions.

He always gives us a complete and satisfying explanation or answer, especially the origins of something, which are usually something unexpected. When we talk about the topic,“what a good teacher is？

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