章槃先生、我們的國文老師 Mr. Cheung Poon, Chinese Teacher
Mr.
Cheung Poon was our Chinese Literature teacher from the late fifties
to early seventies. Many of us at that time associated Chinese
Literature teachers with boredom, dullness and an exceptional power
of hypnotism. Not Mr. Cheung. His classes were never
dull. A good story teller with a seemingly bottomless well
of knowledge in classical Chinese literature and history, his classes
were attended attentively by even the most concentration-challenged
students - such as myself.
Mr. Cheung usually comes into the classroom with the textbook, which he promptly places on the teacher's desk, never to pick it up again until the class is over. Yet, if you follow your own textbook while he carries on with his story telling, you'll find that every word has been covered, including the footnotes and, yes, his own expansion on the textbook's footnotes. In other words, if you had paid good attention during his class, which you'd found difficult not to, you should have earned real high marks in your Chinese study.
While Mr. Cheung was famed for not using his textbook during class, he used it in a legendary way when doing dictation tests. He would hold the book close to his face while reading out the words for the class to write, when actually, his eyes were not on the book, but on the class to spot anyone who was peeping!
Mr. Cheung is 82 this year. He lives in Oakland, California.
"The two essays 對不起，老師，我不會 and 長廊背影 about Mr. Cheung we post here are from a book 'My Teachers' authored by Ms. Wu Yin Ching (胡燕清) FA73. We are grateful for Logos Publishing of Hong Kong's kind permission to have these beautifully written words of Ms. Wu grace our pages. Ms. Wu, now teaching at the Baptist College, has published some 20 books."
說故事的人 – 章槃老師 孫忠耀Edward Sun (1962)
在進入F.4B之前，國文是我最討厭的學科!
深奥、難懂、枯燥、乏味，與現實生活拉不上太大的関係。加上一般國文老師的嚴重八股味道、平板的教學技巧，使國文科成為眾多學生的最不受歡迎科目。「八股佬」、「催眠大師」普遍地成為一般國文老師的外號。
國文堂最適宜用來打瞌睡、看武俠小說、甚至打橋牌 (當時橋牌甚盛行) 。這就是我們F.4B – 最少我自己 – 迎接第一堂國文的心情。
課室門口出現了一個高瘦的身影，清秀白晳的面龐，架着金絲眼鏡。上身穿一件潔白、熨得平而直的長袖裇衫、結了領帶，下面襯着熨得同樣畢直的深色西褲，手裏拿着一本書 – 該是「新編國文」吧。
一進來，老師向我們微微彎身，好一個風度翩翩的君子。想必有不少女同學為之暗中傾倒吧 ! 接着把書往桌上一丟 (其實，直至下課，這本書就如此被冷落在此、不再受打擾了) 。然後背過身、拿起粉筆、在黑板上重重地寫道: 「章槃」。
這就是我們的新國文老師。
章老師講課時從不唸書。他說故事、有趣的故事。一篇深奧艱澀的古文，由他講來就淺而易懂，而且娓娓動聽、引人入勝。像歐洲中古時代黑死症為患之時、吹着笛子把一羣小孩子帶引出險的吹笛人，把我們引到春秋戰國、明宋漢唐。往往下課鈴聲响時，同學們仍是如痴如醉、想繼續聽下去。此時、黑板上早已密密地寫滿了章老師的蒼勁有力的字。通常，最後的幾個字是勉強地、細細地填在黑板上僅僅剩下方寸空間的右下角。
遠在世人未知道HYPERTEXT是什麽玩意之前，章老師就是活生生的國文HYPERTEXT、活生生的國學文庫。問他一個字，他就可以告訴你一整個故事，一整個來源典故。
不難想像，國文很快便成為衆同學的熱門學科。在章老師的堂上，沒有人會打瞌睡、或做其它無聊的事。
於是，國文成了我的至愛科目。章老師啓發了我對國文的興趣，我開始主動去發掘課本外的中文書籍來看，從而充實了我的中國文學知識、和增進了我的寫作技巧。
可惜的是，絢爛終歸於平淡，章老師沒有隨我們升上F.5。代之而來的是一個英制學歷較高 (章老師的內地學位不獲香港承認)、而墨水明顯不及的國文老師。
幸而，我已養成了的對國文的愛好並未因此退減。會考時，我的中文取得了優異。當然，取得優異還有不少其他同學。但是，無可置疑，從憎厭到優異，章老師這個說故事的吹笛人對我施行的魔術實在太神奇了!