As one of China’s oldest working teachers, Wang Lan, at the advanced age of 90, still arrives at Nanjing Changjiang Road Primary School on time every day. She takes classes, analyzes lesson plans and guides other members of staff, just as she has done for over six decades.

Her aim in life is to share her philosophy — that of an education which features harmony, truth and beauty — with all the staff at the local elementary school.

Wang chose a teacher training college at the age of entering university and started to work in 1951. She has become an excellent teacher in Chinese language at the primary school level.

In the 1950s, she developed a special pinyin pedagogical method. She took part in the pilot program for teaching reform in east China’s Jiangsu Province in the 1960s. And, in the 1970s, she was among the first to introduce audio-visual education methods like using slides and recordings.

Wang was awarded as one of the first outstanding teachers of Jiangsu Province in 1978 and won the title of woman “national pacesetter” twice in the following two years. In 1992, Wang retired but she chose to stay on campus.

As an expert in Chinese language teaching, she set up the Wang Lan Workshop and imparted her experience to younger staff. Many of her “apprentices” have become leading teachers in the Chinese language discipline in Nanjing.