Editor's Note: The following article, translated from ifeng.com, discusses a recent story about a Ph.D student suddenly leaving his prestigious research position to teach middle school mathematics; a decision that subsequently prompted his advisor to vent his frustration on the internet, which in turn got online tongues wagging. Unable to stay silent on the matter, the Ph.D student responded online to justify his decision. What could possibly have prompted this promising student to shun research in favor of teaching?

"Last night I didn't sleep a wink; all because of one student."

A long letter of lament with these words appeared in the Beijing News on November 13, penned by Cheng Daizhan, an advising professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Not long before, his Ph.D. student Xiao Yang turned down the opportunity to continue his coveted research position, instead signing a contract to teach mathematics at a middle school. Cheng wrote over 3,000 characters bemoaning Xiao's decision. The open letter incited a huge netizen response, prompting Xiao to post his own letter online answering his advisor's complaints. In it, he says, "I've already come to hate research."

Advisor: "He was my most gifted student"

"His decision shocked me. I've stayed up all night thinking about it and I still don't understand it. He's the most gifted student I've ever come across." Yesterday, Cheng Daizhan frowned as he stared at a copy of an English-language volume on his desk, published by Xiao and himself. According to Cheng, Xiao Yang was the primary writer of several papers published in IEEE TAC, the premier international journal in their field of Systems Control. "There aren't many Chinese professors who get their names published in this journal."

"I definitely expected him to continue on to a high-level research position," said Cheng. The problem began six months ago, when Xiao Yang suddenly expressed a desire to work at a bank or a middle school after graduating. Xiao revealed he had even taken an accounting exam. Cheng figured it was just a phase, or in his words, "temporary youthful hot-headedness". At the beginning of November, however, Xiao told his advisor that he'd already been accepted as a teacher at a middle school in Beijing. The contract was already signed.

Netizens: Qian Xuesen vs. Freedom of Choice

After Cheng's letter was published, many netizens took Xiao's decision as a woeful reminder of an infamous question still unanswered by Chinese rocket scientist Qian Xuesen: "Why can't China raise any outstanding scientists?" Other netizens were more supportive of Xiao's freedom of choice, saying that the contribution of a middle school teacher is by no means less important than that of a scientific researcher.

Xiao Yang: "My only reason is lack of interest"

In response to his advisor's letter and netizens' online comments, Xiao Yang posted his own letter online justifying his actions: "It's quite simple. My only reason is lack of interest. Actually, that's putting it mildly. You could go so far as to say I despise research…the practice of research is exhausting. When I made the decision to leave, I felt a long-lost, indescribable sense of relief…I am most certainly not the kind of person that the world of research needs. People with no interest in research can never make any real, meaningful contribution to it. I hope instead that I am the kind of person that the world of education needs," Xiao Yang wrote, expressing his fervent excitement for his new chosen career. He said that he loves the sense of achievement gained by teaching others.

Advisor: "A Ph.D. teaching middle school is an imbalanced distribution of human resources"

Reporter: "Why the extreme opposition to Xiao Yang leaving his research position?"

Advisor: "He was the most gifted student I have ever come across in more than 30 years of research. He was a very rare seedling in the research community. He had a solid foundation in mathematics during his four years at Tsinghua, a very agile mind, a knack for discovering the true nature of problems and proposing plans for their solutions. Discussing mathematics with him was a pleasure. He was also very diligent. He had three international universities invite him to pursue post-doctoral studies. He had a bright future in research, and he threw it all away. It's quite a shame."

Reporter: "Did you ever ask Xiao Yang about his interest in research?"

Advisor: "That's something I could have done better; I never asked him. I always assumed you'd simply have to be interested in your work to do it so well. To have your work published in international journals is something to be celebrated. I never expected that he had no interest in such accomplishments, that he didn't have that sense of achievement. That's something that has confused me to this day."

Reporter: "Some people say a middle school teacher is just as important as a researcher; what do you think?"

Advisor: "I don't doubt the importance of a middle school teacher. My own interest in mathematics owes a lot to the efforts of several of my middle school teachers. But I still believe it's a waste, especially for a gifted scientific mind like his. The knowledge he accumulated as a Ph.D. student is all but useless in a middle school classroom. The nation's investment, his advisor's heart and soul, his own sweat and tears, virtually all wasted—unless he's going to teach his middle school students about differentiable manifolds and martingale inequalities? ...A Ph.D. student, especially one of Xiao Yang's caliber, is a failure of the education system, an imbalanced distribution of human resources."

Xiao Yang: "I was educated to be a very obedient child"

Reporter: "Your professor is very disappointed in your decision; how do you feel about that?"

Xiao Yang: "I thoroughly understand the high hopes Professor Cheng had for me. I knew he would be disappointed, and I even thought about just keeping my head down and pushing through with the research, but when the time came to make a choice, I decided to selfishly follow my own wishes…I left research because it was so tiring, and because I didn't feel like I had much potential. Me sticking with it for as long as I did wasn't because Professor Cheng forced me to; it was just because I was brought up to be very obedient. When someone gives me a task to do, I do it to completion, whether I like it or not. Not just in research, but for lab work as well. I just do my job quickly and efficiently. That kind of behavior is what made Professor Cheng believe I actually enjoyed research."

Reporter: "Does your family support your decision?"

Xiao Yang: "On November 11, I went back to my grandmother's house and had a family meeting. They weren't trying to pressure me into making money; I just wanted to ask if they had any objections to me taking a low-level, low-salary, high-workload teaching job at a middle school. Finally everyone came to the agreement that if I really hated research, I'd never be happy with a lifetime of it, plus they don't really care about me making a name for myself. And being a middle school teacher isn't a bad job."

Reporter: "A lot of people say that a Ph.D. teaching middle school is a waste of talent…"

Xiao Yang: "I believe I have enough talent and knowledge to teach middle school mathematics. That's a sharp distinction between this and the fact that I don't believe I have any talent to make a worthwhile contribution to scientific research. I also love sharing my knowledge with others. I've worked as a tutor before, and I much prefer spending a few comfortable hours teaching than spending the same number of hours doing research."

Source: ifeng.com

Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.

Keywords: Chinese Ph.D. Chinese middle school teacher Chinese Academy of Sciences