Take out your books now! "Each time our teacher would start like this, straight to the point. Facing our teacher in such an occasion and in such an atmosphere, we did feel ashamed and embarrassed."
With the improvement of the living standards, many people are no longer interested in the simple life style and some of them even feel ashamed to be thrifty.
When she came to that part of the letter in which her family were mentioned, in terms of such mortifying yet merited reproach, her sense of shame was severe.
We had little idea of how we would cope, whether we could provide an education for the children, and if three months later we would be home, shamefaced, saying 'Oh, it just didn't work out'.