Dear US Teachers With Less Than 50 Students In A Class, You Have Nothing To Crab About. Sincerely, Your Chinese Counterparts With Over 50 Kids In A Class.

Oh sleeping hotel watchman guard. I love how safe I feel with you on the job. I know no one could ever get past you coming through the wide open door at any time of night. I love the way you party down and smoke butts late at night with the guests and carnivorous mosquitos that gather in the lobby, the only place for available spotty internet. I also love the way you yell at me in Chinese and our relationship has grown into something so beautiful as my reaction to you is oh, so kind in return. The way you spit onto the clean lobby floor and clear your throat is mesmerizing and epitomizes cleanliness. Thank you Chuck. It was only appropriate that I named you this after muttering so many times to myself - 

What the F#@* Chuck!!

This day was truly one of the most special of the whole trip.  Besides hanging with Clara (she added this and I do have to agree), we also got a chance to go into schools.  Students, although most are out for the school year now, came in to hang with us.

Education in China is compulsory grades 1-9.  Students may or may not attend a pre-school voluntarily until age 6 depending on family preference or financial availability.  Parents pay.  Students move onto or start primary school covering grades 1-6.  They go onto middle school for grades 7, 8 & 9.  At this point depending on the student, about 50% of students will go onto an academic high school to help them prepare for China's national exam, The Gaokao, and hopefully after that, college.  The other 50% of students go onto skills based education and vocational education high schools specializing in arts or trades.  High school is not compulsory here although the government is taking steps to ensure that it will be by 2020.

The Gaokao is everything to students trying to get into colleges here.  It is a huge test.  9 million students take the test annually.  It is modeled after the historical Chinese Civil Service Exam System advocated by Confucius.  The idea of an exam like this was to afford everyone equal opportunity to improve themselves and their status in society if they worked hard enough in school and achieved a high enough score.  For students today, it is the only way to change their lives.  A good score is a ticket to prosperity.

The test is 3 days.  Students are tested on Chinese language and literature, a foreign language (often English), one or more of the student's choice depending on college aspirations (for example, Social Studies/Politics, Physics, History, Biology, or Chemistry). Students wait 20 days for their scores.  The best of the best scores get to choose where they want to go to college.  The government assigns colleges for the rest of the passing students. Students who fail the Gaokao can re-take the test after one year.

Many students do not have a choice if they fail and will return home and start jobs that require manual labor, sales, etc.

We were welcomed to Chongqing Municiple Qijiang High School with a large banner.  This high school was founded in 1910 and has over 110 classes offered to its 7000 students.  It is massive.
Part day school and part boarding school, it has a track and field stadium, academic buildings, science laboratories, and advanced IT teaching equipment.  The educational philosophy is centered around student research and innovation.  Problem solving strategies are emphasized.  Students here have made about 3,000 applications to China's National Patent Office.  388 have gained a national patent as a result of their work here.

I was told by one student that their day typically starts at about 5 am.  They get up and do some morning reading.  They eat breakfast at about 7:30.  They go to school and get out about 3-4pm.  Students will study some more or go to after school enrichment activities or clubs.  They eat dinner.    They go back to classes for another 3 periods until about 10 pm.  Students will go home or return to their on-campus apartment and many will study some more.

This campus is way older than the school I teach at and the conditions here are absolutely stunningly beautiful.   Everything is very orderly and everything is very well maintained.  Education is extremely important in this society and it shows in physical appearance.

This area is for the students to relax and gather and sit.  They use geography to promote communication, socialization and relaxation on campus.

These students were gathered on campus and welcomed the teachers of our delegation.  All Chinese students study at least one foreign language and many study more.  English is one of the subjects on the Gaokao.  The students practiced their English with us and were quite good.  We talked about music, sports, what they like to do for fun, summer activities, and Gaokao.  They kept apologizing for their "lack of English"which in reality, was quite good.  It is hard for anyone to speak another language and practice when not confident yet.  It takes an incredible amount of courage.  I have the highest level of respect for all of them.

 Teachers also joined us.  Their relationships with their students are just like ours.  They were helping them, laughing with them and offering information and translation to students when needed.

All meetings and briefings run the same way here.  We are welcomed in, and the speaker introduces themselves.  At this meeting our delegation was asked to give an introduction.  Our leader, Harold, Professor of Chinese History Extraordinaire gave it his best in Mandarin.  He did splendidly.

Time for lunch.  Along the way we got to see some of the campus.

This is student housing with a court yard for ping pong.

The lunch spread was impressive.  Typical dishes that are served to students were served to us too.  Although this day we had many more choices.  I could not help but wonder what providing lunch for 7000 students each day looks like.

I have eaten more watermelon here than at any time in my life.  I have it every single day and at almost every single meal.  It has been a lifesaver because when traveling for this long from home, it is nice to have at least one thing on the plate reminiscent of where you came from.

This is the Dean of Students.  He was our host for the entire day.  He accompanied us to our next site which was the Qijiang No. 1 Experimental Primary School.  We were going to see a performance.  This school is a private school for gifted students in the area of the arts grades 1-6.

Again, the facilities were beautiful.

Inside were students who had prepared to give us a performance.  The title of the performance:  The Story of Mulan.  This is a famous Chinese story that also is famous in the United States.  

The costumes were all handmade.  The students performed in English.  Their poise, pronunciation and fluency were spot on.

Individual students then stepped forward to show off individual talents.

This girl made her entire costume out of recycled materials.  China is notorious for its overly polluted huge cities of Beijing and Singapore.  However, I was surprised to see the extent of recycling within their society.  There is a very low amount of waste.  One bag of garbage for an entire week comes out of some family homes, especially in the cities.  The US environmental footprint is twice that of China's.

Below is a clip of girls playing the Guzheng, or Chinese harp.   The girl on the right is doing calligraphy, which is a high form of art in China.

At the end of the performance were given the chance to converse with the students.  They were very sweet and very enthusiastic.

Now when traveling of course you are introduced to the best schools and most innovative of programs. These schools are not reflective of all schools in China.  In many ways schools struggle with the same things as schools in the US.  Funding, feeding hungry kids,  resources, student motivation and conflicting philosophies about educational pedagogy.

Chinese teachers we spoke to wished their students were more creative.  Their students were prepared for years to simply give an answer.  There weren't a lot of opportunities for individual thought.  But then again, individual thought is not part of the Chinese psyche.  This is a collectivized society.  They think according to groups, they live in groups and they socialize in groups.  That is the way it is.

The Gaokao is a point of contention in Chinese education.  Some teachers I spoke with raved about it offering equal opportunities.  Others don't like it as it takes away from creative thought and students often miss out on other things like art, music and physical education due to the time it takes to prepare them for the test.  Their entire senior year is dedicated to nothing else and they test much more than US students in preparation.

The average teacher by the way, in Beijing, makes about $1500-3000 per month depending on credentials and experience.   That is city salary.  Teachers in rural localities make much less but the cost of living is much lower.  It was explained that teaching is a good solid job and that they make a comfortable living able to pay bills and afford some luxuries.   Chinese teachers think that US teachers work very hard, much harder than them.  They teach only a handful of classes everyday - but their load in classrooms can reach as high as 50 students per class!!  And to think there are some days that I think I have issues with 19 students.  Please!  #loveyourlifeitisallgood