China and Beyond

In the United States, in our K-12 school system, there are about 53 million students and about two to three million teachers. In China, there are between 300 to 400 million children eligible for K-12 schooling. And with 70 students to a class, China needs over 50 million teachers!

That is the reality that I was able to experience during my recent visit to China as part of the Connecticut-Shandong Province Principals’ Exchange. During my visit, I spent time in Beijing, Jinan, and Leaching. I spent five days at Leaching #1 Middle School, a grade 10-12 academic high school, observing classes, meeting with administrates, teachers, and students discussing teaching and learning in China and in the United States.

China has a monumental task. How do you educate 300 to 400 million children? How do you train the 50+ million teachers that are needed to teach those children? How do you build enough schools to educate these children? The Chinese Ministry of Education is turning to the United States for answers. They are turning to us because we are the only country to mandate universal, free public education for all children, ages 5 to 16 or 18. The Chinese want to know how we do it. They want to know how we do it and still produce academically apt creative thinkers who can work together as a team of problem solvers. They want to know about our teaching philosophy and out teaching methods.

In China, there is supposed to be free, universal education for all children 5 to 14. At age 14, all students are supposed to take a national exam to determine who will go to an academic high school, who will attend a vocational high school, and who will enter the workforce. Your score determines your fate, and there is no appeal.

At the end of grade 12, another national exam is taken. At a vocational school, your score will determine if you get to attend a school for additional training or enter the workforce. Your score determines your fate. At an academic high school, your score determines whether you go to college or enter the workforce. Your score determines your fate. And in either case, there is no appeal.

If things were followed, only 40% of the twelfth grade gets to attend college. But the Chinese Ministry of Education acknowledges that the number is much lower because so many children in the rural and minority areas of china never get more than four or five years of education. In those areas, the teachers may never have attended high school, but they are the teacher because they attend school longer than anyone else in the village. And there is probably no school building.

It is the intention of the Chinese government to challenge the United States for world economic supremacy, and the Chinese government knows that its economic growth is inevitably linked to its ability to education its entire population. It is akin to the situation encountered by the United States in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

As world economics become more and more entwined an economic slippage in one part of the world was an impact on the United States. Liao hen #1 Middle School is considered the best high school in Liao hen, a city of 1,000,000. The school has three campuses and enrolls 10,000 students. There are 800 teachers. All students take eight classes daily in a school day that begins at 8:00am and ends at 5:30pm. There is a 90-minute lunch break when most students go home for lunch. However, some 2500 live at the school. In addition, most, if not all, students attend “voluntary classes” from 6:30am to 8:00pm and from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. And there is a half data of school on Saturday. The school years run from September to June.

Every student studies English and by the end of grade 12, they are to show competence in speaking, reading, and writing in English. One of the national exams needed for college admission is competence in English.

The average class size is 70 students. In most classes, teachers speak and students listen. Students speak when told to speak, write when told to write. There are some efforts to move away from that model. I observed several classes where a cooperative learning model was employed. This style may do well in preparing students for the national exam, but does little to foster team work or creatively, something the Chinese Ministry of Education sees as needed if the Chinese economy is to grow.

China has the third largest economy in the world. The American economy is linked to that of china. Ensuring that their graduates can speak and think in English is important in the Chinese mind as they seek economic enhancement. American schools need to adopt the same attitude.

The Morgan School will offer Chinese 1 and 2 in September.  As the Social Studies curriculum review and revision continues, course work about the history and culture of China, as well as the rest of the non-Western world will be included in appropriate courses.  The World Language staff is in the process of organizing a trip to China for Spring 2009, as part of an inter-school partnership with the high school affiliated with Jinan University.  We are all too aware that the world is rapidly changing, and that the future of the American economy is going to be in Asia.  We need to prepare our students for success in that world.

William J. Barney, Jr.

Principal