Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday was a busy day for our educator group. We began our day visiting the Pangliu School located about 45 miles from the city of Xian. This school is considered a village school and is also known as the best village school in the country of China. There is a difference between the schools in the city and the village schools. 70% of China is rural therefore a large number of the population is educated in these schools. The village of Pangliu is also the home village of our guide, Mr. Richard Wang. When people are born in China they must register into two categories: rural or city. As recently as 25-30 years ago, rural students had about two ways they could get out of the rural areas: by continuing their schooling or volunteering for the military. Either of these two ways guaranteed nothing as you had to do very well to continue on in your education or making the military a career. Back before the 1950s very little funding made its way to the rural areas. Our guide Richard was one of two students that continued on in a class of 60 students to middle school. Happily today, the number of students moving on to middle and high school I n 100% because through the years funding has found is way to the country.
The village is very basic and does not have a lot of the conveniences that we take for granted. Most of the houses have no heat, are fairly small and poverty is very high, according to our standards. The school was damaged during the huge earthquake in 2008 and the some students are in portable classrooms. The students welcomed our group by playing music and making a tunnel for us to walk though, like our basketball games. There are 140 students in the school and it is a k-6 school. There are 12 teachers and a principal and they are appointed to the school. Some of the teachers stay at the school. There is a computer lab at the school that the kids use and is one of the very few rural schools that are equipped with that technology. We toured the classes and students were doing much of the same things that our elementary students do at school. I will send some pictures shortly of the kids in their classes. I challenged one little boy in ping-pong and he barely beat me 10-1 in a game that ended because of the mercy rule…for me! The little boy was great and he seemed to really enjoy killing the ball after I had gotten it over the net. I am sure Mr. Weber and the little one would have a real battle. While we were in the village we visited a watermelon greenhouse and a brick factory that is unlike anything anywhere in America. We certainly all should count our blessings.
Following the village school visit we went to a warehouse where they make many things from Jade. We were given a lecture on the different types of Jade and where it comes from (Mr. Scherry and Mrs. Burkhart go over this in your 7th grade science classes). It was very interesting and then we went on a tour to see some of the finished products that are made from Jade. There were many things made from Jade ranging from jewelry to statues to you name it. Next we headed back to the city of Xian to visit the Muslim mosque. Muslims make up a small portion of China’s population. The mosque is near our hotel and is over 300 years old. Following that visit and tour we went to a huge bazaar or what we might call a flea market. There were venders of all kinds selling things and food. It was quite a sight.
On Monday we will tour an art gallery and then fly to Beijing for a week of meetings with the department of education, meeting with schools and visiting schools.
Students remember the Simple Six!
