Wuhan!!!

The next day was kind of special. We went to the school with Echo (the girl whose family was hosting us). Our class spent the afternoon with the students of the English high school, which means they were Chinese students learning an American curriculum in English to prepare for college in the States.






All of these students were very disciplined and dedicated to their goal. I was very impressed with how well they all spoke English. When we got to the classroom, the students showed us a welcome presentation. Afterward we all got to know one another by interviewing each other. I learned that most people in China have a given name and family name, as well as an American name.

China Mojo was introduced to the whole school during a flag raising ceremony.

Next we were given a tour of the campus. I was impressed by the size of it. It was much larger than Champlain College.

There was an art demonstration, which I found very interesting. I noticed that many of the paintings featured bamboo, flowers, fish, dragonflies and cranes. The demonstration was ink on rice paper.

This is a miniature model of the entire campus.

We also visited the school library. We were told that students are not allowed to study there, which we found strange. The walls were intentionally painted with lead paint to lower cell phone reception. We were told that one reason students aren’t allowed to study in the library was because the books were out of date. I still have a hard time understanding why studying there is not permitted.

The school library

While in China I realized that that the philosophy of education is very different from ours in the United States. Academic independence is not encouraged. For example, they are discouraged from going to the library to do research. Teachers are THE authority and they will teach you everything you need to know.



Next we went to Huazhong Normal University, which was affiliated with the high school. We sat in on an intro Chinese language class. The students had been studying Chinese for six months. It was incredible to see how much you can learn in only six months of submersion. I had a conversation with a student from Papua New Guinea. He said that he already had a degree from a school at home, but he was at Huazhong Normal to learn English. Afterward, he planned to move on to another Chinese school to get his degree. This was common story for many of the students. Some plan to stay and get a degree, however many students are studying abroad at Hunan, or they were just learning Chinese.

Dorms for the Chinese students