Adventures in China

This set of photos illustrates the different schools I was able to visit. I worked at a private boarding school. Most of the student's families owned countryside factories or gold mines, so they were wealthy but did not have access to city schools. This set of photos may illustrate why the wealthy feel it was worth spending so much on their children's education. I was also able to visit a village school and a public magnet school.

I will talk about my school, first. The school grounds had a wall around it with glass shards embedded it in. It also had full time security guards. The school grounds had classrooms, dormitories, cafeterias, teacher apartments, a pool, and a medical clinic. This is the view of the school from my apartment.

One selling point of a private education was smaller class sizes. Public schools may have over 100 students in a classroom. My school put less than 40 per classroom for elementary students, and less than 30 students per classroom in high school.

Another selling point for the school was specialized equipment and a broader education than the students would receive in public school. This is the "special foreign language room" with listening booths and headphones. There were also special art and music rooms, as well as dance lessons.

The school was a boarding school, which includes preschool and primary school students. Older students have bunk beds and sleep 8 to a small room. This is the preschool dorm room. A teacher would sleep in this room, as well.

My school had superior equipment than public schools, but it also forced students into a disciplined daily structure that their families may not have provided. While my American eyes saw many improvements the school could have made to improve education, the school had a good reputation in the community and its image was very strong.

This school is a public magnet high school for foreign languages. The majority of the students study English, but some study German or Japanese. The school is for the Luoyang School district, so many students are from town, but others are from nearby villages and live in dormitories. It is considered a very good school.

Ron was a teacher from Pittsburgh and he brought his posters with him. He is teaching a half sized class. Most classes in the school had close to 70 students in a room.

This was an elementary school in the village I visited. There was one class room for each grade and a total of around 10 teachers in the entire school. The supplies were kept in the teaching office in a locked cabinet.

This first grade classroom has around 60 students in it. The students normally sit in a very upright, disciplined position, but sang a clapping song for us when we arrived.