Right
now, July 3, 2002, I want to
come back to China to spend some more time with Chinese middle school
teachers.
The
Amity Foundation has a summer program that just began today with an orientation
for 100 volunteers, mostly from the United States. Kim
Strong was leading that orientation. Maybe
I can be with them another year.Want
to join me? Native
speakers of English go to the western countryside to spend four weeks giving
Chinese middle school English teachers a chance to work on their oral English. These
Chinese teachers are essential actors in China's development, particularly
for rural families. Students
in my university classes who came from rural areas are hoping to spend
time again with their middle school English teachers during their summer
vacations. These were their
door to the university.
Don Snow working with middle school teachers from schools in the countryside
around Nantong.Prospective Amity teachers were able
during our orientation last August to observe experienced teachers like
Amity¡¯s Snow teach about and demonstrate new methods. With
these Chinese teachers we practiced leading lessons in English conversation,
they becoming our teachers as they responded to us.
Chen
Yaxu
and Chen Zhaokuan, left and in the middle, both teach English at
junior middle schools (junior high schools) in Rugao, about 2 hours north
of Nantong City. Huang Yongwei,
right, is a new English teacher, lives at home in Nantong City and communtes
by motor bike to a junior middle school outside of the city.
Both
Chens are married and live at their schools.Chen
Yaxu's wife teaches math at the same school.Huang
may have difficulty finding a suitable wife, as teachers¡¯ salaries do
not compare with what could be earned in business.Both
Chens have been teaching for more than 15 years, live at their schools
and earn 1100 RMB a month (less than $150).
Chen
Yaxu has wanted to move up to teaching at a senior middle school.He
has a sharp mind and finds the constant work with classes of 50 junior
highers, who are often resistant to English, sometimes boring.He
would treasure the challenge of dealing with better-prepared students who
are heading for the university. But
his headmaster won't let him go, saying that he is too valuable. Teachers
with his competence are probably rare in a junior high.
Li
Xuiangfeng,
on the right, does the housework and takes care of herdaughter
and also of her father who lives just down the street, in addition to teaching
English in a senior middle school outside of Nantong. Her
husband is starting his own business and is often in Shanghai. Teachers
are sought after as wives, because they have steady jobs, even if their
pay is low, and because they can help with the education of their own children. This
woman's cheerfulness is the face of life of such a weight of responsibilities
was a witness I would remember.
Last
fall when I was tempted to despair over facing another lesson to prepare
when I was exhausted from the previous day, or when I reluctantly made
another hasty breakfast in order to go out into rain and cold and make
my hour¡¯s commute to teach, what these teachers, and others like them
that we met, were cheerfully doing for others at real cost to themselves,
challenged me. These are indeed
among God¡¯s agents in China. To
be among them, and if possible to support and encourage them, as Amity¡¯s
Teaching Program seeks to do, is the call I¡¯ve been responding to this
year.
ZaiJian
¨C until we meet again,
Hugh
Wire
You
can learn more about Amity's summer program and China's middle schools
at www.amityfoundation.org/frm/aaw_tr.html
You
can get another glimpse of issues teachers face in my account of An Amity
Visit to Meng Cheng County (An Hui Province) at www.oocities.org/hughwire/mengcheng2.html.