Visit to the Kindergarten school

May 15, 2007 Tuesday

Hongfang and Xiaolian arranged a visit to the campus Kindergarten for me. Xiaolian’s grandchild goes to this school. (In her office she has the “art work” displayed on the cabinet.) They sent two students to be my guides and interpreters. Wenhan Zhu is a young man who will be going to graduate school at Princeton, and Yan’e Zhao, a young woman whom I had also met before

They picked me up at my building and escorted me over to the school. I can actually sometimes see the children playing on the yard from my cooking room window. I can always hear them when they are playing outside.

This is a very large school where the ages range from 2 ½ to 7. So it is really more like a combination Nursery school, Kindergarten, day care. They go to school from 9 am to 5 pm and eat 4 meals there, breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. There was a menu posted near the gate. The mornings are more the academic subjects, lunch is at 11:00 and then they have nap time. After nap is a free choice and outside playtime. The campus children are given priority and it costs 1,200¥ per semester. (Outside children are 1,000¥ more.) The Montessori section is higher – the teacher must have a special certificate and it is considered better, so they pay 2,200¥ per semester. (plus 1,000 if you are an outsider.) About half of the students come from the campus.

There was this 4 story building and then 3 other smaller buildings.

They have 28 classes of about 30 children each. They also have special art rooms and science rooms. This is the largest Kindergarten school in Anhui province. From what I saw, it was pretty evenly divided between girls and boys.

The first room that I went into was an art class for 6 year olds. There were several people sitting on the sides observing. These people were doing a study. The teacher was showing how to make a sandal. She asked some questions, kids raised their hands and the one chosen stood to answer. After the demo, the kids all took their chairs to tables to work. There were a lot of choices of materials. They traced their shoe and then cut it out and then were going to put on the strap. This was half the class. The other half was off doing something else.

I recognized the Montessori manipulatives in this classroom. Alec had gone to a Montessori nursery school. The teacher had modified some of the things to go with the Chinese culture.

They use the same crocodile method to move little kid classes from one place to another:

Every classroom had a wall of beds:

They open out like bleachers:

They have English instruction 2 times a week. A native English speaker comes to visit. They also use Disney cartoons to learn English. There are work books that go with them. I said that Disney cartoons have a problem because the parent always dies. The director said that they just used sections of them.

They do a lot of science. The 3 year olds were learning about eggs. Where they come from (both birds and reptiles), and what they are used for. So there were many pictures of food that had eggs in them. One little boy had done a photo report. It showed him cooking and then eating an egg at home. Each child had drawn a face on a egg and then taken it home and brought it back to school. Only 1 egg successfully made the trip. (There was a photo journal of this as a bulletin board in the hall.)

There was a pen with animals that the children feed. Some geese, pigeons, rabbits and rats. The rabbits and pigeons were descendants of the original ones. The rats were interlopers and were just there for the abundance of food. They had also had 4 sheep, an original one and 3 babies. They had been returned to the farm – there wasn’t enough grass and space for the sheep.

The Montessori art room was really nice.

They also had a special clay room, where every class could come:

Basically, any child in America could be dropped into this school and feel quite at home. They were doing the same kinds of things, had the same kind of atmosphere and seemed to be at the same levels in what they were doing. (The oldest ones would know the number facts to 20, how many characters they could read depended more on how much it was stressed at home.) They were even taking photos for the “graduation” booklet for the ones who were going on to the primary school next year. They had nice sized classrooms and several outdoor areas.

The 2 ½ year olds had a house keeping play area

And were just getting ready for lunch. They seemed really tired.

The principal did say that because every child in the school was an only child, with 2 parents and 4 grandparents, the most important thing that they taught was how to get along with other children and how to play with other children. They don’t have computers because that is something that they can do at home with the parents.

After looking at the classes, we went back to the office to sit and chat. I asked more questions, and the principal asked me questions. (All of this is what I understood was said – but the caveat being that it was being translated by a student so may have been misunderstood both ways.) China seems to have a system much like ours. Things are determined on a state rather than a national level. They teach to the individual child as opposed to everyone learning the same thing on the same day system that France has. She said that the parent’s attitude was very important and that a big problem was that every parent wanted his child to be best. I laughed and said that it was the same the world over.

Wenhan said that in his school, it was more that the teacher taught to the middle and that often, he already knew the material and was bored. He was quite jealous of this school and would like to have gone to it.

I am not sure if I will be able to visit the primary school that is on the campus. It would be interesting to see if they have the same atmosphere as the kindergarten.

I had a good time and said several times what a lovely school this was. I said that I had learned a lot. The principal said that she had too. Wenhan said that he had learned a lot also.

Thanked the students for their help. I think that Chuck and I will invite them for dinner as a special thank you.

Came home to make lunch for Chuck. (1 flight) He is staying at home today nursing a cold.

For dinner we went to a new restaurant, Meng Du. It is part of a group that includes our favorite Meng Cheng. Meng Du is within walking distance of the campus. (It is through the construction zone, but there are well worn pathways now, not much car traffic and lots of people walking. (1 flight)

We had hoped that this place would have the display of food like the other – no such luck. They did have one page of pictures – perhaps the Spring Specialties. They have obviously dealt with foreigners before. With no English on their side and no Chinese on ours, they helped us order. First, the waitress pointed to two pictures and I nodded yes. I pointed to one – they didn’t have it. I pointed to another and she waved me off, turned to a page of writing and pointed to something else. I tried to point to my picture again and she signaled that we had ordered enough. Added the beers by getting up and pointing to them in the refrigerator. Now just to hope for the best.

First was a warm fruit soup. Then a little plate of munchies – water chestnuts and cooked peas in the pods. Chicken bone soup, ham with pineapple & lettuce & a dipping sauce, little crab/crayfish things and beef swirled artistically with mayonnaise. To eat the little crabs, we were given plastic gloves like the ones that food handlers use. It was a lovely dinner.

Walked home (4 flights) and then on TV we watched the Chinese version of the Oscars. I do not believe that Chuck actually put on this program and then watched it. He always makes a big to-do about the Oscars when I watch them at home.

Three major differences – 1) no acceptance speeches, 2) no chatting between the presenters and extra talking by the hostess, 3) not very dressy. (The Chinese don’t dress up for things. At weddings the bride, groom, and attendants are in the rented finery, but the guests are in jeans and tee shirts.) They do have the entertainment interludes. There was an acrobat who pretended to be a doll, a Chinese opera singer, and a pianist.

9 flights