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The Pony Express
December 22, 2011
Features - Big News
Trip to China Brings New Insight and Possible Changes to School Offerings continued from front page by Kelly Scott After an exciting first two days, Mrs. Molter and the rest of the group traveled to the Tai’an Shandong province near Mount Tai, where Confucius was born. They observed several typical Chinese schools. The first school they observed was residential. The students lived there full time, beginning at age 7. The next school they went to was the Taishan Medical University. This school had a total of 6,000 students. They observed a math class with 64 students in it.At this school the students had all their books neatly organized on their desk and the teachers were the ones who switched classrooms. Mrs. Molter explained that there is one exam at the end of high school for all students. Very few pass and the few that do pass are the only students allowed to attend Chinese universities. Many that don’t pass the exam, come to Amer-
ica and attend American colleges. The Beijing Royal School held a grand farewell dinner for all of the district and school leaders from the United States that took part in the week long program. After the dinner, a talent show was put on by the students. One group of students performed “21 Guns” by the American band, Green Day. This was the farthest Mrs. Molter has ever traveled and it was definitely a culture shock. An interesting cultural adjustment were the non-western toilets which were a simple hole in the floor. However, Mrs. Molter said that most of the places that they visited, had regular toilets.
The food was sometimes disconcerting to eat because so much of it still had eyes. There was no breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a variety of meal specific items. Instead, o n e would eat the same foods for each of the meals. The most challenging thing Ms. Molter ate was the heart of a chicken. She ate most of what she could “they were such kind people, I wanted to respect them”. Mrs. Molter said it was important for her to respect their culture because if they visited the United States she would hope
Harford County Schools Delegation to China Pictured in all three pictures: Ms. Molter, Mr. Tomback, Ms. Santos, and Mr. Thibeault.
they would respect ours in return. “Imagine a group of people from another country watching us eat Maryland crabs. What we consider an expensive delicacy, they might view as a barbaric display of flying body parts.” The intent of the trip was for American principals to view the Chinese school system and perhaps have a better understanding of how American schools could benefit from teaching the Mandarin language in public schools. The educational outcome of the trip will remain to be seen in the upcoming years. For now, Ms. Molter will continue to present her findings of the Chinese experience with other members of the Harford County School system. When asked if she felt that it was a meaningful trip, Ms. Molter commented that “it was the experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.” Welcome back to the United States Ms. Molter.