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The last day of the trip was probably the most rewarding. It was a nice day outside, one of the only blue skies we saw. Our first day in China was under a blue sky as well. The ambassador we met that day said we were lucky to see a day like this and that they would sometimes go weeks without seeing a blue sky. We had two to bookend our trip. The difference between the first day and the last though was that during the first day everyone was excited with eyes as bright as that sky, excited to learn, excited to shop, excited to haggle, excited to experience China. On the last day everyone was edgy and growing tired of riding busses, tired of spending just about all our time with the same people. However we were on a bus again, on our way to the Tianjin Experimental School not knowing what to expect. We went to colleges on the trip and learned bits and pieces about their education, and daily life, but some of us were skeptical about what they told us, and discouraged.

The first thing we did when we got to the school was sit in on an eighth grade English class. It was much different than what we heard classes were like in China. I thought there classes would be more run like a military with a drill sergeant instead of a teacher. I thought the students would stand up, give an answer and then sit down. I did not think there would be any character or personality in the class, and absolutely no open thought. Maybe other schools are like that, some in America are definitely like that. This school definitely was not. The students were grouped in fours and working on a project about friendship. The teacher then used words, mostly adjectives and synonyms of the word friendship. I was astonished at the vocabulary they were learning, some of the words I didn’t even know. The students reenacted friendly events that happened between them in front of the class, and did powerpoint presentations about friendship. It reminded me of my high school Spanish classes, the way the teacher made learning fun, and grouped vocabulary under a broad topic. The students had huge smiles on their faces, and the teacher seemed conscientious. Then she said something that I did not expect someone to say in a communist country. She off handedly joked that teachers don’t get paid a lot. That is something that is supposed to happen here not there. That comment showed that the people are much freer than we originally thought. The people are not robots and can think critically. They do have opinions that they state even if they are negatively about the government. In the afternoon we talked with an International Baccalaureat class which seemed a lot like Leadership and Global Understanding.

There may not be many schools like this one, but it could be the catalyst to ignite inspiration in students’ minds. It could create idealism, and the practice of thinking critically in classes. It could also lead to nothing and schools could also stick to their standardized testing that they have been doing since one of the Dynasties. But the students,’ at least the ones I talked to, know that there are problems. They know there is so much pressure on them, they know that strictly standardized testing is not the way to educate the whole person. As one student put it “We study only what the teacher tells us.” China has many problems but I left the country optimistic that changes will come, and that the country is moving forward.

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