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During the first week of October, Diane and I went to Hong Kong together to attend some meetings and conferences for RCEF. My parents, who normally live in Holland, were also there and we stayed at their home in the village where my dad grew up. Diane and I worked in the living room so our stuff was lying around everywhere.. Among it was a copy of the RCEF Teaching Handbook in Chinese.

One day as I walked into the living room, I saw that my dad was holding the Handbook. I didn’t pay much attention to it thinking that he was just looking through the pages to see what this book was about in general. However, I was in for a surprise…..

The next day was my grandmother’s birthday and we had a family dinner with relatives from Hong Kong. Because I’m not often in Hong Kong, my relatives don’t know me that well. One of my mother’s uncles asked me what I was doing in China and I explained that I’m doing a research internship with a NGO that focuses on rural education in mainland China. Then I found out that this uncle had been the principal of a primary school in Hong Kong for many years. He started to talk about education policy, how poor the schools in mainland are compared to the schools in Hong Kong, how under-resourced they are, lacking financial aid, not having chairs, tables, books and things like that. Before I could even respond, my dad, who was sitting next to me, started to take over and explain that my uncle’s information was not totally right. He argued that due to the educational reform and ‘two waivers one subsidy’ law of the recent years, financial resources and hardware are not the main thing that rural schools in the mainland are lacking now. Instead, he said, the current problem is the quality of education. Students do not learn things that are useful for them, that relate to their real lives, and that prepare them for the future as well-rounded, developed persons. Education should be student-centered instead of teacher-centered…

I was totally blown away that my dad was actually able to say all these things. He actually read the Handbook! I was just so proud and happy that my dad knows a little bit about RCEF. Although he still doesn’t really understand what I’m doing (he thinks I’m teaching English in China), at least it’s a small step in the right direction, and sometimes little things are just good enough.

Having this experience, I wonder whether other RCEF volunteers have been in similar situations. Do their family members know what they are doing and what do they think of it? Do you have any personal stories to share?

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