The RCEF Blog 博客

At the end of each semester, the homeroom teachers and principals of Guan Ai School make home visits. That means going to every student’s village to meet with their guardians and drop off exam scores. The top 10 students in each class also got bright certificates to honor their achievements.

We took off in two groups. JP joked that we had a”Red Gang” and a”Blue gang” because of the color of our coats. Most of the parents welcomed us warmly but were not particularly interested in talking about anything but their children’s academic performance. I was glad to hear the Guan Ai teachers bring up the library and reading program in almost every visit. They described the impact it was having on their students and encouraged the parents to give their children more opportunities to read books. However, this was usually met with indifference. A lot of the guardians we talked with were illiterate grandparents or parents who had only arrived home a day or two before our visit from their migrant jobs in the cities.

Only one family stood out to me as having grandparents who regularly read the newspaper and played chess with their fifth-grade grandson. (No wonder he is the wuziqi champion of Guan Ai!) Besides test scores, the other major issue that got the parents’ attention was living conditions. Guan Ai is a boarding school and almost all the students live there during the week. Guardians were very concerned about their diet, the “shenghuo laoshi” (nannies) who took care of them at night, and their health.

The home visits underscored to me how important it is for us to do parent outreach and education in our work, but also how incredibly challenging it is. Even though we try to enrich the school environment and curriculum, we cannot affect children’s overall development without the understanding and involvement of their parents. After all, the kids all just got a month off of school and as far as I could tell, sitting on the bed watching TV would be the principal activity of the next 20 or so days, with little variety or stimulation from their parents as role models. Mahjong and drinking games even kept some parents from coming out of smoky rooms to meet with us.

Principal Sun always reminds us that winning over parents is not an overnight endeavor. But at least the teachers at Guan Ai School take this seriously and there are a few guardians who hold more progressive views. Hopefully we can communicate more with them and see if they can influence others. In any case, I think the Guan Ai teachers win a prize for endurance. Whether it was tramping miles through the snow or holding multiple cups of tea in the bladder (every house offered tea!), they kept up good spirits and made sure every student was accounted for.