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A Guest Journal: The Most Beautiful Memory of My Life
Posted by Teacher Wang Zhenyue (Ms. Grace Wang) on 2/22/2018
The picture of arriving at the Boston Airport is still very clear in my head. When we got out of the customs, we were immediately surrounded by gifts, flowers and applauses. At that moment, our worrying hearts which were hanging in the half way of our chest settled down. Then we opened the curtain of our 4 months’ experience here.
I stepped into the life of a very simple, kind and knowledgeable couples’ life. I used to live a very lazy life which I’m used to but not so proud of. Here, I see a very different life style. Both my host mum and dad work very hard although they are already in their sixties, who are almost the same age of my parents. In China, at such ages, people have always retired and lead a life style of old people, such as taking care of the grandchildren, playing Ma Jiang which is a kind of gambling game, doing square dancing, etc. When I was working at my own school, I felt so tired and I had to find something to entertain myself, or I will feel life boring and tiring. But my host mum and dad work a long time every day and never complain. Every Monday my host mum comes back very late from the night work in the library. When I say you must be tired and you should have a good rest, she always feels unhappy because of being treated as old people. I really don’t mean that because somehow, I even think they are younger than me! They think more quickly, read more books, work harder and entertain less than me. Sometimes I think that in this family, I am the old people!
Talking about the hard working doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to entertain themselves. I always say that My host dad is a person who seems shy outside but romantic inside. He always plays some jazz music while driving, cooking and working. Once in the Thanksgiving party he even joined the dancing with the kids. His not elegant dance made me feel so moved! And when I said I may go to Karaoke with the other teacher Carrie, he said he could go and cheer for us. My host mum also plays the violin in the orchestra. She goes to a lot of rehearsals and concerts even when she is busy working. I notice that many people here have their hobbies and enjoy themselves.
They also have a lot of social activities. In the first two months of my stay here, they take part in many election activities. They care a lot about who will be in charge of the city and what they can do for people here. In China, seldom do we care about politics. It seems very far from our life. We don’t care too much about who our president, our mayor, or our city councilor is. We just live our own life. So when people ask me what I think of Trump, it isn’t that I don’t want to answer this question, it’s really because I have no idea. I have lived in the small circle of my own life and seldom care about outside. And also when I asked my host family why they hosted so many teachers and students, they said they wanted to show them a different world and they wanted to show that there is someone who wants to help and make the world better. It is like what is said in a song that if every one gives out a little love and care, we will make a better world. I think I should care more.
My host family also leads a very healthy life. They don’t care too much about the material things. They don’t pursuit fancy clothes or cars. I notice that my host dad’s collar of shirt has even worn out. And one of their cars are second hand. But they bought a lot of books. There are books everywhere, even in bathrooms and kitchen cupboards. They also eat organic food and even a piece of ginger is organic. They pay more attention and spend more money on the right things. When I was asked about my car brand, I even felt ashamed of the brand that I used to be proud of.
Why I pay so much attention to the life style of my host family is not because I want to peep into their life, it is because I really admire their life style. Looking back upon my own lazy life, I feel ashamed. It reminds me a famous saying by a Chinese writer. It is said that it’s pretty easy to find a beautiful appearance, but it’s very hard to find an interesting soul . Here I have seen the interesting soul and want to be one.
Another aspect that I want to talk about is the education here. One thing that impressed me a lot is the sources that the teachers can use here. Another is the conception of teaching and learning.
When I first arrived here, I wanted to observe many teachers’ classes, so I sent a lot of emails although I don’t know exactly who is who. One day I happened to get to know the department head of the vocational education, Ms. Carolyn, She took me to all the shops of the vocational education and introduced the projects. That day I felt I won a big lottery because I got the chance to know how the vocational education works and what is the purpose of it. In China, we also have some kind of vocational study, but I think not everything is real and somehow like a model. But here, everything is real. In culinary, the students work in the real kitchen and serve the really customers, in carpentry, they make real furniture not just models, in automobile they fix the real cars, in day care, they take care of real kids! Also in fine and performance arts, they have the really theater, chorus and band. When I went to a Broadway show, the Cats, I was so impressed by their wonderful performance. And after I watched a musical show in the Newton North High School, I began to understand why they could perform such fantastic performance. Even in high school, they already can give such a wonderful performance, no wonder how excellent they can do it later. Also in ceramics class, I have seen so many creative works by the students. Even for a small ugly piece of work, the teacher will put it into the oven. And in design class, they even have several 3-D printers. I am really impressed by the sources the school have. I feel like I am a Grandma Liu who goes into a fancy palace, which is a famous Chinese saying, describes a person who comes from a village goes to a fancy palace and curious about many interesting things. In China, not many schools can afford this.
Another thing that makes me think a lot is the conception of education. First, the placement of courses provide more opportunities to different type of students, which give them the chance to do what they like to do at a young age and may lead to their later carrier. And it’s also like what the vocational department head told me. The school give both the top and the poor students a way out. For those students who are not good at math or science, they may be interested in carpentry or culinary, in this way they will not be dropped out. If they don’t want to go to college, they can get a job that they are interested in after high school and for which they have got some trainings at school. For those top students, they can do a further research when they are in college. In China some kids who are not so good or have some problems are really dropped out and lead a way to criminal or can’t live on their own. They didn’t get the opportunity to do something they really like. Another conception that the American education may be different from China is that in China we teach a lot, but here the students think a lot. I have noticed that here the teachers don’t teach a lot in a class, but always get the students think a lot and express their ideas a lot. In a Chinese class, the teachers have to teach a lot of things because we have a very strict requirements of the process of teaching and learning. It’ hard to say which is good or which is bad, but after I saw the creative works in the ceramics class, I suddenly came up with an idea that a good teacher is not the person who teach you how much, but the person who can create a good atmosphere in which you want to learn.
Four months have passed in a glance! I have a lot of things that I have wished to do, but I couldn’t finish. Especially I want to apologize to the teachers whose classes I ask to observe but I didn’t make it. As what I talked in last night’s farewell party, being chosen to be the exchange teacher here is like a reward. When people in China get the reward, they always say thank CCTV, …TV. Here I want to say thank the Exchange Program TV, the Host Family TV, the School TV, the Teachers TV, the Students TV, the Working Staff TV, etc. I really enjoy every minute I spent with you and appreciate every favor you did for me. This is the most beautiful memory in my life. At the farewell party, I didn’t make an appointment with my tears, but it all came out at the time of saying goodbye! Some students ask me if I will come back next year. I wished but I know I couldn’t. But I really hope I can come back for a visit one day!