SAD 1 summer camp for Chinese students a good start
To the editor:
Congratulations to SAD 1! The announcement that the school district is going to invite 20 students from Beijing, China to a special summer camp next year is a new beginning for a positive future. This project is a long time in the making and it reflects positively on the qualities that the school system is promoting.
This effort was in my thoughts as I took part in a program at the Guangzhou Xiguan Foreign Language School. This school is a high school that specializes in training students in foreign languages. Forty of their students went to Lee, Maine at the invitation of Lee Academy this summer. The effort was intended to improve their English ability. After three weeks, the students had demonstrable improvement in their ability to use and function in English. They had also enjoyed the purity of a Maine summer.
Chinese high school students are very focused on getting into University. Almost all their efforts are focused on tests that will determine what schools and what programs they can get into. If they do not get the proper score they will not get into the school that will help them to advance in this society. University is about making the connections necessary to get a good job.
Lee Academy hosted these students for three weeks. I was interested because I think that they can provide a unique insight into what the real Maine is like. Borrowing a lesson from long ago I intended to invite the students to my class to share their experiences. So with a little bit of work I located the school and received an invitation to participate in a meeting with the parents and the kids and Bruce Lindberg, the headmaster of Lee Academy. I attended and was amazed at how these students and parents were enthusiastic boosters of the program. The parents were proud and determined that other students would have the chance to go.
These are kids from the city. They have never met a trout; looked at the stars in a clear sky; or gone swimming in a lake. The parents want the program to continue. Lee Academy will continue its own program. Its time for SAD 1 to join with its own program. These city kids need to see potatoes growing under a clear blue sky, run through fields of clover and forests of trees, skin their knees, and discover the real Maine.
Best wishes for a great beginning.
Orpheus Allison
Guangzhou, China
opheusallison@mac.com
