Eyes on China: A Day in the Life of PING—Part Two

Broadcasts from the Winter Olympics have invited the world to view scenes from Beijing, China. The Museum of Teaching and Learning invites you to think further about that vast nation and how children are educated. Welcome to the second half of a school day in the life of Ping, an elementary school student in China. This story is based on information portrayed in Two Roads, One Journey, a MOTAL traveling exhibition that fills 1800 square feet when it’s set up in at host venues.*


The narrative below shines the spotlight on Ping’s activities from lunchtime to bed time. Before you proceed, you may want to read how the first half of her day went. Just click here.  One Chinese Student’s Story—Part One

11:30  It is time for lunch at Ping’s school. Along with a time for play and a study hall, the lunch break lasts for two hours. Some students go home, but Ping stays at school. Lunch is prepared in the cafeteria and brought to the classroom. The food is always in trays with several (usually five) compartments. Today’s lunch is typical: rice (of course), soup, meat mixed with sauce and ALWAYS vegetables, plus fruit for dessert. To drink: soy milk. No teacher stays to supervise the children. After lunch, when the children are in study hall, teachers may be nearby, but they are not actually IN the room. Ping, however, confides that she pulls out her Math book to study when the Math teacher sometimes walks through the room.


Afternoon
1:30 The first class after lunch is Morality and Society. Lessons put a great amount of emphasis on children being dedicated citizens and dutiful to their aging parents. Confucian virtues are definitely influential in today’s classrooms after the philosophy was avoided and criticized during the years of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. Students learn what it means to be moral and disciplined. Virtues include high respect for teachers and parents, along with honor for ancestors, benevolence for others, and self-improvement. During this time on other days, Geography lessons are included. History is not taught until later grades, and the subject of Civics is in its infancy. Sensitive topics from history or contemporary culture are avoided.


Ping’s homework from the night before included writing a paper on “Love, Responsibility, and Cooperation.” Homework on weeknights always takes at least one hour, but often takes two. When the weekend comes, both Saturday and Sunday, Ping will have about three hours of homework to complete. In the past, students went to school on Saturdays in addition to weekdays, but that has now ended.

2:25 Chinese class for the second time today! This time, the lessons involve intense practice in reading and writing Chinese characters. Ping must master 1,500 characters by the end of fourth grade, then at least 3,500 by end of eighth. At one point, all students stop to do special eye exercises in unison. Led by a student, they push on key acupressure points on their face near their eyes. The student leader makes sure the exercises are being done right. The intent is that these manipulations will help students to maintain good vision, for they do a GREAT amount of close work. Learning characters is hard work, requires repetition, and demands memorization.
Close work affects vision. By the time they turn 18, over 80% of Chinese
students need corrective lenses, usually glasses, for myopia.

3:00 Another break, for a brief recess occurs each hour. Then at 3:10 Ping’s class has a Class Meeting led by the Banzhuren, the teacher who is paid extra for that honored work. For 15 minutes they discuss obligations and solve problems that might have come up that day. On this day, the talk is about how to improve and be on time.

3:25 Physical Education includes basketball, table tennis, jump rope and ti jianzi, or kick the shuttlecock, which is played like hacky-sack, but it is made with 5 feathers fastened to a weighted base. It is an ancient game that has been revived and is popular throughout eastern Asia. Their typical game of jump rope is what we in the United states call “Chinese jump rope,” but students sometimes play western jump rope as well

4:05 Cleanup time. It is the students’ responsibility to sweep and mop the floor. This is considered to be a civic duty and is not usually something that is expected at home, where the child’s main responsibility is to be a good student and work hard to get a good education.


4:30 Ping goes home, once again riding on the back of the family’s electric bicycle behind her mother. She gets a simple snack of rice crackers and starts on homework that is expected by the school and, definitely, by her parents. Two days a week, she attends extra after-school dance classes that her parents pay for, but not today.


6:00 Dinner time. Ping eats with both of her parents. Like most evenings, their meal includes soup, rice, and several dishes that include meat(s) and many vegetables. After dinner, homework takes a great amount of time.

Bedtime is not until 9:30 when all her homework is finished and Ping is done getting ready for bed.


Tomorrow will be a new day in the life of a fourth-grade student in China.
 
*Note: Two Roads, One Journey features Ping and her counterpart, Sam, from the U.S. They are fourth-graders who live in mid-sized cities, attend middle-of-the-road, similar-sized schools, and are good students in their respective countries. MOTAL will shine the spotlight on Sam someday in the near future.


Submitted by Greta Nagel, PhD
With many thanks to the exhibition’s lead scholar, Nancy Pine, PhD