Ahh... the moment I've been waiting for. I finally got to play some ping pong in China. I actually held my own pretty well, but I am convinced they were taking it easy on me. The Chinese custom would never allow them to embarass a guest, particularly one that they have been treating like a king since I arrived. Today was a very full day that began with a visit to the Huangshi Education Bureau. This would be like a county board of education office, except it oversees the education system in for the city of Hunagshi (971 schools). They have a staff of 33 people who oversee all elementary, junior high, and senior high schools, along with a city vocational school. Altogether, the schools of Huangshi City have some 500,000 students and 30,000 teachers. From there, we visited the Hubei Normal University. "Normal" universities are colleges for teacher preparation. We had visited the Beijing Normal University last week. From the Hubei Normal University, we went to Huangshi No. 2 Senior High School. "The numbers assigned to schools in China are simply for naming the schools," according to my interpreter. It's kind of like the 1st Presbyterian Church or the 2nd National Bank. As there are many senior high schools in Huangshi, this happened to be the 2nd. This was, however, a "Key High School," meaning that the success of its students had earned the school the title of "key."
We went on to visit the Hubei City Vocational & Technical School, Guangchang Road Primary School, Huangshi No. 8 Middle School, and a school for just kindergarteners. Another meal with varous education officials and we were off to Mr. Ye's High School - Hunagshi No. 7. Pictured below is a kindergarten boy glowing with pride as he shows me the butterfly he has just colored. And - as with every school visit, I am greeted with banners, music, unbelievable flower arrangements, and hundreds of wonderful students.
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