Kids are just Kids.
In July 2014, I had a chance to accompany a group of volunteers sponsored by Professional & Educational Services International (PESI) to teach English at a small rural high school in central China. If you would have told me when I was flying against the Evil Empire (USSR) thirty years earlier that I would one day visit Communist China, I would have seriously doubted your sanity.
The morning PESI volunteers arrived, Pingle Secondary School students took a break from their studies to attend an assembly so the school’s principal could introduce us to the student body. All the other volunteers (15) were ethnic Asians, and most were born in Hong Kong, Taiwan or mainland China. When the principal introduced me, he mentioned that I was a former police detective. A loud and collective “Oooh! came from the students. Then he added that I was also a former US Navy pilot which elicited an even louder “Oooh!” I realized later that a lot of these kids had formed their perceptions of Americans based on American movies. My introduction was as if Dirty Harry and Maverick from Top Gun rolled into one had strolled onto campus.
Later, I met the students I would be teaching. This was not anything like English composition or literature… it was really an opportunity for the students to converse with an authentic English speaker. That would be me. My class had 24 very lovely young ladies. They were excited to start our two-week summer school session. As it turns out, students had to apply for the course I would be teaching, and it was very popular.
I was initially worried about a possible language barrier. I don’t speak Mandarin. However, that would not be a problem because high school students in China study the English language. Why? There is an English language section on the Chinese college entrance exam. Top scores on the Chinese equivalent of our SAT, called the Gaokao, can help a student get into one of China’s prestigious universities. It is a super competitive admissions process. The passing rate for the Gaokao is just over 50%. That means only 1 out of every 2 students taking the exam will be able to attend college. It’s easy to see why Chinese students take their study of English seriously. So, except for a couple of the girls who had rough accents, I was able to converse in English with my students without a translator.
Most of the girls came from modest backgrounds. They learn the value of work at an early age, and their world view is much different than the students I taught in the US. While they had to face some of life’s realities at an early age and mature faster than their US counterparts, they still retained a certain quality of naiveness. What did they ask me about when we first met? They wanted to know everything about my American students. To them, America was a magical place far, far away.
The girls took American names to use in their English language classes. They chose names like Hillary, Snowy, and Kara. The girls picked their American names based primarily on what the names sounded like when spoken. My favorite student was Jay. She was the class clown and everyone liked her. Jay was tall and you noticed her right away in the classroom. Even so, she did her best to blend into class activities… she just wanted to be one of the girls.
Jay always had a smile, and it was infectious; she made everyone feel good. When I learned a little about her life story, I was amazed at her resilience. Public school from pre-school through the elementary school grades is funded by the Chinese government. However, high school is not free. Families must pay tuition for sons and daughters to attend. It is a small amount compared to Chinese private high schools, but Jay’s family could not afford public high school tuition.
Her costs were paid for by a scholarship from PESI. That made me feel good to be part, albeit only temporarily, of an organization that was committed to helping a young Chinese girl get an education. There is more to Jay’s story. A couple of years before I met her, Jay’s mother passed away. It was understandably tough on her father. He was the breadwinner and now a single parent. Jay and her father moved in with Jay’s grandparents. As Jay’s father worked in a factory a couple of hundred miles away, that meant Jay and her father lived apart most of the time. Then, Jay’s grandmother passed away. Jay was left to help care for her grandfather and go to school. A lot of Chinese kids have one parent who works far away from home. That’s common especially in rural areas like Pingle. However, Jay’s only parent was absent, and she had to become a caregiver for an elderly grandparent. Yet, she shows up every day at school with that beaming and genuine smile. School is her respite. A time when Jay can just be Jay. She was my favorite student in China. She’s in her late twenties by now, but I can still see that beautiful smile in my mind’s eye.
Kids are just kids, and people are the same everywhere.
Copyright © 2025 by Ray Fowler
