Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

Administrators tour China

By MICHAEL HINES

News-Mirror Writer

Mansfield school officials got a glimpse of China and a possible new avenue to help teachers.

Superintendent Vernon Newsom and deputy superintendent Bob Morrison joined a group of 450 U.S. educators invited to China to learn about culture and language. The trip was organized by the College Board and Hanban, China’s Office of Chinese Language Council International.

For the Mansfield administrators, it proved to be worthwhile.

The district is set to offer Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language option for students this year, but the trip actually had nothing to do with the upcoming language offering. Down the road, though, the overseas trip could help establish a teacher exchange program and prove pivotal in bringing in more Chinese instructors for a language option that Morrison sees as having a lot of growth potential.

"Maybe as that program grows" that’s where teachers could be gained, he said.

The Chinese group’s aspirations for the trip were pretty clear.

"The Chinese government is wanting to promote the Chinese language because of the commercial aspect," Morrison said. "Every child in China starts learning to speak English in kindergarten."

District officials were only required to come up with money to pay for $900 in processing fees and $325 for airfare for each administrator. On July 24, the pair arrived in China. The group was received at the Great Hall in Tiananmen Square in Beijing City. The district paid for the fees and airfare.

"It was a little bit daunting," Newsom said.

The trip provided several insights for Morrison, a former history teacher, such as the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City.

"Actively experiencing that from a historical perspective was amazing," he said.

The time was spent meeting with educators as well as students. The U.S. group had the chance to tour schools, and the value of education was apparent to Newsom.

"The most welcome surprise was the importance you sensed on education," he said, pointing to what amounted to museums set up in the schools that detailed the institution’s history and noteworthy former students. "It just showed that they’re really focused on the importance of education."