Boston Public Schools Student Tour of China is a Huge Success

The following is a press release from the Boston Public Schools Middle School Outreach Initiative

Thanks to dedicated teachers, parents, and donors, 42 Boston Public School students and 6 Boston teachers were able to travel to Beijing, China. The group arrived in Beijing late on Friday night, February 17.

A year of planning, fundraising and meetings resulted in the students having a great trip. During their six-night stay in Beijing, the group was able to visit many attractions including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall of China. 

While touring Beijing, the students were able to learn and grow from their experiences. During their climb along the Great Wall of China, John, an eleventh-grader at Boston Latin Academy, found a new admiration for his teachers. “Just like people don’t appreciate the laborers who created the Great Wall, there are so many students who don’t appreciate teachers and who yell at them,” John said. “I am comparing teachers to the workers who actually made the Great Wall. I’m appreciating the teachers now. I’m not taking them for granted.” 

Throughout the groups stay in Beijing, the students and teachers also had a chance to experience what it was like to bargain with vendors at the Silk Market and the Cotton Market. 

They bargained for clothes, souvenirs, and bizarre foods that they would not have otherwise tried in the U.S. The language barrier was one thing in particular that the students had to learn to overcome. “It was exciting to find new ways of communicating,” said Nathaniel, a tenth-grader at Boston Latin Academy. “That’s a fun thing in learning about a culture: experiencing how to find your way and communicate and get your thoughts across and understand each other.” By the end of the trip, the students were proud of their newly acclaimed bargaining skills, and were eager to try negotiating at the markets again. 

The trip to China instilled a new found gratitude in the students for their school’s community. Before going on the trip, many of the students did not know each other. However, after given the chance to travel together, the students have become close friends. “That was the most inspiring thing to me: That feeling of traveling thousands of miles to see such caring in people. I go to the same school every day with these students, and I never knew how caring, funny, and kind they were,” said Stephane, an eleventh-grader at Boston Latin Academy. “That part of the trip was what opened my eyes to our school’s thriving community.” 

The student tour to Beijing was a great success and it was an experience the students and teachers will never forget. “This trip has been very fantastic and awe-inspiring, and opened my eyes to a part of the world I never knew,” said Julio, a ninth-grader at Boston Latin Academy. 

To read more of the student interviews conducted by Lillian Marshall, an English teacher at Boston Latin Academy, go to http://www.aroundtheworldl.com/