Three City School Officials Plan China Trip

Fredericksburg’s schools superintendent, an assistant principal and a teacher are flying to China for 10 days to visit four schools and to learn more about the country's economy, educational system, history and culture.

City Schools Superintendent David Melton, James Monroe High School Assistant Principal John Duarte and James Monroe High School teacher Charles Ostlund have prepared for the trip by attending four seminars about China’s economy, culture, educational system, politics and language. They will be gone from Oct. 22 to Nov. 2.  The Virginia School-University Partnership, of which the city school system is a member, invited Virginia school officials to join other educators on the trip, which is part of a program called “China as a Global Partner.”

Melton told the Fredericksburg School Board Tuesday night that there are 1.2 billion citizens in China, and 800 million live in rural parts of the country. He said the dropout rate in rural China is as high as 40 percent and only 5 percent in more urban areas. The school days are nine to 12 hours long and teachers move from class to class, but students remain in the same room throughout the day. Each school day ends with students cleaning the schools.

“There are no janitors,” Melton said.

There are 180,000 Chinese students attending U.S. colleges and 800 Chinese students attent the University of Virginia—and those 800 students are considered the best and the brightest.

“So, how does our system compare and what can we learn from our Chinese counterparts?” Melton asked.

That is a question Melton hopes to answer after this trip.

Duarte said China has the world’s second-largest economy and some of the top 500 companies in the world do business in China. He said this trip is a conduit to China's fascinating and increasingly important culture. He said they would meet with Chinese educators and students to gain valuable information about their system during visits to Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai.

Duarte playfully referred to Marco Polo's 24-year excurtion to China and how even he didn't write about everything he witnessed in the country.

“We will tell the whole of what we see,” Duarte said.

There are nine goals and objectives that the trio hopes to achieve after the trip. Some of those goals and objectives are:

• To understand the skills that students in Virginia will need to fulfill the infrastructure requirements of Chinese companies and to compete in the international market.

• Develop partnerships with Chinese schools.

• Examine how China is addressed in Virginia’s Standards of Learning and how China is presented in classroom instruction.

• Learn more about the benefits of international educational partnerships and how they can be forged.

Melton did not say how the trip would be funded or how much it would cost, but a request for that information was sent to him and other school administrators before the meeting Tuesday night. School Board members did not ask any questions about the program during the presentation.

The trip is in partnership with the University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences, the Curry School of Education, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the Asia Institute, the Virginia School-University Partnership and EF Educational Tours.

More information about the program is on the Virginia School University Partnership website.