In my not-so-daily ‘Daily-Ink’ blog, I have a little series that I call ‘T.I.C.’ or “This is China“… A term our staff uses to describe interesting, wonderful, frustrating, and unique events that come with living as an ex-pat in a world very different than the one we come from.
This morning I posted this photo and wrote in my Daily-Ink:
“There is a Chinese school right behind ours, and their main entrance to our shared field and school is at the side of our building. It snowed last night and when I walked by their entrance there were about 15 parents and a few older students shoveling the front walk.
Many hands make light work:-)
I’m sure there are a few small communities around the world where this could happen, but living in a city of 6 million and seeing this community effort makes my morning!”
After posting this from my phone, I went upstairs to see a teacher before our buses arrived, and on my way back down stairs I heard a noise outside, and this is what I saw:
A couple teachers from the other school were watching over some senior boys who came over and continued the shoveling down in front of our school. I snapped this photo and rushed out to join them. I’m not sure if they are used to seeing a principal shoveling snow, but I also know that my colleagues back in Coquitlam and neighbouring cities in BC, Canada have to do this job, along with the many other interesting roles principals have to play. You see, many elementary principals out that way have a budget for a one-shift custodian who does not start the day early enough to shovel the walkways before school on snow days.
Anyway, I wanted to share this because I really believe that sometimes in big (and even smaller) cities this kind of community effort is lost, but here in China it is part of a cultural expectation to chip in and help out a school. Jamel Mashburn works for Cisco and lives in Dalian. He said on Facebook in response to my Daily-Ink post above, “I clearly remembered all the students were ordered to shovel snow on street after snowing even in winter holidays when I was in school”.
If you are a parent reading this, make a principal’s or a custodian’s day and head to the school with a shovel (and some friends) on the next snow day. Hopefully you’ll be working side-by-side with your kid(s) and a few other community members too… Not because you were ordered to, and not because you have to, simply because it is your school, in your community, and it is a decent thing to do.
Very cool communal effort! If this were Korea, at least in 2000, you’d see one or two older women pouring hot water over the steps to melt it.
It used to be that schools in Japan were cleaned on a daily basis by the entire school body. There was nothing more entertaining than watching a class of 10 year olds with wet cloths racing across the floor to see who could clean the room the fastest! These students truly had ownership of their school and their classrooms. They did everything from cleaning, to serving school lunches to their peers, to weeding the gardens outside the school.
Thanks for commenting Tyson and Clint!
Interesting that what you’ve both shared are also experiences from Asia. Tyson, you reminded me of what Sugata Mitra says, in his ‘The Future of Learning’ lecture, about recruiting an army of Grandmothers to help change education for the better.
I enjoyed seeing the video Clint, thanks for sharing!
It has to be said when the Chinese work together they’re unstoppable. It’s a really nice piece this.