Who are these students?

I've taught in a variety of situations in my musical teaching career.  A teacher learns something new from every group of students that they teach.  Beyond the curriculum that is to be dealt with, the students teach the teacher, especially about social and economic realities of a particular locale.

My first assignment was in southern Oregon in a suburban-rural setting.  The students in that school were considerably different from the environment that I had experienced where I lived in Ashland, Oregon.  Ashland, at that time, had 85% of its adult population college graduates.  That was a different situation from the surrounding cities and towns.

From this teaching situation I moved to Guam in 1990 and found myself in the southern part of the island.  Even on this little tropical island there were differences the student personalities due to sociology-economic differences.  The southern part of the island was quite rural and surprised me and other statesiders because people rarely left their villages.  In fact on a field trip that first year on Guam, although only 5 miles away from the more urban settings of mid-island left most of my choir students little lost as to how to act properly because they had never really been there before.

                                                                           
In 1994 I got a new job on Guam.  I became the music teacher of an elite school whose makeup was quite different than the school in the southern part of the island.  This school was primarily made up of students of upper middle to upper income business people.  The ethnic makeup of this school was also quite different.  Many Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, as well as some US mainland Caucasians and Filipinos made up the student population.  I was to learn the ins and outs of dealing with students whose parent language might not be English.  I would also use patience beyond what I'd dealt with in the past because of communication differences.

                                                                        
Now when I arrived in Suzhou, the students were sons and daughters of people who worked in SIP.   Suzhou Industrial Park

These parents were the factory executives of companies like Bosch, Samsung, Gucci, etc, etc, etc.  The working stays of these parents could be a two year stint, or longer depending upon the parent company and the benefits that they might receive while working in China.  The children knew that they were in Suzhou for a limited time and of course that affected their thinking.  Added to that was the parallel thinking of the administration and faculty.

                                                                         
Something that I found very unusual at SSIS was the department established in the elementary wing by the German corporation Bosch.  This was a German department who had its own German teaching staff and separate German curriculum.  I had these Deutsche kinder twice a week, two combination classes, and I had found myself using my high school German for the first time in my teaching career.  These children really appreciated the fact that I was of German descent and they liked hearing my family's history of coming to the United States from Germany in the 19th century.

It took a bit of time for me to understand and incorporate the PYP methodology, but I finally began to see that these students were thoroughly indoctrinated in this style of teaching and responded  easily to its methods and they were used to all the teachers tying their knowledge together and making a cohesion that wouldn't have occurred in other methodologies.  So, I was beginning to see the advantage of this overall method to educate with a consistency that I'd never seen before.

One thing that could be said for this school and other international schools is the way discipline occurs.  For one thing the ability to go to another school is very limited.  So, if there is ever a discipline problem with any student, parents really do enter into the discussion to straighten the child or they will find themselves without a school at all for their child to attend. That has its definite advantage over other situations where I'd taught.

I was now beginning to assimilate into this new school and its curriculum.  A good year was ahead of me.

Arriving In Suzhou

The thoughts that race through your mind when you are by yourself going to a destination where you've never been tend to excite.  But, this departure from the Hong Kong International airport Hong Kong international airport was more than that, it was a change of life for me.  I was leaving a world familiar to me for my entire life, of which the last 20 years had been spent on Guam as a teacher, in private and public schools.  I was facing the unknown, with no going back.  I was beyond excited, but there was a fearlessness that somehow swelled up in my like this was going to be a great adventure like no other adventure that I'd undertaken.

In the Hong Kong airport I sat and waited for the flight to Shanghai.  I was flying on China Eastern China Eastern for the first time and the stewardess came around the waiting area with China Eastern frequent flier cards.  It struck me that I really had no idea if I wanted the card.  "Would I be using this airlines again and again into the future? Is it worth my while to keep it and accumulated miles for something that might be a short adventure and I'd probably just throw away the miles?"  That was the thought going through my mind.  Indecision!  Perhaps the future was China for me and I should just go with the flow and take it.  I took it.

My mind has always thought geographically.  When I travel somewhere I think about myself as if I were on a map.  I see myself from space moving over that grid.  Odd as this is its how I've always thought.  Maybe that goes back to the days when I was a kid and my family would go on a trip, for instance to California.  My father would hand me the map and say, "we're here on the map, tell me how far it is to this place."  Then, I'd tell my dad the distance given on the map to the next town and on and on like that till we got to the destination.

Now the plane took off in the dark headed north.  As I looked out the window I saw lights, lots and lots of lights, far beneath the place.  I saw a map of China in my mind and tried to think of what cities I might know of that we were flying over.  At this point I was a bit low on my China geography skills however.  But, it did occur to me that I was flying over one of the most populous countries in the world and so many, many lives were going about their daily business as I flew over them.

I arrived at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport late in the evening.  I was tired but also exhilarated by landing in China proper.  I made my way through customs with my luggage and guitar in hand.  Immediately upon leaving customs I stepped out in the huge expanse of the arrival reception area.  There in front of me was a driver with a sign which had my name on it.  Ni Hao welcome to China.  He took my largest bag and helped me get it and my other things into the black limousine.

Off we raced towards Suzhou which is about 60-90 minutes at this time of night.  I had arrived at midnight and now I peered out the window as we sped by modern building after modern building on the freeway.  My geographical mind was a bit messed up at this point.  I knew that I was going generally west from Shanghai, but I didn't know how far.  We had driven approximately 30 minutes when the driver took a call on his cell phone and handed it to me.  "Hello, this is Linda.  Welcome to China."  I didn't know this person, but she knew who I was and that was good enough for me.  This was the first person who really greeted me and I was thankful to be recognized.  "I'll see you when you arrive."

The entire trip had been without any speaking as my driver spoke no English.  He seemed to know where he was taking me so I was in his hands, whoever he was.  After driving for the longest time we got off the freeway and started down long straight well cared for avenues with large areas of open ground everywhere.  Once in a while we'd pass the entrance to a corporation's campus such as Gucci, or Bulgari, Fendi, etc.  This was my introduction to Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP)  Suzhou Industrial Park which I would learn more about in the near future.  At this point it was 1 AM perhaps, but the time wasn't a factor to me right now.  I was drinking it all in, like some new flavor of wine.

At around 1:30 we arrived at a hotel or at least what appeared to be a hotel.  The driver took my luggage out of the trunk of the car, put it by the front door step, got back in his car and drove away.  I was a little shocked and that would have to be an understatement.  I went to the front desk and the two Chinese clerks just looked at me.  I started laughing.  You know the expression LOL?  That was all I could do.  I laughed and laughed while these two Chinese men looked at me in amazement.   Here I was in Suzhou, China, 2 in the morning, I couldn't speak Mandarin, I thought this must have been the plan, but I couldn't communicated.....at all.

So, I did what everyone does.  I talked very loudly and slowly as if that would help.  Oh My God!  Who would help me with this situation?  I looked through my itinerary and gave it to the clerks.  They called a couple phone number and got nothing.  Of course who was going to answer the phone at 1:30-2 AM?

After about 30 minutes of frustration I motioned to the clerk that I would like to spend the night in their hotel.  I started to fill out the registry and was getting my credit card out when a young Chinese woman appeared through a doorway.  She introduced herself as "Linda".  OK, this was the Linda of the phone call in the limousine.  She was here to help me through my dilemma.   She immediately took a bag, asked for assistance from one of the clerks for carrying the other luggage and we went out the door.

Around the corner of the building were some other buildings as tall as the hotel itself.  She said "follow me".  So, I fell into line with her and the clerk and made it to the 16th floor of one of the other buildings.  I was home.  1605 in building 6 of Chateau Regency.

Linda had with her in the apartment another young woman who also was there to help me.  It was now 2-3 AM and I was about to settle in to my new place.  Linda went through a whole speech about her being my helper as a part of what all the teachers at SSIS receive.  She took out a list of items which were for my use in the apartment.  The list was three pages long and itemized each piece of furniture, each utensil for cooking, each fork, knife and spoon, each toilet paper roll, how to operate the television, on and on and on.  She also took out an envelope with 3000 RMB for me to use as my first money for living.

I remember being very hospitable and more than a little bit slap happy, but I was also very,very tired.  I think it was when Linda started counting the silverware that I said, "can we do this tomorrow morning?"  She could see that I was exhausted and after a nice good night she and her assistant went home.  After that all I remember was taking one of the blankets, curling up with it on the bed and quickly falling asleep; my first night in China.