How to Create the Biggest Change with Limited Resources

The Chinese education system is different from the western education system which is more open-minded and students have the choice to choose what subjects they want to study in high school. Standardized test such as the SAT or ACT is also not the only consideration for the students being accepted into the college. However, in the Chinese education system, the National College Entrance Examination “Gaokao” is the only standard to determine whether students can get into College or not. Other than “Gaokao” there is also the “ZhongKao” which is the National Highs School Entrance Examination to determine whether the students can go into the high school. The statistics for these tests are very cruel. Students who can pass “Zhongkao” is only 30 percent, which means there is only 30 percent of Chinese students can have the chance to go to high school to study (Xinghua News Agency). Therefore, since starting from primary school, the school’s education would focus on setting the foundation for passing this exam and successfully going to high school, especially for the poor families and they put all of their efforts into letting their kids pass the exam, which means success for them. Many people think teaching the children who are in the Chinese migrant primary school is just a way of volunteer service, but the influence outside the teaching to the children is more significant because it opens the door for the students to understand the word outside their understanding and my volunteer service is not only about teaching students knowledge but also opens a door for them to understand the word outside their book or family.

From many people’s perspectives, teaching children who cannot afford education in the Chinese migrant school is just one type of volunteer service and after the volunteer service is down, there is no difference for the students. People would view the volunteer service for the students in the Chinese migrant school as just a charity that would not exist for a long time and bring a bigger influence on the students compared with the social change. In the article “The Irony of Services: Charity, Projects and Social Change in Service-Learning”, the author Keith Morton talks about the drawbacks of charity “it is described in the Guidelines for development of the Christian Conferences Asia (1980) as temporary, confined to particular, affected people and auxiliary to the ongoing life of the people. Planning and delivery of service are limited and fragmentary, the decision-making process is closed, and little, if any, an attempt is made to understand or affect the structural causes of the problem” (Deans et al). The volunteer service in the Chinese migrant school is similar to the charity because the time for this volunteer service is not long and it is also fragmentary and limited as in the reading because I just have one hour to teach the students through zoom each week. And my one-hour teaching is just teaching English skills to the students, which would take effect or change the root or the “structural cause” of the problem that students view in the Chinese migrant school as limited and pass the standardized test demonstrates their success. In addition, my teaching in the school would be also limited to one school, and it would not change other students in different schools as Keith Morton talked about in the book about the limited influence of the charity. It is true that my teaching in the school would have these drawbacks, but I always try my best to change this volunteer service from charity to social change to create a life-long influence on students.

The volunteer service that has limited time and influence is just a charity that has many drawbacks, but I tried to maximize the influence of my volunteer service and make it become a social change. Compared with charity, social change focus more on the process, and in the article “The Irony of Services: Charity, Projects and Social Change in Service-Learning”, the author Keith Morton says that “social change or “transformation” models typically focus on process: building relationships among or within stakeholder groups and creating a learning environment that continually peels away the lawyer of the onion called “root causes” (Deans et al). In order to make the long-term change to volunteer service and avoid the drawbacks of charity, I not only teach students the English skills in the textbook but also tried to open a door for students to understand and see the world because these students in the Chinese Migrant School are usually the kids who have the poor family background and cannot afford the education. During the teaching, I would introduce the background information related to the text in the book. For example, chapter three of the textbook talks about the famous landscapes and iconic buildings in different cities worldwide. When I was talking about the White House in Washington D.C. in the class, I also introduced American history to students such as the founding fathers of the United States and the Bill of Rights or the American constitution. I also talked about the different political ideologies with students.

However, I found out that sometimes the students could not understand what I was talking about in the class, because the information they can receive is too limited and restricted. Different from the environment in that I grew up, most students in the school do not have the access to the internet even the TV. The lack of resources to get information creates difficulties for students to understand the background information that I taught in the class and most knowledge to them is too abstract. In order to better teach the students and open their eyes for them, I tried to put myself into their shoes and from their perspectives practice my teaching. For example, in the class, I would combine more videos and photos to demonstrate these landscapes more vividly to the students and paves the way for them to immerse in the context that I was talking about. For example, when I was teaching about the Eiffel tower in Paris to students, I showed them a documentary about the history of the Eiffel tower and I also brought a model of the Eiffel tower to the class. With this teaching method, the volunteer in the Chinese Migrant School started to change from charity to social change. More and more students become curious about the knowledge outside of the textbook. The pictures in the English textbook about famous landscapes around the world were not pictures anymore and they become the trigger to attract students to understand the world. Some students even told me that after they grow up, they want to go abroad to study, and studying for them is not only a way to get rid of poverty but also a method for them to see the world that is not limited to this small town.

Compared with the regular English class in the school, my class is more vivid and attractive for students because it involves the knowledge that other teachers would not teach them, but after I finish the project, the students would need to go back to their normal classes that are boring and only focused on the knowledge in the book to pass the standardized exam. It would make students feel depressed and the light in their hearts that I burned up would be destroyed again. This is one of the most obvious drawbacks of the charity, but in order to fix this drawback and creates a long-term influence as social change, I organized all the teachers in the school together to train them how to introduce the knowledge outside the textbook. I wrote the teaching syllabus for the teacher to use, which was different from the teaching method that teacher utilized before. I included all the background information related to the context and talked with the principal of the school to let the teacher change their teaching style. It is true that there are still many drawbacks of volunteer service that I did not have the chance to fix, but introducing and changing the teaching method of the students paved the new way for students to understand the world.

People would think teaching Children who are in Chinese migrant primary school is just a volunteer service that would not have a significant and long-term influence, but the influence of the effort is not omitted, because changing and introducing the new teaching method help the students understand the world that they are not familiar. It is possible in the future; students may choose a path that is totally different from the Chinese education designed path under the influence of volunteer service.

Work Cited

“China’s Harsh Education Crackdown Sends Parents and Businesses Scrambling.” CNBC, CNBC, 5 Aug. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/08/05/chinas-harsh-education-crackdown-sends-parents-businesses-scrambling.html.

Deans, Thomas, et al. “Writing and Community Engagement A Critical Sourcebook.” 2010.

Xinhue News Agency. Millions of Migrant Children Can’t Afford Education, www.china.org.cn/english/culture/87613.htm.