Tanxia Town Center School

I want to go back and share what was, for me,  one of the greatest highlights of this trip. In the afternoon on Wednesday, October 20 we visited the school at Tanxia Town Center. Tanxia Town is made up of 14 village communities and one neighborhood committee. The school was established in 1908. This school has 1081 students and 67 teaching faculty. The class size is around 50 and has pre-K through grade 6. When we arrived, the principal was at the entrance gate to meet us with a student marching band. They greeted us with a rousing marching band song.  They then marched into the school yard. All the students were out on the balconies or at the classroom doors (3 floors- courtyard style buildings) waving and cheering to us.  Many of us had tears, myself included.  They were so genuinely excited to have American visitors, their was an electricity in the air.  We climbed the three flights of outdoor stairs, each level stopping to wave at the students. Although I can’t capture this for you, it was truly a memorable experience for all of us.  The students had actually extended their day for a couple hours to accommodate our schedule. That means parents met their students later and were also very excited to greet the American delegation. We met with the teachers first and then saw either a science class or an English class. I went to the 4^th grade science class where they were investigating filtration systems to clean particles out of water. The students were pretty engaged given they have 48 kids in the class! They were seated in groups of 6. One student seemed to be the lab leader. Students did not collect data or write anything down. They simply observed and participated in the teacher led discussion.  I think many of us will want to keep in touch with this school.