Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Special ed, sports, and funding in China.

Below are more observations from the delegation visit to China.

Funding – Funding for education in China does not appear to be an issue. Marble floors and staircases, cathedral ceiling entranceways, new facilities, lab desks with individualized gas ventilation systems, smart boards and the like permeate the building. In the high school science labs, students can research animals by looking at mounted displays of the animals that would require a museum visit in the United States. On the other side, parents must pay tuition for their child to attend a public high school.

Special education students are initially immersed in classes, but if they cannot keep up with the education pace of their peers, they are placed in another class.  Mainstreaming special education with special education teachers working in regular education classrooms does not appear to take place.

Sports – While the Chinese require students to be athletic with morning exercise routines from prekindergarten right through graduation – school athletic teams are nowhere as frequent as they are in the states.  At Tianjin High School No 41, administrators said only a volleyball team competes against other schools in the city. That is despite the presence in the school museum of trophies and pictures several commemorating victorious baseball seasons – including one as recent as 2003. 

Interestingly enough, there appears to be more athletic teams from schools in the middle school grades - 6 through 9 - than in high school. Educators we spoke to in China said this is due to the academic rigors of high school.





Above are not pictures of malls, but rather schools in Guangzhou City in China.

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