Shanghai teachers: education then and now

Country of origin USA

Current job title Middle School Grade Five teacher, Concordia International School

Chicago St James Lutheran School.

My school was so small and my family so large that when Grades 4, 5 and 6 were combined, there were three of us Chaveriats in one room! All of us brothers looked alike since my dad was a barber. When the teacher howled, ‘Chaveriat, stop that!’ my two older and better behaved brothers, Paul and Jimmy, would politely respond, ‘Yes, Mr Frank,’ even if they were innocent. I would gratefully accept their kindness and smile. This was just one of perks of having older siblings.

We came in, we sat down. Our desk tops flipped up and held our books, lunch and supplies like a whale’s belly. And we never worked in groups – how could you move around a 23kg metal desk? The entire approach to discipline was drastically different. Spankings were not at all unusual; the female teachers used rulers and ping pong paddles, while the male teachers preferred belts. One German teacher even had a cricket bat for naughty kids.

In 1968, a small carton of milk was three cents and once a week, we got chocolate. I was given twelve cents to take the bus; sometimes I would walk home instead and spend the money at a hotdog stand. Tamales cost exactly 0.12USD. Heavenly!

No, I loved school.

Better pens! I mostly used a pencil as a school kid before, eventually, the latest technological advance, a Bic biro, became available. They cost 0.19USD and came in four different colors. Amazing! It was the only

advanced stationary we had other than a compass and protractor.

My birthday was 2 December and the cutoff was 1 December, but I got into the first grade when I was five without ever attending kindergarten. Thus I was more relieved to be going to school than I was nervous on that first day.

Country of origin New Zealand

Job title Grade 3 homeroom teacher at Fudan International School, NET entrance test assessor and elementary school newsletter editor

As a child I lived on a very beautiful 200 acre sheep farm in Ness Valley, Clevedon, which is about an hour’s drive from Auckland. I went to the local county school which was originally a one-room wooden schoolhouse. I would walk a kilometre or so from our farmhouse each morning, up a long gravel road to the main tar sealed road in order to catch the school bus, which began its route from a nearby coastal community further down the valley. The trip took around thirty minutes. It was always fun to clamber aboard and chatter with friends both Maori and European.

Fish and chips wrapped in newspaper on Fridays! I can still smell and taste them when I close my eyes. Calf Club days were also wonderful. One year I took along four small kittens in a wicker basket and won third prize. I felt like I had won the moon! I also loved hot, summery athletic days. My friend Catherine and I used to take turns at coming first in the 50 yard sprint – there were no metric measurements back then!

‘Freedom’, ‘fun’ and ‘innocence’ are the three words that come to mind when I think of my childhood. Kids were kids back then. We simply had fun. There was no pressure to get A grades, wear sunhats, sunblock, bicycle helmets or follow many safety regulations. We climbed trees in the school yard, played softball and marbles and competed with hula hoops. One craze I recall was ‘Swiss skipping’, done with elastic bands around our ankles. We were not afraid of pollution, wars, nuclear disasters, global warming, over population or human rights issues. Life was simple and children could enjoy their childhood.

Class learning was structured but fun, with Janet and John books being common class readers. I remember being read to a lot as a child at school and loving it. Neat handwriting was very important. Even in Math I liked writing my numbers nicely in the squares to get a stamp from my teacher, Miss Jupp, who I was very scared of. Corporal punishment was legal and we accepted it as the norm. Students – even five-year-olds – got the strap, which was made of leather, back in those days. As a joke I called the teacher Miss Pup one day and she took me out the door and strapped my little hand very hard. I cried and cried. I became very afraid of authority figures after that incident. It made me a more anxious child beneath my sunny personality.

One of the wonderful things about school back when I was a child was the sense of community. The school was the hub of our rural village and was the focal point for fun, food and friendship. Everyone knew everyone else; people really knew and cared about each other. Teachers were more stable figures in our lives as people didn’t move around so much back then. Teachers used to stay for years in their positions and were very important role models for children, and they knew local families well. Children visited each other’s homes more when I was growing up. Many children only see each other at school in today’s world. I remember engaging in a great deal of social interaction with my peers in activities such as music, singing, playing board and card games or doing crafts or cooking. Visiting other farming families was so common when I was a child, as was playing in the streets of the neighbourhood when we later moved to town.

I wish I had been taught more languages as a child. There is so much opportunity for second language learning for the majority of children now. I think I was born to travel, so I’ve needed more languages! I also wish that I’d had the opportunity to travel more as a child, like so many children seem privileged to enjoy today. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, was my absolute favorite book. I was a passionate reader and I used to imagine going on great adventures, and when I grew up I did. I’m glad I didn’t grow up in today’s electronic world.

I sure did! On my first day of school the teacher heavy-handedly plonked me between two children larger than me. I was shy and nervous, so I was too scared to ask either of them to pass me any crayons to help draw my picture. Gladys and Pop were their names and we have since had a good laugh about it as adults.

Country of origin England

Current job title Year One teacher, Britannica International School, Shanghai

A small village school. By small I mean there were 100 students across seven year groups. It was called Jolesfield Church of England Primary School in Partridge Green, West Sussex; then to Steyning Grammar School in the next village.

I just loved being at primary school, they were the happiest times of my life. When I was looking back through my old photos I got a feeling of constant excitement, total security and an atmosphere of fun and caring. I still remember some of those teachers today after all this time. There was Mrs Muschin who told us she loved Smarties and came to regret it when she was given giant tubes of the things by every student every summer and Christmas until she retired; and Mrs Williams the Year 6 teacher who had to try and get us ready for leaving to go to Secondary School. They inspired me so much that I never wanted to be anything other than a teacher myself.

Jolesfield was a proper village school where everyone knew everyone else and I feel I was extremely lucky to have that small nurturing environment; I don’t think that is very common these days. Jolesfield is still there but has expanded from one form entry to three and the huge green playing field we had is now full of static classrooms. I think there is a lot more pressure on kids these days and too much testing. When I was at school the only thing I had to worry about was the weekly times table and spelling tests!

I remember my teachers chose what we learnt about and everything was done in a topic-centered way. My favourites were: Romans in Year 3, Tudors in Year 5, Planets in Year 6. We seemed to be allowed to be much more creative than we are these days and did projects that lasted weeks. I still have my old school books and projects, everything bound and mounted by myself.

No, not really. I didn’t particularly look forward to the weekly times table test and I remember having to listen to my times table tape every morning while I was having my porridge for breakfast. I still never got all the questions right!

I suppose I would have to say technology. I remember our primary school getting their first computer. It was a BBC Micro computer and was on a trolley with wheels so it could be moved into any classroom. The printer was massive and you had to feed in a huge wedge of paper, the type with holes all the way down the edge that we used to make bracelets and things. But saying that, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. I think perhaps we rely too heavily on technology nowadays.

Not especially; it was a small village school so you already knew all the other students as you had all gone to playschool together. You also knew all the teachers as you would see them in the village shop every weekend, there was nothing unknown to worry about. Leaving the village school to go to secondary school in the next town over – that was scary.

Country of origin England

Current job title Film, Media & English teacher at the British International School, Shanghai (Puxi campus)

Don’t tell anyone, but I went to Hounslow in west London. It’s near Twickenham, but is a lot less civilised.

Raising several hundred pounds for our school charity week with a sketch show I wrote and co-starred in, in which I did impressions of our headmaster and head of languages and fulfilled my dreams by dressing up as Batman! Also: A-level results day when I got what I needed to get into the university that I wanted. Although my joy lasted only a few minutes – I found out that most of my peer group failed and that my best friend wouldn’t be going to university with me.

It’s really quite amazing to realise that the answer to any conceivable question is simply just a few strokes of the keyboard away. Sports now seem to take on a greater priority, while teaching styles have become more relaxed and less dictatorial than before.

At my school: butterscotch pudding with custard, a once-a-term treat that caused enormous excitement in the canteen and a race for seconds. I still remember the teachers who inspired me – Mr Quirk, whose quiet authority made me eager to please in history and my Year 8 English teacher Mr Tanner, who one lunchtime pulled me down a flight of stairs and into the library, pushing a copy of Catch 22 into my hands to nurture my writing. I hope someone will have a similar fond memory of me one day, but without all the pulling and pushing, of course!

As a rather overweight child with an odd name I discovered early on that school children aren’t all nice and can make life a challenge for the unconventional. I think we live in more accepting and enlightened times now. Also, the smell of our school’s PE changing rooms still haunts my dreams.

I would love to be a student now, with technology being so readily available. I would certainly have enrolled for my own IB film class! We didn’t have the technology back then to film and edit our own movies, so I mourn for all my lost masterpieces. I think modern students are very lucky to have such a range of subject options as well as easy access to worldwide resources.

I would say that I was probably as nervous as anyone on my first day of secondary school. But I had an older brother there to look after me – this was extremely helpful in Hounslow, which isn’t ever going to feature as a honeymoon destination.