"China's Dickensian Boarding Schools"

Bloomberg Business published an interesting article this week called "China's Dickensian Boarding Schools". I hadn't made the connection myself, but it certainly rings true. Luckily, my school and students are better off than some of those mentioned. My students have enough food and seem pretty healthy. There's even been a recent nutrition program at school giving the students milk (although it's always distributed to each classroom during the middle of class...I have no idea why, but it's always disruptive).

But I really worry about students boarding from such a young age. Most of the first graders are only seven years old and clearly homesick. I've seen some of them stand outside the classroom and bawl for hours. I've also noticed that all of my best students are students from the town who live at home instead of at school. I don't know why exactly. Maybe it's because they had the best kindergarten and are thus already better students and more comfortable with school. Maybe it's because their parents care more about education and push them to study. Maybe it's because they succumb more to peer pressure and therefore goof off more in class. Maybe it's because they get more love and attention at home and are therefore just happier. Probably it's a combination of factors, including some I haven't even thought of.

Yet, boarding is becoming more and more common. My school used to be half the size, with only a small number of students boarding. It incorporated a few other small village schools last year and now all of those students board. As the article explains, China's reasoning has been that this is a more efficient use of resources. Bigger schools can be given better materials and technology and help more students. But I agree with the author that China too often tries to solve aspects of the rural-urban education gap with money. Give them free textbooks. Give them smart boards (that most teachers don't know how to use). But the problem is so much more deeply rooted than that. It's in the value placed on education (what's the point if you don't even get into high school?). It's in the school cultures. It's in the testing system. It's pervasive and truly addressing it will require more thoughtful and purposeful strategies.