HughHarris

Educator, Husband, Dad, Visionary

No. 5 Middle School in Suzhou, China looking for its Christian roots and why an American teacher would come to their city 120 years ago.

Meeting Mr. Shen Zhong Principal and Mrs. “Sophie” Wang You, the English teacher at No. 5 Middle School was quite the providential encounter. Their school is trying to look back further into their founding history and why they have this large bell that was manufactured in Baltimore, MA in 1895 by the Henry McShane Bell Co. And who are their first 2 Head masters Dr. R.N. Hayes and Ralph White. Apparently they were both sent by the American Presbyterian denomination to establish a school in Sozhuo. The school was originally named the Cuiying Academy. The No. 5 Middle school has an extensive history and maintains a school museum but they have very little information of their founder and his purpose in beginning the school.

They took us to the school and showed us all of their facility which really was first rate even the original building built around the turn of the century by the school. Their enrollment is about 1268 students and place the majority of their graduates into the university system. They gave us a book on the extensive history of the school but it was lacking information regarding the Church and Dr. Hayes. After a long conversation and about 4 hours learning about each others schools I told Mr. Zhong and Mrs. Sophie that FCA would be honored to help them research their history and we would consider it as a research project for

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students from our school. I also indicated that we would be interested in possibly beginning a sister school relationship with No. 5. I told them I would take this important idea back to our board of directors for their consideration. They were very excited about the sister school idea and would take this idea to their authorities.

I have already begun some initial research into the McShane Bell Co. and found that they are still in business in the Baltimore area! There’s is no telling what their bell may be worth. Please see the pictures to come of the bell, the original building and the school tree that is over 400 years old that sits in the center of the campus along with the bell and a large bust honoring Dr. Hayes and Mr. White.

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November 24, 2012 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Why was I in China? I think there are several reasons but there is one significant one – here it is:

After leaving Nanjing we went to our second “smaller city” Suzhou (only 6 million) and visited Suzhou High School-SIP a very prestigious 9-12 program. It has a boarding school but only during the week. We were presented a lecture on the educational system in China and it became even more clear why the Hanban Institute wanted relations with US schools. They stated that 20 years ago the government wanted to change their system to a “market related educational system” meaning that students should learn how to function in a economic driven society and be able to conduct business in a global setting. They understand that English is the language of business and so they are eager to learn and teach Chinese to as many as will learn.

After this introductory meeting with many schools from the Suzhou we had lunch and then broke up in to random groups in the SIP library. There was no control over who met who they just put us in this room and said introduce yourselves and meet. I just “randomly” sat down with another US private educator and a man and lady Chinese educators from No. 5 Middle School (thats their name for high school) and the first question out of their mouth was “can you help us find the Presbyterian Church and the family of the first American Missionary Headmaster Dr. R.N. Hayes who founded the school in 1892?” Right then I knew why I was in China.

November 24, 2012 Posted by | Education | , | Leave a comment