By Diane Geng | Co-founder and Executive Director
Most children in rural China have little chance to leave the school grounds or study subjects outside their textbooks. In response, RCEF Rural Education Innovator Teacher Sun Huimiao is a trailblazer in developing place-based education that helps students to apply their skills and develop their knowledge in the real world. In September, she started teaching students at Nanzheng Elementary School how to make a map of their village. They brainstormed different aspects of the village environment that they were interested in, and eventually settled on studying elements of village home design. After more investigation, they chose to examine the tall, colorful doors that their parents and neighbors select to decorate home entrances. So far, they have done a survey of the different styles of village doors, collected measurements, organized data using spreadsheets, and interviewed a village elder about the history and significance of rural architectural changes.
On the weekends, Teacher Sun also organizes free Parent-Child Reading Activities in a Community Education Center that she founded in her home village. She partners with two local kindergarten teachers to read stories to children, demonstrating to parents how to read aloud, and the benefits of promoting habits of reading in children. The free weekend activities have been well-attended and Teacher Sun is planning to hold more sessions over this coming winter break when children are out of school and more parents are home from their migrant labor jobs in cities.
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