Morgan Rothschild Academy

Morgan Rothschild Academy is an International Preschool for children ages 2 to 5, located in the heart of Shanghai and home to a number of families from around the world. On paper, this place in incredible. The curriculum is based on High Scope and Michigan standards for preschool education. Each classroom has about 15 children and three teachers; an American Lead Teacher and two Chinese Teachers. The primary job of the American teacher is to teach the students English (reading, speaking, and listening), and the primary job of the Chinese teachers is to reinforce the Chinese (characters, reading, and speaking).

Throughout the day, we follow a pretty strict schedule. We switch between teaching English and Chinese lessons – guided reading, math, science, art, music, movement and language. The children have about an hour for work time, which is what they call choice/play time, then two different times for large motor activity (indoor or outdoor weather permitting). Aside from the lessons, everything is scheduled into the day – two bathroom times, hand washing, water breaks, two snack times, lunch and nap.

My class consists of 17 four year olds from all over the world. I have kids from Germany, Venezuela, Taiwan, Japan, America and local China. Many of my children are biracial and all of my children are multilingual. There is only one child in my class that does not speak any English or Chinese, however, the rest of my kids speak both English and Chinese (to some extent) along with another language perhaps. It is absolutely fascinating watching my children interact with one another and listen to them speak to each other. I am envious the way they can change languages based on who they are talking to or what they are playing.

Each day, the teachers fill out a progress report, which is a booklet that acts as communication between teachers, the director and parents. The teachers fill out a page that tells the parents about the child’s day – what they did, who they played with, and the teachers can provide the parents with little anecdotes about their child. The children then take them home for the parents to read, and write their own comments if they wish, then bring them back for the director to read. It is really helpful for us because the children rid the bus and out encounters with the parents are few and far between, and it assists with the language barrier between me and the non-English speaking parents.

At school is where I see many of the cultural differences, and I am still trying to acclimate myself, understand and adjust – after all, I am the minority and the foreigner. Children here are much more independent. Most of the children ride a bus to school and are dropped off at the front entrance. They walk in all by themselves, change their shoes and walk to the jump room to begin the day. It is not uncommon for children to be left unattended in the classroom, bathrooms, or cubby rooms. Children set up for snack and lunches, then put away all of their own dishes following (although they do not serve themselves), and the follow directions with ease. A good way to describe it is that the children have more discipline here.

Some other cultural things I have noticed….

* We don’t wear shoes inside, so there is a cubby room at the front entrance where children change their shoes from their outdoor shoes to their indoor crocks or slippers that are left at school (teachers too). 

* Kids/teachers wear layers like it is their job!  In fact, I have noticed that children’s clothing is made thicker than normal. For example, children’s jeans have a thick layer of fleece on the inside. Additionally, everyone wears leggings, long johns, tights, sweaters and sweatshirts for extra warmth.

* The focus on academic is much higher here than in the US. Parents believe that children need direct instruction to learn. Furthermore, they also believe that a 2 year old can sit through a 30 minute reading lesson the same way a 5 year old can. Too much play time throughout the day means that they children are no learning...

* There are no paper towels anywhere in the school, so each child brings in their own hand towel and hangs it on their own hook to use. It wouldn’t be so bad if the hand towels did not always stay there, but they look like they have been there since the beginning of the year.

* Boy, girls and teachers all use the same bathroom. It is odd, and makes me a little bit uncomfortable. The children have toilets that are their size and have little dividers in between each one, and then there is one stall in the corner for the adults with a thin curtain for a door. I cannot even imagine the lawsuits that would come out of the situation in the US.

* At lunch and snack time, children are expected to eat every bit of their meal. They are given a small portion of everything, and they cannot get up until they eat it all. Towards the end of the meal, if a child has not finished everything, the Chinese teachers start scooping food into their mouths.

* Kids are always given warm or room temperature water to drink. Milk is also always served hot. Kids are given hot milk, hot chocolate milk and hot tea instead of juice.

 

Half the fun is getting there...

Prior to leaving, everyone asked me constantly about how I felt… are you scared? Nervous? Anxious? Excited? Sad? Happy? In all honesty, it was surreal until the day I was leaving. It was like something that I talked about for so long, but when it came down to it, I really did not know how I would feel until I was actually leaving – boarding a plane, heading for no-man’s land. I think the first time it hit me, I was sitting in my room packing the night before I left (my 4 attempting at trying to pack). All of the sudden, I looked around and realized that my life as I had known it was about to change forever, and a whole rush on emotions Chuck Norris round-house kicked me in the face.

The second time was that night when I tucked Benjamin and Alex into bed. I had to tell them goodbye to let them know that I wasn’t going to see them for a while, but hold myself together enough so that they couldn’t see me upset. Needless to say, I didn’t make it out of their bedroom before I was balling like a baby! Benjamin will be nearly double his age when I moved back home, and Alex will be half way to her teenage years L I loved that night. My favorite people came over to spend the night with me and attempt to keep me awake and my mind off of the inevitable life changing adventure ahead.

By 5:00 am, all of my stuff was packed. I had my passport and boarding passes along with my Instant Chinese handbook & Culture Shock (survival guides). I made my goodbyes as short as possible, fearing that if I attempting to convey any emotions, I would lose it and chicken out of moving across the world. Secretly, I was calculating how many people I could shove into my luggage without being detected by security or customs – the answer – not enough! The drive to the airport was looooong and silent.

Once I arrived at the airport, I nearly changed my mind. My luggage was too heavy (as expected) and I had to do some rearranging, my flight was messed up (or rather the airport clerk did not know how to use the computer system) and there was a chance that my luggage would not make it all the way to Shanghai (again, per the stupid clerk). Once I made it through security, there was no going back. For the record, the airport security is not all that it is hyped up to be. Absolutely it was a pain in the butt to have to take all the electronics and liquids out of my carry on, take off all my layers of clothing and my shoes, but the invasive body screening was nothing. I stood in a glass box while someone behind a computer screen looked at the gray outline of my body (oh, no). However, I did see several people opt out of the body screening. Those people had to walk through a metal detector then receive a comprehensive groping from a security guard. You tell me which is more invading.

The first flight from Detroit to Chicago was fine. The flight was nearly empty, so I had the entire bench to stretch out on. It was pretty bumpy, but it was short. The layover in Chicago was brief, and before I knew it, I was boarding a plane for Seoul, Korea. The plane was HUGE and packed with at least 800 people, but really nice. It was the only plane that I have ever been on that actually had three sections of seats – three seats on each side by the windows, then a whole middle section of seats. Unfortunately, I got stuck sitting in a middle seat, on one of the side sections near a window in between an old Asian man that snored, and a young American girl. I had my own personal entertainment system on the back of the seat in front of me with a ton of games, movies and a travel thing which allowed me to follow our flight across the globe and track the weather, distance, speed, etc.

The last time that it hit me was after boarding that flight. We were pulling away from the terminal, and the Korean flight attendants began giving us direction in Korean. I laughed to myself and realized that this is what my life was becoming – crowded, alone and a minority. When the English translation told me to turn off my cell phone, it was like I was severing the tie I had to the US and I began to cry just a little bit. The last text message I received was a smiley face and then I turned it off. The next 14 hours were the longest of my life!  More than half the time, the lights in the plane were turned off so I did nothing but watch movie after movie. I was so cramped in the tiny chair that I maybe slept for an hour the entire flight in 5 minute spurts. I kept wishing that I could turn on my phone and text to make the time go by a little faster. I believe that I checked the time, and the distance we had traveled every 20 minutes which made the 7,000 mile journey that much longer! Overall, the flight was good – no bad weather or turbulence, just really long.

It was such a relief when we touched down in Korea. The Korean airport was so confusing but I was thankful for all of the English speakers I found to help me. I had to go through security and customs once again which was a cake walk compared to the screening in the US. Then checked in, got my boarding pass and found my terminal. There was an internet café right next to my terminal so I was able to make some contact to let everyone know that I made it safely because my phone was no longer working. Then an hour later I was boarding my last flight into Shanghai, China.

The whole way to China I had such a knot in my stomach as I kept questioning what if they lost my baggage? What if they don’t accept my visa? What if my director forgets to pick me up? When I landed, I followed the crowd down to customs where I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and provide them with all of my address and my employer. Then they did a facial recognition test before they released me into the world. I ran straight to baggage claim, praying that it had made it. You cannot even imagine my relief when I saw them on the belt!  I grabbed my stuff and headed for the exit, still hoping that my director had remembered to pick me up at the right time. I walked out of the door and saw a big sign, “Melissa Breiter MRA.” I sighed as I realized that I had made it… all the way to Shanghai, China!