On June 15, 2014, Prof. Julie Rueben of Harvard University and Dr. Xiong Wanxi, headmaster of ministry of education, came to visit our school.
Prof. Julie Rueben and Dr. Xiong Wanxi first visited Gusu Culture Course Base of our school. Then our headmaster Huang Peili showed them around our function classrooms such as embroidery room, fan surface painting room and kunqu opera stage. After visiting those classrooms, Prof. Julie Rueben was surprised by the great effort we made on art education and she also said “ You do much better than many American schools. How lucky your students are!” Later, Prof. Julie Rueben came to our gymnasium and played Ping Pang with some students who were practising there. When she was told that these athletes won all the Middle School Students’ Ping Pang matches in Jiangsu Province, she felt amazed and took photos for the young champions.
After visiting the school, Prof. Julie Rueben and Dr. Xiong Wanxi, as well as some teacher representatives carried out a discussion on some problems in the field of education of China and United States. Prof. Julie Rueben introduced us their experience and problems they were facing in construction, culture heritage, student assessment, academic advising and the mobility of students, etc.. At the end of the discussion, our headmaster Huang Peili concluded that the difficulties encountered by the United States may be the challenges China would face in the future which we should rethink and learn from. This discussion provided a new inspiration for education researches and practices.
Prof. Julie Rueben is a famous scholar of educational history, and she specializes in studying the important role of education in the process of the development of the social and cultural history of America. Her researches include the importance of education, the relationship between educational institutions and social and political affairs of American, campus campaign, curriculum changes, reforms and motives, etc.
