Hampden teachers explore China, come back with lessons for students

HAMPDEN – Paul and Susan O’Brien made a point to say “hi” to everyone they passed during their 5 a.m. runs around West Lake in Hangzhou, China.

One particular morning the couple passed a grandmother with her young grandson. When the O’Briens said “hi” in Chinese, the surprised grandmother stopped and coaxed her grandson to perform his English-speaking skills to the traveling schoolteachers.

“We stopped our run and talked to them for a long time,” Paul O’Brien said. “When their children learn English it provides for great economic [opportunities].”

The O’Briens spent nearly three weeks, from July 30 to Aug. 17, traveling with 19 fellow schoolteachers and translators through Chinese cities and villages. Most of the educators were from Massachusetts, but the O’Briens, their colleague Sharyn Hastings who teaches at Reeds Brook Middle School, and Sue Olafsen, a Portland High School teacher, represented Maine. Paul O’Brien is a sixth-grade teacher and assistant principal of Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden, while Susan is a fifth-grade teacher in the George B. Weatherbee School, also in Hampden.

The couple’s journey was coordinated through Primary Source, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Watertown, Mass., which connects educators to cultures around the world in order to enhance student learning. The Freedman Foundation is a significant supporter of Primary Source and provides numerous grants for participating teachers, Susan O’Brien said.

“It’s all about becoming a lifelong learner,” Susan said. “As teachers, it’s so important to learn all that we can about other cultures. You can’t teach about the world if you stay in your own community.”

The O’Briens’ run along the lake was not the first, or last, encounter with Chinese grandparents and parents eager to showcase their children’s knowledge of the English language.

While visiting Hangzhou, the couple visited a summer school, where Paul sat down with one young boy and his family. The shy youngster used an English workbook, pointing from a picture of an ear in the book to his own and then saying the word.

When asked if Paul corrected the child’s pronunciation, he replied with a chuckle, “I didn’t need to.”

The teachers said many family members attended the summer school classes that day because they were excited to watch their children perform American nursery rhymes and speak English for the traveling educators.

Even with trips to Shanghai and Beijing, the O’Briens said, the days spent in the rural village of Huangcun were the highlight of the trip. The couple slept on a 1,000-year-old box bed that had a thin bamboo mat and a screen to protect against insects.

“Their sense of history is so much different from ours,” Paul said. “Here a 200-year-old house is very old; there we stayed in a hotel that was 1,000 years old.”

In the village, the two threshed rice in the paddies and picked tea leaves, though they admitted being more in the way than assisting in the crop harvest.

A grandfather in the village cooked dinner for the teachers one evening, and just as Paul grew concerned about what table conversation to initiate, the man began boasting about his successful daughter.

“He struck me because he started talking about what most people would talk about – his daughter,” Paul said. “He was bragging about his daughter, who graduated college and lives in the city. I guess it’s just natural of anyone in any culture to talk about their kids.”

The two teachers already have integrated their China experiences into class curriculum. Paul’s pupils will learn about folk tales around the world, while Susan’s are studying China’s various regions by examining the different homes. Last year Paul taught his pupils calligraphy and Chinese folk tales, while Susan focused on Chinese traditions, holidays and foods. At the end of the year, each class presented what they learned about China.

While most of the trip was geared for professional development, the couple shared a special moment when they climbed Huangshan Mountain. Chinese newlyweds scale the peak to place padlocks on the chains that serve as safety barriers, Paul said. The honeymooners place locks on the chains in order to “lock in” their commitments.

Susan had a small suitcase padlock with her during the trek, and after 27 years of marriage, the couple “locked” their marriage on the mountain, too.

“Just think,” said Paul, “somewhere over there our lock is on one of those mountains.”