Educating a Flock of Sheep

Retired UCSF Pharmacology Professor Nancy Ma and Internist Peter Lee both fled from China for different reasons. However, recently they created the foundation WuWei Harmony which does projects with China. 
Nancy was born in Shanghai during the 1940s. Her father worked as Asian General Manager for Colgate-Palmolive, a wonderful position...until the Communists took over in 1949.  He fled first to Hong Kong, a British territory back then. The rest of the family , however, could not get exit visas. (See post one.) After seven years of waiting, they finally managed to get to Hong Kong. (See post two.) 
Husband Peter fled from China for different reasons. His parents were part of the Nationalist Army that fought against the Japanese from 1937-45 and then the Communists from 1945-49. (See post three.) While Peter was safe from Communism, he realized upon college graduation that there weren't many job opportunities. Fortunately, he got a scholarship at the University of Texas. (See post four.) Meanwhile, Nancy struggled in Hong Kong. Her mother enrolled her in a Cantonese/English high school, two languages Nancy did not understand. Nancy only lasted three days. (See post five.)But she did well in college, and managed to get a scholarship to Southwestern University in Georgetown Texas. (see post six.) She started looking for a job, and ended up getting her Ph.D. (see post seven.) In 1981, when Nancy was a Professor of Pharmacology, China came knocking on her door. Would she come give some professional speeches to the Beijing Medical School and the Chinese Academy of Sciences? Although wary, she agreed. She and Peter then returned again a decade later. By then her old hometown was barely recognizable due to construction and modernization. (See post eight.)
 Upon retirement, they met a colleague working to build schools in China, and they offered to help as well. They received VIP treatment anytime they were in the country. But, as soon as they left, they couldn't contact anyone related to the project, a project which entailed putting computers in classrooms. (See post nine.) There was great resistance to computers, as well as many other obstacles. (see post ten.) They went on to work instead doing micro-finance in Sichuan. Eight years ago, while on a visit to ensure that their finances were being properly used, they stumbled on a new problem: children who couldn't afford schooling. They immediately extended their hands to help. (See post eleven.) They soon discovered that poverty wasn't the only issue. Children whose parents had disappeared and who had no money had very low self-esteem. So, Nancy and Peter decided to exact academic excellence from the children they supported, promising them a future in college. It was only then they realized what a impossible promise that was. (see post twelve.) So they worked at raising the level of the village schools by skyping in lessons from a better school district. (see post thirteen.)

Some of the teachers ended up  not only raising the proficiency of the students...but of themselves. They ended up becoming skilled enough to go teach in the city. Now, Nancy and Peter are spreading the Televised Teaching method to other schools. They had started with 7^th grade. Now they are starting with 1^st.  What’s great is to see is the buy-in of the county, they said. 

“At the beginning when we asked for a meeting,” Nancy said. “We got all kinds of excuses. ‘Oh, we’re in a meeting.’ Or, “We’re out of town.” This and that. Now, it’s like, ‘We have a meeting when? Come.’ Or, ‘Is there anything else you want us to do?’ We earned their trust and respect."

In fact Horse Saddle School  actually came to Nancy and Peter and asked them to do the Televised Teaching.  (Nancy and Peter always insist that the funding is shared on a 30/70 basis, with the schools  and county board of education picking up the latter.) But the principal only offered to fund the teaching for the top two classes.

“Each grade has ten classes,” Nancy explained. “They put the best students in the first two classes. And the rest of the eight classes, we call it fang yang.”

“A flock of sheep,” explained Peter. “Roaming around getting grass here and there.” 

In other words, the hopeless ones.

Nancy and Peter said they would only come if all of the teachers in all of the classes levels 1-10 would participate. It took the principal almost two years, but he finally got everyone on board, and agreed to fund this program even for the flocks of sheep.

“We can see the students are getting better. Their grades are getting better. The kind of material they’re learning is much more like a true education."

(To be continued. Next: Sharing Opportunity With Eighty Grandchildren)