Pulling the Elderly Card

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.)

Nancy explained that the level of teaching in the village was poor. 
“The reason is all the teachers have to be recruited, right?” she said. “Most who’s any good, they all go to the city. You got nowhere to go? You end up in the village…If the teachers’ level is low, how are we gonna help raise the (level of the) kids?”

They found out about a school—Chengdu 7^th High School—which did televised teaching. So, they contacted them, and asked them to help work with the village of Yilong.  Sounded like a perfect solution to bring quality education to places that didn’t necessarily have it, right? Wrong.

“’Why do we need to do that? It’s impossible. It’s a waste of time, blah, blah, blah,’” said Nancy, mimicking the resistance of the village teachers. 

They had a whole laundry list of excuses, Nancy explained. But when it came down to it, the biggest one was that they didn’t understand the subjects being televised either. And they didn’t want to expend the energy to learn.   But Nancy and Peter insisted. And they were able to insist, by pulling their Elderly Cards. 

"Respect your elders." Confucius

“We’re much older,” said Nancy.  She asked one teacher how old he was. He said 52. She said, “So, what are you going to do when you retire? Go home and watch the crops and wait to die? Look at us. We’re not only older than you, we’re older than your parents, and we’re here to help.’

Eventually, this teacher—unable to refuse the elders—jumped on board. 

“We’re already starting to see effects,” said Nancy.

(To be continued. Next: Educating a Flock of Sheep.)