Principal from Shanghai stops by during visit of California schools

During the holiday traveling season, visitors from all around could be seen on campus. In addition to the girls from Singapore, MVHS also had the chance to host Principal Jun Zhang from Shanghai Beihong High School.

As part of the California School Board Association Shanghai Exchange, 16 principals from high schools in Shanghai visited schools and universities throughout California for eight weeks beginning in October.  Their visit began in the Los Angeles area where they toured public and private schools before flying to the San Fransisco Bay Area.

Zhang shadowed Principal April Scott on Nov. 16-19 before continuing on to Yosemite and Southern California.  Despite the language barrier, Zhang sat in on a weekly administrative meeting, a district workshop and visited a number of classrooms. 

A main goal of her visit was to observe different styles of education and how classrooms function.  Zhang concentrated on the English department to find out how schools teach English as a first language as opposed to her school, where English is taught as a required second language .

Zhang spoke with students around campus in an effort to to understand Western educational theories.  She hopes that the exchange program will produce better principals for the schools of Shanghai.

Though a future exchange is unlikely, MVHS was able to benefit from this experience as Zhang brought new ideas and philosophies of education to the school.

"[The visit] allowed us to reflect on who we are, because we take for granted what we have, and it is easy to become jaded in our thinking," Scott said.  "It takes someone asking ‘why do you do that?’"

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