A teacher friend invited me to come visit her son’s school which is the best elementary school in Zigong. It was a very different environment and experience from the school that I went to out in the countryside last semester which is one of the poorest elementary schools in the county. My friend and I went to visit one fourth and two fifth grade classes. The classes all had about 50 students in them and the teachers stood at the front and lectured while students quietly read from textbooks, standing up to answer questions if they were called on. The students all seemed very content with their classes and were excited to have a visitor.
