Diane Geng and Sara Lam

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2007

Rural China Education Foundation

http://www.ruralchina.org/

Shaanxi and Shandong, China

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

Approximately 60 percent of China's population, 800 million people, live in rural areas. In these villages today, between 80 to 90 percent of youth drop out during or right after middle school with few life-relevant skills and a sense of apathy or disdain towards their communities. This is due to a combination of factors, such as the irrelevance of traditional curriculum to daily rural life, discouraging teaching methods, financial obstacles, and a severe shortage of quality teachers.

The Rural China Education Foundation (RCEF) will create a teaching fellows program that will recruit and work with local teachers to create new student-centered curriculum and teaching methods that make use of local community resources, and guide students to experience their own agency to make positive change. Through the strengthening of human resources in rural areas, RCEF hopes to break down prejudices and cultivate a generation of creative thinkers who will make a positive difference in developing rural China. Additionally, by providing rural youth with quality education relevant to their life needs and skills, RCEF will help to sustain China's future economic stability.

Biography:

As descendants of rural Chinese, Diane Geng and Sara Lam wanted to learn more about rural educational opportunity and spent a year traveling throughout Chinese villages. A former U.S. Fulbright Fellow in China, Diane earned an MA of Education in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard. She was also selected as a Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellow in 2006. Sara earned her master’s degree in International Education Policy from Harvard and has been working as a community educator in China.

Moment of Obligation: What experiences led to the desire to start your own organization?
SARA: In every rural primary school I’ve been to, I’ve met children with high aspirations for going to college and pulling their families up out of poverty. Rural middle schools in China have shown me a despairingly different picture. Most of those confident and hopeful children become scared, desperate, hopeless or apathetic about their futures by the ninth grade, if they even make it that far. In school, these children learn that they cannot change their lives through education and that they are useless if they can’t excel in exams. Living and working with them and their families and made me feel the need to show them that they can use education to create change, and to work with them as they do so.
DIANE: In 2004, I went on a village trip with a group of Chinese college student volunteers. As we played and danced with the local children, I was struck by the fact that many of the volunteers used to be rural children themselves. They wanted to improve their hometowns and, in the process, were bringing today’s rural children enriching experiences that weren’t available through regular schools. I felt excited about the potential to recruit talent such as this into rural areas that would enrich educational quality, as well as foster social responsibility in young Chinese to contribute to rural development. This is how the idea for Rural China Education Foundation was born.

Gall to Think Big: What has given you the ability to dream big and take on deeply entrenched problems in the world?
SARA: My main source of strength is the feeling that this work simply must be done. I am also constantly inspired and motivated by the village leaders and teachers that I work with. In nearly every village I’ve been to, I’ve found at least one teacher who is still passionate about their teaching despite years of frustrations and limitations and imposed by the education system, and who still have the best interests of their students at heart even if it means risking penalties or giving up chances of promotion. I’ve also worked with villagers and grassroots activists who have dared to unite their fellow villagers to make changes in their communities against the odds. The accomplishments of these seemingly ordinary people and their perseverance give me confidence and hope, and push me to keep on going.
DIANE: China is a huge country with the largest pool of children in the world. I am inspired by the great potential these children hold and strongly believe their upbringing and education is critical to China’s future in the 21st century. The delightful creativity of rural children I’ve witnessed and the huge social needs and injustices in their communities convince me that rural children must grow up empowered to make a positive difference. With the right teaching methods and curriculum, I believe we can turn rural education into a gateway for people who can make lasting rural transformation.

New and Untested: What’s innovative about your new idea for social change?
SARA: Although rural education is becoming a hot topic among NGOs, academics, and even the government, hardly anyone is looking beyond the problems of physical and financial resources or academic attainment. The focus is on giving more of the same, preparing children for taking exams instead of dealing with the difficulties they face as rural citizens. We are the first organization to send long-term workers to rural areas to experiment with pedagogy and curriculum that meet the real needs of rural children, the first organization that fosters students to become future agents of change in their communities. The result will be much needed practice-based expertise in rural teaching and learning that can be shared with educators around the country.
DIANE: We focus on improving the underlying “software” of rural education, such as curriculum and teacher quality, so that they prepare rural children for life. During my year studying rural education on the Fulbright Scholarship, I found that most NGOs and the government focus overwhelmingly on “hardware” support. They build school buildings and give scholarships, but don’t question whether what kids learn is meaningful or useful. Our project is devoted to bridging the current gap between learning and life for rural students by cultivating teachers who care deeply about making education responsive and relevant to the needs and resources in rural children’s lives.

Seeing Possibilities: What are the most important qualities to be a successful social entrepreneur?
SARA: A sense of urgent need and mission. A feeling that something must be done. Compassion and an intolerance for injustice. The ability to recognize and value the potential of the people you meet. The willingness to take the first step and to do what you can with what you’ve got. It’s easy to think “All I need is this much more funding, or that many more people, then I can start."
DIANE: Curiosity, urgency, and initiative. Sensitive, active listening: Ask questions of everyone—not just so-called “experts”—but strangers and people on the street who are affected by or whom affect (perhaps indirectly) the problem you want to tackle. Compassion as well as willingness to constantly reflect on your own motivations and actions as someone who hopes to impact this problem.

Which musical artists/albums get you going and keep you inspired?
SARA: Sweet Honey in the Rock, Blind Boys of Alabama, Brother Ali, Mason Jennings, Anais Mitchell, Violeta Parra. Jazz, especially Dinah Washington. And, of course, our village’s folk opera team is always inspiring to me.
DIANE: Natalie Merchant, John Mayer, Tracy Chapman, Jack Johnson.

What books do you recommend?
SARA: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, Going Public by Michael Gecan, and Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich.
DIANE: Wild Grasses by Ian Johnson, Chronicles of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua, The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett, and Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.

Which websites do you visit often?

What advice or quote do you keep close to your heart as a social change leader?
SARA: A teacher told us his definition of “love”: to make an accurate assessment of another’s needs. I keep this close to my heart in my work.
DIANE: “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” - Mahatma Gandhi.

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Diane Geng and Sara Lam