Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas.
 
It’s the time that we can access to all knowledge, but there are still some children who cannot read anything apart from their curriculum. The only books that they access are their text books which company them all day long. I could not help feeling sad from their sincerely eyes.

They read their text books day after day. They have nothing else to read. Even though, they still eager to learn. They focused on what I have told them beyond text books with curious and eyes wide open. I would like to describe them as hungry as a wolf, fearing their pray would be rubbed.
 
Yes, knowledge is their food and books are their fields. If you want the field to be more fertile, you have to read more books. However, it is a luxury hope for them. It’s difficult for them to find an extra-curriculum book to read. They would be greatly pleased if there’s a book to read. All students in a class would share it. Because of poverty, they could not afford to buy books. Because of poverty, they had to spend their time with text books. Some of children have been left at home, for their parents had to work in the city. There’s no one to care their study.

With books, we know and feel the world. When the children are facing the situation of no-books to read, we should do we can to help and make their life better. We initiated the activity named Books for Development, which aims to help the children to develop with the aid of “speechless teacher”.

Original article written by Ruiping Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas.
 
When worked with school, the teachers and principal said they had tight class timetable and it was not easy to complete teaching tasks in a week.

We did not have much experience working at schools, so we had to hear what they said which seemed reasonable to us. When we thought for the second time, we could not help thinking the reason for such situation. The traditional teaching methods made students learn passively.

As the cooperating school is a primary school and the participants are students from 2 grade-five classes. We did not start our teaching time with traditional methods. We watched them and tried to know what they were interested in, so that we could improve their capacity and grades in an easy way. For some time, we found they learned more from what they were interested in.

With the information, we organized timetable. The picture above is about the story triggered the interesting of the students. They did not prepare paper, so when the instruction was sent, they learned to solve problem in a quick way. The girl named Lingling took out 2 pieces of paper and started to fold a little vegetable basket.

It took a few steps to fold a basket. Apart from its shape, she had to make some decoration. We could see she was doing a nice basket which she did carefully. When I was watching Lingling doing handicraft, I reminded I had watching the children in the city who did their handicrafts with fine materials. The things were nice, but there was something missed which might be spirit or emotions.

It’s better to cooperate in their interested learning atmosphere for children. They were willing to share when they were happy. The picture above shows Lingling was demonstrating on how to make basket to her classmates. The scene was as it in the village of 1980s.
 
I admire their learning capacity. Handwork made 50% of the class time. Although some of them did not finish their works, they were happy. For the rest of 20 minutes, the children became focus on what I was teaching. The efficiency was out of expectation. I hope they would learn efficiently with our instructions and let them to spend a happy childhood. 

Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas.

We were able to provide scholarships to 20 children in Ningxia province. We ran into some problems with distribution, as many of the families have moved since. These are all issues we have to take into consideration for the future.
Here are some of our recipients:

Huang Ruya’s mother collects grass and weeds and sells them for income.

Shen Tongneng's parents work throughout the weekend and her and her brothers are left unsupervised for days. 

Ma Longhao’s father passed and his mother left. His uncle has been taking care of him. 


Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

Mingda School is in Xiji County, Ningxia province and pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas.

Winter holiday is late in 2014. When we were preparing activities during winter holiday, the students were preparing for their final exam. When we came to the project site and held the first activity in the new year, most of the children were waiting for their final scores. 

We were not in rush. As I was born and grew up in the village, I understood situations. In a few days, the children would come back with their exam scores. At that time, Mingda will be the place they want to visit most. We were doing preparation for their coming. Thank TFish who bought an induction cooker for us. 

We enjoy the convenience which improves our serve enthusiasm. We prepare lessons, eat and talk together. We also discussed the issues on development of Guanshan district, improvement of accompany for left-behind children and teenagers and home visit. I have some of my own ideas. In rural areas, we should care more about the internal development of the students, instead of school grades. We should pay more attention to the students’ behaviors, instead of how many English words they memorize. I know some parents have different ideas or even opposite opinions, but I still insist on my own ways. I will not follow their likes or just copy from the school.

In this money-centered society, each of us tries to get what we want, but in rural areas, the children are fighting against their fate toughly. Their goal is to get rid of poverty. In the city, most of the children work to achieve the goal made by their parents. Parents are steering their dream from kindergarten to university. Anyway, the dreams of rural children belong to their own dreams, though their parents urge them to study hard before being admitted by university. In the city, parents paved a way for their children with all kinds of connections. In rural areas, the children have to decide their own future. In comparison, the later may have more happiness.

For the rural areas, poverty is an obstacle. We are hopeful. Though there are difficulties, we still provide spiritual food for the children. We hope to provide a relaxing place for the children to learn. Study is an activity, instead of a burden. If the children start to feel that study is a kind of burden, study has lost its original meaning. 

Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang

Mingda School pays attention to rural education in northwest of China, in particular English education. The School provides a relaxing and healthy education environment for the left-behind children living in rural areas. 

The Rainbow Village just purchased 500 books for teenagers. The books were sent to the Mingda School yesterday. 

Fen Hu drove to drop off the books. Li Jia just went to take a look. When he arrived at our teaching site, he commented on the difficult path I have chosen for my career. I think it just makes up for my hubris when I was young. Working here helps me to think rationally. 

I used to work at the office of a state-owned school and I showed no interest in things unrelated to me, so it took courage to give it up. Eventually I was moved because of transformations taking place at the school and as a result of my persistence.

Original article written by Fangding Zhang, translated by Maggie Li, edited by Yanyan Zhang