Through the UNC Center for International Understanding, Superintendent Robert Logan and Dr. Robin McCoy, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services, were members of a delegation of educators that visited China from December 2-10, 2009.
- 2 representatives from 10 school districts in North Carolina were among the 400+ people who went on this trip.
- Chatham County Schools was the only district to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese while on the trip. The Chinese representatives specifically requested a partnership with Chatham County Schools.
- Lianyuanjie Primary School in Wuxi, China is a primary school serving 3,000 students. It is a 2½ hour plane ride south of Beijing. Chatham County Schools will choose one of its schools to be part of the partnership with this school. The program will strive to strengthen and expand Chinese language/culture programs in North Carolina schools. This program will provide our students and staff the opportunity to learn more about the Chinese society through their language and culture.
- In a country of 1.4 billion people over 200 million students are being taught English in school. They noted many of the teachers and older citizens do not speak English.
- The school day 7:30-4:00 p.m. for elementary students while the high school day lasted from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. In the high school they visited 300 of the 2,000 students were residential. Teachers remained at the school and worked with the students until the students finished an evening study time and retired for the night.
- The most interesting fact Mr. Logan relayed was that by 2025 55% of the world’s population will reside in Asia while only 5% will reside in North America.
