Teachers go extra mile to foster community
Print Edition
THE decision to move to the Far East was one we as a family didn’t just make on a whim. Many hours, nights and bottles of wine were spent deciding whether the idea was a good one and if we were doing the right thing. I lost count of the amount of books, websites and chatrooms which were read and visited on the route to China before our journey even began. Ultimately we decided that the plan was indeed the right thing to do — and months later, that remains to be the case.
We found the Shanghai way of life and all its “Shanghai-isms” wonderfully strange and funny at the start and we quickly settled in to seeing people asleep in the oddest of places and entire Metro carriages glued to their telephones as we wandered the new streets around where we now call “home.” The food, traffic and chaos on the streets as people cross the roads in droves all quickly became a part of what we deal with every day, and we as a family are lucky that we see this as something exciting and adventurous.
Yet for some, particularly the younger people in our lives, a move to a major new city and all that comes hand-in-hand with it can be a daunting culture shock indeed.
Outside of the classroom; the movement, the noise and volume of everyday life can be daunting. Add to the mix the idea of moving to a new home, making new friends and starting over … that must be an unimaginable challenge to a young person! This is one of the many reasons why schools, and the classrooms in them, are crucial to life becoming normal and a reason why Harrow International School actually takes the idea of being a “community” and a “family” to heart.
Harrow students are more than just the kids in the classroom. Yes, our lessons provide a consistent and worthy challenge — my English students know their lesson will be a fun but tough one (yet the same can be said for all of the lessons in their day) — but in order to make life, and the culture shock it can provide, all the more manageable, we go that little bit further for them. We see them throughout the day: In the morning as they arrive, in the corridors, whilst out-and-about on duty, we eat with them, we coach their sports teams, and we see them off home safely. Our feedback is personal and genuine and regular to both the students and their parents, and this extra mile helps our students feel wanted, settled and important.
Growing up I thought my teachers were something else, indeed my English teacher inspired me to do what I do today and my hope was to be half the teacher he was. I look around at Harrow and see that our students have these qualities in every teacher. Culture shock? With a team like this behind them, what have our students got to worry about?
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