Educators get passport to learning on China trip
Invited to participate in an upcoming educational forum in China, Libertyville High School Principal Brad Swanson was ecstatic about the opportunity.
He had a problem, however: His passport wasn't valid.
"Mine had expired," he said.
Luckily, Swanson was able to renew his travel papers in time, and this Friday he'll head to China for the gathering.
Swanson will be among about 80 administrators and teachers from English-speaking nations participating in the event, which will run Sunday through Nov. 10 and is sponsored by China's education ministry.
Other delegates from Illinois include: Mundelein High school Deputy Superintendent/Principal John Ahlgrim; Thomas O'Rourke, the principal at Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights; and Audrey Haugan, the principal at Maine West High School in Des Plaines.
Administrators from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia also are attending.
The Chinese organizers are picking up the participants' costs, other than airfare. Those expenses are being covered by the principal's budgets, which typically include money for seminars, they said.
Ahlgrim called the conference an exceptional opportunity that could help the participants prepare children for a global future.
"Their world is so much smaller than ours was," said Ahlgrim, who's never been to China. "They're used to this idea of a global community."
The local representatives were invited to attend by the American Association of School Administrators, a Virginia-based professional group. The third-annual forum of its kind, it will be held in Jiangsu Province, which is in eastern China near Shanghai.
The theme of the forum is "Cooperating with Chinese Schools." Participating educators will meet with Chinese high school administrators and talk about their methods, global education and curriculum reform, among other topics.
"It'll be an opportunity to network and share ideas in a worldwide fashion," Swanson said.
Swanson hopes the conference will lead to student and teacher exchanges between China and the United States.
Ahlgrim is most eager to learn how schools in other countries balance national education requirements, such as the United States' No Child Left Behind mandates, with meeting the needs of individual students.
"It'll be interesting for me to see how their principals view that," he said.
Thomas's O'Rourke is the only suburban delegate who's attended the Chinese forum before. He went last year with Arlington Heights School District 25 Superintendent Sarah Jerome and board President Dan Petro.
This time he's bringing two teachers, Jill Haase and Eileen Stocco.
O'Rourke expects the first-time visitors will be surprised by the Chinese school system.
"We're going to see state-of-the-art facilities and some really rigorous schooling," he said.