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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Chinese
Principal Ren Yan poses for a photo with first-grader Katie LaReau at
St. Louis de Montfort School in Fishers. (Photos by Caroline B. Mooney) |
 From
left are translator Amy Hsien, Principal Ren Yan, Jerome LaReau with
daughter Katie, and St. Louis de Montfort Principal Annette Jones and
Assistant Principal Gail Harpold. |
By Caroline B. Mooney
The
Catholic Moment
FISHERS — “Cheese!”
When the student body of St. Louis de Montfort School yelled at Ren Yan before a photo opportunity at an assembly Nov. 20, the Chinese middle school principal looked shocked. Then, she burst into laughter.
Among experiences in American culture, she discovered a marked dislike of cheese, and enjoyed having the students tease her.
Ren visited the school Nov. 15-20 on her first trip to America. She works at Shenyang No. 22 Middle School in Liaoning Province in northeast China, between Mongolia and North Korea.
St. Louis de Montfort Principal Annette Jones applied to the Principal Shadowing Project of the China Exchange Initiative, and her school was one of seven in Indiana selected to participate. It is funded by a grant from the Freeman Foundation to develop educational exchange programs between schools in the United States and China. In 2007, Jones participated in a similar exchange with a principal from Finland.
Ren’s Hoosier experiences included:
• visiting classrooms to answer questions about Chinese culture and delivering birthday balloons to St. Louis de Montfort students;
• meeting with teachers to discuss curricula;
• touring Indianapolis to see Monument Circle, Lucas Oil Stadium, St. John’s Catholic Church, the Indiana State Museum and Tea Room, Circle Center Mall, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Conseco Field House;
• shopping at a supermarket where she saw avocados for the first time;
• eating at Cheeseburger in Paradise;
• meeting administrators at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis;
• attending a St. Louis de Montfort School open house and meeting parents; and
• attending a luncheon with the six other Chinese principals who visited Indiana.
While in Fishers, Ren stayed with Jones’ family, then went to the home of Jerome and Jenni LaReau. Their daughter, Katie, is a first-grader at St. Louis de Montfort.
The LaReaus served Ren a traditional Thanksgiving meal, and she in turn cooked Chinese pancakes with sausage, onion and cabbage for dinner.
“I liked having her at home,” Katie LaReau said. “I learned all the parts of the face in Chinese and I liked the meal she made. She was really nice and gave us jade bracelets and a Chinese ornament.”
Through a translator, Amy Hsien, Ren said that the biggest difference between Chinese and American students is that “students here are more outgoing. They are always curious and willing to ask questions very easily. They express themselves; you don’t see that in Chinese students. They are very shy.”
“Ren just lit up in the classrooms and was totally in control,” said Gail Harpold, assistant principal at St. Louis de Montfort School. “The emotion of our students really affected her. She wants to change herself.”
“Chinese students have a very intense workload,” Ren said. “The students here have more chance to interact with each other. American schools pay more attention to students and care more. I think St. Louis de Montfort School is filled with love. Annette, Gail and the teachers care so much about their students — I can feel the love and I hope the students feel it.
“My students would envy those here because the school is smaller,” she said.
Ren has 2,500 students in her schools with approximately 40 students per class and 242 teachers. The school day lasts from 7:40 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. Schools have one month off each summer and 1½ months off in the winter.
“Chinese teachers are responsible for everything, including the behavior of their students,” she said. Her teachers rotate between rooms while the students stay in fixed classrooms.
“I think the whole experience was more than we have ever imagined,” Jones said. “Our staff was wonderful in embracing Ren and making her feel welcome. A highlight was having Amy translate — it gave us consistency. Everything just fell into place and the whole experience felt seamless, like it was supposed to happen. Our prep work in the classrooms helped give the students background about China. I think our students and their parents got a lot from the week.
“I felt anticipation while waiting to meet Ren at the airport, but after meeting as strangers, we left as friends,” she said. “I really look forward to seeing her in China, at her school and her home.”
Ren particularly enjoyed drinking sweet tea in Indiana, and found turkey and strawberry shortcake to be favorite American foods. She noted that the weather is warmer in Indiana than in China, and there is more open space in homes and in cities.
St. Louis de Montfort eighth-grader Lauren Miskis said she liked it when Ren came in during art class. “She helped us with Chinese symbols while we were working on calligraphy.”
Classmate Nick Macke said he “enjoyed seeing the differences between their culture and ours. She hasn’t seen some of the food that we are used to every day.”
Kevin Feller, another eighth-grader, liked it when Ren came into math class and “took videos of our math equations. She seemed bewildered by it, because Chinese math is so different than ours.”
Third-grader Luke Mattingly said listening to Ren talk “was kind of cool. It was also cool to have the Chinese flag up at our school. I learned a lot about China.”
Ren took photos everywhere she went. She plans to make a scrapbook to present to Jones when she visits Shenyang No. 22 Middle School.
Jones will be in China April 12-25, 2010.
She will start her trip in Beijing attending workshops on Chinese education, the role of a Chinese principal, curriculum, teacher preparation, professional education and the Chinese exam system. She will then shadow Ren at the middle school and visit Chinese elementary schools.