I spent the Christmas of 1998 in Wuhan, working as an English teacher. Everyone has heard of this Chinese city now, thanks to coronavirus, but back then the name meant nothing to much of the world. My knowledge was certainly scant when I arrived in February of that year. Nothing could have prepared me for the heat and humidity of a Wuhan summer, and the odour of fermented tofu deep-frying outside the university gates at 7am certainly took a while to get used to. Ten months later, however, I’d got…
Tag: Teaching
Hong Kong to restructure primary education to make it more ‘patriotic’
Hong Kong is to introduce “patriotic” education in all primary schools by 2025, in the government’s latest push to “systematically cultivate” a sense of national identity among schoolchildren Under the new framework, primary school pupils are expected to learn about national security and will also be taught about the opium war and Japan’s invasion of China, two key events in Beijing’s narrative of a “century of humiliation”, which it pushes as a reason for nationalism. Students will also learn about significant Chinese historical figures and national achievements under the leadership…
Karen Clarke obituary
My wife, Karen Clarke, who has died of cancer aged 60, was a special needs teacher who improved the lives of scores of marginalised young people in south London. Her lessons, influenced by her earlier life as an archaeologist, translator, marketing consultant and cookery book author, were inspirational; and it was this work, and her output as a writer, that gave her a true feeling that she had made a positive and lasting contribution. Karen was born in Fareham, Hampshire. Her parents had met in Hong Kong; her father, Basil…