PHS Friday Letter

In class, however, we’re in the midst of our examination of some entirely different but equally fascinating historical periods: Imperial China and Feudal Japan. We started our study of ancient China with an examination of its most prominent artifact, the Great Wall. The Great Wall is, in many ways, a metaphor for the attitudes of Imperial China towards the outside world. We were fortunate enough to have Trevor visit our class and show us a narrated slideshow of his own recent travels to China; the personal stories of one of their teachers gave the sixth graders an even more genuine connection to what can seem a very far-off place.

As part of this unit, we continually compare China to Rome. During one class I pointed out how the Roman empire, when it encountered new cultures, chose to conquer them; the Chinese, however, chose to wall themselves off from outside influence. Upon realizing this, many students noticed aspects of both these attitudes in how they perceive the U.S. currently reacts to other nations. As the year progresses, I see and enjoy these moments with increasing frequency, as sixth graders begin to see the comparisons between seemingly ancient history and the society in which they live.

As part of our unit on East Asia, we are reading a selection of contemporary short stories written about what it was like to grow up Asian-American, as well as a work of historical fiction entitled Bound, about a young Chinese girl of the imperial period who witnesses the practice of foot-binding. Suggested by Lisa J., this book is an excellent entry into an examination of the lives of women in ancient China, a group about which there is woefully little in the historical record and modern textbooks alike.

This Saturday, many of the middle school teachers will be on campus interviewing prospective students for the fall of this year. Many of the current sixth graders have volunteered as “admissions buddies” over the course of the year as these prospective students have visited PHS, and I am continually impressed with how welcoming, enthusiastic, and caring our students are towards these relative strangers. There are a host of excellent middle schools in this city, but none quite like Presidio Hill—and the kids I teach every day are one of the most important reasons why.

Mike Orlando