Four teachers' Chinese Adventure

As if riding a zip line off the Great Wall over water weren’t enough, there was always snacking on fried scorpions to get the four Bellmore-Merrick teachers’ hearts racing. The women also played beach volleyball, climbed mountains, visited ancient monasteries, studied Confucianist philosophy and learned a little Mandarin on their three-week journey across China this summer.

Now the educators -- Beth Borzone, a Calhoun High School social studies teacher; Christine Milack, a Grand Avenue Middle School English teacher; Julia Motley, a Grand Avenue math teacher; and Geisha Rodriguez, a social studies teacher in the Meadowbrook Alternative Program -- are incorporating the many lessons they learned in the world’s fourth-largest nation into their curricula.

Their trip was sponsored by the China Institute of America, a nonprofit group based in New York that promotes Chinese culture, and the Freeman Foundation, which offers grants to nonprofit organizations.

Sixteen teachers from across the U.S. made the whirlwind journey across China, which had participants stopping off in eight cities, including the capital, Beijing, and the country’s primary commerce center, Shanghai.

The Bellmore-Merrick educators’ journey began in 2008, when Dr. Henry Kiernan, the Central High School District superintendent, alerted teachers to courses offered by the China Institute. Kiernan, a three-time Fulbright scholar who has studied in China, deemed it important that Bellmore-Merrick teachers dig deeper into the nation that is rapidly emerging as the world’s next great superpower.

In February, the women spent a week learning about the county at the China Institute’s headquarters in Manhattan, after which they were invited to study in China. For four adventurous souls, it was a dream realized.

Though the trip wasn’t without fun and games, this was no leisurely excursion. The teachers were there to study under a college professor. Each of the women said they were reading and writing whenever they had a free moment in their hotel rooms, and even on the bus en route from destination to destination. They had numerous reports to file about their findings.

Motley said, “A lot of times, China has a lot of negativity associated with it,” in part because of its one-child policy to control overpopulation, and because it remains one of the world’s few communist countries. But Motley said she believes China is no longer a communist nation, as defined by Chairman Mao Zedong, but rather a socialist country where “capitalism is everywhere.”

All four teachers said their Chinese hosts were gracious, and the country, despite its pollution problems, is beautiful, even breathtaking. They especially liked that teachers are “revered” there.

The women agreed that a highlight of their trip was a visit to the Great Wall, a series of stone-and-mortar fortifications stretching for 5,500 miles, built between 500 B.C. and 1500 A.D. to protect the nation from invaders. “You read about it, hear about it, but to be there, it was just a tremendous feeling,” said Rodriguez. “It was built by hand. People died there. It served a purpose. Just being there was to be a part of history.”

Borzone said she was especially pleased that all of the 16 teachers involved shared lesson plan ideas. “I learned so much just being around other teachers,” she said. “It was so great to be with such motivated, professional teachers.”

And no, Milack said, the teachers did not live off fried scorpions the entire time. “The food was fantastic,” she said -- served family-style on a Lazy Susan in the center of the table. “We never had the same dish twice.”

Rodriguez summed up the trip this way: “For me, it was just great to be able to say, ‘I was there.’”