Teaching Tuesday

In an attempt to fully round out my experience of living in China (during my time here, I've worked at a multi-national corporation, I've gone back to school, and I've freelanced), I decided to volunteer. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while; even before landing in Shanghai, I thought volunteering could be a great way to spend a few hours of the week.

After reaching out to a few different organizations, I was most impressed with Stepping Stones. They seemed well run and well established, and were the most responsive to my requests for more information. Stepping Stones places volunteer English speakers in the classrooms of Shanghai's migrant schools.

Let me explain. Shanghai has a population of approximately 23 million (!), 9 million of whom are migrant workers and their families -- Chinese who leave their rural hometowns in search for better, higher-paying jobs in the big cities (they're usually the housekeepers, the waitresses, the construction workers). As such, they have little to no access to social benefits (medical care and welfare services), living conditions aren't great, and education for their children (about 500,000 according to the latest stats) is substandard. Here's more from Stepping Stones:



So today was my first day. With 50+ kids to a classroom, it was chaotic. And noisy. And exhausting. All I wanted to do after coming home was kick up my feet with a large glass of wine and cheers teachers all over the world. The kids' lesson of the day: head, shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes). Mine: boys making paper airplanes in the backs of classrooms aren't unique to the States.