School's Out for Summer

Last week, Julie and I finished up a four-week stint teaching summer school. During the first two-wek session, the program had 400 hundred students; during the second two-week session we've had over 600 students.

Schools in Hong Kong fall into several catagories. ICS is an international school. Around here, non-international schools are simply refered to as local schools. By extension, we refer to non-ICS students as local kids. This identifies them not only as attendees at a local school, but the assumption is that they are from families that generally do not hold international passports, don't necessarily speak English at home, and probably have not lived overseas for any length of time.

Our summer school program was dominated by local students. The summer school program gives families who don't send their kids here during the school year an opportunity to expose their children to an English-language program taught by English-speaking, certified teachers. It's also a Christian-based curriculum which is a draw for many of the families.

Although our program is open to students up to fourteen years of age, the vast majority of our summer school students are four-, five-, and six-year olds. We were overrun with little ones this summer. Since I teach middle school during the school year, it was fun for me to have interactions with the little ones every day. They're so tiny. And cute.

The program started out very modestly just eight years ago but it has grown beyond anyone's expectations. As much as the school would like to accept everyone who applies, they end up turning away students every summer.

It's amazing what happens when you offer a product or a service that people want at a price they are willing to pay.

Even in education.

-Jack