Delegation from Catholic High School, Singapore Visit Our School on Teachers’ Day

Early in September, on China’s 42^nd Teachers’ Day, our school welcomed visitors from a long way off, a delegation of teachers from Catholic High School, Singapore.

At nine on the morning of September 10, the delegation arrived, led by Catholic High School’s Principal, Mr. Zheng Yuanzhuang. Waiting to greet them were Hong Yanfen, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee and Vice Principal of our school; Zhang Wei, Director of the Academic Affairs Office; Guo Hongwei, Director of the International Division; Zhang Yingbo, Deputy Director of the General Affairs Office; and Lai Yin, Deputy Director of the International Division. Greetings were exchanged, and it took no time at all for the conversation to start flowing.

The roundtable opened with remarks from Vice Principal Hong and Principal Zheng, who each walked their counterparts through their school’s history, where it stands today, and what it does best. Neither principal had seen the other’s script, yet both closed on the same wish, which is to understand each other better and to build a friendship that lasts.

A short film then gave the delegation a closer look at our school and its International Division. After that, the conversation turned to the substance of the day. Zhang Wei sat down with two of Catholic High School’s curriculum directors, He Shuli and Pan Zaihao, to take up two questions – what a curriculum should look like now that AI is here and how AI is used in the classroom. On opportunities and risks that artificial intelligence brings to education, neither side held back. The discussion moved from redesigning curricula to what happens in a lesson, the technology itself to what education is ultimately for. Views were exchanged freely, and more than one idea was tested rather than simply traded.

The session ended with Principal Hong and Principal Zheng exchanging gifts on behalf of their schools. A gift is never just a gift. The gifts carried beautiful hopes along the long way to go hand in hand.

From the meeting room, the delegation went straight into a classroom for a bilingual, bicultural demonstration lesson built around one question – “Can robots learn to be more human?” They rated it highly. The lesson, they said, held a frontier view of technology and a deep concern for the human person in the same frame, and it showed them, far better than any presentation could, what classroom lessons are like and what the school is trying to do for its students.

A tour of the campus followed. A great deal had happened in half a day. The visit on Teachers’ Day gave the occasion an added resonance. The spirit of the educator is kept alive precisely here, in openness and exchange of this kind. As AI reshapes what education looks like, the conversation between a school in China and a school in Singapore was at once a shared answer to the question of our time and a window onto what each side can learn from the other. May the first meeting be a good start of a long-lasting collaboration between the two schools. Our school looks forward to productive results from teachers and students visiting each other, developing curricula jointly and holding seminars on teaching as well as to a friendship in education that travels across distance, lasts long and stays fresh.