China to Client, Personal Statement Example

China can be divided into two different styles of learning. The children of China’s inner core receive an education better than what is received by their peers in the United States. Tests conducted in 2012 by the National Education Association suggested that Chinese children outscored children from the United States in every subject. But China also harbors a huge population of migrant workers. The children of these migrant workers are placed into schools lacking teachable materials with teachers who cannot match the teaching abilities of their own peers. The population of stable Chinese citizens is remaining static. However, migrant workers are entering China’s cities in large volumes, with additional new Chinese workers showing up during each school year. According to the National People’s Congress (2010) migrant workers and their children will soon outnumber 3:1 China’s professional communities.

I am not seeking Massachusetts state licensure or for that matter, teaching credentials from any other state. Being a foreign educator especially in working with adults who wish to become bilingual (Chinese and English), I am especially interested in comparing and contrasting many of the different educational theorists who have had an impact on public education in the United States. With that knowledge, I would like to return to China and apply some of those educational theories there so that I may help to close the educational divide present, and enlarging, in mainland China.

Names that stand out worldwide as the great educational theorists include George Counts, John Dewey, Henry Giroux and Maria Montessori. Based upon his own work but strongly influenced by John Dewey, Counts believed in the building of a social order. Counts believed that for education to succeed teachers needed to help students see how and where their teachings would fit into the greatest part of society. Counts promulgated the logic that education is not distinct per the pupil but varies according to the needs of the community, thus accounting for his concept of new social orders. Counts was preceded and influenced by the theories of John Dewey. It was Dewey who, while he attended the University of Chicago, created his empirically based theory of knowledge. Henry Giroux is the creator of critical pedagogy, the theory of creating “unlearning” and “relearning”. He taught connecting knowledge to power and developing the ability to take constructive action. Maria Montessori started her career by supervising low income students. Through her observations she discovered that students learned more though simple, repetitive movements and by seeking knowledge to those things they found personally interesting instead of by gaining knowledge through the rote learning exercises that have been used in public education for many years. Montessori’s principles have been accepted by educators in several different countries and are still in-use today.

As a foreign student I have little ability to grasp the above described learning by attending classes in China. By attending your institution, I will have greater in-detail learning which can be learned from highly qualified professors. After garnering this high quality education I want very much to return to China where I can put my new education to use benefitting China’s huge immigrant population.

Application Committee

University of Massachusetts, Boston

Department of Education & Learning, Master’s Degree Program

Although I am a Chinese born foreign citizen, with the education and training I already received at the University of Massachusetts—Boston, I have earned a degree in English. I want to continue my education, earning a Master’s Degree in Education. I understand that most of my classmates will be matriculating with the intent of earning their teacher’s license, whether in Massachusetts or another state. Armed with their credentials they can they embark upon a teaching career—that which has been called the most honorable profession in the world.

I could easily follow the sane pursuits and earn my teaching credentials in one state or another. However, when one considers the huge chasm in education in China because of those individualized with social qualities and those who compose our huge migrant workforce, it is easily understandable why I want to take what I have learned back with me to China.

Attached are two letters of references, the first from the Manager of the Documentation Department at Shinyway Education, and the second from Shu Junhua, the administrator of the Shenzhen Luohu Foreign Languages School. Both of these individuals attest to my abilities, in the Chinese language arts as well as my dedication to detail while maintaining a strict timeframe for completion of assignments. While these skills alone do not necessarily attest for my abilities to matriculate toward a master’s degree, they are the characteristics that most professors seek from their students.

Obviously, the requirements for hiring qualified instructors vary from one institution to another, and certainly, from one country to another. This being said, for the last three years to the present I have been teaching the Chinese language to online students through an employment agreement with Shenzhen University. Although distant from them and from my students, online instruction is now a reality, regardless of where the instructor is located in correlation to the locale of her students. In addition to instructing online students in the Chinese language I am also providing online instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) to other online students. The university administrators by which I am employed have found me to be an outstanding instructor, although it is my personal feeling that these characteristics would be personally enhanced by completing the Master of Education Program in Education/Learning, Teaching, and Educational Transformation (non-licensure) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

China does not have a real time certification system for foreign born teachers, regardless of nationality.  As long as they can display to hiring officials a reasonable understanding of the English language, they are usually hired to work in China’s schools as well as in many of China’s local business enterprises. It is not difficult for many of these below par teachers to eventually elevate themselves to becoming heads of schools themselves. Many of China’s foreign language schools are poorly run institutions which will quickly hire unqualified teachers as long as these teachers can create a rapport with their students, the result being that these students keep coming back for more education and paying greater sums of tuition.

I understand and am fully aware of the recent American economic meltdown. Huge sums of Chinese money have helped, or at least provided a stopgap, in the American economy. In the last few decades the United States and other world powers have helped China to raise its own economy. China now ships their products worldwide, although the vast majority of Chinese are employed at salaries that would equal only a few cents per day in American currency.

Time and time again I have witnessed many students who, when they graduate college “plan on turning the world upside-down.” While many of their plans may be realistic, when the reality of simply earning a living while sometimes providing for a new family sets-in, those plans go askew. In my case, I too want to change the world. I believe that adequately prepared and armed with well-recognized credentials I can drastically change the educational venues presently in existence in China. Among the stable social classes in China schools are very difficult when compared to American schools. Schools operate several hours each day; children as young as five years old begin their school days as early as 7:00 AM, getting released from school as late as 11 hours later, and loaded with homework. The reason behind this difficult schooling is because, unlike in the United States, students who do poorly in their education, have no chance whatsoever to proper as adults. Migrant workers’ children have no chance at furthering their education, thus, they will never be a part of the global community in any occupation above that of the most menial tasks.

Upon earning my master’s degree, whether or not I can “turn the world upside-down” remains to be seen. But I can see three avenues in China’s education community that I want to personally become involved in.

First, although I want the Chinese upper-class to succeed in their education, I want to reduce the strenuous educational levels which many students face. As part of this I also want to make sure that our migrant workers have equal opportunity to continue their education and perhaps someday, as a direct result of personal learning, break out of China’s lower social class. These strenuous workloads exist at all levels of Chinese education. It was suggested by the Chinese government (2012) that if university class loads are huge, schools can make the greatest profits. Indeed, schooling in China or in any country should be to ensure that the nation’s citizenry is most successful, not simply as a way to make more money for the institution.

Second, I want to create a real credentialing program for all teachers in China, including those who come to China to teach ESL programs but are not really qualified to be teaching.Although these schools and their personnel make money, nobody really learns. This kind of education is nothing but a sham.

Third, I would like to eventually complete a doctorate in education so that I can teach in a regionally accredited university here in the United States. My goal is to teach Chinese studies to both foreign and American students, helping them to help others bring China into a full-spectrum global economy.

In summary, I see myself as a teacher and hope to acquire that training at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Uniquely, I am not interested in credentialing to become a teacher in the United States. The theorists discussed in the beginning of this document, while not necessarily Americans themselves found their way into how American education is being taught. Granted, not every American who attends school is successful, but American education offers that ability to find personal success to any individual who will do the assignments necessary. Americans are not held back in society because schooling is not afforded to them because of social class. Although Chinese education may produce better grades than American education, everyone in the United States has a chance to succeed—unlike Chinese education where only a small population is allowed success. It is my interest—my goal—to use what I learn through American schooling to help the people of China to attain similar academic advantages.