Moses Lake teacher travels to China

MOSES LAKE - Samantha Myers' trip of a lifetime this summer was more than just a vacation.

Her trip to China was part of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia's (NCTA) effort to provide more dynamic education about Asia in elementary and secondary classrooms around the country.

Myers, who teaches seventh-grade math and history at Chief Moses Middle School, first heard of the NCTA when they began offering seminars through the North Central Educational Service District.

NCTA offered seminars in western Washington, but began offering seminars in Wenatchee during the 2009-2010 school year, says Myers. About 40 teachers participated with her, including educators from Moses Lake, Ephrata, Omak and Cashmere.

That seminar proved immediately useful, as Myers built curriculum based on the Samurai for her students.

"Samurai was such a huge part of Japanese history that I chose to focus on them and from NCTA they have an extensive list of educational material you can purchase to enhance your curriculum," she said. The NCTA gives the teachers money to purchase those materials.

While the Samurai were hired mercenaries, they also developed their own culture characterized by writing haiku and performing their tea ceremony.

"They were more than just a warrior," says Myers.

After attending the seminar, Myers learned of the NCTA's study tours, which send teachers to Asian countries to soak up the culture there firsthand.

Teachers across the U.S., several from the Moses Lake School District, applied for one of a limited number of spots for the trip.

"It was more of an honor that out of hundreds of people, only 14 of us managed to be chosen," says Myers.

The teachers left June 28 and spent two weeks in China. A professor with NCTA provided background on significant historical sites and the teachers learned much about the country's past and future.

Historical museums illuminated much of the country's history, including giving Myers a better of understanding of Mao Zedong's overall role in the Chinese Revolution.

"We know Mao is a big leader for the cultural revolution," she says. "When you started going through the martyr's museum, you realize Mao was really a minor character in a whole revolution, but then became the head figure."

The nation's differences and similarities to the United States stood out to Myers, she says.

At the Great Wall of China, she saw illegal aliens climb the wall to sell goods, reminiscent of the border between the U.S. and Mexico, she says.

She also saw how economic conditions affect the way people live in China's cities.

"They have a lot of people moving into the main cities of Beijing and Shanghai because of the economy," she says. "You would see, daily, people carrying all their belongings in the subway and you would see families there. But when they do that, they're no longer eligible for healthcare or education if they were not given prior approval by the government to actually move within the country."

A common sight around the city was people collecting recyclable items, such as water bottles or the remains of demolished buildings, they could turn in for money.

"You saw that in the subway," she says. "When a plastic drinking bottle has a five cent deposit on it, there are people that have sections of the subway and are grabbing those out of the garbage, or you hand it to them, as their way to make a living. ... It's a little subculture that's developed as a way to make a living in the economy."

Myers hopes to incorporate what she's learned firsthand into her seventh grade history curriculum, which focuses on the Middle Ages and includes the history of China and Japan during that time period, she says.

"Part of what I really want to get through to students is how long their history is, that you're sitting in Tiananmen Square that was built in the 1400s," she says. "Almost everything, everything we've gone to and almost everything you see (in China), is older than the whole U.S. as a country."

Understanding the nation's governmental changes is also an important part of the curriculum, she says.

"They've gone from an imperial to a communist type of government control," she says. "And now they're also moving into more of a free market, where not everybody's guaranteed a job anymore, so that would also be part of the curriculum, how they're changing as a government."

The nation's prominent role in the world is another reason it's important for her students to learn about China, she says.

"The importance is how dominant they are in the world right now and how connected the U.S. is, because they have so much of our debt," she says. "We're tied to them and at the same time, they're tied to us, because they need our economy to sell their goods. So they're in a position - we're both in a position - that we need to really have a friendly relationship with them."

For more information on the NCTA, visit www.nctasia.org.