Abstract
James J. Doughty College of Education Central State University Wilberforce, Ohio D uring the month of June, 1978, thirty American educators, official guests of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, visited eight major cities and two rural communes. We observed schools at all levels, participated in some classroom activities, and had lengthy dialogues with leading members of the Ministry of Education, Pu Tung-Hsiu, vice minister of education and several members of the Shanghai Education Bureau. We visited a geographical cross-section of schools. The diversity of group interests gave us an opportunity to experience the vitality and texture of Chinese life and culture. Considerable time was spent at T'ien An-Men Square, Chairman Mao's Mausoleum, the Feng Shang Neighborhood Committee, the Central Institute of National Minorities, the Great Wall of China, the Ming Tombs, a performance of the Shenyang Acrobatic Troupe, a Korean Nationalities Commune, the Peking Zoo, the Summer Palace, Yenan-the birthplace of the Chinese Revolution, the Pan P'o Museum, the Plum Hill Project, the Yangtze River Bridge, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, the Shanghai International Gymnastic Meet, and a basketball game between China and Senegal. Chinese people seem to be hard working, dedicated, peace loving, friendly, and future-oriented. They value life-long learning opportunities, leisure time activities, and the continuation of strong family units. These impressions of Chinese education are limited to the small part of China we visited. However, we did see programmatic models of what education had been, is, and will be in the not too distant future. The thoughts of Julius K. Nyerere in Education for Self-Reliance seem to embrace the essence of the Chinese educational experience. President Nyerere says:
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