School Schedule

Like many other things, the daily schedule of Chinese schools is rather different from their American counterparts. While students arrive around the same time, the Chinese kids stay at school much later. The trade off, however, is that the Chinese munchkins get an hour and forty minute lunch/rest break. I spent a pretty long time translating the schedule into English for your enjoyment, so without any further adieu here it is.

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6:50 Wake up call
7:00-7:10 Wash face and brush teeth
7:10-7:20 Early Morning Exercises
7:20-7:40 Breakfast for Boarding Students

**Commuting students begin to filter in**

7:45-8:00 Breakfast
8:00-8:20 Monday Flag Raising
8:20 Prepare for class
8:25-9:05 Period 1
9:15-9:55 Period 2
9:55-10:20 Morning Exercises
10:20-11:00 Period 3
11-11:05 Eye Exercises
11:15-11:55 (Junior 1 and 2) Period 4
11:15-12:05 (Junior 3) Period 4
11:55-12:35 (Junior 1 and 2) Lunch
12:05-12:50 (Junior 3) Lunch
12:50-1:20 Noon break *
1:20 Prepare for class *
1:25-1:40 Time to read newspapers aloud, sing, and share school news *
1:45-2:25 Period 5
2:35-3:15 Period 6
3:15-3:20 Eye Exercises
3:30-4:10 Period 7
4:20-5:00 Period 8 (After class students are responsible for tidying up their classrooms, including taking out the garbage, realigning the desks, and sweeping the floor.)

**Commuting students begin to filter out**

5:30-6:00 Dinner
6:40-7:00 Evening Reading time
7:10-7:50 Self study period 1
8:00-8:40 Self study period 2
9:30 Get into bed and lights out

*It seems that boarding students and students who live close to the school are permitted to skip these activities to either nap in their dorms or eat lunch at home with their parents. (Lucky kids – the cafeteria food is barely edible.)

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Chinese teachers are required to be at school between 8:00am and 5:00pm. Because my sitemate and I are “VIPs”, we are permitted to come and go as we please as long as we’re present and prepared to teach our classes. It's a good deal.

Can you even imagine having such a schedule like this one in the US? I'd like to see it tried.