Developing relations

A grant is being sought to bring two Chinese teachers to Jay Schools classrooms next year.
Superintendent Tim Long said he is applying to The College Board to support the project, which would be an expansion of an exchange program launched in the past few years.
Currently, He Yan Xin is teaching Chinese language skills, history and culture at West Jay Middle School. Roughly half of her pay comes from The College Board and the balance comes from the Jay School Corporation. The College Board is a non-profit association that, among other things, conducts the SAT test for students going on to college.
Long said next year’s project, if approved, would not exceed this year’s total local financial commitment.
Meanwhile, there’s the possibility of an exchange teacher from Taiwan. “The Taiwan embassy contacted me,” said Long.
The superintendent has visited China twice and has established a sister school relationship between Jay County High School and Anshan Angang Senior High School in Anshan, China. The county has hosted two delegations from China — a group of students and a group of teachers — and Jay Schools sent a delegation of teachers to China last spring.
Long said another group, including four students and seven teachers, is planning to visit China in 2011.
Long believes the exchange program makes sense both educationally and in terms of economic development, and local business leaders working with China agree.
“It gives Jay County credibility,” said Dru Hall of SDP Manufacturing, Dunkirk. The company has recently contracted with a dealer in China for its utility pole placement equipment.
Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier said the Jay Schools China initiative came up twice in discussions with Chinese officials during his recent Asian trip with Gov. Mitch Daniels and a delegation from Indiana.
“It had a very favorable and, I think, somewhat surprised reaction” from the Chinese, Hosier said. “It was a real positive. What’s a stronger connection than through education?”
“I understand why (the school China initiative) is thought to be a priority,” said Dave Lowe of Solar Ag Systems, a part of Fort Recovery Construction and Equipment, Portland. Lowe was among the businessmen in the Hoosier delegation.
Hall said both the school corporation and Hosier played significant roles in establishing SDP’s relationships in China. “It’s really making it a lot easier for us.”
It’s still unclear how U.S.-China economic relations are going to play out over the next several years. SDP, for example, hopes to sell its products there, while Solar Ag Systems hopes to see manufacturing of some components move from China to the U.S.
“The U.S. is a target for their products,” said Lowe. “They want to be here. The companies we did speak to, they were planning to have plants in the U.S. … We were trying to encourage folks I was already doing business with to look at the U.S. … I want them to make it here.”
Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley isn’t convinced that this country will see anything like the Japanese investment in American manufacturing that occurred in the past 30 years.
“I don’t see a massive wave of Chinese companies coming over here and establishing facilities,” said Bradley. “Fifteen years down the road that may change.”
Still, said Bradley, the impact of the Chinese economy on today’s high school students will be comparable to the impact the Japanese economy had on American Baby Boomers.
And both Lowe and Long point to China’s role as a consumer of American agricultural products as a key part of the picture.
“China is the largest consumer of soybeans on the planet,” said Long. “They don’t make corn, and they can’t copy corn.”
“If their government and our government don’t screw it up, there’s a huge market for our commodities,” said Lowe.
Long also points out that the China initiative is only one of several international programs. Jay County students are involved in exchange and travel programs in Germany, Italy, and Japan. And a robotics team from Mexico may be competing in Jay County at a meet next year.
“I see a relationship between the schools and economic development,” said Long. “And what’s the downside? If there’s no development, it’s still good for global education. If one contract is landed because of good school relationships, that’s good.”
“Any time you can give our kids the advantage of rubbing up against another culture, it will broaden that student’s perspective on the world,” said Bradley.[[In-content Ad]]