Students from China Take Home a Taste of Oskaloosa

Carl Drost welcomes students from China to John Deere implement store. He gave each student an opportunity to drive a tractor as part of their visit.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Traveling halfway around the world ending up in Oskaloosa, Iowa may seem strange for some, but a group of middle school students from China did just that.

“Welcome. Welcome to all of you,” said Carl Drost, with Van Wall Equipment to the students as they gathered around inside the implement dealership.

Drost and another employee took each student out in a tractor, where not only did they get a chance to see and ride in some big green machines, the students got an opportunity to take the wheel for themselves.

The group is part of an ongoing cultural and educational exchange between Oskaloosa and the Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China.

“We are continuing our exchange with our sister school and sharing experiences, sharing and learning. It’s getting better and better all the time,” said Oskaloosa Middle School Principal Andy Hotek.

“Our host families have learned so much,” explained Hotek.

One difference this year was the addition of “ambassadors” or OMS students ,”so that more of our students get to share in the experience.”

Students from China will spend the day with their ambassador going to class, eating lunch together, “basically just make friends.”

“It’s been a lot of fun watching the students interact, and they’re teaching each other, each others’ languages,” added Hotek.

Making global friends and learning about each others’ culture is a benefit that host families take away from the experience of hosting a student.

The ultimate goal of the exchange between the sister schools is “to share mutual understanding and experiences around education, so our teachers and their teachers will learn instructional practices and how students learn best,” says Hotek. “Build friendships.”

There’s no denying that the United States and China have differences in governance, but for the teachers and students of OMS and China. Hotek said there haven’t been many obstacles to overcome with the differences. “The hospitality we’ve received while we’ve been in China has just been wonderful.”

Visa applications are the primary obstacles that are overcome when visits are planned.

Hotek said that he’s not witnessed any censorship issues during his experiences. “We’ve heard from our teacher friends that we are more free to speak our minds. They’ve noticed that.”

“They didn’t say we can’t do that”, said Hotek of the China visitors.

Students also noticed that school in China is more “regimented” where a teacher may have as many as 60 students, while in America, the teacher to student ratio is approximately 1 to 20. “That management piece during the class period is much more regimented or strict”, explained Hotek. “When you’re managing 60 kids, there’s not much room for misbehaving.”

The Chinese students then went to Des Moines on Friday, where they got to meet Iowa Governor Terry Branstad who is slated to become the United States Ambassador to China.