[Education is my second passion in life. It has become so not only because I did not have a very satisfactory experience myself when I was in the schools during the Cultural Revaluation, but also the comparisons I have been able to make while our children grow up in the UK. ]

Compared with the amount of homework that I used to do or number of hours that their cousin is spending on her homework in Beijing, our children really should be grateful of the spare time they have got left to play, in and outside school. I used to complain about this myself but soon I started to see the sense of this different approach. In the school, the girls do spend time on their studies and learn very hard. But at the same time, they also spend considerable amount of time on something else – Performance is one of them.

Every year, the children of each year would give a major performance, often a play attended by all girls in the year, so it is called Year Production. The teachers are the Directors and the show is either selected from the professional programmes for children (some of them are copyrighted but some not) or created by the talented teachers in the school. Through doing these productions, the girls have the chance to build up their oral skills, confidence in front of an audience and most of all, team work. It is always enjoyable to see the children at such young age to perform so well. The theme of the show is carefully chosen and to be fair, it is always quite educational to the children as well as parents.

This year, the show by our eight-year old daughter and her classmates is a play called Hoodwinked, originated from the famous story of Robin Hood. Here are some lines from the singing in the play which I like to share with you all. I bet some of you would find it hard to believe that they are sung and understood by children only 8-9 years old (I did anyway).

Lines from the songs in the show:

We know that we should help the needy,

Why are we so very greedy?

God forgive us here today,

Help us change our selfish way.

Standing for the right is the name of the game,

Learning to respect every person the same;

For if we treat one another like sister and brother,

We’re sure to work it out okay.

No need to fight, get it right

Let’s not fight on this night.

********

Well, hope you liked that. There were also a couple of quizzes from the show for you to fresh your brains. I thought they were really funny:

1.     What do you call a deer without eyes?

2.     What do you call a deer without eyes and legs?

Answers:

No idea! (= no eye deer)