Character education in the classroom of society

Grades are just one way to evaluate a student’s excellence. Our mission at Pao School is focused on developing the whole person – this means that we believe students should be learning skills, attitudes and developing their character as well as learning knowledge. We want to educate three-dimensional young people as opposed to one-dimensional people. We place a great emphasis on character education and values – without good values, intelligence and capability will not benefit society. 

                             ——Philip Sohmen,

Executive Deputy Chairman

and co-founder of YK Pao School

Character education is a key part of Pao School's mission of developing whole-person education and is firmly grounded in the school's core values of compassion, integrity and balance. Character education is deeply integrated into students' lives at Pao School and shapes the quality of their character in subtle ways. Pao School's founders hope to educate students to be helpful, caring, and willing to devote their time and energy to help others. They hope that Pao School students can go off campus and contribute to society from an early age.

In line with Pao School's core value of compassion, there are many related heart-warming stories in the school’s community. These stories show the breadth of Pao School students' commitment to charity work and to helping society. Though the activities themselves vary in terms of participants and location, the students’ commitment and dedication remains consistent. What is also consistent is the positive effect of these charitable activities on both the students and the people they help.

During the summer vacation of 2013, six Pao School families of different nationalities, altogether a group of fourteen, visited a primary school in the remote Daba Mountains of Sichuan Province for the first time. Over the following seven years, they continued to make the annual trek to the Daba Mountains to accompany the children, even though some had since moved abroad.

The School is located in a rugged and underdeveloped region of Sichuan Province, with few human inhabitants. At the time, the Pao School students thought the purpose of the trip was to visit low-income families and impoverished schools. However, they were not prepared for the level of poverty they saw. Children studying in China's largest metropolitan areas could never imagine how difficult it is for the children in the Daba Mountains to receive a strong compulsory education. Thus, the Pao School families decided to name their organization View From the Peak (VFTP) to signify their hope that the children of the Primary School could look ahead to a brighter future.

Summer, from the primary school inside Daba Mountain, notes, "From now on, they will visit us every summer in this place where I was born and raised. We have got to know each other, compared to when we first met. At that time, we were all a little timid. Now we have no qualms about doing many things together: laughing, singing, playing, and many more."

According to Year 11 student Aina, the teachers in the mountainous regions have scant resources and the schools offer very few subjects. Therefore, every year the members of VFTP offer a rich variety of courses and activities to the children, from science and technology to music and art to sports, drama, geography, history and English. Whatever students learn in Pao School's classrooms, the VFTP team teaches it to the children of Daba Mountains. The VFTP team also helps the children rehearse for performances, arranges tug-of-war competitions and teaches the children about the outside world.

In the past year or so, Gillian participated in many CAS activities and led 3 CAS projects. Additionally, outside of school,  she has explored the field of first aid extensively through activities and community service. She has also obtained professional first aid certificate certifications from several global authorities. In total, Gillian has provided more than 130 hours of first aid training.

Gillian has three reasons for focusing on first aid. One is that she is a sports enthusiast and selected Sports, Exercise and Health Science as an IB course. First aid and injury prevention are particularly important in sports disciplines. Second, she hopes to use her professional knowledge to protect the people she knows. For this reason, she regularly gives first aid presentations to people of different ages and serves as a first-aid volunteer at large-scale sports events. Lastly, keeping in mind that most people in China have limited knowledge of first aid, Gillian hopes to boost her community’s awareness of the discipline and ability to practice it.

During holidays and weekends, Gillian often provides free first aid courses for children and parents in her community. She always ensures that the one to two-hour classes are packed with useful information and are tailored for the audience, so the participants can get the most out of the session. For instance, when she presents to Year 3 and 4 students, she uses first aid animations and role-playing with explanations, allowing the children to play an active role in the activities.

Since 2017, Pao School has had groups of students who support education in some of China's least developed mountainous areas. One such area is the Dabie Mountains in central China. Over the past three years, Pao School students have visited the Dabie Mountains six times. On each occasion, the Pao School students provided teaching instruction to local children over a five to seven-day period. At the same time, the Pao School students twice organized charity donations for the children, once on campus and once online, which successfully raised money to buy essential supplies. Thus far, more than 50 Pao School students from different years – as well as parents – have participated in the fundraisers.

The past six teaching excursions to the mountains have featured many academic and hands-on educational activities. For instance, Pao School students helped the children improve their calligraphy, history and English-language skills. They also taught the children how to cut window grilles, make dumplings and make sky lanterns. Pao School students even helped the children organize the library, alongside painting and decorating classrooms.

This past summer, due to the pandemic, the students were unable to visit the mountains to tutor the children. However, the students still were able to support the children from afar. When they learned that the children’s milk supply was interrupted, volunteers quickly organized a charity fundraising activity on campus at the end of October. The Pao School student teaching team hoped that all of the children could enjoy a cup of warm milk in the first winter after the pandemic.

Lisa, a Year 12 student at Pao School, is passionate about charity. In her several years of study at Pao School, she has been involved in a number of education-related projects China's remote mountainous areas. At the same time, she founded a charity club at the school.

Last summer, she went to one of the poorest areas in the world as an international volunteer to expose the villagers to Chinese culture. As a volunteer, Lisa took local children skateboarding, taught them to play guitar, draw, and speak English, alongside showing them Chinese movies, and telling them stories about China.

In her third week as a volunteer, Lisa suddenly came down with a fever. When the children found out that she was sick, they all went to see her. Although she was far from home and surrounded by strangers, she felt she was not alone. The local children's strength has also helped Lisa to grow stronger.

At Pao School, our character education is comprehensive. It is not only integrated into classroom teaching, extracurricular activities and residential life, but we also encourage students to apply the school's core values of Compassion, Integrity, Balance in broader society. 

—— Zang Na,

Dean of External Affairs / High School Humanities Teacher,

Songjiang campus