curriculum design is Art not Science!
More and more Chinese parents drop their child in us boarding schools and left them forever. They hope that the us boarding schools will do everything for them and take care of everything for them. They are wrong! That is not true. That doesn’t happen. And created tremendous problems for the Chinese students. There are three serious issues related to many Chinese students attending boarding schools. First: psychological effect. Most of the Chinese boarding schools feel that their parents was not happy with their performance in china. They were not considered good students in china and that’s why they are sent to the US in the first place. And that has created negative psychological affects for the students in terms of self confidence, self esteem and motivation. Second of all, it’s the lack of academic plan. Academic plan are not automatically one size fits all in US boarding schools. Most parents did not understand that each boarding school should work with the students on his or her academic plan. And it is the parents job in many cases to provide feedback and guidance to the boarding school advisors in terms of the best possible academic plan for their child. If the Chinese students are not in the position to provide feedback with the school advisors for better academic planning. At the same time, the parents are also not in the position to express their expectations and guidelines for the school advisors to design an academic plan. Then the consequences are serious. Without a choice, most boarding school advisors will determine the academic plan alone for the student without input and expectations and feedback from the parents. It is more like designing a product without involving the consumers. And believe me, academic plan will lead to everything else that the students can do or cannot do and ultimately effect the student’s college admissions in the us. Third: guardianship responsibilities. Many of the schools, esp highly selective boarding schools ask parents to meet qualifications for US guardianship. A us guardianship requires that the appointed guardian must live close by, have the ability to communicate with the school, participate in the schools activities and in the position to make critical decisions, including medical decisions. They’re also responsible of taking care of the students during the holidays. For example, from September to june, a typical boarding school will have at least 45 to 50 days marked as holidays which require the students to leave the campus under the supervision of the guardian. The majority of the Chinese parents will either not use a US guardian or appoint someone in the US for the sake of the requirement. Nevertheless, none of those guardians which are appointed by the parents are responsible for all the other req that the boarding school is asking. When you go to a boarding school event as a guardian, you will see all the name tags left on the table are Chinese names. That created tremendous disadvantages for the Chinese student. Because they have no body to speak for them, to fight for them, and to protect their students rights.
Now the big question is for the Chinese parents: what would a typical boarding school do and how do they handle their relationships with the Chinese families? Well, in my opinion, a few of them do really care about treating the Chinese families equally as domestic families. Especially those ones that do not intend to recruit a large percentage of Chinese students. Many others do not care. A lack of communication with the guardian and parents is a very serious and severe consequences for the boarding schools. If the boarding schools do not care about the effective communications with the parents, what kind of boarding school would that be? They would make all the decisions for the students and do not communicate their decisions with the parents. That would not serve the best interest for the students. In many ways, that is a disrespect for the parents. For ex, the boarding school would have a parent conference function and they will have at least 10 chinese parents participate and none of those parents speak English. And the boarding school will go on with any presentation and ignore the fact that there is a group of parents that cannot hear one word. And that’s okay for the school. That should not be okay for the parents.
Many boarding schools actively recruit students from china. Some of them work with the Chinese agencies. And they have a very relaxed admissions policy for the ESL students. That their relaxed admissions policy is not based on fit and match, necessary services for international students, and commitment to including Chinese parents as part of the community. Ivy counselors network is determined to change that because we have served so many students in the past that have faced the same situation one after another. Since there is no demand, no pressure from the Chinese parents point of view, there is no need for the boarding school to go out of their way and then consider the Chinese parents equally. Student advisory services is designed to provide the students and the parents all the necessary support to ensure a satisfied experience for the students and to help the students academic plan which will ultimately lead to success in college admissions. And also, guardianship for the students. If the students does not fit in a particular school our services to transfer the student to the right school without delay, without negative impact and keep the student motivated. The big question for the Chinese parents is, what the boarding schools think about students advisory servies from ivy counselors network. The truth of the matter is many boarding schools will open their arms to welcome such services. That are representing the best interest of the family. In return, boarding schools will have better students, provide better experiences for the students, and gain recognition from satisfied parents. That is the best investment from the parents pov. Best investment that the parents can possibly do for themselves. Just like an insurance policy, to ensure the parents investment.
