Educator Inspired By a Higher Calling

By Steven Chen

GUANGZHOU: Traveling halfway around the world to start a new life in a strange country is a daunting challenge for anybody, but to also set up a new kind of school under the watchful eye of anxious parents takes a particular brand of courage. Call it bravery or call it deep-seated faith, Brian Hutt has it in abundance.

When Hutt arrived in Guangzhou in 1992 with his wife and two daughters, he had a strong desire to establish a school infused with Christian concepts for foreigners living in the city.

Starting with the support of his own family and a handful of parents, the Guangzhou Grace Academy now has attracted some 50 students. Hutt has recently set up branches in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Nanjing.

Hutt first came to China in 1986 and spent more than two years in the Middle Kingdom. There he met his future wife and they married before moving back to the United States.

In 1992, he returned to China and founded his academy.

Hutt describes the school’s teaching concept as a mix of the teacher-led classroom style and the open-learning style pioneered by Italian educator Maria Montessori. Young students learn by exploring the world around them.

Much of the learning at the academy is self-taught from specially prepared textbooks.

There are no fixed classes, or times. Classrooms are replaced by one of three “learning centers” open areas resembling a library where teachers supervise.

Study desks are “offices” or cubicles where students learn and decide how to best use their time and which subjects they will tackle first.

While the system may be open to abuse by undisciplined or lazy students, the revolutionary teaching method has been very successful for some, Hutt insists.

“Students still have to reach learning milestones, but are free to choose when and what they will study at any given time,” he said.

Hutt said the method “puts the responsibility of learning on the children themselves”.

Learning by this method “takes discipline” and some students are more focused than other students of a similar age.

“They have a stronger sense of purpose, and know what they want to do later in life.

“Students who don’t do well in the system are those who need a more structured environment to make them study.”

“Some students actually like strict teachers,” Hutt said.

Less encouraging for Hutt are the number of Asian students who withdraw from his school because their parents are concerned over the lack of necessary grounding. The parents believe their children need discipline in order to acclimatize to the more rigid higher education systems in their home countries.

In some respects, the teaching methods applied at Grace “are in line with the modern approach to teaching”, emphasizing enquiry and theme-based learning, said Gavin Machell, head of teaching, at Utahloy International School in Guangzhou.

“The traditional ‘talk and chalk’ model feeds into the natural passivity of children, while with student-led learning, students are much more engaged,” said Machell.

For Noriko Kurasawa, a Japanese mother from Tokyo, sending her son Shin, 6, to Grace was an easy decision.

“We had a choice to send him to a Japanese school, but we are a Christian family, and I wanted my son to be taught with these values,” she said.

Sara, 16, has a Chinese father and an American mother and enjoys her school.

“It feels safe and friendly. There are no bad words. No one fights. The teachers are closer to us and know us personally. They come up and talk to you. It’s not like they are just doing their job,” said Sara.

Hutt speaks glowingly of the academy’s religious focus, which, he says, will hopefully encourage students who are non-believers, to change their views.

Parents should note that mainstream subjects, such as history, geography and even the sciences, taught at the school, are presented as being part of a greater existence created by a higher Being.

Also taught is creationism, the belief that the physical world is so complex and intricate that only a supreme Being could have designed it.

Teaching of this subject has been a hot issue in the US in recent years as its academics and educators battle with supporters over the right to teach creationism, or “intelligent design”, alongside evolution, in the classroom.

Whatever students or parents may think of such ideas, Hutt is confident that, as a teaching institution, Grace Academy works.

“We’ve seen students embrace this style of learning and believe it is more effective, superior to, traditional methods.

“If you spoon-feed children, they’ll become dependent. But if you give them the right setting, where they have to take responsibility, they will rise to the challenge.”

(c) 2007 China Daily; North American ed.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.