(Mark David, deputy principal of the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Primary School’s International Division)

(Soong Ching Ling School)

Located in Zhaoxiang, Qingpu District, Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School is a little bit quiet in August during the summer holiday. However, if you enter the teaching building, you will find a host of teachers busy preparing for the new semester. One of them is a foreigner wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a white T-shirt. He is Mark David, deputy principal of the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Primary School’s International Division.

(Mark David in class)

(Mark David and his students)

Back in 2004, Mark first came to Shanghai on a six-week visiting student program to China. In his own words, the trip was like an adventure to a metropolis.

Coming from Rockford, Michigan, Mark grew up in a small and simple town where everything moves at a slow pace. The population of the nearest city is just over 200,000.

But Mark has a restless heart. As a child, he imagined himself to be an astronaut and aspired to see the outside world after growing up. So when he heard that there was a chance to come to Shanghai, he did not hesitate to sign up for the program, without knowing that the decision would bring him so much surprise and astonishment.

According to Mark, he will never forget his first day in Shanghai. Carrying him and other university students, the coach was running on the elevated road. The lights outside the window; the high-rise buildings; everything was different from that in his hometown.

Over the next six weeks, Mark, together with other visiting students from all over the world, gained a basic understanding of Chinese history and culture. When they were discussing with each other, different views also brought a lot of fun. After class, they wandered through the streets and alleys in Shanghai, even if they understood no Chinese characters and could only understand the pictures in Chinese restaurants.

Every day is a new day in Shanghai, not only because the city is different from Mark’s hometown, but also because it is an inclusive metropolis with a strong momentum for development. Here, Mark saw endless possibilities of the future. Six weeks in Shanghai was not enough for him. So he decided that he would come back one day.

After getting a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Mark came to Shanghai again to study Chinese and later became an English teacher with the aim of doing as Soong Ching Ling said and “giving children the most valuable things.” In Mark’s eyes, curiosity and enthusiasm in learning is what teachers should impart to students. Seeing his students still keep working on an issue that they used to be curious about, even if only a little progress is made, is the most fulfilling moment for Mark.

(Mark receives an interview with SPAFFC.)

(In a science class, Mark teaches his students how butterflies are hatched.)

(Mark instructs his students to observe water life.)

Mark is the founder of the school’s annual Science and Technology Festival, to encourage children to look at the world with an open eye and to think about problems with a critical mind. Faced with questions, students are encouraged to make assumptions and set out research plans to find proofs. Mark believes that all innovations come from curiosity about the world. Protecting the whims of every child makes innovation possible.

(Mark presents an experiment at the school’s Science and Technology Festival.)

2018 is Mark’s 10th year of teaching in the school, thanks largely to his understanding of diversity, openness and inclusiveness. He is one of the 50 or so foreign teachers in the school.

(Mark in a work meeting with his colleagues)

Chinese and foreign teachers always get together to have discussions from different perspectives. What is most exciting for Mark is that the curriculum can be improved once new ideas are generated.

(Mark celebrates Teachers’ Day with his colleagues.)

Refusing to make shallow judgments about good or bad, Mike believes that the real purpose of education is to expose students to different ideas, learn from each other and use their own understanding to create. Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School is where he sees the ideal educational process taking place. The past ten years of his career here may be just another start. Mark hopes that both he and his son can keep enjoying the fun of education in the school.

After work, Mark is like a big boy next door. As a bubble tea lover, he used to frequent a bubble tea shop nearby. That’s how he met his future wife in 2017 who was working in a store next to the tea shop. His wife is a native of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. The couple now have a son. The husband-and-father still plays games for relaxation and is a fan of cool technology. He thinks kids can learn from technology rather than be isolated from it. To realize this, he opened an IT course in the school, hoping that the pupils can utilize their creativity to innovate, making technology more fun.

Originally a far-fetched place for Mark, Shanghai has become his home. Once he is needed by his school, he is always ready to help, even though he is visiting his relatives back in Michigan. Still grateful for the visiting student program which brought him to China, Mark and his wife have received exchange students from Grand Valley State University every year starting from 2007. He said, “Both Shanghai and Michigan are my home, and I’m willing to show Shanghai to everyone and let more people understand it and discover its beauty.”

With a warm heart, Mark is also active in charity. He even adds charity activities into the school curriculum to engage his students. In March 2016, under his leadership, they managed to donate 228 solar flashlights to Katwe Martyrs Primary School in Kampala, Uganda. The money for purchasing the flashlights was earned by doing housework: 60 yuan for one hour.

(Mark and his students in a charity campaign on East Nanjing Road)

With a broad mind of world citizenship, Mark has been leading his students to explore the future and build more bridges among people. On September 12, 2018, he was conferred the Magnolia Silver Award for his contributions to Shanghai. As he said, if possible, he will continue working in the school for another ten years or more, so as to witness the future of the school, the country and the friendship between China and the U.S.

(Mark and his wife at the presentation ceremony of the Shanghai Magnolia Awards on September 12, 2018)

Story by Tang Xinning

Cameraman: Tang Xinning

Translated by Wu Qiong

Special thanks to China Welfare Institute and Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School