The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1921-12-01
Shanghai, China,

Shanghai, China,
Oct. 16, 1921
My Dear Friend:
You may be interested TO know
something about an American School
that is flourishing in a foreign land
thousands Of miles from the states
II | repeat some things that ! may
have written you already, you won't
scold, hope. You may discover that
! am making carbon copies of this
letter and may possibly send a copy
to some friend whom I have not writ
ten since I came to Shanghai.
The Shanghai American School
was established in 1912. Sections Of
residence buildings on two neighbor-
ing extensions of North Szechuen
Road were transformed into dormi-
tories, class-rooms and Offices as a
temporary home for the school. Just
now we are quite jubilant over the
prospects of new school plant in
the near future. I shall have more
to say about this later.
The present enrolment is approx.
mately $50. About half Of the stu
dents are children of missionaries
who live in various parts of China, and
the others are children Of business
men, most of whom live right here
in Shanghai. The majority of them
were born in China and have lived
here all their lives except a few
months spent in America on visits.
More than half of them learned to
speak Chinese before they could
speak American. They are quite as
loyal as any citizens our country can
boast and yet they feel that China is
their home. That is rather hard for
one to understand at distance but
not so very difficult after he has
spent few years in China, they tell
me. | can begin to understand it al
ready.
A finer spirit never prevailed in
any school. Quite contrary to tradi-
tions, the students regard the faculty
as bona fide friends and there is CO.
operation without friction. The prob
lem Of discipline is automatically re-
moved from the teachers hands by
student government which works to
perfection here. / have never seen.
and ! believe ! have never heard of,
anything like it in the states. Fac
ulty advisers are appointed, one for
each student council, and these may
veto a rule or modify a decision, but
as yet they have had no occasion
to do it. The student officers do the
work Of monitors without compensa-
tion because they value so highly the
privileges and honors of student gov
eminent.
The boys and girls eat in different
dining-rooms except at dinner on
Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
Saturday rather than Thursday.
Then three boys and three girls eat
at each table, and it is customary to
dress up for these occasions. There
is one teacher at each table. OF
course the teacher is host or hostess
and must be adept in the art of serv-
ing an equal amount of food to each
one. This task is not very easy when
a pie must be cut into seven equal
parts.
The spirit which our students put
into their songs and yells thrills me
thru and thru. There are no slack
ers, and this seems to be one result
of student rule. Our boys are true
sportsmen in every phase of athletics
and are invincible in their own class.
Sometimes they are defeated by
teams composed Of mature college
men, but even these always realize
that they have had to fight for vic
tory. Our baseball team closed the
season without sustaining a single