The Peak Tramand @Shuyuanclassics!

Hong Kong: Home to the Star Ferry, the Peak Tram and @ShuyuanClassics! by Anastasia Christou ‘Classics in Hong Kong’ is not a phrase co-educational, bilingual school, based in our respective courses. With this aim in one comes across on a regular basis, so Pokfulam, offering a Chinese and English mind, students can choose to study when I was asked to write this article on immersion education. It was established classical Chinese outside their formal my experiences of teaching Classics in in 2000 and includes Foundation Year to timetable as a co-curricular activity from Hong Kong specifically and my Grade 12, now totalling around 1400 Grades 5 to 9, studying a selection of perspective on Classics in Asia generally, students, who aim to graduate from the classical Chinese texts that cover literature, I was delighted at the opportunity. school with a bilingual International history and philosophy. The Chinese I joined The Independent Schools Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma (DP) in Classics team consists of two members of Foundation Academy (The ISF Academy, English and Putonghua. In addition to the staff, who work tirelessly and energetically Hong Kong) just over two years ago, school’s usual curriculum, the Shuyuan to create tailor-made courses for their having studied, trained and taught Classics Program was set up, ‘based on the students, happily resulting in a steady rise in London previously. When the prospect classical Chinese learning sanctuary and in student uptake: thirty-four Grade 5 arose of teaching the subject I love on the the Platonic Academy, the goal of which students; twenty Grade 6 students; other side of the globe, it was an offer I is independent study and enquiry under twenty-two Grade 7 students; eight Grade could not refuse, out of curiosity if the guidance of a master’ (ISF Academy, 8 students; and eleven Grade 9 students nothing else! Although my teaching 2017a). In essence, it is a programme for 2017/18. As with all courses that run experiences on my Asian adventure thus offering extension courses, projects during students’ own time, the challenge is far have been quite different and often involving higher education institutions to ensure that the students are able to unfamiliar, I still passionately believe that and opportunities for student-led, maintain their commitment to the subject Classics is equally important everywhere: academic research. Within the auspices of whilst competing commitments arise and appreciating the achievements of the the Shuyuan Program are the following whilst maintaining a healthy school/life ancients; questioning human nature and specialist subject areas: Science and balance, especially in the very competitive the world we live in; and learning from Discovery; Global Politics; and Classics; and highly demanding climate of Hong heroes and villains, mortals and all offering selected students the chance Kong schools. immortals. After all, the Ancient Greeks to pursue interests beyond the usual I always find it deeply fruitful and and Romans played an important role curriculum, which challenge them and fascinating to speak with my Chinese both in the West and the East, with complement their other studies. Classics colleagues about their courses interaction between the civilisations Now to focus on the Classics and practice, learning much from them in across the ages; Alexander the Great’s provision at my school. Within the every discussion and as we try to link our empire is of course one such example of Classics department, there is a Chinese subjects, investigate possible collaboration the mutual intellectual, political and Classics team and a Western Classics team, and ensure consistency across our teams. economic exchange between the western the latter of which I am privileged enough This is an experience that I feel is unique and eastern worlds. to be leading. There is much collaboration to my school and one which I am very First, I will introduce my school and between our two teams and we both aim grateful for. In considering the bilingual the programme I am involved with in for our students to be able to connect with setting of The ISF Academy and its order to put my teaching experience here and appreciate the foundations of Chinese constant aim to bridge Chinese and in a more meaningful context. The ISF and Western culture through the study of English, I feel that embracing and Academy is an independent, classical artefacts, texts and languages in connecting Chinese and Western Classics The Journal of Classics Teaching 18 (36) p.29-36 © The Classical Association 2017. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits Downloaded non-commercialfrom https://www.cambridge.org/core re-use, distribution,. IP andaddress: reproduction 170.106.40.139 in any, on medium, 29 Sep 2021 provided at 10:35:24 the original, subject workto the isCambridge unaltered Core and terms is properly of use, availablecited. The at written 29 https://www.cambridge.org/core/termspermission of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631017000204 University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. is one way of achieving this, a belief fresh ideas to the team. Similar to my and running some whole-school Classics which the school’s management holds mentoring trainee Classics teachers back events. also. As a result, our whole-school in the U.K., I have found it greatly In terms of our courses, we now initiatives have been met with positive refreshing and energising to work with offer a Western Classics course to Grade support. For example, the school bases these colleagues, relishing the opportunity 6 students as a year-long, co-curricular itself on core values, referred to as ‘The to reflect on my own practice and on what activity, which aims to provide students Eight Virtues + One’ (ISF Academy, we are doing and trying to achieve with with an introduction to the Ancient 2017b), which aim to provide a moral our Western Classics programme. Our Greeks and the Romans, covering the compass for the whole school community first teaching fellow was a Romanist, who usual audience-capturing and gory topics, and are grounded in Chinese culture, but led scansion workshops for our Latinists; such as gladiators, mythology and the also have modern-day relevance and helped in team resource development; Olympics. As Grade 6 is the first year of importance. Over the course of the and designed a whistle-stop tour of Greek secondary school, we felt it was important approaching academic year, we will be and Roman history, literature and to give keen Grade 6s some weekly circulating presentations on these philosophy for some Grade 9 students exposure to Western Classics in the hope embedded virtues, with each virtue given during their private study time. Our that they would develop a healthy in English, Chinese, Latin and Ancient second teaching fellow was a Hellenist, obsession with the ancients and continue Greek, thus aiming to connect ancient who impressively completed her PhD, with at least one of our classical courses and modern, east and west. entitled The Greek Reception of Alexander the at secondary school! We also run a Western Classics course for Grade 7 and 8 students during their weekly ‘Big Learning Afternoon’ (BLA) time, covering aspects of Ancient Greek and Roman daily life, from slavery to society, from entertainment to education and from military to meals. The two courses are complementary to each other and have entry requirements based on students’ prior reporting data, specifically their ‘Commitment to Learning’ (CTL) scores, which are scores given by teachers to reflect each student’s effort in their subject. For both courses, we use purpose-made booklets, consisting of varied tasks, glossaries and fun activities. We focus on collaborative work, independent research and interactive presentations, with lots of peer and self-assessment opportunities as the students’ work is not formally assessed or reported on. This is in the hope that the courses will have more enjoyment and less stress associated with them, thus attracting a wider audience, especially with the courses being outside the students’ usual timetable. Initially, we started the Western Classics course as a joint Grades 6, 7 and 8 course. However, we found that the age gap was too large to cater for and challenge all the students appropriately, but we also found that the high demand for the course from Grade 6 parents and students meant that we could create a In the Western Classics team, we Great, during her time with us, conducted separate Grade 6 course. For 2017/18, we have two permanent members of staff two mock archaeological digs on ISF have nineteen Grade 6 students, and seven and one teaching fellow who is with us for Academy soil and implemented our new Grade 7 and 8 students. As these are ‘extra a six-month or one-year placement. Thus Primary School initiatives. Our current courses’, we have found that far, we have been privileged enough to teaching fellow is a philosopher, who is communication and promotion are more have three such fellows, who brought continuing our Primary Classics important than ever in ensuring that their own classical expertise, interests and campaign, aiding in course development students and their parents are aware of the Downloaded30 from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address:Hong 170.106.40.139 Kong: Home, on to 29the Sep Star 2021 Ferry at, 10:35:24the Peak, subjectTram and to the@ShuyuanClassics Cambridge Core !terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631017000204 courses and their content, but also know Ancient Rome and Egypt come to Hong month, which is then shared with the about the deadlines and requirements for Kong’s shores! Some local field trips whole school and promoted on the signing up to them.

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