Harrison taught in China
Amber Harrison, Gifted and Talented coordinator for Pea Ridge Schools, spent her summer teaching genetics to third- and fourth-grade students at the Diligence & Delight Learning Center in Beijing, China. The DDC is a China-based educational institution providing courses in English for students with high academic aptitude in primary and secondary school.
A pre-med course of curriculum for most of her college career prepared Amber Harrison for an experience she could not have imagined.
Harrison, gifted and talented coordinator for the Pea Ridge School District, spent her summer teaching at the Diligence & Delight Learning Center in Beijing, China.
“It is really quite amazing,” Harrison said. “I’m not a traveler. When I originally applied to ge information, it was for my husband to go.”
Harrison was referring to a booth on the Diligence & Delight Learning Center in Beijing, China, that hosted a booth at the National Gifted Education Conference in Minneapolis.
“I didn’t hear anything for a couple of months, then got my contract through the mail and started applying for my visa,” she said.
Harrison studied premed at Henderson State University before changing to Middle Level Education, in which she earned her bachelors, so she had a lot of math and science courses. She ultimately earned a masters degree from Arkansas State University in gifted, talented and creative education, as well.
With DDC, she taught a genetics course designed for 10th grade to third and fourth grade students.
“Students in China are only mandated to have education for nine years. After that, they must pass a test and if they don’t, they go to trade school. In China, education is a privilege,” she said, explaining that classes of about 40 students sit in straight rows and practice rote memorization. She said students begin school at 5 years of age and don’t have kindergarten. “They’re further ahead than we are. The kids who go to summer school are the top 5% — they’re highly gifted, highly achieving students.”
She said the Chinese students are bilingual and were eager to help her with the language barrier.
She was one of eight teachers from America who were there teaching.
“When you are immersed in a culture, they don’t speak English and nothing is written in English,” she said. “You spend all your time helping each other in the service.”
“The people who worked for DDC were very helpful. They had cars that took us to and from school, arranged some tours — we visited the Great Wall early one morning on rainy day. It was surreal.
“I did the llama temple, Confucius temple … went to Longqing Gorge and the Longqingxia Scenic Area,” she said. Other fun activities including eating at a farm to table restaurant and being the first Americans in a restaurant in the country.
“Everyone there really nice and helpful. We were so happy to be there,” she said.
As a result of her experience, Harrison said she has a different perspective.
“I look at education a little bit differently.
“Here we educate everyone and meet the needs of every student. There, not every student gets that opportunity. A little more important to make sure we meet every students’ needs — high, low and every where in between. If we lived any where else in the world, we wouldn’t have that opportunity,” she said.
As Gifted and Talented coordinator for Pea Ridge, Harrison assures that the school meets compliance with the Arkansas State Department of Education, tests students for placements and teaches. This is her third year in the district and second as the GT coordinator. It is her 13th year in education. She is originally from White Hall.
Harrison and husband Michael Harrison have two sons, Jaxson, 13, and Karson, 10. Karson attends school in Pea Ridge. Jaxson attends Haas Hall. Michael Harrison, who has a math degree, teaches algebra at the Arkansas Connections Academy.
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Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part article about Pea Ridge School District’s gifted and talented coordinator Amber Harrison’s trip to Beijing, China, this past summer.