Chinese principal visits, attends class at Oakmont
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Zhiping Hu, of China, attends Katie Miville's calculus class at Oakmont Regional High School on Wednesday, Oct. 31. JOURNAL PHOTO/CAITLYN KELLEHER

On his visit to Oakmont, Zhiping Hu saw a variety of what the high school has to offer the students.

"The students are exposed to a lot more in terms of curriculum and activities," said Hu, through an interpreter.

Hu visited Oakmont on Tuesday, Oct. 30, and Wednesday, Oct. 31, after visiting Murdock High school in Winchendon on the preceding Monday and Tuesday and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School on Thursday.

"The school conditions are very nice," Hu said.

During his trip to Oakmont, Hu sat in on an Advance Placement Calculus AB class, and answered questions in Kevin Hart's 20th Century History Class.

"He was really interested in observing a math class," said Oakmont Principal David Uminski.

William Waight, who hosted Hu, is the former principal of Oakmont. He explained that they had chosen to have Hu sit in on a calculus class because most Chinese students take calculus in high school and are introduced to the concept in middle school.

"He wanted to be exposed to the American system so he can go back to China where he can incorporate what he wants," said Hu, through Oakmont senior Emily Fan, who served as Hu's interpreter while he visited the school.

Chinese is not one of the languages offered at Oakmont, which only offers Latin and Spanish classes.

Fan, served as the translator at Oakmont, as she speaks Chinese fluently after immigrating to the U.S. in the third grade. Waight used another student at Murdock to help with the communication there.

"My Chinese skills are next to non, and his English is limited," Waight said.

Waight said between the student translators, his daughter - who speaks Chinese, and an electronic translator he and Hu communicated well.

Waight is visiting China in April and will visit Hu's school.

The state Department of Education Web site describes the China Exchange Initiative (CEI) as a collaboration between Chinese- U.S. principals in a shadowing project "to build partnerships between school administrators to promote mutual intercultural understanding and to create opportunities for professional development."

Teachers in the Newton and Brookline public schools started the program with funding from the Freeman Foundation.

Waight said he would be going over with a group of other administrators including some from Andover, Lowell, North Middlesex and Acton.

Hu is the principal of a 1,500-student high school serving students in grades seven through 12. The school is about four hours from the Russian boarder and under five hours from the North Korean boarder.

Hu has been a principal for three years and there have been a couple of teachers from his school that have already visited the U.S., said Waight.

Uminski, Waight and Hu are hoping to set up a program in which the students and teachers from Oakmont begin "pen pal" relationships with students and teachers at Hu's high school.

Uminski said he would love it if Oakmont could host a teacher from China for a year and then possibly send a teacher over to China for a year.