Every Chinese Child's Dream

I just biked the mile over to get some copying done at the University. As I have mentioned it is Golden Week, and everyone is on vacation. It is always very chaotic at the gates to get into the campus, but today was particularly crowded. There were about 50+ people being blocked from entering. The guards at the gate usually just check the ID that we hang around our necks and motion the students on in. However, most of these were families: mom’s and dad’s with an elementary age child, single mom’s or single dad’s with a child, sometimes an elementary age child with a younger sibling in a stroller (I am sure the few, very few, two children families that I saw are a result of the relaxing of the one child policy within the last few years).  As I biked to the copy store, children were being posed in front of doors with the Peking University (PKU) logo on it. Posed, so that they looked like they were holding the logo in their hands. Parents pointing out locations, and talking together, etc., etc. I reflected on the 150 essays that I have read within the past 2 weeks. Almost to a student as they introduced themselves in their essay, they talked about dreaming as a child that they could attend PKU. Rick read me an article yesterday that ranked PKU as about 16^th school of higher education in the world. Only one other University in China ranks higher and that is only recently.  I am sure that the parents, some of whom may have been alumni, are imbuing their children with this dream. What a privilege to teach in this elite university with these very elite students in this education worshiping country.