The Master Teacher China Seminar is a half-day of China programming for some of the top educators in the country.
Held in Washington, D.C., the Seminar draws its audience from the teacher attendees of National Recognition Week – an annual event that celebrates the accomplishments of up to 141 top graduating high school seniors from around the country (“Presidential Scholars”) and the teachers who have taught and most influenced them. The educators represent a cross-section of all academic, along with some non-academic, disciplines.
At the 2011 seminar (attended not only by teachers but also by Assistant Secretary of Education Eduardo Ochoa), Robert Daly, the director of The Maryland China Initiative at the University of Maryland, spoke about the cultural constraints in U.S.-China relations that seemingly limit the record of achievement; and Anne Thurston, director of The Grassroots China Initiative and senior research professor of China studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, spoke about the still sizable segment of China’s population that hasn’t fully shared – or worse, has seemingly lost out – in the 30-year economic boom that continues to transform the country.
Previous seminars have featured equally illustrious speaker such as Georgetown Law School professor James Feinerman (who spoke about the prospects for rights and law in the PRC); Dr. Xiaodong Zhang, an educational consultant at Westat (who discussed the Chinese educational system and compared it to the American system); and Mr. John Pomfret, the former Beijing chief for the Washington Post and author of Chinese Lessons (who addressed some of the key issues that could promote or derail China’s march forward).