-侯杰

　　On the first school day after the winter vacation, the teachers at Middle School 55 found our son“Tom”cheerful and confident. But the truth is that getting to that point had not been easy for him. When he was 8 years old, we took him to the US and enrolled him in the local primary school in Maryland,swhereswe were living.It was clear from the beginning that he wasshavingstrouble adapting.American kids, for example, aren't nearly so concerned about marks as Chinese schoolchildren are, and they are much more active physically; Tom, alas, does not shine in sports and he cut a poor figure in PE classes. Soon he gave up on PE and sought to compensate by working hard in his regular subjects.Things went well for a while, but here too there were problems that shook his self-confidence:he simply could not be number one in every academic subject.As it dawned on him that he would always be at the bottom of his PE class and could not outdo everyone in any other single class, he collapsed mentally. By the time he was 12, he was perpetually depressed, and finally even afraid to go to school.

　　We had no choice but to bring him back to China. At first we thought he should recuperate at home, but this didn't seem to help. A psychologist at the Beijing Child Research Institute advised us not to isolate him socially - in fact, we were warned that keeping him at home might worsen the maladaptation. We were urged to do everything possible to make him less sensitive to the ups and downs of normal life.Of course, this meant sending him back to school.

　　But which school? After more than four years in America, Tom could no longer understand the Chinese used to teach many of the academic classes here. It happened that Wang Xin, the daughter of one of our American colleagues and now an undergraduate at Cornell, had once been a junior high school student in the International Student Section of Beijing Middle School 55.In her articles in The World Daily, the best-known Chinese paper in North America, she described her days as a Middle School 55 student in glowing terms. After talking with Wang Xin over the phone for more than an hour, Tom finally made up his mind to enter junior high school in China - provided it was Beijing Middle School 55.

　　We are very grateful to the school for allowing Tom to enter in late October of 2000, long after the official deadline. It is painful to recall that on our son's first day in the remedial Chinese program, the only question he asked his new homeroom teacher was whether his classmates would laugh at him.The first few weeks were a time of great tension for him, as even the most innocent remarks or actions of his classmates would sometimes hurt him. Whenever the teachers noticed him retreating into his shell, they patiently talked him out of it. Of course, joining the class nearly two months late, he had a lot of trouble with his schoolwork, and this made him even more anxious. The teachers at MS 55 make a special effort to get children like Tom over the rough patches.With their help he soon adjusted to the pace in the classroom and caught up.In only two months he completed a semester of remedial Chinese with high marks.

　　In his year at MS 55, Tom has made an emotional comeback.Wang Fang and Chen Le, the young teachers resposible forhis class, have put him in charge of everyday affairs for his classmates; this has greatly bolstered his self-confidence, and he has been performing his duties admirably.

　　His relations with his classmates are also on a happier footing.This can be traced back to the tour of South China organized by the school last May. It was the first time for him to participate insgroupsactivities independently of his parents. We were quite worried about what the effect would be, but he had great fun and made new friends - not only students in his own class but from other classes and grades as well. He no longer cuts himself off from others; he has become aware of the value of friends in confronting problems.

　　But it's the MS 55 teachers who have made the real difference.They are always accessible.Ms Hu, Tom's history teacher, took good care of him when he suffered mood swings brought on by physical stress while the class was in Luoyang last October. Tom's foreign English teacher is also very kind to him. As a parent, I think that the International Student Section of Middle School 55 is outstanding both for its academic quality and the psychological insight of its staff.