校长来信 | 我浪费了人生4年

I wasted four years of my life.

At age 20, I arrived at Yale having completed a rigorous and comprehensive high school curriculum with lots of AP courses and exams in the US, and a post-graduate year at a Scottish boarding school with A Levels, Oxbridge entrance exams and interviews, and, of course, Cricket and Rugby.

But, somehow, I did not understand that the main point of college is to talk with the professors.

Universities gather the smartest, most interesting, most curious people in the world and make them accessible. I spent four years dutifully attending classes, reading books, writing papers, getting good grades. But, beyond the classroom, I never spoke with my professors. What a pity!

Fortunately, education is a process of becoming, not a fixed product, and the students I had when I started my teaching career at Central China Normal University (华中师范大学) in 1992 – so eager to speak with me and to learn about the world beyond Wuhan – modelled for me the main point of college. And so, when I returned to New Haven for graduate school, I knew to, wanted to, and did speak with my professors and peers.

That experience transformed me, just as their Yale experiences transformed my father, his father before him, and his father before him.

In 1873, 12-year-old Yan Phou Lee (李恩富), my great grandfather, left Zhuhai for New England. Tremendously far from home, nevertheless, he relished his American education, attaining native fluency in English, lecturing widely around the country to combat the anti-Chinese sentiment so pervasive then, and becoming the first Asian person to publish a book in English. I am the second son of the second son of the second son of Yan Phou Lee's second marriage.

My great grandfather's journey – as a globally-fluent Chinese who lead, innovated, and impacted – continues to inspire me today. It makes me especially eager to work with the faculty, parents, staff, and students of HD Beijing School to fulfill our mission and vision, and to graduate students who will succeed in life and make our world better.

To that end, every day I ask myself three questions as Head of School:

• Are our students safe – physically and psychologically – at school? Are they seen? Understood? Respected?

• Are our teachers able to dedicate themselves to teaching and nurturing students in a professional, stable, and supportive environment?

• Are school and parents genuinely working in partnership to support children's growth?

I so look forward to getting to know all of HD Beijing's stakeholders, and to collaborating with you to ensure that "Yes!" is the answer to these three questions. When we reach that goal, together, we can have confidence that every HD student's educational journey of becoming will be engaging, fulfilling, and the opposite of my wasted four years as an undergrad.

Take care.

-- Benjamin Lee, Ed.D.

Head of School at HDBJ

我虚度了人生中的四年时光。

好在，教育不是终点，而是一段慢慢“成为”自己的旅程。1992年，我开始在华中师范大学教书，遇见了我的第一批学生。他们那样热切地想和我交流，想了解武汉之外的世界——是他们，让我真正懂了大学的意义。也是在那之后，当我再回纽黑文读研时，我学会了、也做到了与教授和同学们交流。

为此，身为大校长，我每天都会问自己三个问题：

保重。

 -- 李班明 博士

北京赫德大校长