Let me briefly introduce the “Stone Soup Reading Campus Alliance” project.
As the project name, “Stone Soup”
The idea of “Soup” comes from Ah Zhu, which is actually from a picture book of the same name that everyone is familiar with. The story in the picture book is based on very ancient folklore, and there are different versions in different places. The most familiar version is the American painter Jon Muth.
J. Muth, a Chinese story. The houses in the book seem to have a strong Anhui style of architecture. I was lucky enough to be the one who translated this book.
“Stone Soup” tells the story of three monks who arrived at a village in a beautiful valley. The villagers, having endured hardships, seemed to be doing well, but their hearts were closed, both to themselves and their neighbors, so they wouldn’t even open their doors to strangers. The three monks, however, began to cook stone soup in the village center. A little girl in yellow clothes was the first to come and help, and then curious villagers were drawn in. As they gathered and tried to share food and condiments, a miracle occurred—they opened their hearts completely, became generous, and felt unprecedented joy—and naturally, they enjoyed a feast of stone soup that even an emperor wouldn’t have the privilege of enjoying.
Such a beautiful story makes our imaginations run wild.
Let’s talk about the origins of our project. It began a few years ago as a multi-school reading promotion initiative: the two-year “Good Books for Everyone to Read” initiative, initiated by Tunxi Road Primary School and funded by the Chen Yixin Foundation. The simple, honest intentions of the initiators, through small acts of kindness, sowed the seeds of a love of reading in countless children over those two years.
The inspector and I first learned about the project in 2009 and made some early contributions, but we didn’t officially become reading consultants until 2010. So we can only be considered the latecomers, or the villagers who came to the market. In the early stages of the project, we mainly focused on providing more suitable books for children and striving to build an ideal school library. Even more ideally, James
Professor Henri proposed the “School in Library”
James has traveled thousands of miles to Hefei many times to visit the city, contributing many valuable suggestions and becoming a popular “foreign monk” here.
Between 2010 and 2011, the project shifted its focus to fostering a strong campus reading environment. This approach prioritized three key elements of the reading environment: books, time, and people. By improving these factors, the project aimed to improve the overall reading environment, thereby helping more students develop an interest in and habit for reading. While multi-school collaborative activities were also implemented during this phase, the emphasis was on empowering each school to independently develop its own unique campus reading culture, tailored to its specific circumstances.
Six project schools have come together this year: Tunxi Road Primary School, Shuguang Road Primary School, Weigang Primary School, Taihu Road Primary School, Wanghu Road Primary School, and Changshi Affiliated Primary School. Their hard work and creativity have brought us a vibrant and colorful culture of reading on campus. Not only are the children and teachers reading more, they are also more energetic and seem to have a greater sense of well-being. These six schools will naturally become the founding schools for our subsequent “Stone Soup” project.
As the previous project was nearing its end, we had the honor of meeting the Primary School Affiliated to Hefei Normal University. During the visit and communication, we were amazed by the unique campus culture they had carefully crafted. Therefore, we solemnly invited the Primary School Affiliated to Hefei Normal University to join us in making stone soup and share our experience as the initiating school.
As you’ve seen, in addition to the seven schools mentioned above, the newly launched project also includes new alliance schools: Shuhong Primary School, Dongliu Road Primary School, Gedadian Primary School, Jinputao Primary School, Changfeng Duji Central School, Changfeng Gangji Central School, Changfeng Yangmiao Central School, and Changfeng Wushan Central Primary School. More schools (and even kindergartens) may join in the future. So, how do we prepare this pot of stone soup?
There are many ways to make stone soup, and we don’t have time to discuss them in detail today. However, the most important question is: who will do it? In future projects, we sincerely hope that all alliance schools can work together to make stone soup. The seven founding schools who have taken the lead need to shoulder greater responsibility and help other alliance schools through sharing, exchange, and various creative collaborative activities, jointly cultivating distinctive, creative, and vibrant campus reading cultures. The principals’ roundtable meeting, which will begin the day after tomorrow, is part of this process.
The secret to making a great soup is choosing the right chef! All the principals and teachers here will be the chefs of this soup, and that’s the magic of stone soup.
Over the next two years, the Chen Yixin Foundation and reading consultants will continue to provide support. Our upcoming work includes: regularly visiting schools and providing consulting advice; demonstrating book selection and teacher training programs; promoting the model among initiating schools and new alliance schools; supporting principals’ roundtable meetings and establishing a teacher innovation fund; compiling and publishing project newsletters to build a communication platform; supporting the establishment of research centers and teacher reading activities; and supporting research related to children’s reading and children’s culture.
But foreign monks, whether foreign or local, will eventually leave. The perfect curtain call of the “Stone Soup Joyful Reading Campus Alliance” project in the future will probably be the monks’ reluctant farewell. But we hope to experience and share this secret with everyone, just like in that beautiful story -
Happiness is as simple as making stone soup.
Argentine Primera División in Hefei
March 13, 2012
