Read to Discover Essay Contests

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To encourage students and teachers to make good use of the library books provided under the ARSL projects, ESS has organized annual essay contests for rural schools since 1996. Each year about 1,500-2,000 essays have been submitted by students and teachers in the ARSL schools across the country.

The theme of the contests is Read to Discover. Teachers guide students in identifying and analyzing problems they come across in their studies or in their daily life. Sometimes students would carry out simple experiments or research to find solutions or explanations. The process encourages students and teachers to observe, to question, to think, and to find creative solutions to problems.

The essays submitted are reviewed by volunteer editors from the Joint Publishing Company in Beijing, and outstanding essays are selected for different levels of awards. The award essays were published in a journal each year.

In 2011, a collection of outstanding essays from recent years was published under the title Shan Ying (Mountain Eagle). It was distributed to the award-winning students and their teachers, the ARSL schools and their sponsors, and ESS partner institutions.

 Following are translations of several award essays from previous years.

 

2006

• A Shadow I Can't Shake from My Heart
• Laughter Comes back to Our Home

2005

• Pickled Turnips and Fermented Tofu
• From Caterpillar to Butterfly

2004

• My Father's Love

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