Jingwai Mingde Primary School in Xuanwei, Yunnan Province is a big hit these days. With more than 1,000 teachers and students, the school has achieved self-sufficiency (实现自给自足) in food by offering farming for students. And more surprisingly, it has fed itself for 16 years. How can the school do that?
Jingwai Mingde Primary School itself has lots of farmland (农田). It wants students to do farm chores to learn some labor skills (劳动技能). So the school gave each class a piece of land to grow vegetables or raise animals. Students do farm chores twice a week with the help of their teachers.
The school set up a greenhouse (温室) with fruit trees for students to learn about plants, instead of listening to teachers in the classroom.
"Children who have not kissed the land will not have a complete childhood," said school principal (校长) Lei Yingfei. "The farm labor will build excellent characters that last a lifetime. By working on the farmland, students get a better understanding of life and nature."
