Faculty with Perspective: Our international faculty share their experience in other parts of the world and how they have been able to interact with students at Farragut. Most importantly, they reveal how much value the international connection adds to Farragut’s identity.

Meet Mrs. Rue

Upper School Mandarin Chinese Teacher

Mrs. Rue has taught at Farragut since arriving here in 2010 from her native town of Xi’an in the province of Shaanxi, China. Although she lived in Shaanxi for 24 years, her decision to move to Florida for work was a life changer. She has since traveled to Belize, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, and Switzerland. Being a teacher at Farragut has allowed her to teach in a way she feels Chinese students in her native country miss out on.

“Teaching should be fun for the teachers and the students. Teaching and learning in fun, creative and collaborative settings can get twice the result with half the effort both for teachers and students. In China, education can be boring with a complete focus on test scores. There isn’t any focus or attention paid to arts, sports, field-based learning trips, nor are there any visits to historical or science museums like you experience in the United States.”

Mrs. Rue gives an insight into the type of learning in China like no other.

“I often hear stories about students who earn the highest scores for the college entrance examination in the whole country, which ultimately means he/she can choose the best college in the country, but they didn’t know how to do simple life tasks. Here, at Farragut, it is much different. I have enjoyed being a part of educating the kids the way I believe is the best for them.”