View the PDF version of the History of Monmouth Chinese School.
| 1960's |
- Monmouth County Chinese population: 60 families,
- No big supermarkets, no Chinese grocery stores,
- Rt. 520 was a stone covered dirt road with 1 traffic light.
- The Yale University published Chinese Textbooks using Simplified Chinese characters and
“Yale pronunciation”, were commonly adopted by colleges.
|
| 1971 |
- Holmdel Chinese School was formed,
- Lessons that held on Saturdays in a Red Bank Nursery school with one class, using simplified
Chinese characters with emphasis in culture and tradition.
|
| 1973 |
- Freehold Chinese School was formed,
- Lessons held on Saturdays in one of the founding families’ basement with 3 classes, also used
simplified Chinese characters.
- The only enrollment requirement: toilet trained.
- Holmdel Chinese School moved to a church in Lincroft, school size increased to 5 classes.
|
| 1974 |
- After numerous difficult negotiation with the Freehold Board of Education, Freehold Chinese
School successfully moved to Barkalow Elementary School.
- Tuition set to $25 for books, and all staff are on a pure volunteer basis.
|
| 1978 |
- Parents who requested for the Traditional Chinese character left Freehold Chinese School to
form a new Chinese School
|
| 1979 |
- Freehold Chinese School & Holmdel Chinese School merged to become Monmouth Chinese School, and
moved the school site to Marlboro Elementary School. Unlike the Freehold Bd. of Ed, Marlboro
welcomes the Chinese school with open arms.
- School size: 60+ students, with classes named after colors instead of numbers, e.g. red, blue,
pink, yellow etc.
- Curriculum: mandarin classes, Simplified characters, Yale pronunciation & roman pronunciation.
|
| 1981 |
- Enrollment started to drop because of the unpopularity with Simplified character teachings.
|
| 1983 |
- Re-introduced teaching the Traditional characters.
- Dance was introduced in the cultural program. Tuition: $65.
|
| 1985 |
- School size: 44 students, school finance in serious trouble. School board was planning to
close the school for good.
- Around the same time, Monmouth county Chinese population increased many folds because of the
booming real estate industry.
|
| 1986 |
- The Cantonese session was added to Monmouth Chinese School, thus prevented the school from
closing down, and made MCS the first NJ Chinese school with a dual curriculum.
- Tuition: $95. School size jumped to 75, four Mandarin classes & two Cantonese classes.
Mandarin classes were identified by numbers whereas Cantonese classes were simply called
“big” & “small”.
- The annual Chinese New Year party was held at Brookdale Community College.
|
| 1988 |
- School size: 200+ students.
- PTO activities included: Taichi, sewing, basketball, painting, seminars, aerobic etc.
- Painting was also introduced as part of the cultural program. Mandarin curriculum: Zhuyin
replaced Roman & Yale pronunciation.
|
| 1989 |
- School size: 300+ students. Tuition: $140.
|
| 1990 |
- Standardize textbooks and class naming structure for both the Mandarin & Cantonese groups –
Kindergarten, 1 through 10, Adult, and Special class.
- Held the 1st Monmouth Summer Camp with Jersey Shore Chinese School.
- MCS students began to shine in painting contests, calligraphy contests, writing contests and
dance exhibition.
|
| 1991 |
- School size: 400+ students. Relocated to Dugan School.
- Tuition: $150
|
| 1993 |
- Talks about splitting the School into 2 began to surface.
|
| 1994 |
- Parents insisted on dividing the school into 2 – Mandarin & Cantonese, left and formed a new
Chinese School
|
| 1995 |
- School administration re-structured and the school bylaw ratified to reflect the new
structure.
- Library broadened. Award system and the Newsletter were debuted in the same year. Mandarin
curriculum modified to include Pinyin for the senior classes.
- Tuition: $170.
|
| 1996 |
- Enrichment class for senior students was added to the curriculum structure.
- The school database and handbook were computerized.
- Tuition: $190.
|
| 1998 |
- Twice the Grand prize winner of the Annual NJ Chinese School’s speech competition.
|
| 1999 |
- Website established.
- MCS New Year party tickets were in high demand among local politicians & officials.
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