Floral Street Elementary School is a regular public school in the middle-class community of Shrewsbury, Mass., 50 kilometres west of Boston. But at least one thing sets Mr. Wilson’s class of 10 year olds apart: They know more about the Three Gorges dam than most adults in China.

A few years ago, teachers at the school came up with the idea of using the dam as a project topic for high-achieving students to tackle. Mr. Wilson, a 61-year-old former principal who has returned to classroom teaching, also decided to use the theme for a social-studies unit in his own Grade 4 class.

“The Three Gorges dam is such an important story, and the mainstream press is not doing much on it. I really believe that all children can benefit from grappling with the issue. Some will go further with it, but there’s something there for everyone,” he says.

“This story has everything: intrigue, suspense, environmental issues, and a government exercising sheer power. It has got good guys; it even has a heroine. And Dai Qing is a real heroine – very brave, and so high-profile that the Chinese government won’t touch her. The children are fascinated by this.”

The class project, culminating in a two-hour debate attended by parents, involved months of work. Mr. Wilson began by showing his 22 students the Sept. 1997 National Geographic cover story, China’s Three Gorges: Before the Flood.

“For homework I gave them a striking photo from that article of a man carrying an enormous load of possessions on his back. And without telling them anything about the picture, I ask them to write about it.” (The photo is of a village leader who has decided to move as an example to others, even though his house is situated above the eventual waterline of the reservoir.)

Mr. Wilson then showed his students videos on the Three Gorges project – The Biggest Dam in the World, narrated by Jodie Foster; Great Wall Across the Yangtze [PDF] , with Martin Sheen; and Dams and Dolphins [PDF] , with Alan Alda.

“The videos bring it alive for them,” he says. “I show a 20-minute clip, then we talk – about the farmers who have gone to jail, about the archeological treasures that will be lost, about the people who have lived in one spot for 10 generations having to move from their ancestral homes. The families shown weeping in the videos because they have to move really affected the kids.”

Then they turned to the stacks of material Mr. Wilson has gathered and rewritten at an appropriate reading level. Sources include Three Gorges Probe, and Chinese embassy reports containing Xinhua news agency stories on the dam.

“Here at the school, we study Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and ancient China. But I think it’s interesting for the students to look at modern China, too, and see how age-old problems such as floods and transportation are being handled today,” Mr. Wilson says.

“I try not to present this just as a good guy-bad guy story, but to make it more complex. I present it as an ongoing issue, where we don’t know what will happen.”

When the children began talking about the dam at home, their parents, many of whom work in technical jobs, became interested too. So Mr. Wilson began e-mailing them updates on the class project, and invited them to watch the debate.

To prepare for that event, his students familiarized themselves with many complex social, environmental, technical and economic issues related to the dam – for instance, flood control, electricity generation, resettlement (and related corruption), the loss of ancient relics, the fact the region is prone to earthquakes, and the problems of pollution and siltation in the reservoir.

The questions the students pondered were framed in such a way as to get them thinking for themselves. For instance: “Seasonal flooding not connected with dams has for centuries been a major cause of damage and death in China, particularly in areas near the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. Will the Three Gorges dam help this problem?” [List of questions appears below]

“And, always, I try to keep the human drama in the mix,” Mr. Wilson says, “reminding the students of how all this is affecting people, who want to know from the government: ‘Why are you putting us through this pain?'”

Next, roles for the debate were chosen, with students electing to represent farmers, scientists, engineers, resettlement officials, archeologists and antiquities experts, or the “heroine” of the piece, journalist Dai Qing.

“Three girls wanted to be Dai Qing, so we flipped a coin. The girl who won made a wonderful opening speech to kick off the debate,” Mr. Wilson says.

He himself took the role of the government, “because no one else wanted it.” Names had to be picked out of a hat to augment the government side. (“The three chosen just happened to be boys.”)

At the start of the debate, he strode into the classroom dressed smartly in suit and tie (“not my usual attire”). And the children, out of habit, addressed him as Mr. Wilson. “I said, ‘Who’s Mr. Wilson? I’m from the Chinese embassy.'”

The children tended to stick to their prepared notes at first. “But in the last half hour, they really spoke from the heart,” Mr. Wilson says. “And sometimes they’d forget I was playing a role. When I said things like, ‘Yes, the dam is built near fault lines, but our scientists have assured us all will be well,’ they’d say: “Do you really believe that, Mr. Wilson? How can you say that?” [Excerpts from the debate appear below]

“After the debate, when I tell the students they now know more about the Three Gorges project than most of the Chinese people, they can hardly believe it – they’re only 10 years old.”

This is the second year Mr. Wilson’s Grade 4 classes have debated the dam, and he intends to continue the tradition until he retires in four years. (The assistant principal of the school has also suggested that he present the Three Gorges unit as a curriculum model at the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies.)

This year’s debate was written up in the class newspaper under the headline, Chinese People Win Debate on Dam, Government Side Reluctantly Concedes.

In a class discussion after the debate, the government side acknowledged defeat, saying: “We just kept repeating the same things, constantly referring to what ‘our scientists assure us.’ But you overwhelmed us with your facts.”

The class newspaper went on to report: “The debate on the Three Gorges Dam was between Chinese government officials, who want the project to go forward believing it will move China into the 21st century, and the people’s representatives, made up of farmers, historians, environmentalists, engineers, journalists and others who oppose the dam because they believe it will destroy the surrounding environment, force millions to move and has a chance to fail.

“Although the government argued in its usual manner of using statistics and focusing on scientific reports, the people were more effective in raising a variety of broad issues which won it for them.

“In the words of one government official with a white beard [Mr. Wilson], ‘The people had done their homework.'”

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Excerpts from the debate

Student playing Dai Qing: This dam will disrupt lives like no other dam has. Millions of people who have lived in the same place for generations will have great trouble moving to another place. They also have to find other jobs that they don’t know how to do. Who will train them? What will the new jobs be? Is the government considering this?

Student on the government side: This is a small price to pay for the advancement that China will have. All those people will have electricity that they didn’t have before.

Student for the people: Skimming and looting by workers and the government people is making the dam building worse. What about all those valuable art objects that are ruined or stolen? What is the government doing about this?

Government side: Looting and skimming are criminal acts and are a matter for the local officials to deal with. This is a police matter that is being handled. It is a small issue in comparison to all the good things the dam will bring.

Student waste expert: We know that the sewage now in the land will be trapped in the reservoir. Some people say that it will be a big cesspool. What about the fish and dolphins that will have to swim in that stuff?

Student for the people: What about the sewage the people will live with?

Government side: We know that sludge pollution might be a problem, and our scientists are working had to deal with all these issues. The model that we built shows that we have solved the silt problem. Instead of talking about pollution, why not talk about the fact that coal will not have to be burned and how the air will be cleaner? That is the real issue.

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Three Gorges Dam Debate: Team Questions

1. Some scientists have concluded that the Three Gorges dam is built near earthquake fault lines that could result in damage to the dam structure itself. Other experts are satisfied that this is not an issue. What is your response to this?

2. Over one and a half million people have to be moved to other locations because the completed dam reservoir water will cover their homes and land. What has this part of dam construction meant for the Chinese people? Are there other ways to handle this?

3. There is a concern that certain animals, fish and plants will be harmed by the effects of the Three Gorges dam and the resulting reservoir. What is your view on this issue?

4. Police reports and other official data indicate that looting of valuable material such as ancient relics and art objects is a problem that the government is not handling well. What is your response to this?

5. Seasonal flooding not connected with dams has for centuries been a major cause of damage and death in China, particularly in areas near the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. Will the Three Gorges dam help this problem?

6. There have been charges of corruption aimed at local government officials for skimming off (keeping some) money intended for peasants and farmers who need to relocate. Is this charge valid?

7. Pollution of air and water has been a major concern of the Chinese government. Many researchers say that the overall pollution caused by the dam will be greater than it is now. Please respond to this statement.

8. Silting or the accumulation of loose earth and sand is a normal result of any dam construction. However, there is speculation that excessive silting and sludge buildup will be very damaging to the reservoir, resulting in many problems. What is your view on this?

9. Government officials say that much needed electric power and technology will be available to millions of Chinese who have lived in primitive conditions up to now. The Three Gorges dam will enable the Chinese people in central China to enjoy the benefits of modern technology and society. What is your view on this statement?