An Education on Taiwan

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Our first event in Taipei was to visit a local elementary school. One of the DNC members on the trip requested that we visit a school while here, so it was set up for us.

We were all so thankful that she made the request because the visit to the school was incredible. We all left the school feeling like we got an authentic taste of Taiwanese culture and we all left realizing how much better American schools could be operating.

From the moment we arrived, a series of events had been choreographed to exhibit the qualities and performance of the school. We were shown presentations by special-ed students whose parents were there to watch as well. Skits and musicals were performed for us in English and Chinese. We saw the architect who was presenting to a group of students his best vision of a recreation area a group of first graders had conceptualized - every recreation area around the school came from ideas developed by the students.

As we walked from one of the presentations to another, I asked one of the teachers some questions and these were her answers:

- 1600 children in this Elementary School
- 100 teachers
- 20 administrators - who all teach! There are no administrators in the school who do not teach
- The school was a public school - free like ours except that parents cover some textbook and material costs to the amount of about $100 a year
- Each Kindergarten class consists of 30 students with 2 teachers; the rest have 35 students with one teacher.

Oh, and I met the sweetest student who I called my Taiwanese sister. Each of us were assigned a Chinese name that sounds somewhat like our own last name phonetically. This fifth grader approached me shyly and told me that I share her last name. She was one of our wonderful guides and genuine like a West Texan…

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Photos

My Taiwanese Sister
My Chinese name is the same as hers.

Kids Greeting Us
At elementary school

Skits
This skit showed counting abilities in Mandarin

Cute Kid
He was part of the counting skit

Hot Classrooms
The rooms have window air units that do nearly nothing. The only air movement in the stifling classrooms is the little fans in the ceiling.

The Student Designed Playground
The design came from the students' ideas and planning.

Comments

[marsha]

Thats cool!! So what is your new name?