An Expensive Child

The upbringing of the child, how do we, train our kids, what goals do we want our kids to attain in school, to excel, to become, one of the, elites, placing them in private schools, or, do we, want them to, encounter, people who are like, and unlike themselves, so they can, gain a wider perspective of, the world, to learn that there are, others who are, different than them?  Points to consider, when selecting what sort of schools to place your children in, private, public, etc., etc., etc., translated…

I’d seen on T.V. that there were Chinese rich parents who’d, thrown down wads of cash to celebrate their children’s birthdays, turning the girls into, princesses, the boys, into, princes, with the parents, dressed up to the nines, surprising all the guests who were, invited.  From before, I’d seen on the news, that a seven-year-old Filipino girl, dressed in that custom-made present, with a crown on her head, with the full-service banquets, and fireworks on display.

There are friends in my circle, who, for the sake of their children’s, “only childhoods”, wrecked their brains on the celebration means every year, put on that large party for them.  Other than inviting the kids’ friends, also, showed everybody else, how they’d, cherished, the only childhoods of their own, young.

Actually, every moment of life is the only, childhood is deemed as innocent, naïve, and only happens once, but, when did these, childhood birthday parties came into being in Taiwan?

I was just past forty, recalled how there was the McDonald’s commercials on T.V.  Back then, the shop was up to rent, and the character will bring tons of presents to the child, with the burgers, fries, the cokes, the happy meals.

illustration from UDN.com

That was in the eighties, a lot of the parents had, weathered through the poverties of post-war, and, as the U.S. gave the aids, the economy started, looking, up.  The government encouraged selling the items internationally, and, gave us the newer concepts of childrearing too.  The older generations will never host these grand celebrations for their kids on their birthdays, but the American ways believed, that we need to, toss down a whole lot of money on the kids, not expecting, nor demanding anything in return, and this concept had, rooted, downward in us.

And yet, based off of the economics sociologist, Zelizer, “Pricing the Priceless Child”, we can find, that the children now are seen, as, “little angels” and viewed as, “idols” in their existence, naïve, with complete dependence, this is, unique to modern day society only.

From a study of a sample of thirty families in Los Angeles, no single child would take responsibilities on her/his own for the family’s chores.  Normally, the parents had to plead, and ask (and usually failed at), but in the end, the parents can only, start doing all these chores like the maids do.  Modern day society, like the anthropologist, Tam Ramsay stated, “infants rule”, the children didn’t have any freedom, but they could, get whatever they wanted, they asked, of their, parents, without, any of the, related responsibilities.

In “Anthropology of Childhood” there are massive amounts of data collected which showed that we are now, living in a world where, “Children ranked supreme”, believing in their innocence, encouraging the younger generations to express themselves, and, do our bests, to, satisfy all their needs and wants, and this reflected on the collective society’s ideals of the natures of innocence of young children.  And besides, this society became, the projections of individual families’ tastes and value systems, becoming, a duplicate of the caste systems, and makes the gaps between the varied levels of socioeconomic statuses hard to understand one another, with the difficulties of, communicating with each other.

My son is in the first-grade now, I’d originally wanted to send him to private school, but thinking back to my own younger years, being enrolled in the nearby public elementary schools, he will get a chance to encounter children from various socioeconomic statuses, various backgrounds too, that was, what I believe to be, “normal” experiences for a child, to help him adapt and live along with people of an assortment of, backgrounds, to understand each of his classmates’ personality traits, likes, and dislikes, instead of getting to know his classmates, by how much money their families have.

And so, this, is on the socialization of the child, do we want our kids to be elites, is that why we’re, placing them in those, high-end, higher-quality, private schools from preschool on up, by making sure, that they excelled in the academia, or, do we want them to, get interactive, with, an assortments of, various children from the varied backgrounds, from blue collar families, to white collar families, that, is the question to be, considered here.

Wanting to Have More of a Long-Term Effect of Foreign Language, a Taiwanese Learning Method Should Be Established

At a loss for words, is what this, policy of foreign language instruction will turn the children of today into tomorrow…not thinking it through, the government here!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Tsai government called out, that we will be a dual-language country by 2030, and the executive yuan will set forth ten billion N.T. in budget in making this happen all the way to 2024, from the newly implementation of dual-language instructor in the school semester that started in September this year.  But the scholars analyzed, there’s little to no drive for the country’s own instructors to get trained as foreign language instructors, while the Department of Education is throwing huge sums of money down, hiring the foreign born teachers to teach.  But, the learning environment is different compared to that of U.S. and European nations, that the “Taiwanese mode” should get set up, for the program to have a longer lasting effect.

introducing children to the various cultures…photo from online

The common point of the dual-language education that the country set up is by hiring of foreign-born instructors to teach in the schools, starting this semester, the middle and elementary schools gets a total of 300 foreign instructors; with the added fifty classes of experimental education in dual-language per school, with a foreign instructor hired per class; while the community college levels, they’d selected a standard school, to get the foreign-born individuals to join the teaching staff.

The assistant dean of student affairs of N.T.U., professor of Education Department, Lin worked in the dual-language focus schools in Singapore before reminded, that the environment of learning here is different compared to that of Singapore, U.S., and Europe, that there should be a unique method to start off the education of English, that the country should NOT rely solely on the foreign born instructors, and, blindly, transplanting the experiences of Europe and U.S., otherwise, the programs would be, short-lived.

And this, is only, one of the, tiniest, “adverse” effects of globalization that’s found here in this country, the department of education finally realized, just how important for us to get onboard the “international train”, which is why they’re, now, implementing these policies of foreign instructors, without knowing and/or noting, that you HAVE to teach the children ONE language, and for the children to learn their mother tongues well enough FIRST, then you can, instruct them in a second language, while they’re implementing the foreign language instructions in the lower levels of elementary years, when the children hadn’t even mastered Chinese yet, uh yeah, that’ll, totally, BACKFIRE all right!

Reading to Children from Birth to Six, Helping Them Get the Abilities of Reading

Once more, reiterating, the importance, or reading with your own young children!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The critical period of development from birth to six, but, how do we get these kids running around like crazy, to sit down and read?  The head librarian of the National Library, Tseng, and the owner of the experimental kindergarten, Chen suggested, that the parents should select the easier to understand illustrated books, and allow the child to set up her/his own bookshelves, a corner for reading, even, including reading in the child’s day to day activities, all of these, can help the child gain the reading abilities that s/he will need.

starting children of from this…

the act of reading to children is more important than if they can understand the contents of the stories you read! Photo from online

Chen said, that a lot of parents worried that they might not be good enough storytellers, but, in the parent-child reading time together, there’s no need to teach the children anything from the reading materials, the most important is enjoying the time they spend together with each other.

Tseng told, that the point of reading together is not the reading, but to increase the intimate relations of parents and children, other than reading, the parents can turn the reading materials to life, like for instance, when reading the book, “Colors’, the parents can take the children to draw with the markers, or take a fitting book, and go to the parks with the children.

Tseng advised, that allowing the children to have their own bookshelves for their readers, that they can easily access.  A lot of the activities of reading can occur in this specific location of the home, as the parents are busying about, if the kids want to read, then, it would be more of a habit, that the children sit themselves down at this particular corner to read.  Chen said, having books inside a small basket will work just as well, place a few books into the baskets, to help the children access them more easily.

so as they’re older, they will be doing this on their own…

the self-initiated reading process…photo from online

Tseng told, that there are the developmental considerations for children reading at different ages, for one and two year old, the reading should be interactive, select the books that are precise, and not with so many words, that are, illustrated, for two three year olds, engage the children into specific topic related reading, the parents can head to the website of the national libraries or the local library branches to the catalogs, to see the preferred, recommended reading materials list.  Chen said, the parents should read the books first, before they borrow them or buy them for their young, for the younger children, the illustrations are important, it can help the children understand the stories’ contents, and, quality should be the focus of reading, not the quantity.

And so, it’s not that important, WHAT you read to your own young children, they just need you to take the time to spend with them, after all, if you don’t help your children establish that love of reading when they’re younger, chances are, they won’t be interested in reading as they grow up, because, everything is still, set up at a younger age in life.

A World Without, A.D.H.D.

How am I, gonna, rip, that BAND-AID off???  Hmmmmm, let’s think………(this is me, thinking!), OUCH!  It went, off!

A world without A.D.H.D, no more children, “hooked up” to them, Ritalin meds, to help them sit still, to keep their, concentration, no more disrupting the class, speaking out of turn, yo, put a MUZZLE on it already, huh???

A world without, A.D.H.D., the world IS, without A.D.H.D., there are only, the VARIOUS kinds of learners, we have our, visual bunches, the auditory kids, oh, and the tiny “proportion” of that group of bodily-kinesthetics, who needed to, touch EVERYTHING, that can’t sit still (wow, that sounds a whole lot like, the checklist of symptoms of A.D.H.D, doesn’t it???  It sure D-O-E-S!

“EARTH calling space cadet!!!“

focus, child!!! Photo from online

A world without A.D.H.D. that reduced the problem down by half, and now, we can, focus on, tackling the other HALF of THAT equation, helping children with dyslexia (as ADHD “cohabits” with dyslexia, in a lot of the special needs children out there!), but, without cutting these individuals’ brains open, and DISSECTING the lobes of the brains, to see exactly, where that wrong WIRE is, how the HECK can we figure out, WHAT exactly, went “wrong” with the neuronal branching???  We can’t, so, we’re, DEADLOCKED, again!

Stop labeling the children as whatever it is, MR (oh wait, there are those, who are, M.R.’s!), ADHD (bodily-kinesthetic), autistic spectrum, etc., etc., etc., etc., and just TREAT those kiddies as people already…

Okey dokey, this session of SPECIAL EDS for ADULTS is over, now, pay your tuitions here, oh, and BTW (by-the-way!!!), it’s now, FOUR cents per article per reader here, just “deposit” your “cash” inside the “collection plate” on your ways in, ways out, either way, it works for the Q-U-E-E-N………

Three Habits Plus the Three Present, Helping to Motivate Children to Learn on Their Own

Schools about to resume, and, if your kids aren’t, disciplined, meaning you didn’t start establishing that set ritual during the summer breaks, then, it will be, extremely hard for them, to return to the normal routines of school again, advice on parenting and education of your children, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Before the classroom sessions were halted in May, the instructor of Chingwha University’s subsidiary elementary school, Yeh turned her professional knowledge of teaching to help the students can learn on their own at home.  The following is a first-person interview with her:

A lot of parents are too unrealistic about the children learning on their own, children are playful in nature, with only limited amount of concentration, if there’s no instruction given prior on how to learn on one’s own, they couldn’t come up with a working plan to learn.

The parents needed to spend some time, and, plan out the working plans of learning based off of their children’s learning differences.  The plans should help the child get acquainted with three things: reading, exercising, and housework, all of these, are related to self-monitoring, self-learning.  Reading is for one’s own life, exercising, for one’s own, health, and, the household chores are, to prepare for living on one’s own in the future. 

In my classrooms, if someone finishes her/his work early, s/he can sort out her/his own desk drawers, to pick up the books in the classroom to read for fun; and now, the students are staying at home and going to school online, are there, enough outside reading materials available to them?  During this time, what new skills can they learn?  Like, making sunny side up, cooking rice; what sort of exercises can the parents and children engage in together at home?

The summer vacations should NOT be filled with endless things to learn, the adults should not zoom in on the children’s learning processes, so long as the child can understand what the textbooks say, then, they have the basic skills they are in need of.  Compared to going after the progresses of learning, try experiencing a new way of life with your families, to become more self-disciplined, for the children, this would be, a more interesting, more challenging, tasks, and it also serves as a, precious learning experience for them.

The child has a limited amount of attention, how can we get the child to focus on doing one single thing?  We can start with the three basic steps, “Eyes, Words, and Hands”.  The eyes, confirming that the children are watching what they’re, supposed to be looking at.  Words, to make sure they recite what they’re learning, to check for comprehension.  The hands, this is for the higher elementary school students’ going from reading to writing, a process.

And so, this is how you can, continue educating your own children, even IF the schools are out of session, you can help them set up a routine that they are to follow, to establish a set schedule of when they can do this, when they’re supposed to be learning their lessons, working on their school assignments, and when they can play the video games, or to go out in the yard to play, and  this is on having your children carry the disciplines they have for themselves, which will, serve them very well when they grow older.

How to Tell When a Fish is Going on a Trip?

A few words of exchange between a father and a son, how a father gets, stumped by his own son’s, question, translated…

Summer: When we humans take trips, we take a backpack, that’s how we know we’re, going off.  When the fishes go on their trips, they only take with them their bodies, then, how would we know, that they’re, off then?

Me: how to tell, when the fishes are, going on their, trips…………

On that evening, the moments before I fell asleep, Summer rushed out of his bedroom, and asked me this question of “how to tell when the fish go on their trips.”  Back then, I was, stumped, couldn’t know how to reply.  He’d started, snickering, told me, “my question is, too hard for you, huh?”

We’d often, thought up of a ton of questions that we can’t answer for one another, that was, the game that Summer and I had, shared, during that period of time.

For instance, I’d, held a straight face, and asked him at age six, do you know who Kafka was?  As he’d looked at me confused, then, fallen into that state of, upset, I’d told him, with that cunning manner, it’s a difficult one I’d given you, huh!  And thus, began, the game of two, of us, father and son, and, we’d, given one another, a hard time too.  And afterwards, Summer started, asking me the questions, to attempt to, faze me.  For instance, he’d asked, why do the Herculean Beetle fly to our house?  I’d replied, the Herculean Beetles are nocturnal, because of the light in our living room, that’s why they’d, flown to the balcony.  He’d caught a humongous stick insect once, prodded me, why did the bug sway around when there’s, no wind to make it unsteady?  I’d immediately answered him, that it was pretending to be a twig swaying in the wind, to duck out from its predators, so it won’t get, eaten.

a child like this, with so many questions about the world…

photo from online

Every answer I gave, I’d, taken that tone of pride in my voice, so he couldn’t, question me.  Sometimes, my answers weren’t, precise enough, nor evaluated against the facts, no other reasons, but because I’m a father with the stronger pride.  As I’d slowly discovered, that Summer was coming up with more and more question that became, too abstract, and I’d started, stuttering then, and, given off hints, that I’d not known how to answer him.  Not long thereafter, Summer busted the bad quality of this game—when the questions are too ambiguous, or if they are the questions without the correct answers, then, he’d gotten the chance of, defeating me, and score for him, and, captured back that dignity of a son that he’d not owned originally.

Thinking back, these are, probably, the what-not-to-dos in parenting, forcing my own son to bust my own lacking in “field research” and just googled for the answers on the search engines, my own, laziness.

As the questions of “how to tell when a fish is off on its journey” surfaced, seeing how Summer was laughing secretively, I’d know, that I got, checked!  That this game was, totally, over for me!  And then, there would be, two, three years that follows, which I will be, answering to my bullshitting him, this was also, that biggest, boomerang that he, as a son, can thrown back at me, his father—daddy, can you prove what you’d just answered me?

It’s just, how, how do I tell, when a fish is, off on its, journey?  This difficult problem, should be researched, a someone with a doctoral degree, isn’t it?

In the era when YouTube is used to explain just about everything, trying to find a question that can, faze my son—this surely, isn’t a Q&A game that a father can fake his understanding of things, to fool his own young.

Broadcast Yourself?  That’s it, the game of father and son, it’s, merely, a father, playing, against, his own, self, to make himself feel more important.  It’s just, that now, my son only needed to, wiggle his fingers, and, he could quickly discover, that his father’s questions for him are all, questionable.  And I can only, sigh, that the challenges that the YouTube era gave to us, fathers, truly is, difficult.  On the thought, you, as a father, it doesn’t matter if you have a doctoral degree, or if you actually have a fish, we still can’t tell, precisely, if the fishes are, already, taking their, trips away.  For the children who had yet to grow up, they’d understand to communicate and understand the fish in the tanks, along with being best pals with your, fish.  This, we will, never, catch up to them.

And so, it’s not that hard, to tell, “when a fish is off on its, journey”, I only have one possible answer for now, I’ll ask the tea stewed egg a bit, maybe, I will, get an answer immediately.  Yep, my question isn’t, that easily, answered, huh?

P.S., Tea Stewed Egg is a cat owned by a friend.

And so, there comes a time in our lives, when our young come up with extraordinary questions, not to test us, not to beat us at our own games, but only to show, that they’re, growing cognitively by the day, and, in these moments we get, stumped, we will surely feel, embarrassed, because, mommy and/or daddy no longer have ALL the answers!  How’d that happen, huh?  Because the kids are, smarter by the generations here still…

The Urban Legend of Mr. Dinosaur

Yeah uh, mommy’s a liar, that fooled, EVERYBODY, including, the new janitors at the science museum too!  Translated…

“It’s said, that Mr. Dinosaur at the science museum will clock out and get off work at five, and before he goes home, he would check to see if there are any children who were in the museum, if there are, then, he’ll, grab them, take them home, and make them into his supper for the night.  Hear it, the music’s played, the older children are all heading toward the exit now.  Come, Mr. Dinosaur is about to, clock out”.  This, was the unproven, urban legend of the science museums, and the source of where this legend came from, only three person, know, two were eaten, by the dinosaur, while the third, I’m not, at liberty, to say.

like this clip, from A Night in the Museum, off of YouTube

Night at the Museum (1/5) Movie CLIP – Throw the Bone (2006) HD – YouTube

On this story, my three kids believed with absolutely, NO doubt, not only once, as they’d heard the music of closing time playing, they’d, grabbed my hand, and ran fast toward the exits, “Mr. Dinosaur is about to clock out!”  Once at the museum, they’d, dragged me to leave quickly, while the workers saw how cute they were, how they’d helped cleaning up the environment, they’d wanted to give them some origami, and heard them hollered aloud, “Come quick!  Mr. Dinosaur is about to get off work!”, the workers asked me what that was about.

And so, I can, only, given them hint, as they’d heard, they showed that look of, disbelief, then I’d added, “you just started working, a short while ago, right?  This is the urban legend of this science museum”, the workers looked at me with doubt, “is that real?”. “Yes!”, I’d, pointed at my kids who were, eager, to escape the museum, “look, how they’d, hurried now!”, and so, I was, able to, fool the museum workers too!

Yeah, so, the children aren’t the only ones who are, gullible here, the adults are too, and, anybody with a sound mind can tell, that the story of the dinosaurs coming to life and eating the children who are still in the museum after closing time, knows that it’s, a way a parent tries to get the kids home, because they’d, played for too long, hung out too long in the museums, and, the new workers are, fooled by this mom.

A Lifelong Hobby

It’s NEVER good, to PUSH your children into something, instead, you should, allow them, to discover just how much they love that hobby you want them to take up, on their own, and, don’t force them to sit down at that piano, to practice for an hour each and every day, because that’s, torture, instead, allowing them, to discover their own hobby, by themselves, slowly, if they’re, mean to, translated…

After reading the writer, Tseng’s “Meeting Up Again with the Piano” on March 4^th, it’d, made me recall my childhood memories, and extended into my current days.

My mother was an elementary school teacher, in the low wages of the fifties, she’d, squeezed out the tuitions, or us to go from the countryside of Chihshan to Kaohsiung to take piano lessons, and told us we all needed to sit at the piano and practice for an hour at least per day.

Being as young as we were, how would we know our parents’ hearts, in the three, four years of lessons, going to the piano teacher’s house was like going to the guillotine, I’d, hated it but not known, how to, rebel against it.

The pressures of keep going in my academic WAS, a great excuse for not taking the piano lessons anymore, seeing how my eldest and second eldest brother entering into the middle school years, getting away from the “guillotine”, and I, the only one who remained in the torture chambers.  This day had, finally, arrived, before the schools started in my middle school year, as the piano teacher played a new song for me, I’d told him, “I’ll be starting in middle school soon, I can’t take lessons with you anymore!”, seeing how shocked my piano instructor looked, I’d felt, that I’d, made my, revenge!

a child that looks, engaged…photo from online

During the summer of my second year in middle school, a group of us gone to a classmate’s home to hang, there was, a white grand piano in the room, and the group of us, started, tapping at the keys, I’d, followed the sheet music, and played the notes on it, and, I was shocked, that this easy to play piece had, brought out, that familiar, tune, and I’d, borrowed the sheet music, took it home to practice, the piece was, “Fur Elise”, as my second eldest brother who was in high school heard me played, he’d, sat down next to me and started playing too.

Because of the foundations of piano lessons lain earlier in my life, we’d found the sheet music we liked and started, playing again, from the classical to jazz, and, when we got into it, we would have a four-hand playing.  We’d played on, for decades, and it’d become, a hobby that we keep, for life now, from before, we’d not wanted to take the lessons, using our academic stresses as an excuse, and, later we’d realized, that in a lot of the times, piano playing, is a good method of, stress-relief.

And, naturally, I’d, wanted to, pass this, gift to my own young, a decade ago, when my daughter was in the elementary years, I’d, coaxed her onto the piano bench, with my own experience in childhood, I knew better, not to force it on her, that I’d had to, give her the rewards too.  My daughter wasn’t the talented sort, to help her continue learning the piano, I’d, carefully, guided her, sometimes, I’d, not forced her to play, to practice, and at others, I’d, told her she’d, needed to sit down and play for a while.

And finally, we’d, made it through, six whole years, and she had, all her fundamentals down pat, just about, and I’d, sat with her on the four-hand piano, and, before the pressures that is about to come toward her at the end of her last year of middle school, I’d decided, to end her lessons, and gave her a “graduation ceremony”, I’d told her, “this is the end of my demands for you to play the piano, from here on out, you get to decide, whether or not YOU want to, play.”

And, surely enough, I’d not, seen her, sit down on the piano bench since, and, three years flew by, at the start of this year, I’d heard her telling me that she’d wanted to, “practice my skills back again.”, I can’t, believe my ears.  Yet, it’d been, two whole months, past her high school entrance exams, and I’d not heard, a single note yet, I’d, told myself, don’t expect too much.

Several days ago, as I came home from outside, before I’d turned the keys, I’d already, heard the piano songs, coming out of the living room, and I’d felt, moved……………

So, this still just showed, how as parents, we should, NEVER force our own dreams onto our young, we may give them lessons, if they ask us to let them learn, but, we shouldn’t, FORCE them to play the musical instrument, I mean, they’re still young children, and children, have limited attention span, and forcing them to SIT down for hours to practice the songs, it’s just, too unrealistic, and, this may end up, slaughtering the love your children had originally, of music, and have the opposite effect of what you’d, hoped to give to them.  If they’re meant to pick it back up again, then they will.

Seven Games to Play with Your Young Children to Help Them Develop a Stronger Concentration

Games that helps aid the development of your young children’s cognitive processes, so, play with them more, and come up with other sorts of games that can stimulate your children’s brains, from the experts, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

With more and more, emphasis, placed on child development, birth to age three is the key development period, what ways, do we have, of helping the children develop their sense of, concentration?  The child occupational therapist, Yu suggested seven games at home, to play with your children to help them develop stronger concentration.

First, the musical singing song game, Yu said, playing the music that your young children liked, like Baby Shark, Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes, etc., etc., and do the simple movements with your children, it’s good for their concentration.  Beading, stacking up the blocks, then, aiming at the blocks, knocking them down are also great games.

games like this…

photo from online

Wait until the child understand the simple commands, have the child role-play as the “delivery person”, to bring the items to the parents, Yu said, place the obstacles like toys that obstruct their paths, have your children step over them, and tell them not to knock the items in their ways over, to not “tip over the foods”; wait unit your children are older yet, have them find specific items out of a stack, deliver it you.

Hide-and-Go-Seek is also a game that trains the child in concentration.  Yu stated, that the parents can first, hide the dolls underneath the quilts, and showing only the legs of the dolls for the child to find, and in a more advanced version of the game, have the child find the socks, “where’s the red sock?”, or “Where’s the sock with the car on it?”

Yu most recommended that the parents and children read along together, she said, find the books with the pictures primarily, let the kids see what shapes are in the books, for instance, in a book of illustrated animals, turn to a page, have the child tell what animals are on the page, where’s the rabbit, find the dog, have your child point it out to you.

or this…

photo from online

The clinical psychologist, Lee said, before age three, the diagnoses of attention-deficit, or hyperactivity are hard to diagnose, the researches showed, that the high-tech devices with the loud volumes of sounds and the bright lights are, harmful to the development of your children, that there should be a limit of half an hour a day of use per day.

And so, due to the prevalence of the diagnoses of ADD, ADHD these days, we must, be careful, WHAT we’re, exposing our young children to, after all, children DO, model after the adults, and, the games of stacking up the blocks, classification of the various kinds of toys, these games trains your young children in their, cognitive development processes.

The Companion Study Buddies of College Years, Hand-in-Hand, Helping the Children in the Distant-Regions

A story of hope, something we’re, lacking in this day and age now, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

For the past weeks, it’d been, very cold here in Taiwan, but, there was something heartwarming in Taichung worth mentioning.

This was started by the students of Fengjia University.  The students were preparing for the finals week, with the temperatures dropping down, and they’d, made the time, to go to the mountains of over 2,000 meter above sea level to bring the kids studying in the elementary schools up in the mountains to the cities, to experience life in the cities, and university life, opening up the eyes of these young elementary school age children.

Lishan is 160 kilometers away from the Fengjia University it’s the largest, least densely populated, with a large area location in the city’s districts, the land area ranked fourth, and there are only about 10,904 people who live there locally.  From before, when the only road was the crosspath of the locale, but since the earth quake of September 21^st, the foundations of the entire passage had been severed off sectionally.  And currently, there were the three opening times for the locals of Lishan to go in and out.

“Companionships from University, Bringing Kindness to the Distant Regions” is a social responsibility project set up by the Fengjia University, two years ago, the program started helping with the transportation of elderly people in Lishan to the hospital, and set up the work stations in the local communities.  In the field researches that the university conducted, they’d found, that the greater Lishan Region had the “ten days on, four days off” scheduling that was very unique in Taiwan.  And so, the teachers of the schools in Lishan all climbed up the mountains to give the lessons, and because of the way being too far off, the schools and the parents decided, that the teachers should hike up the mountains, teach for ten days, then, hike back down the mountains, have four days off, and yet, the parents of the area mostly worked in farming, and for the four days off (usually from Friday to Monday), the parents couldn’t find the time to watch over their own young, nor could they keep track of where their children are, and it’d, caused the students to not have anything constructive to do, exposed in the dangerous conditions, and causing the troubles for the communities, as well as the families too.

The Fenjia Team after discussing with the local communities and the church, they’d decided to combine the Hoping Elementary, the local church, the Wenhwa Health Station, as well as other parties, pushed forth the “Work-Stay program”, inviting the college age students to accompany the children in Lishan afterschool, and, as the teachers take their time off and hiked down the mountains, the college students would, hike up to stay and keep the children company, to use the group activities, and the character education courses, to guide the students to behave themselves right.  While the tribal churches would, provide the college students with the room and board programs, and the students get to have a firsthand experience of the lacking of the distant regions at the same time.  Last week, this group of college students hosted a fundraising for this group of children in the Lishan Elementary School to come down the mountains for a trip, hosting the two days one night, city and university experience, and found the enterprises that will help with the room and board of these children during the time.

In the company of the college students, the children got to experience the city for the very first time in their lives.  They’d visited the Natural Sciences Museum, the Opera House, the Fengjia University campus, as well as the Taichung city hall too, and at the same time, the kids had a steak lunch with the city councilpersons.  This sort of a city tours, other than immersing the children into life in the big city, to experience different ways of life than what they are accustomed to, it’d also given the kids a better understanding of their environments, as well as giving them a deeper understanding of the occupations available to them too.  The next stage, we’re thinking of how to lead the college students into the tribes to conduct the field researches, and the community designs, using the university as a base, to push forth the revitalization of the tribal regions.

There are so many needs from the distant regions in Taiwan, that the local governments can’t look after on their own.  We hope, that in the near futures, there would be, more college instructors who are willing and able, to go to the distant regions, to accompany the children, to utilize the passions of the college students, and the energies, to open up the roads of these distant regions, to instill hope, in these, tribal areas.

And so, this, is a great program that the university had, started up, and the key is to make it last long-term, that it won’t be just for three minutes, until the heats cooled down, it’s a great plan, and, the steps to making this work is slowly taking place, and we need more people who are, willing and able, to give to the children living in these, distant regions.