More than Tens of Thousands Supported the Specialized Two-Year-Old Classes, the Education Groups Objected to the Amendments of Mixing the Two-Year-Olds into the Preschool Classes

This is due to those, WHINY parents who needed to work, who can’t place their not-yet-preschool or kindergarten age children anywhere, and this is still, STUPID, not considering the developmental needs of the child!  The @#$%ED up policy of early childhood education that this government came up with, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Department of Education is planning on opening up the first year of kindergarten for as young as three-year-old, and the early childhood groups started criticizing, suspected that if the government went forth with this policy, then, the two-year-old specialty classes would be totally, screwed up.  The All-Education Foundation gone to protest at the Department of Education, claimed, that within two days’ announcing the policies, there were, more than tens of thousand who’d signed the petitions to support the opening of the two-year-old specialty classes already, against the mixed-age of two year olds into the preschool classes, called out to the Department of Education to stop the amendment from passing.

In actuality, the two-year-old specialized classrooms has a totally different setting compared to the three-year-old only class, for instance, the toilets for the two-year-old classes need to be located in the back of the class, not for the threes.  The teacher-student ratio for the twos is one to eight, for the toddlers of first year kindergarten and up it’s one to fifteen, and there were the owners of the facilities who aren’t opening up the early childhood classes, due to the costs in hiring the extra certified early childhood educators.

The committee member of All Education Foundation of Child Education, Yang stated, that if the children under age three can get mixed into the three-year-old classes, then, does that mean, that five-year-olds are allowed into elementary school to learn.  The Department of Education should NOT open that door of convenience, just because it matched the needs of some of the operators of the early childhood programs.

The Department of Education stated, that this amendment merely allows for the chances of biological three-year-olds to be in the same classroom setting as the three yar old toddlers, that it would NOT be like having kids in various ages in the same classes.  And, if the schools are to have the classes, then, three mandates must be met including, the preschool not having a two-year-old only classes, or if the two-year-old classes are already, filled in enrollment, with the three-year-old classes still having the vacancies, and the toddler must be biologically three year old on the month of registration, then, the toddler can start schooling.

this mixed age group would work

I’m thinking…photo from online, because at least, the‘re, “roughly” the same ages.,,photo from online

And so, just like ALL other policies by the DDP, this is, still giving us the run-around, I mean, what the HELL is being biologically three, three years of age since the day we were born, but, what if, mentally, we’re still not yet, potty trained by then?  And, this mix age class is still just bullshit, I mean, surely, if you mix the four year-olds with the five, six year olds in a class, that would be okay, but, two is still, way too young, when they needed the individual attention, and besides, the teacher-to-student ratios are totally different for these age groups, so, what it adds up is, you’ll be having, 2.5 instructors (that’s still just made up by me!), and, where the HECK you gonna find HALF of a teacher, oh I know, you split the early childhood educators in HALF, then, place one half in the 2.5 teacher classroom, and, leave the remaining HALF of that instructor that’s gotten, hacked down the middle, inside the CLOSETS!

Yeah, that’s too stupid, I mean, if they’re older, sure, it might work, but not at that young and age…

Opening up the Mix-Age Classes of Children Over Two Years of Age, the Holistic Education Foundation is Strictly Against This

In the kindergarten years, maybe, if individual attention is given to the students personally, but, not in the toddler years!  And yet, this amendment of the education of early childhood got written down, this is totally NOT considering the cognitive developments of the early childhood years!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Department of Education recently proposed the second rule of the amendments of early childcare program and early childhood education, it’d planned to place the two-year-olds into the mixed age classes of three, and four year olds, but the Holistic Education Foundation questioned, that the Department of Education announced this before the long holidays, that they were, calculating something, and called out for the Department of Education to SLAM on the brake on this policy, in order, to protect the rights of two-year-old toddlers’.

and no, this is still NOT what you’re gonna get!

unfortunately…photo from online

Based off of the rough drafts of this act, the Department of Education considered the right of children in the early childhood years to receive an education, the needed care, as well as considering the need of the parents to place their young in the nurseries to mandate the early childhood facilities that if the facilities didn’t have the toddler classes of two to not yet three year olds (the specialty classes for two year-olds), or that there’s no extra slots for the two-only classes, and there are still room available for the three to four classes, that the school is allowed to place the toddlers under age three in the three-to-four-year-old classes.

The committee member of the Holistic Education Foundation of early childhood education, Yang told, that the levels of understanding is what is used to assign the needed resources, and the setting of the policies of education, that it’s a basis for measuring the developments of young children, that the two-year-olds have different developmental milestones and needs compared to the three-year-olds, that the preview of this act was due to there’s not enough resources in the two-year-old classes, that the Department of Education was only finding a resolve for their own incompetence of policies in early childhood care.

The Department of Education stated, that at the start of May, they’d already invited the local government, the instructors, the early childhood education professionals, as well as parent groups to ask for their advice, that it will continue to listen to the various opinions, and take the opinions as a reference for the amendment.

this…photo from online

mixed with a little of this…

except not in those seats, but running around like PSYCHOS in the classrooms! Photo from online

Yeah uh, this is still, totally, FUCKED (don’t pardon me here!) up, I mean, the twos are, potty training, meaning, that they may NOT have that down pat yet, and now, imagine this, the teachers are, chasing those three-year-olds around (industry vs. inferiority stage anybody???), with the group of twos, going potty, everywhere in the classroom setting, and, you’d end up with, a whole lot of messes that you, STUPID adults can’t handle, and this is still all due to how the government wanted to appease to the parents’ needs to place their young in daycare, because they all gotta work, and in the end, guess W-H-O gets, screwed???  The children, because they are NOT receiving the needed care in accordance to their, cognitive development, because the government wants to MIX it up, oh, and don’t forget about lunch hour, that’s gonna be, a total MESS too, and, how many teacher’s assistance would you need in this sort of a mix-age class, because, there’s a DIFFERENT ratio of students per instructor in these, various age groups, hello, hello, hello???  This IS, a NO-BRAINER, you do realize that, don’t you???

Yeah, uh-huh, uh-hum, and, how does THAT make you feel again?

‘K, I’m OUT!

The Instructors Weren’t Certified in Early Childhood Education, and the Parents Had to Press for the Facts

This is too, messed up, and it’s still because the government’s not setting up the rules and regulations up completely, problems in the systems, because the Department of Education doesn’t tighten up the requirements, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Based off of early childhood education laws, the various facilities of childcare needed to post the qualifications, the degrees attained, the certifications of the educators openly, but, a lot of the preschool aren’t following this rule, causing over eighty-percent of uncertainties in the answering of the parents’ inquiries, “are the early childhood educators for my child actually, qualified?  Are they certified?”.

As one parent was told of the law’s requirement of the facilities of childcare posting the experiences, the education levels of the early childhood educators, they are all surprised, that there’s not a systems of checks for this, that the schools wouldn’t tell the parents if the instructors are licensed, that they’re worried that if their young is in the class of an unlicensed educator.

Another parent said, that there’s a high turnover rate of instructors in preschool, that her child from the preschool levels to the final year of kindergarten, switched a total of two, three educators, and that there’s no way that she could ask the person in charge of the preschool, if the instructors are fully qualified, and has the certifications.

And the National Parents Organization C.E.O. Peng told, that the private preschools don’t pay for the certified early childhood educators, and not offered the equal benefits and the promotions to the workers, causing the professionals to seek out work elsewhere, and now, there’s this lacking in human resources, in the schools, that this is awful for the parents.

To this, the Department of Education stated, that due to limited human resources, if the parents responded to the local governments, the local governments will do all they can to understand the situation.  Currently, there were only the advisories given to the school on this.

And so, this is how the Department of Education showed complete lack of care and concern, for this problem, not knowing, that early childhood education is one of the most vital time of a child’s life, and, as the quality of education in the early childhood years gets sacrificed, the country is going to sink with it.

Squatting Outside of Other People’s Homes, the Distant-Education Means, the Children in Lanyu Had to Chase After the Connection Signals to Keep Themselves in School

How the resources needed by the children living in the distant-regions, are lacking here still!  The ins and outs of Taiwan (not the world!) here, off of the Newspapers, translated…

The pandemic raged out of control in Taidong locally, the local department of education gave the instructors, the students the options of “distant-learning means”.  However, the councilwoman of Lanyu, Huang told, that the signals in Lanyu isn’t stable enough, awhile ago, she’d seen the children, squatting outside of someone else’s house, and she’d inquired, and the children told her, that “there’s no signal at home, I can only go to a place where there’s a stronger signal”, watching how the students had to chase the locations with the stronger internet connection signals, Huang’s heart ached.  The Department of Education pointed out, that the internet signals, isn’t solvable by ability.

Huang told, that due to the landform and environment in Lanyu, the communications signal is already, very unstable, and, toward the impacts of the coming of the pandemic, the Department of Education pushed forth the policies of distant-education means to protect the students and instructors, this is out of good will, but, there’s the need to consider IF the regions with these rules being implemented, are, with the means of distant education; from before, Lanyu hadn’t had stable signals, and some of the families don’t have the internet connections, how are the students able to attend classes, the related government agencies should help resolve this matter.

the location of a local elementary school, with the internet signals, blocked by the mountains all around it! Photo from online

The head of Department of Education locally, Lin said, the port at the schools’ ends in Lanyu are working fine, the problem is in the students’ homes’ end; that the local office had already, filed a notice to the Department of Education already last year, but the set up of the cell towers of the internet connections, then, it would be on the telecommunications companies and the higher-up offices.

He’d told, that not only Lanyu, but in the distant regions of Taiwan, or the area where the internet can’t reach to, the students are faced with, no signal, and, from the angle of the Department of Education, he hoped, that the central government can step in and help resolve this, to NOT impact the right of children to get educated.  Up to yesterday, there had been a total of 418 students, forty-eight instructors who’d been confirmed of contractions, and, the halting of the in-class sessions had been extended to seventeen schools and twenty classrooms locally, and they’d all started the distant-education learning sessions now.

“When the weather is awful, there’s no, signal”, the parent, Chen told, that the signal was sent by microwave on the island, but, when it is raining, or when the clouds got too thick, there’s, the signal that grows, too weak to stay connected, and it was quite difficult, for the children, to have a full course session at a time.

And so, it’s the geographical location of this distant region that’s caused this, but, the connection is a bigger problem, because you can’t change the geographical setting of where you are, and, these students in the distant-regions are, deprive of their right to receive an education, which will help them get out of the poverty-stricken backgrounds they were born into, and, this problem still doesn’t, get resolved here.

The Air, My Friend

All our, active, imaginations, getting, SLAUGHTERED, because of the “abundance” of access to high-tech gadgets, with internet access, at the tips of, all of, our, fingers, the column by Jimmi Liao, translated by me…

I’m Not Foolish Enough, to Go up to the Skies to Catch the Stars,

Nor am I, Stupid Enough, to Follow the Clouds Out Adrift,

I Will NOT Head Off to Space to that Exploration that Tires Me Out Completely.

 I Can Say This, Bravely, Loud & Clear:

“So Long as I Get to Stay at Home, Check Things Out Online on My Cell Phone,

I’ll Be, Happy as, a Clam!”

the artwork of Jimmi Liao, courtesy of UDN.com

And this would be, a MAJOR problem, the slaughtering of our, and the next generations’, active imagination, as the high-tech devices are now, taking OVER this god damn world, and, soon enough you will have those, itty, bitty, fetuses inside the wombs with a cell phone (or an iPad!), in those, tiny ten little finger when you go in to get your ultrasound or sonograms, and that’s still, too sad…

The Transformation into a Princess

The lesson this father learned, from his baby daughter, who is in her, Queen Elsa stage of life, translated…

I have a four-year-old daughter who loved nothing but skirts, but, in her preschool, for the kids to stay easily managed, and having the agility to do the class activities, the preschool told the students that they can’t wear skirts or dresses to classes, and so, on the weekends and holidays, she’d, made up for it, putting on the skirts, the dresses, to satisfy her own desires of being dolled up like a princess.

Since we received the preowned princess dress from a friend, she’d, found that hidden princess side of her self, even though, she’d not seen any Disney princess films, but through the social networking in her school, she’d become, the master of “Frozen” by Disney, “let it go” became her overly used phrase, and on the weekends, she’d insisted, on becoming Elsa the queen, with that crown on her head, a magic wand in her hand, then, she would allow us to take her out, she’d, put her heart, her soul, her being into this, as a father to her, and a film director, I don’t know how to react to it, and realized, just how, powerful an influence the movie industry has on the people.

I wrecked my mind, do I, allow my daughter to exercise her own free imagination, or to restrict her, to set a right kind of value system for her to follow?

little girls, dressing themselves up as princesses

photo from online

This semester, I’d started teaching a master class, “Writing Scripts for Young Children”, I’d set up the discussion times with my students on the matter of “children” from before.  First, understand the minds of the young children?  How the children’s thought processes worked?  How do they express themselves?  How to get along, communicate, then lastly, what we want to, give to the children?  This order is quite vital, but in the Asian culture, stressing raising outstanding children, we only cared about what we’re, feeding to the children, how to make them absorb what we’re giving to them, to make sure they learned the lessons quickly, and all of the lessons we have to teach all at once?  As for the children’s thoughts, or feelings………we’d ignored, wait until they’re older, then, we tailor to that.

On the weekend, I took my young daughter, dressed up as Queen Elsa to Costco to shop, because of how she’d stood out, the ladies working at the sample tables, and demonstrating the new products all came to say hello.

“Hi, princess”.

“Princess, you are, beautiful!”

“What are you looking to buy today, princess?”

“Are you Princess Elsa?  I saw your movie once!”

All the way, my daughter was very conversational with everybody who’d greeted her, it’s her dad who felt, embarrassed, and boy oh boy, am I glad, that I’d put my mask on.

“Does it bother you, or make you uncomfortable, that you’re getting, everybody’s, attention?”, I’d asked my daughter.

“no.”, she’d responded.

“So, you enjoy all the attention then?” I’d inquired.

“Sure, because they’re giving me compliments, affirming me.”, she’d told me.

Actually, this child of mine, had suppressed her feelings from when she was a young child, refused to express herself, and we’d had to guess what’s on her mind a lot.  It took my wife and I a ton of time, and worked hard with her, for her to finally express her own emotions, to tell her thoughts to us, and now, the results are finally, apparent.

what these, little girls, loved…photo from online

Before we give to the children, and teach them things, we must first, know what they’re thinking, how they’re, feeling; understand, empathize, allowing them to tell us, give the children their own means of expression, to valid what they experience, this is, the core value of writing for children.

Letting the children be themselves, versus training them to be someone else we expect them to become, this is a huge matter for not just the parents, but also, a must-learn lesson for everybody in this world.  I’m too grateful to my princess, teaching her father, the “king”, to learn this, important lesson.

So, the adults learned something from the children here, because there is, a lot to learn from your own kids, but, mostly, you @#$%ING (maxed out!) adults think, that we’re older, therefore, we know more than you do kid, and, we will silence you, because you got nothing important to say, after, we are older, AND wiser, having lived longer.

And yet, there are, a ton of things, that the adults should be learning from their own young, not the other way around, children are, born wise, and then, they grow up, become, stupid adults.

A Simple Act of Helping Someone Out, that Made Everything, Different

Lessons that’s learned, after that incident, and, you’d done your, good deed for the day, and bringing a smile to the kids’ and their instructor’s, faces, translated…

The classroom instructor, Mrs. S is loud, and she’s in charge of those, innocent, young first graders who’d not been, socialized enough yet, and, there would be the actions of the kids, that made Ms. S scream aloud for help.

One day, she’d left the classroom to get the snacks for her class, before she left her class, she’d told the students, to “behave”, and yet, as she returned back to the room, she saw the young children, running around like wild animals, she’d started, screaming aloud at them, too loud, and it’d made my ears, buzz.  Although, I’m not the one she’s directing her anger towards, but, being forced to listen to her screams, it’d, upset me, and, the tropical depression in the atmosphere then, was, uncomfortable for me.

I’d felt awful in that instant, and thought, that heading downstairs, to pick up the snacks only takes a few minutes, and, had I offered to help Ms. S to go get it, then, she wouldn’t have to leave the classroom, and the kids would start running wild, then, wouldn’t I have traded my thirty-seconds’ life in for the peace, and quiet?  For S, for the children, as well as for me too, it all worked out well

And ever since, as I saw that the snack times were about to be here, as I’d heard the noises get loud in the next room, then I’d, gotten up out of my seat, tilted my head in, “I’ll go pick up the snacks for the kids!”, S was stunned, then, immediately, she’d, led the kids to say thanks to me, and, that smile out of gratitude that was on her face, the kids expectant looks, made this errand, more than, worth it.

Although, we can’t turn back the hands of time, but, if we’re, willing, to help one another out, we still will be better in our interactions, relations the next time go around.

And so, this, is what you’d learned, from listening in to the goings on of the classroom neighboring to yours, and, afterwards, you’d, actively helped out, and, helping this other teacher out, was no big deal for you but, for the other classroom instructor, it means, a whole lot, because she couldn’t leave her students alone on their own, seeing how they’d, gotten too rowdy, raucous and loud the last time, and she’d, grilled the whole class that last time.

The Parents Only Threw the Money Down, and Not Taken the Time to Be with Their Children, and of Course the Children Aren’t Happy

What YOUR (‘cuz I don’t got one!) children are needing from you, stupid parents, so, STOP paying them all with all those, materialistic CRAP already, huh?  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The satisfaction rating of children in Taiwan in 2020 was at an all-time low, nearly twenty-percent of children surveyed felt they were lonely.  In the assortments of reform in education, and the parents stressing that the kids should have fun learning, the correlation of the two factors are more and more, negatively, correlated, such irony.

Reasons for the drop of happiness in children and teens include, time of sleep, amount of exercises, and the pickiness toward foods, there are only a quarter of children surveyed who’d exercised less than sixty minutes or more out of a week, with the average sleep per day less than eight hours, and, the older the children are, the number of hours in sleep shortens.  Half of children surveyed felt they were overwhelmed by the academic pressures.

With the advancements in molecular biology, we’d come to understand, that the workings of how children learn, and the neural developments in the children’s brains, that is, the foundations of children learning to live and learn happily.  The parents are now, outsourcing the means of expressions of love for their own young, sending them to the preschools, the kindergartens, and the cram school sessions, was their means of taking responsibilities for their own young.

The assortments of modern day inventions helped us save the time, like the washing machines, takes the time away from us doing the laundry by hand, and yet, the parents didn’t utilize the time they got.  The smart phones, the iPads, available to the children’s for using, and, handing your own young to someone else to raise, to teach, to educate.  It’s a wonder, that modern day family required so much money to run on, because of the large amounts of expenses, the parents didn’t have enough time for their own children.

Some of the instructors are used to bullying as a method of teaching, cramming in the lessons, and, blaming the children’s lacking in performances to the families’ going on.  And, if the medical personnel didn’t get caught up with the times now, then, all of these knowledge that are new, can’t be accessible by the instructors who were taught the old way.  If those in the children protections realm don’t have the “professionalism”, only using their ”experiences and passion for their work” to manage the matters.  What sort of an effect would it get?

The school instructors, the medical professionals are trained professionals, meaning, that they “have the knowledge as basis, their conscience as their attitude, and passions in their job as their motivations”, not just using one’s own professional skills to help others.  Allowing the medical care professionals to get into the realms of welfare of the children and teens, to help them improve their psychological wellbeing.

While the responsibilities of the parents are, providing the love, that sense of security, comfort, allowing the kids to have enough sleep, a balanced diet, and enough exercises.  That way, the children and teens will be able to learn at a maximum capacity, and, at this stage in their lives, they need no cram school, no talent classes to help them add on to their skillsets, these core abilities can’t be gained by throwing the money down, it’s achieve through the daily goings on of your children’s, lives.

With the various levels of developments of the brain in maturation, when needed, surely, the extra courses are necessary, then, this would be when you need to spend the money on, parents.

And so, this, is on outsourcing raising your own young to everybody else, but yourselves, parents, because you’re all way too busy, making the money, paying your mortgages, oh, and little Johnny’s private preschool tuition just hiked up fifteen-percent this semester, and we need to enroll our kids into ballet, musical instrument, gymnastics, etc., etc., etc., without knowing, that these measures you stupid parents are taking, to ensure that your children don’t lag behind the rest of their peers is, murdering them, what the kids need is Y-O-U-R companionship, and, you can’t even provide that to them, something that’s, so, simple, and you call yourselves, “fitting parents”?  Give ME a break here!

A Mom Who is Hearing Impaired

The worries of this mother, which was what prevented her from getting her son the help he was in need of, until the social worker reached out to her, got through to her, and she was able to get her son into the early intervention program, that gave him a chance at a better future, translated…

After I’d Come to Understand the Hearing Impaired Person’s Understanding and Expressions of Language Being Different than Ours, Whether it be Getting Treatment, the Assessments or the Meetings to Discuss Matters, I’d Always Helped Mom File for a Sign-Language Translator…………….

the Child Who Didn’t Know How to Get Along with Others

The first time I saw Hsian-Hsian at the sanitation offices, he was chasing the other kids, wanted them to play with him, he’d gotten to the other kids, to see what they’re doing, then, grabbing the items the other kids were working on, and quickly enough it’d, caused someone to cry.  The few parents, after they’d led their own young away, and gotten their children to settle down, Hsian-Hsian started signaling to his mother, that he wanted to go off to play with the toys—normally, children his age can already speak a few simple sentences, and so, this nonverbal exchange caught my attention.  Not long thereafter, I saw his mother used the words, plus the signs to communicate, and that was when I’d come to understand that she’s, a hearing-impaired person.

illustration from UDN.com

from before the mother received the help her own young son was in need of, because she feared hat she couldn’t communicate with the physicians…

When Hsian-Hsian was vaccinated at the sanitation offices, because he didn’t speak a word, and his height, weight are both, under average, he was evaluated by the physicians, and given the diagnosis of “developmentally-delayed.”  The physicians also worried, that he may have inherited the hearing impairments, which can cause his language development to come delayed, suggested to the parents that he should be taken to the major hospitals for an evaluation.  And yet, Hsian-Hsian’s mom didn’t, and so the nurses at the sanitation office filed for a social worker in early intervention for her, and so, I’d met them, for the, very first time.

After over an hour long of talk on paper, I’d understood the situation at Hsian-Hsian’s home, and discussed with his mom the goals of our working together.  She’d told me, that she’d not set up the hospital visits, because she didn’t know how she was going to be able to tell the doctor, to discuss the situations, the conditions of her own son, and can only use the lipreading means, to guess at what others are saying to her, which made her felt, ill-at-ease.

After understanding, that the hearing impaired persons has a differences of interpretation, of understanding language than we do, no matter if it was the visiting of the physicians’ offices, the assessment with the therapists or the discussions, I’d always helped mom find a translator, to help her understand the situations, and, slowly taught her how to file for the services on her own, to help her communicate with the outside world more smoothly.

Accompanying a Family in Moving Onward

After the multiple assessments, we’d found, that Hsian-Hsian had cognitive, language, and kinesthetic developmental delays; but luckily, he is normal in his hearing, and can receive the sounds from outside successfully.  I’d immediately signed him up for the clinic’s early intervention programs, and set him up to start in the public preschool systems in his neighborhood.  During the time, I’d, helped his mom file for the assistance of parenting lessons at home, to give her the support she needed in teaching the young son.

From getting to treatment, signing up for the early intervention courses, along with other resources, to letting Hsian-Hsian’s mother file for the services, to sign up, I’d, assisted her from the side.  Later on, my function changed into reminding, and following up with her, to make sure that Hsian Hsian’s mom knew to use the techniques that the early intervention instructor, and the therapists’ techniques to interact with her own young son, and felt that she’d accompanied her son as he grew up by the day.

After a year and a half, mom, Hsian Hsian and I, we’d gone to the N.T.U. Hospital again to get the latest of Hsian Hsian’s early intervention assessment reports.  It said, that his abilities had improved greatly compared to before, and now, he doesn’t only initiate the interaction with the physicians, as he got out of the treatment room, he would interact with other children, “can I play with you?  I have my toy car with me!”  seeing how happy he is, there’s that sense of moving that came to me, I’d felt,  the meanings of early intervention programs, to know the needs of the families, of the children to give them the support they were needing, to help them catch up to the developments of children their age, to help them move forward into a brighter future.

And so, this, is how much the early intervention programs had helped this particular case, and, the mother was originally timid in getting her son the treatment, the assessments he was in need of, because she’d feared that her own disabilities will keep her from expressing her concerns to the physicians, but, with this foundation’s help, setting her up with a translator, she communicated better with the doctors whom her son was getting treated by, getting him the help that he needed, and now, he’s, catching up.

The Sunshine of My Childhood

How a book made a child’s life different, and helped her/him get into the habits of reading, and loving it, translated…

It was, about the fifth grade, when my happy, carefree childhood became, overshadowed with the upsets, I either envied how my classmates could take up piano lessons, or that I’d bugged my parents to give me dolls with the clothes I can change them into, to have a dog, but, all of these wishes, all fell out, I’d felt, that nothing was going my way, that I was so unhappy.

One day, as I arrived home from school, there was, a “dog”, exactly the breed I’d wanted, a white spitz, it was printed on the cover of a book: “Missing You————the Memoirs of a Dog”.  From when I was young, my father would bring home the reading materials, the story books to me, and I’d, this book very quickly.  As I found free time later on, I’d, often read, reread this books, felt, that I actually, had a dog of my own.  He, chased my annoying wants, and, brought me that sense of happiness I hadn’t realized I could have for a long, long time.

instilling the love of reading in children starting at a young age…photo from online

One day, I’d picked up this book, and, saw on the preface, that I’d, always skipped on the passage stated, “there are so many children who can’t have dogs, and I feel bad for them, so, I am giving these young readers a gift, so they can have, a ‘Snow’ of their own after they read, becoming ‘Snow’s’ best friend.” As I read through the passage, I’d felt, that sense of moving I’d never felt before, like receiving a present for Christmas, with the handwritten letters from Santa too!

I’m truly grateful for the writer, Lin, to allow me to feel the joys of having a dog n my childhood years, to feel the warmth of the love of the writer, to know how amazing it is, in a world of books.  For me, Mr. Lin became that sunshine, that warmed my heart up.

And so, this, is the influence of books to children, which showed how important it is, the parents need to tell their children stories, to instill that love of reading in them, and, reading is a good spare time activity, compared to gluing the eyes onto that cell phone screen, T.V. screen, or computer screen, and this habit of reading should start off at a young age.