The Crack of My Bedroom Door

How this, grandmother, helped preserved the dreams of her young granddaughter’s childhood memories, by allowing her to stash the items she’d sent through the crack in the door to her room, translated…

After I was done with the chores, I’d shut my bedroom door, so I can, lean against the chair, to read the articles of the writer, Xi, then, the rustling noises had come in, distracted me, turned out, it was, a page of the calendar that’s, made its way in, from the crack in my door, it was, dancing in the wind.  I can’t help but smiled, picked it up, and, set it down where it originally was.

My young granddaughter who’s about to enter into the first grade, is a chatty little thing, chimed all day long, begged the adults to answer her inquiries of “Why”, and she could, always, BREAK the bottom line of our, patience, and, my door shut meant my declarations of, “Do NOT Disturb”, and yet, kids will be, kids, the adults’ rules, they would, always, try to, break them, and, glad that they’d done it.

The young child didn’t have her own space, and the toy bins had been, stuffed too full, and, she’d, set her mind, on using some of my, closet space for storage.  Everything her parents wouldn’t allow her to keep, she’d, shoved them into my space, especially those before-school exam papers, the torn off calendar pages, the ads from McDonald’s……basically anything with the blank page on the back, she’d loved, because, she’d enjoyed doodling, and, as she’d finished drawing on the page, she’d, made them into a volume too.  All these things considered as garbage by us, she’d, cherished them like they were, some, priceless, possessions, and I can only, be more, tolerant of that.

The young child had, tried stashing her cherished items here and there, and, the three-centimeter crack on my door, became, a secret transport portal: the childish doodles and drawings, her favorite snacks, the Barbie with the broken leg, the sticker she received for her doctors’ visits, anything, you can name.  seeing that page of torn off calendar that’s entering into the crack of my door, I can’t help but sighed, that there’s only, a very short period of time when the childhood dreams stayed, intact, because, there’s signs of maturation of her in her eyes, every day now.

This is the realizations of an adult, noting just how, precious childhood is, that once it’s gone, it’ll be, gone for good, and, this young girl has a perfect “secret hiding place” for all the things she cherished and held dear to her heart and her mind, in her, grandmother’s, room, through that, “secret portal”: the tiny crack on the door!

The Instructors Who’d Bullied, Sexually Harassed the Students in the Preschools, the Government Thinking about Putting Their Identities Out Permanently

The way the government came up with, to protect the younger generations of children from getting VICTIMZED by the predatory instructors, but, will this work?  We will just have to, wait and see, won’t we???  Off of the Newspapers, translated…

The Department of Education previewed the rough drafts of the “offense of breaking the laws of childcare in the early childhood education environment”, if there are the major behaviors of corporal punishment, bullying, sexual harassment, etc., etc., etc., then the early childhood educators shall be listed by names and the preschool, kindergarten where the instructors worked will be publicized; if the crimes are not as severe, like the buses being used too long, then, the schools will get blacklisted for three years.

The parenting groups believed, that the parents have the right to know the past operating means of the schools as well as the instructors the schools hired in the past; the All-Education Association believes, that it’s debatable if the permanent listing of the schools had broken the rights of privacies and such. 

The Department of Education recently had amended the caretaking laws of early childhood education, the early childhood educators will be identified by names, and the schools they worked in will be publicized permanently.

And, if the schools didn’t have the certificates to operate, or had gone on its own setting up the childcare programs, or, not complied to the rules.

Yang also mentioned that as the schools hired the personnel, they’d had to check with the online registries of inappropriate instructors, and because the system of registry is based off of the individuals’ national identification numbers, the listed individuals will not have the opportunities to work in childcare after they change their names.

The National Education Action League’s parent department head, Wang told, that in the declines of birthrate, the parents would consider very thoroughly the schools they enroll their young into, and so, the unfitting preschools or kindergartens, the improper instructors should all be listed out in the open, this also serves as a warning to the instructors.  And, if a school is good or bad, the parents will hear by word-of-mouth, and can use that as the considerations when they select the preschools/kindergartens they place their children in.

And so, this will only work, if the schools don’t cover up, but chances are, no school will want to get blacklisted, and so, this still only just works in theory, but in application and practicality, I don’t believe it’s going to work out that well at all.

They Didn’t Mean to Blink on Purpose

Children with special needs, that were, mistaken for misbehaving, because there’s not much education of the world on it!  Translated…

“Stop winking!  It’s ugly!” when my child was in his second year of kindergarten, we’d noted how he would start winking uncontrollably.  At first, we took him to the ophthalmologist, had a series of tests, everything was normal, and we were referred to the pediatrics department, and learned, that his winking was due to Tourette’s, which causes his nervous system to give off the signals uncontrollably, which caused his twitching and winking.

As the neurologist made the diagnosis, because my son was still young, and it wasn’t that serious, the neurologist felt no need to medicate him, suggested that we use the exercise routines, establishing a normal schedule, and behavior modification techniques to reduce the behaviors of twitching constantly.  We’d worked hard, to understand this originally strange-to-us illness, tried not to blame our son for his inability to control the twitching behaviors, because blaming him for it, can cause him more pressures, and he would start to twitch even more often.  For this, we’d discussed it with his school instructors, she used that professionalism, consoled with us, that there’s a higher population of children with Tourette’s now, a lot of the school teachers are more experienced, and will help our son learn normally as possible, to assimilate him into the group of his classmates.

One out of three children with Tourette’s will reduce the prevalence of their twitching behaviors by age eighteen on their own, only a-third of children will continue to twitch into adulthood, but the symptoms are reduced.  After all the means, all the measures were, taken, our son started getting better, and the occasional twitch, became, less, noticeable.  The path of parents of special needs children is this constant learning, never stopping to support our own young, I hope all the children with Tourette’s can have every help they need, and grow up happy.

And, this is how having a special needs child in your home helps you grow, adapt to the various situations, and, thankfully, this young boy has teachers who’d been educated enough, to give him the positive help that he needed, and helped reduced his parents’ stresses, instead of just slapping that bad kid label on him.

The Younger Generations in China are Less Depressed, with Their Parents’ Levels of Anxiety Hiking Up

The children’s homework assignments, reduced, and there are a lot of parent-children work together, children are happy, but, the adults, totally, STRESSED out!  On the reforms of education policies in China, shifting education back to the families, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Chinese government had implemented the Dual-Reduction Policies (reducing the homework assignments from school, and the cram school sessions) for a year, based off of the surveys by the scholastic communities of China, since the implementing of the policies, the symptoms of depression for teenagers reduced by 78.6-percent, but the anxiety levels of the parents, hiked up about 12.8-percent, showing this, difference in the levels.

Based off of the Economics Daily of China, last July, the surveys were administered.  Based off of the results, it’d shown, that since a year ago the policies had been implemented, it’d effected the education reforms of China greatly, the cram schools outside of the regular schools’ expansion messily got controlled, and it’d relieved the overly burdensome academic schoolwork for the students in school, and more and more parents are paying more focus to their children’s education too.

Not long ago, three scholars from the People’s University of China evaluated the effects of the “Dual-Reduction” policy by analyzing the search engine search terms, the items bought on the shops online.

The study showe4d, in the year of the “Dual-Reduction” policy, the signs of depression in adolescents reduced by 78.6-percent.  The primary reason for this is that a lot of parents are turning to trying to balancing the family and work, and there’s this rise in the services of the families as the “Dual-Reduction” policy had been, implemented.

What made the parents even more anxious is that from before, as the children didn’t perform well enough, they can send them to the cram school out of school, a lot of parents believed, that if they put in the money, they will see the results in the grades of their young.  But, with the dual-reduction policies being implemented, the outside of school cram school selections reduced greatly, and for the parents who are in need of the “makeup classes” for their young, they only have the more expensive options of one-on-one tutoring, this became an enormous pressure to the families’ economics.

Based off of the reports, the root of the parents’ anxieties, one was worrying that their children may not get the highest quality of resources in education; second, the worries of the children being “categorized based off of their academic abilities”, that they can only choose to go to a nonacademic track, which won’t guarantee their children’s socioeconomic statuses in the future.

The report told, that this needs the deeper reforms of the education systems to continue on, to use the resources allocations of the education systems, to ensure that there’s higher quality of education means available to each and every child; using the good career education, steadying the developments of career path, to widen up the tracks, so more children can grow in the directions of their own choosing, to shine in their own fields of interest.  The “Dual-Reduction” isn’t solely a matter of the system of education.

And so, there’s this need for shifts back to the families, because the country realized how important education in the families are, and, that’s why, the government in China is pushing forth this policy, but the effects of how well this policy works or if it doesn’t work won’t be visible overnight, as it takes time, to see the effectiveness of such a policy set up by the government.  And this is not going to be an easy adjustment for the parents to make, because they’d focused solely on making the money, to put into their own children’s education, and now, the government mandated that all the programs these parents can send their young into from before, are no longer available.

Teaching My Son to Take Responsibilities for What He Did

Socializing his son, teaching him how he should behave, when he’d, done something he shouldn’t have, the experiences of a father, translated…

One day, my two-year-old son Flybo acted out when he was on the balcony, playing with the sink and the water.  I’d allowed him to take the cup out to get some water, the kind that was like the Russian dolls, with one inside of another, that sort of a cup.  And, after a bit of playing, don’t know what got into him, he’d, tossed the cup out, watched that cup fall from our twentieth floor home, all the way, down, into the swimming pool.

“Flybo, you can’t throw things!  You will HIT someone!”, I’d told him in a high-pitched voice.  “I’m sorry!”, he’d said.  When he realized that he did something bad or wrong or shouldn’t, he would, apologize.  “It’s okay, but you have to go to the pool manager to tell him you’re sorry, then, go find your toys back.”  Flybo told me okay, and apologized, once more.

In the afternoon, I’d left him to the pool, and told the super what we were there for.  Flybo apologized, “I’m sorry!”, the super smiled and told him that it was no big deal.  I’d taken Flybo around the pools to try to find the cup, but we can’t.  “Fine then, let’s just, go home!”, I’d told him, “No, find longer!”, Flybo declared.  I don’t remember teaching him to say that.  “let’s just go ask the super if he’d seen it, okay?”  “Okay!  Try and find.”, he’d stated.

The super circled around the poolside twice, and still couldn’t find that cup.  I’d told Flybo, “Fine, let’s go home, it’s gone.  Don’t throw your toys out next time, you understand?”, ‘Yes!”, he’d stated.  As we were walking back, I’d taken one more look into the pools, and found there was a light blue object afloat there, focused my eyes, it’s the cup!  “over there!”, I’d carried Flybo up to see, he was excited.

The super stood by the steps next to the pool, used the net, but, it was always, a bit, short to get to the cup.  I’d told the man, “I’ll shake the ropes a bit, to let it float toward us some.”  Pulled on the rope, and swung it hard, Flybo was close by, with his eyes opened up wide, watching, he seemed to find that amusing.

This kid, he did, all of this!

The super netted the cup.  Picked it up, handed it to Flybo.  “What do you say?”, id’ asked him.  “I’m sorry!”, “No, it’s thank you!”  “Thank you”, stated Flybo.  “You’re welcome” said the super, smiling.  “Don’t throw your toys again, you understand?”, I’d patted Flybo’s head, thanked the super again, led my son away, and his hand clenched tightly to that cup of his, we went upstairs, got home.

Maybe, Flybo learned something, or not.  But, this is the model behaviors I’d given to him, as his, dad.

So, in this incident, the kid learned that he should NOT throw his toys down over the balcony, and he’d learned that he should say thank you to someone who’d helped him get his toy back, and that he shouldn’t throw his toys over the balcony again, and, this father didn’t get angry, or loud, and still managed to get his point across to his own young son.

That Cycle of Kindness

How it’s still the adults, who should set the examples of kindness, for their young to follow, translated…

After reading “I’m a Textbook Case” by the writer, Jiang, I’d felt emotional, had the parent in the article was with the respect and the heart of cherishing, that empathy that’s lacked, then, the child would’ve, taken the lesson to heart for sure.  “Such heat in the weather, a lot of people are pulling their weights, sweating it away, so we can have it easier in life, so, we all need to nod toward those workers in acknowledgements, to show our gratitude toward their hard work!”, this isn’t hypocritical, but a sort of humbleness!

Actually, in the textbooks, there’d been many examples.  The writer, Chen, in his article, “Prop Open Your Umbrella”, defined what greatness is.  Is it the generals, chasing the enemies off?  The scientists, making some life-changing discoveries?  Or, the street sweepers, cleaning off the trash?  On the scale of values, working hard, and giving is equivalent, there’s no system of being lower and higher than each other, and, managing something well, it’s, something major.  The writer, Lin through “Facing Up to the Wind”, described how if you work hard in your areas of expertise, then, you will shine through, no matter if you’re an eagle, soaring high above the skies, or the fishes in the creeks, swimming free, the lions that roamed the Serengeti, or that lotus, sitting quiet in the pond, you will be, the best version of, your, self.

The machines that run well, couldn’t be made of all motor, there would be the necessities of the nuts and bolts too, the screws to keep the pieces in place, to the point of that easily amiss lubricant, to give the machine its, best performance capabilities.  In the societies, the groups, not everybody need to be the doctors, or the hotshot bosses, and it’s because of those minor characters, of ordinary people, who are, the most basic level of societal units.

Using your positive energies to influence others, to make everything around you more peaceful, working better, and that, is success.  Dear parents, do allow our children to have the opportunities to give thanks, to have the abilities to be gracious, because this, is the cycle of kindness that the societies are, in need of.

And so, this is on the importance of teaching your children to give thanks, teaching them to give thanks to everything in life that they are experiencing, to be grateful, that we are still safe and sound, and breathing, with our, strong pulses, and, give to the world, if and when we’re, able to, to help this cycle of kindness to keep on, rolling along.

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.