This showed, the sharpened contrast, of how the families that are better-to-do, can provide their young children with more reading materials, which adds to their understanding of the world, versus how families in the lower end of the socioeconomic status couldn’t, and this extends into how the families are set up, separately, and due to this differences of availabilities of resources, the rich gets richer, the poor, become, poorer, and, illiterate too!!! Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
Entering into the fourth grader, Huang’s home in Taipei, books are everywhere, from literature, to general sciences, the assortments all the way, up and down in the bookshelves, to all over the floors, taking up all corners of her home; on the other end, the distant regions elementary school, Pinewoods Elementary in Tainan, in a lot of students’ homes, the only available “reading materials” consist of the farmer’s calendars.
The sharp contrast of desert and oasis of reading. The nutrients from reading that differed of the children in better versus worse socioeconomic backgrounds is preset. Who will help the younger generations, to help them gain access of more books in the desert of reading in these children from less well-to-do socioeconomic backgrounds?
And so, this points out the problem, of how the learning provisions, the resources are unequally provided, to the children in the cities and distant-region schools, and due to the socioeconomic background differences, those in the lower end don’t have the time to read to their own young, they’re already, working too hard trying to make their ends meet, they can’t have the mind, nor take the time out of their working life, to read to their young, and this becomes, that vicious cycle, because the kids are falling behind, due to the lack of resources provided to them, and they can’t get out from under.
The encounters of a school instructor, on a graduation trip, on how the government, @#$%ED up, in its, attempt to, “connect” with the rest of the world, advocating the importance of English education, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
I’d gone for the room checks during the graduation trip I’d taken my students on, my students asked me with his confusion, “Mr. Lin, is it normal, for coffees to turn out white after I poured in the hot water?”
I looked at the wrap, it had “Coffee Mate” on it, and I was, stunned, as his, instructor… “this is, not coffee!”, as he heard, he’d become, “ecstatic”, chimed in, “told you this is, milk tea!”, and I don’t know HOW I should or, could, react to that!
This odd scenario, is a true story that’s happened, in one of the, most, prestigious middle school graduating student, and, it’d made me think, of the reforms of education the government is pushing forth, and the blind goal of, dual-language country policies, so ironical.
The dual-language education allowed the schools to hire the instructors, certified in English language, and so, instead of counting out the numbers in Chinese, it’d become, a recitation of the numbers in English. And yet, the students can’t even read “Coffee Mate”.
and, can we, blame the student, for his, mis-interpretation??? After all, there’s the word, “Coffee” on the pack! Photo from online
I’d remembered the school song from Teacher’s University, that first line, “The foundation of a country of education, Teacher’s University ranks at the top”, and now, the “foundations” of this country isn’t even set, it got, reformed out of WHACK, by the “expert scholars” inside those, ivory, towers, plus the politicians doing what they wished and willed, short-sighted, only wanted what benefited them, “Someone else’s child will die instead of our own”, pages after pages, of whacked out public policies, and what’s sacrificed, was the futures of, our own, future, generations. We can’t even keep the foundations of this country, education rooted down firmly, and only, tried to, embellish the externals, wasting taxpayers’ hard earned money, and, damaging the citizens. Looking at the frequently occurring acts of violence on the news, most of the perpetrators are younger generations, and it’d, alerted us: here comes, the consequences now!
I hope, that the individual in power, who truly cared about the wellbeing of the next generations can pull that stopping plug now, to stop using the excuse of “we won’t go backwards”, to refuse to examine the fails of the current reforms of education. Walking down the wrong path, and keep going down this wrong path, it’ll, only, trap the country deeper, into, its own, mistakes, to the point of, never, turning back onto, the right paths again.
This is how education is, FAILING this next generation, of children, and, we are, going to be, ruled by them some day, and, we’re, totally, SCREWED, because this @#$%ED up government, messed up the reforms of, education here, thinking, that wow, we need to connect with the international fronts, so, let’s teach and learn in ALL-English, without realizing, that HEY, this is NOT an English speaking country to begin with, and English is, a second language here, for all of us, who’d been, raised in, this country!
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.
Call this, the, schooling, GAP if you will! How the students from not-well-enough economically backgrounds are, suffering because of the outbreaks here! Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
Distance education had become the primary means to teach and learn due to the outbreaks now, comparing to how the children in the elementary and middle school years in the lower end of the socioeconomic statuses, the government helps out, giving them the giving them the technologies, but for the college students from the lesser m the lesser backgrounds, they can only, rely on themselves. The Taiwan Fund for Children & Families found, that for over a year, a lot of the students in the college levels receiving the sponsorship told, that the original laptop they were using for their papers, are growing old, and couldn’t handle the means of online education classes, and now, they’d had to, come up with the money they needed, for the new laptops, to up the charges on their cell phone plans too.
The college student, Chang told, that the laptop he used from before, was okay for the research papers he had for university, but, as the classes, the lectures are all online, the webcam, the typing of his papers, multiple functions at the same time, causing his laptop to freeze up a lot often, making it hard for him to get caught up with the classes, and, all the money he’d earned from his part-time jobs, already went to pay for his living and school costs, there’s, not that much that he has left.
The manager of Taipei’s Taiwan Fund for Children & Families, Hsieh told, that based off of statistics, there are about eighty-percent of college level students who received the help, for paying their tuitions, their fees of living, started part-timing, but since the outbreaks, a lot of the classes went online, and it’d, caused the digital difference to become ever the more apparent, a lot of the students who are receiving the foundation’s help are troubled, because their laptops are, too old to function.
Hsieh said, that “education is the best means of getting out of poverty”, but for over a year since the outbreaks occurred, the college students from lower end of the socioeconomic statuses are, having it, harder than ever, especially in times of the epidemic, learning online became what’s trending now, it’d, added to the economic burdens of the students from lesser backgrounds, she’d called out to the public, to help support these kids on their, last mile of education, to help them, get on the starting lines, evenly with the rest of the students.
And so, this, is how the epidemic, tries people on all levels, because, there are those students from lesser backgrounds, who are, in school, and, with their laptops being, used for, five, six years on end the systems bound to, run slower, and, they can’t, catch up, because they don’t have the extra money, to get a new laptop, they’re, having it hard enough as is, making their own tuition payments, their rents, utilities, etc., etc., etc., etc.
This would be, the domino effect from the reduction of birthrates here, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
After the closing down of the Nanrong Technical University, close to seven hundred students were, transferred to other schools, and there are only the officeworkers still working at the school right now, the former applied Japanese associate professor, Hsu, on the matter, of the process of the school’s closing down, still felt, quite, upset, sighed, “the students were discriminated against, bullied, the professors couldn’t find teaching positions, and some even started working in the construction sites as manual laborers now, this is what the higher up officials in the Department of Education failed to notice and see.”
Hsu told, the school not running well enough, this is only, partially the reason for why the school got closed down, but twenty years ago, the government had, encouraged the setting up of countless community colleges, technical colleges, universities, it’s the fault of the government, and yet now, the consequences are shouldered, solely, by these, private institutions of higher education; Nanrong was located in the distant regions, hard enough as is to run and operate, and under the wrong policies, with the impacts of reduction in birthrate, it’d, become an easy target of the “Vulture Group”, hard for it, not to get, closed down. He’d only begged the Department of Education, to change the purpose of the school’s properties, to made into some other functional space, “this is what the department of education can do for these private colleges and universities.”
The school’s original associate professor from business management, Shen told, it’s hard to find another teaching job, a lot of the professors were forced to switch tracks, some became tramping professors, there were the instructors from the school who’d gone off to China, some of the professors who went to China even got called back, to the school for owing of the wages of the professors on the payroll, but “the Department of Education only allowed the professors to sue the schools that hired them.”
He’d told, that back then the students from the Department of Business Management, with the help from the Department of Education, were able to successfully transfer to another school’s business administration department to continue their education, but that school soon stopped, enrolling too, “from one sinking ship, onto, another, sinking ship.”; there were the students who had to put in the commute time of one to two hours to go to school, and in the end, the students had to, give up on their, studies altogether; and there were the students who’d told him of how they were discriminated against, bullied by the professors at their new schools that “you have no right to come to our school to study in the first place!”
After the Tourist School of Taiwan stopped operating, the students set up a self-help committee, fought to get their own graduation certificates, their degrees, from their, original, school. The student who set up the self-help committee, Fang told, that the Department of Education demanded the board to make the donations to the school’s functions, the board didn’t, the Department of Education just chose to look the other way, allowing the board of trustees of the school to do what they will with the school.
Fang stated, that as she enrolled back in 2018, there were six departments that had stopped enrolling the new students, a lot of the students of those majors “got in and filed for transfers to another school shortly afterwards”, but she was in the community college track, and wasn’t a part of the systems back then, she’d stayed, and now, after a few years’ worth of studying, she still can’t, escape the same fates.
There’s only the restaurant and hotel management department that remained at the Langyang Technical School, and the school decided to stop enrollment for the department altogether by the end of next school year. The parent, Yang told, that this was what they’d all expected, they weren’t surprised at all, her child is in the third-year-of the five-year degree program, and can still graduate from the school before it closes. The professors of the school told, that there’s no debts of the school, and yet, in recent years, it’d slowly, backed itself away, out of the education forum, that the school took care of the rights of the professors on the payrolls, so, the professors hadn’t strongly objected against the school’s closing down.
And so, this, would be, a bad sort of a trend, just like how quickly from before these technical universities got set up and started operating, now, they’re all, falling left and right, due to the reduced birth rates, among other factors too, and, the students who are currently in the systems had no other option, but either to stop getting their higher education, start working, or find a way to transfer to another university that’s, not going to close anytime soon.
A helping hand, for those children who want to get educated but are having difficulties affording it themselves, off of the Newspapers, translated…
The city of Hsinbei implemented the “Hope Sprouting Education Plan” last year, matching the hundreds of cram schools in the districts, to give the students from elementary to high school who are from bad economic circumstances a whole year’s worth of tuition free learning help sessions, including the academic subjects as well as music, abacus, mental calculations, and many other skills, this year, there were, close to a thousand students who’d signed up for it.
Yu who graduated from middle school because of this free tutoring program was successful in getting into the art track in high school, Ming who graduated from elementary school received free English help sessions, and gotten into the G.T. programs of middle school, and received a full scholarship.
The Department of Education pointed out, that any students who have a household registry in Hsinbei City, and qualified for low income sustenance, or other qualifications, can all apply for the “Hope Sprout Education Plan”, and the period of assistance lasts from September of this year to June of next year.
The head of Social Services agency under the Department of Education, Huang stated, that since the first year of this plan, it’d helped 500 students, and this year, it’d, almost doubled to 964 children, and other than the academic help, the system also included dance, chess, piano, music theory, and art, along with other forms of talents, and one student can apply for one course.
Yu who just graduated from middle school this year, showed an immense interest in drawing since he was young, in his second year of middle school, he’d decided to take the exams to go into a high school with the art trainings, but his family economic couldn’t allow, so he was thinking of choosing an alternative track, but under this plan, he was trained formally by an art studio, and, this year, he got into the art department of a certain public high school.
Another student, Ming, who just entered into his first year of middle school this year, being from a single parent household, although he lived under poverty stricken means, he’d kept his grades in the front of his class, he wanted to improve his English skills, his mom filed for the application of the Sprouting Plan, so her son’s English performance excelled, and he was able to test into the GT English class of a certain private high school, and received full-scholarship too.
So, these assistance programs are working wonders for these students who are willing and able learners, but lacked the monetary advantage, and this program lets them pursue their studies, with no worries of money, which allowed them to excel in the subjects they’re good in, which gives them a way, to pull themselves, out of their poverty stricken backgrounds, and this is a good program.
Laying the brick works here, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
Should the newly graduated youths start working for a company, or, should they, start their own businesses? The junior and about-to-be entrepreneur, Lin said, IF you want success in entrepreneurship, from the practical point of view, there are over ninety-percent of people who’d worked for the businesses, and had been trained.
Lin used his own experiences, at first, when he’d started his entrepreneurship, he was among the “cofounders”, there’s a little bit less of the pressure, although he’d gotten the opportunities to learn back then, but, what he learned, wasn’t that much at all, because the leader of the group lacked real-world experiences too, and, they’d all, buried their heads, and worked without a purpose; after a decade’s worth of experiences in entrepreneurship, he’s finally able to, start on his own.
He’d pointed out, that in ALL the successful entrepreneurs in the society, over ninety-percent had once worked in a corporation, because when you’re making your own businesses, you must know the products, the sales techniques, the operations, the managing, the finance, the laws and the regulations, if you didn’t work as a nine-to-five, everything starts at zero, it’s really hard, to learn, to manage all of these skills quickly enough; if you can enter into a corporation to learn, then, you’d be able to learn these needed techniques, instead of you, doing things blind.
Secondly, from the environmental angle, the society in Taiwan isn’t at all friendly toward those new entrepreneurs, and would NOT actively cooperate with those fresh-off-the-farm entrepreneurs, and so, you’d must accumulate the experiences, the connections, and, entering into the workforce is one way of achieving this.
There are a lot of the successful entrepreneurs who’d dropped out of school, then, set up their businesses, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the like. Like the creator of Paypal, Peter Thiel, he’d also gotten involved in the 20 under 20 plan, encouraged those in college to DROP out, and start their own business. Lin reminded, that those who were able to successfully make a business work after dropping out of college are the “geniuses of geniuses”, and it’s not for everybody to try; on the contrary, if you have great qualifications, and, if you are interested in entrepreneurship, you should first, work for the corporations, to gain some experiences first.
And so, this, is someone, sharing HIS experiences with those who are interested in embarking in entrepreneurship, and, he’s right on how it is hard, being an entrepreneur, especially IF this, is your very first attempt, you’re without the experiences, without the connections, you may have a degree, but that’s about it, and, in the real world, we care about working experiences and work abilities, NOT just a higher degree, so, what this guy suggested, to work for a corporation FIRST, then, STRIKE out on your own, is quite workable! And besides, it’s from someone who’s BEEN THERE, and DONE THAT too, and he’s just, sharing his own experiences, hoping that it could save those in the community who wanted to STRIKE out, from making the errors that he’d made, because he was inexperienced at the very beginning of HIS own entrepreneurship.
Is it, myth, or truth, fact, or fiction, I wonder…
The halo of having a higher degree, this, is what the world is currently, affect by, because in this day and age, IF you only have a bachelor’s degree (hey, wait a sec, that, is what I had!!!), you ain’t gettin’ NOWHERE in the workforce, as those major companies are looking for those who can withstand the stresses that comes with doing presentations, taking examination, and, juggling those research papers, all at the same time, isn’t that right?
The halo of having a higher degree, however, is slowly, losing color, because, as this society ages, people are more focused on having a viable skill, after all, if you have a master or up, and NO job, how the HECK you gonna FEED yourselves? And so, the halo of having a higher degree is slowly, losing importance, as people today are coming to the realizations of hey, an IVY LEAGUE education ain’t WORTH shit, after all, just because you’d graduated from an IVY LEAGUE, that still doesn’t mean, that you’d have a smooth ride, to the very T-O-P, in the workforce, does it??? Nope, so, looks like the values, the emphasis, they’re, slowly shifting in this world here………
An EXPERT’s O-P-I-N-I-O-N, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
Annually, 3000 people couldn’t put what they’d learned to good use, the black hole of employment, Wu: treat the doctoral students like treasures…not giving them enough trainings or education, the fault is with the schools.
The head of the Department of Education, Si-Hua Wu yesterday, pointed out on the “Nationally College Management Meeting” pointed out, that based off of inventories done by the Department of Education, there are about 3,000 doctoral graduates who couldn’t manage to get a teaching spot at the school’s rosters, that they must go out of their areas of expertise, or venture out into an unknown industry, to find work, that if we don’t look at the serious unemployment issues of doctorates, a decade from now, the population of “tramping doctorates” will beat out the number of “tramping school instructors.”
“Treat the doctorates as if they were treasures.” Wu reminded the schools’ professors, that when they tried to find the doctoral students, to not treat them like their research assistants, that they should focus on the students more, and give each student the different assistance they needed individually, to allow those doctoral students to be able to become outstanding in whatever industries they choose to be in after they got out of school.
The statistical measures done by the Department of Education found, that there are about 5,000 doctoral students graduating, and, 3,500 of them had their eyes on a job; and there are only 800 teaching posts that are opened up in universities or colleges annually, and, about 300 of these spots are filled by foreigner doctorate holders; in other words, there are only one-seventh, about five hundred graduate students who would be able to get a teaching post in the universities annually, and, those other 3,000 must seek out work opportunities elsewhere.
Wu believed, that the key to improve the employment of doctorates lies in “reeducation”, how to allow what the doctorates learned in school work in the world, helping to develop new industries, this, is a problem that the schools need to give much thoughts on, “if the students didn’t get enough training or education, then, it would be the schools’ and the professors’ faults.”
Uh yeah, you have got to be shitting me! Do you know HOW many students who’d graduated from their masters, doctors or post-docs programs are out there, and, many of them still CHOOSE (actively too!!!) to stay at home, and be a NERD that do NOTHING but play those online games, and yet, this MORON (no offense), leading the Department of Education is saying how the professors are the ones, who FAILED to prepare the students for “life afterwards”??? Are you FUCKING (oopsy!!!) kidding me here!
The trends of youth’s career choices here, it surely HAD shifted far, from yesterday’s, hasn’t it??? From the Front Page Sections, translated…
Chefs, professional athletes, engineers, and manicurists became the ideal profession for middle schoolers, it’s very far from the traditional lawyers, teachers, doctors now. The success group in life is NO longer centered on excelling in school, this showed how multifaceted the world is now, becoming. The younger generation’s views toward their futures about their jobs has to do with the society, the economic downturn, the low starting salary, and the instability of the jobs, and it’s not improving yet. The smaller business ventures of opening up small shops, to work hard, and hope for the best, to NOT follow the trends set by those large corporations, and the college graduates’ base salary of $22,000 N.T. to $26,000N.T per month, along with how busy it would be, trying to make ends meet.
The difference in choices of these students showed that the world is changing, how we’re going towards a multiple interests, and how there are NO lowly worker, and, even though, occupation is correlated with statuses in society, but, the blurred boundaries of college education, the varied occupations, the reputations of the careers, along with the earnings.
And so, this world is still, slowly, shifting, now, the kids NO longer cared that much about slaving their lives away, like their parents had, after all, those, were a different time, weren’t they? Today, the kids have their own focuses, and there’s NOTHING wrong with that, and that just goes to show, that your generation’s beliefs may NOT work well on this current generation’s minds, so, do NOT force your kids to choose the careers that you want them to have!
Mirroring the World 
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