Jia-Tong Lee: the Elementary School Education Lacked the Qualities, Harder to Get Caught Up as the Children Get Older

This, is how not-caught-yet the college level English majors are here, from the Newspapers, translated…

The foreign language majors couldn’t even differentiate the be-verbs, the children from the distant regions couldn’t even write out the twenty-six English alphabets… “You must start quality control in education starting in the first grade”.

The education conference that was held yesterday disclosed how the basic knowledge of elementary school level students lacked quality, and that as the children grow older, they’d fallen behind more and more, and it would be, harder, for them to get caught up again; and there were middle school graduates from the distant areas that had flunked on the national English and mathematics exam, with the grade of C.

The honorary professor from Chinghwa University, Lee suggested, that from the first grades, the children MUST have the basics to build up from, and told the instructors that they not give up on any child, because when children get into middle school, it would be difficult, for them, to get caught up again; at the same time, the instructors should teach the students using the different learning styles that fitted them best, devise different materials, to give the different examinations; and that this remedial teaching method should not be just on the tutoring basis, but to make sure that the students have the basic skills levels.

Lee said, that the education forum in Taiwan is quite well, but, there are two major problems, one, the children from distant regions couldn’t pass the fundamental level exams, and even for the students who managed to pass the entrance exams, they may not have the strong basics to build up on, the primary reason for this was because there’s no quality control in the elementary years, and the examinations only has the more difficult questions, and skips all the basics.

And so, from this, you can see, how much problem IS in the reforms in education, and, it’s because of this low level of understanding, because the teachers can’t possibly keep an eye on all 20+kids, and so, naturally, some of those children who have difficulties are bound to be overlooked, and so, children are still getting left behind…

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The Values are the Key Qualities of Education

From the Front Page Sections, translated…

An American friend forwarded a short film of how machines are used to chop off trees, he’d told me with this heartfelt manner, that way back when, when he’d gone to Alaska to work as a lumberjack to pay his own tuition, he’d worked from dawn ‘til dusk, and can only chop one tree down; now, the machines can chop off a ton of trees in a matter of few short minutes, after the trees were chopped, they’re immediately sawed up into normal lengths, and transported with a specialized truck down the mountainsides.  A machine can make up for five hundred men, and it’s easy to operate, it’s totally opposite of how much he’d sweated from when he worked back in the days.

He said, that even now, the sports broadcasters are changed to using robots, because humans are naturally biased, in the international competitions, one may get too patriotic and lose her/his neutrality; in the competitions of the teams in one’s own country, you’d rooted for the other team on your own, but, robots don’t have this sort of emotional issues, it could report the stories as they’d come to it, with precision and neutrality.  He’d asked, “if everything we do now, is replaced by the machines, then, what’s the use of humans?”

This, is a good question, and so, in my course, “Brain and Creativity”, I’d shown this video to my students, and asked them how they think.  I thought, that the students would raise their hands to participate, because no matter how good the machines are, they’re still, all created by man, just like how in those fighting novels, no matter how good the apprentices got, they can never beat the masters who’d trained them.  What makes humans better than machines is in that we have knowledgeable thoughts, and, although the machines can have the abilities for statistical learning, but it couldn’t measure up to the humans’ abilities.  I thought that the students would realize, that the 21^st Century would not be a competition of physical power, but of brain power, like how in “The Lost Crusade”, when the Arab ran towards him with a gun, Harrison Ford has no other option, shrugged his shoulders, took out his pistol, and, although using a gun in a knife fight wasn’t at all fair, but under the circumstances, there’s just the way of using technology to beat the traditions, one bullet solved that crisis.

I couldn’t imagine, that the lecture hall fell silent, the students all watched to see how I reacted, (not like how we were, lowered our heads, not daring to look up at the teacher, they’re now, staring at me, without any reactions.)  I couldn’t help but recall the words that Cheng-Ning Yang stated, to criticize the students of Taiwan.  But, the Taiwanese students aren’t unintelligent, lazy, or not putting enough mind into what they do, just look at how they’d won the biggest of prizes at the international creative competitions.  They are NOT showing enough care or concern for anything that doesn’t involve them, plus now, we’re all focused on the minor blessings of life, the students were misled to believe, that so long as they have it made right now, they don’t care about their futures, they have a different value systems compared to us.

But, why is there this difference of values?  We were all raised, in Asian communities, it’s just that the stories we’d read, we’d heard are different compared to the younger generations’ now, we didn’t grow up being told stories of “Snow White”, “Cinderella”, or “Sleeping Beauty”, I’d heard the stories of history, of how the stories of how our parents carried us on their back, as the Japanese invaded into our towns.  Our parents taught us, there’s NO trials that are too awful to endure through, the most precious, the ugliest side of human nature will all show up.  A day after my older sister was born, the Japanese invaded our town, my mother took her into the mountains to hide out, my sister had a fever, the elderly man from next door walked eighty kilometers from the mountain to the herbal shops, to bring it back up the mountains, so my sister could be treated, saved my sister’s life.  My parents’ escape experiences made us realize, that, “as the nests got tipped over, there would be NO eggs that survived”, and we’d felt more responsible toward the wellbeing of our nation, other people’s assistances, our parents’ gratitude, all of these, helped shaped and formed our systems of values.

The most basic goal of education is logical thinking and the right kinds of values, the books we’d read when we were children, the things we’d come in contact with when we were younger, will help shape our views of country, of our own lives, of our goals too.  The elementary and middle school years are the time when the personalities are slowly forming, and, we shouldn’t sacrifice the basic qualities of education, because of the grades or the diplomas.

This just shows, how my stats instructor’s words, “Focus on getting an education, NOT just a degree” is still important, but, because in schools, they now long longer TEACH any values, like how we should treat one another, and, we don’t take the time, to observe, how people are treating each other, that, is why this world is having so many problems, because of this carelessness, and, the professor was right on how we NEED to focus on the values that we are teaching the younger generations, instead of focusing on the grades that our kids are making…

In Order to Save Up on the Funding, the Public Kindergartens Don’t Plan on Adding the Classes, Instead, They’d Called in Substitute Teachers to Watch the Classes

The quality of education IS being sacrificed here, from the Newspapers, translated…

The mayor, Ke, a while ago, on the council meetings pointed out how the Department of Education “had taken close considerations” of how they needed to increase the number of classes in the public kindergartens, that if there’s a need of teacher there, they will be hiring the substitutes first; the Department of Education had planned to add the number of classes of the public kindergarten systems to forty, and that this new law might halt the original plans.

The head of the Department of Education, Tang said the public to private kindergarten ratio is at close to 3:7, but Ke’s bigger goal was to change the ratio of the public to private kindergartens to 7:3, pointed towards the developments of the not-for-profit kindergartens co-owned and co-operated by the public and the private systems, and had asked for the assessments from the Department of Education, in the limited assets of the government, and the limited spaces, to continue put forth the increase in the number of public kindergarten classes.

The Department of Education pointed out, that in order to lessen the strains on the adults, the four-year public kindergarten system is planning on getting more classes, in 2012, the classes were increased by 30, in 2013, to 33, 2014, to 42, in just three short years, the total cost of this had amounted to over 179 million dollars N.T., and the original plan for this year’s increasing the classes to forty may have been halted.

The Department of Education disclosed, that for every new class in the public kindergarten system, they’d needed one million dollars N.T. to set up the classrooms, that if there needed to be an increase of forty classes, then, it would cost the local governments forty million dollars N.T.

And, the two instructors per class will cost $80,000N.T.s, per month, and, if there are forty classes, times the twelve months of wages, the first year of personnel costs would be up to $38.4 million N.T., but this still had yet to include the retirement pensions of these teachers.

Based off of understanding, the Department of Education recently asked along the experts, to set up a plan, to “save on the expenses”, first, they’d set up that the two-year-old classes has two caretakers, the 3 to 5 group, with two teachers, and now, they’d changed the 3-year-old classes, to have two childcare workers, it would save up on the wages, and they need not worry about the retirement pensions.

And so, apparently, this PLAN of setting up publicly owned kindergarten is still NOT at all, well-thought out, first, there’s the issues of teacher to student ratio, then, there’s the amount of money they should pay the teachers or the caretakers, and, this, is just not at all, well-thought-out enough, and so, the quality of education still gets SACRIFICED!!!

Setting Up the Half Government-Sponsored Schools, the Little Children Became Piggies Waiting to be Slaughtered

On standardized testing for the younger kids, from the Newspapers, translated…

“The first item, seeing my child get pushed into the testing place for English qualifications is like pushing him into the slaughterhouse.”  This was, from two years ago, when a parent took her own third-grade child to taking the English qualification exams, and afterwards, the child came out, with this beaten look on her face, it’d made her regretted her actions to date.

This child had been placed in dual-language institution since she was in the kindergarten years, in order to get into a private middle school, every year, she’d taken endless number of examinations, gave up on the gaming, exercising times that elementary age children had.  And this sort of a scene is, all too familiar to parents of the metropolitan regions.  For many years, how many points above the passing grade of the English examination meant how high one’s English abilities were, this, had always been a myth for the students, as well as the parents too; but, after so many examinations, did the level of skill in English really improve for the students of Taiwan?

Sixteen years ago, there only a little over ten thousand children who took the examinations, and now, it’d become the activity for ALL the citizens across this nation, there had been, six and a half million students who’d taken the test.

There are one million kids in elementary school right now, and when scoring a high grade on the English exams became their goals of learning, it will surely, destroy the love for learning, and distort the purpose of education.  As this had become the trend today, the Department of Education should think about why they’d allowed this standardized test to extend so far, ten years ago, they’d voted on the inappropriateness of the examinations, and now, are the reasons for the testing convincing?

And so, now, you have kids, sitting at their desks, cramming their books, during off hours, instead of seeing kids, running wild AND free, doing what kids are suppose to be doing, at break time, and that, is all due to this need to make them excel, need for them to better than we are, hello, hello, hello???  You, stupid PARENTS and you god DAMN systems ARE murdering the love of learning for your young, do you not realize that already???

Ten-Percent of All Middle School Students in Changhwa May Not Graduate

Shocking statistic, isn’t it???  From the Newspaper, translated…

From the last year middle school students right now, a new implemented rule had been set up: in the seven areas of studies, each and every student must pass at least FOUR, in order to get their diplomas, and, in Changhwa, there is now, an estimated over ten percent of all registered students who won’t be able to reach this marker, the local government suggested lowering the bar, the Department of Education said to “boost the retesting policies”, and all the middle schools all stated, that it was “mission impossible”.

The person in charge of overseeing the middle school education of the Department of Education, Hsu pointed out, that the bars for the students to successfully graduate from middle school being raised to four subjects wasn’t at all strict, that it wouldn’t make it too difficult, for the students to reach, but the local governments and schools, are they implementing the reinstructing on time?  She believed, that the key point lies in whether or not the schools are taking notices of students’ progresses, and whether or not they can offer the academic assistance the students needed in time, instead of waiting until the last minute, at the examinations.

Hsu spoke bluntly, that the learning processes is not clarified until the students’ last year of middle school, the teachers and parents must use an ordinary perspective to examine how the students are performing in class.

She was shocked to find out the conditions in Changhwa, and will get in depth, about how the local governments are implementing the reteaching, the remedial assistance given to the students.

Some of the middle schools would give out hints to the question on the examinations, and when the students still failed to pass, the schools would write the correct answers on the examinations for the students to copy down.

But there are still students who failed, and had stated so bluntly, “I just don’t feel like copying down the right answers!”, making the instructors and school officials who are working so hard, to reduce the number of kids who are flunking down angry.

And so, you can see, that the LOW quality of students that this systems is currently reproducing, can’t you?  Because students are not passing the classes, the schools are lowering the standards, and, guess what that’ll amount to?  This next generation of kids who are out of school, who can’t even do a thing right, and that would do what to the society?  Oh yeah, it’d, ruin this world, but hey, that, is how they make sure that the “performance” of the school looks okay on sheet.

Overlooked His Being Bullied for a Year, a Handicapped Student Was Walked on a Leash Like a Dog

You have to wonder, Where are the ADULTS who were supposed to keep the school campuses safe for children to learn in???  From the Front Page Sections, translated…

A handicapped student in Taidong had been long-term, physically bullied by three of his classmates, last Friday, they’d put a dog leash around his neck, and walked him like a dog, the members of this student’s family went to the school to ask for some justice, asked the students who’d abused their son to be transferred in three days, or, they’ll take the school to court; the disciplinary official stated, that the officials will use the fitting punishments, but they could NOT force the students to transfer.

The victimized student went to the school with his father, grandfather, and aunt, along with other family members to the school, the family pointed out, the child had been bullied long-term by three members of his class, and that there are two girls in the same class that were bullied, just like him, one of them was pulled into the bathrooms and slapped across the face multiple times, and one of the victims of this bullying couldn’t take it anymore, she’d transferred; the parents had gone to the schools to ask something to be done, but nothing was done, and so, the parents came to ask for help for the children’s behalf.

The student from the class said, that last Friday on boy scout lessons, the three students tied the ropes around the neck of the victim student, but the rope wasn’t big enough so it’d stuck around the head, the three bullies joked on how they will walk the victim like a dog, the victim was angered, pulled off the rope, and voiced his anger, “STOP it, don’t treat me like this!”

The school found the three bullies, the three students admitted to putting the rope around the top of the victim’s head, then, made fun of him, some said, “We can walk him like a dog”, normally, they’d bumped into others, pulled on the others’ shirt, or to jump up from behind and scare people.

The family of the victim suspected that the bullying had started in the second semester of seventh grade, and yet, the school kept stalling in handling it, until the second semester of the eighth grade year, and they’d still NOT dealt with it, from before, it may have been a joke, a prank, but last week, the “walking the dog” had gone way too far, they feared, that if this continued, their child will suffer.

The disciplinary official in the school said that the homeroom teacher had never told the school, until last Friday at counseling session, that, was when they’d first heard about this, and that, was when the school HAD intervened, and, this physically handicapped student is the only confirmed victim, there are surveillance cameras in the bathrooms, that there would be a very slim chance that it’d occurred there; and that there were female students who transferred out, and, whether or not, they still have to check into it.

The disciplinary official said, that these three bullies knew what they’d done and are scared, that they’re faced with getting written up, along with community service, the school wanted them to stay in the original class, to help the victim of their bullying, to give them a chance to make things right; and that they will find a way, to reprimand the instructor for overlooking the bullying.

Yeah, and this, is generally what happens in bullying at school, there’s NOT much that’s going to be done, and, until and unless the parents threatened to S-U-E the school, the school officials will keep on believing, that bullies, WILL be bullies, just like boys would be boys.  And this boy’s being bullied, was overlooked for a WHOLE year too, and, what do you think, can be done now, to REPAIR the damages?  Absolutely N-O-T-H-I-N-G, it’s already too late, damage had already been done, and, the victim can only keep going, as there IS, nothing, to be D-O-N-E!!!

Years I’d Wasted, Getting an Education

This, unfortunately, is still, ALL in H-I-N-D-S-I-G-H-T…

Had I only known (here comes the REGRET trains!!!), this, is where I end up, I wouldn’t have spent YEARS of my precious earlier, more energetic life, in school, getting AN education, I mean, what I’m doing right now, I could damn well do, without a higher ed you know???
Years I’d wasted, getting an education, that’s something I’ll NEVER get back again that’s for sure!!!  Years I’d wasted, getting an education, and what for?  What have I, to show for that?  I still can’t quite get my thesis published, I’m stuck!!!

Years I’d wasted, getting an education, I should’ve found me a job (as that, would be MORE practical???), and, had I done that, I wouldn’t BE at age mid-thirties, still with my HEAD, STUCK in the books, couldn’t find my way, out of this knowledge labyrinth, and now, I don’t even K-N-O-W what I’m supposed to write about for my thesis, and, I’m on a STRICT deadline, as they have a what???  SIX years M-A-X for graduate degree plans, right???  I wouldn’t know here…

Years I’d wasted, getting an education, I will NEVER get back again, and, what have I to show for that?  N-O-T-H-I-N-G, as my professor still doesn’t believe that there’s ANY value in my research topic, and I just have to keep on thinking, rethinking, and rethinking about H-O-W to “tweak” my topic, so it’d meet with the professor’s requirements.