Education

School Life with a Difference

• Byline:OSCAR CHUNG
• Publication Date:10/01/2007

Forming a close relationship between students and teachers is a major feature of alternative education. (Courtesy of Ci Xin Waldorf School)

Alternative education providers are setting examples for regular ones.

For Lu Chung-han, the only drawback with the Holistic Education School (HES) was that his alma mater was not located by a big creek, where students could play in the water. Oh, and the mosquitoes, which were only to be expected given the school's location in the mountains of central Taiwan. Otherwise the environment was perfect for Lu, who entered the school in 1997 at the age of 13 and graduated four years ago. "Firebugs are everywhere in April and May. That's really fantastic," the 24-year-old man, back for the annual summer alumni gathering, says, looking at the lushness around the school accompanied by the natural music of chirping cicadas and croaking frogs.

HES is a boarding school with about 70 students aged between 12 and 18. It is special not only for its campus but also its teaching methods. Unlike regular schools, HES offers a wide range of elective courses from martial arts and acting to graffiti, in addition to compulsory courses including Chinese, English and math. Classes are small and classified according to the students' performance, not their age. But what is really notable about HES is the untypical relationship between teacher and student--the former is more of a friend and partner than a traditional teacher that gives orders and hands out punishment. "Teachers have to think of ways to interest the students in class, otherwise we might refuse to take the class. In the end, they would have to quit and leave the school," says Lu.

In such an environment, Lu found and developed a passion for carpentry, along with a group of interested students, through the guidance of a teacher of art appreciation. "Actually the teacher and the students were learning from each other. And we worked together to make things for the school," says Lu. While he did not perform well academically, his interest in woodwork developed into a career choice--he is now apprenticed as a carpenter in Taipei.

HES is an alternative education provider, featuring a non-traditional curriculum, small-sized classes and a close mentoring-style relationship between teacher and student. Today, there are about 10 such schools in Taiwan--following ideas that originated in Europe in the early years in the 20th century, according to Mercier Fong, a professor of education in National Chengchi University.

Beyond the Pale

Such schools operate outside the regulatory structure of traditional ones and their creation has been a response to a social trend to look for more in a school than the endless cramming for tests and exams with which the Taiwanese system was long associated. Indeed, Forest School, the first alternative grade school in Taiwan, was established in 1990 by the Humanistic Education Foundation in the Taipei suburban area of Linkou, three years after the lifting of martial law, an event which triggered a large number of social reforms. The second one, Seedling School, appeared in 1994, the year tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding reform of an education system built around rote memorization and Chinese Nationalist ideology. HES, the only school offering alternative education in Taiwan to students up to 18 years old was established one year later by a group of people unhappy with the conventional education system.

"Democracy involves the protection of the right to seek self-fulfillment and to pursue a life defined by individuals themselves," says Fong, referring to the relation between Taiwan's democratization and the rise of alternative education which encourages independent thinking.

Unlike ordinary Taiwanese students, therefore, those in alternative schools do not see the pursuit of high academic performance as the only goal in their life. They are encouraged to explore other possibilities in life, get hands-on experience or more practical matters, and learn to take care of themselves under the guidance of their teachers. "Each of the children knows how to fix basic wiring and plumbing problems and travel independently," says Li Ya-ching, head of the non-profit Institution for the Advancement of Autonomous Learning as well as the founder of Seedling School, located among the mountains in Taipei's distant suburbs.

Like many alternative education providers, the environment of Holistic Education School is impressive for its natural feel. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)

The assessment of a student's performance at an alternative school, therefore, is not reducible to an A or B plus on a report card, reflecting their academic achievement. Rather, as is the case in Seedling School, teachers give a diagnostic evaluation to individual students, helping each of them understand his or her personal traits and recommending to them suitable learning methods. "Many children don't perform well in traditional schools not because they don't want to, but because they don't fit in there without their knowing why. If nobody provides them with assistance, they would become marginalized and end up as angry teenagers," Li says.

Luo Zhi-cheng is without a doubt in a good position to judge the pros and cons of alternative schools. Having taught history at the prestigious National Hsinchu Senior High School for four years, Lo decided to leave the school three years ago and start a new career at HES. "It's sad to see students [in the school in Hsinchu] spending so much time honing their test-taking skills in preparation for university entrance examinations at the sacrifice of chances to explore their lives when they are still so young," he says.

Tradeoffs

There are however tradeoffs in embracing HES's more rounded approach to education. "Don't expect to enter National Taiwan University [the most prestigious university in Taiwan, for which the highest examination scores are required] if you study here, because you can't have your cake and eat it," the teacher says. "You still can feel the pressure of preparing for college entrance here, but it's much lower than in traditional schools." According to Luo, on average about 10 students graduate from HES each year, some continuing to study in Taiwan's universities and some others going abroad to find their future. Students like Lu Chung-han seeking a career after graduation fall into another category.

"Now I can do what I wanted to do before," says Cindy Chiu, a sixth grader at Ci Xin Waldorf School in Ilan. Modeled on the Waldorf School, an alternative school originating in Germany in 1919, the school started as a kindergarten and now enrolls about 420 students at the national education level (nine years of education for children between six and 15). Chiu used to dislike going to school when studying in an elementary school in Taipei City. She lost interest in learning because teachers often taught too much, too mechanically, too fast. She did not feel close to fellow students because she could not find much time to talk to them. "And once she felt so much pressure from the homework assigned by teachers that she cried," says her mother Fiona Chung, who moved to Ilan and rented an apartment there to accompany her daughter three years ago. "Now she is happier. There is no need to ask her to achieve an excellent academic performance. I prefer her to have time to do something else, like making friends and having fun with them," she says.

While students lead a carefree and colorful life in alternative schools, teachers usually face difficulties taking care of them. "It can be rather challenging to be a teacher in our school," says Lin Ching-lan, the director of Forest School. "Teachers don't use corporal punishment or scold students here. As a result, you may face chaos in class. That means you have to spend a lot of time communicating with students and thinking up ways to get their attention in class."

For Luo Zhi-cheng, the experience of preparing for class at HES is challenging but interesting. In the past, he could easily do his job as a teacher as long as he was familiar with the content of textbooks. But now he has to read extensively and often do in-depth research so that he can confidently face his students and discuss the many questions they raise. And sometimes he spends a long time discussing an interesting subject with students, which is impossible in a traditional school. "I once spent a whole semester discussing the Victorian era. We discussed related fiction and movies because they can better reflect the reality of the period," he says.

Getting Local Government Acceptance

The operation and management of such schools is not an easy mission either. "In the first year of the school's establishment, the local government often came to cut its electricity and water supplies because it was operating without the requisite approval," says Lin, pointing out how difficult it was for progressive educational concepts to gain acceptance 17 years ago.

Over time, even initially progressive ideas have gained more and more support from a society that started to embrace pluralism following democratization. The school not only has gradually freed itself from harassment from government officials, but the Taipei County government decided to lease a piece of land in the suburbs to the school in early 1990s when it had to find a new site after moving from Linkou.

Alternative education emphasizes hands-on experience such as that gained in the carpentry class at Ci Xin Waldorf School. (Courtesy of Ci Xin Waldorf School)

The promulgation of the Education Basic Law in 1999, the eighth article of which stipulates that parents may choose the best means of education for their children at the national education level, has been a major step in ensuring the validity of alternative education. Actually the first government-financed experimental project on alternative education had already launched one year earlier. Directed by Li Ya-ching and supported by the Taipei City Government, the project targeting seventh to 12th graders ended last year, providing government officials and educators valuable information for reference as they consider reform for regular schools.

In 2002, three years after the Education Basic Law, Ci Xin Waldorf School in Ilan got approved along with another alternative school in the region. Both of these schools are privately run and publicly owned, receiving recognition and subsidies from the local government, which explains why their tuition and miscellaneous charges are between NT$2,000 (US$60) and NT$4,000 (US$120) a semester, as low as those of public schools, and stand on publicly owned land without having to pay rent. "Our current status owes a lot to the substantial support and open attitude of the local government," says Ray Chiu, the school's principal. In Taiwan, local governments, such as the Ilan County Government, have authority over public schools within their jurisdiction recruiting students at the national education level, while public senior high schools (10th to 12th grades) are under the supervision of the Ministry of Education (MOE) or municipal governments.

In contrast, Forest School and HES are still fighting for accreditation and negotiating with the government sector. They are not officially prohibited, but their students are not allowed to receive diplomas at graduation given by the school where they have actually spent their school life. Rather, they receive diplomas from certain accredited public schools with which they have no substantial relationship. Without government sponsorship, students at these non-accredited schools have to pay much more because nearly all the costs incurred by the school have to be covered by tuition. Each student, for example, has to pay NT$150,000 (US$4,545) for a semester that lasts 20 weeks at Forest School, including tuition and accommodation.

Completing the Law

"We're facing a legally incomplete environment," says Luo Zhi-cheng. Although the Education Basic Law came into effect in 1999, no details are given in this primary law regarding how alternative schools should operate. The Establishment Measures for Experimental Senior High Schools were announced the same year, but they do not regulate things such as the appointment of principals. Today HES still selects its principal according to its own rules, despite the MOE's emphasis on candidate's seniority and work experience. HES is communicating with the MOE over this and other issues in the hope of getting accredited soon.

Perhaps it is time for the government to stop being interventionist and officially recognize these alternative schools according to a solid legal framework. "In the past, the government monopolized the right to provide education. Its attitude was 'I provide channels of education and you just have to take it,'" says Fong. "Today, such an attitude still lingers." But what if an alternative school, free from government supervision, operates poorly or dubiously? "It can be monitored by public opinion and the media. And there's the market mechanism that automatically eliminates such a school," he responds.

Even before all the controversies regarding alternative schools are settled, such establishments are hoping to influence regular schools. "Our school wants to set an example, showing society that children taught in our way can grow into better people," says Forest School's Lin. "And I encourage students to enter regular high schools in Taiwan after graduation so that they can better exert influence," says the director, who is proud of the role the school has played in leading trends in several directions, such as the ban on corporal punishment formally stipulated in the revised Education Basic Law in December 2006. "Our school has long followed the non-corporal punishment principle," she adds.

As to whether alternative education will eventually be widely accepted, Mercier Fong looks to the West for answers. "From the experience of those countries, as a society keeps opening up, there'll be more and more alternative schools," he says. "But the government should build a favorable legal environment for the schools as soon as possible, because Taiwan's future lies mostly in its innovativeness and these schools help cultivate talent with independent thinking and creativity."

Write to Oscar Chung at oscar@mail.gio.gov.tw