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Educators should stop acting like ostriches

How did the public respond to the shocking murder case where two teenage students killed a teacher eight years ago? People simply considered it a sensational piece of news. The case was recently solved with the help of modern technology, in a manner that made the case appealing, like a US mystery movie. Educational circles have made no comment on the case. But the father of one of the suspects attempted to commit suicide to atone for his son's crime.

Educators and academics are apparently numb to news of this kind. Similar cases, like students assaulting teachers or people torturing their parents, occur frequently. Since educational circles have failed to come up with any solutions, the general public has not expected them to. A shared viewpoint is that the general environment is bad and that no one has control over the environment. This reasoning holds that films, TV programs and even the Internet are rife with pornographic and violent content, beyond our control.

The elderly believe that teachers should be responsible for juvenile delinquency, but that principle only fitted the time when highly respected teachers were authorized to inflict corporal punishment. That system is outdated. Parents used to request teachers to discipline their kids, but now teachers might be sued if they physically punish stu-dents. But society's demands on children to behave have remained unchanged. Old methods have been eradicated, but where are the new ones? What would you propose to improve it, educational reformers?

Those advocating educational reforms trumpet only one principle -- allow children to develop freely. These romantic idealists regard children as angels. They put the blame on parents and teachers for over-controlling and demanding too much from children's academic performance if children are not well-behaved. But some children are born obstinate and overbearing. It is still effective to follow ancient wisdom and teach children in accordance with their aptitude. The reformers advocate replacing punishment with rehabilitative education, but they should formulate the methods for teachers to do it.

The primary task of education is to teach children how to be good people. It will never be easy to achieve this if the teachings of the saints and the virtuous, as well as the traditional doctrines of morals and ethics, are abandoned. Although it is an educator's res-ponsibility to accomplish this, unfortunately, educational circles have still not reached a consensus on character development education. All of them are too busy with the Diversified Enrollment Scheme (大學多元入學方案).

To solve this, the Ministry of Education established the Life Education Committee in 2000. It's indeed a progressive thing to replace traditional moral education with life education. However, committee member Sun Hsiao-chih (孫效智) says the group has not even reached a consensus on the definition of life education. In terms of a concrete plan for promoting life education, it's in the distant future, and the ministry seems to be in no hurry. Since the matter is not under social pressure, it can be delayed endlessly -- just like aesthetic education -- while scholars at the committee fight each other.

In view of the social chaos caused by youngsters, we should brook no delay in the promotion of life education that teaches people to know, respect, experience and accept human life. The media should urge the educational and cultural authorities to face reality and come up with goals and concrete measures for life education soon. The measures should be added to school curriculums, as well as the curriculums of teacher education. It does not become a responsible educator to act like an ostrich.

Han Pao-teh is director of the Museum of World Religions.

Translated by Jackie Lin and Eddy Chang
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