Upholding student values
Daisy Hung (洪蘭) resigned her position as a university reviewer after causing an uproar last month by publishing an article that criticized National Taiwan University (NTU) students’ behavior. As a member of the Taiwan Medical Accreditation Council (TMAC), Hung’s comments on the medical students at the nation’s top university were not quite appropriate. However, it takes courage to stand up to criticize the degenerating behavior of medical students at NTU.
What’s wrong with higher education in Taiwan? The issue was heightened and discussed intensively in the media and has become controversial and complicated. Is it hard to explain and analyze? Absolutely not.
NTU medical students protested against Hung’s comments and organized a conference on Nov. 30 to discuss Hung’s criticism. They provided free drumsticks and pizza to attendees as a symbol of one of the things she criticized — eating in class. And yet, the core of the problem is not merely focusing on eating, sleeping or playing computer games in class; it is about the attitude toward learning and self-discipline.
Living in an agricultural society in the past, poor Taiwanese kids could only change their lives through education. Students cherished every opportunity to study so that they could refrain from slacking off in classes. They were motivated, aggressive learners and made every effort to achieve their goals.
In contrast, reflecting on our young kids nowadays, the learning opportunities are sufficient; however, the attitude of students is quite different. In other words, many college students do not know the ethics of learning. Thus, they fail to appreciate the goals of learning. They take everything for granted and neglect their own roles. This is the core issue to debate.
In recent years, ethics course have become popular and are seriously discussed all over the world. For example, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is famous for its ethics courses. Taiwan can take such courses as a reference.
Daisy Hung’s critical article about our higher education is not alarmist talk. Without work ethics, students will lose their competitiveness. When people are debating the phenomenon of college students slacking off in classes, we should try to analyze the core of the problem. Learning attitude, self-discipline and work ethics are the issues we should seriously reconsider, hoping that our college students can learn to appreciate and practice them in the long run.
IRENE WANG
Taipei City
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