A group of 38 students from grades three to six at Pingding Elementary School in New Taipei’s Tamsui District, accompanied by school principal Su Ying-chun, teachers and parents, went to Shusing Borough on Sept. 27 to have a go at picking tea tree seeds. The students looked for signs of the fruit among the twigs and leaves, and when they found them they excitedly cried, “Hey, I’ve found one!” After working for half a day, the students kept shouting “I’m so tired!” as they got a feeling for how much hard work is involved in this initial stage of making tea seed oil.
It was not enough for the children to just move aside twigs and leaves as they got a hands-on experience of tea seed picking. Being so small, they squeezed in among the tea bushes, carefully and skillfully picking the tea seeds and putting them in their shoulder bags. “It’s so hot and it really tickles,” said fifth-grade student Chung Tzu-yang. Tea seed picking is such tiring work, he said. Chang Chia-yun added that she could feel the hardship that farmers go through. Picking tea seeds is no easy job, she said. When asked what the key to picking tea seeds is, the children answered in unison, “You need very good eyesight.”
Su says that taking the classroom out into nature lets the children appreciate what sort of work their uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers did years ago, and helps them get to know about the industries in their own locality. Su says that the children have held and felt tea seeds and tasted tea seed oil, so they have seen the beginning and the result. What is missing is the production process that happens in between. Next, the school plans to teach a course on how to process the seeds into tea seed oil.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者李雅雯
新北市淡水區坪頂國小三到六年級共卅八名學童,在校長蘇穎群和師長的帶領下,九月二十七日前往樹興里體驗採茶籽。學童們在樹叢枝葉中翻找果實的蹤影,找到時總會興奮地吆喝「嘿!我找到了」。工作半天下來,學童不禁喊出「好累喔」,感受到原來茶籽油的前端作業這麼辛苦。
學童們實際動手採茶籽,撥開枝葉還不夠,小小的身軀還鑽入茶樹叢中,專注且熟練地摘下茶籽,放入肩背的提袋裡。「好熱,而且好癢喔」,五年級學童鍾子揚說,採茶籽工作真的好累;張嘉芸補充說,可以體會到農家的辛苦,採茶籽真的不簡單。問起採茶籽的訣竅是甚麼?學童們皆不約而同地回答「眼力要很好」。
蘇校長表示,把教室搬到大自然中,就是讓學童們知道,叔叔阿姨、阿公阿嬤當年是在做甚麼工作,讓他們了解自己生活的在地產業。蘇穎群說,學童們摸到了茶籽、嚐過了茶籽油,已經看到開頭和結果,缺少的是中間的產製過程,下一次要再為學童規劃提煉成茶籽油的課程。
(自由時報記者李雅雯)
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