Fri, Sep 22, 2000 page2

• School goes from ruins to rebirth

  MATTER OF PERCEPTION Last year's quake hasn't forced students at Kuangfu Elementary School to take their classes outdoors. It's just provided them with an opportunity for more open-air learning

  • By Lin Mei-chun / STAFF REPORTER IN CHUNGLIAO
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  A lush meadow. A flourishing rice patch. A vibrant vegetable garden. A row of houses, painted with multi-colored cartoon characters.

  This small piece of farm land may seem like the perfect pastoral scene or vacation retreat, but it's not.

  It's the temporary campus of Kuangfu Elementary School (廣福國小), one of the many schools that was reduced to rubble during last year's devastating earthquake. Today, there's barely a trace of the catastrophic disaster that struck here a year ago yesterday.

  

  Students give a piano performance during the graduation ceremony of Kuangfu Elementary School.

  PHOTO: COURTESY OF KUANGFU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

  After his school was destroyed by the quake, principal Lin Yi-cheng (林宜城) was among the few school administrators who didn't bemoan the unlucky hand that Mother Nature dealt Kuangfu Elementary.

  Instead, Lin, along with nine teachers and 72 students, rolled up their sleeves to tackle the enormous task of putting their school community back together.

  Kuangfu Elementary is located in Nantou County's Chungliao township (中寮鄉) -- a remote village in central Taiwan where 180 people, or 1 percent of its population, were killed. Ten of the community's 12 schools were damaged beyond repair.

  

  Students of Kuangfu Elementary School harvest rice they have grown in the course of their studies as part of the school's graduation ceremony in June.

  PHOTO: COURTESY OF KUANGFU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

  "Making students feel at ease in the makeshift classrooms has been a strenuous undertaking during the past year," Lin said. "At the top of the agenda was easing the traumatized emotions of frightened children."

  Next, he said, came the task of providing a comfortable learning environment.

  "We have weathered a variety of adverse conditions. The heat was unbearable over the summer. And when it rained, the noise of raindrops beating on the roof was extremely distracting during class sessions."

  But with the help of parents and teachers, Lin said, the discomfort was greatly reduced.

  The principal, a resident of Chungliao, said efforts to get school life back to normal couldn't have been possible without local residents and the tight connection between Kuangfu Elementary and its community.

  "I think school reconstruction is not solely the responsibility of the school. It should be a duty of the entire community," Lin said.

  For example, the principal said, teachers and parents collaborated to cover the roof of the school's temporary quarters with thick blankets, thereby reducing excessive noise. In addition, netting was installed over the top to insulate heat.

  "In relation to other schools, we [teachers and students] are quite fortunate, given that educational activities in our school have not been terribly affected after the earthquake," Lin said.

  "As a matter of fact, we have adapted ourselves rather well to the impact of the earthquake because even before the quake, there was a lot of teaching being held outdoors. The style of learning and instruction in the open air has merely been further intensified after the quake."

  Lin said that he was convinced that learning is not confined to the classroom, and that education can take place anywhere.

  "Students do not learn only from teachers. They can also learn from family members, the community, the soil and from life at large," he said.

  Lin's teaching philosophy is evident in Kuangfu's classes. At the school, teachers practice a different kind of instruction style, whereby classes are centered around a single "theme."

  For example, said instructor Tang You-ching (唐有慶), the topic of "spring" might be taught using Chinese poetry, while essays are introduced on the subjects of seeding and farming. In math class, students learn mathematical models by calculating and measuring the size of fields.

  In history class, students learn about the history of agricultural development in Chinese society. In science, students observe the many stages of growing crops.

  Even commencement this year played on the theme with a ceremonial rice harvest -- a moment that symbolizes the completion of education, Tang said.

  "The growth of children does not stop because of an earthquake," Tang said.

  "Keeping up teaching quality has and will always remain a top priority during this transitional period" until the new school is completed in March.

  Though the quake has taken away the building that was Kuangfu Elementary, it hasn't taken away the teachers, students and community that remain committed to education.

  "I am confident that we are able to make the utmost use of our current resources to provide the students with the best education possible," he said.
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