Cram school proposal awful
Today, I learned with horror that the Executive Yuan has approved a proposal to authorize the Ministry of Education to bankrupt private English schools for children if the environment of the school is deemed to be insufficiently lively and natural (“Stricter rules on language learning,” Aug. 30, page 1).
I have taught English to children and adults in Taiwan since September 1987. Everywhere that I have taught, I have worked tirelessly to teach English in lively, friendly and natural way. And I have strenuously opposed the pressure-cooker style of teaching all too common in the ministry’s public schools.
The emphasis on memorization and multiple-choice tests (as promoted by the ministry) is wrong. All students, including adults, perform better and learn more when they are having fun. Forced memorization of English vocabulary and grammar produces students who hate English and are unable to speak or write fluently.
So, in a sense, my adverse reaction to the proposal might seem odd. On the surface, by outlawing memorization and promoting a natural environment, one might conclude that the ministry is at long last moving in the right direction.
Yet, as usual, the devil is in the detail. Consider how this “reform” is to be implemented.
We are told that private schools that do not teach in a lively, natural way will suffer repeated fines of NT$500,000. How will it be determined that the school failed to teach correctly? Will employees of the ministry sit in classrooms to observe teaching methods? If not, what sort of evidence will be used to justify these draconian fines?
Some people in the ministry must think that English schools for children are gold mines. Actually, most of them could not afford to pay such a large fine even once. Repeated fines would bankrupt even the largest chains. Most owners of private schools will just close their doors rather than risk punishments like these.
If the legislature adopts this awful proposal, English schools for children will either go underground or cease to exist.
Instead of this ill-conceived proposal, the ministry should provide “natural teaching methods training” to all teachers (including public school teachers). Further it should hold seminars to explain and promote the lively, natural approach to parents.
Finally, by issuing certificates to teachers who completed the training and by encouraging parents to seek schools that employ such teachers, the goals it claims to seek might actually be accomplished.
Jim Walsh
Taipei
The ministry’s latest spectacular fail — stricter regulations for cram schools teaching children under six — is another destructive policy that will cripple Taiwanese childrens’ language skills for life.
Rigorous multilingual global studies have demonstrated that if young students are not exposed to certain vocal sounds, such as the two sounds of “th” in words like “this” and “through” before they reach age four, they will have a terribly hard time mastering these sounds.
Furthermore, not all cram schools are created equal. It is well documented that the textbooks and teachers’ manuals at Kongzhong Meiyu under the franchise name AMC outperform all the other cram schools, but the ministry is silent on this.
Adding yet another layer of government supervision that restricts schools to teaching “body movements” and “artistic talents” for bright, enthusiastic young learners, punishable by a fine of up to NT$500,000, while banning students from learning how to write the alphabet (no, I am not making this up) is the absolute antithesis of what education should be about, given that students learn to write the Bopomofo phonetics for Mandarin early on.
If these new restrictive laws are passed by the legislature, I expect a massive exodus of my friends who teach in Taiwan’s Montessori system, which has proven itself over decades.
Moving on, we learn that 70 percent of graduates now have a job unrelated to their major, and that many respondents now 20 to 29 years old realize their deficiencies at work, with a shocking 62.1 percent of graduates wishing they became more fluent in a foreign language while at school. Indeed, an unbelievable 64 percent of graduates said they “regret their choice of study” (“University courses poor predictors for careers,” Aug. 30, page 5).
Exactly what has the ministry been doing all these years, other than hollowing out the dreams of Taiwan’s youth and saddling them and their parents with education-related debt?
One could argue that if the ministry were so good at educating children, there would be no need for cram schools or private high schools and colleges, which sprang up because of the free market of ideas and education amid destructive government policies.
Furthermore, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) compulsory 12-year brainwashing program is certain to turn out another generation of 20th-century students who will be entering a 21st century-employment environment: yet another fail.
Taiwan’s history is replete with idiots trying to suppress local languages in favor of the colonial masters of the era, which is reprehensible. Science proves that multilingual children have higher brainpower and achieve greater results.
Due to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonial period (aka martial law) in Taiwan, students were taught to fear their teachers and sit quietly in the classroom, waiting to be asked questions, and this explains where we are today. This is disgraceful policy.
Torch Pratt
New Taipei City
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Since the end of the Cold War, the US-China espionage battle has arguably become the largest on Earth. Spying on China is vital for the US, as China’s growing military and technological capabilities pose direct challenges to its interests, especially in defending Taiwan and maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific. Intelligence gathering helps the US counter Chinese aggression, stay ahead of threats and safeguard not only its own security, but also the stability of global trade routes. Unchecked Chinese expansion could destabilize the region and have far-reaching global consequences. In recent years, spying on China has become increasingly difficult for the US
Lately, China has been inviting Taiwanese influencers to travel to China’s Xinjiang region to make films, weaving a “beautiful Xinjiang” narrative as an antidote to the international community’s criticisms by creating a Potemkin village where nothing is awry. Such manipulations appear harmless — even compelling enough for people to go there — but peeling back the shiny veneer reveals something more insidious, something that is hard to ignore. These films are not only meant to promote tourism, but also harbor a deeper level of political intentions. Xinjiang — a region of China continuously listed in global human rights reports —
RSS