On Wednesday last week, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) published an article by Liu Hsuen-hua (劉軒華) under the headline “Transitional justice in graduation ceremonies.”
“The purpose of graduation ceremonies is to encourage students, not to serve as a stage for elected officials to put on a show,” Liu wrote.
“Why not change the names of the prizes to ones that reflect the features of each school, instead of using the names of elected officials?” he asked.
Liu’s suggestion is definitely the right way to go.
The first point is that it is easy to stop using names such as “the mayor’s prize,” “the council speaker’s prize,” “the district supervisor’s prize” and “the borough warden’s prize.” Many schools have done it already.
The school where I used to work has long since changed these names to ones such as “the Einstein prize,” “the Beethoven prize” and “the Carl Lewis prize.”
The names and titles of the people who provide the prizes are only mentioned when the prizes are being given out.
Second, an even more important requirement for achieving transitional justice in graduation ceremonies is that calculations of students’ achievements up to graduation and the prizes they are given should put into practice the principle of attaching equal value to five aspects of education: moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic development.
As things stand today, while schools put on an appearance of seeking a balance between these five aspects, in their bones they still give intellectual development sole pride of place. This has become even more so, with the scale and order of prizes being determined according to scores in intellectual achievement.
When calculating achievements up to graduation, the five kinds of education should make up equal proportions of the total score.
Third, if politicians really aim to encourage the graduates, it would be enough for them to provide the prize items. As for the accompanying certificates, they should be printed by each school with the awardees’ names on them. This would permanently avoid situations such as the present one, where the recall of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and his replacement by acting mayor Yang Ming-jou (楊明州) has caused confusion about whose name should appear on the Kaohsiung mayor’s prize certificates.
It would also prevent any repetition of an incident in which prizewinners returned their certificates because they bore the name of a council speaker who was later jailed for murder.
The final point is that there is a trend for mayors and county commissioners, following graduation ceremonies, to summon students who have won mayor’s or commissioner’s prizes and award the prizes again.
This bad habit should also be abolished, and not only because awarding the same prize twice is a waste of time. How are students who have won other prizes supposed to feel when sole honors are given to those who win mayor’s or commissioner’s prizes? It is indeed an example of miseducation.
Graduation ceremonies should revolve around the students. The ceremonies should be given back to each and every graduating student, giving them the initiative to plan and participate in them, with teachers and students cooperating to arrange a truly meaningful and memorable event.
Some schools have taken the first step in this direction. As long as they persist in their efforts, people will soon see the day when graduation ceremonies fully meet the requirements of transitional justice.
Tsai Jr-keng is a retired elementary-school principal.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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