Alice Ou (區桂芝), who teaches Chinese language and literature at Taipei First Girls’ High School, stirred up controversy over remarks she made at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan on Monday last week, in which she criticized the 2019 curriculum guidelines for de-emphasizing classical Chinese.
Subsequently, Ou sought to rationalize her remarks by citing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) advocacy of respect for freedom of identity.
However, Ou is responsible for teaching high-school students who are under 18 years old, in this case at the prestigious Taipei First Girls’ High School, where she is said to often spout off about her political leanings in the classroom.
This behavior is no longer a question of freedom of identity. Rather, the point is that teachers should not forcibly indoctrinate high-school students, whose ideology is not yet mature and fully formed, with their own political standpoints. To do so not only contravenes the constitutional principle of educational neutrality, but also sows divisions within the friendly and uncomplicated culture of the school campus.
Of course, teachers are entitled to have their own political ideas, but they should not bring them into the classroom, otherwise they would end up forcing their ideas and mindsets onto their students, which crosses the line between education and indoctrination.
Indoctrination is a process of forcing someone else to accept certain ideas, which is at odds with education’s emphasis on forming value judgements through independent thinking.
Ou’s pronouncements are deeply suspect, as she falsely accuses the government of destroying Chinese culture, while falsely supposing that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is protecting that culture. In reality, ever since China’s Cultural Revolution, the CCP has been the biggest offender against Chinese culture, gravely damaging its ethics and morals, and ruthlessly attacking the kindness of human nature.
Of course, anyone is free to identify however they wish, but they should not inflict it on innocent students who have not yet reached adulthood. Anyone who claims that the CCP regime preserves traditional culture is raising the banner of freedom to assert something that is patently false.
Chen Chi-nung is the principal of a junior high school.
Translated by Julian Clegg
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS