英文讀書會

Taiwanese teenagers' school life filled with pressure and misery

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- “Like a small boat amidst high waves. I have no goals, no directions, but drifting aimlessly along the waves. I have been tired physically and mentally during the past three years,” a 9th grader wrote of his experience attending junior high school in Taiwan.

The disheartening article wrote by the 15-year old student is not an exception; in fact, it is a norm, according to educators and parents who attended the forum on education reform yesterday.

The forum used the article written by this teenager to describe the pain and pressures most students felt from preparing for the high school entrance exam during the entire three years in junior high.

According to this student, all his anticipations toward an “exciting” experience at junior high school were all drowned out as textbooks, tests and pressures from the entrance exam inundated his daily life. The only excitement left for him was the short breaks on basketball courts and in the online digital world.

In the forum, a topic was discussed about a recent news report that shocked many people in the nation, of students eating food and playing games blatantly in front of a professor, in class at the renowned National Taiwan University Medical School.

Yet, Tuan Hsin-yi, a high school teacher who attended the forum said that this is a deep-rooted norm that most students have adopted from eating in class during junior and high school because eating during recess is simply an unaffordable luxury.

To juggle between heavy courses and extra-curriculum activities, students can only sacrificed lunch or dinner time by eating during class, she added there are at least 10 subjects per every high school semester.

“I cannot even carry these books, but a child has to!” said Le Shu-hua who pointed out to a thick stack of 20-plus textbooks displayed in the forum and said it is only a tiny portion of the required readings at her 9th-grade child's school.

She added that there are at least 10 textbooks, in addition to numerous outside readings, for each subject. Students lack the opportunity to think on their own when most school tests are in multiple choices formats.

During the forum, these educators and parents said students and parents undergo tremendous pressures from high school entrance exams. They urge the government to review education plans of the past decade and to formulate an entirely different approach towards education in Taiwan.

Chou Chu-ying, a professor from the National Chengchi University said “After exams and tests, what is left of these children?”

Discussions:

1. When you were high school students, did you feel stressed out?
2. Do you agree or disgree with the educational reforms in recent years? Why or why not?
3. In your opinion, is there really too much schoolwork, or, are the teenagers just being vulnerable to stress and frustration?
4. Do you think it’s ok to eat and drink during the class? How about other behaviors?