I figured, that now since my life here has settled into more or less regular routine, having now more or less travelled to most interesting places around Taipei (I'm sure there are more to be found), that I would take a post to describe my daily life at school, and various observations about the Taiwanese education system, and its difference from the Western public education system, which I attended from Kindergarten-12th grade. There are obviously a series of benefits/disadvantages to the school system, which I will address in an upcoming post. Instead today, I would just like to address the overall structure and typical layout of the school, and the school day, as well as some of the associated culture with it.
The school I attend in Taiwan is known as Wanfang Senior High School, which strikes me as a fairly typical Taiwanese school. The first thing that would probably strike foreigners about the school, is the size, and the difference in physical structure from Western schools. The school is very large, comparable with only the largest of urban schools in the United States, with around 2,500 students, from the American equivalent of 7th-12th grade (台灣的國一至高三). These students are spread across four large buildings, each of which contain four stories, built into a hillside, so that behind the last building rises a large wall. Each of these buildings is built one story off of the ground, and contains no elevator, so a considerable climb is required to get to my classroom, which is on the fourth floor of the final building. In addition to these, four general classroom buildings, lies an adjacent special classroom building, featuring art, music, cooking, scouting, science lab, etc. classrooms. Adjacent to this is the four story sports center, featuring two lecture halls, a gym, behind which is a one story building containing the pool. Next to the gym building is yet another four story building, exclusively containing school offices, that faces the main guardhouse gate and entryway. So, needless to say, the school complex is very large and confusing. On top of this, all the buildings are connected by a very confusing maze of bridges, and feature no indoor corridors, with all classroom doors opening to the outside.
The school day is structured very differently from school days in the United States. In Taiwan (as well as most of East Asia), the students have a single fixed class. The teachers then therefore rotate, while students remain in the same classroom throughout the entire day. The teachers, then have their offices elsewhere, while students are technically responsible for maintaining control of the classroom themselves. The classrooms are largely bare of any technology, and are much more reminiscent of a classroom that one might find in the Great Depression Era United States, featuring rows of wooden desks, six by six, all facing a podium. The classrooms are very threadbare, and largely bereft of technology, save for some outlets, a single (albeit falling apart) projector screen, and a large silver apparatus, installed in every classroom to warm the metal lunch boxes that students bring to school each day. Students attend class every day from 7:30 AM to 4:00, (5:00 PM for 11th and 12th grade students). Each day consists of eight classes, each of which lasts 50 minutes. After each class there is a 10 minute break, during which students are free to roam around. At 12:00, there is a free half hour for lunch, after which there is a half hour intended for students to turn the lights out, and sleep on their desks, something largely new for foreign students. From 7:30 to 8:00 AM, the students take a test, frequently taking tests during classes as well.
The school schedule is not fixed, leaving even many of the Taiwanese students to often wonder what class is next, and taking quite a bit of time to memorize, since every day is different. In addition, only three subjects are taken every day, those being Chinese, English and math. Aside from those three subjects, students rotate through history, gym, geography, civics, art, computer, physics, chemistry, earth science, and biology. This is largely in attempt to cram in as many aspects of as many school subjects possibly, into the school's incredibly rote, test oriented curriculum, so as to allow students to perform well on the national 學測 college entrance examination. This obviously oftentimes comes at the expense of real learning, creativity, or thought. The amount of effort students are expected to give is largely dictated by the school, with all students attending the same classes (with the exception of English), all at the same level.
Another large difference between Taiwanese school and Western schools is the teaching style employed by teachers to allow students to better learn, understand and comprehend (memorize) the curriculum. When the teacher enters the classroom (usually five minutes late, as teachers tend to be free of most of the conservative rules binding students), they plug the classroom microphone in, and begin lecturing at the blackboard. There seems to be an uncanny obsession with microphones here that I can't seem to figure out, which renders many Taiwanese people to feel it impossible to speak in front of any gathering without one. Even at Rotary meetings with only twenty people in attendance, they claim they can't hear me without one... If they desire their own materials, they all must be prepared themselves, therefore discouraging most teachers from using the PowerPoints, advance lessons, and presentations usually prepared by Western teachers, although some will occasionally bring an iPad. It is a very, very rare occasion that the teacher will venture past the first row of desks, except to wake up sleeping students, which again, despite the conservatism of the education system, is far less frowned upon than it is in the United States, with some students appearing to sleep for the better part of the day. Therefore, many teachers, even some of whom have a group of students every day, after two months, have still failed to memorize students names. In stead, students are identified by a series of numbers written on all of their materials, a series of numbers that in many ways seem to be more important than their names. Teachers in single subject teach strictly from the textbook, which compared to textbooks in the United States are not meant to give an overview/understanding of the material, nor extra help, but instead define the curriculum, everything inside is meant to be memorized. Many days after school, students will continue going to cram school for several hours, just to increase the rote memorization and test grades.
As an exchange student however, these rules are obviously more relaxed for me, and despite the fact that I'm very glad I did not graduate from a Taiwanese high school, or any East Asian school for that matter, I do largely enjoy my experience here as an exchange student. The large absence of foreigners/diversity in the Taiwanese education system, coupled with my advance ability to speak Chinese prior to arriving here, and the interest, ranging from curiosity to outright obsession with Western culture here, renders me somewhat of a celebrity. Despite the fact that I still don't know many of the students names (Chinese names are incredibly hard to memorize for foriegners), the students here are all familiar with mine, and will nearly all greet me with a smile and a wave as I walk down the hallway. Sometimes smiling and waving myself does get tiring, especially after a full day, however it is much better than the social monotony and cliquishness of schools in the United States, which is far closer to film stereotypes than Taiwanese high school interactions. In Taiwan, due to the fact that students have the same class the entire day, I have the advantage of being more part of a "class family," than a large school body. There is a much closer social community that exists among classes, and since classrooms largely don't have a specific teacher, the students police themselves, electing a class leader, making their own announcements, cleaning (apparently there aren't really custodial staff members here), and arranging events on their own, which are a lot of fun to participate in. This style of "class identity," really doesn't exist in American public schools, and is one of the strong advantages of being an exchange student here, since despite the educational conservatism, it really allows for great opportunities to become close to a large group of friends.
I have been making an effort as well, even despite the name issue to get to know as many high school students as possible at Wanfang, venturing to as many classrooms In addition, impressing teachers is fairly easy, since academically, a close to nothing is expected of us as exchange students, due to the language barrier, and the intense nature of the education system, especially to those who came to Taiwan to experience, rather than fully immerse oneself within it. Therefore, any participation, quiz taken, question answered or interaction had is very smiled upon, since fully participating here would largely consist of taking very large amounts of tests, both in class at least once a week per subject, as well as six times a year in the form of two day midterms, mandated by the Taiwanese Department of Education. This attempt at participation, however, will often result in many entertaining, "very Taiwanese," such as being asked randomly to sing in front of the class by a history teacher, in order to celebrate her own birthday, or bizarre questions that somehow relate to the subject matter, such as whether or not we call our parents by their first names in the United States.
Anyway, that's my general overview of how school works here. I'll soon get to my overall opinions on the school system, and its effectiveness compared to the often chastised American school system in a near future post.
Thanks for reading,
Ben Weinstein