The Revolution Has Begun (and failed)

The reason for the delay was that I really wanted to make this one to be "the start" of videos instead of articles since it's been 1 year of Free The Language.

I figured that it could be a revolution of my own. However, it has its difficulties along with mine... I literally spent an hour recording nothing but many intro videos of less than a minute... and I deleted them all!

A couple of weeks ago, there was a forum for experimental education in Taiwan. Obviously, I was present. Although with little expectation, after a long day, I came back with hopes and dreams in education again. We've talked about homeschooling or not. This time, let's open up a new branch: Experimental Education

The three major schooling systems in Taiwan are, homeschooling, conventional & unconventional schooling. While colearning is also related to this topic, it is instead, an "after-school" program.

How I define them:

Conventional schooling: Public/Private schools that are under the plans of the government. They serve the majority of Taiwanese families and students. Because they are more or less government funded, the amount of tuition or other fees are more transparent. The general belief is that this is the safer way of schooling but the idea is led by the negligence of education. Teachers have to work with large groups of about 20 students and on top of that, administrative affairs. Being chased by the clock, many school teachers could only try to get through the daily/weekly schedule and not spending time on students.

Since most people have long working hours in Taiwan, what usually follows is one or two after-school programs. There are, of course, cram schools/daycare centers(often run by the same owner) and mine kind, colearning.

Colearning: a concept of adult/teacher and children/students learning together. Its focus is to develop individuality, attend personal interests/special needs. It's for those who believe there's more than just homework and tests for children. Although the parents are likely to have second thoughts when it comes to test results, communication and participation of all family members are what gives students a chance to a more fulfilled childhood. It is a hybrid of conventional schooling and experimental schooling but with difficulties on both, if have the wrong participants.

Homeschooling: For those not joining the conventional school system (or joining partially) and learn based on the resources from the family or society. It usually involves different philosophical perspectives on education. The issue is that you either have to be a good teacher parent or provide a good educational program for your children. It has the most freedom but not many have the expertise.

Experimental education: a "different(not new)" form of education that focuses on student-based learning with more flexibility in teaching methods and class choices. It has an actual school facility. While conventional schooling follows a standardized evaluation and aims for conformity, experimental schools expect their students to be confident, creative, team-working, problem-solving... etc. of which they sometimes claims to say the same in conventional schools but are only words without delivery. What makes it work is not that they have the most caring or most professional teachers among other schools but that the experimental schools themselves in fact support teachers who want to make a difference and bring new blood into the system. However, no great schools or professionals can work without their trust-giving and well-funded clients.

What makes experimental education different or even better than conventional schools?

Generally speaking, the problems with public schools are that they have too many students per group, bureaucracy and the worst at last... unfit faculties that want to leave but stayed until retirement. Since the key component in experimental education is to teach by heart rather than to produce "learning results", those with love in this field and teaching skills can finally find where they belong. Only when the teachers are settled and able to focus on their profession, can the students receive a good learning experience.

As always, thanks for reading. Hopefully, this gives you some insights, whether being a parent/teacher or not.

#education

#vlog (kind of?)