Lin-Kou Senior High School

Today, Jim, Kelly, Jackie #2 and I spent the day with teachers and students at Lin-Kou High School.  Lin-Kou High School has a beautiful campus. I am amazed at how big the schools are and how much open space there is. Like I’ve said before, their schools look like mini-college campuses with their courtyards and multiple academic and housing buildings.  Our school buildings are much more compact than theirs.  

The social studies teachers and the Director of Academic Affairs, Susan Chen prepared a thorough presentation for us on schooling in Taiwan and at Lin-Kou High School.  It is amazing how similar our systems are many ways, however we do have several differences.  First, senior high schools in Taiwan are composed of what we would call 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grades, however they refer to them as 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd grade.  Junior high schools are comprised of 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade and then high school starts at 1^st grade.  Elementary school grades are the same as the U.S. 

In Taiwanese high schools, students take 13 subjects over the course of the school year instead of our 7 courses.  In addition, students stay in the same classroom the entire day and the teachers move from room to room.  There are no SOL-like end of year exams for the students but at the end of their junior year students take a university entrance exam.  It is very stressful for the students, more so than I think our SATs for U.S. students because for Taiwanese students it is all about the test.  At least in the U.S. a student’s transcript and extracurricular activities are taken into consideration.  Many Taiwanese students study all the time and go to “cram school” after school ends at 5pm to gain an edge.  Today, I asked the students during a Q&A session what they do for fun and they said “nothing, all we do is study.” Most students do not play sports outside of the occasional basketball or badminton game when they have some time.  Our students in the U.S. should be very appreciative of the fact that they have so many extracurricular opportunities outside of the classroom.   This is not to say the Taiwanese schools do not have any activities, but they are much more limited than a typical U.S. high school. 

We also had the chance to tour Lin-Kou and see their astronomy lab and observatory.  At Lin-Kou, they also have a school-based curriculum in addition to the standard curriculum.  The school-based curriculum which all students take is Astronomy and Reading & Writing.  I liked that the school develops a curriculum to meet the needs of their student population.  Teachers at Lin-Kou also work in Professional Learning Communities! 

After a great morning and afternoon at the high school, the teachers took us to the Zhulinshan Guan-Yin Temple in Lin-Kou.  I am all about experiencing everything possible so I made a wish to the equivalent of a Buddhist saint to have a successful and safe trip.  Unfortunately, I made my wish and then my fortunate was read was to me – it’s very much like a fortunate cookie, except it’s a pink slip of paper.  I thought I was wishing for something safe, but then my pink slip said not to stray too far away in my travels.  It didn’t sound good, so I’m a little nervous now but one of the students who was the visiting the temple with us told me not to worry because anytime he has made a wish and was told his fortunate, the opposite came true.  I’m hoping the Buddha will protect me….I did drink the water of compassion at Wu Sheng Monastery and meditated, so I’m hoping I’m safe.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I had a delicious dinner of beef noodles and spouts in a spicy marinade before Jackie #2 and I met at Starbucks to work on our presentation for Pan Chiao High School on Wednesday and Thursday and catch up on our blogs. 

Tomorrow we have a busy day planned with field trips to the Shihsanshang Museum of Archaeology, the Bali Waterfront, Oxford College & Tam-Kang Senior High School in Tam-Sui.