My favorite is this:
[Lee Teng-hui] hired Lee Yuan-tseh to chair the nation’s Educational Reform Committee at the time, in spite of the fact that he had lived overseas for decades […]
and in the following paragraph:
He was not open-minded […]
What does the future look like? And what should it look like?
Here’s an idea from a social psychology professor:
I imagine that universities and their staff everywhere in the world are going to be quite resistant to the changes coming down the pipeline as their interests will be impacted directly.
An unsigned TT editorial blames the “Hsinchu incident” (Nazi paraphernalia on sale at Banqiao station? - #149 by yyy) on the education system.
EDITORIAL: Education system failing students - Taipei Times
If history is only about numbers — How many people were killed? What year did an incident happen? — and information is disconnected from context, students are not led to reflect on humanity. For them, history is never about people and their fears, arrogance and ignorance, but only about symbols, which will be treated with flippancy.
“But they’re doing well on PISA!” 
While we’re on the subject, here’s an example for you. Yes, one can imagine this happening in a western country. One can also imagine the reaction being somewhat different.
Problem in Taiwan is that mental health issues ar not even acknowledged. See for example the kid that beat to death his sister: he blamed his father, insisting he told his dad several times that he (the brother) wanted to kill his sister. he just could’t control his impulses. Every day, we read stories like this ,especially family violence, that just recently has begun to slip into the public realm -the beheading in neihu, the MRT knife guy and copycats- but mostly go unchecked -the NTU cat killers, the machete dog slayers, etc. plus the numerous lethal lovers tales.
Anyone have kids in school here?
I have.
First thing they need to do is invest in better faclilities for a lot of the big city schools. They also look like shit windows covered in bars and that’s not conducive to a nice environment for education or just kids generally. Some don’t have proper drainage so if Zika or dengue becomes rampant the kids will be in danger. Their sanitation facilities are poor with very few sit down toilets abd the kids don’t often know how to use the squatters which easily get dirty.
The food is provided by outside contractors, its not the worst in the world but a lot of it tends to fried bindang type food.
Interestingly a lot of country schools are way nicer cos they have more space and less pressure from student numbers (I am very familiar with central Taiwan schools due to my previous job , many of the famous ones had the worst environments due to overcrowding).
Unfortunately there are next to no jobs in the countryside (the countryside being hard to find in northern Taiwan anyway) and much of the countryside is populated by uneducated hicks almost without exception. Teacher quality can be very poor as mentioned previously.
As for the ‘education system’ it’s very much based on teaching to the test even from the very first grade. I don’t think anything much has changed in decades except. O corporal punishment and a lot more involvement of parents through LINE groups contacting with the teachers. There’s a few good eggs, one dude made 25 presents with his son and came in as Santa to give them away!
The extra curricular activities are surprisingly very numerous. Almost all paid out of pocket by the parents but very reasonable at 100-200 ntd/hour. My kids are enjoying these a lot …every type of sport or music or dance you could imagine.
My kid spends a lot of time, unsurprisingly, on maths and Chinese. As these are core parts of any education here I don’t have a huge problem with this. It’s just unfortunate that the script of the Chinese language makes it so demanding in time to learn (something the communists tried to at least ameliorate).
English instruction is almost a waste of time as they start as such a basic level and teachers competence is so low.
In first grade they seem to have a reasonable balance between indoor and outdoor activities it’s only later grades maybe where the system becomes very unbalanced.
I don’t think much of the other parents though, they seem to be mostly quite conservative talking about test results. Some bad mouth the teacher on one LINE group but then shower her with platitudes another.
I did try to communicate with the teacher once but as she couldn’t even figure out the difference between US and Europe I decided I’d let my wife interface with her more.
Ps they had a sports day recently but it seemed to mostly consist of the principal talking and then each class did one activity and then that was it practically. One quarter of the area was taken by night market vendors.It was bad and I did feel like at that moment just to yank my kid out of there…but I demurred as he gets plenty of sports activity day to day through the extra curricular course…I just felt sorry that he didn’t know what a REAL sports day is supposed to be like! Nobody else complained but my wife was furious also.
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Imagine this on an application form at a buxiban: “What do you do if a parent asks you to use corporal punishment?” The manager I spoke with explained that despite it being illegal for decades already, some parents still ask for it, and he puts the question on the form to weed out the teachers who would go along with it. I met a manager at another buxiban who not only condoned but actively encouraged it. And this is all in the current decade.
So, I can’t say I find any of this surprising:
Testimonies from Liang and other children accused Lin and the two teachers of grabbing the children by the ankles and tossing them around, forcing them to take cold showers during winter if students had wet their pants, pushing their heads into a bucket of water, slapping them with rulers, ordering them to leap repeatedly with bent knees, pulling out eyebrow hairs, spraying alcohol into students’ eyes and forcing Liang to wear girls’ clothing.
Liang’s father said his son and other children were intimidated to remain silent about what had taken place under threat of further punishment, so they kept the secret for years, telling their parents the injuries were caused by falling down while running.
And then there’s this:
Allegations were made against the owner and teachers of an independent franchisee of Happy Marian, a bilingual kindergarten chain in Taipei which offers English instruction for toddlers.
The kindergarten has since closed, and has been replaced by a cram school.
Leaving aside the problem that English classes are illegal in kindergartens (no matter who the teachers are), I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the new buxiban is called something like “Marian Happy” and has all the same people.
Side effect of economic experimentation:
Chang understands that there’s no way to completely eradicate the dishonest customers. But looking ahead, he also thinks the store is a good educational opportunity for the next generation.
“I’ve seen parents bring their kids in, tell them what honesty means and hoist them up so they can insert the coins into the box,” he says.
A police spokesperson said that fraud rings target the shortcomings of intellectuals — who often lack social experience — invariably telling them it is “essential to maintain confidentiality” that they “inform no third party for the duration of the investigation.”
Of the reported 20,000 victims of telecom fraud last year, 9,712 had bachelor’s degrees, while 853 had master’s degrees or doctorates, Criminal Investigation Bureau data show.
Police said those with advanced degrees are often focused on their area of specialty to the exclusion of the outside world.
Such people also have strong egos and tend to believe that “anti-fraud” campaigns publicized by the police do not apply to them.
Well-known intellectuals who have been duped include former minister of economic affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), who withdrew NT$1.2 million in May 2013 after he received a call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son.
In March 2013, Academia Sinica vice president Liu Tsui-jung (劉翠溶) lost NT$20 million to a fraudster who posed as a prosecutor.
Many military personnel, government officials, engineers and researchers have all been duped, because their working environment tends to be quite insular, making them less vigilant about being defrauded, police said, adding that academics often refuse to believe that they have been cheated.
Such people often do not admit having fallen prey to fraudsters because “they are used to teaching others and cannot bring themselves to admit they need guidance,” a police officer said.
Honestly speaking, after seeing how some of our nation’s universities are managed, I’m surprised that such exposed fraud cases are not more common. The obvious explanation is that folks in these institutions are instead accustomed to seeing fraud cases remain unexposed.
Guy
Remember the famous PhD who believed she was being courted by George Clooney… who asked her for money?
The kidnapping one, can be understood, as it is very scary. But the one about handing all your money, IN CASH, to a prosecutor… it is too much.
One may think they may lack malice. Actually, it is back to the same problem: equating academic skills with actual intelligence, in particular, emotional intelligence… plus the aftereffects of living under martial law.
As to the academic environment, it is so rife with dishonesty and corruption rigt in your face, taht one would expect a bit more… awareness.
Just imagine how much money criminals could make threatening to expose their dodgy rresesrch.
I guess in many cases they use a generic script, I know you’ve been getting backhands from your recent tender…blah blah…
Tl/dr: Factory style education causes myopia, even literally.
But why are Asian children particularly prone to myopia? Although the question tends to create a heated discussion among doctors, Xu doesn’t hesitate when answering.
“First of all, it’s not genetic. We’ve done many studies and that is something we are sure of.
Apparently, it’s caused by lack of natural light and by excessive screen time, two problems that are made worse by long class/homework hours and high tech “solutions”.
“On the other hand, new technology used both for studying and for entertainment requires our eyes to concentrate on a small surface for a long period of time,” Xu says. “Although we are still studying the concrete effects of mobile devices on our vision, we believe the lower blinking frequency may also contribute to the deformation of the eye.”
Only a handful of the 150 inhabitants of Tanda, a small town in central Shanxi province, need spectacles. And most of those who do so are senior citizens, who have trouble seeing objects up close, which has nothing to do with myopia.
A few of the children have developed short-sightedness, but the fact that the vast majority haven’t seems to support Xu’s theory because, even if most of them live in mountain cave homes, they spend almost all of their time outdoors, and still play with real toys – or animals, because many families here herd sheep and goats.
But wait – there’s a high tech solution! 
“If my daughter doesn’t study hard, she’ll be left behind,” says a mother who prefers not to give her name.
“If her myopia is high, she can always have corrective surgery, like I did a few months ago. It’s fast, painless and works miracles.”
Indeed some parents already ask doctors if they can perform the procedure, Lasik, on children as young as 10, even though it is not recommended for eyes that have not yet fully formed.
In order to improve the vision of young people, we need to subject children to more eye tests.
More eye tests = better vision.
Even if it means looking through Coke-bottle glasses.
AAFAIK the research that proved it was a lack of natural sunlight problem was done in Taiwan. For decades it was a real mystery as to what was the exact cause. The Taiwan study was very elegant and supported by the ministry of education and health. It proved that it was exposure to natural sunlight that was key. I’m guessing it has something to do with vitamin D2 acting on the eyeball (nature.com article says it’s related to dopamine release in diurnal cycles). Not staring into the distance or less homework or genetic factors etc. http://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420(12)01075-5/abstract
I’m sure there’s still some debate on the causes.
Lack of sunlight and long study/homework hours tend to go hand in hand, especially with the windowless classrooms you find in some buxibans.
I haven’t heard of a myopia epidemic in polar regions, but I’m not an expert on the topic.
It’s also been claimed that psychological health is a factor (which would bring us back to those long hours again); maybe the dopamine mechanism can partly explain that.
The point is there were many many competing theories,it’s only in the last few years that’s it been pinned down to be most related to natural sunlight.
In Taiwan most of the schools would seem to have fairly decent light due to the design of the schools (compared to globally)…just that they spend so much time indoors.
It might be like vitamin D where you need to go out
I’m the middle of the day when sun is strongest to get a decent top-up (or summer time exposure) as it is related to height of sun in the sky.
I remember for years folks said it was the spectrum from the study lamps, reading and writing Chinese, genetics etc etc.
Try to battle the establishment and tear down teh belief that the sun is bad, bad.
I blame the friggin fluorescent lighting so ubiquitous…
EDIT:
And for Pete’s sake, what is a 4 year old doing with a phone?!
I forgot to mention one of the leading theories was that the eye muscles for looking at far away objects didn’t get exercised as the kids was always indoors or reading stuff.
Kind of makes sense right since the environments we evolved in we were unlikely to have spent a huge amount of time indoors or with constrained views.
Somehow the Taiwan study controlled for that and helped to prove it was the amount of exposure to natural light was the key (although folks do say you can treat some kinds of myopia by doing eye exercises).