[quote=“Ecaps”] How can an entire system be so heavily valued to one side (math/science) and have such a disregard for other, equally important subjects.
Well if you eliminate things such as arts/humanities, sports, hobbies, extra-culliculars, friends, and a life for your kids and extract a pure solution of math/science for every kid on the island, perhaps not. [/quote]
I don’t think it’s an exclusive Taiwan thing but an Asian/Middle Eastern thing. I grew up in the UAE and went to an “international school” there (although mainly various Arab nationalities + Indians & Pakistanis and a few Asians…most of the UK & US expat kids went to the specific “English” or “American” schools) - anyway, my school was popular because it had a reputation as being very academic and churning out kids who got into universities (often top ones in other countries). But the reality was - it was a terrible, biased, poor education.
We were segregated at about 14 into 2 streams of classes: Science and Arts (so if you’re in a Science class, you just did Physics, Chemistry & Biology and Pure Maths/Calculus/Geometry/Statistics, etc - and a token English class - for 8 hours a day! No art or music or PE either) and although it was supposed to be equal choice between them, it wasn’t really. The Arts subjects (Literature, History, Philosophy, Geography, etc) were looked down upon and any “good kid” would never dream of voluntarily opting for the Arts classes…basically, that’s where the kids who were at the bottom of the class were put and the ones who got good grades always went into the Science stream.
It was really hard if you were someone like me who did well in class but was actually more of a literary/arts bent but you just knew that you couldn’t possibly choose to go into the Arts stream. Aside from your parents’ horror and everyone in school (incl teachers) disapproving - you yourself, as a high achiever, did not want to spend the last 4 years of your high school in a class with a bunch of kids who just threw paper balls at each other and sat the back chewing gum, ignoring the teacher all the time, etc, etc…so you were basically forced into the Science stream if you were any kind of self-respecting student keen to achieve. It’s so sad - if there was any respect for the Arts subjects, there wouldn’t have been this situation.
And this wasn’t an “Asian” school - there were probably only about 5 Asians in the school in total, in my time - but it was still a view held by the Indians and Arab ethnicities - they have the same hero-worhip of the “professions” - the lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc and they’re completely convinced that the Science subjects are superior to the Arts ones so any child who was smart and good would of course do Science subjects - the only reason you would do Arts ones was because you were too dumb to do Science…
I ended up doing Biology as a degree at university because it was the only one of the Sciences I had any real interest in (and only really as far as the fact that I love animals!) - I should really have done English or Literature or something but sadly, by that stage, after 4/5 yrs of doing exclusively Science subjects, I wasn’t fit to get accepted for a degree in any of the Arts topics. So it’s terrible - that kind of school system precludes you from even making a free choice at university level. Thank God, I saw sense after university and although I did try a couple of “proper” jobs to continue “doing the right thing” - I eventually found my way back to my first love and interests and overcame the shame of actually enjoying the Arts more than the Sciences - but God, what a lot of wasted time and energy!!
I know it sounds really prestigious to say that your child is a high achiever in an academic school and got into a top university but if I ever had a child, I would never put them back in the situation I was in. I’d prefer they went to a school that gave them a more rounded education and allowed them to develop their full potential in whatever direction that happened to be. That’s really loving them for who they are, as opposed to how they reflect on you and what status they bring to you as the parent…
You know, I never understand why people accuse me of being selfish for NOT having any children - when it seems to me that an awful lot of people have children for very selfish reasons!!! :fume:
H’sin-'Yi