I heard this weekend that 40% of school-aged high school students work all day and attend after-school school programs until late at night because they can not afford to attend private high schools. Is this true? 40%? This really explains the spoilt-child attitude of teenagers in my JHS.
I’m not looking to make snide judgements or whatever but I was always under the impression that it was simply the fact that education was a business that kids got off with such a soft deal. It is really a shame because their great potential goes uncultivated because teachers and admin are too concerned about getting paid. I know this is a problem not limited to Taiwan, although it takes a peculiar shape here. I’m sure this will be remedied with time.
Anyone else got any useful information regarding the social-economic realities of life in Taiwan that the average ESL teacher might not be aware of? Sources welcome
Private schools are for the “lazy” kids, the kids “left behind”, the ones that didn’t “made the mark”. Private schools here in Taiwan have the reputation of being teh depositories of the “troubled”, the “slow”, the “unsuccessful”.
Probably most kids work with their parents -like the kids in my hood, working the market stalls, the pet store sales, the bientang deliveries. But these are middle school to highschool kids, usually. Haven’t seen child labor -and when I see it, is on TV news.
There is a famous technical or vocational school near my place. The kids that go in the morning trail lazily but noisily in clouds of smoke and liter. I prefer the older kids, or at least they look older, that go at night. They look teh working type, smoke less and make a lot less noise. You can see the difference in attitude. Those are the kids cleaning tables at cafes and sweeping teh floor as hair salons as apprentices.
