I am planning to move to Taichung in March when the school begins. The idea is to enroll my 9-year-old daughter in a local school so that she can benefit from full immersion. She studied Mandarin for two years at a Taiwanese-run elementary school in Seoul, South Korea. I’d prefer to stay away from public schools. Rather, I’d very much like for her to attend an alternative/progressive school. The problem is that I am not at all familiar with Taiwan, other than that is conveniently close to Korea. Also, I feel important to mention that my daughter has Korean citizenship, whereas I hold a Canadian passport. Obviously, I would be accompanying her. Once we decide on a school, we will need to rent a place nearby. Depending on how things develop, we plan to stay for either a semester or a year. Could you advise?
the 2nd semester of taiwanese elementary schools will begin on Feb 16 next year.
do you mean you prefer private schools, or non ordinary experimental education institutes? if the latter, there are school-based and non school-based experimental education institutes, but you prefer school based one?
is it in addition to taiwanese passport, or you mean you are foreigners? if the latter, she needs to get an ARC if you want her attend a registered education institution.
You could look into Montessori schools. They have a few of those here, but I have no knowledge about the methodology or about the quality of specific schools.
I would start by contacting the Taichung Experimental Education Resources center. They must have a list of schools even though their website has very little information. You can try emailing them, but calling or even better visiting in person is best.
Here is a list of of five private experimental schools that were recently re-accredited.
To the OP: experimental/alternative education is thriving in Taiwan so you should have plenty of options. You’ll need to to do due diligence because everyone has different ideas and needs. A friend is arranging his daughter’s education for next year at the moment. I think I remember that he said that he needed to apply by December for the alternative school he has in mind (nothing special or fancy). A trip to Taiwan for this purpose might be a good idea.
Thank you. Will your friends be staying in Taichung? I have no clue about places and cities in Taiwan. I simply picked Taichung because it seemed less crowded than Taipei. Do you know what elementary school your friends have settled for?
These experimental public schools are good news. I’d imagine besides having the best of both worlds, they are also sensibly priced. Anyways, from a distance I don’t seem to be able to achieve much. Boots on the ground is the way to go about this.
each public ecperimental school has charactoristic features. if you read chinese, you may easily find enougu information to have basic idea on the schools. if not, machin translator would work on their website.
If you will come in March, the 2nd school semester will be already started. if you want to put her in special schools, you might need to visit or talk to schools before the winter vacation in taiwan to arrange her schooling from March. the last day of this semester is Jan. 19, 2024.
Im going to strongly advise against montessori in Taiwan. The extent to which families who send their children to those schools have zero understanding of Montessori is quite disheartening. The demands that parents place on the adults (“teachers”, known as “guides”) in those schools leads to classrooms that are essentially traditional classrooms with very expensive wooden toys that the children don’t really touch. Or theres just general chaos and the kids just run around being terrible to everyone and thing. Also important to note that even an AMI or AMS (the two main montessori training organizations) certified teacher means nothing. Ive met plenty of adults with every possible AMI certification (for every age level) available whose ideas about child development are fundamentally at odds with literally everything Maria Montessori wrote in her books/talked about in her lectures. And then they quote Montessori’s texts at me like a fundamental Christian quotes the Bible — completely missing the underlying point
Ive posted elsewhere about how Waldorf is a literal cult in Taiwan. Not in the “fun nature play is weird to some people but we’re a fun hippy family so we’re willing to join this ‘cult’” sense. In the “stay the heck away literally send your child anywhere else, actual cult!!!” sense.
I have no opinion on Montessori. I was just throwing it out there as an alternative I have seen. The original poster would be well advised to take the advice of someone with experience in the matter over my casual awareness of it.
So far I’ve learned to stay away from Montessori and Waldorf, and it would appear that alternative public schools (the so-called Forest schools?) are the way to go. Question is… what such schools exist in Taichung? You seem to know a lot regarding the matter at hand. I am grateful for all the information and clarification you’ve provided thus far.
All I want is a school in a bucolic setting somewhere in/near Taichung where my 9-year-old daughter can immerse herself in the Mandarin language while having lots of fun activities on the side. Too much?
Not sure what sort of documents my daughter and I need to prepare in order to obtain the right to stay in the country while attending school.
iiuc, except for few private schools, no elementary schools can support her residency, so you need to get your residency somehow and bring her as your dependant, then she can attend school.
I’m not in taichung, so don’t know more that their websites explain. it seems experimental public schools in the city are very special. one is for boys only, one is for indigenous people, one is montessorish, one is a Jenaplan school. i don’t know how their ideas are practiced. their admission procedures can be different from other public schools.
traditional public school in rural or mountain area could be close to forest school you want. i have no specific school in my mind, though.
No. They currently live in Taipei. They hope to enroll their daughter in the Humanities Primary and Junior High School in Toucheng, which is in Yilan County next to Taipei.
There was some discussion of mountain schools in Taipei a few years back here and more recently here.
In Taichung, I would be interested in P’uma Elementary School ( 臺中市博屋瑪國民小學).
All of the places I listed are in bucolic areas that I would like to live in. Obviously, most are not in Taichung.
Taichung is much beloved by many international residents for its excellent weather, big city amenities, and a generally high quality of life. I personally don’t like it much because:
it is highly car-oriented
its cultural offerings are a pale shadow of what Taipei has
Taipei is crowded but it has incredibly easy access to nature in the surrounding hills, great public transport, and great riverside parks.
But you should be taking a close look at Hualien and Taitung on the east coast if you are looking for bucolic. Both are decent size cities by US standards although much smaller than Taichung or Taipei.