High school options for non-millionaire expats?

Taiwan Parenting
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[quote=“chessman71”]Tigerman,
Got a question for you. When you said that your son could learn math and biology at school and you would teach him values at home, how did that work out? I’m assuming that you had to explain this to your wife. How did you do that and what was her response?[/quote]

Of course my son takes all the same classes as his classmates… including Social Studies (which is kind of like the old Civics classes that American kids used to take years ago… except of course that here they learn about Sun Yat-Sen and the 3 principles of the People, etc… rather than the Bill of Rights, etc…).

I’m dyslexic and thus math has never been easy for me. And science, in as much as math is used, was always difficult for me too. I think the Taiwan schools do well teaching the basics of these subjects, at least for young kids. Besides, these subjects generally are free of value judgments or historical interpretations. I mean, 2+2=4 in Taiwan and in also in the US, and the law of gravity is the same here as it is in the US.

After my first day in 1st grade, I came home and my father asked me about school and what I’d learned. Can’t remember the topic, but my Dad said that what I was taught at school was wrong. I countered with “the teacher said…” My Dad told me then that the teacher is not always right, and since then I discovered many times that he was correct… Teachers are frequently wrong, as are textbooks and school policies and programs, etc…

OK, I’m rambling… My wife and I, despite having plenty of differences in perspective and opinion on a great many matters, agree generally on what values should be taught, usually by example and sometimes verbally. I’m an American and my wife, a natuaralized US citizen, lived in the States for 7 years… she was very impressed with education in the States (and she comes from a family of Taiwanese educators) and parenting as well… Yeah, if your an American, you may be wondering what she found so appealing about education and parenting in the States …:wink: but remember, she had the benefit of being able to compare it to education and parenting in Taiwan.

I remember once we were invited into one of the local grade schools back home to assist in communicating with a little Taiwanese boy who had just arrived in the States and spoke no English… he was misbehaving terribly and was extremely rude (using Chinese lanuage) to those attempting to help him. My wife told him she was going to get a stick and beat him with it and he immediately calmed down and started behaving properly. The principal asked me what my wife had said to the boy, and I explained… the principal was very alarmed and nervously told me that we couldn’t threaten the child such… of course, we wouldn’t beat the kid, but he didn’t know any better, so the threat worked. Anyway, the point is my wife was impressed that American kids seemed to react well to much lighter tones of discipline and behaved much better than many of the classes in Taiwanese schools, where up until recently beatings were the norm.

While our boy attends a Taiwanese school, we don’t believe in pressuring him regarding grades and exams… we do encourage him to study and my wife goes over all his homework with him (I do the English homework with him) and he is doing just fine. Because he is an American citizen, he will be able to get into an American University easily and thus does not have to worry and stress about school the way most local kids do. Moreover, because my family doesn’t necessarily regard graduation from Harvard or Oxford as the Holy Grail of educational achievement, our son will have plenty of choices when it comes time to apply to college.

So, I guess my wife and I have very few differences with regard to values. In fact, I originally would have been pleased to let my kid do all of his schooling in the Taiwanese system, but my wife (always smarter than I) made me understand that it would be better for our boy to matriculate to one of the English speaking foreign schools in Taiwan, and eventually, we’ll send him to my folks’ house for his last two years of high school so he can attend the same public school that I attended. That should get him acclimated to life in the States and ready him well for college in the US.

42

Thank God may parents actually had enough self worth to care properly for me as a child so as to afford the tuition for a private school when we lived overseas (which of course barred the locals from attending). How could any self respecting foreign parent throw one of their own into one of these third world shithole local schools? I mean, I know I said some negative things about TAS but I wouldn’t even think of putting a child of my own into some local “chine” school. I mean, come on Tigerbalm, if you can’t afford TAS, then at least let your kid stay home and homeschool him. Have a little pride why don’t you. And while your at it, take a step up and maybe make a little more $ so you can put your family first, isn’t that what being a responsible father is all about? If anything, why don’t you at least do it for America.

43

LOL !

This has got to be wind up !

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Private schools are for kids who can’t hack the regular schools.

The kids in these local schools frequently perform far better than kids in American schools in both math and science.

Why should I shell out the big bucks for TAS or some other private school, when private education obviously did scant little for you? Your reading comprehension is quite poor. I specifically stated that I could, but with difficulty, send my kid to TAS. And we do, as I indicated in previous posts, teach our child at home.

LOL. No doubt you’re here making lots of $$$.

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Tigerbalm, you are absolutely right. Private schools are terrible. Who in their right mind would want one of their kids to attend Stanford or Harvard. Hey you can justify your behaivor any way you want but it still comes down to you being a terrible father, a slacker. So you say you have the $ but still refuse to send them to a private school??? Who cares what a private education did for me or the fact that I’m an asshole. You still can’t deny that you’re a bad father.

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Kinda funny, you seem to have the same mindset as the locals who you constantly deride, at least regarding education. :laughing:

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TO 90630

FYI, not all private schools are better then public schools. UMich, UVA and UCLA are better then most private universities, and Berkeley’s right up there with the Ivies. And over here in Taiwan, ALL of the best schools are PUBLIC.

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The school a person attend’s hardly (I think) affects the way a person “turns out” anyway. There are also different standards to what a person would call successful. Someone “rating” a person with test scores, degrees and dollars will have a different view of someone that rates on personality, spirituality and chi :laughing: … chi(qi).

Being a father/mother is more then what school you send them to, what kind of car they drive and how fashionable their clothes are. They should also instruct kids in the art of living (I think many people fail in this department), responsibility and all that kind of thing.

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I know the topic is high school options, but please forgive me for asking about primary school options.

Does anyone have experience with the Bethany School on Ting Chou Rd.?

50

X3,

I think both Braxton Hicks and Tigerman have looked into the school, but I have heard it is a christian based ed, more reasonably priced than TAS, but still not cheap. I also have heard that they offer homeschool information. Not sure talk to Braxton about that.

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forget schools. keep your kids at home. that is how i was educated. and look how i turned out. school is mind control. home is freedom. try it. picasso didn’t go to no schooling shite. let your kids live, work beside you, apprentice. education is mind control.

52

Both my boys(grades 3 and 2) go to the public schools here. I think they are getting an outstanding education. They have other classes in English composition, piano, and Aikido.

I don’t worry so much about their “formal” education as I do with their experiences and extra activities. The boys can speak three languages, they have been to more countries and seen more things the 99% of same age children. We make it a point to take the boys to a different country every year. Living and working in Taiwan enables us to visit different places quickly, cheaply, and easily and I think that they learn so much more going and seeing different things.

Our (foreigners) earning power is such that we can get private tutors for just about every subject or activity. Heck, 10,000NT a month for private Aikido lessons? Got it right here in my pocket.

I am playing with the idea of perhaps moving the family to Guam when they boys hit Jr. High or High School. I would then commute to work…a week or two in Taiwan and a week or two in Guam. I gotta check out the quality of education there as well as decide if I want to split up the family…even though it would only be a week or two at the time.

Of course, it would be nice to have a secular and affordable school for foreign children here in Taiwan. I think it is important to take advantage of what Taiwn has to offer educationally rather than lament the failings.

And of course, if parents take an active role in their child’s education (education in all aspects of life) it really doesn’t matter where they go to school. PARENTS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TEACHERS A CHILD WILL EVER HAVE.

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We’ve looked at Bethany for our boy… but they probably will not have room for him next year… which has us scrambling now. I think Bethany would be nice… its small and I like that.

I’m not crazy about the religious aspect… but it doesn’t bother me that much.

Give Mrs. Harder a call at Bethany Admissions… 2365-9694. She can tell you more.

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This is so funny to me. You mentioned this to me in a PM once but I wasn’t sure if you were teasing me or something.

To be honest, I wish my husband would consider this but he wouldn’t. (I’ve asked.)

PM me about the school system. There’s good and bad obviously, but my father was a teacher and school principal, and we have at least a dozen public school teachers in the extended family. If I was at home, I would definitely support the public school system. Still considering it for our first grader here due to the pressure we see him under at a local private school.

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Here’s the Bethany webpage on admissions.

bethany.mca.org.tw/main/admissions.htm

Yikes!

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One option for non millionaires:
If you are a qualified teacher, apply through your home country for a teaching job at one fo the international schools here (local hires dont get the same package). If you get the job you will have your airfares to & from home country paid each year, your appartment rental paid & your children educated at the school free. + a salary of about US$40K/ year tax free.

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This is so funny to me. You mentioned this to me in a PM once but I wasn’t sure if you were teasing me or something.

To be honest, I wish my husband would consider this but he wouldn’t. (I’ve asked.)

PM me about the school system. There’s good and bad obviously, but my father was a teacher and school principal, and we have at least a dozen public school teachers in the extended family. If I was at home, I would definitely support the public school system. Still considering it for our first grader here due to the pressure we see him under at a local private school.[/quote]

Oh no, ma’am…very serious about the Guam bit. It is a poor man’s Hawaii and being the poor man that I am I thought it would be a good fit. It is also close to Taiwan. I am planning to hop over to Guam sometime early next year to check out the school system and I will be sure to give you a report.

The public schools in Taiwan are fine. No need to spend oogles and gobs of money on some hoity-toity private school where the only requirements are having a lot of money, a foreign passport, and belonging to the right church.

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My boys are currently in grades 2 and 4 in public school, and they are doing pretty OK.

The reason why we consider a privat (international) school is:

  1. Give them a better opportunity to learn correct English.
  2. Give them a more relaxed learning environment, that also focuses on other activities like sports, art etc. - not only memorizing skills.

As me and my wife is far too busy operating our business, we do not have time nor energy to do any home schooling.
English is our second language, but we feel it is important for the kids to learn how to handle the alphabet, so the transition to my mother language will become easier in the future.

I have checked the Bethany website, and the school and activities looks very nice. I am a bit concerned about the religious overtones, but hope that the kids does not get totally brainwashed.
So, no one here have first hand experience with the school?

There is also another private school up in the mountains behind Hsintien, called Cambridge. It is much cheaper than Betahny, and we also consider this school.
Does anyone have first hand experience from this school?

-Or maybe I should just forget about the private school stuff, and hire a private English tutor that also can double as “activity leader” after school?

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There is that great story that when the Taiwan Minister for Education spoke at TAS (his children were graduating) and gave a speech saying TAS was by far the best high school in Taiwan. Some would argue this is true, but for the Minister of Education to say such a thing about a school he has no jurisdiction over (true?) is pretty bizarre.

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No more bizarre than a Taiwan Minister of Education feeling comfortable sending his children to a school outside the Taiwan Education System.

Reminds me . Quite a few comments above re: the lack of “real” foreigners at TAS. This is not really surprising. The school was not set up for foreigners. It was set up by the rich Taiwanese for the rich Taiwanese & that is the mission it fulfils.