Just found out about this school. 24 faculty and staff for 78 students, on 50 hectars (!!) 10 mins from Sun Moon lake. Good lord that sounds nice. Does anybody have any experiences to share? Either as parent or teacher.
I went to college there, beautiful surroundings and people, some may say they are too close minded and old fashioned. They have Sabbath on Saturdays and the cafeteria only serve vegetarian food.
It’s worth to pay them a visit just to avoid Saturdays when the school is closed for Sabbath.
HVe not looked into it, so genuine question: are they crazy brainwashing religious control freaks, or do they accept students who don’t succumb to the God related ways?
In desperately trying to find a decent place for my daughter to study, but all the places I like are hard core religion based. Lots of outdoor land, smaller teacher to student ratio are great things. But religious schools have a well deserved reputation. Not to discuss religion but curious on their open news of freedom of belief and thought, or one must subscribe to attend?
I don’t know the school personally. But take into consideration this is a specific denominational school so I’m pretty certain they take their beliefs pretty seriously and your kids probably not going to like it there if he/she does not Share their beliefs of that particular denomination let alone not be a believer of the basic faith in general. And Adventist have very specific and strict fundamental beliefs which is why I’m guessing they set up a school where they can have like minded people. There is almost a reason why a school would say they are a certain denomination vs a none denominational school. They usually want to have a place where they can respect very specific beliefs their denomination has.
1 Like
I’ll come out and say I’m a hardcore atheist. But among denominations, I have to say I like the Adventists the best. I find them on a whole to be truth-seekers. They don’t cherry-pick what they want to believe and they practice what they preach. This is a breath of fresh air among ‘cafeteria christians’. And yes they are fundamentalists, but likely the Bible centered education will be well rounded and very thorough (if you can stomach it).
If they’re gonna raise your kid like Desmond Doss, doesnt sound too bad to me.
I met some seventh day Adventists in nantou, they were batshit crazy and kept telling me the end of the world was nigh.
But they did bake yummy cinnamon rolls .
I went to many different private and public, religious and secular schools. I have to say this, one benefit of most religious schools is they will teach and introduce a lot of concepts my friends who went to secular schools could never hold a conversation about. If you think it’s important for your kids to to taught how to use grammar, logic and rhetoric to pursued. Go into ethos, pathos, logos. Read and understand plato, Aristotle. Go into the different branches of philosophy like epistemology etc. Read writers like Marx, Nietzsche. Go into empiricism and read Moore, Hume, Locke. Go into humanism. You might have better luck at a religious school. Religious schools tend to have a more classical style of education.
1 Like
Hi all, I can talk about this place as someone who has worked there. I was actually kind of surprised to see it named here. So I signed up to respond.
Anyhow I’ll separate it into different perspectives.
Student - This is an International middle and high school, so 7-12 grade, American style. All classes are taught in English and use an American curriculum. So you will get a U.S. diploma when finished. This is also a boarding school. You live on campus and go home every other weekend. A few students go home every weekend. On Saturday you are required to attend church. Saturday afternoon we plan some sort of activity on or off campus. Off campus is usually a hike or something. Sundays are free days. Since students live on campus and there is a lot of time spent with the teachers/staff, stronger bonds are formed. I occasionally kept in touch with some students even after I left the school some years ago. Students are not required to be religious. We of course share bible knowledge, but its obviously your choice to agree or not. As someone else said, the cafeteria serves only vegetarian food. I promise you will survive. There are a lot of other specifics but things could have changed since I worked there so I’ll leave it at that.
Teachers - Since this is a boarding school you do end up working more hours outside just the classroom. There are evening rec times and every other weekend the kids are on campus so there are activities to help with both at church and afternoon/evening. Sundays are free. Yuchi is the closest town which is right outside the school. Good for a quick meal, tea drink, or such. Puli is the next closest town. Awesome little town, easy to scooter around with a larger variety of options. And of course in the opposite direction is Sun Moon Lake for your viewing pleasure. For those that like to scooter there are mountain roads galore to explore. Much fun. With that said though I’m sorry to say that your chances of getting a teaching job are low unless you are Adventist or you teach a subject that is hard to get a teacher for. Say Science or something. There are few English schools in Puli if everything else sounds great to you. Also, since you are at a higher elevation the weather is typically cooler than the bigger cities.
For those that have had good experiences with Adventists I’m glad. For others that have seen them as bat*@#Q crazy, well I’m sorry. Though you do seem like you’re being silly as well. As with any group, you have down to earth ones and those that are a bit off. I wish all Christians acted with intelligence and maturity, but sadly that isn’t the case. One thing Christians need to realize is everyone has the right to choose what they want to do or believe. Beliefs should never be forced, not even pushed really. We can share and if that is not enough let the life be an example. If nothing else you will likely gain the other persons respect.
Anyhow, if anyone has a specific question about the school or area that I didn’t mention just ask I can try to answer.
8 Likes
Eh it varies; I went to an Anglican school and most people there were pretty apathetic. I was surprised when I visited a Baptist school and the homeroom teachers actually talked about the Bible.
Thank very much, excellent post.
That’s because you went to some posh private schools. I went to a public funded Christian school and mostly learnt excellent fighting skills and to copy whole chapters of the Bible as punishment for questioning religious infallibility .
Great and detailed answer, thanks!
The only Adventists I ever met in Taiwan were from that area, near the cardboard church. (Edit they have been Jehovah’s witnesses…)
I really hope they weren’t teaching at that school. But I think they have been some extreme offshoots, telling me that they came to Nantou as it would be a safer place to hide out during the end of the world. This all within 3 minutes of meeting them. They lived in a run down house in a village , some shock seeing them emerge from it.
Edit it seems 7th day Adventists also believe in all that End of the World stuff and Second coming .
Not every school is the same. I hated most of my schools and I’ve spend most of my time in public schools. I finally asked my parents to move me to a private school because I was so tired of the retarded kids. I’m not the most studious person, and I wasn’t great at school mostly due to my own lazyness in doing homework which seemed ridiculous to me when I had no issues grasping the material and getting an A on the test. But some kids were just really mentally slow.
Some schools def had to learn to fight or stand up for yourself. But it never seemed as bad as when I went to public school in Taiwan where there was no AC and corporal punishment was allowed. Plus you were responsible for cleaning the class the the bathroom eww.
I want really disagreeing with you, its true what you say for a lot of private schools .
Just pointing out that my experience was different in a crappy public religious infused school. Not all public schools are that bad either.
By the way Taipei City schools all have AC now (or are installing it) but other counties mostly no and even New Taipei City mostly no. The parents are fighting with the local public school to get some AC but they are dragging their feet.
Some country eh! Take from the poor and give to the rich.
1 Like
Also corporal punishment was banned finally. Some teachers were truly cruel. How can you feel ok beating a kid for moving around too much. And to make it a public spectacle was awful. I think it made me feel so happy in the US and I always looked down on other kids complaining about school there.
1 Like
My school was very middle class. I think it was more down to a difference between suburban Melbourne and regional Victoria
Adventist live style has its benefits. They live longer and have lower rates of cancer and other diseases.
1 Like