Just When You Think You Can't Get Any More Depressed
The number one thing I dislike about Taiwan is the education system. While I have a large problem with the education philosophy here, I feel that this will right itself in the next two decades. The thing I worry that will never change is just how much the system is set up to torture kids, over 12 hours a day of schooling.
Thankfully a lot of this child punishment starts in junior high school. So a lot of people try to escape this by having their child go to elementary school in Taiwan and then junior high and above are studied abroad. However even this has it's drawbacks. Yet even after nearly a decade here, I recently learned a new bad thing about elementary school in Taiwan that I hadn't known.
I was telling a friend a story that occurred during recess when I was in elementary school. While telling the story I asked her what the chinese word is for recess, to which she asked "what's recess?" I then explained that you have a break time in the morning, after lunch, and afternoon to go outside and play for a bit. She said that in Taiwan there is no recess. Yet another part of my soul died.
In elementary school they do have nap time though. it's when after lunch you put your head on your desk and sleep for half an hour. Actually this is continued in junior high school and high school. It does answer one question I had of how come Taiwanese workers are so good at taking a nap at their desk at lunch time each day. Not to mention why I've never met a Taiwanese adult who can get from one side to the other on monkey bars (pictured above). And I guess if students have to be at school all day long, a nap makes some sort of sense. But still, no recess!?
