Shifting the focus of things, changing the value systems here, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
During this season, the children and parents with children who are taking the entrance exams would often have to deal with this uneasy thing, being asked by the friends, relatives and those they know about, “What school did your daughter/son get into to? What majors are your kids taking?”
In Taiwan, the answers to the above question is based off of the grades on the examinations, and, NO matter how we answer the inquiries, people would automatically know, how well the children had done, and are bound to make the judgments of whether or not the child being discussed is excellent in her/his studies or not, the deep-rooted “grading system” is based off of the “good” and the “bad”, the “hot” and the “colder” majors are already set in people’s minds, and those kids who were able to get into the better majors and the good schools are stereotyped as “better” students, as for the rest of the students? They’re ALL awful ones. And so, would the parents feel comforted, when they’re asked this question? Or, are they going to be unwilling to answer it? It all relies on the kids’ grades, and, this mindset also helps decide how the majors are chosen by the students AND the parents’ dictation of it, and the media had, gone with this sort of expectations and started posting the grade differences on the papers too.
But the more important thing is: what kind of attitude are you going to take, to getting into a university? Most of the high school grads have carried the mindset of “party endlessly for four consecutive years”, and, there were high school instructor that held the mindset of, once you’d gotten a high school on your college entrance, you’re set, to give the high schoolers a boost for their upcoming entrance exams. But, the universities are a place of living and learning independently, and, naturally, the skills required for college, should’ve been slowly built up back in the high school years, otherwise, the students would waste away FOUR years of their lives, and, as they go out into the workforce, they will be filled with the regrets of “if I had only”. And so, the first day you’d entered into the university campuses, you should hold the hardworking attitude, and if you were able to set up the basis during that first year, then, everything is going to fall into its rightful places as it comes later, but, if you’re led to believe, that you can goof off and still pass, although at the very end, you’d still managed to graduate, but, you may lack that competitive edge, and your careers, as well as your futures would become limited. The college years are vital in life, what to major in? How to study? These questions should be thought about seriously before you enter, the parents, as well as students must spend even MORE time, thinking about the questions posed above, instead of filling out the major cards, deciding which schools to attend, which majors to study in.
And so, this, is telling the students to SHIFT their focus, to change their mindset about what college entrance is all about, and, college should NOT be taken lightly, even IF you are intelligent enough, to pass ALL your classes without much hard work, you should still get into the habits of working hard, because that value system will carry you far.
Life, the Obstacle Course 