and no, not my photo…
Translated…
Awhile ago, I was, invited by my wife, to be a “classroom daddy” for her class, sharing with the class my experiences in birdwatching and photographing birds, it’d given me an opportunity, to interact act with the reputable, “little devils”, children in the elementary years.
As I was preparing my lesson plan, my wife revised my lesson plan, put the phonetic spelling next to the words, color-coded the main points for me, so I can keep the kids’ attention. And, this is, all new to me, as I’d only, taught adults. My wife reminded me, to “not let the discussion get out of my hands and into the hands of the children in the class”, I’d thought, “Stop joking, I am, after all, a high-end manager, how can I be bossed around, by children?”, what fell outside of my expectation was, before I’d finished explaining to the children over one page of the notes, I became, stumped, by their inquiries.
“Daddy Chung, I saw Formosan blue magpie, am I a bird watcher now?”, “Would I affect the birds I’m watching if I wear blue?”, “Birds? Ewwwwwwww!”, “Your camera is sooooooooooooooooooo awesome, would it magnify the birds by a lot?”, and, the series of questions thrown towards me, and, I saw their little hands go up, and down, and, a few seconds later came, a series of weird questions, no wonder it’d, caught the classroom fathers off-guard.
I’d recalled how my wife reminded me, that I should just, lecture for just thirty minutes, and leave ten minutes for their questions, otherwise, the kids’ questions would be bottled up. And, out popped the next question I have, “It’s amazing how nobody’s falling asleep in my lectures, would they even have any questions for me?”, until I’d gone in, did I realize, that the kids in my wife’s class are so totally different than the students in college who are falling asleep left AND right in my class, you’d not needed to BEG them to ask questions, whenever you’d not explained things thoroughly enough, they’d all become, Sherlock Holmes, kept prodding, until they got their answers, “Who cut open the habitat of the Muller’s Barbet? Would that not be destroying their habitats?”, they would answer their own inquiries themselves too, “There’s a slight difference between the red and the orange colored feathers on the Muller’s Barbet, it’s actually, a SIX-COLORED bird!”, and they’d come up with questions that adults don’t even have a CLUE how to answer, like, “if the birds are hungry, can I feed them?”, there’s no need to wait until the Q&A session toward the end of the class, the “quizzes in class” are enough, to strain you out.
But, this experience had, awed me on the little devils knowledge of life, not only were their questions right on the money, they are very precise in wanting to find out the specifics too. Although, there are some wayward questions that came out of nowhere, but, the kids cared a lot about the multiple spectrum of ecology; they knew, the flight that those Siberian cranes were on, the kindness of the farmers toward these visitors, and knew, that they needed to create a pollution free environment, for the living creatures, that way, Taiwan will become, a heaven for wild birds. And, I’d given my wife a bow, for teaching her students so very well.
Everybody understands, that the sense of responsibility toward the environment need to start young, and the kids now are smarter than our generation, and there are more means for them, to receive their knowledge, so long as we’re able to transmit the right kinds of information, once they’d become older, they will, turn Taiwan into a place, more fitting for wildlife and plants, then, Taiwan will become, a true, paradise.
And so, this, was from the experience of you, a higher institution educator, inside the elementary schoolyards, and, you are going to be amazed at how much these young children know, because they encounter an assortment of information, has more ways than one to receive knowledge, compared to the past generations, which, is why it would be, very important, to keep on, educating them.
Life, the Obstacle Course 