The beliefs, the values of education here, translated…
In Order to Have World-Class Talents, We Can’t Treat Grades as the One and Only Indicators………
Finding Your Interests, Structure Your Own Learning Processes
“Can you give me a good reason for not wanting to stay in Taiwan for the four years of university?”
“The motives to learning, I suppose, the students at the university level seemed to be weaker in the motives of learning, I’d wanted to find some peers who share the same strong motives for learning to work alongside of me”, before me, Ding-Jun is the double gold medalist for the mathlympics as well as the physicslympics too, he’d gotten the no-testing qualifications to N.T.U. in his first year of high school, by his final year in high school, he’d gotten the all tuition paid for to the engineering departments in universities in France and other world nations, but, he’d asked me to write letters of recommendations for him for his Harvard and M.I.T. school applications.
Ding-Jun is actually a high school student who loved Taiwan a lot, in the marches back in March, he saw his friends fought because of their differences of opinion, he was upset that he cried; Ding-Jun is also, a practical and hardworking lad, he could get into his first choice of high school, but instead, decided to save the time for commute to study, he’d chosen a school closer to his house. He’d loved research, would often sit quietly in the libraries, doing his calculations, believed, that everything comes from the fundamental, the basic principles, and so, he’d always, started late, even in the International Physics Olympics, he’d gotten a spot because one of their original competitors had, dropped out. But, didn’t like using the rote memorizations of the already tested questions, he’d gotten the world’s highest score on one of the experimental questions.
Didn’t like learning for short-term purposes, hated rote memorizations, didn’t fall into the myth of acclaimed schools, Ding-Jun didn’t like it when people call him a “genius”. He’d just found his area of interest, then, put in more than others in “structuring his own knowledge base”. And still, as Ding-Jun saw how all the students and high school instructors saw heading up to college as everything, in the end, the teachers rushed through the teaching of the lessons, without time for experimentations; the students only wanted to use rote memorizations of the formulas to pass their exams, to find the “correct answers” in the shortest time possible. But, the answers belonged to someone else, and the goals one tried to follow are from, the society, and, as you’d gotten to the goals, you’d found, that you’d not have, the motivations to keep searching anymore, and, in the important stage of rooting in the first and second years of university, most college students in Taiwan are confused.
Why the loss of the motives for learning? Are there those, who are, innately, not wanting to learn?
I’d recalled another student who’d gone to England, Zhong-Shuan. Zhong-Shuan is like Ding-Jun, spent six years in Complete Middle School. In middle school, he’d become agitated in classes that couldn’t keep his interests, but he’d wanted to be noted, to be seen.
“Teacher, I kept meaning to tell you, I wanted to thank you for the ‘Mid-Summer’s Arts Festival’ you’d sponsored from before.”
Once when Zhong-Shuan came back to Taiwan, he’d shared with me.
“During those three weeks, whenever I’d thought about how a group of the students would circle around me to watch me play the cello, I’d gotten so very excited.”
“Thank you, I really do hope, you would’ve told me sooner.”, I’d gotten a bit worked up too, because during those three weeks, I got GRILLED, HARD, and “interfering with the schooling system” kept circling around my head.
from the papers…
Zhong-Shuan is fanatic toward his areas of interests, in high school, he’d become intrigued with making short films, and every time he’s filming something new, he’d find the resources all around himself, and I’m lucky, that he’d come to me, to discuss the scripts he was making up. Although for his college entrance, he’d only managed to get into a private institution, but the private college he’d gotten in focused on hands-on experiences, which allowed him to keep up his motivations for learning for the entire four years, after he’d graduated, he’d become the top person in Taipei Arts University’s Directors’ Department. In 2014, he’d received the award money in a million dollars for the micro movies in Taiwan; in 2015, the world’s TOP film school in England accepted his application, the lecturer for his first two days of school were the playwright for “The Lord of the Ring” and the director of “Harry Potter”, and the “assignment” that just got finished, the school gave him the funding of $2 million N.T.s, and they’d had the cast from the primetime soap operas. And in the world’s over four thousand applicants, Zhong-Shuan became one of eight who were selected, and what the reviewers focused on was his strong motives for learning, as well as the completed films he’d acquired in the process of discovery, as well as his ability to “problem-solve”. The English Theatre Academy knew, that in order to get world-class people, they shouldn’t focus only on the grades.
So, this would be the importance of having that intrinsic motivation for learning, this young man was interested in filmmaking, and he’d done his homework, learned all that he could about the area, and set goals for himself, which was how he was able to achieve so much, and that just shows, that all you need, is to find a direction to work toward, and just, work hard in that area, and, eventually, after you’d put in the hard work, success shall too, be yours!
Life, the Obstacle Course 