How he teaches his class, by making them experience life, by helping them overcome their emotional troubles, taking his students OUT of the classroom settings, and into the wilderness! From the Front Page Sections, translated…
A lot of people believed that “you can teach the gifted and talented students lying down”, the science instructor of the high school of National Education University of Taiwan, Jiang found, that a lot of the students are their own kings, and not used to working with others, and can’t work well in a group, and didn’t know how to manage their own emotions. Jiang who’d hiked all the mountains around Taiwan decided to “Turn the mountains into a classroom”, taking his students on the hikes, to face their own weaknesses, to breakthrough, and teaching them to become willing to work with others.
Being One’s Own Kings, Not Working Well with Others
Jiang is a chemistry instructor, also the winner of the Teacher of the Year Award this year, he’d been teaching for thirty years. Jiang stated, that ten years ago, he switched from the normal classes to teaching the math and science gifted classes, then, taught in the other science courses, and found, that a lot of the gifted and talented students didn’t need any help in the assignments, but they were all isolated, like kings of their own castles, can’t cooperate well with others, and, can’t manage their own emotions as well as the students of the normal track, and he’d wanted to solve this problem.
a hiking trip with the class…
Having hiked alone on the hundred tallest peaks in Taiwan, Jiang said, he attempted to get his science students up the eastern peak or the northern peak of Hehuan Mountain, on a two day one night trip. After being strained in the bodies, having their picnics, and living together in the mountains and woods, these kings of the science classes finally, made their exits out of their separate citadels, not only did they learn to help one another, making some friends for life, and some had even gone into the medical majors, the electric engineering majors, and still gotten involved in the hiking clubs of their separate schools too.
The Higher the Students Climbed, Facing Their Own Shortcomings
What’s so magical about mountains? Jiang pointed out, that the higher you climb, the farther away you are from your areas of comfort, where the students are made to face their own weaknesses. Some got to the point that they were completely drained, and needed a hand to pull them up from their fellow classmates; some were beaten by altitude sickness, and started bleeding in their noses in the middle of the nights, and their faces swelled up, and needed to get the accompanying nurses or the instructor to help; and, there were the members of the hiking team who were walking too slow, or started confronting each other at the division of work, and still needed to learn to help each other on the climb upward, living in the same rooms at night, and stay close to one another for the two days of the trip.
The Instructor Shouldered the Entire Class’s Safety, and Won the Trusts of the Students & the Parents as Well
In the high altitude environment, the geniuses of science, met the friends for life, became teammates, and Jiang also shouldered the entire class’s safety while they all hiked, and gained the students’ trusts. As the students can’t walk anymore, having their, emotional breakdowns, he’d, given them a pull, Jiang told, that the students felt, “this teacher is worth us paying attention to”, and the result was “after the trip, every one of those students who used to make troubles no longer acted up in class.”
As they returned back to classes, the science students entered into the two-day sports competitions held by the school yearly, and immediately proved Jiang’s methods of education. He’d pointed out, that so far, all the classes he’d taught, had NEVER won any placements in the sports competitions, but the class had entered into every sports competition, and worked together to get past the finishing lines, and received the spirits award at the very end of the competition.
And so, this instructor took his students OUT of their comfort zones, and taught them that there are more important things than to hit the books, and excelled in the academics, that interpersonal connection with the outside world is important, that working together, to achieve a common goal, and this will help his students later in life, because from before, they were individuals who only cared for themselves only, and yet, after this trip up the mountains, they started, becoming more cohesive as a class, and more willing to work together.