And this, is how to, help the younger generations, understand that the elderly population is, equally, important to the society as well! Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
The children from out of the island lacked the experiences of the arts, the department head of the Dong-Ying Middle, Elementary School’s Associated Preschool, Huang, with the preschool teacher, Fu, and got involved in the root of aestheticism of the preschool age set up by the Department of Education, the two would head to the seminars on the weekends that are hosted in Taiwan, and, take the “methods of instruction of beauty” back to their schools. In a year’s time, the school campus looked brand new, and became, closer to the local communities, and, the weeds and tiny flowers by the sides of the roads, were used, in the discovery of beauty for children now.
The Dong-Ying Elementary and Middle Schools collateral campus is located in Lienjiang County, farther north than Bei-Gan, and Nan-Gan, the border of the North. From the island of Taiwan, it’s a straight line in and out to Dongying, or you need to alight the flight to Nangang, then, get on the ferry to Dongying, it’s really hard to get to.
The Woman from Tainan Taught at Dongying, and Stayed for Two Decades
Huang is from Tainan, in 2004, she’d passed the certification to teach at the preschool that’s a part of the Dongying Elementary and Middle School, she’d stayed for close to twenty years, and rooted herself down at Dongying. The island was tiny, there’s that combined space of living and her work, and even as she got off, when she’d gone out to dine, she’d often heard the kids called out “teacher” to her, and because the island is isolated, she’d had some adjustment difficulties from the beginning.
“The kids wanted to learn, but the teachers are hard to find, unlike how in Taiwan, whatever you want to sign up for, it’s there for you to”. Huang told, that a year ago, she saw the aesthetic program sponsored by the Department of Education, and she’d asked the opinions of four teachers in the preschool, the mixed-age classes, and decided, to turn over the preschool programs, and she and another instructor Fu would intern at Taiwan, and bring back what they’d learned about aesthetics.
“Every time we’d gone out, we’d needed to watch the weathers”, there were only a total of EIGHT seminars, if there’s the thick fogs, the planes would be grounded, Huang said, once, the two betted that the plane would fly, but, the weather won out, and in the end, they took a total of eight-hours on the ferries between Taiwan and Mazu, then as they finished the seminars, they’ headed on the ferry back to Dongying, they’d often gone to and from in a hurry.
Taking the Kids to Visit the Elders, to Build that Collective Memory with the Land
Huang pointed out, that they’d used the aesthetics of reduction, of addition, to rid the teaching space of the unneeded decorations, and guided the teachers and students, as well as the parents, to find the spots to be locally. Not only were they able to clean up the classrooms, they’d taken the children to visit the elders, the locals in the villages, and, the designs of lighthouses are all over the township, leading the children using an assortment of materials to make the collective memories to share locally.
Other than incorporating the local key qualities into the decorating of the school campus, the space outside the gates which was originally occupied by the scooters, as the teachers and students started cultivating a tiny garden there, the students would stay and look at the plants longer. Once the parents asked the kids what kinds of flowers there are, the child couldn’t answer, and the following day, the student went to school and asked the school instructors to put the labels in. Huang said, the children became the little tour guides, and in a year’s time, the students gained more experiences in the aesthetics, and no longer took the everyday sights as a given.
And so, these school instructors started this program, to help train the children to be more appreciative of their surrounding environment, and it’d, worked, because they saw this need, and, thought of imaginative ways to provide the needed materials (the planting of the gardens in school), to help the children gain the experience of what beauty, what the aesthetics consisted, of.
Life, the Obstacle Course 