We made the decision to send our second grader to the local public school so she could be immersed in the language and the culture. Our daughter has learned a lot about both through her school. Remarkably, despite the cultural differences, I believe 8 year olds are fun-loving, curious and universally generous. Despite the language barrier, they all still love to play chase, run, laugh, and adore cute things together.
First Day
I was relieved on my daughter’s first day of school to see her classmates immediately surrounding her, helping her, curious about her foreignness. Her teacher was warm and managed her classroom of rambunctious kids (27 of them) with a kind but firm hand. The classroom was spacious and airy with lots of light, fans blowing with windows wide open. The kids were happily milling around and chatting with one another. Not like the strict, structured setting of my early years in Taiwan when corporal punishment was doled out on the whim of the teacher.
A Typical Day
In the morning, I transport my daughter on the back of my bicycle to school, as scooters swarm around and zip past us. Drop off is surreal as scooters pull in continuously to drop off kids and the kids dutifully take off their helmets and head off to the crossing guards. Maybe it’s Kaohsiung or island life, but the late bell rings and plenty of kids and their parents are still sauntering in. No one seems terribly concerned with being tardy as tardiness does not appear to be tracked. Some of the kids even walk in with their portable breakfast foods (more on the Taiwanese breakfast later).
Me and my bike at morning drop-off
When the kids arrive in their classroom, the first thing they do is change from outdoor shoes to indoor slippers. The kids then turn in their homework (yes, second graders get homework daily). Depending on the day, the school provides a second language tutor for my daughter so she can get extra help with her Mandarin.
Second graders have four half days (4 hours) and one full day (8 hours), given kids attention spans supposedly. More full days are added as they increase in grade level. On the full day though, lots of things get packed into the day, but my daughter’s favorite part is lunch! She comes home every week raving about lunch, so I had to check it out.
Lunch
Kids eat lunch in their classrooms so the kids are responsible for transporting the food from the central distribution area to the classrooms, serving or self-serving the food, clean-up, and washing their own dishes. The teacher assigns kids to manage the food service and each kid queues up with his/her own bowls/plates brought from home.
The menu is different every day but always contains rice or noodles, a protein (fish, pork, chicken, etc…), cooked leafy greens, a side dish, fruit and a soup. The kids are allowed to go for seconds or thirds. There are no alternatives, except for vegetarians and allergies, so the kids eat what’s there. My daughter proudly announced to me after the first lunch at school how she tried the clam and noodles dish (having avoided all mollusks to date) and loved it. She was also proud she washed her own bowl and utensils. Now she is an old hand at the lunch routine.
Clean-up
Along these lines, the students are also responsible for cleaning up and sweeping their classroom as well as picking up litter around the school. I heard the older kids may also be responsible for cleaning the bathrooms, though I have not personally witnessed it. I have seen them sweeping the school grounds. These activities are not punishment but rather part of developing life skills, I suppose. The day I visited their classroom, they were washing and scrubbing their own desks.
Nap Time
Lunch is followed by a one hour nap—the Taiwanese siesta—which will continue on to high school and for some extend into the workplace. The teacher also naps too. The Taiwanese are night owls, perhaps due to the midday heat—so much happens after the sun sets. Kids regularly go to bed at 10 or even later. Thus, the afternoon nap gives the kids the extra boost for the long night ahead.
Subjects
The classes consist of the usual language and math, but then there is a course called “life.” It seems to combine science, art and social studies into each lesson, though I am not sure where cotton-candy making falls under this subject.
There’s also PE and music twice a week as well as Taiwanese language and culture, which is different than Mandarin (a whole complicated history to be discussed in another post). Overall, seemingly similar curriculum as in the West.
Tests and Homework
There are quizzes and tests—lots of quizzes and tests. I can only surmise that following the Confucian ideals means lots of testing. They have practice tests and quizzes after completion of each chapter and a midterm when the semester wrapped up—yes, second grade midterms. Coming from the U.S., this feels excessive, but the benefit seems to be that my daughter has learned to take tests without the stress and drama they may cause.
The kids write down their homework assignments in an assignment book each day. It gets signed off by the parent every night after they complete their homework.
End of Day
The close of their day included practicing a group dance in preparation for field day. The Field Day was a way for the school to come together as a community and the performance promoted unity and cohesion. Pretty phenomenal to see 250+ second graders dancing in unison.
When the final bell rings, the kids switch out of their slippers and line up for a group goodbye chant. “Teacher, see you later. Students, see you later. Everyone, see you later.” Then, school is out.
Goodbye chant 
Scooter pickup area
For many, they go on to after school programs, which consist of more studying. These after school “buxi ban” classes look to be big business as there are no less than 10 of them within a block of her school, offering English tutorials and homework assistance. As the kids progress to higher grades, the school workload gets more and more intense and time spent in these after school programs can be extensive as kids study and cram late into the night. Unfortunately, this is the reason our Western kid will not be in a public school in Taiwan for long…
Everyday Dan Bing 