School Days

Like you’d imagine, there are a lot of differences between American elementary schools and Taiwanese. Of course, I can only speak for my humble thoughts of the elementary schools that I’ve observed in America and in Taiwan. Which leads me to my first difference:

1. American schools are always influenced by the lawsuits that they could slapped with.
2. Children in Taiwanese schools are allowed (and often do) run in the halls.
3. Taiwanese kids take their shoes off when they enter the class (in America, the other kids would be too distracted by the smell.
4. The teachers are always called “Teacher ______”- whether in English or Chinese.
5. There is no air conditioning or heat even though they have the same climate as Tallahassee. This I wouldn’t mind if the 6th graders wore deodorant.
6. The teachers’ office is shared among ALL of the teachers in the school.
7. The bathrooms usually don’t have tissue paper nor toilets for that matter. Sorry Ms. Jarrett, they do have latrines.
8. Janitors are non-existent, which means the students must clean up after themselves- REALLY clean.

These are just a few interesting differences I’ve observed. I am sure that there will be more to come, which include more thoughtful difference, but I thought that I’d start out light since there hasn’t been enough input to process.

Despite the many differences though, constants still remain. Kids will always be kids; inquisitive, sensitive, impressionable, social, sometimes a little too social, sometimes not social enough, unpredictable, come to think of it, very similar to their adult counterparts.