Chomsky's Challenge: Multicultural or Monocultural?

Noam Chomsky was in Taiwan for a speaking engagement at Academia Sinica. (Who else has such money to host a big name like Chomsky?) At a news conference after his talk, a local reporter questioned Chomsky about the acceptable age at which children can learn another language.

"It's not a question of linguistics," Chomsky said. "For a young child, language learning is kind of like breathing.

When it was pointed out that some politicians and bureaucrats believed it is harmful for a child to learn English at a young age (does anybody remember then-mayor Ma's opening address to the ETA-ROC conference audience?), Chomsky replied that the question is not one of language, but of social policy. "What kind of society do you want to live in? Do you want to live in a multicultural society or a culturally uniform society?"

Read more about Chomsky's speech at the Taipei Times website.

Research & Teaching: For the Public Good

Research is selfish and leads to a monopolizing of intellectual property by the researcher and the financial backer. Monopolies do not serve society, so they need to be broken. In the world of academia, the monopoly buster is the classroom, where the results of the research effort are distributed for free to the public through students.

This is the key argument of Professor Steve Fuller's opinion piece, "Is Academic Freedom Worth the Price?" (available online at the Taipei Times). And once the original findings of one's research are disseminated to the public through the classroom, the researcher and the financial backer are forced to engage in more research, an effort to keep the selfish monopoly alive.

For universities, therefore, this means "allowing access to knowledge to students who lack the intellectual, political, or financial resources that might have enabled them to produce it for themselves."

Of great relevance to too many professors in Taiwan is Professor Fuller's admonishment that universities can only perform as they were naturally intended to do when academics "speak and write plainly, demystify jargon, present their ideas in alternative media and stress applications to domains that do not concern the academics themselves."

It is a lesson we all need to learn and remember.

China's Blog Censorship is Severe

Censors Delete 95 Percent of Blogs a Day

This item from journalist Amy Nip appeared in the South China Morning Post (June 20, 2010; page 3). It is available online at the RFA blog.

Mainland censors are estimated to delete up to 95 per cent of blog entries posted on the internet every day, according to an academic and veteran blogger.The source? Official data on internet usage released this week.

There are about 220 million bloggers in China, according to a white paper on the internet published by the State Council.

And more than 66 per cent of internet users frequently post, with over 3 million messages posted via BBS, news commentary sites and blogs every day, the paper said.

But Isaac Mao Xianghui, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, told the Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum in the city on Thursday that the official number of postings fell far short of what it should be.

Assuming bloggers who post frequently add 0.5 items per day, there should be 72.6 million entries posted daily – not 3 million, he said. “The difference between the two [72.6 million and 3 million] reveals that 95.9 per cent of comments could be deleted during the censorship process,” Mao said.

The surging number of internet users on the mainland is creating a big headache for authorities.

When Mao began blogging in 2002, there were fewer than 1,000 bloggers on the mainland. A year later that number had surged to 100,000.

Content in simplified Chinese characters increased by 124 times between 2002 and 2008, according to a study conducted by Mao.

“Internet users are like rats and the censorship mechanism is a cat. There are too many mice and the cat does not know which one to go after,” Mao said.

Beijing shifted its strategy in 2008 to handle the growing volume of content on the internet. Instead of screening website content, it now blocks sites completely, he said.

About 70,000 sub-domain names – major sessions of a website – are blocked on the mainland, including YouTube, Facebook and Picasa. Several new sites are added to the list every day. But internet users are becoming increasingly familiar with ways to access blocked sites. Savvy bloggers also create duplicates to ensure their writing evades censorship.

Mao said the flood of internet content will likely overwhelm Beijing’s censors by 2014. But he said instead of devoting resources to censorship, the authorities should turn their attention to cyber crime. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s director for Asia-Pacific internet policy, John Galligan, urged governments worldwide to update copyright and privacy protection laws as cross-border data storage gained popularity.

Cloud computing, which lets companies subscribe to software that is accessible through a Web browser, has developed rapidly in recent years. But who owns the information in the cloud – the subscriber or the service provider – has yet to be clearly defined in the international community, said Galligan, who was at the Internet Governance Forum, which was also held in the city. There are still “lots and lots of gaps” as Asian countries move into the digital era, he said.

The Classroom Curmudgeon: Xenophobia in the System

My thanks to Prof. Peter Osborne of Donghua University for his opinion piece, "Internationalizing Higher Education," which was published in the Taipei Times, July 24 (2010) edition. While I cannot agree with or support everything Prof. Osborne stated regarding the inadequacy of Taiwan's university system regarding "internationalization of education," there is one item that I am in total agreement with:

"At meetings I see some foreign professors proficient in Chinese, English and their subject of expertise who perform the same job with equal competency as their Taiwanese counterparts, yet these same foreign professors are not legally entitled to the pensions their Taiwanese colleagues are, despite making equal contributions to government taxes, health and pension schemes. Where is the internationalism in exploiting a worker based on their nationality?"

Prof. Osborne has pointed out legalized discrimination, but unfortunately too few of our Taiwanese colleagues--those who have the real power to rectify this gross injustice--either don't know about this or don't care. They don't realize that when they retire after full time service in national universities, they are entitled to monthly pension payments that I as a permanent resident am not entitled to.

With this sort of injustice built into the system, I wonder that Taiwan's universities are able to attract intelligent candidates from overseas at all. this is a wrong that must be put right, not only for the benefit of our international scholars, but for the benefit of Taiwan's academia as well.

There is Hope

There is some hope for peace, and it may begin with just a handful of individuals. Palestinian youths (encouraged by grassroots groups) visiting Israel's official Holocaust memorial are deeply moved by what they see. They return to their communities with a new openness toward seeing their neighbors across the border as human. "If we say that the Holocaust happened, if we accept it, then we accept that Israelis are human just like us and I think that here is the twist: we do not want to consider Jews as humans because of all the suffering that we go through we cannot believe that human beings can do such a thing."

Access the full article: Palestinians go to Israel to Learn about Holocaust

The Internet and Social Activism

In an interview available online, Charles Leadbeater spoke about the use of new online apps, devices and social networks as a site for social activism. Here are some excerpts/quotes of importance for the teaching community:

"One of the joys of the Internet is finding and reading something you think is wonderful that you'd never have found without it."

"...You have to hope that in 10 years, when digital technology is all-pervasive and meets both the huge need in the developing world and a body of social entrepreneurs, we will witness some flowering of social innovation to, for instance, provide education in new ways, to mobilize people to critical action in new ways, or allow poor people access to markets."

"It's all about access... Ten-year-olds are alike wherever you go: they just gobble this stuff up. I went to a school in a village three hours outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, 20 kilometers down a mud track. The parents of half of the kids in the school were illiterate, but watched the kids make videos for YouTube. It's waiting to explode, but if it arrives pre-packaged or tied up or fenced off, then you won't get that."

"You can go online now, and find really thoughtful, in-depth, considered, well-informed communities around virtually any issue. If it's your issue, there are now new ways of mobilizing knowledge that weren't there before. There are real bodies of significant knowledge on the Web that are valuable that we haven't done nearly enough with."

Read the full interview online at the Taipei Times newspaper. See:
"The untapped power of the Internet to foment social change"

Online Networking: A Philosophical Challenge?

From the surveillance entertainment of Big Brother to closed-circuit TV and celebrity magazines, the boundaries of what is regarded as appropriate to put in the public domain are shifting dramatically, but nothing is challenging our notion of privacy more than social networking, with 26 million of us using Facebook to share the minutiae of our lives every month in the UK alone.

Facebook has proved irresistible to many because we are lured into joining by friends and family. Browsing, comparing and nosing is instinctive, impulsive and reflects our tendencies offline, our “social graph,” as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg likes to call it.

The rapid pace of development by technology companies often throws up new cultural and ethical challenges. Google’s Street View has frequently been challenged by privacy campaigners who question whether the logistical and commercial benefits of making every property in every street visible on the Web are worth the sacrifice of the individual’s right to privacy.

Lord Richard Allan is a former Liberal Democrat lawmaker and Facebook’s European policy director. “The internet is here to stay as a ubiquitous way for every individual citizen to capture and share information,” Allan said. “The challenge is how you manage that increasing flow of information and that’s where Facebook is at the bleeding edge, allowing people to navigate that world. Expressions of concern and criticisms are really of that direction of travel, rather than any particular product, like Facebook.”

Allan thinks it is an exaggeration to characterize privacy as a natural state of man, citing societies before mass transport where a large community would know every intimate detail of each other’s lives.

The modern sense of privacy came much later, with modern transport and cities. “Notably with new technology, you end up with a utopian viewpoint and a dystopian viewpoint, but a lot of things those dystopians feared did not come true,” he said.

“To say you’re ‘living in Facebook rather than the real world’ is a complete misreading of what’s happening. The reason it is so compelling is because it is so connected to the real world. With every wave of technology, we need to get used to it.”

Christian Payne — who describes himself as a “social technologist” — abandoned a career as a photographer in early 2008 when he had a “car crash epiphany.” Within minutes of tweeting a video of his crashed Land Rover, he had an offer of help from a local crane operator, his AA membership number sent to him and a call from British Telecom asking for the serial number of the telegraph pole he had crashed into. He worries that spirit of helpfulness will dilute as social media becomes more commercialized, and its users more skeptical.

"This is a seminal moment where we’re seeing new thinking and new practice starting to emerge around the issue of privacy,” said Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute and a member of Facebook’s safety advisory board.

"The battle lines are being drawn between generations. Facebook is headed by someone who hasn’t hit 30, but has very different perceptions and assumptions about what is private and what is not. We need to recognize that with social networking, geolocation and digital technology, the privacy bar is being reset."

Part of Facebook’s success has been to demand people’s real identities. In that way, it represents the maturation of the Internet, where the previous norm had been a wisecrack pseudonym and a world of “trolling,” where faceless, nameless commenters could easily post abusive messages and attack each other.

Balkam recently suggested Facebook recruit a philosopher to help interpret some of the demanding and unprecedented ethical and sociological challenges it faces. “No company in the world has ever attracted 500 million users and they are having to come to terms, at lightning speed, with what is good and what is abhorrent behavior. Aristotle and Plato struggled with that — and the average age at Facebook is 28,” Balkam said.

Read the full article from the Guardian London by Jemima Kiss:
"Internet Social Networking is Challenging our Notion of Privacy."

The Classroom Curmudgeon: Summer Camp Part IV

A month after the experience, here are my final “wrap-up” thoughts on the summer camp program for the boys and girls of the tribe. What were the benefits of the program?

The program encouraged the children toward a greater belief in themselves and their ability to learn. Certainly I saw willingness among at least a few of the children to take risk and speak English to me and before their classmates. In one instance a young boy was filled with the pride of being asked to serve as translator, a communications go-between for his classmate and me.

The entire experience should instill them with self-pride, for there was no teacher to rebuke them for factual mistakes, and no competition for high scores and teacher satisfaction. Their own skills were encouraged and respected, as can be seen from the video items in the previous posting of this topic. Nobody discouraged them from creativity with admonishments about “wasted time that would be better spent studying.”

The children also learned new computer skills, as “Teacher Phil” taught them to use the Microsoft video editing software for the creation of home-made video products. They now have a knowledge that can be put to use, a first step perhaps, in the making of video materials that may benefit the full community. I’m thinking of children advancing down a path toward video documentation and activism.

Finally, these children had an opportunity to see that people from outside of the circles of family and community are able to take an interest in them, to care about them. They saw their summer camp teachers as new friends, but friends who would be taking to the road and leaving them behind.

And that is the most painful aspect of this camp. We come in from the outside, we stay for a very few short days, and then we are gone. We move on. Do the children feel abandoned? Do they fear being forgotten?

I close here with another question. Did these children perform so well in this summer camp project because they were already a solid group of friends, or did they become friends because of the camp? And what was their relationship with the many children of the community who did not join in the program? What were their relationships with the other children of their school? Did they engage so actively and proudly with learning in their regular classrooms?

The Classroom Curmudgeon: Summer Camp, Part III

The summer camp is now over, or at least our contribution to it is ended. The third and final day of my participation began with a walk about the village. The area has some seemingly solid middle class families, but I also saw evidence of decay suggestive of cultural decline and economic hardship.

Conversation with my colleague opened my eyes to the possible link between cultural loss and social decline. Our talk centered around the Amis Tribe and their annual harvest festival celebrations. My colleague Ya-ling said the yearly event requires the older generations to train the younger generations to ensure full and proper participation in the ceremonies. This advances transmission of not only traditional knowledge, but a sense of pride as well. It also encourages communal cohesion.

I did not see very much communal cohesion or intergenerational cooperation in my morning stroll. Visible, however, were signs of government and other organizational attempts to help the community: an "accident awareness center" whose primary purpose is to encourage people to live safer lives by avoiding alcohol, for example; a community activity center that teaches dance and crafts; a Presbyterian church center for the elderly that gives them a safe place to gather and ward off loneliness; a health center whose posters against alcohol, drugs, HIV/AIDS make their purpose pretty obvious.

Of these, the Presbyterian church operation was most impressive and the most distressing: the former because of their very important and seemingly effective outreach to the elderly, the latter because, I was told, far too many seniors live alone and this church center is their only opportunity for conversation or assistance. I was wondering whether the youth of the town could work with or aid the older residents. Perhaps the children can be provided video cameras and asked to document the lives of the town's older generations?

The rest of the morning was spent shopping at Carrefour in preparation for the afternoon's "pizza toast" activity, which would turn out to be my only responsibility. The activity actually worked quite well. I was worried about chaos arising from students not listening to instructions and heading aimlessly into mess. That is certainly my experience of leading college students in food preparation activities! To my surprise, however, the children listened intently to my instructions and lined up in an orderly fashion. My instructions were "doubled" as I used one of the older boys to repeat to the entire group what I had said, and then he and I both made our pizzas: select bread; choose meat and vegetable toppings; pick a cheese; add tomato sauce; place into toaster oven (with assistance from an adult). I used the vegetables as a double vocabulary lesson, having the children shout out the names of the vegetables in English and Truku languages. When we let the children loose they lined up well, and made their pizzas with a minumum of mess. I was impressed.

While I was slicing and dicing the meats and vegetables for the activity, I was able to hear the students in the classroom behind me as they practiced and performed their English-language role plays under the guidance of my colleague Professor Olivia Chang and doctoral student Amay. I could hear the wild applause of the students and occasionally the role play dialogs spoken loudly and in unison, such as "Thank you for your attention." I was sorry to have to miss the fun, as the children certainly sounded enthusiastic and cute. If only university students could feel the same youthful and uninhibited excitement about speaking English in front of their classmates.

After the pizza toast was consumed out in the front courtyard, everybody reassembled in the main classroom for the final part of the camp: student dancing. While the fun was pretty much dominated by a couple of the more eager Michael Jackson enthusiasts, a good number of children had an opportunity to show off their physical dexterity as they spun, twisted, and twirled before leaping, kicking, and throwing themselves onto the floor to finish their routines off with a bit of breakdancing. While they obviously practiced long and hard, most impressive was the choreography that went into the performances. The children planned their movements and chose appropriate props, from chairs to neckties, to bring a set of relatively stylized movements into full-piece dance routines.

I must confess to being a bit uncomfortable seeing children on the cusp of puberty performing highly sexualized movements learned from MTV: hip swinging, chest thrusting, crotch grapping. I applaud Teacher Tien for not commenting on this from her vantage point as an elderly woman, a teacher, and a devout Christian. Rather, she noticed the children's control of their own bodies, recognized the source is not the children's own growing sexual awareness but their respect for their pop idols as available on YouTube, and called for distraction from the obvioius by asking the audience to applaud and cheer the performers.

The dancing and speeches ended the camp, but we left behind a good deal of work undone. The children did not complete their video products, and were told to finish these and submit them to us in Ilan by September 15. Our alumni and we will select a winning video, and that person will recieve a DVD player for his family home. The other unfinished work was a picture of "the animal that is most meaningful to me," an activity inspired by the viewing of The Whale Rider. Professor Chang Ya-ling will oversee the September submissions and decide how to best reward those who complete their assignment.

When time came to say goodbye there was a general sadness at departure. Unexpectedly we all ended up piling into one car and heading off together. This may have been a somewhat shocking departure, and one boy responded with tears and by hiding in a corner to pet one of the family cats. The other children, even the older teens, did what children will do when departure time arrives: they clung to their favorite teachers, asked them to stay a little longer, and expressed hopes for meeting again in faraway Taipei or somewhat nearer Ilan. They playfully mobbed the car in a final expression of sadness at our departure.

And then we were gone, but I suspect we'll be back.

Watch video of the children dancing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWly6g7z06I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt9TmyVd_zs

The Classroom Curmudgeon: Summer Camp, Part II

The afternoon's very emotional events are fresh as I write this, too close to the raw nerve endings of memory. What should have been, and indeed what was a wonderful experience for the children, was marred by a twist of bad fortune that saw one of the girls get hit by a motorcycle, and the driver painfully hurt with a broken arm. While we are all “counting our blessings” that the situation was not worse—the girl is going to be sore for a while until her many scratches heal—we are also saddened and upset by this accident. Mrs. Tien is especially distressed, for not only was she responsible for the safety of other people's children, but the road accident happened too close in time to the loss of her beloved husband two months ago in a traffic accident.

The day was supposed to be a field trip of cultural exchange and fun, and while Ya-ling accompanied the injured at a nearby hospital, the rest of the group went on to the Amis Mataan Wetland conservation area. The accident took place at the former Taiwan sugar refinery in Guangfu, Hualien. The factory now serves as a theme park of sorts, and is most famous for its many varieties of ice cream. We spent almost an hour there, the adults enjoying browsing in small tourist-trap shops while the children fed the koi and rode on the ox-drawn carriage. Of course, everybody was hopped up on sugar from double scoops of ice cream, so it was pretty easy to have fun. We were in the process of gathering the children together when misfortune struck. And while the children generally seemed to enjoy their visit to the Amis wetland park, I think the adults were generally worried about what was happening at the hospital.

The Amis guides first introduced the different kinds of traps they use for fishing, all made of natural wood materials and designed according to the behavior of the fish, eels, crayfish and other targeted animals. The guides then took the children into a demonstration pond, and allowed them into the water to try their hand at catching the fish that would later end up on our dinner table. The children, of course, had a wonderful time splashing after the fish. That is when things started to become uncomfortable for me. Certainly the afternoon at the wetland was something of an eye-opener. Here I dare to express observations I perhaps ought not to, for I confess to being far from “the loop” vis-à-vis being informed of and aware of the socioeconomic and sociocultural circumstances of this small community of parents and children.

I did not come into this experience blindly, for I have visited in a similar capacity another aboriginal community and seen children "at play." That was in a mixed tribal area somewhat south of here, in a foothills community where my former students served a week as volunteer summer camp teachers. Indeed, the play of the children in this community is relatively peaceful compared to what I have seen before. Of course, I am speaking of the amount of physical violence the children seem to use as a form of expression. They seem to be always hitting, punching, sometimes slapping and even kicking, although this never develops negatively into actual harm.

This may also have been my first experience with hyperactive children, although I dare not suggest that what I witnessed this afternoon was Attention Deficit Disorder or any similar diagnosable emotional problem. What I saw was two young teens, perhaps 14 years old, who simply could not remain stationary or focused for very long. After our negative experience at the sugar factory, the antics of these two inseparable friends was enough to drive me toward frustration and anxiety. While they remained in control during the fish farm demonstration, they quickly grew bored as the activity drew to a close and headed off on their own. Where they headed to was a long boardwalk over a lake, and when they were done climbing, balancing and walking upon the banister of the protective fence, they raced as fast and as far as they could until they were pretty much out of my line of sight. Two girls then volunteered to race after them, to retrieve them.

Ironically, after the four fast-paced teens returned, the entire group headed down the boardwalk to view a special tree at the far end—providing the boys another opportunity to balance upon the banister again, only this time with the girls there prodding and poking and generally threatening to unbalance them and send them toppling into the water and mud. On the bus ride back home the boys could not remain in their seats, and continued to try to get my attention. They twice took off their shirts in an effort to impress anybody who was within visual range and able to be so taken by their thin frames. When they moved to the back of the bus where they were well out of everybody’s vision, they made their way to the first level of the bus into the luggage compartment, forcing the bus driver to slow the vehicle and threaten them with police intervention if they did not return to their seats and behave.

My heart was broken by witnessing these boys and their attempt to gain my attention. I learned that at least one of them came from a damaged family, a home life to which words like “abused” and “alcoholic” were applied. I also was told that one of the girls, in response to an inquiry about what her family eats every night, admitted that their regular meals largely consist of wild grasses plucked from nearby fields. Nor is their experience unique. One of the local store owners made the snide remark that the local villagers never buy groceries, only liquor.

What could I, or what can I do for any of these children? These boys obviously need an adult to admire them, encourage them, and respect them. But this is not my place for providing any of these emotional needs to them. And while she is herself hurting from her so-recent loss, Mrs. Tien is in no position to extend herself emotionally for these boys. And perhaps what these boys so desperately need is the guidance of a male, a father figure.

Part of my heartbreak also comes from my suspicion that these children—this community-has somehow gone astray and lost too much contact with or respect for their own cultural and traditional heritage. They have lost their sense of worth and pride. In some terrible way the racism and injustices of the society imposed upon the tribes by a century of colonial abuse at the hands of both the Japanese and the Nationalists has socially and culturally emasculated them. Have they become a community without hope, without vision, without a dream for the future of their children?

I cannot answer any of these questions or suspicions, nor is it my place to do so. What I can and should do at this point is look back on the day and wonder what benefit it might be for the children.

Obviously the opportunity to get away from home and enjoy something fun like the sugar plant was important, if only for allowing the younger children an experience of away-from-home enjoyment. For the older children they had another opportunity to both bond and let off some steam through the splashing and laughing.

At a cultural level the children saw positive role models from another tribe, adults who encouraged them toward healthy ideas of working with the natural world. Who knows what effect the words of the Amis will have upon these children, as the guides persuaded them toward group cooperation rather than individual competition? The Truku children had a chance to compare tribal languages and traditions, and of course taste tribal dishes both different from or similar to anything they may be familiar with. This cultural exchange was a delightful new experience, especially as they heard stories about how the matriarchal Amis culture operates.

Despite the sadness and anxiety of the unfortunate accident, and despite my personal sadness of having to become aware of the sadder circumstances in which these youngsters find themselves, I believe the field trip this afternoon was good for the children. But once again, the benefits may not be visible for years, even decades, as these children mature and hopefully find brighter futures for themselves.

The Classroom Curmudgeon: Summer Camp, Part I

The next few postings build upon my personal experience. Last week I stayed for three days to participate in the five-day Ai Tsai Jia Wan summer camp in Hualien County's Shou Lin Township. The camp is within the Jia Wan Community, an area dominated largely by the Truku Tribal people. The summer camp is run by a retired elementary teacher, Mrs. Tien, who with her recently deceased husband started this venture approximately five years ago. She actually opens her private classrooms to private groups that want to offer afternoon arts or teaching camps in the summers, while for the rest of the year she keeps the facilities available for evening tutoring. Her property is a safe place for the children to spend their after school hours.

My participation in this camp was supposed to be the teaching of Western Chess, but my actual usefulness seems to have nothing to do with my “teaching” skills. As I expected, it is my “physical presence” that is proving most interesting and perhaps valuable for the children. This may sound odd, but I suspect that the children of this area have few opportunities to interact with white persons. From past experience I expected and did not reject the children’s focus on my body. I did not discourage their interest in my body hair—my “fur” as I jokingly called it, referring to myself as a big monkey. I allowed them to stroke my arms, and even let one young girl experiment with pulling out a few hairs to see if it hurt. “A little,” I told her. Why was she surprised that I would feel pain? The children were also fascinated by my blue eyes, a feature of me that I often overlook.

Where is the benefit of this fascination with my physical difference, the markers of my European ancestry? Here I have to make a wild leap of logic, but I suggest that experiencing a “friendly foreign presence” at such a young age may, as these children mature, leave a mark on the subconscious that will someday allow a young adult student to enter the challenging university classroom with a greater sense of confidence. They may be less afraid of “foreign” teachers, less anxious about speaking with their international professors, less worried about using the English they've been taught. In the classroom setting they may be more willing to ask questions, to seek clarification, to challenge for the purpose of learning.

My excellent colleague Professor Chang Ya-ling wonders about my joy at the prospect of these children someday "challenging authority," for she sees authority as all-important in their tribal cultural community. I suggest that this is true, and while she says this authority is “military based,” I add that it is different from our Euro-American and Sino-Taiwanese notions of martial power. The indigenous concept of authority is based on respect, not sheer dominance through force. The tribal chief is respected for his abilities as a leader, a hunter, a provider, a protector.

Also, it is our hope that these children will enter the university system and complete the "educational goals" established for them by the system that none of us will ever have the power to change. We want them to achieve in learning new information and applying that knowledge toward expanding their own creativity and wisdom. This skill should then be brought back to their indigenous community to help lead the tribes into a positive future.

Of course, it was more than my physical presence that might have been of benefit to the children last night. Nor was I alone. Let me describe what I can of last evening's playtime with the children.

Simple Conversation. Being able to talk to the children in Mandarin was a good experience for me, and for them. The children were fascinated to learn that a person can have an animal surname: “fox.” They also asked me about the Chinese zodiac, what my nimal sign is:“ox.” They then asked me what was my favorite of the 12 animals: “ox.” And of course, I couldn't help going into my spiel about pigs as intelligent and even dangerous beasts, anything but cute. I told the children about my small menagerie of pets past and present, and that inspired one young lady to run home to retrieve her pet tortoise, which she found in the wild and has since done a surprisingly wonderful job of taming. She held it and stroked its head and even offered it the closest approximation of a kiss that could be mustered—even if it was more like a Maori nose-to-nose greeting.

One young boy was more bold in speaking to me, taking on the challenge of using English in his discussion. That's how I learned that his main academic interest is mathematics, a topic that he returned to later on in the evening as he tried to explain that in math he's at the top of his class.

Creative Endeavor. When my colleague Olivia Chang and I returned from dropping off one of our former students at the train station, we found that Amay—a doctoral student at Arizona State University—had pulled out the watercolors and blank paper, and put the children to work using the brushes that Olivia had given them. The child in me came to the surface . . . the child, or the frustrated artist? Either way, I sat down, took up a brush, and dived into the challenge of painting my own masterpiece. How funny, even just by playing with colors I revealed something about my personality: what started out as light and vibrant colors quickly eroded into shadows and dark colors. Compare my own vision of horror to the bright optimism in the children's paintings. Oh, what a troubled mind is at work within me. How encouraging it is to see that children still keep joy at the center of their hearts. They have much to teach us.

Games and Entertainment. Singing is always a challenging activity that helps break down barriers and get people comfortable with each other. But when I was asked for a “happy” song, I was silenced by my inability to recall the full lyrics of even one generally upbeat tune. Fortunately, two of the girls piped up with cheery songs in English, including an old standard that is obviously edited for learners: “If you're happy happy happy clap your hands....” I tried to give them the lyrics that got me through too many elementary school music lessons, supplementing with lots of “actions” like foot stomping, eye winking, head tapping, and the like. Later in the evening, two young boys were completely comfortable in performing for us a dance routine that they have been practicing and which they say will be ready by Friday afternoon. Their musical accompaniment was a cell phone.

This brings me to one note of importance. These children seem to have bonded into a strong group that functions without embarrassment. They know each other quite well, and are not inhibited by the shyness and embarrassment that I see in the interactions of other children in Taipei. Indeed, it would be rare to see children performing a dance routine in front of other children, no less their classmates. I have seen this comfort with public performance in my aboriginal student, Ruby.

Helianthus, just a little worn down after exploring the joys of childhood again.
After the dance performance, the children pulled our former student and fellow volunteer into their circle for a few games before heading home for the evening. Helianthus graduated last month, and will be heading to graduate school in September. She and her former classmate Phil were wonderfully generous in joining this summer camp. They are teaching the children how to edit video on the school's computers. Last night Helianthus was also teaching them that a “teacher” can also be a pretty fun kid to hang around with. Earlier in the day they had dragged her into a wild game of dodge ball, and in the evening it was a version of “musical chairs” and “truth or dare” that had her behaving like a child again.

This afternoon we will be taking the children on a field trip to visit the Amis tribe in Hualien’s Guan Fu Shan. This will be one of their few opportunities to see, and hopefully interact, with their neighboring tribal communities.
The afternoon's adventures await us...

Giving Kids a Chance to Learn

Is the availability of a computer all that’s needed to improve a child’s education? Apparently so, according to the experience of Newcastle University professor Sugata Mitra, the man behind the Hole in the Wall learning project in India and Africa. The project began with the installation of Internet-connected computers in publicly accessible walls throughout New Delhi slums. Today the project boasts 500 computers in walls across India and Africa (Uganda). The giant screens are located in spaces easily observed by passerby, a visibility that limits the likelihood of children visiting in appropriate sites. And because the screens are so large, the children can work in groups and see easily without loss of concentration.

In Africa and India it became apparent to Professor Mitra that children with little or no access to serious education are able to “work by themselves” and teach themselves English, computing and math. Professor Mitra has now been invited to offer a similar “self-activated” learning experience to children in northeast England.

Similar to the learning that is said to take place in the special Microsoft schools in North America, this special “Hole in the Wall” program strives to “encourage individual learning” and “give children interesting questions to look into independently,” sparking curiosity among the youngsters. The program asks students to work in small groups and find answers to science-related questions such as how animals adapt to their environments, how the human body works, and physics (“Why do we slip on wet surfaces?” for example).

Why is the Hole in the Wall being adapted for use in English schools? Educators answer that the Internet is already easily accessible for most British children, which makes them less motivated when in the traditional classroom where information is not instantly accessible and just as quickly forgotten. The English version of the Hole in the Wall focuses on the use of already available computers in conjunction with carefully planned lessons. “It could be a whole new way of schooling,” said Professor Mitra. “Technology has given children the potential to be far more independent at learning, and we should embrace that,” he added.

Meanwhile, in India the Hole in the Wall project has added a new dimension of learning through the use of Skype to enable teachers in England to instruct children in the subcontinent. Last year Professor Mitra called for volunteers in the United Kingdom to read stories via Skype to children in Hyderabad. Some 200 readers volunteered their services, including a number of retired teachers who “were upset at the thought of having finished their careers” and now “have realized they’re more important than ever.” Professor Mitra hopes to grow this program globally, and is still looking for a future “cloud” of retired teachers who can serve as “Skype grannies” dedicated to teaching English and reading stories to children. Professor Mitra is also expanding his search for experienced math and science teachers to work with students in Hyderabad.

(Read the full article “Slumdog Academic’s ‘Hole in theWall’ Propject Piloted in UK” at the Taipei Times newspaper online.

Learn more about the Project at:

The Hole in the Wall

and

UNESCO

What's Hard to Attain, Easy to Lose?

It is hard to achieve, and easy to lose. That's easily said, and arguably true, for both "love" and "freedom." In early March 2010, exiled Burmese democracy activist Khin Ohmar was in Taiwan for a first-hand look at the nation's democratic experience and talk about both freedom and the reasons why we should cherish our freedoms.

Her words, offered in a March 7 interview with the Taipei Times newspaper, should be heeded. This from the article, available online:

"Based on her personal ­experiences, Ohmar is urging Taiwanese to be more cautious about their hard-earned democracy. Even though Taiwan enjoys freedom and democracy, its people should tread carefully, especially since China still claims it as part of its territory and is trying to tempt it with its economic power, she said.

“'Gaining freedom for Taiwan is not free. It’s very important you don’t take it for granted. If you take it for granted there’s a chance you’ll lose it. And when you lose it, it’s difficult to get it back, especially when you’re facing an enemy with power and money,' she said."