Richard and I have been considering where to put Kyle when he starts first grade in September. We are lucky enough to have choices, and late last year we went to see the school down the road from our cottage. To our surprise, their preschool won the best preschool in Taiwan award last year through the Ministry of Education, and their elementary school seems to be quite progressive, as well as having small numbers in each class, their own kitchen on school campus, and finishing at 3:20 instead of 4pm every day. Even better, this school does not need you to have household registration* in the area, so anyone can attend the school. So, Kyle and Hannah can try the school out and I can try out living at the cottage full-time.
*Taiwan has a household registration system, where citizens need to register themselves in an area. This affects where you go to school, what benefits you have, and what area you can vote in. If you are a foreigner on an ARC, your children can attend any public school without this limitation, and some schools are not limited by the household registration due to low roll numbers.
Every Tuesday and Friday, I spend an hour with a group of moms whose kids are in Kyle's dance class. All eight of them lament the amount of homework kids have, the long hours in school, and the pressure to perform put on their kids. It is very interesting for me to join their discussions, as it really crushes all the assumptions we made as English teachers in the private language school system. Having kids and putting them in school has thankfully opened up access to a whole other group of parents in Taiwan. Reading foreign-contributed forums in Taiwan, I realise that as English teachers or just in our daily lives as expats, the limited contact we have with particular groups of people really encourage us to make unfair assumptions. This two hours a week with the group of moms is both refreshing and educational. If your kids are in classes, I really encourage you to get to know the parents that are waiting for their kids there. It can really change your perspective.
A couple of weeks ago I witnessed the unfortunate death of a young motorcyclist in Muzha. He had one of those silly little hats that they can use as helmets here, and he hit the ground face-first. Stuck in traffic, we saw them covering him up before clearing the road. I did some online searching about local safety concerns, and found some interesting statistics about road-deaths. There are indeed local groups also trying to educate young people, but it really doesn't seem to be enough. One of the concerning statistics was that 3 children every day sustain serious head injuries due to lack of appropriate seatbelts or carseats, and most of those are in the five-to-ten year old group. It's extremely difficult to change people's views on the full seat-belt and/or booster seat benefits as opposed to the lap belt. Even educated people who have been overseas maintain that a lap-belt is enough, even though there is so much evidence to show the spinal and brain damage caused to children when there is a crash or emergency-stop with a lap-belt in use. Children cannot brace themselves at all and they invariably hit their head on their knees or fly out of the belt. With all the high-way driving we do, it is really an issue for me. If we have this knowledge, isn't it our responsibility to protect our children?
Anyway, now I am trying to compile some information about proper helmet use and seatbelt use, to be passed on to teenagers and parents. If you know of any great information that could be used in print, please let me know!
