Craig Dodge - Blog

The graduating seniors at ChuLin did very well this year on the university entrance exam. If I understood correctly, there were 16 students from one class who scored high enough to enter National Taiwan University, the country's most prestigious university. Many others will also go to  highly ranked universities in Taiwan.  The students should all be very proud of their efforts.

Who should get the credit for such achievements, though? The students? The parents? The school? The teachers? This is only my casual observation, but it feels like in Taiwan, most of the credit goes to the school and the teachers, especially the homeroom teachers, and little credit is given to the students.  This isn't fair and doesn't really represent the reality of the situation, in my humble opinion.

Basically, at almost every step of the way through their education, Taiwanese students take an enormous number of tests and are placed into classes and schools according to their test scores. This system by design funnels the best students into the same classes of the same schools. If the system is putting all the best students into one place, of course it will look like that teacher or that school is good. How much difference though, did the teacher or the school actually make?

Certainly, teachers are important for learning, just like quality books and well-equipped educational facilities, but these are just learning tools, right?  A good teacher can inspire students and have some effect on the final result, but how much? Wouldn't you agree that the most important factor in a student's performance is their own hard work and motivation? Intelligent, highly motivated students will learn in almost any situation.

Let's give credit where credit is due: to the students!