Serving Christian Education at the Elementary and Secondary Levels:
A Review of the Process of the Educational Reformation of Arco School
Dr. Der-Jen Sun
Christ’s College
Taipei, Taiwan
ABSTRACT
Arco School, one of the four alternative schools during the period of Educational Reformation in Taiwan, was founded to enhance student’s learning ability and motivation. The purpose of this paper is to review the process of educational reformation from theory to practice and to discuss its successes and limitations that may bring about suggestions for educators and policy makers in the future.
The vision of Arco was to create an elementary school that would satisfy students, teachers, and parents simultaneously. The founder sought to reunite trust among these three groups and make it a win/win situation for all stakeholders. In order to reach this goal, the school had to make students capable of and willing to, learn. For this purpose, the learning environment had to help all types of learners to excel, and the curriculum had to inspire every student to explore a vision for his or her life and create a desire for its fulfillment.
The environment was based on a Multiple Intelligence School model that included: mixed age classes, the use of Suzuki violin method, a project approach, whole language learning, equal time given to all subjects, and a humanity based theme cycle. The curriculum was based on character education as its core value, applied art education as its tool of learning, and encompassed humanistic education as its goal. The students were involved in the development of the school through which they learned how to solve problems. The relationships among teachers, students and parents were full of trust. The highest penalty for students who offended school rules was to stay home for a day.
One of Arco’s traditions was a formal performance of小池王國, The Small Pond Kingdom, a children’s musical about the transformation from a tadpole to a frog. Through the preparation of this play, the entire school developed a model of an interdisciplinary curriculum.
After 10 years, Arco developed a high reputation for student achievement both in academics and character. In 2004, Professor Huang Kuang-Kuo 黃光國in his “Ten Thousand Words about Taiwan’s Educational Reformation教改萬言書” named Arco as a school that “really knew how to effectively do school reform” at that time. Nevertheless, the school also was suffering from the lack of legal land and registration. In 2002, Arco was given a public school, Da-Pin Elementary School, to operate and it merged with that school.
Key word: Multiple Intelligence Theory, Mixed Age, Character education, Art and Humanities.
Introduction
On April 10, 1994, a mass parade was organized in Taipei to demand reform in the education policies to ensure that a student could have a childhood that was happy and healthy. This organization- the League of 410 Education Reform, called for participants in all areas to join the movement. One of their leaders, Yu-Yen Liu劉玉燕, an educator in early childhood education, came to Hsin-Chu to look for someone to take charge in this area. In response to Liu’s request, Der-Jen Sun, an educator who was trained in the United States and was teaching at National Hsin-Chu Teachers College, agreed to devote her efforts in promoting a new education reform in Hsin-Chu.
In 1995, the ARCO Declaration was proposed. Based on the theory of Multiple Intelligences, Der-Jen Sun designed a school that sought to enhance student’s capabilities and motivation in learning. This project began within a public school and later became Arco School, one of the four alternative schools that created a profound impact on education reform in Taiwan.
Arco School, the first MI school in Asia, was established to create an elementary school that would satisfy students, teachers, and parents simultaneously. In order to understand the problems in the school system and implement a theory into practice, the founder traveled all over the country. She listened to the problems teachers encountered, and gave seminars to empower their ability in teaching. Finally, she completed a curriculum that was easy to approach students and more effective in learning achievement.
Shan-Hu Branch School was the first elementary school to implement the Arco Declaration and the results were impressive. However, the operation lacked an environment that could accept people who wished to join in or walk out, including both teachers and students. In other words, while there were no extra openings for people on the waiting list, there was a group of people who could not leave. This then created a need to set up an alternative school that allowed this choice.
A Historical Background
Teachers College Kindergarten 竹師附幼時期 1994
Dr. Der-Jen Sun was the first educator to bring the theory of Multiple Intelligences to Taiwan. She first introduced this theory to six teachers in the kindergarten where they conducted an experiment with an interdisciplinary approach. The mission of the experiment was to explore the function of art education to elevate academic achievement. The outcome received a positive response, and people involved requested the curriculum to extend to the elementary level.
Shan-Hu Branch School 山湖分校時期 1995
Mr. Fan Chen-Tsung范振宗, the Governor of Hsin-Chu County, was delighted to hear of the Arco Declaration and decided to support this reform movement. In 1995, he offered a reputable public elementary school for Sun to carry out the vision. However, to everyone’s surprise, Sun declined the one offered, and chose Shan-Hu Branch School, a forgotten school in a remote area with only 11 students left.
She began teachers’ training in the summer and organized a group of parents to prepare the learning environment, and created a curriculum that was new to anyone. The mission of the experiment continued to explore the function of art education to elevate academic achievement, and to develop the application of character education as the core to a curriculum. Many people did not understand what MI theory was, but were attracted by the fact of a new school that could bring hope to them.
At the time Sun began the experiment, student enrollment immediately increased six times. Shan-Hu Branch School attracted the attention from media and people from other cities came to observe the operation. The whole school was excited in unfolding a curriculum that was creative and inspiring. For example, the commencement service, an activity that often seemed boring to students in the past, now turned out so impressive that children often talk about it and will never forget it. The classes were full of surprises that turned students into active learners. Textbooks were put away and the materials for learning were folded inside a series of activities. Students now loved to go to school and stayed focused in order to make new discoveries.
Being a branch school, Shan-Hu had limited room to accommodate students. Pressure was gradually built up as people crowded to observe and learn and parents move from out of town in order to enroll their children. The increased reputation came too soon that soon everyone in the school felt overwhelmed. The teachers were especially burdened. The desire for privacy emerged, and some teachers called for a stop.
The curriculum of the experiment seemed to impact children in a way beyond comprehension. Children were too happy that parents could not image how they would survive when entering middle school that was not meant to be a happy time in life. To parents’ annoyance, students who were obedient before now began to express their feelings and their thinking. They were reluctant to see the change of life and wished to move out of the experiment. Sun tried to explain to the parents that the way to effective learning did not have to sacrifice happiness and that the building of character could only progress when children began to think. However, what she said did not make sense to people at that time.
Another problem was that the teachers at Shan-Hu were there before the experiment began. Many of them chose to teach at a remote school for their own personal reasons. Therefore, to carry on of the experiment for the second year became an issue for some who did not wish to continue, and there was no law to transfer those teachers who wished to leave. There was a need for a new place that all students and teachers had a choice to attend or not to participate.
Chung-Lin Campus 芎林雅歌時期 1997
In 1997, Arco School was founded when students who wished to continue the experiment split from Shan-Hu. It was a painful decision to make because there was no other legal campus to accommodate this experiment, and the only way to implement the vision was to take people who wished to join. The separation happened at a time of election when the new Governor came from another party, and the walking away from Shan-Hu turned Arco into an illegal school. Students immediately were forced to go back to their regular school, yet all of them rejected. The media and people who cared for Arco raised their voices to support Arco. Principals from some other cities offered a cover to accept Arco students through a process similar to home schooling. Students were only required to go back to those schools to take tests according to the school calendar. There was a threat for the founder to be put in jail, if arrested. Parents gave their words to protect the founder and vowed to go to jail together.
Besides the political and legal situation, Arco unfolded a most beautiful picture. The word ‘crisis’ in Chinese means danger but also opportunity. The process of the reformation forced us to go through a series of problem-solving sessions while forming the new school. The lack of resources challenged the teachers to create opportunities from zero. The way the teachers handled the crisis and the wisdom in making things possible provided great examples for the students and the legacy was passed on.
Arco had an impressive way to launch its first semester. The year Arco withdrew from Shan-Hu, nothing physical was taken away. Chung-Lin Campus was an empty house in need of all kinds of materials to make it a school. A principal from another school kindly offered some recycled desks for Arco students. Seeing the desks were not pleasing to students’ eyes, parents were willing to pay for new desks. Sun suggested that it was not necessary and predicted that children would compete for the worst ones. Parents wondered what kind of magic would happen.
By the third year our theme was “let us make a difference.” During the first week, when students saw the piles of desks n the yard, they asked if they could use them. Sun replied with a story and told students that there was going to be a chance to adopt some desks that were not perfect any more. Only those who had a heart for the poor should apply to be the master of one of these desks. Before and after pictures would be taken of the desks after one week’s time. Students were very interested in taking the recycled desks and many asked for the worst one. In the following week, parents were amazed with their children’s passionate behavior. Students washed their desks, sanded the rugged surface, filled the cut scars and repainted anew. Letters were written to each desk to show empathy and words granted to assure their proper care in the future. It was during this kind of interaction that students learned to cherish something that seemed wretched and knew that inside every life, there could be a beautiful untold story.
Parents came to nail the blackboard and students decorated the classroom. A field was rented to make a playground. Three former bedrooms were turned into small classrooms, the living room was designed as a multi-function hall that could be a meeting area or a place for indoor performances, and the kitchen was sometimes used for private sessions. The yard was covered as a big porch and podium set to make a stage. A large room was arranged to be the library where many students could read, and a small room was the office.
The point of no return--The resignation
For the two years at Chung-Lin, Arco received nice complements and was awarded some honors and some grants to carry out its dream. However, the status of not being registered was a shadow to all. It finally reached the point of no return that the founder had to make a sacrifice in resigning her college post if Arco was to keep going. The making of this decision was of high concern among people who cared for Arco and Sun. The local newspaper gave half a page to announce and discuss the resignation.
The resignation did not save Arco from its illegal position in the eyes of the government. A committee was formed from the bureau of education to evaluate Arco. The first thing some officer did was measure the stairway, and then immediately disqualified the school. Parents tried to persuade the committees about how well their children were doing at this school and that they really did not want to see the school terminate. The appeal was refuted and the house scheduled to be torn down.
Invitation to Hsin-Chu City
Not long before this evaluation, the Mayor of Hsin-Chu City, Mr. Tsai came to visit Arco. He had heard of Arco’s achievements and was quite impressed with Dr. Sun’s educational philosophy. In order to listen and discuss educational issues with Sun, he made an official visitation to Arco. His panel expected that his stay would be no more than ten minutes yet it turned out to be a whole afternoon. He listened and asked questions regarding how to make Hsin-Chu City a place for gentlemen through education. He then invited Arco to relocate to his city.
Er-May Campus 峨眉雅歌時期 2000
The relocation of the campus was not easy and the space offered did not seem practical, and Arco needed a place to move out immediately. Land at Er-May Township was offered to solve the crisis and Arco’s team built the squatters in a forest (in 45 days) to greet a new era. Besides the construction of the classrooms, Arco enjoyed the making of the school and put together everything they needed. The path between classrooms were grounded, paved with bricks and surrounded with green grass. All classrooms were one story so that there was no need for a stairway, and there was ample space for kids to run and to explore. Teachers were challenged to use all the space available as a possible classroom in replacing the regular classroom setting. Students could have class basically anywhere the teachers wished and the discoveries could happen anywhere as they were observing.
By this time, the older children were started graduating. An examination was conducted to see if they had developed sufficient competence to fit well into their next level of education. The requirement was to complete a biography in which each life was examined for the past 11 years: how he was educated, what he believed, what his dream was, and what type of character he had developed. In the graduate ceremony, this presentation was projected on the screen while the student played a movement of music on stage.
Every crisis in the history was like throwing a lemon at Arco roughly, yet Arco caught it with faith and made it into a cup of lemonade with gratitude. Each time when the hardship caused another reset for the experiment, it revived the inner strength and brought forward another step in the development of the curriculum.
Er-May Arco was regarded a legend in the field of education. The Ministry of Education gradually noticed what Arco had accomplished in educational reform and appointed Sun to the MOE Committee. The Arco experience was shared to those struggling in seeking a quality education. The regulation for registration now was liberated again in some aspect, yet Arco was in need of a piece of land suitable for school use. And the financial situation was becoming more severe. It came the time for the liberation of a law permitted a chartered school. An invitation came from the newly elected Governor, Mr. Yung-Chin Cheng鄭永金 who proposed a plan to the County Council and decided to appoint Da-Ping Elementary School as a chartered school where Arco may take charge. Da-Ping was another remote school that needed some help in restoration. To prevent it from closing, the principal went to Arco and asked for the training of teachers to copy the curriculum. It was then considered an opportunity for the merging of the two schools. The residents at Da-Ping were mixed with joy and anxiety: some were grateful for a good curriculum and that resources would be merged. Others were afraid that Da-Ping might lose its name. An agreement was reached to merge Arco into Da-Ping and Arco’s name was only used for the foundation that ran the chartered school.
Da-Ping Elementary School 公辦民營大坪時期 2002
Arco finally had a legal campus and was in the system again. There was something even more attractive, it was now a public school so parents had no obligation to pay for the tuition. The number of students increased to its full capacity, 106. Arco devoted all it had to make Da-Ping a public version of Arco. It was a great risk for Arco in case Da-Ping regretted in the future and decided not to continue Arco’s way. However, a grain of wheat could only bear more when it was buried into the soil. The founding of Arco was to impact the system Arco took the chance.
The time Arco moved in with Da-Ping, the atmosphere of Taiwan’s education reform was maturing. People enrolled their children mostly after they had some knowledge about MI theory. It was expected to be a different situation so that the Shan-Hu effect would not be replicated. Nevertheless, the curriculum received admiration from outside yet was questioned from inside by the teachers. Some Da-Ping teachers were concerned about the family diversity and unconsciously discriminating two types of students. Students from Arco were therefore regarded as the fortunate group and received more accusations that rarely happened at Arco. Teachers from Arco were challenged with bi-culture integration that they needed to work very hard to resolve the threat from the host teachers, and to elevate students who were so much behind their peers in learning. The bi-cultural interaction consumed a great deal of time and energy even though everyone considered themselves highly supportive of the program.
The most striking factor was the failure to accommodate the founder into the administrative post. Governor Cheng at the final minute stated that he was not able to transfer the previous principal to another school, according to the contract. All of a sudden, the entire situation turned complicated yet the move had been done and there was no way to reverse it. Sun accepted the fact with great determination and led the project as a project advisor. With high respect from everyone at the school, every thing seemed to continue the way it was planed except that Sun had no authority in administration and there was no salary. It had been ten years since she returned to Taiwan and dived into education reform, the dedicated and stressful living now consumed her health into a critical situation and Sun was forced to retreat in order to recuperate. Starting in 2003, Sun stayed in the States and came back to Da-Ping during the summer and winter vacations to conduct seminars.
The way Da-Ping continued the experiment was still considered a success to the public’s eyes. Since the cost of tuition was the same as a public school, the parents were content with what Da-Ping could provide and the demand for a real Arco type education gradually reduced. After a time those who once studied at Arco graduated from Da-Ping and the Arco School rested in history.
The curriculum
The Vision and Mission 理念與使命
In speaking of education reform, it was necessary to reach the consensus through decent discussion of some questions. The questions should include the reason why the present system needed to change, and what was the feasibility for a new system. To get involved in a huge construction like education reform, every step was too important to be ignored, and the shift of paradigm in education began with asking the right questions. Sun often started her lectures with the following questions.
1. What kind of students do we wish to educate?
2. How can we guarantee that all students are capable of learning?
3. How will a student be willing to learn?
4. How should we teach?
5. What should a student learn so that he is well prepared to enter society?
For the key to these questions, Sun would tell many short stories that revealed the way of a school she envisioned. For years, she noticed that students in Taiwan were unhappy with the learning effectiveness because they were not taught how to learn. Schools did not appeal to students because what was taught did not seem to impact a student’s life. She believed that teaching how to learn was as important as teaching what to learn. For this reason, art education became a tool for students to learn and life education was poured into all subjects as the content to explore. While exploring life from many aspects, the need for knowledge and skills in each subject emerged and students became active learners.
A Multiple Intelligence Learning Environment
The vision of Arco was to set up a school that allowed students to learn according to their intelligences and allow students to move at their own pace. In preparing a learning environment implementing multiple intelligences, all subjects should be scheduled equally, and assessment should focus on its progress not result. Teachers must foster intrinsic motivation to engage students in an interdisciplinary collaboration.
At Arco, students were allowed to use their own learning styles and teachers had to accept them just as they were. In order for teachers to fulfill the needs of students in different paces, the classes were arranged with mixed age groups. Teachers decided which grouping was the best mixture for their own class. For example, an opera class might include the entire student body, a language class might combine two grades or three, and sometimes new teachers did choose just one grade in a class. An activity could be designed for the whole class, with different levels of worksheets assigned to students. People were surprised to see that students had different vocabularies in one class, or different worksheets from the same activity.
Suzuki Violin
Music was a part of daily life at Arco. Students started each day with violin lessons or gardening. With a student population under 40 students, Arco had its own orchestra. It took great concentration in learning music: to think by phrase not by note, to listen to each other, to come in at the right time, and to stay silent at the rest.
The application of Suzuki Violin was one of the activities that associated with art education that promoted multi-sensory learning to increase student’s attention spam. After two years of group lessons, students could choose an instrument for private lesson. Performances were given when needed: in recital, background music, or formal concert. Students volunteered to host the program. Stage was a common scene to see among students drawing of the school.
Theme based curriculum 三年一輪主題網
The curriculum was organized around themes that helped students to explore life in a broad sense. Each theme wove activities into an interdisciplinary collaboration with all subjects. Teachers were trained to design activities based on the theme, and according to the goal of each subject. For example, a teacher assigned a cooking task to students of first and second graders with the directions on how to make one dish. In order to make a poster to tell the audience and win the votes as the best choice, they had to work in a team and complete their own task. The teacher would decide which goal was to be attained: language, math, arts, or science? The different work could be assigned to different people.
The theme was cycled every three years which explored the content of life education. The first year was to gain the connections: to oneself, to others, and to nature. For example, while acquiring awareness to self, students participated in all kinds of activities that explored how one was connected to many efforts that were taken for granted and learned to appreciate. The second year was the defining of harmony: working in harmony with one self, with others, and with nature. For example, students explored the world based on a multi-cultural perspective and learned to confront the conflicts encountered. As for nature, students explored inventions by learning how to discover and research based on others’ discovery. For the third year, it was a time to internalize the vision into an action. Students at this year went through many difficulties with the school, and learned to solve the problems instead of blaming others. Although the theme repeated every three years, the new atmosphere inspired teachers to innovate new activities that renewed the curriculum.
The Small Pond Kingdom小池王國
A significant tradition at Arco was to perform a children’s opera小池王國, The Small Pond Kingdom, every three years. The founder composed this award winning play in order to demonstrate an interdisciplinary curriculum. Throughout the whole semester, teachers prepared students to give a formal performance. The story was about a small pond that was badly polluted by humans. The tadpoles in the pond built a kingdom with top technology to measure the world, and great passion to fight with the cancer, yet were not able to understand that there was another world above the pond. According to the theory of Dr. Tadpole, the greatest scientist in the pond, a world was not considered to exist if unreachable by a tadpole’s tail. In exploring the content of the story, teachers in all subjects helped students to construct concepts that were related to the subject according to student’s level. Students design the mini stage to get the feel of the stage and recorded their voices into a DVD for the sound track of the performance.
The opera was prepared in an approach that focused on student’s spiritual growth instead of performance outcomes. However, it was always amazing that when something inside a person changed, the transformation of the appearance emerged. The rebirth of the story eventually led to the rebirth of a student’s life. There was no decision from teachers to assign the cast; students picked their characters in a harmonious way with everyone involved. The entire school was revived from this play. The performance was given at the city concert hall before a full house. It was amazing that the audience included families and friends from young to old, yet the performance caught everyone’s breath all the way through. Professor Hsia Hsue-Li, a drama critic, thought the audience was incredible and the performance was a cultural miracle.
The evaluation 評量
A MI school evaluates students’ learning based on progress instead of results. Students were graded under three categories of progress: R (rapid), S (steady), and N (needs help). Each subject were evaluated according to its subdivided goals and recorded with the motivation students exhibited.
There were three types of motivations in students’ learning: intrinsic, extrinsic, and indifferent motivations. For educators who believe in rewarding and punishment, extrinsic motivation was a tool to enhance learning. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, was the enjoyment of doing something for the sake of its own with no regard of reward. It was important for teachers at Arco to observe students’ motivation and correlate with the progress of the subject to identify a child’s strength and weakness of their intelligences. As a child showed indifference motivation and needed help in the progress, a weak intelligence was discerned, while the intrinsic motivation combined with rapid progress indicated strength intelligence.
There was another kind of situation beyond the three types of motivation mentioned: the trouble maker who needed attention. To Arco, these students were in need of healing before learning. Teachers would spend extra time to build relationship and trust and avoid labeling. After a while, these students began to notice that teachers did not respond to their challenges but saw their good behavior right away so they changed. There was a student who made a big change in his conduct and credited that to his teacher, “inside my teacher’s heart, there hid an album which only collected my best pictures. I wanted to be good because she could always see that.” Besides progressive evaluation, Arco sent a qualitative evaluation report to parents in a constructive way to describe a student through the teachers’ eyes. Parents and students enjoyed reading it together and felt blessed.
Research Project 研究課
Another course that attracted people from everywhere to observe was the research project. Students at Arco began their learning through the research perspectives. Each semester, a student picked his topic and developed the project for the entire semester, and gave a presentation at the final week. Each week, research teachers would conduct an interview with students one by one in a radio station circumstance. Students would talk about their progress and mention their discoveries. The purpose of the research project was to learn the skills for information processing, a part of learning how to learn, and to present it to the entire class so that students might learn from each other.
During the presentation, students had to choose a method to show the result and give a brief abstract within three minutes. Students were required to focus on the key points with the clear sequence and use their own words. Students would gradually extend their file by gathering data from their continuous readings, and teachers would ask students to process the data into a table format to reduce the length of their articles. Students were very dedicated to their research because it was the choice of their topic, and presented according to their type of intelligence. Arco required every student to complete two books every semester. Besides the research project, the journal 美的分享, or beautiful sharing, recorded the learning and reflection from every day which conversed with parents and teachers.
Home Works 作業
There were many ways to present home works. For instance, teachers might ask students to prepare for an event which included designing the blessing announcement in the form of a poem, dance, music, drawing, making some gift or baked cookies. The student had to describe why the gift was offered and what was the symbolic representation of the gift. In a class with mixed aged students, the many possible ways to complete a task provided a good demonstration that inspired students’ creativity. It was clear that everyone in a class seemed to know what he was doing.
The Graduation Ceremony 畢業典禮
Time flew by and the students grew up so it was the time for a graduation ceremony. Students were to plan their own version of the ceremony. Usually students would think of something to make an award for everyone. A performance of music was arranged for the graduates of 2001, with a personal biography presented on the screen background. Music was a movement from a sonata level. The biography was developed for the entire semester to exam one’s life in many perspectives: what did he believe in his life? What was his dream? What character did he need to work on in order to carry out that dream? In answering these questions, a student needed to read biographies from many great people to set a role model for oneself and review his own life to make a plan.
Among some educators there was some doubt about the achievements of students from alternative schools. After the ceremony, many guests were deeply impressed and wondered what would happen to these graduates? Would they be happy after middle school? What would they achieve in the college entrance competition? Six years past, these students now were selected into the most desirable universities in Taiwan and admitted under their priority choice at large. The Arco legend was not just a story.
The key to success- a school of quality 優質學校的要訣
Bonstingl identified a school of quality in a status that students enjoy coming to school when teachers focus on ways of enabling every student to succeed (2001). Quality was the key to success. Arco had worked very hard to insist integrity in the process of its education reformation. Quality came from being faithful to what one declared he would do and substituted nothing to what was important. Quality comes from being a person with integrity and integrity demanded a status of whole person. The school of quality must help one to establish a positive difference in our experience of life- mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Humanism vs. character education
The education reformation during the last decade demanded liberation of form in a school system in which discipline was the most difficult part to handle. When the rest of the alternative schools focused on the concepts of humanism and emphasized equal respect to all, Arco disagreed. It was the founder’s belief that students who honored their teachers would perform better in the academic achievement because they followed the instruction with full attention. This attitude was emphasized in Arco’s regulation with three respects: respect to the teacher, to oneself, and to the environment.
The respect for the teacher was a part of the character education because attitude was the key to effective learning. At Arco, teachers received the ultimate respect that every one should listen when the behavior was considered improper by a teacher. Second, everyone should respect oneself by doing what one was responsible, and avoiding what was regarded a shame. Third, every one was granted the freedom to live happily so that one’s freedom could not win at other’s expense. It was a very simple regulation and the penalty to stay out of school for a day, was considered cruel.
The Limitation of a MI School 多元智能學校的限制
MI theory has been a trend for the last twenty years and caused an impact to the educational system within and without. Howard Gardner, however, cautioned that 'we must figure out how intelligence and morality can work together to create a world in which a great variety of people will want to live' (Gardner 1999: p4). To a school implementing MI theory, the limitation inevitably was the confrontation of discipline. In speaking of evaluation, to respect children in their own style and to honor their own pace was to tolerate the lack of progress in a traditional standard. Many of us needed to know that when education focused on the change of life, it took time and required patience. In other words, pouring water into a cup to see it filled with water was easier than watering the seeds inside the soil and to see it budding into a life hidden within. The evaluation of an education reform usually cut in at the time when achievements did not come as expected and the character did not build up in a quick way. But it takes patience to become a teacher of character education, and to be patient was to know that there was time for everything. Students remembered that how teachers were patiently walking through the rebellion time with them, yet they learned to respect others from how they were respected and how teachers insisted the bottom line in a gentle way.
Sun had sensed the need for a character education in stabilizing the reform at the beginning of the experiment. For years, she kept developing the theory of a character education and reached a new definition that was well stated in Chinese. Character building was the key that made one seek the highest quality of one’s life and expand the greatest capacity of a person. Character education could not be taught in a passive text but must be learned from an active attitude.
Bonstingl in his book “school of quality” gave a comparison in describing the shift of paradigm in education. One change was that in traditional classroom success was artificially limited to a few winners while in a quality school continuous improvement and successes were the objectives of schooling (2001, pp.101). This description reflected from a fourth- graders a few months after Arco appeared at Chung-Lin. A transfer student in a trial session told her father that she definitely wanted to transfer to Arco. “Usually, it would not take long to find the best student in a class,” she said, “At Arco everyone could be a star in a different time.” She found that the class was mixed aged and the teacher allowed everyone to be different in pace and style. The teacher was not someone to judge and condemn but a guide to help complete a task. A class was not a single-discipline instruction but interdisciplinary learning.
What Arco achieved in the search of education reform was incredibly enormous, but there were limitations, too. First, the environment that provided multiple intelligences in teaching, learning, and evaluating was not easy to develop at that time. Second, with the theme-based curriculum an interdisciplinary collaboration and the mixed aged instruction, required teachers who were highly competent in their subject areas and patient enough to guide instead of teach. Third, the least important factor that in the end turned out to be the fatal limitation was the legal land and financial problems in creating a private school.
A School based on Christian faith 以神為本之創校精神
The name Arco, literally in Chinese means “Song of the songs”, gave an impression that Arco was a music school. However, after sharing the education philosophy and knowing more about the school, guests usually regarded it as a Christian school although it was not sponsored by a Christian denomination. The way students were educated, the way teachers trained, and the way parents were empowered, shared the same spirit from a biblical foundation.
Students: every student has his own talent and should be accepted just as he is.
In the book of Mathew, Jesus told a parable of the talents. In the story, a man entrusted his money to three servants according to their abilities. As he returned, the one who received five talents gained five more, the one who received two talents gained two more, and the one with one talent did not make any. In responding to the results, the master was equally pleased with the first two who gained as much as granted, and threw the one who made no effort outside.
The story may seem strange to many because the one who gained two was treated the same as the one who gained five. However, students at Arco would have no trouble comprehending this situation because all intelligences were not discriminated in their school. God granted each of us different gifts and expects each of us to be faithful to what we have received. They were just smart in different ways and one needed to hold on faithfully to whatever was given to them.
At Arco, children were granted two stages to accomplish this vision: the stage of intelligence enhanced their capability in learning, and the stage of life developed the passion for learning. For the stage of intelligence, Arco exhibited an equal value among all different intelligences. Children at this school soon discovered that they were all treasures in the teachers’ sight.
Teachers: there were only incompetent teachers but no incapable students
As an educator who trusted multiple intelligence theory, Der-Jen Sun believed that there were only incompetent teachers but no incapable students. As a conductor who often helped players to develop their highest potential, she knew that there must be a way to reach those who need a lift, and an environment to restore those in sleep.
Teachers at Arco were not trained to teach, but to guide students’ learning. The learning environment was to be prepared before the class given so that students may stay awake at all times. In doing this, the example of creation from the book of genesis was studied by teachers in order to understand how God as a teacher: a teacher who prepared the environment before students arrived, a teacher who organized materials in a system that made sense to students and easily followed, a teacher who set examples before he asked students to operate, a teacher who evaluated his work after he performed it, a teacher who planned his work and worked his plan, a teacher who made his students into active learners, and finally, a teacher who knew how to stay focused.
Parents: It takes time to learn a skill, like parenting.
The empowering of the parents is one of the major activities at Arco. As a matter of fact, parents were the first resource to establish this school. Regular seminars were conducted to parents so that they were on the track of what students were learning at the time. There was a radio recording of 14 speeches on the topic of “how to guide a child’s learning” for prospective parents to listen and give feedback. Sun even used Biblical characters to describe the success and failure of being a parent.
Students had to apply for the certificate of pet care by going through a process of parenting experiences. Students from grades 3-6 conducted research on the topic of their pets and devoted care for their pets. Parents usually learned a great deal from their children at this period as they examined their own parenting experiences. In viewing the change of the environment and life, there was a time for everything. As is mentioned in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter3:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
Hope: to establish an alternative school 希望：另類學校提供選擇
To establish an alternative school meant to provide hopes for students who needed another option. The Arco Declaration was a solution for all the questions encountered in years in which four beliefs were proposed to establish an alternative school. In the Arco Declaration, Sun believed that education was not a matter of pouring knowledge into a student’s mind but a process of transformation in life little by little. The journey of education was to search the meaning of life by getting three keys to open the door of the future: truth, vision, and character. Without truth, life is helpless. Without vision, life is powerless. Without character, life is hopeless.
What Arco progressed in trying to become a legal private school may seem to be a small step, but the philosophy within the curriculum was a big step for educators at that time. As a Christian who looked at the success in a different perspective, Sun had come a long way. However, her devotion would not turn out a sacrifice because “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.
References
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Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1998). Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. Basic Books.
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