Students struggling for positive identity, foreigner says

“Taiwan exists in international limbo. Yet one has to make comparisons and contrasts. Research Taiwan — Don’t just wing it!” He admonished. “Develop confidence about Taiwan.”

“Draw a map of the world on the whiteboard, color in the once British empire and tell the students about countries that have declared independence,” he suggests. “For a child the answers are easy — a people should be able to play by their own rules and do business with whom they like, without having to pay a foreigner to do it!”

Is this a hot topic to students? Absolutely, Kenneger replied. “Use questions like ‘Is Taiwan, China or Taiwan? Are they the same country? Did Chinese people come to Taiwan and build many new things? Did English people go to America and build many new things? Is America a country? Should Taiwan, be Taiwan or China? Get their attention — as so many teachers don’t — and be Socratic,” he recommended.

When asked how he sees his role when teaching such complicated concepts, he said, “I’m a facilitator and illustrator,” adding that he has taken an informal poll of his students and their parents by asking them how they feel about Taiwan as a country, and in relation to China and America.

“I am told that China is a bully and America can’t be trusted,” Kenneger says. “In a self-defeatist voice my student Andrew said, “We are too small.” But Kenneger considers this as describing Taiwan as small in a bad way; in his view, “small is good.”

“Nobody has told them that Taiwan’s economy is the world’s 22th largest and that Taiwan has the world’s fourth largest foreign exchange reserves — US$265 billion,” he notes. “Socially, the lack of crime and drug abuse and quality of medical care make Taiwan superior to the U.S. Yet the children feel that Taiwan is not good enough. Johnny once asked, ‘Why do only poor countries want to be friends with us?’”

“Regardless of how much Taiwan deserves to be part of the U.N.,” he continued, “the world will not accept Taiwan. So some students feel small.”

Kenneger also said that a student of his, Julia, once asked him, “Why can’t Taiwan go to the ‘swimming pool of countries’ (as he described the U.N.). Have we been naughty?”

“It is important for children to have a firm sense of national pride,” he stressed. “My student Mathew said, ‘I want to be American.’ A child practically denying his beginnings is a sad start,” he declared.

How can teachers help students raise Taiwanese students’ sense of positive identity? “Of course,” Kenneger said, “Teaching is not a ‘gig.’ A teacher should live in the student’s growth. I’m able to inform them of facts to be proud of. Compared to Athens or L.A. the air in Taipei is cleaner. Taipei is definitely much safer than any major U.S. city!”

Kenneger concluded by saying that children are struggling for positive identity reinforcements, and they need to be more often reminded of Taiwan’s many achievements.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email