Ministers stress importance of life education for students

Education Minister Wu Ching-chi hoped to bring out students' respect for life through life education. When Wu previously served as director at Taipei City's Education Department, he asked the Taipei City Zoo to open for mourning when elephant Lin Wang died from heart failure in 2003, said Wu. The education minister cited the mourning for Lin Wang as perfect teaching material.

Tzeng, a former education minister, said life experience can serve as educational material to make sure children clearly distinguish reality from virtual life.

Tzeng said his son led a life completely in front of a computer and, therefore, had ignored real life. His son and classmates once drew a chicken with six feet, but not in a creative way. They saw in supermarkets that six chicken legs were put in the same package, which led them to believe the six legs came from one chicken, said Tzeng.

Life education was brought into elementary school and junior high school curriculums in 2001, but the suicide rate among students had slightly increased.

Huang Ya-wen, a professor from National Taipei University of Education, explained that education requires long-term efforts. She believes that inspiring stories could be helpful. Instead of writing down their reflections as an assignment, students could think about the idea of life through performances or sharing with peers.

Huang also pointed out that life education could be more than merely emotional. She suggested students divide ideas into six colors: white for truth, red for feeling, black for criticism, yellow for appreciation, green for thoughts and blue for synthesis of ideas. Huang encouraged teachers to employ the six colors and focus on story ideas.

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