Calligraphy skill mandatory for Chinese teachers

Beginning this year, Chinese calligraphy writing will become a skill that teachers of Chinese in elementary and junior high schools must learn, to enable them to teach it to students, said Yang Chang-yu, director of the MOE's Department of Elementary Education.

Yang said the MOE decided to require current teachers and aspiring teachers to learn the skills of writing calligraphy because no higher education institution in Taiwan maintains a department of Chinese calligraphy or calligraphy teaching. This means few teachers know the skill, and therefore they are unable to teach it to students.

Yang said the Ministry of Education encourages local governments or schools to invite calligraphers to assist teachers in teaching calligraphy or to put their works on display in schools to help improve the students' aesthetic appreciation ability.

The education ministry will also study the possibility of making Chinese calligraphy part of the school curricula, so that students will be required to learn it, Yang said. Currently, it is not a mandatory lesson.

Before there were pencils and pens, or computers, using ink and a brush was the most common way to write Chinese characters. Calligraphy later developed into an art form. However, many people in Chinese-speaking societies nowadays do not know how to write calligraphy, although appreciation of the skill is still strong.

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

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email