My wife and I experienced something special while were on vacation in the U.S. in July. This experience was actually two experiences, beginning when my wife visited the University of Pennsylvania. There she was amazed by the quality of “Penn,” with its outstanding facilities, beautiful classical buildings, a ranking of #5 in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report, the world-famous Wharton School of Business and all the other plentiful resources at the school. A few weeks later, at Stanford University (also ranked #5 in the U.S.) we were given a tour of the campus, and at the end of our tour the cheerful student said to us enthusiastically, “I’m happy! I am a sophomore, and that means I have three more years at this magnificent school.” Overall, I was reminded of the excellence of the college system in the United States. More specifically, I thought how lucky this student was to feel this pride and joy in attending his school. Then I thought about Taiwan, and I asked myself, “Could we feel this way about our schools and educational system?” I even asked some of my students at a local adult language school if they had ever felt anything like this feeling when they were in college in Taiwan. They all laughed and said no they hadn’t.
And so I pose the question to my colleagues at NTCB: Is there some way we could create some small manner of this feeling of pride and enthusiasm in our school? Looking around our school, frankly, it’s hard to imagine. Even now our campus does not have anything like a beautiful, belletristic campus feeling. I want our campus to be a picturesque college campus, and I dream that one day that may be possible, encouraging students to study and learn in a peaceful environment specifically aimed at studious scholarship and research. Can that happen here? I feel that it will take an immense effort to achieve this. And even further, we teachers must commit ourselves to a level of excellence that will be extremely demanding, as we aim for a new excellence and innovative thinking. Most importantly, we must instill a feeling of pride that we are doing our level best to achieve more and to give our students the most we possibly can. If we do this, it will bring out the best in what students here can achieve. This is all a dream I have, and it is a dream I intend to pursue in the coming semester, and every semester thereafter.
With these thoughts in mind, I even went so far as to tell my adult students at the local language school, “Let’s do it. Let’s adopt this attitude and make our class the best it can be, the highest level. We will bring Stanford to our school.” They all laughed but said “Okay, let’s do it.” And so that is what we are trying to do, focusing on that goal, engendering that pride, encouraging that level of achievement (and I have already seen them rising to the challenge). I will do the same in my classes at NTCB this semester. I think the potential pride is there, and we only need to encourage it. For my part, I launched a book drive to donate books to our library in December, and I collected quite a good number.
And so again I ask my colleagues: Are we ready, willing, and able? I hope we all are. Yes, I have big dreams, and big hopes. But at best I have a positive attitude about people and students and life and education, and I want these positive feelings to grow. I want the best, for everyone at our school. Thank you.