There is a reason behind founding a great school like ones in the States or Canada. As a father of three children educated abroad, I managed to give them the best. In return they have all succeeded in receiving the best education in the medical science and architecture fields. The dedication and time spent on them is priceless. In spite of my family’s good outcome, however, not everyone is so fortunate. I have seen other children who could not resist various temptations, and sadly they ended up joining gangs or getting involved in drugs. Thus, sending children abroad without having someone watch over them is not always the best upbringing for them. 

I have always been interested in approaching this problem from another angle: rather than sending our children overseas, why not bring the type of education from the States or Canada here to Taiwan? It has been two decades since my own children started their Western education. Over these past twenty years, I have seen a number of excellent schools which have focused on providing great learning environments that were loving, encouraging, intriguing, and supporting. Students in these types of environments learned not only to help, care, lead, and work together, but also had better perseverance and were more intellectually curious. Besides basic education, the schools also provide both indoor and outdoor activities to help children develop physical and mental strength. Additionally, they also made efforts to give children exposure to music and the arts. Ultimately, their goal was to develop students who were independent thinkers, intellectually curious, and globally competitive. 

The children here in Taiwan have immense potential, and they should be given the same opportunity to be educated under these principles. For those that go abroad to seek such an education, the biggest problem facing them is the inability of parents to spend enough time with their children, which often leads to larger problems for these families over time. On the other hand, if we could provide as good of an education here in our own country – a full bilingual K-12 program which combines the best of Western educational principles with our own Chinese educational philosophy which has been developed over the past five thousand years – I believe that we would be providing our children with the opportunity to learn the best of both cultures. As a result, regardless of whether they decide in the future to remain in Taiwan or to pursue careers abroad, they will have the bilingual skills to be highly competitive in any part of the world. 

The purpose of a hospital is to save lives and alleviate pain; the mission of a good school is to influence futures and create aspirations, not only in individual children but for entire families. My hope is to create such a school here in my home town, where children can have the best possible learning environment, filled with love, encouragement, and inspiration with which to grow and develop. It is a school which not only combines the best of Western and Eastern cultures, but also allows families to remain intact while their children are pursuing this education. This way, both students and their families will be able to have the best of both worlds.