My introduction to Duo Duo kindergarten was an indirect one. About eight years back I used to go to a weekend get together where a group of spiritual minded people used to practice meditation. That was where I first met Mr. Liu Jia Yi. We got to know each other better in those weekend congregations. During one of these talks with him, he mentioned that he runs a kindergarten and invited me to visit him at his school in my leisure time. After a long time, I did just that.
I was pleasantly surprised to see his school. It was the first kindergarten that actually used a green yard as a part of its daily activities, unlike many kindergartens that maintain nice garden just for the sake of decoration. Seeing kids running around in the school was a relaxing feeling. There was a certain relaxed feeling about the school.
Every once in a while Mr. Liu Jia Yi would disappear from the weekend congregation, and upon his return in the following week, he would tell us that he was travelling to Canada or Austria or to Japan or somewhere in Taiwan. I was glad to hear from him that, every country he visited, he also went to visit a kindergarten or two, to learn from their system and see if he could bring something nice, home to his kids and school. That showed that this man, unlike many other, is an open minded person.
After some time I got the offer to teach in his school. By then I already had experience in teaching some good schools in Kang Shan and Qiao Tou area. I had also taught in some kindergartens. Teaching in Duo Duo was a different experience. From what I understood was- in other kindergartens, the principals were always giving pressure and stress to the teachers and they passed on this stress and negative energy to the kids. The teachers in other schools would often shout at the kids and verbally abuse them. But this wasn’t the case in Duo Duo. Here the atmosphere was much relaxed. The student-teacher ratio was also better. The classrooms were not overcrowded and kids seem to be in much better condition.
After a while I had gotten married and consequently had left Taiwan, but not for too long. When my daughter was almost two years old we came back to Taiwan. Those days we were looking for a day-care for her and we went to every other kindergarten in Kang-Shan. And needless to say, not much had changed in any of those kindergartens. Finally it was time to try Duo Duo. My wife, Susan and I were both happy to see that much of the system that I had seen before was still intact and so we decided to choose Duo Duo for our daughter. Mr. Liu was very kind and adjusting, to let us spend about a month with our daughter in the classroom. She needed that time because she was too young and there was a big change in everything around her. The people, the language, the food and everything about life was different. There was this wonderful teacher- Ms. Kei Fa, who was a great teacher and our daughter Aisa got used to her easily. I wish she was still a teacher at Duo Duo.
Time passed by and our daughter, Aisa grew up learning a lot of skills. I am especially thankful to the school for using so many different types of art and creative media in education. Aisa took deep interest in all these creative work and she is very good at it. At home too she keeps drawing, making crafts that she learned at her school. Duo Duo doesn’t push kids to cram too much, and I think it is good for kids to take it easy at this stage.
Until now what I have written is all positive, and many readers may think perhaps I am being paid to write an advertisement column for Duo Duo. So let me be fair by bringing out issues where I think Duo Duo can improve.
I think physical education or just letting kids play more during the day and in the evening would be wonderful for the kids. But I know many parents may disagree. But I would expect Mr. Liu to use his experience and opinion to convince parents that good physical development leads to good mental development. So playing for kids is very important. Playing together is the time when kids learn social skills, problem solving, team work and social manners and responsibility. We should not take away this free tool from them and make them socially inept book worms. Lastly I can’t think of any logic or excuse that could convince either the school-management or the parents to think that “kids not playing out in the fresh air” is OK.
Besides I would personally persuade the school to recycle a lot of material that they use. The plastic folders, the register books etc could be all reused, if not to save a lot of money for parents, but just to be environmentally friendly. Duo Duo could also help the environment by using less paper.
Over all I think the philosophy of Mr. Liu is nice and I am confident that he is taking Duo Duo in the right direction. Duo Duo is also most likely be the kindergarten of our choice for our second child in future.
圖/文 Aisa爸爸
I agree with Aisa's Dad. Kids really need to play more during the day and have more physical education. Duo Duo provides a great environment for kids which you hardly find in Taiwan. The huge green yard and the tree are so beautiful.
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