Why should education and learning be nurtured from childhood?

Children's learning accumulates through daily life. Beyond textbooks, they notice how adults speak and treat people. Character, right and wrong, and respect need guidance from childhood. Hands-on participation also helps what they learn stay with them.

When discussing primary school, Qian Qian only later described first-year pressures: being kept behind for an untucked shirt or an improperly placed chair, and teachers telling personal stories until crying and going past break time. She had not told me before. Moving home later brought a transfer to a forest primary school in the new district, not an earlier decision to adopt another educational system. She enjoyed small classes and remembered growing radishes, baking pizza, river tracing, and cycling. Actual participation gave her many experiences to share.

YOYO shared changing schools after moving from Taichung to Puli, adapting, making friends in different places, and writing to former classmates. Cycling downhill to school took about twenty-five minutes, but uphill home took an hour. After five years of that routine, appreciation for the fitness gained came only at university. My own junior-college experience included physical training and demanding swimming classes. Looking back, these lived experiences became our gains.

Teachers' attitudes can leave deep impressions. My junior-high Chinese teacher read and annotated my poems, discussed them, gave me poetry books, and encouraged public speaking. This affirmation encouraged more writing. Qian Qian's crafts and dance are similar: recognition of effort motivates another creation. Teaching now, I hope to pass on the support I received. Adults too need appropriate affirmation that effort has been seen.

When a child resists learning or an activity, first hear why. In my first junior-high year, I did not understand Scout activities and asked my mother. She thought a school camping activity could be skipped. Reporting this honestly brought a teacher's scolding, leaving me sad and confused, and later disliking that teacher's English classes too. Still, poor learning cannot be blamed wholly on teachers. The memory reminds parents to explore possible unknown reasons behind reluctance to attend class or take the school bus.

Understanding children also means respecting differences. Some struggle more with learning or adaptation and need assistance such as resource classes. This is no reason for mockery or the label 'problem child.' I hope adults and children recognize differences, understand difficulties and needed support, and consider how to learn alongside someone rather than applying one standard to all.

Happy learning and discovering interests do not mean omitting basic knowledge. Language and mathematics used in daily life still matter, and personality and character need cultivation too. Strong foundations and finding preferred directions can go together. Education need not concern grades alone, nor become learning nothing as long as one is happy.