Education

Things have been quiet recently post-Lunar New Year holiday, and will continue to be so until next month when financial stability hopefully resumes in the Kaminoge household. One thing we did do this past week was to check out a local preschool. Now that Amber is three, the time may be right to broaden her horizons, and give her a chance to make some friends and playmates. The place we visited wasn't much to look at architecturally speaking, but the grounds did have a lot of plants, bushes and small trees to offset the concrete and corrugated metal.

More importantly, the program (for the youngest ones, anyway) seemed more like an American day care center and less like an Asian cram school. I want Amber to learn things, of course, but at the same time, I want her to have plenty of time to play outside and with other children her age, and to have fun. The last thing I want is to turn my daughter into a "super child", spending her all time at cram schools in preparation for getting into "good" schools, a "good" job and, eventually, finding a "good" husband. Whether or not Amber attends this (or any other) school until the age of compulsory education will depend on my wife finding a part-time job that would be able to pay for the registration and tuition costs.

While Pamela is enthusiastic about sending Amber to school, my feelings are mixed. I want her to have friends and learn about the outside world, but I wish it were someplace other than Taiwan. Should Amber start school, it would mean we would have less time together. As it is, I don't see her as often as I would like due to work, but at least we have almost all of our meals together, which is an important time to talk. It would also mean putting her more into a Chinese-language environment. Although the school we visited offers English lessons, Amber's language requirements are much different than those of her peers (though I have trouble getting my wife to understand this). I'm the only native English speaker she is exposed to, so I'm concerned as to what affect attending a school would have on her progress in English. Then there is the socialization factor. Once Amber starts on the Taiwanese education track, what would be the influence on her ways of thinking, and on her outlook on life? I would like my daughter to be an American who is proud of her Taiwanese heritage, but the longer we stay here, and the longer Amber goes to school here, raise the risk that she will develop into a Taiwanese who happens to have a foreign parent (of course, there is also the question of whether she will treated the same as any other kid or if she will be constantly reminded that is "different" from the others). Will I be "losing" my daughter in the long run?

Perhaps I'm worrying too much. I suppose once Amber starts school, we could do things to ensure the household is a mainly-English environment in order to maintain a language and cultural balance. And of course we could just leave Taiwan and move to the U.S. (though I'm afraid to do so without some idea of what I could do and where we would live there). Whatever happens, I don't want my child to go through the pressures and stresses that many Taiwanese parents place on their kids (whether or not my Taiwanese wife goes along with this will be another story!).

My little girl is, sniff, starting to grow up. Is it happening all too quickly?