Small Board Games, Big Dreams

Due to the scarcity of educational resources in the remote and rural regions of Taiwan, Mrs. Lu simultaneously lectures in three schools in Yuli, Hualien. She found most of the children were from tribes, and their families living from farming lived in symbiosis with the land. Therefore, their lifestyle was strongly connected to solar terms and seasonal food. When teaching colors to the students, Mrs. Lu managed to bring food into the class to provide a different perspective on colors. By rearrange the colors on the dinning table, the lesson attempted to help the students to discover new significances of local food. During the process of exploring colors in season, the kids gradually realized how food colored their life and even showed their true colors.

There wasn’t any barred window in the house where Mrs. Tsai used to live. When she moved to Hualien, Mrs. Tsai still couldn’t find an ideal window for her own house. She wondered why most of the windows on the market are with similar materials and styles. Why did the traditional wood lattice windows, which are with beautiful patterns and fascinating structures, disappear? Therefore, she embarked on a journey of finding the ideal window with the students. At first, Mrs. Tsai worried it would be too complicated for them to apply the design principles to their design of the structure. To her surprise, after a semester of art and design courses, the students had developed the competence to observe and practice. They already could use cardboard to create a well-structured prototype with the principles. It made her believe that cultivating aesthetic sensibility through practices in life was profound. The children were endowed with infinite potential, and life is the best field to trigger their creative power.

The art and design course of Jinhua Junior High School, Kang-Ching-Lung Streets Project, were developed by all the art teachers in the school. To take a closer look at where they live, the teachers and the students walked out of the classroom, planned the routes for exploration, and conducted field studies in the neighborhood around campus. By wandering on the streets, observing and recording various architectures built in different ages, they were impressed with the findings: there were so many different styles, forms and textures of buildings on the streets. Back in school, they moved forward to discuss the suitability of materials and tried to find a better replacement for the buildings. Slowing down the pace and paying more attention to the details on the way to school, the students were amazed at what had been overlooked by them before.

An elder from the tribe was invited to give a lecture in Mr. Liu’s class. When he talked about the young and old generations in the tribe, he was sad to tell that there had been a cultural gap between the two. Mr. Liu thus decided to revive the tribal tradition of making tree bark clothes, helping the students to understand their own culture. The lesson led the kids to learn the knowledge of trees and understand why people needed to make tree bark clothes in the old times. They practically experienced how to soften tree bark, and used the local materials and techniques to make items that can fit contemporary needs. To pass on the aboriginal culture, the lesson revealed the lifestyle of the tribes and presented the wisdom of ancestors taking good advantage of natural materials from daily life. And it also encouraged the kids to keep discovering new possibilities within traditional craftsmanship.