Surprises from the Corner

In the house where Mrs. Tsai used to live, there were no barred windows. When she moved to Hualien, she still couldn’t find the ideal window for her new home. She wondered why most of the windows on the market were similar in materials and styles, and why the traditional wood lattice windows, with their beautiful patterns and fascinating structures, had disappeared.

Determined to find the ideal window, Mrs. Tsai embarked on a journey with her students. Initially, she worried it would be too complicated for them to apply design principles to their window structures. To her surprise, after a semester of art and design courses, the students had developed the ability to observe and practice effectively. They could already use cardboard to create well-structured prototypes based on these principles.

This experience made her realize the profound impact of cultivating aesthetic sensibility through practical life experiences. She saw that the children possessed infinite potential and that life is the best arena to ignite their creative power.

From her experience buying flowers, Mrs. Wang noticed that most shops didn’t offer packaging that complemented the colors of the bouquets. Often, the packaging was too colorful, detracting from the flowers’ elegance. After a semester of discussing color suitability in her art and design class, Mrs. Wang assigned a task to her students: using available materials, creating packaging that properly holds and complements the flowers. The challenge for the students was to prioritize: should they choose colors that better suit the flowers or their own color preferences?

At Chu-Jen Junior High School, every class has had its own reading corner for years. However, not every class managed to design a reading corner that met all students’ expectations. With a limited budget and most three-tiered shelves on the market being standardized, their options were restricted.

Mrs. Hsu came up with a solution. She introduced the concepts of proportion and positive/negative space to the class, asking the students to use these principles to design shelves that were both functional and decorative. The results exceeded Mrs. Hsu’s expectations. The students’ design drafts displayed remarkable creativity and diversity. Eventually, the students and Mrs. Hsu brought one of the drafts to life, successfully creating their own bookshelves.

Due to the scarcity of educational resources in the remote and rural regions of Taiwan, Mrs. Lu lectures simultaneously in three schools in Yuli, Hualien. She discovered that most of the children are from tribal communities, and their families, who rely on farming, live in harmony with the land. As a result, their lifestyle is deeply connected to the solar terms and seasonal foods.

When teaching colors to her students, Mrs. Lu creatively incorporated food into the lessons to offer a unique perspective on colors. By rearranging the colors on the dining table, she aimed to help the students discover new meanings in their local food. Through exploring seasonal colors, the children gradually realized how food enriched their lives and even revealed their true selves.