Meet the excellent teachers recognized by the education ministry
Perhaps you’ve had a few teachers for whom you’re still grateful to this day. Tonight we’re meeting two teachers who have won the 2024 Ministry of Education’s National Excellent Teacher Award. One of them is Wu Hsiao-ching, a dance teacher at Taichung’s Wen-Hua Senior High School. The other is Hsieh Shih-tsung , who’s just retired as the principal of Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School. What makes them great educators is not just their knowledge or skills, but the fact that they’ve gone out of their way to help students overcome life’s challenges. Here’s our Sunday special report.
Dancers move elegantly with the music. This is a ballet rehearsal at Wen-Hua Senior High School’s dance class. The teacher Wu Hsiao-ching looks on and oversees every move — with a smile and nods, to support the students.
Wu Hsiao-ching
Wen-Hua Senior High School
Even right before they go onstage, if they turn their head back, a gaze and a nod from you would really warm their heart. They’d think, the teacher’s right behind us and supporting us, we can do this.
Wu learned ballet as a young child. Following the footsteps of her father, teaching became her vocation. She’s taught dance at Wen Hua Senior High School for almost 30 years now. For the students, she’s like a doting mother.
Wu Hsiao-ching
Wen-Hua Senior High School
I think when it comes to students, when you see a longing gaze from them, you need to immediately be able to decipher what it is that they need. So when that happens I’ll ask, “Is everything alright? Do you need to talk?” If you see them holding back tears, then something must be going on.
And the class really is like a second family. Dance students have to live in the dorms for all three years of high school. Teachers and students spend most of their hours together.
Like a mother would do, sometimes there are unexpected locker checks. She also makes sure they’re always well-dressed and put together.
Wu Hsiao-ching
Wen-Hua Senior High School
I think learning art, dance or sports is very different from conventional school subjects. It’s a bit like the master-apprentice model, so the relationship between teacher and students is quite different.
Leafing through the yearbook, Chung Pei-chin was transported back in time. Twenty years ago, she was a dance student at Wen Hua’s , and had the nickname Niu Niu. After 20 years, she’s returned to her alma mater to teach the next generation of dancers.
Wu looks on with pride as Chung leads the class. Their close relationship started 25 years ago, during the Jiji Earthquake. Chung was in her third year then. Classes were suspended in its aftermath, but Chung, whose family was in Puli could not go home. At the tender age of 18, she cried all alone in the dorms.
Wu Hsiao-ching
Wen-Hua Senior High School
She was alone. She needed me, so I thought I’d take her with me. I said to Niu Niu, “Come stay at my place, it’s not a problem. Stay as long as you want.”
Chung Pei-chin
Wen-Hua Senior High School alumnus
It’s great that she was there for me at that time. It was really heartwarming, and that’s an understatement. It was more like, I was struggling to keep my head above water, and someone extended a helping hand. She’s not just a distant lighthouse showing you the direction. She’ll actually always be there with us every step on the way.
He’s all smiles as he greets students. It’s hard to believe he’s the principal of this other school.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
The ages between 15 and 18 are a time when they have the most energy in life. As educators, our job is to ignite their passion.
Sixty-five-year-old Hsieh Shih-tsung had been a teacher for 41 years, and was the principal when he retired mid-2024. He pays extra attention to underprivileged students, having been one himself.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
I grew up in an economically underprivileged family myself. My father was a carpenter, so his income was seasonal. But registration usually falls around the Lunar New Year. So my mother had to ask relatives and neighbors to borrow money. Looking on as she heads out to do that every year during the Lunar New Year really left an impression on me.
At noon, students take out leftover school lunch. Shortly after, volunteers start packing it up storing it in the refrigerator. Instead of the food going to waste, it can now be dinner for underprivileged students. Other initiatives Hsieh introduced included organizing giveaways of secondhand school uniform and textbooks, greatly alleviating the financial burden for these students’ families.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
In my entire teaching career, I’ve been a homeroom teacher for 19 years, so I was the very first point of contact for students. As soon as they enter the classroom, just by looking at their facial expression, I’d know if there’s something on their mind.
Chang Yu-chieh, a recent graduate of Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School, lost his father this year, arguably the most crucial period of time for highschoolers.
Chang Yu-chieh
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School alumnus
I felt the most helpless when my father passed away. It was two weeks before the technical university entrance exam. My father passed away two hours after I went to see him at the hospital, so I didn’t feel like taking the exam.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
For trade students, if they’ve won in skills competitions, then they have a better chance of entering a public university. He’s participated in many competitions, so from there I went on to check on him and ask him if he needed any help.
Hsieh, who went to a trades school himself, knew just how to turn the students’ lives for the better. He helped Chang with handling his late father’s affairs, and encouraged him not to give up on skills competitions and the technical university entrance exam. With Hsieh’s mentorship, Chang pushed on.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
Children who grew up in adverse situations are more mature and determined. After results for the technical university entrance exam came out. Chang Yu-chieh had the highest score in the chemical engineering cohort. It’s really quite an achievement.
Chang Yu-chieh
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School alumnus
It wasn’t only the principal. The homeroom teacher and department head also encouraged me. I really struggled to move on then, though in some ways I still am.
At the time of recording, Chang’s father had only passed away for five months. It’s hard to imagine how much he’s gone through, yet he still got into the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, his top choice. Hsieh witnessed this just before he retired at the end of July, 2024, after 41 years as a teacher.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
He not only gave me a present when he graduated. On July 31, my last day at Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School, he came all the way from home and waited to see me at the office. It really touched my heart.
It’s often said that education is a thankless job. Sometimes even the simplest gestures of kindness could make their days.
Wu Hsiao-ching
Wen-Hua Senior High School
She makes bento boxes from scratch, and would come to the classroom to share them with me. When I think about it, I still think it’s all worth it. Even when you’re not feeling so well, the students and parents still have your back.
Chung Pei-chin
Wen-Hua Senior High School alumnus
Because of her, now as a teacher, I try to be like her, be a rock for students.
Now that she’s on the other side of the classroom, Chung can really appreciate all that a teacher does. The most important thing is to make sure no one is left behind and build every student up.
Hsieh Shih-tsung
Miaoli Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School
Perhaps to our trade students, if we give them a ladder to reach the heights of their trade, they will.
It’s the greatest feeling in the world for these teachers to see how far students can go. But it’s even better when they get to witness students’ growth no matter how long it’s been since graduation.
Wu Hsiao-ching
Wen-Hua Senior High School
If you need me, as long as you’re willing to come back, I’ll always be here. That’s all really.
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2024-11-03
