interview with Ching-Wen Chang, Principal of Zhong Keng Elementary School, Taichung
I walked into Zhong Keng Elementary School in Taichung City’s Heping District on a warm winter afternoon. There were no sounds of students reciting lessons on the quiet campus—all that could be heard was the wind blowing on treetops.
In such stillness, it wouldn’t be unusual for one to think the students are sleeping. Peering through a clean and clear window pane on the first floor, I saw children in the middle and lower grades concentrating on completing the tasks at hand.
They were orderly and relaxed, an utterly captivating sight of one of the nation’s first public Montessori experimental elementary schools.
The decision from Jena Plan to Montessori
Inspired by the beauty of the Montessori concept, principal Ching-Wen Chang says she hopes that teachers will no longer have to walk the road of educational transformation alone thanks to the professional development and support provided by TMEC’s Accessible Montessori Program.
Before switching to Montessori in 2020, Zhong Keng was already an experimental elementary school, which followed the Jena Plan educational system and adopted mixed-age teaching.
However, it was relatively difficult to grasp Jena Plan’s core spirit. Most instructors had to rely on personal experience alone to resolve challenges of teaching students at varying levels.
"We didn’t completely understand the Jena concept. We were mixing ages just for the sake of mixing ages,” said Zhong Keng principal Ching-Wen Chang, who took office in 2019.
Seeing the teachers’ and students’ predicament, Ms. Chang wondered whether change was possible. Her internal voices must have been heard, for an opportunity soon appeared.
Proactive and conscientious, Ms. Chang was studying Adler's positive psychology when the school was about to apply for a continuation plan that required them to delineate their education philosophy.
Seeking advice, she consequently spoke with Professor Tung-Lian Cheng of National Chengchi University.
After reading Montessori Today, a book the professor had recommended, she was moved by the Montessori approach to education. "This beautiful concept is worth trying," she said.
Never one to sit idle, the principal immediately packed her bags and travelled with a colleague to Taipei, paying their own way, to attend “Montessori Education in Public Schools,” an experiential camp hosted jointly by the Y2 Foundation for Future Education and the National Chengchi University—Taiwan Montessori Education Center (TMEC) in August 2020.
They also attended “Accessible Montessori Education Program,” a seminar that explained its application process. Ms. Chang continued to hold discussions with teachers, parents, and scholars, working hard on weekends and holidays to draw up a plan. The school passed the preliminary review in September of the same year.
Empowering parents to be strategic partners in change
The school’s parent association and volunteer group played a key role in bridging Zhong Keng’s smooth transition to Montessori education.
The law of attraction worked its magic at Zhong Keng. The "Accessible Montessori Education Program" cultivated a new direction for the school. No more would the teachers vacillate between traditional and experimental methods.
More importantly, TMEC provided the teachers with professional training and support so they would no longer feel isolated or hesitant in the practice of their profession.
Change takes a commitment to teamwork and planning. Despite Ms. Chang’s enthusiasm, transitioning to Montessori education was no simple matter. It meant re-empowering teachers and spending more time training them.
Moreover, teachers also needed to change their attitudes and values. They also need to effectively communicate with parents; none of these changes came easy.
How was all this to be done? After much thought, Ms. Chang approached it from two angles. First, she sought out parents supportive of the concept, with whom she shared Montessori’s educational philosophy.
She also explained the changes it might bring to the children and what adjustments teachers would have to make. After obtaining the parents' association’s approval, a LINE group was formed, and the association president and other members assisted the school in communicating with all parents in answering their questions.
The parent group's efforts smoothed the transition from Jena Plan to Montessori. "We helped the school provide answers to some preliminary questions, which allowed teachers to focus themselves on improving their teaching methods,” said Guan-Yin Liu, the vice president of the parents’ association.
How would the school assure parents? Ms. Chang believes that: “Children’s changing behaviors is the best way to convince parents.” When children no longer say profanity, run out of class for no reason, and proactively asks questions and tries to find answers when they go home from school…all these seemingly minor changes gradually convince parents to feel at ease to leave their children’s education to the teachers.
Not only did new students enroll in the school, there are parents, who drive 40km daily to send their child to Zhong Keng. Currently, the lower elementary class is at full capacity of 30 students, which is an all time high for the school.
Moreover, Zhong Keng’s Facebook posts give parents peeks into their children’s school lives. Ms. Chang believes in the concept that "the best ideas need to be disseminated."
Using Facebook to document and share the results of Montessori education is an open and transparent way to relieve any concerns parents might have.
Parents' True Confessions
The importance of Zhong Keng parents for the school’s successful transition to a Montessori educational program cannot be overstated. Countless parental concerns needed to be discussed: "Why do you want to transform the school? What will happen after the transition to Montessori? How will it impact will the children?"
Zhong Keng Experimental Primary School’s parents' association and the volunteer group were crucial for bridging the gap between the parents’ concerns and the school’s objectives, reducing considerably the time administrators would have had to spend answering parents' questions individually.
Parents’ association head Sheng-Hung Liao is a Zhong Keng local opposed to the idea of rote learning. He bases this attitude on trust and letting go. He notes how traditional learning relied on repetition and drilling, whereas Montessori education uses cross-subject projects for learning.
More importantly, Montessori schools empower children to find solutions on their own. “When we don’t have an answer to our children’s questions, they will go to their teachers for help or learn to solve them on their own. Parents need to be patient and let it play out,” Liao says and then suggests with a smile that we also need to remind grandparents from time to time to be hands off on academic learning but keep their eyes on their grandchildren’s behavior.
Zhong Keng Parents’ association’s vice president Guan-Yin Liu, whose children were recipients of Waldorf kindergarten education, notes: "In experimental education, parents must be willing to give up drilling and repetition and let their children educate them."
Because the Montessori teacher's materials and methodologies are entirely different from how the parents learned in school, mothers and fathers become very anxious when faced with this new approach. Guan-Yin Liu believes in the need for them “to have trust in both the school and the teacher."
Even though the initial transition from Jena Plan to Montessori was a bit chaotic, Principal Chang, nevertheless, still set aside considerable time and is dedicated to communicate the process to the parents: “They just want to see the changes Montessori education can bring their children and hope that experimental education is not an experiment on their children.”
Parents’ association’s vice-president Tsui-Ying Hung stresses that parents need to have faith in the school's professionalism, even if parents sometimes do not understand how the curriculum is organized.
For instance, a first-grade material was covered one week, but switched to a second-grade material the following week. It is only after seeing how their children became more immersed in the material did parents realize the teacher’s intent. The parent group ultimately decided it be best to "go with the flow" and refrain from interfering with the methods or progress of teaching.
>> Zhong Keng Elementary School: Emerging Metamorphosis (2-2)
Written by Yu-Hsiu Su
Images provided by Zhong Keng Elementary School
Translators: Robert Fox, Jen Hsu／Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation, NTNU