Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Michelle Lee (left), Taiwanese director and producer, speaks with Ellen Reeves, a substitute teacher in Foothill Elementary School's Technology Lab. Sui-Sun Wang is behind the camera.

Taiwanese film crew visits Saratoga to tape education

They're looking for the best the U.S. has to offer

By Cecily Barnes

Clear across the world in Taiwan, schoolchildren sit in classrooms and play on playgrounds much as kids do here. Only there, the system is strictly hierarchical; the teacher is always the boss, and the student is always the follower.

But as the 21st century approached, the Department of Education in Taiwan decided it was time to step back from its traditional system and ask the question: "Is this the best way to educate our children?"

To come up with an answer, the department teamed up with Taiwan Television Limited to commission a television crew from the company Creation to set off on a whirlwind tour of educational systems around the world. Two weeks ago, this crew touched down in the Bay Area, set up camp at the Howard Johnson's on Stevens Creek Boulevard and geared up to visit Foothill Elementary in Saratoga and other schools.

On Sept. 11, Creation's producer Michelle Lee, her brother Min and the rest of their camera crew lugged video equipment and recording devices into Foothill Elementary School.

"Facing the next century, every country wants to be better than before," said Michelle Lee, Creation's producer and director. "In Taiwan, we just started with the education reform; so, we want to get some ideas from other countries for what they do that is good and not good."

The first class the crew visited was a kindergarten class. And the nervous 5-year-olds managed to pay attention, at least a little bit, despite the pack of gawking adults with video cameras in the corner.

"The kids were great--the kids are always great," said Helen Sullivan, Foothill's principal. "They were able to continue on with their regular classroom activities without being distracted by the camera crew--pretty amazing."

The Creation crew came to Santa Clara County after a tightly scheduled filming tour in Australia and England. Once here, they kept up with their fast pace by visiting at least eight schools and five special events in a two-week period.

At Foothill, the TV crew mingled with Sullivan, trustee Cynthia Chang and Director of Special Education Louise Levy. Together the group visited classrooms, including the science lab, a fifth-grade class and the computer lab. They also sat down with Levy to hear how the Saratoga district deals with special-needs kids.

"We allow children to achieve at their own ability level," Levy said. "We have one student who goes to the middle school for math classes."

In broken English, Lee and the others asked a host of questions and listened intently to Saratoga's administrators. They watched children play, on and off the playground. And they filed away a series of ideas that, while quite ordinary to us, were to them absolutely revolutionary.

"In our country's tradition, the teacher is high, and so the student always just listen to the teacher and obey what they say," Lee explained. "[Here] they say what's good for the children is the most important thing."

The Saratoga administrators who assisted the Taiwanese crew felt honored to have taken part in the filming. And the thought of having possibly contributing to reforming the Taiwanese educational system was even better.

"I think it was a real honor for them to be at our campus and to share our educational programs with them," Sullivan said. "It was also great to ask them some questions about what's going on in other countries."

From the other end, the Taiwanese seemed pleased with what they heard and learned. The day finished about 1 p.m., and off they went to observe and gather knowledge from other schools in the area.