Sirs,
Hwang Kwang-kuo 黃光國 criticizes the government in Taipei's education ministry for being too "romantic" and not "rational" enough. I would put it to him that it is actually he who is the romantic and the government which is rational.
He labours under the romantic delusion that the education ministry's primary function is to produce educated kids. Rather, the education ministry serves three purposes: the first is to allow politicians to bribe votes out of parents by making them promises about how they will improve their children's education and that the last guys in charge were fools; the second is to indoctrinate future adults to think that the solution to every social problem can potentially be found in the action of "authorities"; and the third is to transform the profession of teaching into a branch of welfare dependency, with teachers given tax breaks and unaffordable retirement benefits to ensure their spineless political complicity.
No, the education ministry is quite rational - they can do whatever the hell they like, so long as it gets them votes, adults unable to think outside the narrow little boxes of government "authority" drawn for them since childhood and gutless teachers who never stand up for themselves or the interests of the poor children submitted to their "care".
Hwang Kwang-kuo is the irrational romanticist, not the ministry of education.
Yours freely,
Michael Fagan.
(Sent Friday 18th June 2010. Unpublished by the Taipei Times)
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