The passing of two food and agriculture experts is deeply regrettable.
Schools visited: Xiaowei Elementary School (6/8, Director Chen Baohua), Masai Elementary School (6/8, Director Hong Anzheng)
Xiaowei Elementary School has always carried out food and agriculture education activities under the guidance and support of the Wujie Township Farmers' Association. Walking onto the Xiaowei Elementary campus, it is simply an elementary school surrounded by rice paddies. However, after talking with Director Chen Baohua, I discovered that Xiaowei Elementary was entirely an object that the Farmers' Association's extension section had long actively reached out to and promoted. Their food and agriculture education had almost no effort from the school side; Director Chen only needed to cooperate with the Farmers' Association, and there were activities growing various vegetables in the greenhouse on campus. However, Xiaowei Elementary, surrounded by rice paddies, had absolutely no rice-growing related activities or courses, at most cooperating with the Farmers' Association to hold fragmentary rice-transplanting activities, or rice cooking and Dragon Boat Festival zongzi-wrapping activities, completely disconnected from their environment. Strangely, why did the Wujie Township Farmers' Association keep using Xiaowei Elementary as the long-term promotion target for rice food education? I kept pondering this in my heart.
Before visiting Masai Elementary School, I already knew that their food and agriculture education activities this year had been suspended, because the farmer who helped them passed away unexpectedly last year. It felt like there must be an important story behind this. Therefore, even though the food and agriculture education was suspended, we still visited Director Hong Anzheng of Masai Elementary School, hoping to understand the influence of this deceased farmer on the school. Director Hong led us around the already desolate plantings at the school, truly giving one a sense of inconsolable sighing. However, the sound of reading in the classrooms was still loud, and the children were still playing happily on the playground.
Orchids on the Big Tree - Teacher Zhong Maoshu
As we sat in the teachers' office, talking about the reason Masai Elementary School's food and agriculture education had stopped. Director Hong pointed at the big tree on campus and said: "Look at the orchids on that tree; they were planted with the help of Teacher Zhong Maoshu."
Zhong Maoshu was a famous organic farmer in the Yilan area, and also a pioneer of organic agriculture in Yilan. Not only that, he was also an important member of the Wuweigang Cultural and Educational Foundation, always devoted to continuing local traditions, long concerned with environmental issues, and a famous local teacher in the Su'ao, Wujie, and Luodong areas. Because he lived in Su'ao, Masai Elementary School's food and agriculture education relied entirely on Teacher Zhong's guidance.
Masai Elementary School, located on Masai Street, although a rural school, had no farmland nearby, and the school's area was also small. Therefore, what Zhong Maoshu arranged for them was a food and agriculture education curriculum based on the concept of an "edible landscape." As for the rice food education part, it was done in cooperation with the Su'ao Township Farmers' Association, holding lecture activities for fifth and sixth graders, and secondly using the winter and summer vacations to carry out activities such as rice transplanting and harvesting in coordination with the Farmers' Association's plans.
Although Masai Elementary School's food and agriculture education was suspended, as Director Hong toured the campus, one could still feel the beautiful scenery of that time. "Starting the year before last (2013), Teacher Zhong led the students to plant crops in every possible place at the school. Last year we planted mainland lettuce, chili peppers, basil, cabbage, and water spinach." "However, the things planted at the edge of the playground were quickly trampled to death by the children, while in the flower beds on the corridor walls of the second and third floors, all kinds of crops were planted." Now, these flower beds are either desolate or full of weeds; however, the three papaya trees in one flower bed on the second floor showed strong vitality.
The orchids on the campus's big tree are still gorgeous. After Teacher Zhong's passing, Masai Elementary School is looking forward to another caring person's support and dedication.