“We’re here!” the taxi driver bellowed in Cantonese.
“No, we’re not. This isn’t the school we want.”
“Ah. In that case I don’t know what school you’re talking about.”
Walking through the dilapidated village in Tuen Mun (after we’d called up the school office to get directions), we began to understand why the taxi driver had been lost. There is no road to the school gates; you have to go by foot. We wove our way between the worn-looking houses and wire fences, dragging our gear up the stairs and slopes until we reached the back gate. (In the school’s defense we did find a better route later on.)
The Gaia School, or 自然學校, is a small primary school (with attached kindergarten) in a modest building on the edge of the Tai Lam Country Park. Unlike the many primary schools scattered all over Hong Kong preparing children from ages 6 to 12 for good schools and bright futures (via university), the Gaia School believes that children should never be alienated from Nature, and that kids should be allowed to discover themselves through play and interaction instead of tests and homework.
It was the first day of school, and we stood among the proud and anxious parents as the school bell rang and the 59 students gathered on the concrete court for the opening assembly. High-pitched giggles and shrieks broke out from the multi-coloured rows (although most schools in Hong Kong require their students to don uniforms, Gaia School does not) as the teachers led them through games, exercises and the singing of the school song.
During our stay in Hong Kong we were told that there has been a marked rise in a certain type of youth, known as “港孩” (directly translated as “Hong Kong Child”). The term refers to youngsters who go through the rigorous education system, fulfilling the demands of their parents and teachers, yet not knowing what to do with themselves outside of assignments, tutorials, tests and exams.
“Some of these children don’t know what to do when they are left alone with no instructions,” Hai Sing, principal of Gaia School, tells us.
As an alternative to a system which might result in “港孩”, Gaia School places emphasis on individual interests and opinions. The children are encouraged to make up their own minds on things, and come to their own decisions. When there are disagreements, they talk it out before their teachers and peers, and vote on it. It may sound over-ambitious for a school of 6 to 12-year-olds, but it appears to work.
At lunchtime, the students are expected to get their own cutlery and bowls, and to wash them before and after the meal. In keeping with the all-natural, slightly hippie feel of the school, the meals are always vegetarian; food that Jamie Oliver would give his left arm for, if only British schoolkids would eat them. And while the Naked Chef almost had a mini-revolution on his hands just because he tried to take away the children’s chips, the students of Gaia School tucked into their brown rice and veggies with gusto (and so did we).
The families of the children at Gaia School are clearly just a little bit different, with the parents deciding not to subscribe to the mainstream system of schooling and drilling, but to send their children to a school that doesn’t place the emphasis on academia. The school also doesn’t believe in scoldings and punishment, preferring to use reason and community work (i.e. cleaning up the school, etc.) to impart values.
Interestingly, though, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Gaia School students get overwhelmed when they have to leave for secondary school (which is, apparently, where the stress levels get really pumped up). One of their ex-students ended up as the top student of her year in her new school, and impressed everyone with how well she knew her own mind at the age of 12/13.
I’m sure that if we look closer, we could probably find a lot of areas in which Gaia School could improve upon. I’m also sure that their philosophy and system of education will not appeal to a large number of parents. It is, after all, a highly-competitive society in Hong Kong, and not all parents are willing to trust so much of their child’s development to time and fate. Furthermore, not all children can be that responsible, motivated and well-adjusted to do well in a school like Gaia.
But on that one day we were there I was, for the first time, able to forget that I was in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, a city where everyone is always in a hurry, and everything is a competition. And in that day I could just relax and hang in the background, observing the kids. Kids running around, squealing and screaming, playing games and laughing in a school on the edge of a park, being just kids – for now.
