***Collaborative care, solving education problems. The day we walked into the Mali Guang tribe, the weather was cloudy and rainy.

The Zhishan Foundation's car drove around the winding mountain road for 2 hours, passing many tribes along the way, but they were separated by several bends.

For the children here, going down the mountain to go to school is almost equivalent to living in school; for many intergenerational families in the back mountains of Hsinchu, the emergence of tribal childcare centers is like a dawn, solving many problems of preschool care and education.

Intergenerational Education Story 6 Children in the Back Mountain At 10 o'clock in the morning, the children over 2 years old gathered around the teacher in high spirits, pointing to the fruits in the book and naming them.

A classroom with two spaces separated by wall cabinets.

When it's time to play with toys, the children sit on the chairs obediently and wait for the teacher to give them building blocks.

A plastic basket about the size of a folder contains donated plastic building blocks; the teacher said that because there are not many, they can only temporarily distribute them to children to play with, otherwise two-year-olds will easily quarrel over the toys.

The older children on the other side started art activities at this time. The same plastic basket contained some pens and placed them in the center of the table. The children chose the utensils they needed.

What can be felt is that although material supply resources are relatively scarce, the interaction between teachers and students here provides children with full spiritual comfort.

Those who are still wearing diapers are in another classroom.

When I greeted this group of children, it was said that I just missed the busy diaper changing period, and the children were playing quietly with their toys.

There are more than 20 students in the center, most of whom come from intergenerational families.

Pastor Mooney, director of Multi-Generation Education Home, said that intergenerational separation is mainly due to parents working in other places, or underage children and parents getting divorced. Therefore, the proportion of children being entrusted to grandparents or grandparents is increasing.

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"Most tribal parents choose to work in cities in order to improve their family's financial capabilities. If they send their children to private daycare, the cost is also a heavy burden. Therefore, there are many examples of parents and children being separated in two places and raising children across generations," Pastor Munni said.

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In addition, most of Mali Guangli’s grandparents are engaged in agriculture; when the farming season is busy, sometimes they have to take their young children to work in the fields regardless of the weather.

In order to take care of their children, single parents often have no choice but to work part-time jobs in the tribe, leaving little time to pay attention to their children's preschool upbringing.

"Children here cannot choose their own environment. As long as there is a place to go, they are happy...Compared with urban children, they are easier to be satisfied." In addition to the above reasons, terrain and traffic factors also affect tribal preschools.

Development of education.

The Maliguang tribe is located in Yufeng Village, Jianshi Township, Hsinchu County, on both sides of the upper reaches of the Dahan River. In Atayal, "Mrqwang" (Mrqwang) means water source and river.

The height of the tribe is about 800 meters above sea level. Due to the influence of terrain, the houses are mainly scattered, with only 2 or 3 households in each settlement.

Because they live in such scattered places, the distance is inconvenient, which also greatly affects the schooling situation of their children.

Before the Mariguang Child Care Center was established, the only rural nursery was 2 to 3 hours' drive away from the tribe, and it would take 4 to 6 hours to get back and forth every day.

In addition, mountain roads occasionally encounter thick fog or rainy season, making it more difficult to pass. Therefore, whether it is in terms of safety, fuel resources, or manpower, sending children to rural nurseries is not an option. However, the need for preschool education cannot be ignored.

"If preschool children are not well taken care of, there will be another problem when they come to elementary schools in the future." Pastor Mooney said.

Also because of its remote location, Yamashita Public School has a high teacher turnover rate.

Most of the teachers (mostly substitute teachers) are out-of-towners assigned to the school, and they often apply for transfer when time is up.

The younger the children, the more they need a stable environment; but for children in mountainous areas, teachers change almost every year.

From a professional teaching perspective, the stability of teachers will definitely affect the quality of teaching, because good teaching must start with understanding the students; if the replacement rate is too high, the teacher's understanding of the children is likely to be insufficient.

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Establishing a tribal care center Pastor Mooney discovered from his own children’s experience that early childhood education has a great impact on children’s learning motivation in the future.

With the spirit of recommending himself to others, the pastor extends the important and successful experience of early childhood education from his own family to the church, and then from the church to the tribe.

Under the auspices of the Zhishan Foundation, the "Mariguang Child Care Center" was established.

The spirit of the child care center originates from the tribal childcare model of mutual care.

Pastor Munni said that in the past Atayal society, it was a good tradition to "educate children together", but later due to the influence of external culture, it changed from "your family's business is my family's business" to

"Every family has sutras that are difficult to recite" and kept silent.

Now the tribal care center has brought back the previous model of independent child care, and they have a tacit understanding to help each other take care of children during the busy farming season, so that the caregivers can concentrate on their work and the children can receive good care.

"Fellow care and common sharing are the concepts of tribal students: parents share the fruits and vegetables they grow and feed them back to kindergarten teachers and students. Under the protection and care of their children, parents not only

You can feel reassured and full of participation," Pastor Mooney added.