臺灣教育有那麼糟嗎？

Is Education in Taiwan as Bad as the General Public Assumed?

在一片質疑臺灣教育不如人意的氛圍中，本文作者挺身而出為臺灣教育的表現來辯護。在這篇文章中，作者先就「臺灣教育有那麼糟嗎？」這一問題做語意的分析。作者指出，對這問題的回應，並沒有人會比其他人高明或正確一些。既然這問題與其答案都非常主觀，為何還會有人關心此問題？作者臆測數類人會關心這問題，並指出這問題對他們的意義。作者接著從幾個角度，來論證臺灣的教育並不如一般人所認為的那麼糟糕。作者以他個人受教及任教的經驗，指出臺灣的各級教育都比以往來得高明；並從國際比較的觀點，主張臺灣的整體表現既然不差，做為整體一部分的臺灣教育當然也不會差。作者最後強調，從教育理念或理想來衡量當下臺灣的教育，臺灣當下的教育當然不夠理想，但反問哪一個國家的教育經得起理念或理想的檢驗？作者的結論是：我們沒有紮實的論據來說臺灣教育很糟糕；在一個世風日上，人心很古，政治民主和尊重自由人權的社會中，臺灣在各方面的表現（包括教育）都應得到很高的評價。

This article aims to argue that education in Taiwan is not as bad as the general public assumed. The author suggests at the beginning that the question of whether education in Taiwan is bad is a controversial question and has no correct answer. Under this context, the author retains that this question is still significant for people who care about education in Taiwan. In attempt to appeal to readers’ intuition of making judgments to whether the author’s arguments for his position are sound or not, the author starts from his personal experiences as both a student and a teacher. He then argues that the current education Taiwan, generally speaking, is much better than before. Following, he argues that Taiwan, as both an emergent democratic country and newly developed economy, is relatively healthier than many other countries. Given the fact that education must play an essential role for this achievement, the author then concludes that the education in Taiwan could not be as bad as how it is criticized by the general public.