School Founding Story

Written in 2014, revised in 2021

In 1998, my wife Bailu took a teacher training class organized by the "Natural School" and said that she would sign up for it. At that time, I had been teaching in a village school for two years, and I had never heard of alternative schools in Hong Kong, so I daringly signed up to see who they were and what they were doing. As a result, I not only became an activity instructor, but also an officer.

Later, in the lobby of the train station, I talked to Gu Feng (later Yi Ye, Zhiqiu, and Tian Niao today) about the dream of alternative education, and then I learned that the Nature Association (then called Nature School) was founded to run a school. So in the year of the millennium, during a late-night snack after a firefly event, a few young people, in a food stall, enthusiastically said that they would set up an alternative school in Hong Kong to be a pioneer in alternative education, and named it the "Firefly Academy" to show determination.

Experiment Course

During the summer vacation of that year, a summer camp called "Firefly Academy" was organized. It was held in a camp on Lantau for four days and three nights. For the first time, the elective subject was added, called "Natural Kaleidoscope", for students to choose by themselves. At that time, I put the elements of mathematics teaching into the activity design of the natural kaleidoscope.

Afterwards, we host the Summer Firefly Academy (Yingyuan) every year, with the aim of experimenting with the possibility of various alternative educations and absorbing experience before the establishment of the school. In addition, I also hope to gather friends and parents who are interested in alternative education to work together in the direction of running a school.

Over the years, Yingyuan has continuously added various new elements, hoping to become an experiment similar to an alternative school, and teachers can learn from experience. So, the second Yingyuan, joined the life court; the third cooperated with a village school, allowing the students of the school to participate, join the main subject study, design and arrange, more like a school. The fourth session began to borrow Sheung Shui No. 1 Village School to hold the longest firefly garden in history for three weeks, and joined the life conference for the first time. The fifth and sixth editions were held in the same year, at Easter and summer break, respectively, in the two target village school premises. Later, the Nature School did not use the "Firefly Academy", but it became a must-have summer activity held by the school every year, so that students from mainstream schools could have a happy and free summer vacation. In addition to Ying Yuan, in 2007, a pilot activity combining natural kaleidoscope and subject-themed learning, called "Forest Classroom", was held every Saturday for eight weeks.

We have also held experimental courses that combine nature and subject education, such as the Seed Tour Club of Chinese Poetry Writing, Natural Mathematics Tour of Mathematics, Naturalist of Nature Observation, Nature Walk of Applied Dialogue Teaching, Ocarina of Music This activity enriches our experience in teaching the combination of nature and subjects, which is unforgettable to this day.

The experimental course not only allows us to experiment with many alternative education schemes and understand how natural elements are incorporated into subject teaching, the result enriches teachers' teaching experience and proves that free and open nature education is feasible. In addition, it has also attracted the support of a group of parents. Many students and parents of Yingyuan and Forest classrooms have become part of the founding of the school.

miss camp

The miss camp is the place where the school's philosophy takes shape, and it is a time for our thoughts to stir. We read books on alternative education in other places and discuss the development of humanism. The philosophy, educational goals, curriculum framework, practical direction of life education, characteristics of teachers, campus planning, etc., are mostly discussed there. In the early days of the founding of the school, a total of five to six camps were held. The first camp was held in the summer vacation of 2003 at the Breakthrough Youth Village for three days and two nights. Four people participated, three of whom were Zhiqiu. , starfish and egret. The first, and possibly the most important one, because that time established the future participation of the three core members, the basic elements of the school's philosophy and curriculum, and set a three-year action direction, including a reading list to deepen the concept, Visiting special-style and Taiwan-style primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, continuing to hold summer firefly gardens, initial preparations for construction, and finding suitable school buildings, etc.

foreign exchange

The first Taiwan exchange was not for the establishment of a school, but it may be the most important time for the establishment of a school. Why? In 2002, I read Ou Jifu's book titled "Ten Years of the Yanliao Contest for Land". I felt that it was in line with my school's philosophy, and I suggested to visit Ou eldest brother one by one. As a result, during the summer vacation of the same year, the officers of the Nature Association went there together. . That year, we received a warm reception from the elder brother of the district and led us to practice a simple life. The life of three days and two nights has made us more aware that material life is not the most important thing. To be rich in spirit and have the ambition to pursue dreams is the greatest happiness in life. Therefore, the concept of simplicity and happiness has become one of the core values of the school. The practice of simple life, coupled with patient waiting, allows us to achieve success despite the lack of funds. Therefore, this exchange activity can be said to be the driving force for our efforts to run the school. We have been in constant contact with our eldest brother, and later became the school manager of our own school. From time to time, we came to our school to teach students and parents, and strived to promote our own school's philosophy of simple life.

The second exchange was in 2004, called "Dream-seeking Journey". Our group of more than ten people, including teachers, parents and supportive friends, went to Taiwan to visit alternative schools and groups. The list included Seed Academy, Whole Person Middle School, Jian'an Elementary School, Hushan Elementary School, Hutian Elementary School, and Beitou Community , Jiuge Culture and Education Foundation and Wilderness Conservation Association. This exchange is also very important, so we can directly experience the face of an alternative school, the extraordinary bearing of the teachers, see different alternative education practice models, and get to know Li Yaqing, the founder of Seed Academy, and Li Chongjian, the Chinese teacher of the Whole Person Middle School. In 2005 and 2006, he invited them to come to Hong Kong respectively, so that Hong Kong parents and teachers could learn about alternative education.

The third exchange was in 2005, called "Journey to Star The younger Bingtian was dissatisfied with his mentor Hainiao and his good friend Xuedi, so he ate first at lunch at the Yage Cultural and Educational Foundation. So Bingtian decided to sue them, and we also accepted his complaint, elected a judge immediately, and held the only foreign court so far in a hotel room in Hualien. While visiting the alternative education school, we also conducted alternative life education, which echoed each other and found it interesting and unforgettable. During that trip, we visited Li Yaqing, founder of Seed Academy, Forest Primary School, Yage Cultural and Educational Foundation, Xibao Elementary School, Yanliao Pure Land and Fuzhi Foundation.

After the establishment of the school, two Taiwan exchange groups were organized, both of which went to Taiwan. Foreign exchanges have allowed us to expand our career opportunities, and seeing children and teachers in class can be so different from mainstream schools. Watching Teacher Seed Forest's outdoor survival class, letting children play in mountains and streams, diving and making fires and other activities close to nature, The confidence and determination to think that we can also be born naturally; watching the social class of Forest Primary School, the teacher led the students to discuss social issues, thinking that we should do it too; seeing the life-oriented educational practice, thinking that the self-school is about to open Now, the exchange united our minds and moved a fire in our hearts.

Green Education Center

Since 2005, the school building team has been actively involved in the preparatory work. In 2006, with the help of Mr. Leung Kwok-hung, the office was lent as a temporary school building office, so that the school building team has a place to gather, hoping to realize their dreams as soon as possible , can successfully open the school in 2006. Unfortunately, this backfired, and because we could not find a suitable school building, we decided to postpone the opening date for one year. However, the school running team has been working hard, and some members have resigned and devoted themselves to it. Since its establishment more than ten years ago, the Nature Association has never had an office. Since the people who are interested have gathered together, everyone decided to find a suitable place to establish a green education center first, and continue the work and determination to build their own school. Finally, on the banks of the Lincun River in Tai Po, the ground floor of a village house was rented to use as a school building and an office for expanding the work of the Nature Association. There is a beautiful environment, and there are trees in the shade. From time to time, birds sing on the branches and chat in front of the door when you have time. A real pleasure.

At that time, a total of six people were involved in the construction of the school. The self-association has expanded from one employee to six, but the income has not increased significantly. Except for Zhiqiu and Xiaolan (the founding principal and secretary) who paid their salaries from the initial donations raised for the founding of the school, there is really no extra funds to hire the rest. The four of them, in order to build their own school, also have to travel around. They can't just focus on activities to earn income, and they are not sure whether they will find a school building next year. The opening date of the school is unknown. However, at that time, we were enthusiastic and believed that the founding teachers and the founding parents and students also had the founding parents and students. At that time, we only owed one school building, and it was only a little short, and we did not want to waste our efforts. Therefore, with a determination to make the same pot, we decided to spend a year working hard to see it, everyone working together, sharing the spirit of sharing, and sharing the monthly income.

That year, we set four goals:

1. Develop and launch green and autonomous education courses, and write and implement future natural school courses;

2. Strengthen the training of natural science calibration teachers;

3. To implement parent education to understand and understand self-directed learning;

4. Maintain the balance of fiscal revenue and expenditure and establish a sustainable development mode of operation.

The four major goals set the direction for us, and a grand opening ceremony was held in September of the same year. Zhiqiu made an oath many years ago to grow a beard until the day the school was founded to show his determination. Since the establishment of the Nature Education Center was also a major event of the Association and was established for the establishment of the school, we decided to cut off our beards on the day of the opening ceremony, indicating that we will continue to work hard to do a good job in nature education. Back then, Uncle Xiongzai recounted his son's dream and encouraged us: "There is a big iron gate with dozens of locks on the uphill road. It's scary! When you look at both sides, it is an unobstructed path. You can go in and out freely. Smile and wave your hands on the road." Although the school was running in that year, there were bumps everywhere, perhaps, the search for the school building was just waiting for the unobstructed path to appear. So with the opening of the education center, we published a decision article "The mountain does not turn, the road turns".

That year, we held many large and small experimental courses, parent workshops, teacher training workshops, reading sessions, sharing sessions, etc., and even admissions briefing sessions, constantly looking for fellow travelers to strengthen the voice of nature education. In the same year, I also began to write a column in the newspaper to enhance the community's understanding of my school.

Later, Turtle (later River) joined the founding team to help raise funds for the opening of the school. Because of her work relationship, she jokingly called herself the Money Turtle. She organized a four-day fundraising walk that year, called "Golden Autumn Picking Up Fun". We led and supported the families and children of our school, walking for four days and three nights on Lantau Island, sleeping in the wild. As a result, a large amount of money was raised for the school, so that when the school was founded, it had enough funds to operate.

Find your ideal school

When we decided to open a school, we kept an eye out for vacant village schools. We walked through the mountains and saw vacant village schools. No matter how dilapidated they were, we would always walk inside to see if they were suitable for our school buildings. Beginning in 2005, in order to successfully open the school in 2006, we actively searched for the ideal school building, and even held the Firefly Academy in two completed target village schools. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, the agreement could not be reached. In 2006, with the assistance of Professor Ho Sui-chu of the Faculty of Education, CUHK, we had the opportunity to meet with the School Building Allocation Section of the Education Bureau to discuss the school building issue. We have made adequate preparations for this, preparing a vacant target village school building, funding arrangements, etc. It is a pity that the officials of the Education Bureau do not agree with the idea of small classes and small schools, and they are worried that it will not be easy for us to maintain a school, so they do not give us any vacant school buildings. However, they agreed with the concept of nature education. At that time, the Education Bureau also lacked a support group for primary school nature education. Instead, they suggested that we set up a nature education center to support nature education in all primary schools in Hong Kong.

We have referred to the experience of a lot of foreign alternative education, the number of schools is too large, it is difficult to achieve good results. As for the first nature education center, it seems very attractive, but we are here to run a school. We have been running nature education for many years and have experience. On the contrary, we are worried that, once we agree, with our limited human resources, to support the nature education work in all primary schools in Hong Kong, we may be too busy and forget our original expectations of running a school. As a result, we boldly rejected the officials' proposal, but the talks failed and we failed to win the school building. Everything started from scratch.

Some people would think that it would be impossible for us to run a school without the support of the Education Bureau, and even reject such generous conditions from the Education Bureau. However, we are just that persistent, obsessed with running a natural school of thought. As a result, as Uncle Xiongzai said, the road ahead seems to be full of difficulties, but it turns out that there are many trails by the door. In the same year, not long after the opening of the Nature Education Center, there was a vacant school building in Sham Shui Po, and expressed that it could be used. It is a pity that the team members have seen the school building and thought that the school building is located in the urban area and lacks green environment in the school, which is not suitable for the development of nature education. Then, someone asked us to take over a vacant secondary school. At the same time, another friend introduced a village school in Tuen Mun that was about to end. They were planning to hire someone to take over. Therefore, everyone was busy observing the school buildings and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the two schools. In the end, we decided to use the current Rural Teachers Association School as the future school building of the Nature School, because the school building is backed by a country park and is located at Section 10 of MacLehose Path. easy.

At the end of 2006, in a fast food restaurant in To Kwa Wan, we negotiated with Principal Kwong Qitao, the founder of the Hometown Teachers' Association School (Hometown Teachers), and found that they were also teachers who wanted to learn, and it was not the same as our dream. resemblance. As a result, we hit it off immediately, and the village teacher was willing to rent the school building for us to use, and the new school was named "Xiangshi Natural School". And on February 14, 2007, on Valentine's Day, a signing ceremony was held. We are very grateful to Principal Kwong Qitao for his support. Without him, there would be no Xiangshi Natural School. Maybe we still have to work hard to find school buildings today. He passed away at an advanced age last year, and his teachers and students will always miss his feelings.

school is open

The school building was confirmed. 2007 was a hectic year, with curriculum design, administrative structure, looking for school directors, hiring teachers and staff, recruiting parents and students of the founding school, and so on. However, the most unforgettable thing is that everyone is united. Many people who support the school came to the school. Together with the strength of more than 100 people, they transported a large amount of materials to the school, and moved furniture of various sizes together. stairs. On that day, everyone expected that nature education would blossom and bear fruit in Hong Kong, creating a legend of alternative nature education.