Introduction of the operation of Student Affairs Section

Features

    The student affairs are about student management and very complicated. Our students always live in the school dormitory. We must provide regular school education and family and social education. Our student affairs focus on the moral education and personality development. Furthermore, we shall strengthen the life education and practice and value clarification and reconstruction, to ensure that students can live independently in society, blend into society and serve people. With years of efforts, all of our staffs of Student Affairs Section have worked together to establish systematic management, which will be explained separately in the following:

1. We strengthened the life management of students to reduce violation by students

    Life care aims to offer students with a warm, respectful environment to help students build a stronger will. Life education is the foundation of all kinds of education and good habits. Life habits, interpersonal relationship and emotion management help stabilize the emotions of students and reduce violations, described as below:

1. We built a system with fair reward and punishment.
2. We reduced hostility between the custodial officer and inmates. We must tell students what is right when punishing them.
3. We offered places for relief and held events or contests that consume physical strength.
4. We assigned jobs fairly (such as cleaning the dormitory, classroom, responsible area and the restaurant that must be cleaned by the students on duty).
5. We keep records on the consumption of pocket money by month to find out the exception on consumption of individuals.
6. We created the receipt on the packages mailed in and fully kept track of the abnormal circulation of the items belonging to the students.
7. We check the letters received and mailed by the students thoroughly.
8. We keep track of the grades of the students for abnormally high or low scores.
9. We check if the food is distributed unevenly among students.
10. We distribute dormitories deliberately and check the interaction among students in different rooms and the interaction among roommates in one room.
11. We observe the learning attitude of students in class and interaction among students during recess.
12. We check the number of times students see a doctor and the medicine students take and apply.
13. We check how students without pocket money can buy goods and food and the availability of dish washer and detergent powder in the dormitory.
14. We maintain good communications with students and avoid students being suspected as whistle blowers.
15. We examine the body of students, especially the examination on attendance must not be authorized to substitute civilian servicemen.
16. We strictly check the substitute civilian servicemen having direct contact with the students.
17. Instructors, teachers and guidance counselors formulate strategies based on cases periodically.
18. Instructors must notify school rules, teach students the violation cases and examine recent class issues that must be improved.

※Thanks to the establishment and implementation of the system above, violations by students have been stably reduced. The imprisonment condition has been improved significantly.

1. We enriched our educational enlightenment and organized diverse clubs to help students build interests.

    Students were mostly dropouts before being enrolled into Ming Yang High School. It was not likely that they had normal leisure interests or campus life. The Student Affairs Section held multiple education enlightenment activities, such as weekly meeting speech, inauguration (graduation) ceremony, legal exam, inspirational skit contest, campus concert, out-of-school essay contest, all kinds of class contests (e.g. military song contest and garden and classroom decoration, karaoke game, ball game, sports meet and Chinese chess game) and family visit day.

    Besides, we aim to help students build diverse interests. The Student Affairs Section organized co-curricular activities, such as ceramic club, orchestra club, guitar club, flair bartending club, sign language club, dancing club and calligraphy club. Students can decide to learn things depending on their interest and organize the final club presentation by the end of every semester.

III. We carry out the dormitory and class management attentively.

    Talking about class management in regular schools has nothing to do with dormitory management. However, we cannot talk about class management without talking about dormitory management. It is because the dormitories in Chishan Building and Chimei Building are the life focus of the students of Ming Yang High School. They are also the largest cause of interpersonal conflict and life anxiety. They might become a cruel battlefield ruled by the Law of the Jungle if we didn't manage them diligently. We can actively intervene the dormitory environment and ensure that this will become a haven with family support. When we talk about class management here at this time specifically, we should clarify how is the class management in Ming Yang or correctional education. This class management would be somewhat different from the one in regular schools. Students in Ming Yang are separated from the outside world. Class has become a combination of family and school. Interpersonal relationship conflict is complicated. Students tend to fight for territories. Safety is our top priority for rehabilitation. Class management in Ming Yang cannot be as arbitrary as the one for regular schools (such as the selection of token and common rules). It doesn’t mean class management is not important in Ming Yang. On the contrary, the success of the entire correctional education is affected by the success of class management. The correctional system needs feedback from the implementation and experience of class management

. For the importance of dormitory and class management, the Student Affairs Section has set up general rules for the dormitory and held class management seminars on February 3, 4, 12 and 13, 2004. Throughout the speeches by experts and scholars, video watching, book recommendation, experience exchange among teachers, guidance officers and instructors (the iron triangle of Ming Yang), participants of the seminar came up with new ideas on class management in correctional education and shared experiences with each other. Their thoughts were gathered in a journal.

1. We handle parole prudently

    Since the restructuring  of Ming Yang High School in July 1999, parole has been reviewed by the student treatment examining committee, consisting of the principal, vice principal, secretary, dean of study, dean of disciplinary affairs, dean of counseling, dean of general affairs, dean of health care and a quarter of all teacher representatives. A new article was added to the Act of the Establishment of Juvenile Reformatory Schools and Enforcement of Education on January 22, 2003. Article 33-1 specified that, a Reformatory School shall establish a parole review committee, which shall consist of seven (7) to eleven (11) commissioners. Besides that the principal, dean of disciplinary affairs, and dean of counseling are the absolute commissioners, the rest commissioners shall be occupied by those scholars and experts of psychology, pedagogy, sociology, criminology, and prisons and other impartial personages, after being reported to the Ministry of Justice for approval by the principal. Here is the list of members of our parole review committee.

1. We gather abundant social resources to hold religious events

    We have introduced social resources. There are two religious courses per week for each class. They are held by a Christian and a Buddhism group (such as Christian Rehabilitation Fellowship, Fo Guang Shan Compassion Foundation, Chung Tai Chan Monastery, Ching Liang Yueh Buddhism Book Club and Fo Ti Tzu Charity Foundation). Events include fellowship activity, verse teaching, Buddhism chanting, life experience sharing, video watching, report writing and group discussion. Courses are fun and students love these courses. We also hold large camping events regularly (e.g. Flying Youth Growth Camp, Vesak Day Blessing Ceremony, Christmas Caroling, and Bless the World Book Donation Event).

1. We implement legal education to teach students about law and make sure they abide by the law.

    We are a juvenile reformatory school that takes in people sentenced to imprisonment. Therefore, we must strengthen the legal education. In addition to general civic education courses, we provide legal education courses. Each month professional lawyers selected and appointed by the Kaohsiung BAR Association promote legal education and give keynote speeches. We hold a legal education exam each season to teach students about laws and abide by all kinds of laws.

VII. Sports game and meet

    Sports game is the best way to build coherence in group life. Students in Ming Yang are energetic. We offer regular physical education, including physical fitness test and new gymnastics. Furthermore, we hold all kinds of sports contests regularly and sports meet on Youth Day, March 29. We aim to help students build their physique and blow off energy.