Taiwan's 17-year-old youngest barista reveals Taiwan's educational blind spot

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The test of 100 points is definitely empty, everyone may test 100 points, and what is affirmed is that the test is good. However, he is very good at making desserts. It belongs exclusively to Chen Yuanqiao. It is unique!" In the second semester of senior high school, she could no longer stand the daily life of "waiting for class", decided to drop out of school, stumbled all the way, and became the youngest barista at the age of 17 with excellent results! For life, this little girl's views are really worth learning from…

Chen Yuanqiao, aged 18, is a self-taught high school student in Yilan County Humanities Exhibition and Action Academy. It takes a while to sketch out her experience, and it twists and turns, which is more exciting than many middle-aged people.

At the age of 17, he obtained the British International Barista Certificate with excellent scores and is the youngest international barista in Taiwan. At the age of 17, she started a coffee shop and broke up half a year later... At the age of 18, she added her three-year self-study report to a well-designed recipe, wrote it herself, painted it herself and edited it herself into a small book. He is now a high school self-taught student and a teacher of higher vocational education. He serves as a lecturer in coffee flower drawing class of Su 'ao Maritime Vocational School.

Cai Qihua, a teacher of Shiduo Award and a best-selling author, was very surprised when he met Chen Yuanqiao for the first time this year: "I want to coach her to publish books and start a business. It's really world-class!" "Also, the sweet potato desserts she made are really delicious!"

100 points must be empty.

Chen Yuanqiao, a former junior high school student, claimed to be an obedient and good student. "Be good. I mean to study hard, do my homework well, and get good grades in the exam. Mom and Dad don't have to force me. I'll force myself." That year was the last year of nine years of consistent exam-free promotion, Chen Yuanqiao in school will actively strive for good results, such as physics and chemistry results are the worst, she went to work as a physics and chemistry teacher, so that the usual scores have a chance to get high marks.

During the depressed years of junior high school exams, Chen Yuanqiao would catch his breath and watch YouTube to learn how to make desserts on weekends. After finishing, he would take them to school to invite his classmates to eat. Once she cooked red bean stuffing carefully and made a refrigerator full of copper roast. The next day she went to school to give it to her classmates. "Everyone is developing. Whether they fail or succeed, they will eat until there is nothing left. It gives me a great sense of achievement." Chen Yuanqiao said.

"The test of 100 points is definitely empty, everyone may test 100 points, and it is affirmed that the test is good." However, he is very good at making desserts. He is definitely unique and belongs exclusively to Chen Yuanqiao." This is the first time Chen Yuanqiao has been affirmed for himself, and he has begun to imagine the future more concretely. Is it possible to open a dessert shop by craft? Well, it doesn't seem to matter if I didn't study well.

Chen Yuanqiao, 15, was the youngest part-time student in Jiaoxi's master point atrium.

After graduating from junior high school, Chen Yuanchiao could be guaranteed to go to Lanyang Girls 'High School, her first small rebellion, but she chose not to decide her future according to her grades. Chen Yuanqiao later chose vocational school to study multimedia design, hoping to give full play to his artistic talents.

A 15-year-old child in a snack bar.

This summer, she wanted to continue learning how to make desserts for free, so she went to 104 Human Resources Bank, entered the location of "Jiao Xi" and the position of "Dessert Worker", and jumped out of the snack room of Jiao Xi Master Hotel. Chen Yuanqiao, 15, sent out his resume nervously and checked the Law of Labor on the Internet. He found that although he was a child worker, he could work as a part-time student, but his working hours could not be too long.

Later, when she received the interview notice, she nervously took her resume, pasted photos of her past works on her back, remembered her mother's exhortation: "Smile, look at each other directly..." and interviewed Master A Xiang in the snack room. Chen Yuanqiao was so nervous that his heart beat wildly and his palms were sweaty in the face of Master A Xiang wearing a tall chef's hat. "Working in the kitchen and doing small things at home are completely different things," Master Xiang told her. "I will study very hard," Chen Yuanqiao answered seriously.

I like the feeling of level up every day.

In this way, he became the youngest employee in the hotel. According to the Labor Law, child labor can only work for six hours, but Chen Yuanchiao always feels that there is not enough time. When it is time every day, the teachers will rush her off work, but she voluntarily stays behind to do chores and learn things. She hides in the corner of the kitchen and records every step of the work with words and pictures, because this job opportunity is her own hard work. "I really like the feeling of improving a little bit every day and 'leveling up'!"

In the first week of working, Chen Yuanqiao's two arms were covered with Salonbas, because in restaurants, hundreds of things were made at a time, milk, cream, ice cream were all big boxes, mixing tanks, big enough to let a petite girl in. However, every day there is a wealth of study, Chen Yuanqiao always holds a full mood when leaving work, stepping on the starlight to walk home, feel the mood and night scene are beautiful.

Four and a half months in a five-star hotel, receiving workplace shock education, Chen Yuanqiao on the last day of work, covered with flour and rich cream smell state, but also by the hotel director called into the office: "Kitchen master said you did a great job, next year want to invite you to continue to work..."

Waste of time sucks.

But at the end of summer, back to high school, life suddenly slows down. Chen Yuanqiao describes: "From a fast pace, all the time in the study of life, to just sit every day... I sit in the classroom, looking at the sky, feel the waste of time feeling terrible!" I don't want to spend my life waiting for class to end." In the second semester of senior high school, Chen Yuanqiao decided to drop out of school, which set off a big family revolution.

Before that,"suspension" was an option that had never been heard of in this family. Chen Yuanqiao is an only child. Although her parents have never strictly required her schoolwork and are very supportive of her development interests, once she embarks on a path that no one has traveled before, in fact, everyone panic. Life from a straight line, into an open question, where to go?

Chen Yuanqiao's mother Lin Chiu-fang, a former director of the Yilan County Cultural Bureau, said that when her daughter was in fifth grade, she took her family back to her hometown of Yilan to settle down. In order to help Chen Yuanqiao plant roots in his hometown from childhood, no matter what happened in the future, there would be stable roots connected to the land.

But this little tree doesn't grow up on its trestle.

After Chen Yuanqiao left school, he worked at Madeline Coffee Workshop. Every day, he returned to his tight pace, learning the interpersonal and team work of the outfield, such as observing guests and interacting with guests, as well as the beverage preparation of the infield, and the logistics work.

She enjoyed her work, but her young face always attracted customers to ask,"You're a high school student! What? Suspension? "What do you mean?" "If only one or two people asked, I could still bear it. Now almost everyone asks the same question. I'm really about to be defeated..." Chen Yuanqiao was suppressed by the outside world's worries. She was also worried: "Will it be impossible to connect with this world in the future?"

In her anxiety and fear, she re-admitted to a well-known catering school, leaving Ilan for the first time to live in Taipei to study. However, with rich and solid workplace experience as the background, the school's step-by-step study, always can not satisfy themselves. Looking at classmates of the same age, because of the school's reputation, because there is no other choice for scores, because of parents 'decision... came to this school, she felt that there was no intersection with her classmates, every day outside class time, is hanging headphones, isolated themselves.

The teacher's homework, to make snacks for her family to eat, she lives alone, can only take selfies with dessert. When I returned home to Ilan on weekends, I just kept crying and losing my hair, falling into depression. Finally, it was Dad, who usually didn't show much emotion, who said,"Come back! Stop reading!"

After some searching, Chen Yuanqiao found a school she liked. The self-study group "Humanities Development Action Academy" in Toucheng, Ilan. This is a group self-study program for public and private humanities high schools in Yilan County. In this environment where he is the master of his studies, Chen Yuanqiao can plan his own studies and discuss them with his teachers.

Along the way, Chen Yuanqiao's life is wonderful, but the family around him is very worried, Chen Yuanqiao on the left and Lin Qiufang on the right, who has always supported him. (Photo/Parent-Child World Provided)

In 2015, I decided to take an examination of barista. I had to operate the espresso machine, learn hot cocoa making skills, and design my own tea and smoothie formula. I made 7 cups of drinks in 16 minutes. If I failed in more than one second, I had to keep the bar clean. Chen Yuanqiao got excellent total scores. The judging teacher said that no one had gotten excellent results for a long time, and also broke the results of the youngest barista. Then he passed the qualification of international baking master. In 2015, he opened a coffee shop in partnership with a friend who took the license examination together. The 17-year-old boss faced all kinds of cruel pressures in real life. After half a year, he broke up and returned to the role of a simple student.

This last semester, her big study project was to attend the International Democracy Education Forum in Israel and to start a two-month action study in Israel. Chen Yuanqiao will play the role of foreign minister of the group, responsible for all external communication and introducing the school in English. At the same time, he was also responsible for the religious group's guidance and took his classmates to learn Israeli religious culture.

This small tree stretched its branches hard, crossed the fence, opened up space with adventure, and stood upright to see the scenery that others could not see.

The strong winds and waves in the learning process, what supported Chen Yuanqiao to come over is actually his family. What did his family do? "My family accompanied me and participated in my growth with infinite love, which allowed me to overcome all my anxiety and anxiety."

Chen Yuanqiao's mother Lin Qiufang said,"I have been worried!" Yuan Qiao will do his best to do what he is interested in and do it well, but a very realistic society still depends on academic qualifications. Her formal education is only a junior high school diploma, and the equivalent of high school education..."Lin Qiufang said, until two months ago, can really put down the worry in the heart, because see Chen Yuanqiao, listen to the various suggestions of adults, and really for the future to take a variety of options, are serious thinking and research, have their own ideas.

Looking at the talented 18-year-old Chen Yuanqiao, imagine what learning is? What should a school look like? What kind of education system can cultivate such a pearl?

If you follow the track of the system, after graduating from high school, you will go to college and read a "good university". Can you really let such a pearl bloom warm light? There should be other options, better options, but what would that be?

"The essence of education should be to let students know the meaning of their existence in this world, to find destiny and realize it." But general education tells you which unit to test next week, but it won't tell you what you can contribute to the world..."Chen Yuanqiao's observation hit me, making people want to copy notes, remember and reflect. Because it's a young man's sincere reminder of how the world can be better.