Editorial: More social awareness and practice needed
Translated by Lydia Ma
A while ago, about 20 children gathered in front of Taipei First Girls High School to plead with President Ma to protect wetlands in Changhua which will be destroyed if Kuokuang Petrochemical Ltd. builds a refinery nearby. A fourth-grader wrote on her sign: ”I hope the President can join us in protecting belugas and the environment, because one person’s effort isn’t enough to create a healthy environment and a safe country.”
In another part of the country, high-school and college students discussed plans for a vigil outside EPA headquarters on January 26, 2011, to raise awareness on the health hazards that may result from building this refinery. Their signs are very eye-catching and relevant to the times we live in.
We are relieved to see and hear that our education system can produce young people willing to rise up and take a stand, and challenge stereotypes about college students being a bunch of useless and stupid youths. It seems environmentalists are finally seeing a flicker of hope after trying without success to change government officials.
According to U.S. psychologist John B. Watson who specialized in behaviorism, he could make doctors, lawyers, robbers, or burglars out of a dozen children by simply placing them in different environments. Watson’s proposed that human behavior is neither innate nor inherited, but acquired and learnt through interaction with people and observation of surrounding environments.
Hence, we should be glad when we witness a decline in the median age of people involved in civic movements because it means the sense of social awareness is growing stronger and setting into young people’s minds earlier than before. If only students in today’s Taiwan had more “practical training and social awareness”, this country would be very different from what it is now.
To illustrate this point, we need only look at recent headlines describing “crocodile judges” and “doctors-turned-pharmaceutical vendors”. One headline pokes fun of how out-of-touch with the real world most judges have become by spending so much time studying for exams, while the other criticizes a medical school system that produces more pharmaceutical vendors than skilled physicians. Both allude to professionals’ lack of critical judgment and social awareness – or the problem with lifeless and theoretic education.
In contrast, Dr. George Leslie Mackay emphasized practical training and social awareness when he taught his students. This edition of Taiwan Church News features a story about medical school students from Mackay Medical School getting out of ivory towers and visiting Aborigine reservations in rural areas to offer pro-bono services. For Mackay, a physician’s oath to serve others was more than paying lip-service.
In the same way, our faith needs a bit more “social awareness and practical training” because it’s only through practicing what we preach that we can learn to love others like Jesus would love them. Though we are saved by faith alone through a personal relationship with Christ, looking out for our brethren and helping one another flourish is just as important.
