Last week sixth graders from Toucheng Township’s Jhu An Elementary School who will soon graduate were tending to the school’s peanut farm, weeding for the last time and preparing the farm for the fifth graders to take over for them. Profits from the peanut farm will go toward travel expenses for the students’ graduation trip next year. The children also presented flowers as a surprise farewell gift to the outgoing school principal Chen Ming-chun.
When Chen took over as school principal eight years ago, he soon discovered that many of the students at the school come from poor households and were unable to join the other students for graduation trips, so the following year he solicited local residents to borrow a piece of land that would serve as the school’s “dreamland garden.” He subsequently designed a curriculum for the “Dreamland Project,” allowing the students to plant grapes and peanuts on the farm and put any profits made from selling the harvest directly into the students’ graduation trip fund.
This year’s peanut crop will be harvested in June, and this year’s fifth graders are preparing to take over responsibility for the farm when they move up to sixth grade, a symbol of passing on the baton to the next generation.
Photo: Hu Chien-sen, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者胡健森
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
頭城竹安國小即將畢業的六年級學生，上週在自己栽種的花生田除草整理後，交接給五年級學弟妹接手照顧，為籌措明年的畢業旅行費用而努力。孩子們同時以獻花的方式，給了即將轉任他校的校長陳銘俊離別驚喜。
陳銘俊八年前接任竹安國小校長，發現有許多孩子家境清寒，無法跟著其他同學參加畢業旅行，於是在隔年向附近居民情商，借了一塊沙地，做為竹安國小的「織夢園」，並設計「織夢計畫」課程，讓孩子下田在「織夢園」中栽種蘿蔔、花生，收成後加工對外販售，所得款項當作孩子的畢旅基金。
這批花生將在六月份收成，學校於是安排即將畢業的六年級學生，將尚未收成的花生田交接給五年級的學弟妹，象徵這份愛心在校園內繼續傳承下去。
（自由時報記者胡健森）
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