The Founding of School

The Founding of Jiajhong Elementary School: From a Straw Rope-making Workshop to a School

"Tsháu-soh-á" refers to straw ropes in Taiwanese. Before the advent of nylon rope, hemp rope was the strongest rope available, but it was more expensive. In order to obtain good quality and cheap rope, straw harvested from the fields were used as a base material. By using a simple braiding tool, three strands of Tsháu-soh-á were twisted into a thick straw rope. This kind of rope-making workshop is called " Tsháu-soh-á-king" (straw rope-making workshop) by the common people. At that time, the Yen family in the village was in the business of buying and selling sweet potatoes, which required sacks, so they used straw to weave the sacks in their pigsty (formerly called a Tsháu-soh-á-king). Only after the work was stopped was it used as a classroom.
At that time, students in the village had to walk to Hejian Elementary School in Madouliao. School bags were made of bulrush, while those who did not have a school bag had their stationery rolled up with a cloth towel and tied around their waists. Every day, whether a cold and windy winter day or a rainy summer day, students had to walk barefoot for more than three kilometers to and from school. Especially in the cold winter wind, walking back and forth on the " tshân-á-kau" (a bumpy path in the direction to the north of Zhouzai) was very hard, so going to school was a difficult commute for students. As a village elder, Yen Hsiao-Wan could not bear the thought that the students would not be able to study with peace of mind, so he talked with the village chief of Xiaying Township at that time and tried to find a suitable land for a school for Jiajhong Village.
During the construction of the school, the Tsháu-soh-á-king was utilized as a temporary classroom. In the blink of an eye, it has been more than 60 years since the establishment of the Jiajhong Elementary School.