|
Hut to Palace: A History of MAK
As with many organizations, the road for Morrison Academy Kaohsiung has been an interesting one. From serving a few students in Taichung, to becoming a fully accredited International American Christian school serving Southern Taiwan (especially Kaohsiung and Tainan), the opportunities for growing into a school with a strong academic reputation have been plentiful and carefully taken. Here is our story:
Have you ever gone to school in a bamboo hut? Do you think that's only been for kids in the jungle? Well, you're wrong. The fine Morrison Christian Academy you know and love - the one with lush lawns, air conditioning, and a swimming pool - started over 50 years ago in Taichung in a bamboo hut with six children! The different missionary groups quickly got organized and expanded this school to a whopping thirty-five students, and named their creation after Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to Mainland China.
In Kaohsiung, many missionary kids went to the U.S. Department of Defense School, but when it closed in 1974, those kids were without a school. Morrison Academy stepped in to fill that need and opened a K-8 school (called Morrison Academy Kaohsiung) near Cheng Ching Lake. In two years, it grew from three teachers and thirty-three students to four teachers and forty-five students. Missionary kids (like our very own Mr. Griffin!) kept coming, and they built a six-classroom school at Kao Tan to hold them all. Even this school, however, could not hold the growing enrolment, so they moved again in 1996, back to Cheng Ching Lake and shared a campus with the Da Hua Elementary School in Fong Shan.
The real dream, though, was to build their own campus, so Morrison pressed ahead and leased land in Da She County. This was a gutsy move as it was a long way from Kaohsiung or Fongshan, but they knew that the big, 6-1/2 acre new campus with a beautiful track would still be attractive to parents, especially as it was near the new Freeway 10 being built. In 2000, they opened the present MAK, featuring state-of-the-art technology in the classrooms, a fully-equipped computer laboratory, an air-conditioned gymnasium, an auditorium, and two sports fields. Every day, parents and buses from Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Kaohsiung County bring students to this beautiful school to receive a quality Kindergarten to Grade Nine academic program. For anyone who still remembers the first bamboo hut school, this must seem like a palace!
God has consistently proven his faithfulness in building MAK this far. We are confident God will continue His faithfulness for many more years as MAK continues its main purpose of inspiring and equipping students to dynamically impact their world as Christians.
|
