Taiwanese Boy Is Still Just a ‘Valley Kid’

There was a time, perhaps, when the idea of an “average Valley kid” conjured images of blond bangs, skateboards, two-car garages, Brady Bunch parents, station wagons. And Paul Lin certainly lives up to some of the popular notions about children who live in the suburbs.

Paul has a skateboard. His vocabulary is sprinkled with an occasional rad and cool. He has a Lakers world championship banner on his bedroom wall, collects baseball cards (“My best is a Jose Canseco ’87 Topps,” he says), and plays Nintendo video games whenever possible. His family settled in the San Fernando Valley for the same reason many families do--because it seemed safer, quieter and friendlier than the big city.

Indeed, this fifth-grader at El Oro Way School in Granada Hills has the same kinds of aspirations that “average Valley kids” have always had, like playing guitar “or one of those keyboards that you play like a guitar” and someday going to “U!-C!-L!-A!” as he puts it.

But Paul Lin was born in Taiwan and hangs out with kids who came from India, Mexico, Egypt and the Philippines.

“Oh yeah,” the 10-year-old said, “the kids in my class come from many countries.”

Paul lives in a modest two-bedroom Granada Hills apartment with his 15-year-old brother, Frank, and his mother, Elizabeth. His father, a successful mining engineer, remains in Taiwan and supports his wife and children by long distance.

It’s not the most all-American way for a family to function.

“It is difficult, but we are lucky,” said Elizabeth Lin, in halting English. “My husband can afford to support us and to come to visit several times a year. But the children are most important, so we are making this sacrifice for them, so they can get a good education here.”

Indeed, it was for the sake of the children’s education that the Lins decided to endure this difficult international arrangement. Education in her native country, Elizabeth Lin explained, is very good, but there are problems. It is very strict, and competition to enter Taiwan’s few universities is tough.

“Yes, I think the education in Taiwan is sometimes too strict and might give the children problems,” she said. “They study so much and have so much stress.

“Also, there are many more universities here than in Taiwan, so students have a greater chance of going to one. In Taiwan, the competition is very strong, because there are many students and only a few universities. In some cases, students who do not get into university are so destroyed by that they commit suicide. Sometimes even before they take the entrance examination.”

Elizabeth Lin spoke from the living room of the family apartment on a hot afternoon. The walls were liberally decorated with oil paintings done by family members. One, a triptych seascape, featured a panel by Paul, one by his mother and one by brother Frank. Paul sat nearby, listening and eyeing a much-used Nintendo video game sitting idle on the floor.

“Here, children grow up in a free way,” his mother said. “And they have enough time to play basketball, to do exercise, so their physical condition is very good. In Taiwan, this is not as true.

“But also here, I sometimes think the education is too easy, maybe too much in the opposite direction.”

Elizabeth Lin had to push and encourage her kids in their first few years here, she said, because there is so much freedom in public schools that students have a tendency to take advantage of their new-found free time. Now, since Frank and Paul are older and more adjusted, she is trying to minimize the “pushing,” she said.

“One year ago, I had to push them and help them, but right now I don’t push them and let them grow up in a more natural way. Now it is time for them to learn responsibility for themselves.”

And how well have they learned responsibility? Pretty well, evidently. If anything is not quite typical about Paul Lin, Valley kid, it is how spectacularly he has managed to adjust in such a short time. Arriving here as a 6-year-old first-grader (at El Oro Way Elementary), unable to utter so much as an A, B or C, he has since:

Skipped third grade.

Become an in-class tutor for other students.

Completed a sixth-grade level reading program and fifth-grade level math program while still in fourth grade.

Developed into an avid reader, mostly of Hardy Boys books (“ ‘Case Files Number 23’ is my favorite,” he notes.)

Lately taken to dreaming of a career as an astronomer.

Paul’s success, and brother Frank’s (who is earning a solid B average at Robert Frost Junior High in Granada Hills), flies in the face of a major American stereotype: children growing up in day-care centers, with absentee, uncaring or overworked parents, and kids attending schools that do little more than baby-sit.

Certainly Paul’s mother has been a primary factor in his achievements. But there were two other sources of help that were invaluable to Paul: a private English tutor hired to teach once a week for 18 months, and Virginia Hatfield, Paul’s third-grade teacher at El Oro Way.

“I would have to say that Mrs. Hatfield helped me a lot,” said Paul, in serious tones. “When I first arrived, I didn’t speak any English at all! I would sit in the back of the room and just keep on listening to the teacher. That was the first grade. Then I’d keep on understanding a little more. One day I went to school, and I just had this feeling suddenly that I was going to be able to accomplish something, after I learned English. I mean, I just had this feeling that I could . . . make it. Everything just went real well from there, and when I got into the third grade, Mrs. Hatfield really gave me work that challenged me a lot.”

Hatfield, a 31-year teaching veteran who retired in June, was teaching a combined third- and fourth-grade class when Paul became her pupil. She was instrumental in allowing him to skip third grade--something she said does not happen often.

Hatfield, who over the years adjusted her teaching style and techniques to accommodate students from many different countries, worked with rather than against Paul’s cultural heritage, seeking to turn what could be a liability into an advantage.

“Paul is exceptionally interested in history and geography, and with his background being Chinese, I had him contribute information about his customs and the language,” she said. “If we had new students in the school learning English, he was used as a tutor. He was really proud of that. He’s just the neatest kid.”

With Paul’s academic improvement came a marked social change--something his mother found very interesting, if non-traditional.

“At the beginning of the year, he was more shy and quiet, eager to be a good citizen,” Hatfield recalled. “As the year went on, I saw him change--you might say, become more Americanized. He was more talkative, but I thought that was good. Not to the point where he disturbed other students--just all-boy.”

The Americanization of Paul Lin has proved to be both a source of pride and some problems, as far as his mother is concerned.

“I am pleased with his progress,” said Elizabeth Lin. “But sometimes there is a little problem with Paul and Frank, because they do not want to do things in a Chinese way. Not really. Sometimes they watch TV too much, and they see programs where children get mad at their parents and argue. I think it is good for children to talk to their parents, and to say what they are feeling, but also I think they must show respect. So sometimes I think they get the wrong idea from TV, and sometimes this bothers me a little bit. But I have to compromise, too, because we are not in Taiwan.”

A typical scene in the Lin home finds the kids in the bedroom, doing homework while listening to Depeche Mode, while their mother makes dinner in the living room, listening to calmer music. The boys also make plenty of time for video games and for reading. Both are avid readers, although their mother wishes they would read “less fiction.”

As for the future, both brothers plan to go to college. Hatfield sees Paul as “staying on his present course of hard work and great interest in his studies. I don’t see him being distracted by his peers in the way that some students are.” Probably his greatest problem will be what it already has been: coping with imperfection. Being dissatisfied with anything less than an A grade is a very common Taiwanese attitude, Elizabeth Lin said, and therefore one of Paul’s biggest problems. During his first two years in school, in fact, not earning an A on a test was so frustrating to him that it sometimes produced a tear or two. But Paul has since come to understand that “doing your best,” as he says, “is what counts the most.”

“And this year,” he said, almost too eagerly, “I get to do sixth-grade math and sixth-grade English.”

And that is, quite simply, the story of how one boy from Taiwan became an average Valley kid.

“Yeah, right,” said Paul Lin, laughing. “Totally awesome! Totally radical, dude!”