A small school on a hillside — with a temple standing right in the middle of it.
一所山坡上的小學校——而校園的正中央，站著一座廟。
Minghu is a hill school. It sits in Hushui, a valley village up in the hills of Yuanlin City, Changhua, and its campus — about four thousand square metres in all — is not one flat rectangle but a set of terraces, classroom blocks stepped up the slope the way rice paddies are. There was no flat ground to be had here, so the school was built to fit the hill instead.
明湖是一所山裡的學校。它座落在彰化縣員林市湖水里的山谷聚落，全校面積約四千平方公尺；校園不是一塊平整的方地，而是一層一層的梯田式校舍，順著山坡疊上去。這裡本來就找不到平坦廣闊的校地，於是學校就照著山的樣子蓋。
At the centre of those terraces stands Kailin Temple (開林寺), which is not a neighbour but the landowner: in 1951 the temple gave its land, free of charge, so that the children of this valley could have a school of their own. The temple is still there, exactly where it was, and the classrooms are arranged around it. Local people describe it in eight characters — a temple inside the school, a school inside the temple.
這些梯田式校舍的中心，是開林寺。開林寺不是鄰居，而是校地的主人：民國四十年，開林寺把土地無償提供出來，讓這個山谷的孩子有自己的學校。廟至今仍在原地，教室圍著它排開。地方上用八個字形容這件事——校中有廟，廟中有校。
The name came from the view. The founders looked at these hills and this water and borrowed a phrase for them — 山明水秀, bright hills and lovely water — and took from it the two characters 明湖. Everything about the place still answers to that name: quiet surroundings, clean air, sweet water, teachers who care, classmates who look after one another. There are not many children here, and that is precisely the point — every one of them is known, and every one of them gets a turn.
校名來自風景。當年的人看著這片山與水，借了一句話來形容它——山明水秀，並從其中取了「明湖」二字。這個地方至今仍配得上這個名字：環境清幽、空氣清新、水質甜美、老師有愛、同學友愛。這裡的孩子不多，而這正是重點——每一個都被認得，每一個都輪得到。
Most schools have a flagpole in the middle of the campus. Ours has a temple roof.
大部分學校的校園中央是一座旗桿，明湖的校園中央是一片廟簷。
Kailin Temple, where Shakyamuni Buddha is enshrined, is an ornate old building of red pillars, painted eaves and golden tiles — and it happens to fall exactly at the centre of the school grounds. Walk from the gate to the ball court and you pass beneath its towers; look out of a classroom window and there they are. It makes for an unusual school, and children who grow up entirely at ease with it.
開林寺供奉釋迦牟尼佛，紅柱、彩繪飛簷、金黃琉璃瓦，是一座美輪美奐、古色古香的寺廟——而它剛好正落在校園的中心點。從校門走到球場，會從它的樓閣底下經過；從教室窗戶望出去，它就在那裡。這造就了一所很特別的學校，也造就了一群與它完全相處自在的孩子。
Before there was a school here, the children of this valley walked two hours over the hills to reach one.
在明湖還不存在的時候，這個山谷的孩子每天要翻山越嶺兩個多小時，才能上到學。
Hushui belonged to the catchment of Hushui Public School, down in what was then Yuanlin Township — and getting there meant crossing the hills. Two hours a day, there and back. In the summer rains the floods came and the children simply could not go at all, and school attendance in the village suffered badly for it. So the families did something about it: led by their village chief, Huang Jung-chien, the whole of Hushui petitioned the Changhua County Government to open a school in their own village.
湖水里原屬員林鎮湖水國民學校的學區——而要走到那裡，必須翻過山。來回一趟兩個多小時。到了夏天雨季，洪水氾濫，學生根本無法上學，影響全里的就學率至鉅。於是家長們決定要做點什麼：在里長黃榮遷先生的領導下，湖水里全體里民聯合向彰化縣政府陳情，要求在本里設立學校。
Their chance came in the summer of 1951. Chen Hsi-ching, the first Changhua County Magistrate to take office after local self-government began in Taiwan, was touring the countryside, and the villagers turned out in force at Kailin Temple to welcome him and put their case. He agreed on the spot — a branch class first, for the youngest children — and asked Principal Liao Hsiang-jung of Hushui School to plan it. The principal, the village chief and local elders then went looking for a site; in country this hilly there was none to be found, and after some discussion Kailin Temple offered its own land, at no cost, for the school to be built on.
機會出現在民國四十年夏天。台灣實施地方自治後的首任彰化縣長陳錫卿先生下鄉巡視，來到湖水里視察；里民在里長帶領下踴躍前往開林寺迎接縣長光臨，並當面陳情。陳縣長為培養下一代民族幼苗，立即答應先設立分班，供低年級學生就學，並吩咐湖水國民學校廖向榮校長籌劃設立分班事宜。廖校長、黃里長與地方士紳隨即開始尋覓校地；本學區屬丘陵地帶，找不到平坦廣闊的校地，磋商結果，決定由開林寺無償提供其所有土地，做為建校用地。
This is what “no flat ground” looks like seventy years on: buildings on several levels, short flights of steps between one part of the school and the next, and a wooded slope rising immediately behind the classrooms. The hill that once made school so hard to reach is now the thing that makes this campus what it is.
七十多年後，「找不到平坦校地」看起來就是這個樣子：校舍分成好幾個高度、從一區走到另一區要上下幾階、教室後方就是一片綠樹覆蓋的山壁。當年讓孩子難以上學的那座山，如今正是這座校園的模樣。
Happy learning · many talents · whole-person education.
快樂學習、多元展能、全人教育。
These three ideas are easier to keep in a school this size, and Minghu takes full advantage of that. With few children per class, a teacher can see each one properly — which is what makes teaching to the individual more than a slogan. There is time for a child to try several things before deciding what they are good at, and an adult on hand to coax them along until their confidence catches up with their ability. And because the campus opens straight onto a wooded hillside, the most natural teaching material there is — the plants and creatures that live here — is already outside the door.
這三個理念在小學校裡更容易守得住，而明湖把這個優勢用得很徹底。班級人數少，老師才看得見每一個孩子——這才讓因材施教不只是一句口號。孩子有時間多方嘗試，再決定自己擅長什麼，身邊也有大人循循善誘，等他的自信追上他的能力。而因為校園直接連著綠樹覆蓋的山坡，最天然的教材——住在這裡的動植物——本來就在門外。
Birds, a butterfly, and a wall you are allowed to touch.
幾隻鳥、一隻蝴蝶，還有一面可以摸的牆。
Bolted to the long yellow wall below the main building is a row of round plaques, each one a photograph of a creature that actually lives on these hills — the Formosan blue magpie 藍鵲, the Taiwan barbet 五色鳥, the blue triangle butterfly 青帶鳳蝶 — and each one labelled in Chinese and English. They are hung low enough to reach. Children stop at them on the way past, put a hand on them, and read both names without being asked to.
主校舍下方那道長長的黃牆上，釘著一排圓形解說牌，每一塊都是一張照片，拍的是真正住在這片山裡的生物——台灣藍鵲、五色鳥、青帶鳳蝶——而每一塊都同時標上中文與英文名稱。它們掛得夠低，孩子伸手就摸得到。經過的時候停下來、把手放上去，然後不用人催，就把兩個名字都讀了。
On the lawn stands a bright red heart, big enough to walk through.
草地上立著一顆鮮紅的心，大得可以走過去。
The four gold characters on the pillar beside the arch read 幸福明湖 — a happy Minghu — and the rest of that lawn makes the same claim in a more practical way: spring rockers and see-saws on the grass, boards of photographs from the term’s activities along the railing, and the 明湖食堂, the school dining hall, at the far end, where lunch is eaten together every day.
拱門旁紅柱上的四個金字是「幸福明湖」——而同一片草地用更實際的方式說著同一句話：草地上的搖搖馬與蹺蹺板、欄杆上一整排這學期活動照片的看板，以及最裡面那棟「明湖食堂」——全校每天在那裡一起吃午餐。
Come up the hill and in through the gate.
上了山，從校門走進來看看。
A campus of quality and humanity, and a peaceable place to be.
營造「人文優質、祥和校園」的教育願景。
