Description
Our vision
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How we learn determines the kind of society we build.”
At Bebegarten we hold sacred the magical years and acknowledge that our role is to guide, facilitate and motivate our children to learn to do, to learn to know, to learn to be and to learn to live together – intensely, passionately, with wonderment, joy and exuberance.
We believe that learning is innate and does not occur in isolation but through positive connections within families and the learning community. We therefore invite parents, teachers and the wider community to join us, to bring their own passions and interests to Bebegarten so we can grow and develop as a community of learners.
We experience childhood but once, yetit follows us for a lifetime
The seeds for Bebegarten were sown by my parents and my teachers amidst the virgin jungles and breathtaking beaches of British North Borneo, and since 1963, known as Sabah, East Malaysia.
Life was so much simpler then, but like every parent the world over, my parents too, asked the questions, ‘What is best for my child?’ and ‘How can I give them the competitive edge to excel and thrive as they meet the future?’
My childhood experience was one of intense play (up to primary six, school was only half a day), imagination and drama set against a backdrop of indescribable natural beauty. Moreover, I was blessed with the good fortune of learning in a school with only four or five children per class, and great teachers who cared for each child as their own.
Their care, guidance and creativity, left me with indelible memories of a space where my imagination and spirit could soar to create, fufill and pursue to my heart’s content, my passions for dancing, drama and storytelling. More importantly, they allowed and encouraged me to fearlessly explore and engage in the world, to discover and seek for myself the answers to my questions ‘WHY?’.
In retrospect, as I journeyed from home to boarding school, uni and the multicultural vistas of the world, I realised that the major players of my childhood had left me with the invaluable gifts of imagination, creativity, and an insatiable curiosity for life and learning.
Two decades ago, when I arrived in Hong Kong, one of the first things I noticed was that HK children rarely played. They were constantly doing homework, even those who were in their early years. Moreover, when I asked ‘Why’, every parent’s answer was inevitably, ‘We/they have no choice, it’s very competitive.’
Today, the competition has intensified exponentially, yet the answers remain the same. In Hong Kong, parents and children continue to be held hostage by a system where demand exceeds supply into international schools.
Why do parents feel that there is no choice? Would it be possible to create a choice?
Bebegarten is my attempt and belief that it is possible to re-imagine education to relieve stressed parents and children of Hong Kong, it is possible to provide a choice as well as a platform for parents, educators, policy makers and practitioners to start the dialogue for change, it is possible to offer a place to children where’Learning can be and is as effortless as breathing’.
If not now, when? Let’s start the conversation together.
Margaret Leung, Co-founder
Email：[email protected]
負責人：Margaret Leung
營業時間：8.00 am – 5.00 pm (Monday to Saturday)
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