To help twelve junior high school students battling drug and smoking addictions, the Ministry of Education took them on a climb through the Central Mountain Range for a 21-day “high-altitude wilderness adventure therapy” program. They returned yesterday completely “transformed.” Minister of Education Wu Ching-chi gave each of them a “compass,” hoping it would help them find direction in life.
These twelve students were all from junior high schools in New Taipei City, all struggling with drug and smoking addictions, and some had even previously committed offenses such as sexually assaulting female classmates. The Ministry of Education decided to try an internationally established method known as “adventure therapy.” Starting June 8, professional mountain climbing coaches and counseling experts led this group of students on a 21-day trek through the Central Mountain Range, passing through eight peaks listed among Taiwan’s Hundred Peaks, including Yushan, Shiangyangshan, Nanshuangtoushan, Lulushan, Tapingshan, Dafenjianshan, and Nandashuik’oushan.
Wu Yuchou, outdoor education supervisor of the New Taipei City Student Off-Campus Activities Council and the official in charge of planning this activity, said that conflicts were constant during the first week—the students constantly compared who was “the toughest”; several tried to escape by sliding down the mountain using scrapped motorcycles; one even claimed his grandfather had died and cried, demanding to take a helicopter down the mountain for the funeral; another, suffering from nicotine withdrawal, offered to pay two thousand NT dollars to another hiker for a single cigarette. The leading instructors and teachers managed to defuse each of these conflicts and lies one by one.
“After the first week, the students realized there was no escape, and they began focusing their energy on challenging the mountains,” Wu Yuchou said. During this adventure therapy, each student had to carry nearly twenty kilograms of gear, sleep only in tents or mountain huts, and do everything for themselves. Some finished their four-day food supply in just two days and had to go hungry for the remaining days. Over the 21 days, they almost forgot about their addictions, and for many, it was their first time climbing major mountains—yet they summited eight of Taiwan’s Hundred Peaks, which gave them a strong sense of accomplishment.
“Sweet Potato,” who struggled with both drug addiction and a history of sexual assault, thought the mountain climbing trip was going to be fun, but he didn’t expect it to be so grueling. After descending the mountain yesterday, his mother came specially to the Ministry of Education to meet him. The mother and son embraced and wept bitterly, and Sweet Potato even said, “Mom, I love you,” in an emotionally touching moment. Sweet Potato said he had just graduated from junior high and planned to enroll in a vocational school’s culinary program to become a chef, with hopes of one day cooking for his mother.
Xiao Luo experienced a nicotine craving during the climb and tried to buy a cigarette from another hiker for two thousand NT dollars—but wasn’t able to. Xiao Luo said he had been hospitalized over twenty times before due to drug-induced episodes, and his family had given up on him; he had also lost hope in himself. But after this mountain climbing experience, he gained new insight and resolved to quit drugs and turn his life around.