Houdong Montessori Experimental Elementary School

Houdong Elementary was founded in 1940 in Houtong, a coal-mining village in Ruifang. Its old campus was destroyed by a landslide during Typhoon Xangsane in 2000 and rebuilt by 2003. As Houtong reinvented itself from a declining mining village into the world-famous "Cat Village" (貓村), drawing tourists who come to see its resident cat colonies, the school faced its own decline in enrollment — falling to single digits per year. In 2021, it converted into Taiwan's first public Montessori experimental elementary school, giving the small campus a new educational identity just as the town around it had reinvented itself.

猴硐國小創立於1940年，位於瑞芳的煤礦聚落猴硐。舊校舍在2000年象神颱風的土石流中損毀，於2003年重建完成。隨著猴硐從沒落的礦業聚落轉型為全球聞名的「貓村」，吸引大量遊客前來欣賞當地的貓咪群落，學校本身也面臨每年新生個位數的招生困境。2021年，學校轉型為全台第一所公立蒙特梭利實驗小學，如同猴硐整個聚落一樣，為自己找到了全新的定位。