Nevertheless, even before these schools were established, Mackay had already started an "outdoor education program." He wrote, "Our first college in North Formosa was not the handsome building that now overlooks the Tamsui River and bears the honored name of Oxford College, but out in the open under the spreading banian-tree, with God's blue sky as our vaulted roof."
不過，早在學校建造之前，馬偕就已開始他的「戶外教學」，他自己記錄道：「我們在台灣北部最早的學校，並非現在俯臨淡水河的那座名為 Oxford College 的堂皇的建築物，而是在大榕樹下，以蒼空為屋頂的。」