Speach Contest Day

I know I haven't blogged much about work. I'm not sure why. Some pretty cool things have happened at work. For one, we've met some amazing people here. Jini is one of our co-workers that always goes out of her way to help us and make us feel welcome in Korea. She has invited us to her home and we've been able to have open talks about some of the differences between our cultures. She's also an amazing singer and was the lead singer in a band in Korea until she had to give it up.

Next, I'd have to say the students make my day much brighter. I mean, just look at them! They are so curious and willing to learn! I know only one student in this picture is blurry. His name is Min and he's blurry because not even a camera can hold him still for even a second. He's raw energy and I love it! He was in my first batch of students. The other two girls are in his class. Angela is the one in the middle and she is so quite, cute and conscientious. Hanna is the other. She is going to a different school next month and even though she's not in my class this semester, I'll miss her.

Yes that is Jini teacher and yes that is a BMW. Her husband, Sup, who we've hung out with many times, loves cars. Jini says he's almost obsessed with them. He's a mechanic so it fits. It still was quite surprising to see her get in the first time. They've actually sold this particular car and now own a much more ostentatious red Ferrari. I can tell Jini is a bit embarrassed by how much it sticks out.

This was our Christmas gift last year. It is 4 bars of soap, 4 tubes of toothpaste, one of each shampoo, conditioner, and body wash and a bath poof. This seems like the Korean concept of a gift basket except it's a years supply and no basket! It's super generous, just not typical.

Often when we're marking, Curtis and I will chuckle quietly and then share some of the students writing from their journals or book reports. Here is a particularly good one from a student about "New Years"

For valentines, for instance, we all got various little goodies and candies from the students. However Curtis got a bottle of cologne! How weird is that? We also found it amusing that Jini got a neatly wrapped chicken kabob! (As pictured to the left) Not really a traditional gift back home or in Korea.

For Easter, Rachel gave us all Easter Eggs in a little basket. I like hard boiled eggs so I tried one. I was surprised that it was brown in colour instead of white. Jay said that's because it's a burnt style of cooking it. I thought, why not try. It was so dry... like the pot of water it was boiled in was boiled dry! I didn't finish it and the other egg sat on my desk for a month cause I couldn't bear to just throw it out. I finally did after asking Jay if he thought it might be spoiled.

And the last three pictures are from today. I had the best day at work today. We had a speaking contest planned and at first all the foreign teachers were very skeptical as to how well it was going to go. We all thought the students wouldn't have prepared their speeches and would be misbehaving like it was a free day. Before the first bell went, I was talking with a few students asking if they were ready. One of my students (Alex) nodded so I started him off on his speech, thinking he'd need a reminder about what I was talking about. He picked up right where I left off like he was reading off a page. It was so smooth and fluid, and it was only made more precious by the few times he looked up to remember the next sentence. I almost welled up with tears I was so proud of him. The rest of the students also made me so proud. I told them all too. Some of them couldn't remember well, so they looked, but everyone tried in earnest. It was great!

After the amazing day with work, I had a coffee date with Naomi. We have been turning our coffees into walks lately because it's so gorgeous here lately. We walked for about 45 min in one direction and then headed back along the path in the other direction. The walking path runs parallel to a little creek, stagnant in some areas because it's mostly man made.

The paths are really nice though and it's a great escape from skyscrapers and neon lights. There were many people out on the path and even small children. It didn't surprise us too much, children stay up really late here. I've seen them with their mom's at E-mart out shopping at midnight on a weekday. The thing that did catch my eye was the number of people using outdoor workout equipment. I mean, I've seen it around, but I didn't figure people actually used it! There they were, grown adults doing curls and presses on outdoor weight benches with resistance coils rather than free weights. I almost wanted to take a photo, but it was too dark to really have captured it well.

Namoi and I talked about so many things and hashed out the weeks events. It's so nice to have a girl friend here. Not to mention one that's so similar to me. We share really similar values and backgrounds so when I say something she has an idea about where it might be coming from. I mentioned tonight how the "right to being educated" has really messed things up in a bunch of ways. Being a liberal, I expected some debate, but she just asked me how. I feel like I had a brain wave and I just have to write it somewhere so it's going in my blog! hehehe.

This is when most people should probably tune out....

So... the right to be educated started as a movement so that children would all have equal advantages. The idea was sought as a means to equalize background and make it easier for kids with less opportunities to become educated an thus have better futures. While I completely agree with this sentiment, I think declaring a right to be educated isn't enough. I really feel that education is a privilege, but that it shouldn't be reserved for those with wealth. Instead it should be reserved for those with desire. It's similar to an argument used for deciding roles of women and men - to work outside the house or to work inside it. Instead of saying that all people should be educated (and by that it can be assumed people mean public education) it should be allowed that at a certain age, children should be able to learn from experience rather than a text book. I'm not quite as eloquent as I was when I was walking along the river. One of the main ideas to support this is the move away from an agricultural society. We don't value the land as it should be valued and neither do we value those that work it. Being that we need farmers just was much as we need doctors, wouldn't it be prudent to allow children who want to be farmers to learn to be farmers instead of pushing them through high school and community college? Most people would argue that a farmer's lifestyle isn't necessarily what everyone hopes for their child - sweaty, heavy labour till the day you die, but then, shouldn't we care more for those that feed us? If the lifestyle is unsuitable, the price of food should rise until farming is a sustainable lifestyle again. This ties into another issue. The global economy ensures that in wealthy countries we don't need to raise farmers because poor countries will and we can import their produce. The idea whether global or local still applies. Should we not ensure that those that are feeding us have a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Another point that the right to education brings up is the way we do public education. Is public education is what a child needs in order to grow and develop into self sufficient young adult? I think most people would like to think so, but if that's the case, we seriously undervalue the skill it takes to prepare meals, proper nutrition, budget, clean a house, parental skills, keep a tight schedule, etc. all of which are traditional women or home work skills. Doesn't the education system today completely undervalue the role of the work in the home? Does it not at the same time undervalue necessary labour jobs in the world like farming, chefs, custodial persons, most art professions, parental skills, work of the home, etc. What kind of self sufficient young adult would you be if you didn't have any of the skills necessary to function outside of the workplace?

Another problem that bring up is... what exactly does public education aim to teach? If it claims to only teach the core subjects, it's denying the basic concepts of respect, discipline, manners, and honesty that it depends its students use every day. Should a school teach these things?

Ok... that's the meat and potatoes of these ideas I've been having lately. Please shed some light on it if you will.