Top Five Things I’ve learned while Teaching in Korea: Disillusions
With all of my idealistic and self-development thoughts I try to teach the kids not only the material for my classes, but also the life-long goals they can learn. Essentially, I don’t want them to make the mistakes I made. It reminds me of the quote “Experience is the best teacher.” There are what I have realized in the last three years in Korea the following:
1) Creativity is taken out of them - I’ve read several surveys on the internet about how creativity dies a gradual and painful death in elementary school. There is an excellent TED speech by Sir Ken Robinson titled Schools kill Creativity and I whole-heartedly agree with him. The presentation is a quick overview about creativity and education. Korean students creativity seems to be accelerated through the use of cram schools beginning in elementary school. I’ve seen fourth graders getting off of academy buses at one am in the morning near my apartment complex. Its really a sad thing and I’m coming to grips that I can’t help the masses, but maybe
one or two at a time.
2) Thus, Korean Students Lack Creativity - Its annoying and painful to read the same essays about Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, and the like. No offense to those great people, but these kids need to learn about a diverse array of people. However, the paradigm of math, language, and science are the best have been blown way out of proportion here. I’ve been trying to teach my kids to write, think, and read creatively and critically, however this is easier said than done. As for the best way: give them a framework, thorough instructions, and repeat it to them multiple times. After that take baby steps to teach them about creativity. Most of the time I still can’t get through them. The ones that are creative end up being ostracized and considered as a loners. It’s a total catch-22.
3) Its hard to motivate Korean students - I’ve used all kinds of techniques to try to motivate students: from trying to studying the underlying principles of motivation (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) to using money/bribing in my classes. Unfortunately, the quickest and most effective way is fear. For example, punishing physically (old school Korean system), humiliation, or the phone call to parents (which doesn’t work if the parents are apathetic). My idealistic and teaching via love and passion doesn’t seem to work well, especially if they don’t care about the subject (English, Critical Reading, and Writing). I’ve come to the conclusion my method of teaching is not ready and that I’ll have to conform or leave. I chose leaving. That’s where the whole entrepreneurial thing comes in.
4) Structure short term goals that correlate with long term goals - My new technique for the time being while I have to continue to be a teacher is this. Create these short term goals that hopefully add up to greater longer term growth.
5) Peer pressure is very effective - Koreans like to be homogenous. Anyone who has been to Korea or knows “Korean-Koreans” know this. They don’t like standing out of the pack and if they do they are again ostracized. Knowing this you can use it in your classes to encourage or manipulate them to be better.
As I write about this I find that I need to teach myself these things and its just not the Koreans, I hope I’m not the only one who needs this information. I hope this concoction of thoughts inspires and gives some useful ideas.
Peace be with you,
~Hoo
Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/mafuyou/
Quiet Time: Tact, Actions, and Listening
I know I haven’t posted consistently for a while. There are several factors, but the major ones are that I am lazy, I have lacked transparency, and I lost discipline. Those will change. I will do an experiment to keep track and blog twenty times a month- essentially every week day for one month to see if this helps me or not.
I read a lot in my quiet time today.
Here are three scriptures that resonated with me today.
Actions are the ultimate way to measure something.
Proverbs 20:11 - “Even a child is known by his actions; buy whether his conduct is pure and right.”
When I watch people there are many who just talk, but don’t live out their values by actions. It’s as they say, “Actions speak louder than words.” I personally need to work on this. Yesterday, I made a promise to God and people that I will not be late. I hate being tardy or late to things.
Listen completely and don’t interrupt.
Proverbs 18:13 - “He who answers before listening- that is his folly and his shame.”
I got in an argument with my girlfriend yesterday and one of the major issues that she had with me is my constant, pre-emptive strikes when she speaks. I have a tendency to not wanting to listen when the conversation goes the “wrong” way so I cut them off. However, after she mentioned what she was going to say afterwards, I was reminded that I need to wait and listen until the other party has done speaking.
Use tact while speaking.
Proverbs 17:27 - “A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even tempered.”
I have a tendency to be unwise when I speak, most of the time this is because I speak before thinking. This is a disease that affects too many people. I’d like to change this. I know tact, discernment, and wisdom can save me from a lot of trouble and help me in the future.
I hope I can remember these three things for at least today.
Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/cleversimon/
My Tentative Bucket List
I was inspired by watching the movie The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. To do my own bucket list. I asked my students to do it too. I did it in order to think long term and what to truly accomplish over a life time.
The purpose of a bucket list is to write a list of things you want to do before dying.
It was much harder than I thought, but here is my tentative list.
- Travel the World - Mt. Everest, New Zealand, Pyramids, Great Wall of China, India, Australia, and Fiji
- Go to space - Virgin Galactic - anyone wanna buy me a ticket?
- Build a 100 story building
- Establish a university
- Spend a whole day meditating in peace
- Go sky diving
- Hang out near a waterfall with just people I love
- Impact 1,000,000 people positively with the message of Jesus
- Have a meeting with the world’s greatest minds - Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Seth Godin, Etc…
- Write a New York Times best seller.
Action Item: Why don’t you try writing yours down and ping me.
Picture: http://flickr.com/photos/jose_antonio1957/2489343956/
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