::A Geek in Korea::

There are certain topics books should never talk about, no matter how interesting, because they simply cause too many problems. One of these forbidden topics is anything suggesting more sleep. Even if I want to teach students about how important sleep is, I never want to give the impression that falling asleep in my class is better than staying awake in it.

In my last class for today, I had to teach about the many benefits of taking naps in the afternoon. Everyone in the class was as exhausted as I was, and the book went on and on extolling the virtues of sleep. It increases memory! It reduces stress! It helps you study! 20 minutes of sleep is the best thing ever!

According to the book, the best time to nap is 8 hours after waking up from a long night of deep sleep. That meant that the class I was teaching was taking place very close to the best time for my own “optimal nap time”.This irony was not lost on me in the slightest. The students said that they’d be doing research on the “topic” by resting.

I wish I would have been permitted to take a nap for twenty minutes to get back my attention span for the rest of class. Talking about sleep isn’t something books should do frequently.

One of my middle school classes will disband next week for a month while they prepare for examinations. This is a shame, because I was starting to enjoy their classes more. In particular, I like grading their essay materials and finding out about their unique points of view.

Sometime around middle school students start finding humor, and defending their opinions. Recently our books have had some dour topics that were boring to read when you get the same boilerplate answers. I teach the students to express themselves in class, but with peers they are less likely to say what they really feel. The journals are more direct, and I’ve often gotten surprising answers to some questions:

On the topic of “Should elderly people be put in nursing homes”, The standard Korean stock answer was that not taking care of one’s relatives is dishonorable, and that it is a family duty out of respect in love. No exceptions. 99% of the essays I read were just restatements of this theme.

However, in the middle school class, one of the girls said that old people really aren’t pleasant to look at or deal with, so they should be put in nursing homes so the young people aren’t depressed all the time. It might be selfish to toss people in a hole to keep from being depressed, but she said what she thought, and I made sure to give her extra points for having a unique thing to say.

On the topic of “Should people gossip?” this same girl said she loved to gossip, and it kept people in line and allowed for social connections. She said she’d be lonely without being able to gossip. This was also outside the norm, as most students considered gossip no less than a high crime to a friendship.

Another female student in the class said that to be the best daughter she can be, she should be as beautiful and popular as possible. While this answer was somewhat vapid, she had detailed reasons why this would be the best possible thing for her, and why it would make her parents happy. If she’s going to be able to support an opinion, it’s good enough to pass my test.

The boys in the class are still regurgitating what their parents have taught them and aren’t sharing daring opinions at all. While all the girl’s opinions are counter to my own at times, the fact that they take the effort to explain them and share then well is wonderful.