One common behavior I’ve seen in almost all of my students is a complete lack of respect for their surroundings.
Now, I’m not saying that my school is some hallowed institution that should be revered and sanctified, but there are certain acceptable levels of cleanliness one should adhere to in public places, right?
Nope.
Not if you’re in Korea, anyways. Litter is the order of the day here. Finished with that candy? Then chuck the wrapper on the ground. Doesn’t matter if you’re outside, in the subway or sitting in class. The ground’s there for more than walking on – it’s the biggest trash can there is!
And it’s not just litter. There’s also the incessant doodling. On paper or in their books, I’m cool with. But do they have to draw on the desks? Hasn’t anybody (before me) ever told them this is wrong?!?”
It’s just doodling, right? How bad can it be?”
How’s this?
Or how about this one?
This one even has some English on it:
Detail of the above desk:
Oh, I recognize. I recognize that you haven’t got a fucking clue about respecting other people’s property.
Now, obviously it’s not in my class that this goes on. So that means the Korean teachers don’t tell the kids to stop. Probably because they did the same stuff when they were growing up.
When I was taking the photos I told my students why I was doing it. Two of them wanted to make a “special message” for me to take a picture of:
Talk about not getting the point.Another student took offense to my picture taking, and insisted “Korea isn’t dirty!” Well, parts of it are, and you’re part of the problem if you’re vandalizing school property. If people think Korea is dirty, then it must be because of something Koreans are doing.
That was lost on him.
Desks are the only targets. Walls aren’t safe either:
And here’s the grand champion desk:
wow…..
See, I know if I’d ever done anything like this when I was in school, I’d have gotten detention, had to stay after school to clean the desk – and probably all the desks in the room, not just the one I’d drawn on – and then catch hell from my parents once I got home.
How is it that a school where kids get beat with a stick for not doing well on a test does nothing about this?!?
Am I missing something here? Anyone?