I made another child cry today. It's only the second, but then it's only been three weeks... two and a half with kids. I'm not looking for a response, affirmation or condemnation, as to my manner with children. I find that most children respond to me on a sliding scale with either laughter or tears on the terminus ends.
It started with the homework. The child in question is taking two weeks off of his/her vacation to go back to school. I assigned for the two weeks one Unit (9 pages) in her/his workbook, and a children's book to read in its entirety. I met with the five stages of grief flashing before me in a five-second span. They were then repeated throughout the remainder of our silent lesson.
1. Denial: The immediate response was a honed gaze of abject horrified shock accompanied by an incredulous, emphatic, and rather irate (See "2." below) "No." S/He simply refused to do the work. However before the entire breath escaped her/his lungs, s/he had already moved on to...
2. Anger: This was pretty much included in the "No" above. Then expounded on in the duration.
3. Barganing: "It's too much." (I'm cleaning up the grammar and usage for the ease of communicating this story to native English speakers as I presume the vast majority of my audience to be; it sounded more like "Too much" which still gets the point across, but I'm an English major and (just recently) Teacher, so I thought it better to clean it up a little bit.) Inherent in the claim "It's too much" is a barter for less. The terms for how much less were far clearer the third or fourth time around.
4. Depression: This first bout ended in a good quarter hour of a dejected, I'm-going-to-turn-my-chair-around-and-look-out-of-the-window tantrum during which I whistled a little tune and drew a picture on the whiteboard. It is a common practice when things get a little too tense in the classroom, especially since "hangman" here requires a monster to inflict bodily harm to the drawn effigies of unknown English words.
5. With ten minutes left in class, the student rose and started drawing too. It was partially to examine and admire my version of the Pan's Labyrinth "Cyclops" with eyes on its palms, and partielly out of sheer boredom in my unwillingness to engage in further entreaties to a silent youngster. Shortly before our time to go we ran through the first four stages a few more times. I believe we reached some level of acceptance and understanding when I sat the child down, blinking at me through tear-flooded eyes and said, "Do what you can. I'm not trying to make this hard for you. I want you to enjoy it. I want to make it easier. Tell me how I can help, and I'll do what I can. I'll see you in two weeks." I picked the book up off of the floor and handed to the student who walked slowly out the door without looking back.
I felt like a teacher. I'm just sorry it took a child's emotional breakdown.
Thursday 29 January 2009
Tuesday 27 January 2009
I'm in Seoul for a year, teaching English to young children. I'll be updating through a number of venues from Blogger to Facebook and (irregular) emails. If this is redundant, I apologize. It is only offered to keep you better informed.
I get about a half dozen channels that have fairly consistant, predominantly English programming on my television. That's about 6 more than I was expecting. One is CNN, another two are sports, leaving two or three movie channels and one station of varied programs, some familiar, some not so much.
I know this because I spent most of my first weekend in my room, getting over (hopefully the end of) this nagging congestion resting, reading, without a phone, without the internet, surfing foreign tv stations for something I could understand.
I'm working in a private school where the eldest students are relatively young, perhaps the eldest still younger than my neice. Evidently K12 is not the grade span, rather it's an indication of Kindergarden to 12 years of age or some such, but nevertheless I'm teaching young impressionable minds all the same.
The new school year does not begin for almost two months yet. The present classes are winter intensive courses. Many of my classes are exceedingly sparse, with one to three students for two hours at a time or more. It's not yet trying or at all difficult work, though I'm told the challenges come. I'm enjoying getting to know the students and deciphering our relative means of communicating. So far so good.
The teachers here have been helpful and accomodating considering this is brand new territory twice over having neither been to Korea before, nor taught anyone much of anything except for exercises and stretches (formally if otherwise).
I went out on Friday with a few of the teachers and had a nice dinner, and saw a bit of the town, most noteably the expat territory of Ichon where we found a Canadian Bar and an American Bar, two little nooks of my respective homes thus far.
I'm determined to save much of what comes in, so I'm not sure what I'll have to write that will deviate from the basic skeletal framework of what this week will be, at least until the weather warms and warrants more comfortable free time outside, but I'll try to find what interesting tidbits I can in this new window of life and send them here, to you, to peer through. Pictures will have to wait until I find a place where my own computer can get online.
All things considered, this feels like the right move to have made. I'm looking forward to a gym membership and/or tae kwon do lessons as my first discressionary expenditure(s).
As this is an old post on this new venue, I'll be updating the new soon.
- Foster
I get about a half dozen channels that have fairly consistant, predominantly English programming on my television. That's about 6 more than I was expecting. One is CNN, another two are sports, leaving two or three movie channels and one station of varied programs, some familiar, some not so much.
I know this because I spent most of my first weekend in my room, getting over (hopefully the end of) this nagging congestion resting, reading, without a phone, without the internet, surfing foreign tv stations for something I could understand.
I'm working in a private school where the eldest students are relatively young, perhaps the eldest still younger than my neice. Evidently K12 is not the grade span, rather it's an indication of Kindergarden to 12 years of age or some such, but nevertheless I'm teaching young impressionable minds all the same.
The new school year does not begin for almost two months yet. The present classes are winter intensive courses. Many of my classes are exceedingly sparse, with one to three students for two hours at a time or more. It's not yet trying or at all difficult work, though I'm told the challenges come. I'm enjoying getting to know the students and deciphering our relative means of communicating. So far so good.
The teachers here have been helpful and accomodating considering this is brand new territory twice over having neither been to Korea before, nor taught anyone much of anything except for exercises and stretches (formally if otherwise).
I went out on Friday with a few of the teachers and had a nice dinner, and saw a bit of the town, most noteably the expat territory of Ichon where we found a Canadian Bar and an American Bar, two little nooks of my respective homes thus far.
I'm determined to save much of what comes in, so I'm not sure what I'll have to write that will deviate from the basic skeletal framework of what this week will be, at least until the weather warms and warrants more comfortable free time outside, but I'll try to find what interesting tidbits I can in this new window of life and send them here, to you, to peer through. Pictures will have to wait until I find a place where my own computer can get online.
All things considered, this feels like the right move to have made. I'm looking forward to a gym membership and/or tae kwon do lessons as my first discressionary expenditure(s).
As this is an old post on this new venue, I'll be updating the new soon.
- Foster
Friday 23 January 2009
Through the Eye of the Storm: From Bush to Obama
I am decidedly a-political, if there is such a thing, at least concerning American and Canadian democratic systems. I do not believe myself to be of the Republican Conservative Right, nor the Democratic Liberal Left. Instead, I prefer to hold my ground, not in the center, but on a different platform altogether.
The last eight years have been trying years in America. My time in the States has nearly coincided with Bush's presidency. In that time I've known ardent Democrats, die-hard Republicans, and very few people in between. Ive learned one thing about politics: there are few greater divisive forces that incite more hatred, vitriol, and malevolent behavior in otherwise peaceable people, than these: Politics, Religion, and Nationalism. (Heartache, too comes to mind, but for different reasons.) The world has watched the American political dramedy unfold these past months and years before the backdrop of economic crises, natural disasters, wars on terror (on multiple fronts), terrorist attacks, attacking terrorists, terrorists torturing, and torturing terrorists. We've seen the President succeed and fail, falter, and flail. Mostly, I feel that I've seen an age through an aging man.
For all that Bush is and all that Bush was, I do believe him to be a man of certain principles that he struggled to uphold in the maelstrom of circumstances he was deemed responsible to lead a country through. He looks tired to me. He's aged. He's stuttered, stumbled, fallen, but he's continued to lead regardless of the pundits' followings. He's earned the same respect from me I'd offer anyone of such experience, no matter how much we differ in the end. We did not arrive on the other side of his legacy perfectly clean, unscathed, or unchanged - it would not have mattered who led America through these years - things would have changed regardless. Better or worse is a moot point. The point is that things have changed. It is a new world that we're waking to. It is a new country being led by a new man.
Obama has proven that Obama can inspire, but Obama cannot change anything that we ourselves are unwilling to change. If God is unwilling to sway the hearts and minds of mortals, how then can Barack? If the same burden placed on Bush is laden on Barack Obama, he too will quickly find that he's tired, aging, and bound until he sheds his mortality. Both will be recorded in annuls for the future's past, but I believe both will carry on in spirit too, and not unlike each other.
I honestly believe that the only politics we should be concerned about are our own personal politics. Call them morals, ethics, or principals, call them commandments, rules or laws, whatever you call them, these governing ideas and ideals are what will change the world. We can't agree on all, but we can all agree on some. We can agree that we have certain unalienable rights, endowed by God, or if you prefer, innate in our shared humanity, to life, liberty, and certain pursuits (I would not say property or happiness, perhaps not even freedom, but certainly a choice in who we will serve). We can agree that there are more important things than ourselves in our lives, at least, most can. We can agree on a handful of rights and wrongs. Ok, maybe two or three. Or just one. Just one? Any one? Anyone?
We cannot vote to end racism, we can only abolish it in ourselves and pray that others follow suit. It is high time to abolish racism, in all its forms, including "black" and "white". However, having visited countries and continents where I am a minority it's easy to see that we're far from a universal solution. Recognizing the problem seems to be the first step. We're still struggling through the rest. Why? We keep looking for reasons to divide, contrast and compare ourselves from our neighbors instead of seeing all the reasons we should love them as ourselves.
I don't think I'm truly a-political. I care. I care what side of my principles I stand on. Thankfully, my leadership doesn't ever change. I can't vote a new power into place. I can only continue to try and serve and learn, and serve and learn, and learn to better serve and love through widening my perspective to include more and more people into the outstretched arms awaiting them. God is love.
Perhaps that is the most divisive belief of all - more than all the world's politics, religions, nations and heartaches (heartache still being the closest thing I have to relate to division in my life) - that God is love. Some will not want to stand to read it. Yet, I do and will believe it. I believe too, that in believing such, I can still get along with you.
At the end of this term, I want to apologize for hurting those I've hurt, forgive all who hurt me too, thank all of you who've helped, and hope and dream in turn for all that is to come. I'm looking forward to the next.
The last eight years have been trying years in America. My time in the States has nearly coincided with Bush's presidency. In that time I've known ardent Democrats, die-hard Republicans, and very few people in between. Ive learned one thing about politics: there are few greater divisive forces that incite more hatred, vitriol, and malevolent behavior in otherwise peaceable people, than these: Politics, Religion, and Nationalism. (Heartache, too comes to mind, but for different reasons.) The world has watched the American political dramedy unfold these past months and years before the backdrop of economic crises, natural disasters, wars on terror (on multiple fronts), terrorist attacks, attacking terrorists, terrorists torturing, and torturing terrorists. We've seen the President succeed and fail, falter, and flail. Mostly, I feel that I've seen an age through an aging man.
For all that Bush is and all that Bush was, I do believe him to be a man of certain principles that he struggled to uphold in the maelstrom of circumstances he was deemed responsible to lead a country through. He looks tired to me. He's aged. He's stuttered, stumbled, fallen, but he's continued to lead regardless of the pundits' followings. He's earned the same respect from me I'd offer anyone of such experience, no matter how much we differ in the end. We did not arrive on the other side of his legacy perfectly clean, unscathed, or unchanged - it would not have mattered who led America through these years - things would have changed regardless. Better or worse is a moot point. The point is that things have changed. It is a new world that we're waking to. It is a new country being led by a new man.
Obama has proven that Obama can inspire, but Obama cannot change anything that we ourselves are unwilling to change. If God is unwilling to sway the hearts and minds of mortals, how then can Barack? If the same burden placed on Bush is laden on Barack Obama, he too will quickly find that he's tired, aging, and bound until he sheds his mortality. Both will be recorded in annuls for the future's past, but I believe both will carry on in spirit too, and not unlike each other.
I honestly believe that the only politics we should be concerned about are our own personal politics. Call them morals, ethics, or principals, call them commandments, rules or laws, whatever you call them, these governing ideas and ideals are what will change the world. We can't agree on all, but we can all agree on some. We can agree that we have certain unalienable rights, endowed by God, or if you prefer, innate in our shared humanity, to life, liberty, and certain pursuits (I would not say property or happiness, perhaps not even freedom, but certainly a choice in who we will serve). We can agree that there are more important things than ourselves in our lives, at least, most can. We can agree on a handful of rights and wrongs. Ok, maybe two or three. Or just one. Just one? Any one? Anyone?
We cannot vote to end racism, we can only abolish it in ourselves and pray that others follow suit. It is high time to abolish racism, in all its forms, including "black" and "white". However, having visited countries and continents where I am a minority it's easy to see that we're far from a universal solution. Recognizing the problem seems to be the first step. We're still struggling through the rest. Why? We keep looking for reasons to divide, contrast and compare ourselves from our neighbors instead of seeing all the reasons we should love them as ourselves.
I don't think I'm truly a-political. I care. I care what side of my principles I stand on. Thankfully, my leadership doesn't ever change. I can't vote a new power into place. I can only continue to try and serve and learn, and serve and learn, and learn to better serve and love through widening my perspective to include more and more people into the outstretched arms awaiting them. God is love.
Perhaps that is the most divisive belief of all - more than all the world's politics, religions, nations and heartaches (heartache still being the closest thing I have to relate to division in my life) - that God is love. Some will not want to stand to read it. Yet, I do and will believe it. I believe too, that in believing such, I can still get along with you.
At the end of this term, I want to apologize for hurting those I've hurt, forgive all who hurt me too, thank all of you who've helped, and hope and dream in turn for all that is to come. I'm looking forward to the next.
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