A couple of weeks ago I found myself sitting at my desk inhaling toxic fumes and trying to grade papers to the sound of construction. I thought to myself, “is this for real?”
The day before, during our Tuesday meeting, Mr. Kim mentioned to us that the school, primarily the teacher’s office was about to be remodeled. He explained what the remodel was going to entail; the teacher’s office would lose about 3 feet of space, (we already were squished into a cubiclesque setting mind you) and they planned to replace the wall with glass. We asked why this was all necessary and the reply was, it will look nicer. So the next day the construction began. They removed all the computers (which is where all the materials for classes come from) except for one. They took out our copiers and placed one in the lobby for us to use. Now picture 15 teachers trying to prep their classes in this situation…all you can do is laugh and ask yourself "is this for real?”
It may seem that a lack of planning went into this whole extravaganza, and you are probably right. I have realized something living and working in Korea; critical thinking is not a skill they use very often. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not insulting their intelligence in any way, shape, or form, they are extremely intelligent, diligent people. They are just not taught how to use critical thinking in school. From what I can tell, kids want to know a black and white answer to everything… which explains the huge wordlists that they memorize for the test, oftentimes not grasping the real meaning of the words. School here seems to be about tests and answers not about using information to assess different situations. If I took as many tests as these kids do, I would probably just want a quick yes or no answer also. I did a survey in one of my classes and many of my students take up to 17 tests a week, and these are 8 year olds.
So as I am sitting, trying not to get frustrated that I cannot hear myself think, and knowing that getting out of my desk requires squeezing through an isle of displaced teachers I ask myself “all this so it looks better, who’s idea was this again?” Then I am reminded that I am in a different country, where ideas have been molded in a different way, through a different education system. What seems irrational to me makes sense in their minds. I cannot say that my way of assessing information is necessarily better than theirs, because things always seem to work out and get done in a roundabout fashion here. It may not be through the process I would take but, it does get the job done. All I can do is sit back and think “is this for real”.