To Inspire and Be Inspired

This week I’m helping out at Brain Educations first Jr. Do Tong Camp at a Buddhist-run educational center near Cheonan, Korea. We have a dozen-or-so staff, about the same number of student-teacher-mentors from some of the country’s top universities, and 280 middle school students. The week’s program includes study skills in math and reading, English Speech time, Poongyudo (풍류도), ChunBuShinGong (천부신공), Kookhak studies (Korean history/culture) and vision meditation.

This week my job is to work with 14 kids and help them write a ‘Korean Spirit’ speech. Out of the 280, 14 students have ‘volunteered’ to work with a native English speaking teacher and do their speeches from scratch. The other students will practice a pre-written speech based on their level.

My students’ task is to write, revise, and be ready to give their speech by Saturday. We spent Monday brain storming. Today (Tuesday) we focused on the first drafts. For me, it was a chance to see ‘where they’re really at’ as far as writing in English. I learned they have a wide variety of skills in writing...and an equally diverse view of how to describe/define what ‘Korean Spirit’ means to them. We still have a long way to go—I can feel what they want to say, but many of the ideas are still all over the place. There is a LOT of work to do in the next three days. Yet, I was surprised how deep some of them were willing to try and go…

Here is my favorite quote from today. I added a few words to try and clarify what she wants to say in the first sentence, but I haven’t edited it otherwise.

Why [is the concept of] Koreans working together [with] one mind something to take as our [national] pride? If you know what harmony truly means deep down in your heart, and know how to work together in groups, you first know how much it means to be around people when you are happy, sad and also angry. I believe that all human beings share their emotions even depression. Even if your friend is not angry, that friend will be angry at someone if you’re angry. That friend will be happy if you being happy.

I always want to help inspire my students, but just like this…my students more often than not surprise and inspire me by what’s going on inside their heads. It’s often not very clear—the thoughts get all mixed up when they try to get them out in English—but I can see and feel what they’re working at and where they’re trying to go. It’s one of my greatest joys to try and help them get wherever they’re going.

Can't Fight the Moonlight

There are forces in this world that teachers just sometimes can’t work against. From my own personal experience, I firmly believe school vacations, the weather and the full moon can all have their effects on both students and teachers. While teaching in Vermont and Colorado, I’ve been able to predict Northeastern blizzards and tornado weather approaching by the ‘squirreliness factor’ of my kids. Tonight I’ve got a new one to add to my list. There is something undeniable about the power of the full moon. This month it seems to have turned my last class on a Friday night (usually a bit chatty, but relatively focused) into a bunch of little crazy aliens. (They said they were not people but ‘ETs’—not me.) At first I thought it was because it was just Friday night (our class is 7:45 to 8:50pm). Then I thought that they might be getting some kind of buzz from the second-hand smoke coming from the pool hall upstairs (it was almost unbearable—I swear the room was hazy because of it). Then I realized vacation was a week away and some of them had had a big test that week (or the week before). I kept thinking, “WHAT’S GOING ON!?”

As soon as I walked out of the school and headed home, I realized the sky was very clear and bright. That contradicted another theory I’d had--that perhaps a storm was coming. I wondered for a moment, and then I saw it…the bright, full moon. Interestingly enough my other three classes today had been rather mellow, but as soon as the sun set and the moon came out—so did the craziness! Walking home…I felt the big puzzle of the day had been solved. I smiled and laughed. I was glad I hadn’t really gotten angry at my kids for their disruptive and out-of-sorts behavior.

My point for sharing this story is that my class was actually quite unruly and I was very perplexed during the class. They managed to get some work done, but there was far more laughing, talking (in Korean), screaming and squealing ( while running away from and killing the invading insects) and interruptions than I should have allowed. I gave them warnings….I added three minutes of time after class… but nothing had any effect. I could have yelled at them and given them a more severe punishment, but I chose not to. I could have been angry at them for misbehaving and being rude or disrespectful, and I chose not to do that either. Honestly, they were so wild and silly; I couldn’t help but laugh at their antics and found myself drawn into it. There was one comment made that even brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but it was something that just sort of had its own energy and momentum.

Having moments of pure joy and ‘wild-crazy-silliness’ are so rare for these kids in school, I find that most of the time, I quickly choose to surrender to those precious moments. Walking home and seeing that bright moon and feeling my heart and mind still filled with their laughter, I realized I was happy I hadn’t tried to ‘control’ the situation tonight. I would have lost anyway—you can’t fight the moonlight when its wild energy has already soaked into the brains of a group of pre-adolescent aliens! ;)