Just Another Day..

The head teacher of the third grade just came over to me and dropped a steaming hot baked potato on my desk. She continued to go around and pass one out to every teacher. Koreans are SO friggin random sometimes. I mean, never in a million years could I see someone doing this back home. I can see bringing in fruit (berries, or a watermelon) to share with your co workers, but trying to empty out your pantry by passing out potatoes is another thing altogether. Not half as bad as when a teacher went "fishing" over the weekend and brought in a cooler of fish and shells that she proceeded to gut and chop up during her free period. Never a dull moment here.

This morning was also the 4th or 5th time I have witnessed a teacher cutting a student's hair. Seriously. Granted, her hair was kind of a mess. I don't know if she had decided to chop it herself, but it was a little uneven. Along with haircuts, I've seen teachers hem skirts, stitch up rips in boy's pants, catch blood with a tissue from a nosebleed, take earrings out of girl's ears, put girl's hair up into ponytails as if they were 4, and countless other acts of "mothering". What a paradox. In one way, teachers here are somewhat robotic. They teach to the test, have hundreds and hundreds of students, never veer from power point presentations and memorization, and use harsh discipline. On the other hand, they can be very motherly (or fatherly), comforting students when they cry, fixing their hair, calling home to their parents, offering hours of advice to troubled students. It ceases to amaze me.

The other day my co teacher translated a few words for me of a teacher while she was disciplining a boy: "How are you even a human?" Degrading yes, but a few Korean teachers were giggling at their desks. This is just the kind of approach they take here with kids. I don't know what this boy did, but he was definitely ashamed. Who am I to say whether or not this form of discipline works. I've seen the same teacher hold a weeping child in her arms and rub their back.

I'm not a parent, so I can't relate to any of this. It's just what I get to witness while sitting here at my desk listening to my ipod and zoning out. Some days teacher to student interaction is heartwarming, other days quite frankly, kids get the shit kicked out of them. Well, not kicked, just whacked with sticks.

So today is another test day, which means no classes for me. Kids are taking practice exams to prepare them for the national exam next week. I laugh thinking about the "preparation" we had before taking the standardized state test back home. Oh wait, what preparation? Nobody cared. Not the same here.

What does this mean for me? It means I just spent a few hours looking up overland tours in southern and eastern Africa. I swear, I need some kind of program.