Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Pick-Me-Up
Today I was going about my business of correcting my kindergarten students' writing workbooks, in which one of the journal entries was "Write about something that is ugly. Why do you think it is ugly? What does it look like?" Dumb journal entry if you ask me, but I didn't make it up. The kids said things like a mean face, or a trash can, and then I came across this gem: "I think that Miss Walding is ugly because she is fat. She needs to get more exercise and eat less." Ouch. The thing that really gets me is that the student who wrote it has a tutor on the weekends, and from the level of English used in his writing, I could tell he had help writing this. Sure enough, when I asked the kid about it and told him it wasn't very nice (I couldn't help it), he started crying and said his tutor made him write it. I didn't press the issue further because I could see he was upset about it, but how weird is that? His tutor suggested that he write that his teacher, who is going to read this, is ugly and fat? I don't get it, but it doesn't help my anti-Korea feelings at the moment.
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Oh Erin that's horrible! I can't believe that a tutor would do that. Have you and Carm met for coffee yet or what??
ReplyDeleteWell that was a tricky title to this post! I thought you'd give your readers a real pick me up after all this bad news! My Korean-American social work professor in grad school once told us that Koreans are known for being superficial about appearance...guess that confirms it, huh?! Lordy. So really, is anything good happening for you? Your readers want to hear about it! :)
ReplyDeleteI think that your "About Me" picture is about perfect for your blog. At first, your expression seemed a bit overwhelmed by being in Korea, and it seems to continue to be applicable.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you're pretty. So there.
That is absolutely terrible. I'm sorry you are having such a shitty time here Erin. I do think it's your job though. If you had worked at a public school, you would have gotten the royal treatment like we did.
ReplyDeleteHang in there.