As I was trawling for news on the Bieb(not Bieber, BBC), the other day I came across this article. As I read it I thought to myself, "this is terrible, the only way to solve this is going to cost a lot of money." That was until the last line which says, "The matter would be much more easily and cheaply resolved, it says, by enforcing the rules on school uniform."
Based on my experience it seemed to me like a very Korean thing to do, rather than hold to the rules that were in place they let it slide and now to cover it up they will need to shell out. But as I thought about it more, mostly in a way that would make light of the situation it struck me. Albeit on a different scale, we all face similar situations on a daily basis.
I see it every day at school. Let me explain using an example that affects my life on a daily basis. I work at a kindergarten and as such the kids are highly impressionable which makes it even more important how I act and react to what they do.
I still remember in my interview for the job when asked about how I would deal with problems that arose among the kids my answer was consistency. Let them know what my expectations of them were and in return what they could expect of me. That is easier said than done.
A few weeks ago the kids started using their play time to practice their Tae Kwon Do "moves" during break. You see one of our rules is that the kids should, as much as possible, keep their hands and feet to themselves. At first they weren't touching each other, they were just going through the motions, so no harm no foul. Instead of having the foresight to see where this was heading I let them be, after all it allowed me to have some much needed peace and quite to get some work done. This practicing quickly morphed in to wrestling. This was not acceptable but they were entertained and I could continue on with what I wanted to do. So I turned a blind eye.
Last week it escalated to the point where every time they had play time some one ended up in tears. It was clear that something would have to be done. In my case it won't cost me $700,000, if I did want to "buy" them back the most it would cost me is a bit of candy. That route would be easier for the short term but it would instil in them a sense of entitlement, and make it harder to "buy" them back the next time.
As such, that is not the route I plan on taking, instead of candy, it will cost me a bit of extra time and energy, redirecting their energy to be used for noble purposes. Had I been consistent in the first place this is time and energy that could have been saved.(But think of the lesson I would have missed out on...)
The idea of consistency is also something that has been on my mind for the past few months in regards to my own life. I too, like my students, am at a very mouldable point in my life, the decisions that I am making now will affect my entire adult life in many different ways. Cool, eh?
If all goes as planned I will never have to shell out $700000 for not enforcing the dress code, and that's a serious post on short skirts. I just attended a Korean wedding this past weekend so tune in next time for "Is That What you Call a Wedding Korea?"
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