Today was an interesting day at our school, because we got to see how seriously Korea takes their testing. Our school is a private elementary school; there are also a middle school and high school in different buildings on campus. Since we teach in the elementary school, we never interact with the older students. However, today when we showed up at school there was a large group of young people standing outside the high school with signs, shouting at cars as they drove up to drop off students. Bradley and I assumed they were protesting something, but we didn't really know because everything was of course in Korean. When I got to my first class of the day, I asked the students if they knew why there were people yelling outside of the school. They said that "it is for the test, they are cheering." We later learned from the Korean teachers that the high school seniors were taking an examination, along with ALL the other high school students across the nation, to qualify them for university. Depending on their scores, they can either go to a high ranking university or an average one. They test from 9 to 5 (!!!!!!), with an average of an hour and a half per subject (way harder than the SAT!). The teachers also told us that all elementary students were asked to come in 10 minutes later today, so that their parent's cars would not cause traffic and make the high school students late. In addition, it turned out that rather than protesters, all of the people outside the high school were parents, siblings, and middle school students who were simply cheering the high school students as they arrived for their big test.
The importance of this test was also shown later in the day, when we went to lunch. In order to get to the cafeteria, you have to exit the side of the school and cross a common courtyard. As the students exited the courtyard, the vice principal stood at the exit with a finger to her lips, indicating that the students should walk silently across the courtyard so the sound wouldn't carry to the high school and disturb the test takers. We also learned that today, planes are not allowed in the air at specific times when the students are taking the listening parts of the test. As we left school for the day, there were a few dozen parents waiting outside the high school, waiting to cheer their children as they exited the school. It was kind of awesome to see how supportive they were of their students, but at the same time, also demonstrates how much pressure there is here on the students. One of the Korean teachers told me, "The students have been preparing for this day for 12 years," meaning their entire education leads to this day.
It has certainly been a learning experience seeing the amount of pressure these kids are under, and comparing the Korean education system the the U.S. First, students go to regular school from 8:30 to about 3:30 or 4. Then, the majority of students (in the country, not just our school) go to a private academy after school for several hours to learn more about a variety of subjects. Most of my students do not get home until 8 or 9 at night. They then have to study or do homework from both their school and academy, and many students don't go to bed until midnight. In addition, many students go to academy for at least a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday. It is really astonishing how much these students have to do, and how little time they have to just be kids and relax.
The reality of the stress the students are under was emphasized today while I was grading English diaries. The students write in these once a week, and Bradley and I check them. I really enjoy doing this; I think it is a fun way to get to know the students better. Today, however, I had one entry where the student talked about being hit by a stick on his hands 5 times at academy because he hadn't finished his math homework (corporal punishment is allowed here, and happens more commonly in academy. I haven't really seen it at my school, except for when a teacher grabbed a student by the ear and led him out the door). I had another diary entry where the student talked about how she got A's on all three of her tests she took last week, but she had only gotten scores of 95 out of 100, and both she and her parents said she should have done better. These students have so much stress, and this leads to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. Mental illness is highly stigmatized in Korean culture, and few seek treatment. This in turn leads to the extremely high suicide rates here, particularly among young people.
Knowing all of this really makes me feel so much more patient with the students, and I try much harder to make my classes more fun, so they will be learning in a more relaxed atmosphere when they are with me. I tell them they are smart, and I write back to them in their English journals and tell them that they are amazing. When I see a student nodding off in class, I just let them be, because I know that more than likely they were up very late the night before.
While there is a lot of pressure on the students, their self-motivation seriously impresses me. The students here are more able to get to work on an assignment without me having to constantly keep them on task. Last week for Halloween I brought in crosswords for fun, and when I passed them out it was absolutely silent. They work so hard, even when they are doing a fun assignment! When I was a substitute in America, the students would be talking and chatting the whole time they did a crossword. The students here have such drive to do well and they aren't afraid of studying hard. I am simply in awe of them sometimes.
While I think that the students in the U.S. could benefit from pushing themselves a bit harder, there comes a point when it is too much. There is a balance that must be achieved in order for students to reach their potential, and not be pushed to the breaking point. Being here and comparing the ways these two countries educate their children has really been a learning experience (pun intended, haha).
One of the hostesses with the most-est!!
The flutes players
The clarinet players
A Chinese dance some of the kids performed
A nice photo of the Ga-ya-geum being played
The pretty ballerinas . . .
doing their thing.
A couple of the percussion section 
