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A package from my parents. Go Jim and Jean!!!!! See the video bar on the right.

Thoughts on education in the USA

So we just finished up parent teacher conferences. I met with 67 of 100 possible parents. I was blown away by how many came. It was actually a pretty good experience. It is pretty tiring and I felt like I repeated myself a lot. However, I felt like it gave me a lot of insight into where my students are coming from and that is always useful.

So I have some thoughts about education that I have been considering. You always hear about how the US does poorly compared to other countries when it comes to education. Well from my experiences so far here in Korea I would suggest that those shortcomings are more a result of culture than methodology.

Education is a huge deal here. Students in Korean public schools spend ridiculous amounts of time at school (like 7AM to 7PM or later, 5 days a week). After that they go to private tutoring. This isn't just our school; its Korea in general. Education is the gatekeeper not only to status when it comes to money making but also socially. If you fall behind you are done for. You must keep up and you must do well. Nothing else is an option. That is the expectation laid down to any kid no matter what their social status is. Poor kids are expected to perform just as well as rich kids; they just have to work more for it.

I think that in the US the problem with education is that it is not a priority to our society. School is something you have to go to. It is a necessary evil. It is day care for some parents. From my experiences at RBHS we had some fantastic teachers doing interesting and challenging work with their students. I think this goes on at many schools. I just think that the culture that our students are immersed in does not give a rip about education. It is all about the money. You know the rundown: movies, sports, music, etc... A lot of "attractive" folks making crap loads of money and acting like they own the world as a result (I fully realize this is a broad generalization and there are a lot of intelligent, educated people in those occupations).

Here are a couple suggestions to help solve this problem. 1) make people fill out applications before allowing them to procreate. This process would work to ensure that they will be responsible parents (this one was a joke). 2) Mandate early childhood education starting at age 2. This would presumably get kids into a constructive learning environment sooner, and hopefully begin modeling appropriate learning practices at an early age. 3) Don't allow a kid to advance past a particular grade level until he/she has proven they are proficient at that grade level. 8 y/o in kindergarten? If that's where he needs to be keep him there. (This sounds like it should happen right? It doesn't.) 4) Have the US go through one giant paradigm shift.

Now let me say this too. Korea has problems with the way it views education. There is a reason that it has one of the highest suicide rates of any country in the world. Failing is viewed as worse than death because of the public shame involved. That's why so many people take their own lives. Also the emphasis in the Korean public schools is to memorize as much information as you possibly can in preparation for the end of high school exam (which determines your college choices). There is very little emphasis on critical thinking and innovative thought.

I feel like there is more rolling around in my head about this but it is not coming to the forefront at the moment. I'm sure it will spill out at times throughout the year.

it's dead

So my mom has this gift (one of many) and that is that she can keep things alive. I do not have this gift. At our wedding we had two ficus trees to help decorate the alter. After the wedding my parents took one and we took the other one. Over the past two years we have slowly watched our tree almost die. Huge chunks of the tree were missing at times and it had an over all drooping appearance. When we moved to Korea we gave the tree to my parents so it could have a home, and go figure...after only a short existence in Jerre's care the tree has flourished! On one hand I am excited that our wedding tree is thriving because I feel like the health of our marriage is some how linked to this tree. I believe this only because my parents have a ficus tree from their wedding that STILL LIVES today (it's huge) and they have a great marriage. So in my head I think, healthy ficus, healthy marriage. On the other hand, I feel a tinge of bitterness because my mom can make things grow and I CAN'T!

When we arrived in Korea and moved into our apartment one of the first things we noticed was a small plant in our place left to us as a gift. How charming. Over the past three months we have slowly watched this plant grow weaker and weaker. I watered it, talked to it, tried to give it some sun (the instructions on how to care for it were in Korean so I just guessed on how to give it some TLC). However, I am sad to report that our plant has died. I seriously contemplated sending it to my mom when it started to look sick, but I figured it wouldn't survive the journey. Since this recent death, I have thought about getting a new house plant but for the plants sake I may refrain. Apparently, unlike my mom, I can't keep things alive. How did I miss this all important gene???

May it be noted, that I was able to successfully keep our dog alive for the year we had him. Hopefully I'll get all the kinks worked out before we start having babies (good thing I have a while).

Parent Teacher conferences

Tomorrow (Thursday) we begin parent teacher conferences. We have a half day of school and parents come from 1-8:30 with a break for dinner from 5-6. Then they come back Friday from 11-3. So we actually get to sleep in on Friday! Yes!!!!!! The school basically sets up a table for each teacher in the auditorium and then parents come and visit any teacher they would like. This will actually be the first time that Bonnie or myself have ever done parent teacher conferences like this. I probably only had 3 or 4 parent teacher conferences in my 3 years at RBHS because there was never a scheduled time for them like this. This should be interesting...

P.S. My eyes got better. I don't really know what was wrong but we skyped doctor Jean (my step-mom), she took a look from 7000 miles away, and diagnosed me with some sort of sinus infection. She then recommended some meds that we ask the doctor for. We went to the clinic here and told them that my step-mom was an eye surgeon and what she recommended. They really didn't ask any questions and just prescribed me the meds that she suggested. Grand total it cost $18 including meds and without filing with insurance. The Medical field is interesting here.

feeling icky

this has been a rough week for tom and i. Earlier this week I had to stay home from school one day because i have been fighting off a stomach bug. I went to the Korean doctor (that was an experience) and got some meds, which have helped. I'm still trying to get back to feeling 100% but I am much better.

On a sad note, the icky bug has landed on tom. A few days ago his eyes started to feel irritated. Then yesterday he woke up and his eyelids were majorly swollen. He went to school and all the kids thought it made him look more Asian. Some kids even said it made him look more handsome! I for one, like normal Tom better. We called Dr. Jean (tom's step mom) and got some advice, so now we're going to try to go to a clinic and see if we can get Tom on some meds. Hopefully we get an English speaking doctor!

Just a water cooler?????

Now don't just look at this picture and say, "Come on Tom we have water coolers in the good ole U S of A." This, my friends, is more than just a water cooler. You see how there are two spouts? Well the blue obviously put out cold water, but from my experiences in the past the other one usually puts our room temp water. Here is Korea that is not the case. It puts out freaking hot, burn your hand water. What is so fabulous about this is that you have hot chocolate, ramen, and even coffee on demand.

Since we have been advised by our school and the coutry of South Korea as a whole to not drink the tap water purchasing one of these for our home was a must. I think this has been so impactful because of that purchase. Maybe some of you have experienced this at home... but this is a first for us. So here's to you Korea. Well done on the water cooler/heater.

Also... Apparently posting Sponge Bob on Youtube is a copyright infringement because it got yanked off and we got a nice condeming note from YouTube. Oops

Saturday in Seoul

So this past weekend Bonnie and I got to go to the Passion Conference at Olympic Park in Seoul. For those of you who don't know Passion is a huge Christian concert/conference tour that travels around the world. It headlines with some of the biggest names in the Christian music scene; Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and David Crowder as well as a speaker name Louie Giglio. We just got totally lucky that it happened to be in Seoul this week so we decided to spend our Saturday there.

We went to a session at 10AM and then decided to skip the 2PM session and head out to explore Seoul a little bit. We ate some lunch at a nearby Quiznos and then hopped on the subway. We visited a more Americanized part of the city and found a used bookstore there. I bought the Clancy novel Rainbow Six; Bonnie got The Great Gatsby, and a book about Jim Elliot. As we walked out of the bookstore we saw something that floored us... a Mexican restaurant. Those are extremely rare here. We ate dinner there and it was fantastic. Then we went back for the 7PM session of the conference. It was a fantastic Fall Saturday. It was no comparison to the Sausage Supper going on in Brinktown, Missouri this weekend but it will have to do.

We posted a little video on our YouTube bar on the right. It is a medley of video clips I put together from the songs at the Passion conference. There's also some Korean Sponge Bob on there.

too cute.

these are pictures my mom sent of the dogs. i guess hank and macey have become quick buddies, so much so that hank can practically sit on macey's head and not get eaten. I also think it's funny to see a huge 90 lbs. dog curled up in a little ball by a little 25 lbs puggle. they're just too cute.

I think Hank has also been good company for my dad. A few weeks ago my dad severely sprained his ankle. It's pretty bad and he's stuck at home for at least 8 weeks keeping that foot propped up. At least he has a little friend to keep him company!

One connection to America that won't end

Despite the fact that I am over 6000 miles away I refuse to let my love for American football be hindered. Through friends and some internet surfing I have found ways to watch games on the internet. The quality is a bit rough sometimes but I can watch nonetheless. Earlier today I was able to watch the Tigers smash the Nebraska Cornhuskers to little pieces of gravel. It was priceless. I'll be honest I probably keep up better with the news of the NFL here than in the states. There's just not much entertainment when at home other than the internet and my browser always seems to navigate to nfl.com, espn.com, kansascity.com, fantasysports.yahoo.com and so on...

One thing that I am especially proud of is the fact that I managed to stay a part of the fantasy football league I have been in for the past 4 or 5 years. It has been more or less the same 10 guys that whole time give or take a few changes here or there. We even completed the leagues first live in-person draft with me calling in on Skype and another guy calling his picks in by phone. This meant that I had to get up at 5AM but that's what commitment is all about right?

Another first for our league this year was the first international trade. I traded Zach Osborne: Anothony Fasano, Maurice Jones-Drew, and Roy Williams in return for Willie Parker and Randy Moss. I think I got the better end of the deal but only time will tell. They are now members of the Korean Conquerors.

Anyway... Those of you disinterested in football have probably stopped reading by now so I better wrap this up. I love the football and nothing is going to stop me from being a part of all of the action. Not even 6000+ miles. Except for the noon games, that's 2 AM here. I can't do that.

I think in coming posts we will be discussing some great Korean innovations. There are many things here that we find ourselves asking, "Why don't we have these in America?"

thanks mom and dad!

We got a package from home! This was our second one since we've been here and it was glorious. We filmed the opening of our package, but the video wouldn't load up on blogger! bummer! so I posted the video on Youtube. You can click the link below to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdS6YJ9MiI

We also added a video bar to our blog on the right hand side. This will display the videos we have posted on Youtube (our apartment and/or our package)