My little teachers

Teaching in Korea has been a wake up call. I've learned that my patience is not as enduring as I thought, and that teaching is the best way to test it. I've also learned a lot about kids, more specifically, Korean kids. They have amazed me with their knowledge of world affairs, and of their capacity to learn. You'd think that most kids would only care about video games and what the latest pop band was. Albeit most of them do, but they also have their ears open at the same time. They take in more than you think or expect of them.

My elementary kids are my favorite. I'm always surprised at how much they know about their own history and about current political events. Although, probably 90% of it were from conversations overheard from their parents at the breakfast table. However, most of us at ten years old, myself included, did not even pay attention to such things, let alone have opinions about them. My kids have become my history teachers, my Korean pop culture gossip columnists, and my tour guides of Seoul. Yes, they have tested my patience in every way possible, but they also have shown me that respect and trust has to be earned by both authority figure and student.

It's the best feeling to see an old student in the hallway and have them greet you with a toothy smile. Sometimes they like to give you parts of their snacks (cookies, oranges, dried squid), and even after you politely decline, they insist by pushing them into your hand with their little germy ones. I love being able to have old students come up to me and want to talk, or show me to their friends as their old teacher that was "mean but nice". It's rewarding when you walk through the door on the 1st day of a new term, and you have an old student beam up because you're their teacher again. These moments help me get through the rough days and assure me that I might be doing something right. Teaching has been the most tiring, stressful, and challenging job I've had so far. At the same time, it's the one job I've learned from the most and I'm grateful for the experience.