Teen angst with a twist

I am currently lucky enough to be teaching the highest level English class that my school has to offer. These kids are incredible, barely sixteen years old and fluent. The literature we read comes from the worls of Walt Witman, Maya Angelou, Ray Bradbury, Pearl Buckman and Henry Longfellow. And they dig it. I dig it. They are the quietest bunch that I teach, but rather then being due to disinterest or sullen resentment, I find them to simply be shy in that painful, junior high. I'm-one-of-the-smart-kids kinda way. I can actually talk to them, and sometimes, they actually talk to me. One of their assignments was to write a poem for me.

During class we had talked about being young, getting older, and what growing up can be like for different kinds of people in different cultures. They acknowledged their cultures obsession with education and the stressees placed on Korean students as opposed to students in the western world. We then talked about high school drop-outs, teen pregnecy, the violence and the school shootings that are now a seemingly natural part of western society's school culture. I then asked them to write a poem on how they felt about being a teenager here in Korea. Anything and everything. The sky was the limit. Most of the responses I got related to the stresses of school, one even touching on the suicide rate among Korean young adults. Save one.

Ryan, barely fifteen years old. Top of the class. My unidentified favorite.


Two ways

By Ryan


abortion
abusive boys and girls
abrasive acts

not abstainigs non proper things
abnormal things around me

Non of them seem to understand
what thick mist is ahead of them

would you choose 25years of competition
inside the fence called family
and the rest enjoyable
or
25 years of cool life
and the rest regreting all the time?

take your pick

This job is interesting at times:)

Comments

Glenn said…
Found your page on the Korea blogs list. Nice words ^^
February 28, 2008 at 12:52 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And so it goes…..

Image
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, the kind that makes you feel exhilarated and high one minute, and downright nauseous the next. Life continues to surprise me, even in my old, old age. It’s always been my personal belief that unless you learn the lessons life throws your way the first time it does so, you will be forced/doomed to repeat your mistakes and learn those life lessons, over and over and over, with the stakes becoming higher and higher each time. The following is one life lesson I think I’ve finally learned. Nothing in life will ever happen the way you expect it to. Seriously. Ever. You can wrack your brain and exhausted every possible scenario that you ever imagine could possible be conceived. You will mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for every single one of these scenarios and arm yourself with the knowledge that your confidence, strength of character, and those deep breathing medititation exercises you spent the past 3 months honing will carry you through.
Read more

Just Sayin....

The air has become a thick wet blanket that lays over the city. The heat and humidity wrap around you as soon as you step outside and the smells that normally circulate the streets have become magnified and soupy. Rainy season is here. Went out for Mexican last night with some friends, and found myself sipping beer on the streets at 1am, smoking a cigarette and reminicing about Nirvana, Mos Def, Pearl Jam and MJ. The mosquitoes here are not normal mosquitoes. They are mutants sent from the planet Insect Revenge to wreak havoc on us poor unsuspecting expats, who foolishly did not stock up on OFF! prior to leaving their countries of origin. My students actually laughed at me and my swollen arms and ankles and two of them suggested rubbing kimchi on the bites themselves to help them disappear faster. I told them I was going to rub kimchi on their faces if they actually thought I would fall for that. The next day one of the girls brought me a bottle of lotion to help “not have red and puff
Read more

And just in case you thought otherwise.....

Today one of my kids came up to me and grabbed my arm. Teacher! she cried. You.....have baby? she asked and pointed to my stomach. Hahahahahaha, the demon spawn laughed. Baby, she said again and made a gesture that indicated my mid-section was not as slender as she would have preferred it to be. This is why I hate kids. After throwing her out the window, I trekked over to Dave's classroom. Do I look pregnent? I asked a classroom full of innocent looking faces? Three os them shook their heads while the fourth frowned. In your face, she told me. My boyfriend laughed his fucking head off. This is why I hate boys.
Read more