It's Okay to Be Different!

There are a lot of stereotypes about the Korean education system. Before I came to the country, I worried about the alleged insistence on rote memorization, teacher-centered instruction, harsh disciplinary methods and how these practices would converge with my own. Since I have arrived at my school, however, I've been amazed at the variety of progressive methods implemented. My school has an emphasis on collaboration and a focus on the "STEAM" subjects (Korea's version of STEM with art included!). Students have a lot of room to talk and a fair amount of opportunities to express themselves.

So while I've been pleasantly surprised for the most part, one infamous cultural difference has stood out to me so far. Korea, with deep roots in Confucianism, is a collectivist society. The concept of an individual is a foreign one and working cohesively within your community is much more important than self-fulfillment.

There are some really beautiful aspects of that mindset such as a focus on "nunchi" or the ability to read social context so as to not make anyone feel uncomfortable, and very close and caring relationships, to name a few. However, one issue that seems to arise from collective thinking is a fear of difference. When everyone is working to fit together, different opinions, values, or forms of self-expression are threatening. This is especially troublesome when applied to growing kids whose sense of self is fragile and whose character is vulnerable. Many students who vary from the norm (and really, who doesn't?) can feel excluded, unappreciated, or worse. In fact, Korea has the highest teen suicide rate in the world. 

In an effort to show students that even within their close-knit community, they are free to be themselves, the theme of my after-school class this year is going to be "It's Okay to Be Different!" I had my students read Todd Parr's book by the same name as an introduction to the idea. We then reviewed the vocabulary "same" and "different" and played some community-building activities like "Just Like Me" where students could recognize how their likes and dislikes, interests and talents, were similar and different from one another.

The next class, we made our own class book. I showed them an example of an "It's Okay to Be Different" page. Mine was "It's Okay to have a nose ring" :-) and then they got to work on their own. I was amazed with what they came up with- one student with a large red birthmark on her face wrote "It's okay to have a mark on your face" and proudly showed the group. The next class, we recorded ourselves reading our pages for speaking practice and made the video below. 

We even e-mailed the author Todd Parr and he responded saying he loved our movie! The students were so proud.

As a closing activity, I had students tell a fact about themselves according to the colors of Korean M and Ms. We all enjoyed learning about each other more. Then I asked them how the candy looked on the outside- different- and how it looked on the inside- the same! We're all the same and we're all different! 

Overall, I'm really proud of this start to the school year and can't wait to build upon this lesson!