In need of a change

South Korea has the highest suicide rate among young people in the whole world. The number has doubled in the past decade. The number of private schools like mine has doubled in the last decade as well. At 2:30 I have a class of 8 year olds. At 4:00 I have a class of 10 year olds. Both of these classes of students have already been to public school all day long. I recently listened to a man named Christian Lee talk about this issue. He says:

"If I had to go to school at 7:00 in the morning and then school ends at 3:00 or 4:00, and then I had to go to a private English school from 4:00 to 10:00 and then I had to go to some other private school for piano from 10:00 to 11:00. I would come home at midnight, and then get up at 6:00 the next morning and do it all over again...I don't know what I'd do with myself either."

When I look at the "system" this way, it makes me feel guilty that I'm even involved in the very thing that is driving these young people to be so desperate that they would even take their lives. Why am I here teaching in this system? But then Christian Lee went on to say something that caught my attention.

"All of these Christian foreign teachers are teaching these students, just thinking it's for a pay check. What they don't know, is that they're destined for influence. They're not there to get a paycheck, they're there to turn back the suicide rates. They're there to create an environment of creativity for these children that they've never had in public school."

Though I may not teach elementary kids the rest of my life, today I am called to teach my students I've been entrusted with. My students often come moping in after a long day of public school, in which they have to stand up to talk in class or are hit by the teachers if they misbehave. Even seeing their attitude go from unhappy to actually smiling and having fun learning, is such a reward. Though I only have these older students for 2 hours, 3 times a week, I shouldn't let myself have an "off" day where I don't feel like teaching. My words mean something to them and who knows, maybe someday my words or actions would reverse the statistic for one kid. That would be worth it.