Conjoined Twins Lesson

Still excited about the success of my round table discussion with my middle school kids, I decided to give in a try with the high school kids.

It was a disaster…

Let me just point out that there’s a HUGE difference between the middle and high school kids at my main school. First of all, the middle school kids actually want to be in school. They are there to study, and they need high grades to get into university. My high school kids however are in an entirely different “stream.” Bunam High School is a technical high school which tends to be geared towards the middle school kids who either didn’t have high enough grades to get into high school, or who have no intention of going to University. There are a select few who clearly have a passion for their trade, but for the most part, they are seen as being the “bottom of the barrel” when it comes to academia. I’ve been told on several different occasions that they have “bad brains,” and as a result, aren’t treated with very much respect. But in my classroom, everyone is treated equally.

I decided to try and promote a healthy discussion by showing a short video clip about conjoined twins living in America.

As soon as the video started, the class erupted in laughter. Some of the students shouted, “Monster!” which made the other students laugh even more. I was completely speechless. Needless to say, I stopped the video after about a minute, and had to spend several minutes trying to calm everyone back down again.

Attempting to have a post-video discussion proved to be impossible, so I was forced to resort to my backup lesson (a Mr. Bean video).

And this ladies and gentlemen, is why handicapped people have such a difficult time in Korea.

When I asked one of the teachers about handicapped Koreans, he responded with the following:

“Handicapped people don’t have an easy life in Korea. If they live in the country, they usually don’t go to school, so they end up working on farms. Nowadays, you can find them in some schools in the cities, but this is something very new. If you want a good education for your handicapped child, you have to leave the country.”

An ignorant country is blissful one, right? Oh no wait, that’s North Korea.

It wasn’t a good day today…

- Ken