As time goes by, students think less carefully
After a long time, I made a phone to my mom. Since I have been to Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, I started to live in Seoul and my mom has lived in Cheonan. Other than usual conversation, this phone call was special because it was about an interviewee and an interviewer, not as a mother and a daughter. I remembered my mom told me "Students these days don't think carefully or deeply, compared with the students old days." I was curious what she meant by that and what kind of things she wanted her students to learn.
It has already been 28 years since she has stood in front of high schoolers as a teacher. "How my first school looked like? Oh, well…" She remembered it looked like a school in a countryside that would come out from a movie. She said she was so excited and delighted to make her dream come true, but there was a funny episode that she cannot forget still. "Boys liked me, but girls were on the alert toward me. I was in confusion and couldn't understand why they were offended." Her curiosity was solved one month later. Some girls came to her and said sorry. They were offended to her because there was a male teacher before she came and he was a celebrity in the school. Girls would wait outside of this single male teacher's house to do laundry and cook for him. My mom came to the school to fill up his empty seat, so girls treated her as if he left because of her even though there was other reason for him to leave.
After a month, knowing my mom more, girls started to open their heart toward my mom and like her. "This situation became an old memory, but I cannot forget it and still remember the students. They were refreshingly naive and pure." She was charge of a literature club at that time so had much time to spend with students, talking about books and stories. There was no computer or something special to enjoy, so for students, school was everything. Teachers were their celebrities, hanging out and talking with friends was their fun culture. When a vacation came, students would send handwriting letters to my mom with pretty dried flowers or leaves, saying "I miss you teacher. I hope you are doing okay and see you when the school begins!"
However, these days, she is sad that the more times goes by, students become more calculative and thoughtless. They only think about themselves. Students would do everything if it is helpful to enter an university, but if not, they would treat things lightly. And they take 'money' as the most important value. My mom told me to see many students who raised their hands on the question asking that "I would do everything to earn a billion, even getting it illegally and go into a prison."
Because they can easily get many fun things and interesting information with smart phones and computers, teachers are not in their category anymore. They are getting used to many visuals through smart phones, many students are becoming less patient and have busy brains. There are even some students who think seriousness is foolish. "I feel pity for many students that their bodies grow up, but their mentality is so light. Many students are so thoughtless. I mean, they don't think about other people, society and country, but only them."
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