Assignment#3. Chain Writing

Three Wishes

I woke up in the morning at 6a.m. I looked out the window, and… it was snowing! Yeah! Then, I found something odd; it was September. So, how could it be snowing? It must be a miracle. And then I noticed something else: the house was… warmer then when it was not snowing. How could that be? ‘Today is full of mysterious things,” I wondered.

I pulled a jacket over my shoulders and walked toward the stairs. I hesitantly placed my hands on the railway and hoped it would support me for what I just then saw. Over the window, my father had two suitcases with him, and was putting on his hat. I walked on the corridor, and again something strange was happening. I walked forward and suddenly a lamp on the ceiling stumbled my feet: It was the ceiling that I was walking on! I tried to get out of the house through the window. Then I saw a strange cat with golden fur. She looked like Cheshire, the cat in an old fairy tale, Alice in the Wonderland. Though I could not remember the story about Alice and Cheshire clearly, but one thing was very clear: that I was standing on the ceiling looking at the cat in snowy day, and that I was not dreaming. The fairy tale that I’ve been always daydreaming was happening to me. The golden cat suddenly said, “I’ll give you three wishes.” I, without any hesitating, said, “Put me back on the floor, lower the temperature as normal snowy day, and get out of my house!”

Everything turned normal. Yes, it did. The cat jumped out of the window and disappeared with a whispery “mew”… Out of the window, snowy furry white snow was falling silently. I sighed with a dim smile. Now, I can enjoy my early Christmas making snowman and skating. Dad waved his hands, and I ran out stepping on the white blanket.

Extra Writing#1 : Mr. Moon's English class

Life is Full of Games

 

Game has magical power to lure even the loosest people’s concentration. Many people are addicted to games despite many side effects. Even some KMLA students, who are potential global leaders, get in trouble because of computer games; they receive heavy penalty points and are taken away their precious computers.

Here is a man who fell in love with physics instead of a game. He is from Cheongju, my hometown. He graduated from KSA, Korean Science Academy, when he was only 17 in Korean age. He majored in physics at MIT. He is an admirable hero to students who love science in Cheongju. When I was in fifth grade, I had a chance to see his lecture. Every listener glided eyes in curiosity how he became such a wonderful physicist. I was also eager to learn how to study physics. To my surprise, his study tip was very simple: studying equals playing a game. Many entertaining computer games have some rules of level up and quests. When people are really in to a game, you spend hours to master the quests and when they finally level up, they are above the cloud and fly in the heaven. He adopted this process to study. Plenty of assignments, quizzes, and contests are the quests. People have to crack them up in order to reach higher level; higher level not only means good results but also their intellectual development. If people can apply this rule in everyday lives, they will feel pleasure of learning, challenging themselves, and reaching the goal.

His lecture became a seed planted in my heart, and it taught me how to face difficulty. Every subject I study is a game. I feel happy when I understand something new, but feel frustrated when things get tangled against my will. Many people, including me, are tempted to give up at that frustrating moment. However, that moment is where the addiction comes from; game is attractive because it is hard to win. If a game is so easy to win, who would feel thrill and obstinacy? As the darkness makes the light brighter, obstacles makes the achievement more valuable.

The man became my mentor in my mind since I also dream to become a physicist. I have kept and will keep nurturing the seed. It may encounter storms and drought during the school year at KMLA and my future college. However, I know I can overcome those with my strong ‘addiction’, and I hope I can meet the man as not a student but a physicist in the future.

Assignment#2 : Does Korean Education care creativity?(updated)

Does Korean Education care creativity?

 A professor of management, Dongyeop Shin, claimed that we are undergoing gravitational change in our education paradigm. The paradigm 1.0 emphasizes efficiency, expertise, and order of rank. This was a suitable model for the 20^th century. However, in the 21st century, creating new value, and combining diverse fields are the elements of competence. In other words, creativity is not only as important as literacy, like Ken Robinson mentioned, but also will determine a whole nation’s competence in global society. Although the Korean education system has often been criticized, most people are aware of the importance of creativity. Koreans, the most passionate citizens about educating children, have started to look for creativite education. Then, is Korean education on the right track in accordance with the new paradigm?

   Unfortunately, Korean education has fundamental problems that are tangled complexly. Korean education can generally be divided into two categories : private and public. Unlike other countries Korea has highly developed private education; sometimes people even spend money on high-priced private education, though it is illegal. The development of private education reflects the general disbelief in public education. Especially, the cause for creativity is a brand-new policy that undergoes many trials and errors. I understand the parents, who want to educate their children through better quality private education though it is expensive. However, private education is an imperfect solution for educating creatively; most of the educational programs of the academies are not proven to be effective, and in many cases the advertisements are exaggerated: in fact, "creativity" is often just fancy cover for preparing for entrance exams. Moreover, private education does not cover every student; students who are not wealthy enough may not be able to afford private education.

  Then, can public education be the solution? Though the government is putting effort towards building an appropriate educational model, we can hardly find creative learning in public schools. Only the students who are in elite schools or institutions in local universities have this can privilege. Then what about other students? They have no time to consider creativity; the only goal in the highs schools is to send as many students as possible to good universities. As Sir Ken Robinson mentioned, creativity comes when one is ready to be wrong; in other words, one should have enough time to try different perspectives. Unfortunately, in Korean high schools, being wrong means getting a bad grade and going to a university with lower quality. Even if students achieve this strenuous goal of entering a good university, another big obstacle blocks them: unemployment. According to SBS news, the college entrance rate in Korea is the world's best: over 70% of high school students go to colleges. This phenomenon is mainly because it is almost impossible to be employed without a college degree. Despite high tuition, more and more students attend colleges by getting part-time jobs and falling into heavy debt. This morbid phenomenon is due to lack of diversity. If our society accepts the importance of diverse fields of human resources, more students will have the chance to develop their capacity instead of wasting money and time in colleges. As Ken Robinson said in the RSA video clip, education reflects social needs. A country cannot live with only professors, doctors, and lawyers. Our whole society has to be changed to accept various spectrums of human capacities.

  Ken Robinson said that education is important because it enables us to prepare for an unexpected future by developing children’s capacities. Though Korea is in the second place in the educational field now, we need "revolution" to adjust to a new paradigm within a global world. It is time that we reflect upon the contemporary educational system, and ensure students can show their true creative abilities when they graduate.

References

‘거마 대학생’ ‘등골탑’…우울한 대학생활 신조어 봇물

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201109161113111&code=920100

대학 진학률 ‘세계 최고’’…이수율 OECD 1위

http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1000986714

2.0시대 몰락 부르는 1.0집착증

http://news.donga.com/3/all/20100507/28147536/1

가치와 정책 경쟁 통한 교육발전 기대

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201006041822595&code=990303

Reading Journal #0-About Stephen King

 Stephen King is one of the best horror story writers in the world, though I have never heard about him until I ordered 'Different Seasons', a reading material for the English class. To be honest, my first impression of Stephen King was not so good; I abhorred horror stories. The reason for the hatred was that I could not understand why people dare to pay their money for crazy stories to strain their nerves and to suffer from insomnia for days. However, I started to understand the value of the horror stories watching the documentary about Stephen King. Contrary to my stereotype, horror stories, especially of Stephen King, had some values as a branch of literature.
 The fist thing I found interesting is that the 'evils' in horror stories are not innate. They are all humans, who have emotions and thought. An actor in the documentary said that the characters are 'grounded' in the reality. Although some of King's characters, such as Carrie, are supernatural and seem unreal, it is probable that some innocent people can undergo such breakdown and cause tragedy like in King's stories. As he said in the documentary, horror stories are not only for entertainment but also for bewaring of possibility of violence.
Horror stories not only reveal the insight about human nature but also personal experiences of the author like any other kinds of literature do. The materials of his novel usually came out of his experiences. For example, Shining is related to the absent of his father when he was young. The name, Shining, seems happy and bright, but Shining is, ironically, such a gloomy story: a father, who has alcoholism, brutally murders his family. However, the author still viewed this tragic story shining because at least the family in the story has Father. I was very impressed by this answer because I could see King's sincere emotion from his face at that moment. If there was no personal reason for a particular subject, I must have misunderstood King that he intentionally made a character against humanity to cause horror and disgust. Nonetheless, his sincere answer gave me a chance to go inside the author's shoes and experience the different perspective.

To sum up, I realized that Stephen King's horror stories shares literary values with other genres, that I was more familiar with. Still, I don't want to stay up all night by watching his movies, but at least I respect Stephen King’s capability to achieve both entertainment and literary value.