Thursday, July 5

Elementary school students all across Korea are taking final exams today. Test days like this are nice because I don’t have any classes. I do have to grade tests. Usually it’s a chore, but I enjoyed it today because the students seemed to do really well.

There’s a lot of pressure for students in Korea to do well in school. I know we took tests back home, but we never had “midterms” or “final exams” until middle school. They start in 3rd grade here. Most of my students seem okay, but the stress does take its toll on some students. This morning a 10 year old girl in another province committed suicide. You can read more about it here. The suicide rate is quite high here. It’s a shame that children so young feel that much pressure.