(A picture of my school, KMLA)
As the "About Me" section in the right column says, I am a sophomore (10th grade) at a school named "Korean Minjok Leadership Academy(KMLA)." This school is actually one of those "special" schools that are granted to do "whatever it wants."
And I believe that my school has been pretty much successful in fully utilizing such freedom; we possess a lot of differences compared to "normal" high schools. A good example could be the EOP (English Only Policy, a policy forcing students to use English Only in the school campus), diverse types of classes that cannot be accommodated in normal Korean schools (like "AP Psychology" or "AP French"), and wide support for teachers' academic research. (For more information, visit Here)
However, perhaps the most important thing that distinguishes KMLA from normal school is the fact that it is a boarding school. There were less than five boarding schools when KMLA was established in 1995, and still the number is extremely small compared to other countries'.
As a boarding school, my school has an extremely enormous amount of "regulation" and "discipline" codes, an example being "Cleaning Regulation" or "Computer Regulation." However, out of all these codes, the one that is considered to be the most important and harsh in its corresponding penalty (which is being expelled) is the "Dating between students of different genders."
And being a guy who had lived in the KMLA dormitory for over half a year now, I am starting to be doubtful about whether the punishment on dating has to be this harsh.
The first reason making me to think so is concerned with the basic reason why a "school" exists. It is taken for granted that the sole purpose of school is to make a person who will be able to successfully adapt and "melt into" the society. And, obviously, "dating" and "having relationship with a person who has a different gender" has a high possibility of being an important aspect inside one's life in society. If KMLA ends up strictly regulating the relationship amongst students of distinct sex, the students, after graduation, will not be able to sufficiently adjust to this part of society quickly.
The second reason deals with the fact that "students have a right to choose whatever they want to do." The students, especially those who have lived in this world for more than 17 years, have the ability to make decisions for themselves. And when the decision happens to be a bad one, it is the students who should take care, not the teachers in the Student Discipline Department. Thus, the teachers do not have the right to intervene in the students' decision that they should date with each other; it is the students, actually, who have the obligation to pay for the choices that they have made about having deep relationship with each other.
The last reason deals with the high possibility of teachers misunderstanding simple close relationship between a boy and a girl as a more serious one. It is an extremely easy thing for a boy and a girl to be simply "close" without having any type of amorphous emotion to each other. And this type of relationship have a high potential of being mistaken as one of love, thus receiving skepticism for no reason, and, perhaps, a wrong accusation of penalty.
Of course, dating in high school possesses numerous problems, such as being unable to concentrate on schoolwork or the possibility of bringing about an "unwanted" consequence. However, isn't 17 the age to let students decide the kind of life they want to live?
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A little note for Mr. Garrioch who might be reading this entry: My defending for dating in KMLA does NOT mean that I'm in a deep relationship with a girl, neither that I'm thinking of having one.
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A little note for Mr. Garrioch who might be reading this entry: My defending for dating in KMLA does NOT mean that I'm in a deep relationship with a girl, neither that I'm thinking of having one.
Hmm.. SeungMin, this is a very interesting work you wrote here. Even though I agree with some of your opinions proposed here, I cannot agree with the idea of KMLA stritctly regulating the relationship has anything to do with "melting into" the society. Just because KMLA regulates the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship doesn't mean that you are blocked from having any relationship with students of different genders. KMLA doesn't restrict us from talking to girls or doing presentations with girls. I believe talking or doing works together is enough to help us adapt to the society later on in our lives
ReplyDeleteInteresting Point of View! But I don't think KMLA is as strict as you have mentioned regarding "dating" issues. In fact, a lot of the teachers condone students dating each other. I think they are only concerned that students might cross "the line". Anyways, I liked reading your blog entry because it was indeed about a 'hot' issue at our school. But do you personally think there would be great differences when the school officially allows student-dating? - Suh Young Kim
ReplyDeleteSeungmin, I am sure that this is something that many people in KMLA may sympathize with you. However, in my case, I do not share this point of view. Coming from an American high school, I have seen many actually disgusting parts of dating in school campus, even though it was not a bording school campus. I saw girls in their boyfriends arms all the time, couples kissing each other, and other private things being enacted in front of public crowds. What I believe is because we are only 17, this regulation should be enacted. As you know the age of 17 is a time where teenagers tend to get emotional and mistake emotion with their true thoughts further becoming a distraction in their high school years. Furthermore, in a dormitory school no one knows where the relationship between a boy and girl can go to (in colleges inappropiate acts between couples occur all the time especially because it is a dormitory school). So I actually think that our school should be more strict upon the dating regulations, but I do agree in part where the punishment of getting expelled from the school is a bit too far.
ReplyDeleteWoah. I never expanded this kind of fervent response about my writing... Thank you all for your comments and sharing of your thoughts! Now let me deal with a few things that I want to talk about your comment:
ReplyDelete1) You Jun Seung: Yes, I admit that there is actually a diverse type of interaction amongst boys and girls being made in KMLA. However, I do not think this is enough to make one to be successfully adapting as a member of a society in consideration of the "boyfriend-girlfriend" aspect. There is a need for a deep boy-girl relationship for students in order to fully prepare for their adaptation in the society, and KMLA is restricting that being done.
2) Suh Young Kim (sunnykimstar): Thanks for your good point. I fully admit that most of our school teachers admit that they would expel their students if the daters happen to cross "the line." But what I think that "the line" here is just too vague, as mentioned in my 3rd reason. In the "Student Guidance Codes," there is no clear direction about what "Deep Relationship amongst students of different gender" is supposed to mean. In other words, the criteria on deciding what is "right" or "wrong" (or "enough") could be different from teachers to teachers.
3) Dennis Cho (Namdo): Of course. 17 might be a too young age for a student to decide whether they want a girlfriend(or boyfriend) or not. So what I'm saying is that the teachers should "help" the students make a decision that they "think" is "good." The teachers should never "force" the students to choose to not have a girlfriend by using such a powerful penalty weapon called "being kicked out from school." The Student Guidance teacher should guide, not force.
Thanks!
Haha. This is hilarious. I'm very happy to see such a lively debate going on in a writing class. I actually had a debate on this last semester with my juniors, and spent some time explaining my position here:
ReplyDeletehttp://kmladebate.blogspot.com/2011/02/class-11l1-debate-feedback-and-critical.html
and here:
http://kmladebate.blogspot.com/2011/04/11-c-tuesday-debate-feedback-dating-on.html
So I don't really need to restate my position. But I will say I agree with everyone above - minus Samuel. Dennis is right.
Personally, I could have dated in high school, but didn't start until l was a senior. Trust me when I say there is plenty of time to obsess over women when you get to university, when your mind and spirit will suffer greatly, resulting in late essays and maybe even ulcers.
I think the "no dating" policy actually works to your advantage if you particularly have a crush on a certain person. You can get closer to them on a familiar and friendly basis without worrying about the big questions, such as "are we dating yet" or "does she like me" or "should I ask her out." You can't ask her out, so you might as well just enjoy the friendship. IF things continue to go well over the course of three years, you can put a ring on her finger the minute you leave the school gates. It happens EVERY year with EVERY graduating class, and Facebook shows constant evidence. Some of the 13th wavers even ran off to Paris. Time is of the essence, but you youngins have plenty of time. You are lucky that the school has made your life incredibly simple when it comes to the opposite gender.