Humpday and the shoes

I heard a little korean kid say something about hump day a few wednesdays ago. A term myself had not heard of until I was about 20.

However, if i was in school of some form or another 15 hours a day you can bet i would know the feeling of relief that comes along with wednesday being over. They call it parallel education. going to public school for 8 hours then spending another 8 hours in math, english, korean, music, etc academies. This is a very thorny issue. The spectrum is wide and the passion is high. I agree with both ends.

on one end people argue that kids need their free time. The brain needs time to relax and wander, nurturing a state of wonder, especially for children. Also when students spend so much time in class they shut down mentally and the learning curve becomes exponentially higher. i strongly agree with this but i also strongly agree with me having a job.

The OTHER end of the spectrum, which i also tend to agree with, was explained to me by my boss who put it more eloquently than I am about. korea doesn't have too much as far as natural resources. (they do export a lot of electronics and cars but only because they've been assembled with imported materials.) the korean people are seen as a resource. That is why education is so highly valued and competative. Because they don't produce the worlds supply of corn, or oil, or steel, they make up for it by producing the worlds smartest people. they are also very well dressed which leads me too....

from what i can tell the only students who wear uniforms are high schoolers. but i could be wrong. if you didn't know when winter break was over it became immediatly clear when suddenly everyone that was wearing a hoodie and blue jeans is now wearing a suit and tie or a skirt and tie if you're a girl.

The thing i really notice, but didnt notice i noticed at first was the shoes they wear. The uniform guidlines are pretty strict but they don't seem to have any say on what kind or color of shoe you wear. anything from white nike air force ones to pink converse all-stars. these kids only form of self expression is worn on their feet. It's pretty interesting to notice and now i silently get a kick, no pun intended, out of seeing all the different shoes move about underneath the sea of gray, black, and blue, uniforms.