A Winter Camp Story

If you remember my post about summer camp in the Korean countryside, my school does things a little differently from the typical Korean schools when it comes to camp. And so, on January 4, we left our school in Seoul and headed back to the Buyeo countryside to set up for the winter round.

This time, my class was the only English class in the whole camp, and our focus was on reading, text analysis, essay writing, and debate with the advanced and intermediate students. My kids ranged from thirteen to seventeen years old, and we were separated from the rest of the camp in a small room a few minutes walk from the main building. While summer camp was spent with lower level students in the main building, this winter camp would allow me to make a much bigger difference in the students’ lives, as they would be able to understand basic English sentences without much need for translation and continuous charades.

The theme of our camp was embracing your individuality and staying true to your beliefs, even when the majority disagrees with you. Keeping with this theme, we attempted to read Divergent, by Veronica Roth, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, and 12 Angry Men, by Reginald Rose. In my class of nine students, three were able to finish all three texts, while the rest still finished two of them.

Just like summer camp, the day was divided into three segments, each lasting somewhere between two and three hours. But unlike summer camp, we never set a strict schedule as to what we would do during any given part of the day. We had to read, write, debate, and play games (not mandated by my school but an important part of learning and especially of spending three weeks away from society), but we didn’t set any hard rules about when we woud do any of these activities. I entrusted this decision to my kids, which was risky, but ultimately paid off. By giving them the responsibility of constructing their days, they were happier and more willing to do the work without issues. Some days we did nothing but read, and some days were filled with hours of playing, but we still were able to cover the material we set out to at the beginning of camp.

With an older group of kids this time around, there were a lot less instances of bickering, sleeping, and complaining, though there was still a fair bit of complaining, but every time the students felt overworked, we made compromises. One of the lessons we learned together was that complaints will get you nowhere unless you suggest alternative solutions to an issue you have a problem with, and several alternatives is always better than a single one.

On our last day of classes, we had a class meeting. I sat everyone down in a circle and we talked for about an hour about the themes of our camp. Many of the students, at some point in their lives, felt like they had to do something they disagreed with just because other people were doing it. This is of course a common occurrence of growing up, but we discussed the difficulties of speaking up for what you believe in and the dangers of staying silent.

What could this be???

We learned to be brave, to stick to our guts, but to also be smart about it. Complaining will get us nowhere, and constructive suggestion can cause change. We talked about strength in numbers when contesting societal rules, and that just because they opposed something didn’t mean it would change, but doing nothing would guarantee it wouldn’t. Sitting in our little circle, we recapped our three stories and how the characters stood for what they believed in.

When the academic talk ended, I asked them a question with an answer that I had hinted at earlier in the camp. Although only some students had read Into the Wild, we all watched the movie together, and I had told my kids that one day I would leave Korea, and that the reason why was hidden somewhere as a message in the movie. After a few quick guesses about a call to nature or travel, I quoted Chris McCandless: “Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” I told them that this is also my belief, and that if it may be unpopular with other adults, it will still be something I live by – that if too many days go by where I wake up and do the same thing, I will make a change. I reassured them that this hasn’t happened while working at the alternative school yet, and despite their initial reaction of wanting me to stay as long as possible, they understood that it was something I must do because of my core beliefs.

So I think they understood the theme of camp.

We ended the meaning with some lighter notes, talking about our favorite and worst moments of camp, an activity I do at the end of every semester in order to get some insight on how I can be a better teacher. Surprisingly, they told me this was one of the best camps they had ever attended, mainly because all other teachers seemed to run their classrooms with a clear and indisputable schedule. It’s amazing what giving students a little choice in what they do each day will do for the way they approach the learning process. Apart from getting some tips about book choices for future camps, it sounded like everyone enjoyed the last three weeks, so I’m writing this post with a happy heart.

Aaaaaaand staying true to my roots, we created a music video together in celebration of the time we had at camp. I think some of my old project manager skills came in handy for this particular one-take video. Enjoy!