I joined the Peace Corps as a 22-year-old, just six months out of college. Since my degree was in secondary education, I was assigned to a country in need of teachers. In 1972, that was South Korea.
During my eight-week emersion in the Korean language and ESL (English as a Second Language), I also learned the rudiments of Korean history. Known as the Hermit Kingdom, Korea remained fiercely independent until 1910 when the Japanese empire annexed the country. The people of Korea suffered at the hands of its occupiers being forced to adopt a Japanese military and educational system.
The Korean Civil War from 1950 to 1953 left the country divided and in ruins. The southern half (the Republic of Korea) remained on a war footing wary of Communists to the north. During my Peace Corps years, middle-school students, both boys and girls, wore black Japanese-style uniforms and received military indoctrination and discipline.
In 1973, Alan was a fellow volunteer and a good friend. He invited me to visit him and his middle school in Seoul. I left my own school in Chun Cheon on a Saturday morning taking along with me my Olympus Trip 35 camera and a small bag of belongings. I planned to stay only one night to buy supplies and drop by the Peace Corps headquarters. When I arrived at his school, Alan was just finishing up his English lessons. I spoke to him briefly in his classroom and he asked me to wait in the teachers’ room until his class was finished.
I introduced myself to the vice-principal and met some other teachers. Saturday was the end of the school week and the faculty was preparing to go home. After a few minutes, a young boy-student entered the teacher’s room and stood in front of the physical education teacher’s desk.
I didn’t have anything better to do, so I watched the boy, maybe a seventh grader. It seemed odd to me that the teacher ignored the little student. I’m sure that he saw the trembling boy, but he just shuffled papers and joked with fellow teachers. The student stood at attention in front of the teacher’s desk, his black uniform appearing out of place in the room full of teachers wearing coat and tie.
After ten minutes or so, the physical education teacher began to rage at the student. I couldn’t understand the words but I recognized the anger. The teacher would yell out a question ending with “Eh?” and the frightened student would whimper an answer. The burly disciplinarian got red in the face and finally began to hit the student with a blackboard pointer.
Most other teachers were looking on and grinning. I looked away for a while, but soon looked back as if drawn to a traffic accident. The physical education teacher jumped out from behind his desk. He grabbed the little student by the shirt and belt and hurled him like a bowling ball across the slippery floor. “Bang!” The student’s body hit some steel storage lockers and remained on the floor shaking. The teacher picked him up and slapped him in the face. Again, he hurled him against the lockers. Again, there was a loud bang as his head hit steel.
At this point, I had to intervene. My Korean language wasn’t very good and I knew my words would not have stopped the beating. My camera was still hanging around my neck, so I took it in my hands and casually walked to where the angry teacher could see me. I pretended to take a picture of the out-of-control teacher. I took a few steps back and pretended to take another picture. The physical education teacher looked puzzled then he took a few menacing steps toward me.
Two fellow teachers took him by the arms and I quickly left the room. I sat on the front stairs waiting outside for Alan. My adrenaline was still pumping when he approached me several minutes later. I asked if he was in trouble with his principal. He said that the principal had spoken to him about the incident but not to worry about it because I had done the right thing.
Alan told me that the seventh-grader was being punished because he held a part-time job. He explained it was against the rules for any student, no matter how poor, to even sell candy on the street.
I replied, “In that case, I’m glad I brought my camera with me today.”
