Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jonbowman88]

I told my fifth grade students to draw their future house and label each room. One student made a "secret room". As I walked around I asked him what he would put in a secret room. He replied "steal people" and "kill" while making the motion of stabbing someone.

What would you do? He seems like a nice kid (not dark) and his English is better than most of the other fifth graders.

[NYC_Gal]

Yikes. Suggest that it be his Nintendo room instead, then show it to his homeroom teacher (or your head coteacher) and express your concern. Don't forget to mention the recent student who burned his family to death, to emphasize why you're concerned.

[lukas]

About half of my boy students draw and say things like this on a daily basis. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

You know, nearly every Korean kid has access to a PC bang where they can act out their secret death room fantasies with violent games. What's the difference?

[NYC_Gal]

[Kaypea]

Yeah, do suggest making it a Nintendo room, but my students are fascinated with that kind of stuff too, and I don't think they're disturbed. If anything, he's just trying to get a rise out of you.

Maybe the avenues for fantasy are quite limited for our students, especially when they're trying to explain them in a second language. So, it's always back to "I kill" and "you die"... the dark stuff they know they aren't really supposed to talk about.

[jrwhite82]

99.99999% of the time it is nothing to worry about. But there is that .00001% you have to be aware of. (made up numbers obviously). No harm in telling the teacher about it. Cover Your A$$.

This way when the news vans and police roll up to interview the teachers about why no one said anything about Jun Ho's violent tendencies, you can say, "But I did after he drew this secret room picture!"

[le-paul]

He�s probably just got an overactive imagination. The stuff kids are expose to these days is much more violent than 15/20 years ago.
�Kill�, �are you crazy� etc. are kon-glish now. If I ask my students why�x�. Is late they always tell me they are �dead� or �got hit by a bus� or something.
You said your self �seems like a nice kid� � if there aren�t any warning signs (example aggressiveness, not liking being touched, anti- social etc.) he�s probably not being abused.
Psychosis doesn�t usually develop until people are in their teens, so he�s probably not psychotic either.
Its good that you�re taking notice though, a lot of people wouldn�t�

[Seoulman69]