Wartime Crisis? Classroom Free Speech.

If you keep up with the news, I'm sure you heard about the artillery attack that occurred yesterday, Tuesday November 23, 2010 on a small South Korean island near the North/South border. Well, apparently North Korea decided that they did not like the fact that South Korea had performed some drills recently to prepare in case of a North Korean attack, so they went ahead and attacked the small island village of Yeong Pyeong, South Korea. From what I've gathered, the village has a population of only about 1,200 people, but they were attacked because there is some sort of military base there. Apparently there were 2 South Korean military men who were killed and 13 injured. From the images I've seen, the numbers could have been worse, so as much as I feel bad for those 2 men who were killed, I'm also glad it wasn't worse.

I didn't know about any of this until about an hour after I got into work when one of the other teachers arrived late and was very obviously upset. I asked her what was wrong and she told me about the attacks and said that she was very scared. In all honesty, I thought that she might have kept her composure a little bit better since we did have kids in the school at the time and we wouldn't want to scare them. But I don't think that was at the top of their list. So when the kids started freaking out also, I had to sit them down and have a discussion with them and they wrote about why they thought the North had attacked the South. I had them write about how it made them feel and what they thought of the entire situation. I didn't think they'd be able to write much, but they did. They used the translators on their cell phones (all of them have cells) and they wrote about how angry and scared they were. One of my students, a 12 year-old girl wrote, "I'm scared because North Korea and South Korea are same race but, they [North Korea] want kill South Korea. I think they's action is not right action. I don't want unification. Because, they has bad think. They do wrong action." Her writing obviously needs some work, but she was still very clear about how she feels. I can't imagine what it's like to be a kid and have to deal with the possibility of war breaking out in your home country. Another one of my 12 year old girl students wrote, "[I'm] scared because I think my mom, dad, and me may be dead. I'm scared. North Korea are we war. Many S. Korean very scared. Me too! I don't like war. North Korea is very bad." After they had written for a while, I sat down with them and tried to calm them and tell them that everything was going to be ok and that I don't honestly think this will escalate to anything worse. They were obviously very nervous and were feeling helpless in the situation expecting the worst. It's sad that I had to do this, but I had to reassure them of all of the friends that South Korea has and that the North lacks. I had to explain to them that the North has no one to back them up and that they should not be afraid. Afterwards, one of my 11 year-old boys wrote, "North Korea have no friends. So they can't attacked before. I'm not afraid now. North Korea attacked us, we will be win."I was glad that I was able to let them express how they were feeling and that they went along with the writing exercise rather than just shut down and refuse to do anything. Maybe it's because I asked them what THEIR opinions were rather than just offering them mine and leaving it at that. I remember how much it sucked to be little and not be able to express how I was feeling about the major conflicts and problems going on around me. It sucks to feel little and not have a voice. I hope they were able to find theirs and that it's a comfort to know they have it.