Korea broadens Seldovia teacher’s horizons

• Lessons, ideas inspire social studies instructor to take global approach

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Some of what made Seldovia teacher Ruth Sensenig realize that Alaska students need to be more prepared for understanding issues of national significance came from watching how Gov. Sarah Palin appeared as she ran for vice president of the United States. The national media lambasted Palin for her colloquial speech, as well as their perception of her ignorance of the international political scene.
“While some of the criticism was biased and mean-spirited, much of it reflected a nationwide reaction to Alaska that startled me and woke me up,” Sensenig wrote in her application to the Korean Foundation Program. Sensenig was one of a handful of Alaska teachers selected to take part in the Korean Studies Workshop, an opportunity that opened the doors of her isolated village classroom that much wider.
As a social studies teacher for 20 students in grades 7-12, Sensenig wants to offer her students more insight that will serve to help them understand other countries.
Sensenig was accepted for the two-week program, based at least in part on the strength of her three-page essay as part of the application. The trip took place in July, and specifically targeted teacher-education.
“They are on a mission to promote Korea to the world,” she explained. “One way to do that is through teachers.”
Korea proved to be a good example, offering multiple political, social and cultural lessons in the classroom. Yet, when she returned from her trip and looked at her social studies texts, none of them mentioned Korea. Lessons on Asia typically deal with only Japan and China.
“I think it will be useful to show the differences between a country that opens its doors to freedom and a country that doesn’t,” Sensenig said. “It shows what benefits we have, and what progress South Korea has seen the last 50 years. The North Koreans suffer because they are controlled and cut-off.”
In January, Sensenig plans to introduce lesson plans she will write based on much of what she learned at the workshops. Her lesson plan is then shared with the Korean Foundation, which keeps track of the trip’s impact on teachers in their classrooms.
As a guest of the Korean Foundation, Sensenig attended lectures by graduate professors at one of Korea’s top universities.
“The trip was a dream vacation for a teacher,” she said. “We spent mornings in school and the rest of the day sightseeing.”
The students at the private high school they visited spend 16 hours a day at school – from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. – motivated by the fierce competition to get into a good university.
“The Korean people’s motivation has paid off. In the 50 or so years since their country was last devastated by war, South Korea has built an impressive economy, raising their standard of living and going from an agrarian society to a highly industrial one,” Sensenig wrote in an essay for the Seldovia Gazette.
South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world. One of Sensenig’s guides estimated that the average Seoul kid gets a cell phone for the first time upon entering kindergarten.
“Comparing what we observed in Seoul to what we were taught about North Korea was sobering. After the war, both Koreas started with aid economies, meaning that much of their income came from other countries who helped to rebuild after the war,” Sensenig wrote. “South Korea opened to international trade, prospered, and is now in a position to give aid to North Korea, who closed its borders and whose people have suffered as a result.”
One of the highlights of the trip for her was a tour of the Demilitarized Zone, a strip of land on the border of the two countries. The DMZ is a wildlife refuge densely covered with land mines, which Bill Clinton called “the scariest place on Earth” when he visited it in 2003.
On her last day there, Sensenig paid for the tourist’s version of a tour. And while she didn’t get to set foot on North Korean soil, she was able to see it over a fence.
Seoul, the population center of South Korea, is built close to the border, leaving it a potential target for attack. When she saw the tunnels South Koreans discovered under their land, she realized the tension that still remains between the two Koreas is a daily battle waged silent for now. Built by their northern enemies, the tunnel was only one of many tunnels dug widely and deeply enough to allow thousands of troops and artillery to cross the border in minutes and stage an attack.
“I can see a lot of lesson plans from this trip,” Sensenig said of her experience. “We will get into more formal discussions as a class after the first of the year, but I talk with the students about it now less formally.”

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Posted by Newsroom on Oct 21st, 2009 and filed under More News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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