It has been a while to have a sunny day. Sun is lighting down to the children sitting around the table. A red rose is shining among the children. They seem to have a lot of things to talk about what have happened during their vacation. They are unpacking their stories, recollecting their travel experiences.
Their are some teachers having lunch with the children. There is no distinction in Finnish school cafeteria. Teacher have same menu for lunch with students in the same time. Lunch time is useful for teachers to check out students' school life. We can find the meaning of school meal that is quite controvercial with this example.
Every Finnish students have lunch for free. It is just common for Northern Europe countries including Finland. It is carried out to give students the atmosphere like their home and make them feel comfortable. Also, It is believed that lunch time is an important factor to make them experience a simplified society. Moreover, teachers use lunch time to talk with their students and find out their eating habits.
This example obvously points that education is not just about lesson. Also, their is no clue that differentiate the poor and the rich. Students can learn the concept of democracy unconsciously though this equal treatment.
Students decide the amount as much as they need, and they are responsible for their own plates. There are all different amount, shape, and kind of food on each others' plate, but no one force them to eat in a certain way because they think every individual has different taste.
Another interesting thing in Finnish school cafeteria is that they use ceramic plate and glass for their tableware. They use the breakable tableware to teach how to handle sharing stuff carefully.
I have been observing the Finnish schools' environment in various places. Now, my research that stems from my interest of art education for kids is led to finding out what tings and how public education has to do for students. I am sure that we have to see it as a matter of education itself, not in any kinds of political and ideological ways.
I may worry if we are showing our ashamed face by discussing our complex world in front of kids. Simply, kids are same kids in any country. I think we should support our kids to have the atmosphere in which they can think about happiness in their daily life. I hope to have an educational environment that does not need to entail any debate of economical inequality. I wish our education have our kids enjoy the joy of solicitude for other people and themselves like Finnish kids.
- Ekyung Ann from Women Chosun
The original article: http://danmee.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/09/21/2012092101590.html
Related article: http://www.idomin.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=385275
by 함현진 from the Intermediate Conposition #3
I think that you did more work that you had to. For this assignment, I stated that you only needed to do a summary (not paraphrase/complete translation. However, doing more than required is not a bad thing :-) I obviously didn't make this clear because I'm adding this same message to many of the postings.
ReplyDelete"It has been a while to have a sunny day." -> "It has been a while since there was a sunny day."
I'm confused by the last paragraph. What is the author trying to say?