Day 8

On Monday, Elizabeth presented on School Drop-Out prevention. We had a great class discussion on the differences and similarities between dropouts in the U.S. and in Korea. Students in the U.S. are more likely to dropout of High School due to a low socioeconomic status, a mother's age, lack of interest in school, high absenteeism, family stress (divorce, death, family moves), and failing grades. Korean students are more likely to drop out of school due to a lack of interest. School may not be challenging enough for them and they would rather study on their own, or they have no family support or reason to pursue further education. In Korea, students are required to attend school up until the first grade of middle school, where as in the United States students are required to attend school until the age of 16. Also, school may be boring to Korean students because many families provide private tutors for their students after school. Therefore, they have no desire to learn during the school day. In the U.S. if a student fails a grade they will be held back and must repeat that grade and pass before they can progress on. However, in Korea, if a student attends school but fails their class, they are still permitted to the next grade level. This is why Korea has a better retention rate when compared to American schools. American students who are then held back will become discouraged and lose motivation to try harder because their peers have progressed on without them.

Korea University Counseling Center

Individual counseling room

Another individual counseling room
Intake desk at the University Counseling Center
After our visit to the counseling center, we visited KU's on-campus ice rink! It was such a nice break from the heat.
We didn't get to skate because they were having private lessons, but we got to watch. Korea has a huge emphasis on speed skating.

After the rink, we went to the National Rice Cake Museum. Completely random, but so fun! We had no idea there were so many different types of this traditional Korean cake.
Afterwards, we went to the museum cafe and had plum tea and rice cakes! We fell in love with plum tea--it is so sweet and refreshing. We asked our classmates how to make it, and according to Won-young, you just put sugar and plums in a bowl and "let it be" for a few months........

Pumpkin paht bing suh