Day 38: Power Of Your Love

So today I was introduced to the full-length video and lyrics of the song that the kids are going to be doing the choreographed dance to...and it was NOT what I was expecting! I was expecting some upbeat, energetic fun well-known pop song. Is that what the kids are going to be dancing to? Nope, it's not only a slow cheesy ballad, but it's a Christian pop ballad!!! Yep, the song is called "Power Of Your Love" and it's totally for kids who are 'all about the Lord.' A big disappointment! What a let down after the fun we've been having with Westlife! I sorta float in between atheism and agnostism, and on a good day you might catch me labelling myself as 'openly spirtitual', in other words I often gain my strength from my faith in the power of the universe, but this is definitely non-denominational, and more vague than anything. My 'spirituality' could be a whole essay of a blog entry, but I won't go there today.

So we've been practicing the song in class, several times over and over, and each time I have to speak each line of the song to my kids, who repeat it back to me, so that they become familiar with the phonics of all the lyrics before actually having to sing it alone themselves. I cringe inside every time I have to do it. I'm not a Christian and definitely don't enjoy having to sing about 'my love for God', but this is part of my job so I just swallow my own pride and silly complicated pretenses and pretend to be enthusiastic about it. It's not so much the song that bothers me, it's the fact that the whole class is having to sing a Christian song in school that makes me uncomfortable. No, the school that I teach at is not Catholic or religious by any means, so there's no explanation there. I just don't like the assumption that is made that all the students are Christian and that all will be okay with singing a Christian song. Yes, there are a lot of Christians in Korea (according to my Lonely Planet about 25% of the population is, but from my experiences so far I'd say it's actually much closer to 50%) but anyways the point is that not all Koreans are Christian.

I'm trying not to be judgemental or over-critical or sensitive about this but it's been difficult for me. I grew up in Canada, and can actually remember when the mandatory recital of The Lord's Prayer was removed from our elementary school routine. I don't know if this event occurred simultaneously across all of Canada or maybe was just a Lakehead Board of Education decision, but I remember feeling quite happy in school when we no longer had to say it every single morning. I assumed that this decision was made in order to be sensitive to children who came from families of other religions. Canada, unlike Korea, is a multi-cultural society with families from every religion one can imagine live together in our cities - Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, the list goes on and on... It's no longer considered PC (politically-correct) in Canada to force religion down the throats of children in public schools, and I'm proud that I'm from a nation that respects (and encourages) this beautiful diversity. Korea is one of the most uni-cultural countries in the world - you'd be hard-pressed to find another nation where the vast majority of the population thinks/acts/believes all the same things. (No I'm not saying they're all clones of each other, but you get the point.) Korea's society, at times, really seems like it lives in a bubble, impervious to cultural influence from the outside world.

I've always been a big supporter of the separation between church and state. I don't believe that religion belongs in the classrooms of public schools - that's why you have specifically Catholic schools! (and other religions too.) This way, if you choose, you can send your child to an institution where they will receive their education in a religious environment exactly as you see appropriate. Now here comes the catch - technically REI is not a public school - it's actually a private business, well a school in a larger chain of REI's all across Korea. So I guess, in theory, the owners/CEO's/Head Director Dudes of REI can choose any curriculam that they see fit for educating the young minds of their students/customers. However, in my theory, since REI is not specifically labelled or advertised as a "Christian School", then religion should not belong anywhere in our classroom. A discussion of ideas regarding various religions would certainly be appropriate and rather educational and enjoyable, I think, but not making all your students sing a song praising the head deity of a specific religion.

But, again, that's just my own personal politically-correct, left-leaning, critical-thinking, over-sensitive opinion.