Session 7 - May 2 morning (Jennifer Jung-Kim on ancient Korea)

[Cynthia Stults]

Meghann you are just a treasure trove of ideas! In reading this exchange, and then the artice Dr. Jung-Kim shared, it reminded me that we also look at symbolism in 4th grade. As part of California history, students examine the state seal and discuss which symbols were included and why. I would love to expand this to currency and include foreign currency as well. Students could break into groups and do a bit of research on currency of different countries and the contributions of the people on them. Sin Saimdang and her story would be a great discussion about women and their role in currency and the inequities. I'm definitely stealing your redesigning currency activity, and I think I'll also have my students design their own personal seal. 

[Cynthia Stults]

I am finding myself more and more intrigued by the various systems of social stratification within cultures. I found it extremely interesting first, that an individual's status was based on the lower-ranking parent's. I'm not sure if there are any other countries where the lower ranking parent automatically determines the status. I think that in most of the cultures I have studied, it seems like they typically go with the high ranking status. I was also very surprised, but after Dr. Jung-Kim explained how some of the young men who were stuck in Head Rank 6 would basically defect to China, where they could take the civil service exam and receive a government posting, based on their intellect and merit (or how well they cheated) instead of one of their parents. I always wonder what, if any remnants carry over. In the U.S., the "old money" families and those with longer history in the U.S. are still considered of a higher social status than newly minted millionaires. I do wonder if any of this very early stratification still persists in Korea today.

[Cynthia Stults]

Hi Meghann! I think that a great place to start with younger students when discussing the idea of bias is when they have a conflict. I think we can easily point out, how when we go to tell on someone for doing something bad to us, we typically leave out, or downplay any negative part we may have played. I used this example of in both 3rd and 4th grade when we started learning about Native Americans and how they have been portrayed in primary source accounts, and how some historical accounts may not be entirely accurate. To make this more understandable, I give the example of a boy who ran to me to tell me another girl had kicked and dented his water bottle. When I asked why, he claimed he didn't know. Upon further prodding, "You mean you were just walking in line when she came up and kicked it for no reason," suddenly it turned into, "Well I might have been squirting her with my water bottle, and she might have asked me to stop, and I might have kept squirting her, and well maybe I did deserve that." I explain that people don't always have someone to ask questions like I did. Now that they are doing so much more work online, they need to use these skills to evaluate the sources of online information. Who is telling the story, and are they truly showing all of the sides. The problem of bias in history is universal across all cultures. This is a skill every student needs. 

[Chad Espinoza]

As the inhabitants of the Korean penisula developed, their societies became stratified. I find this very interesting. Just like the dolemen were found in many developing cultures, so was social stratification among these cultures as their developed agriculture and material goods. This seems to suggst something about human nature and its relationship to material goods. I think this would be something endlessly interesting for students to engage with. Students are very aware of the materialism that exists today, so giving students examples of materialism and the social stratification it leads to, would be a good way for students to interact with Korean history while also developing rigorous opinions of our own. In small groups, the students can develop their theories as to why societies became stratified once there is an abundance of material goods. 

[Chad Espinoza]

When I lived in Korea, I was immediately educated about the Chosun dynasty. I never formally studied the influential dynasty, nor have I ever read any acadmic account of them. Learning about their history and comapring it their legacy is a very interesting juxtapostion to make. In Korea, the impression I got was that the Chosun dynasty was the best thing to ever happen to Korea and every historical site I went to in Seoul was in some way connected to the Chosun. Ultimately, the Chosun seem to do much for Korea and Asia at large, since it continued to perserve Confucianism. For students, comparing the culutural legacy of the Chosun with the acutal history of the Chosun would be a fun and rigorous project. It would require students to understand the current leagcy of the Chosun and see how it differs from the actual history of the dynasty. To take it a step further, students can provide their own theories to explain why certain aspects of the Chosun legacy have been amplified and other forgotten. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

This is my second time going over these lectures and reviewing the readings because I seemed to have gotten distracted after the class lectures this day and discussing the materials from Professor Jung-Kim that I neglected to post about it. However, I am happy that I was able to go over it again with a fresh set of eyes. Korea has interested me for some time because my sister lived there and I was fortunate to be able to visit her there. I find it fascinating to learn about cultures that began in the 4th C BCE when our country is so young. Even in the Neolithic Korean life you still see their architecture of dwellings, pottery, and hunting and fishing. The myth about Korea's origins is interesting and would be something my 6th graders could dissect. We study myths and their meanings and I would be interested to hear their take on this one. Korea has such a vast history with the Three Kingdoms (Four) and later with Koryo and Mongol Rule; I know there are many areas to incorporate this into their studies of Buddha Walks and The Silk Road. I have noticed my students retain information better when we make it more project-based or as a play, so I wonder if there is a way bring this history to life? I know they would be interested in knowing more about Marco Polo and his journey. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

I teach poetry in both my 6th and 8th grade English classes. I can definitely incorporate a Sijo poem into these lessons because it would be great for helping to teach symbolism. As Professor Jung-Kim mentioned, these poems can really be about any subject, so it would be nice to have my students choose their own subject to engage them more. Because Sijo poems are only 3 lines (45 syllables) this would be a good poem to start them off with because it is not overwhelming in length. 

[Brigid Schmidt]

As we advanced more into pre-modern Korea, there were many topics that stood out to me. The first was the importance of women. In history, it is rare to hear about class being more important that gender. Women even had freedoms, even married women. Women could be artisans. A women's inheritance was just like a man's. It is sad that this idea changed with Confucianism. The homes are what catch my eye because I cannot imagine having women's quarters separate from men's. (Apartments in LA are much too small for that!) 

Another area we discussed in the video lecture as well as in the Zoom discussion was the spread of Catholicism. Going to Catholic schools for most of my life I have studied Catholicism and vaguely remember touching on this in some high school classes. It is interesting that it was known as "western learning." I do wonder about how many Korean converts there were. Were there many Korean saints? I would be interested to read more about it. One thing that came up under this topic was the controversy over rites (rituals). The Jesuits thought the Confucianism memorial services (rites) were ok because they were honoring their families, but Dominicans said no because it was worshipping false gods which is not ok. Later, they were allowed by the Vatican. Just last week I was going over homophones with my students and rite/right/write was the one we were studying. I was surprised how many students did not know what a "rite" was and had never heard the term. Many could not use it in a sentence even after we went over it. Having a more concrete example of the words is helpful for me to explain meanings to my students. I can share this story with them as an example of what a rite is. 

[Chad Espinoza]

When I was in school, history was facts. Now, I have learned that history is part fact and part narrative. You bring up a very good point Meghann, how do we know what we know? And how can we decide to trust any particular historical account. This concept is complex and when given to students who are not ready for such information, it can cause substantial mistrust in any system of knowldge among the students. As teachers we must teach our students to critically engage with text so that they do not take them at face value. We also have to teach students a way to gain truth from a particular text while still maintaining a healthy skepticism of the text. To be honest, I am not entirely proficient at this process, but it is a skill I must impart to my students, especually at the secondary level. 

[Chad Espinoza]

Jessica, you bring up a very good point. Who should be memorialized on a nation's currency? What does that choice say about the values of that culture? Money in every culture is so central and represents the wealth and in many ways th strength of a nation. To put an individual or an individual's work on any denomination is a very loud endorsement of that individual. This is where things get political. I think a fun project for students would be to study who is on Korean currency. Another fun project would be for students to put new people on American currency as a means of ranking important individuals. It would be really fun to have students restrict themselves to individuals who are currently alive. 

[Chad Espinoza]

Hello Billie,

I found this interesting too. The implementation of Confucianism violates our modern understandings of gender attitudes. It seems too that Korea, specifically the Koyro kingdom, lost out from significant contributions from women when neo-confucian structures were implemented. When I lived in Korea, the roles were still fairly rigid. A native Korean friend of mine told me that Korean women do not grow up until they have their first child, because they are coddled by first their parents, then their boyfriends, and finally by their husbands. However, when the first child comes, women suddenly have an excessive amounts of responsiblities raising children in a highly competitive society. I know this is only one account and I am not sure how objective the statement is, but I found it a very interesting account of gender norms in Korea, which seem to be rooted in neo-confucian ideals. 

 

[Chad Espinoza]

Hello Jessica,

Funny you should notice the hats. During my first year on living in Korea, I returned home to spend Christmas with my family. When I asked my family what gifts they wanted, my dad asked for a hat wore by Chosun officials. I asked my friend to help me find such a hat and I learned a lot about the Chosun from this search. Only people who passed the civic service exam were permitted to wear the hat, so the hat, called gat in Korean, served as a significant symbol of status during this time. When I found an authentic version of a gat, I was surprised to see how expensive they were. But when I examined the hat, I saw that there was tremendous craftmanship in the hat and that people who made the hat special artisans called ganniljang. Because of the price, my dad had to be happy with the mini version I could afford, which fit like a Korea yarmulke. He was happy with it. But this journey to buying what I thought was a simple hat, turned into a history lesson. I think we can use specific objects from cultures in our classroom to push students into learning about an aspect of a particular culture. 

 

[Mario Ruiz]

These are both awesome ideas! I think both coulld be implemented to meet the needs of various students. I'm not too sure which level of students you both work with, but maybe the idea where you trace the origins of one item as a class could be implemented at the late-elementary or junior high level and then implement the other idea of each student tracing the origins of their own item at the higher levels like at the high school level. I work at the high school level, however, my students with special needs have a wide range of abilities so I could possibly do both to meet their individual needs. 

[Mario Ruiz]

It's great the way you both were able to differntiate the material for your students and even implement a buddy-type-system so the students are exposed to the material. As some of my students possess fine motor limitations, this would be a great idea to implement into my classroom as a art-history lesson and I could have my students use something like playdough or putty to help strengthen their fine motor abilities. I imagine a art-history lesson, with a step-by-step guide on creating a piece of pottery, and a fine motor task all in one! 

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