Summer camp: Jochiwon Confidential
3 Comments Published by Brian on Tuesday, August 01, 2006 at 11:30 PM.
Here at camp, as in a lot of camps I’m sure, the people in charge have printed some play money to be given to students as rewards for winning a game, using good English and stuff like that.
We did something like it when I did winter camp for English First in Russia. There, we gave the kids some money every day, just for existing basically, and we set up a little shop where they could buy junk food and EF swag. Here in the JCW (Jochiwon), it is all taken much more seriously. There is no shop. Kids are saving their money, and there will be an auction of things at the end of the camp.
Apparently the kids take the money thing more seriously as well. On about the third day of camp some boys pulled a heist in the main office. Word on the street is that one boy hid under a table, while another one distracted a staff member. I guess the kid under the table then grabbed some money and ran. They only found out about it because a third kid who I’m not sure how he was involved, had a guilty conscience and sang like a canary. I don’t know what punishment was either. I think the staff went easy on the boys, what with ‘em being from good families, and first time offenders and all.
Just today I heard about a boy who had an unusually large amount of camp money in his possession. The staff assumed he had stolen it, but upon further investigation, it was learned that he had won the money playing cards with other boys in the camp. Yes dear bleaders, the campers are gambling with camp money. (The cards, by the way, were borrowed from another native English speaking teacher at the camp.) I think that might be one of the most awesome things I’ve ever heard. I’m just afraid in a day or two some kid will show up to class with broken fingers because he couldn’t pay his camp money loan shark.
We did something like it when I did winter camp for English First in Russia. There, we gave the kids some money every day, just for existing basically, and we set up a little shop where they could buy junk food and EF swag. Here in the JCW (Jochiwon), it is all taken much more seriously. There is no shop. Kids are saving their money, and there will be an auction of things at the end of the camp.
Apparently the kids take the money thing more seriously as well. On about the third day of camp some boys pulled a heist in the main office. Word on the street is that one boy hid under a table, while another one distracted a staff member. I guess the kid under the table then grabbed some money and ran. They only found out about it because a third kid who I’m not sure how he was involved, had a guilty conscience and sang like a canary. I don’t know what punishment was either. I think the staff went easy on the boys, what with ‘em being from good families, and first time offenders and all.
Just today I heard about a boy who had an unusually large amount of camp money in his possession. The staff assumed he had stolen it, but upon further investigation, it was learned that he had won the money playing cards with other boys in the camp. Yes dear bleaders, the campers are gambling with camp money. (The cards, by the way, were borrowed from another native English speaking teacher at the camp.) I think that might be one of the most awesome things I’ve ever heard. I’m just afraid in a day or two some kid will show up to class with broken fingers because he couldn’t pay his camp money loan shark.
I like this one, Bri. I must remember to stop being so serious and lighten up a bit in my own blog. Seems like your camp is longer than ours, we normally just go for a couple of nights.
Greg
That's so sweet and innocent that your kids are gambling ... Not at all like the lesbian rumble (and I am NOT speaking metaphorically) we had at my summer school in Philly ... Or the used feminine hygeine product that was being tossed around in the classroom ... Or ... oh well, never mind -- the next example would just be TOO disturbing to print here. Anyway, I long for the days when my students gamble with money and not their lives.
Which is not to say that I didn't have a great experience teaching summer school ... I did. Of course, my students were not campers seeking a competitive edge in academics -- on the contrary -- my students were all the kids who got big fat "F's" on their report cards. Which was odd to think about at times because many of them were okay students, perhaps not Einsteins, but better than the failing grades that got them into my summer school classroom.
Fortunately, by the end of the 18 days -- eighteen boiling, unairconditioned days in a crumbling urban school -- many of them had improved by 1 or 2 grade levels in their reading literacy tests. Virtually all passed and it was gratifying to see their beaming Puerto Rican faces when they found out that NO, they would not have to repeat the sixth grade (many of them 14 years old), and YES, they would go on to seventh grade in September --a fork in the road I used to skewer their complacency on those hot, sleepy mornings when attention spans were taking flight.