Less Miserable 2nd Graders

Well, winter camp has just ended, which brings me to the end of my first year in Korea. I'm exhausted.

Here's a fantastic parody my students wrote today:

I dreamed a dream of times gone by

When  class was fun, and life worth living.

I dreamed that kids would never learn.

I dreamed that teachers would be forgiving...

Then I was free and so relaxed,

And textbooks were closed and shelved and dusty.

There was no homework to be done.

No film unwatched, no game unplayed. 

But the exams come in April 

With their questions hard as Mensa.

As they tear your hope apart,

As they turn your dreams to formulas.

He slept a whole week on his desk.

He filled his nights with endless gaming.

He took my champion and my pride,

But he was gone when 3rd grade came.

And still I dream he'll come to class.

That we will learn English vocabulary together.

But there are grades that cannot be,

And there are questions we cannot answer.

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this class I'm studying.

So different now from what it seems.

Now school has killed the dream I dreamed.