My father, J. McRee "Mac" Elrod, died last summer at age 84. I have always been in awe of the fact that he and my mother spent five years in Korea soon after the end of the Korean war, as very young teaching missionaries. They came with a red-headed baby boy--my brother Mark--and added two more kids while there -- me and my sister Cara. 

When my dad reported for work at Yonsei University on the outskirts of Seoul 60 years ago, the small collection of library books was protected from theft behind a barrier of chicken-wire. The card catalogue, I recall father saying, was ravaged by soldiers taking the cards to line their shoes. In the winter, the ink froze in the inkwells.​
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​My father pioneered the adaptation of Western cataloguing methods for Asian library materials, while still in his early twenties. In fact he was the first Western-trained professional librarian in Korea. He did away with the chicken wire and during his time, the library collection grew from 3,000 to 30,000 volumes...

   I wrote my "teaching philosophy" a few years ago and stand by it today. Competence in English can only be attained by students who acquire some cultural literacy,* therefore we should not be afraid of introducing Western culture into the classroom.

   Now it's time for me to add a big caveat. I have read blog posts and articles by teachers who say, in effect, "hell yeah, I indoctrinate my students with my opinions." That really concerns me.
  These same people would probably have very disparaging things to say about the Christian missionaries who went to China in days gone by, sincerely believing that they were saving heathen souls from damnation. But if you are forcing your worldview on your students, what makes you any different from a missionary? The 'fact' that your opinions are right and theirs were wrong?...

 

At the beginning of the semester, a lot of students aired out their bedding. None of us have clothes dryers, so we dry our clothes and bedding indoors or out.

The students make everything come alive. At the beginning of the semester, they arrive, walking from the front gate with their luggage to their dormitories. 

Below: The last few weeks have been very pretty, especially as the ornamental cherry trees blossomed. This tree is just past the entrance to our dormitory.  Four of my students are posing.

A few weeks ago Ross and I cycled down the street to the West Campus to see the cherry trees in bloom there. The West campus is the most picturesque of the three school campuses.  It hosts the nursing faculty, among others. 

All of these trees and plantings have to be looked after -- so there's a small army of maintenance workers around. Below right, a picture from last fall -- some of the ladies using twig rakes to gather up the fallen leaves, collected in large cloth bags. 

Left: One afternoon we walked out of our place and saw six brides across the street!  It turned out to be some of my students from last year, celebrating their impending graduation by dressing up for a group photo as brides. 

Below: the campus from a 6th floor classroom window on a reasonably pollution-free day, and the dormitory area with the academic building in the background.