Reflective Essay: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, And Spring

A few years ago, the whole nation was shocked because of the misbehavior of an elementary school teacher. A teacher battered a student and someone in the class took a video. As a result, almost every Korean came to know the embarrassing fact. Many people became very furious. However, there might be the reason why the teacher had to punish the student. Maybe the student bullied other students, did some bad things or did not do the homework. If so, the teacher should discipline the student and all of us already know the fact. Nonetheless, because the way the teacher discipling his student was unproductive and wrong, we blamed him.

This Korean film is called <Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.. and Spring> and it deals with the life of an old monk and a young monk who are living in a small island. In the Spring part, the boy, who was very bored, tied small stones to a frog, a fish and a snake and laughing while watching the suffering animals. However, the old monk, who was peeping the young monk, was very surprised. He tied a big and heavy stone to the boy while he was sleeping and when the boy asked him to untie the stone, the old monk said that the old monk would untie it only when the boy untied the stones the boy himself tied to the animals. So the little monk quickly started to find the animals. However, the fish and the snake already died and the boy started to cry after he saw the dead snake.

In fact, there are two ways of punishing: A productive way and an unproductive way. The productive way of punishing makes us realize some important facts and prevents us from doing the misbehavior again. Meanwhile, the unproductive way of punishing can not make us realize something but just gives us pain or makes us annoying. For example, if your teacher beats you when you did not do your homework, you will dislike your teacher, not feel guilty or realize the real reason you have to do your homework. (of course, you will come to know the fact that if you don't want to be battered by your teacher, you should do your homework. But that's not the real reason why you have to do your homework)

When I was a young girl, I and my family went to a mart and bought a goldfish, which I wanted so much. It had smooth, bright and beautiful skin, black and round eyes and very small like a mouse. It was certainly cute. After we bought it, I named it 'Gum Jini' ('Gum meant goldfish and 'Jini' was the last word of my and my brothers' names. We liked it very much, but it died after only 1 week. It was because I did not take care of it well. I did not give it much food, did not clean its fishbowl frequently and did not change the water in the bowl for several days. I came to know the shocking news as soon as I returned from the English academy I once attended and fell into a deep sorrow. Even if my parents did not scold me that much, the incident disciplined me so much and taught me the preciousness of life.

As a matter of fact, the old monk's way of punishing was quite productive. The little monk realized that bothering animals was very cruel and bad thing and sometimes led the animals to death. The old monk's way of disciplining the little monk was to make the little boy experience the pain the three animals might have felt. It was quite effective. However, there was one problem in the old monk's way to discipline the little monk. It was very harsh for the young and childlike boy who did not know why he shouldn't bother animals. Little kids sometimes can not realize what is bad and what is right since they are not fully mature. Of course, I agree with the way the old monk punished the boy but I think he shouldn't treat the boy that harsh. If the little monk was unlucky, he might be hurt because of the heavy and big stone tied to him. So I think the old monk had to tie a little bit smaller stone to the boy and give the little monk some extra lessons by talking with the child after he regretted his misbehaviour.

Overall, although I dislike some parts of the old monk's punishment and can not help thinking it is a little bit harsh, I concede it was quite productive and gave a lesson to the little monk. Besides, if the blamed teacher I mentioned had not battered his student but had used a productive way of disciplining, his and the student's future might have changed a lot.