Miscellany

I just had a class canceled on me so I've got a minute to drop a line here.....


(I also just had one of the little instant coffee cups you can get here, which is half sugar, half caffeine, and half coffee flavoring...so if I seem a little wired it's because I've had 150% of a cup of fake coffee, amazingly.)

Anyway, I've got a solid week and a half here to do Christmas activities with my students, and am now accepting suggestions for what to do with the little buggers in a post-final exam environment. Please keep in mind that the little punks are either sick or blazing with energy at this point, and most likely will not stay seated or quiet unless they've got a really good reason to.

Also, I don't know where you guys get your news, but if you get it from the BBC you may have learned that South Korean courts just fined the parents of a teenage rapist for neglecting their parental duties. Check it out:

"The teenager is serving a 10-year sentence for the rape, but a court in Seoul ruled that his parents were also liable for his crime.

A court statement said: 'The parents could have prevented the crime with appropriate education but failed to show enough attention to their child.

'They neglected their duty to raise their child so that he can properly adjust to society.'"

Here's the rest of the article, if you're interested: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7782245.stm

I mean, what do you guys think of this? This could be huge.....what if other countries start following suit? (Although honestly I think if other countries started doing the same that it wouldn't get past Asia.) But I'm a little flabbergasted. I wonder how in depth the investigation went, and what Korean standards for parental neglect are, and how they could prove it and all that stuff. Just imagine if a similar ruling had occurred in the States.

....That's all.