CUNY Macaulay Honors College at Baruch College/Professor Bernstein

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Growing up as a daughter of Korean immigrants, my life was a consecutive challenges of coping myself into “a whole new world” called America. Especially, waking up in the middle of New York City everyday initiated and fulfilled my life with diverse cultural metamorphosis.

Most of my cultural encounters took place in school.  One day, my sophomore English teacher had a heated discussion with students about student discipline and punishment. He abruptly asked me what do they do in Korean schools. I instantly read his intention, but simply tried to avoid it. He did not show any sign of retreat, so I just stated, “Teachers can exert more authority over children in terms of discipline in Asia.” Obviously, this answer did not satisfy my teacher. He was looking for a specific example.

What I said was true though; I simply generalized my answer to avoid my friends’ “what?” and “huh?” In the Asian culture that I grew up for fifteen years, physical punishment –such as spanking and hitting, but certainly not physically abusing- was allowed to discipline disrespectful students. However, when I was admitting that fact, I felt ashamed for some reason. After a while, I realized there is no need to be ashamed of my culture. Is physical punishment for children right or wrong? I still do not know. Still, one clear lesson that I have learned from that experience was culture is neither right nor wrong; it is just different from one to another.

The image was taken from:<http://www.anirudhsethireport.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/right_wrong.png>