Boot Camp for Kids
Have you seen this? You are at a store, let’s say, and there’s a bratty kid causing a huge ruckus, generally making life hell for the parent and everyone else around the little thug. You’d think a firm disciplining would be in order, but in the current PC climate, it’s somehow seen barbaric to yell at a kid, and heaven forbid should you smack a kid around. It’s gotten so that were one to lay a smack down in a form of corporal punishment, the blasted kid would snitch on you, and off you go to the slammer, and the kid, well, i suppose the little puke deserves what s/he gets because they’d be hauled off to a foster home or a foster parents who would probably scar the little bastard for life. I think.
I bring this matter up to my friends, who for various reasons, have chosen elementary school teacher as their profession (i’m guessing they are masochists), and the question i pose to them seem reasonable.
“Hey, so if your kid misbehaves in class, do you smack them around?”
They look at me like i’m some kind of a child-abusing monster, glaring at me and replying,
“No, you jerk. That would be wrong. I try to nurture the child, and gently remind them about the necessity of social politeness without damaging their self esteem. You jerk.”
Wha…? I press on.
“But i mean, let’s say the kid’s REALLY bad… so bad that he is really disruptive. You would at least cuss ‘im out, yeah?”
“NO! Don’t you understand? The children at that age are really impressionable. You have to have a gentle hand in reminding them that while a disruptive behavior is undesirable, you have to tell them that they are loved and expression of individuality is a wonderful thing! You jerk!”
Oh, man.
You see? This is what’s wrong with kids these days. All this coddling and worrying about their feelings have turned the lot of them into little hellions, out of control, acting like lunatic monkeys when they don’t get their way. This lamentable situation is compounded in a country like korea, where a kid, especially a boy, is pretty much allowed to do as they please until junior high or maybe even high school. I’ve been reading stories of mothers getting BEAT UP by their young sons because the mom wouldn’t let little kimmie play lineage online. If i was a father, and i came home to that, you can bet that there’d be more than a gentle “tut-tut, that’s not nice.”
What they need to do is to teach those little punks that life ain’t peaches and cream. No sir, it’s more like gruel and a kick to the ass. Sooner the young ‘uns learn this harsh lesson in life, sooner they’ll settle down to becoming a cog in the machine.
In a well disciplined, take-no-nonsense machine.
So this boot camp for pansy kids in Pohang, korea, is just the thing for your tubby lad. Basically, as a parent, you trick your kid into taking a ride with you to the industrial town of Pohang (where they grow things like destroyers and steel beams, not pansies) with promises of ice cream cones and choco-pies, and when you get there, kick their ass out of the car with a gleeful “See you in a week!”
And what exactly happens in this boot camp for children? Well, they wear a military uniform, even down to the heavy steel helmet (”You will learn to bow!”) and roll around in mud and stand around in freezing water, US navy seal style. And of course, the ever-present drill seargent who take no gruff from no one is constantly yelling and mocking the kids.
Overnight, these children find themselves transported from the world of video games and junk food to a Spartan beachhead where unforgiving drill sergeants boast they can make cows bark and dogs moo.
The teenagers do push-ups and deep knee bends. With barking sergeants tailing them, groups of seven puffing teenagers charge into freezing water, balancing 120-kilogram, or 265-pound, black rubber boats on their heads. They turn in cellphones and eat and sleep in Marine barracks, getting up at 6:30 and going to bed at 10:30. Here they are nothing more than numbers.
No. 227 is Kim Ki Seol, the teenager who slept through the amphibious landing exercise.
“My parents sent me here because I always pick fights with my brother and play computer games too much. They said I should learn the value of family while training here,” the glum boy said, looking at his sand-caked sneakers. “I wish this program would be over soon. There is no fun here.”
“I thought my parents were joking,” said Kim Soo Ram, a cheerful 13-year- old who said her parents drove her here. “I was virtually dragged in here. But now I kind of look cool in the uniform.”
Does this seem harsh? Well, if you saw some out of control kids in korea, and the hell they can raise, you might quickly come around to the idea that harsh discipline is sometimes the only way to go.
number 393 might have to come back to this camp maybe couple more times…