[Terry's Tale] A Special Meeting

On Tuesday, June 17, I had the opportunity of meeting with the newly elected Superintendent of Schools for South Chungcheon Province, Kim Ji-cheol.

Now, I should first explain that I know little of Korean politics, very little. I am clueless at the moment as to what would constitute a conservative position versus what would constitute a liberal position, but I am aware that there are two big issues that figured into this election. First, the materials used in the classrooms for teaching and secondly, the impact of the Sewol tragedy. The Sewol was a passenger ferry that sank earlier this year and many teenagers, who were on board at the time for an outing to a local island resort, lost their lives. The massive reverberations of the tragedy are due to the lack of competence on the part of many people that both lead to the ship’s sinking as well as the large loss of life among the teenage passengers.

Mr. Kim was a teacher that my friend, Han, Wan-hui has known since his high school days back in 1989. In the time Mr. Han had come to know Mr. Kim, he had come to greatly respect and trust Mr. Kim. Thus, in this election cycle, with Mr. Kim running for the position of Superintendent, Mr. Han approached him and did all he could to fully support him.

I do not know exactly how many of these new superintendents were approached by KBS for interviews, but Mr. Kim definitely was, and in the process, Mr. Han was asked by KBS to be a part of Mr. Kim’s interview. Mr. Ham then asked me to go so that I could make photographs for him on this auspicious occasion, and so as the famous US author and radio commentator Paul Harvey used to say, “now, you know the rest of the story”.