By Mark Peterson
Professor, Brigham Young University
The National Council for Social Science is an organization of mainly secondary school social science teachers, but its membership also includes some elementary school teachers and college teachers. The Council holds a large meeting, almost like a convention, every year in November. This year, it met in San Diego, on the weekend of Nov. 29 - Dec. 2. The Korea Foundation was an active participant of this conference by maintaining a booth at the exhibition hall, hosting a reception, and helping to sponsor an international film festival.
The Council was launched in 1921 and has held an annual conference for the past 87 years in a major U.S. city, like San Diego this year, while future hosts include Houston (2008), Atlanta (2009), Denver (2010), Washington (2011) and Seattle (2012).
The core emphasis of the conference is a broad variety of seminars on a wide range of topics, from which teachers can choose the areas that they are interested in. Seminar sessions, which run for an hour, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a 15-minute break in between, present various materials helpful to the classroom teacher. For each session, 35 or more activities are offered. There were several sessions about Korea this year. In addition, there are special sessions on various topics, such as the use of technology in the classroom, and there is a keynote address by a prominent figure. This year, it was Sandra Day O'Connor, the recently retired Supreme Court justice.
The San Diego conference also featured a new item on the agenda: an international film festival. On Saturday evening, festival-goers gathered at the grand ballroom to hear an introduction to four films that would be shown. Participants listened to introductions of the featured films, and then viewed one of the offerings. After viewing the films, participants were invited to a reception where they could informally discuss and ask questions about the films.
The Korea Foundation not only sponsored the showing of a film at the festival, the NCSS president announced that the idea of presenting an international film festival was also proposed by the Foundation. Professor Gayle Thieman, the president of NCSS and a professor of the college of education at Portland State University, told the audience that when she met Park Kyung-chul, of the Washington D.C. office of the Korea Foundation, at a conference in Seattle, he suggested the showing of a Korean film at a film festival. Prof. Thieman thought this was a wonderful idea and the first annual NCSS International Film Festival was born.
The four films of the inaugural festival included a Korean film, a French-language film from Quebec, a documentary on the impact of hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, and a documentary on the immigrant experience in America.
The Korean film was a full-length feature film, directed by the internationally famous director Im Kwon-taek, titled "Festiva"" (Chukje). The film was introduced to the audience by Mark Peterson, professor of Korean Studies at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. Although some of the other Im Kwon-taek's films are better-known, Professor Peterson said he chose this film because of its unique portrayal of Korean culture. The film is a "dark-comedy" about a funeral. In the film, the protagonist, a successful author who lives in Seoul, gets a phone call from the countryside from his sister saying that their mother has died. The author and his family quickly leave for their country home when they get another phone call saying that the elderly mother has been revived, to which the author says: "What? Again?"
Prof. Peterson explained that the film was really three movies in one. In addition to the main storyline of the family gathering for the funeral and all the family problems that are revisited when they get together, there are two other threads that are shown in a clever and distinct way. Each of these sidelights is marked by distinct visual cues and with its own musical background, which signal that a certain segment is unfolding. One is an explanation of death to the young daughter of the author; the other is an almost anthropological documentary of the funeral customs of Korea.
The film, while a regular full-length feature movie, looks at times like a documentary on religion in Korea. While never explicitly teaching the doctrine of Korean religions, concepts such as ancestor worship, reincarnation, and filial piety are portrayed in their natural setting. Thus, the film provides an excellent launch pad for the discussion and study of Buddhism, Confucianism, and shamanism. Segments of the film can be used as case studies of these major East Asian religious systems.
A second film, "The Hockey Sweater", explores the tension within Canadian society between French speakers and English speakers. This film was sponsored by the Quebec government office of southern California, based in Los Angeles.
The third film was an award-winning documentary on hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, titled "When the Levees Broke". The film was directed by the well-known film director, Spike Lee, and produced by Sam Pollard. Pollard intended to introduce the film himself, but at the last minute was unable to attend, and instead provided a video introduction for the audience.
The fourth film, "Across the Waves", was a series of ten short biographies of African-American, Latino-American, and Asian-American newcomers, which depicted the immigrant experience in America. Farmer's Insurance Company was the sponsor of this film, while the publishing house, Glencoe Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, contributed to the sponsorship of the film festival.
After introducing the four films to the entire audience, the group divided up and went to separate rooms to view the film of their choice. The conference organizers were exceedingly pleased that each film attracted an approximately equal number of viewers. There were no winners and losers; all were winners.
In addition to the conference sessions and the special programs, such as the International Film Festival, one of the important features of the NCSS conference is the book exhibit. In a large hall, publishers and other organizations, which provide assistance to school teachers, set up booths to present various information and materials to these educators. Among the groups seeking to assist teachers this year was the Korea Foundation.
At their booth, four representatives of the Foundation had an opportunity for one-on-one interaction with teachers. They answered questions and provided all kinds of materials, books, and DVDs to teachers for the purpose of helping teachers to improve their classroom instruction in regard to Korea-related subject areas.
The Korea Foundation also hosted an open reception, held just prior to the International Film Festival, which was well-attended by conference participants. There, special guests were introduced and several related programs announced, such as the summer training program for school teachers coordinated by the Korea Society, in New York, and the KAFE (Korean Academy For Educators) seminars in the summer and fall, held in Los Angeles. Choi Yong-jin of the Korea Society and Mary Connor of KAFE were introduced to the group. The Korea Foundation extends support to both of these programs, which help to develop curriculum and distribute instructional materials for classroom teachers.
This year's NCSS conference was one of the largest ever held, with teachers from all over the United States having a chance to renew their enthusiasm for education and acquire new materials and ideas for their classroom. Playing a prominent role in this year's conference was the Korea Foundation, which helped in many ways for the teachers and students in the United States to learn more about Korea.
Source: Korea Policy Review March 2008
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