The K-drama, “Teach You A Lesson”, is a show I am recommending you to watch with every part of my soul. It is a drama that you have to watch at least once before you go. I say this, and am persistent about it, because it portrays such a deep and valuable meaning that can change someone’s perspective on how they see the lives of their teachers, their kids’ teachers, or even the students themselves. The show does an excellent job of showing that no one truly knows what is going on in someone’s mind nor do they know what can be going on in their life.
Though this is not all, in fact it shows a lot more. It shows multiple topics and multiple struggles someone that is in school or is teaching can be going through during their daily life; like harassment, bullying, false rumors about them, students who are in gangs, suicidal thoughts, and even being scared of their own students. One main topic that is touched upon the most is suicidal thoughts, whether that is having those thoughts themselves or bullying someone until they have those thoughts as well. For instance, the first episode of the drama involves bullying within students that ultimately leads to one student jumping off the roof to their death.Unfortunately, instead of the bullies realizing that what they did was wrong, they continued onto the next person. Once they got their next target they bullied them and even went as far as to get the whole school against them as well, ultimately leading their next target to also develop suicidal thoughts. Luckily, they didn’t go through with it, and the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB) got involved before the bullying could continue. Although the issue was resolved it showed that the actions of other students can truly affect someone else and can even go as far as leading them to kill themselves. When I first saw this episode it made me acknowledge that, wow, actions truly do affect someone and it made me see how much stupid behavior can lead to someone getting affected personally, whether that is their self esteem or their own mental health.
Harassment is also a topic that is touched upon during episode five where the teacher, Choi Ji-seon, has an elementary class that she is starting to teach and she has one specific student that is clear to have a low self esteem and the mother knows this. Now, this may seem like a simple issue or something that will not escalate but sadly, it escalated fast. What I mean by this is that she attempted sucicide, not because of the student but because of the parent. The parent was trying so hard to “protect” her child to the point where she ended up harassing the teacher by achieving her address, getting her phone number, yelling at her, and even going as far as to get her own husband on her. The parents just did not stop, and the school didn’t do anything either. Not because they didn’t want to but because they just couldn’t due to the parents’ harsh protest. Yes, later on in the episode the issue did get resolved with the help of the ERPB, but the moral of this episode was so much more. This episode improved my viewing of teachers entirely. I used to believe teachers were being unreasonable when they didn’t want the students to get their parents involved in something small, but this drama showed me that it is a very valid reason. I say this because I’ve had a situation where a teacher I had didn’t want me to contact my parents over a small issue. At first I didn’t understand why, and once again I believed they were being unreasonable. But parents go through lengths just to help their child in what they need. In this case it was his self esteem, but in general they go through big lengths for them without realizing that they are affecting the teacher more than they are helping their child.
Therefore, for my blog I strongly advise you to watch the drama, “Teach You a Lesson”, because it will truly change your perspective on a lot of things in your life and how you view students and teachers.
Kelly Sauceda – Carmel Catholic High School – DMSF Class of 2030
Photo Credit: K-POPit 티비텐 – Wikimedia Commons