I saw a few stories together, and was inspired. Rob’s post earlier on the old Sincheon railway station reminds me of a gripe I formed a few years ago. When the KTX opened there were all these beautiful, shiny new train stations. Most of them with vaulted ceilings, glass walls affording great views, and open spaces that were welcoming. Over the next few years those same assets were nullified by creeping retail space. A coffee shop was added here, a connivence store there, then a kimbab stand, and then another coffee shop…Pretty soon what was once a beautiful public space that enlightened my Seoul-Daejeon commute was just another garish bit of commerce to trudge through. I would think this thought is shared by more than a few that use the the stations regularly.
It gets me around this story on CNN:
Squeezed by classroom budget cuts, the Rancho Bernardo High School teacher [Farber] is selling ads on his exams to cover the costs of printing them.
“It raises money for the teachers and it’s amusing for the kids, so it seems like a win-win,” said Luke Shaw, 18, a student at the suburban San Diego, California, school…
So Farber, who says he’d never asked for money from parents in his 18 years of high school teaching, pitched the ad idea to parents at a September back-to-school night. For checks made to the math department — $10 a quiz, $20 a test or $30 for a final exam — they could insert an inspirational quote — their own or someone else’s — or a business advertisement at the bottom of the first page.
Of the seven to run so far — one per test or quiz — five were quotes, and two were ads from local businesses connected to the parents or someone close.
Makes me wonder if selling inspirational messages from parents on Korea’s college entrance exam may be a next step. I wonder if the ads would outnumber the test. It also makes me wonder if the government would eventually have to subsidize ads so as to equalize income differences between students (ala the Hagwon controversies).
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