Humans of Changwon Science High School - Kim Tae Hee

"Why did I choose mathematics? Just because..."

I interviewed teacher Kim Tae-hee.

First, I asked about his life at CSHS. His personal time has decreased after he started teaching at CSHS. He likes traveling, but he couldn’t travel after January. However, He doesn't feel frustrated. At school, he can feel pleasures which he can’t feel when he travels. I think we can always find happy elements anywhere. If we can't feel happy when we work or do other things, then there are problems in our minds. After changing our minds, we can see happy elements or good points.

Second, I asked about his life in other schools before he came to CSHS. He compared them with us. Lots of students who studied at his previous school had single fathers or mothers, or only grandparents, but our school students are not. So, he think our school students are privileged. On the other hand, we entered this school because we studied hard, so he is proud. His face was distorted when he said these things. I think it was because of the thought of previous school's students. I was so sad when his face was distorted.

Third, I asked about his life like when he was young. He was born and grown up in Kim-hae. He is in his early 30’s now, and he was able to see some characteristics of successful people who are his age. They had enough ability, but more importantly, faithfulness and patience. When he was a high school student, there were a few friends who were outstanding, but only friends who were good at self-regulation achieved success today. Through this, I found self-regulation is very important in our life. Usually, I can self-regulate myself moderately well, but I need to be better at self-regulation.

Fourth, I asked about the reason why he became a teacher. When he was a high school student, his 2nd grade teacher and 3rd grade teacher died early. Until that time, he didn’t think about teaching as a job, but after this, he thought and considered the influence of a teacher. This made him change his career. Before he chose to be a teacher, he wanted to help others. A teacher can also help others, especially students, so he chose to be one. Maybe his process of being teacher is unusual. Most teachers have wanted to be a teacher when they were young. Through this, I could realize that all actions or thinking that we do are relevant. We can think of bad circumstance as the process to achieve our purpose. Then, the situation can be seen better than before.

Last, I asked if he liked mathematics when he was young. Surprisingly, he didn’t like mathematics when he was young, especially from 12 to 15 years old. Instead of mathematics, he liked science, but at highschool, he found the fun of mathematics. He thinks it was because of the difference of middle school and high school mathematics. On the other hand, he always liked science. When he was young, there were lots of boys who wanted to be scientists, and he also wanted to be one. I was curious about why he chose mathematics instead of science, so I asked him about this. The answer was that it was too hard of a question. In the sequel, the reason is that he just chose.

During the interview, I thought Tae-hee’s answer always wandered off my questions a little. He says ‘Um…….’ often. However, he talked about good things a lot, so I never minded.