North Korea Camp: What’s North Korea Like and How Did It Get That Way?
In this 5-day course we’ll learn about Korea’s divide, the Korean War, the lives and reign of the Kim rulers, and what life is like inside the dark and mysterious North Korea.
Amanda Cline, M.Ed.
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:(11)
What's included
5 live meetings
5 in-class hoursClass Experience
We’ll spend 5 days exploring North Korea’s past and present.
*Day 1: Korea split into two, the Korean War
-Several high-powered non-Koreans decided to split the peninsula at the Yalta Conference
-Kim Il Sung was put in charge of the North and it didn’t take long for him to follow in Mao Zedong’s footsteps and move to make
the whole peninsula his (with Stalin’s blessing, of course)
-The United Nations gathered troops to defend the South, but US Marines and Army suffered enormously
-An agreement to stop fighting was signed in 1953, but the North and the South technically remain at war
*Day 2: Kim Il Sung’s childhood, war-time experience, and rise to power
-It took a fierce guerilla fighter to stand out among the rest and get the attention of the Soviets while fighting off the Japanese
-Stalin carefully chose the obedient Kim Il Sung to be his representative in North Korea, but he quickly learned that Kim had his own
idea of what a socialist regime should look like along with a new brand of personality cult
*Day 3: Kim Jong Il (This one’s worse than the other!)
-Lacking his father’s military experience and guile, Kim Jong Il was desperate to prove that he was a worthy successor
-Kim Jong Il resorted to Party purges, kidnapping, and murder to prove his power. The people dared not express disapproval
-North Korea faced its most devastating famine during Kim Jong Il’s reign. Kim turned the country’s time of suffering into a team-
building exercise he called, “The Arduous March”
*Day 4: Kim Jong Un (The Mysterious “Great Successor”)
-Kim Jong Un’s childhood of ski trips and boarding school in Switzerland made him a less credible leader than his father
-Kim quickly proved his audacity in a Party purge and the execution of his uncle
-Kim demonstrated he has zero tolerance for American college tourists and negotiations with a vociferous US president
*Day 5: Life in North Korea for tourists, journalists, and its own citizens
Teaching style:
*The lecture portion of the class will be accompanied by Google slides. The lecture works best when students interact. For that reason, I frequently break up the lecture with discussion questions. Students are encouraged to share their own information or opinions on the topic.
*Politics: We’ll discuss political issues and current events in this course. It’s important that each student feels comfortable sharing their own political views in this classroom. I will remind students that they are not to discourage or disparage one another. As the teacher, however, I will not share my own political opinion or push an agenda. I will be careful to share only factual information, leaving the students to form their own political opinions.Learning Goals
By the end of the 5-day course, students will be able to:
*Identify past and present political figures of North Korea, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China
*Thoughtfully discuss the academic definition of socialism
*Compare and contrast socialism and capitalism
*Exercise critical thinking skills while discussing life in a socialist dictatorship
*Respectfully share political facts while discussing the current government policies of North Korea
*Analyze, understand, and present the historical and political facts that led to the Korean War
*Present facts about the role of socialism in the world today
*Understand the suffering of individuals in North Korea today
Other Details
Parental Guidance
The graphic and politically sensitive information covered in this course:
*Brutal treatment of Korean people by their Japanese captors from 1910-1945 (imprisonment, slavery, oppression)
*Several famines of North Korea that resulted in mass starvation
*Oppressive treatment of North Korean women by the Communist Party of North Korea and the Kim family
*Brutal beatings and torture of inmates including the death of American college student Otto Warmbier
*The academic definition of socialism and capitalism
*North Korea’s mandatory collection of human feces to fertilize crops
I will not show graphic images
Supply List
I will provide a one to two page note-taking guide for each class meeting. This is not required. Students simply find it helpful to print out the note-taking guide before each class meeting to minimize their own note-taking.
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Sources
Quizzes will sometimes be presented on Kahoot.it
Joined July, 2020
5.0
11reviews
Teacher expertise and credentials
We'll examine historical facts as historians do. We will be sensitive to the victims of this oppressive regime.
My experience in the classroom and working with children at church have equipped me to handle sensitive topics. I've attended several graduate-level courses on meeting the needs of sensitive learners. here are some helpful classroom techniques I've learned when handling sensitive course material:
*In the high school classroom, I learned to back off of a subject and re-direct the class if a student appears upset.
I will remain conscious of each student's emotional well-being as we take in difficult events of the past. I will contact parents if their child appears to be upset durning class.
*Ideas are argued about, not people. Because of the political nature of this course, students will exchange sensitive ideas and feelings. Every student should feel comfortable doing so. Intolerance or insensitivity toward another student is not permissible and students will be made aware of this classroom rule within the first few minutes of class. I will facilitate discussions and will immediately intervene if a student uses language or expressions that are disparaging, ridiculing, or discouraging toward another student or people group.
*Each student's experience and input is equally valuable and will be treated as such. If a student feels marginalized or that their input has been minimized in any way, I beg that they discuss it with me privately without fear of repercussion so that I can correct myself or the student who made them feel this way.
*I'm aware that there is a variety of learning styles among middle school and high school students. My assessments in this course rely on verbal discussions
Sensitivity towards marginalized groups in North Korea:
While much of this course focuses on politics and the Kim family’s rise to power, a portion of this course will be spent focusing on North Korean victims of the socialist rulers of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, both directly (by the Kim rulers themselves) and indirectly (by their policies). Kim Jong Il kidnapped and exploited women for his own amusement. Women throughout Japan and North Korea’s country side are kidnapped and brought to live in Pyongyang simply so the capital city can be populated with beautiful women on display. Hundreds of thousands to millions of North Koreans starved to death due to a famine brought on by the Party’s ignorant, arrogant policy-making (the government hasn’t released accurate death toll numbers).
The seriousness of North Korea’s suffering will be not be overlooked. Students will be encouraged to have compassion for the real human beings suffering under this dark dictatorship today.
Several sources include testimonials from North Korean defectors. Other sources include books written by journalists who have spent months living in North Korea. Other sources interview people who worked directly for the Kim family.
Sources:
Demick, B. (2010). Nothing To Envy: ordinary lives in North Korea. Random House.
Fifield, A. (2019). The Great Successor: the divinely perfect destiny of brilliant comrade Kim Jong Un. Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Harden, B. (2013). Escape from Camp 14: one man’s remarkable odyssey from North Korea to freedom in the West. Penguin Books.
Harden, B. (2016). The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: a true story about the birth of tyranny in North Korea. Penguin Books.
Jeppesen, T. (2018). See You Again, Pyongyang: a journey into Kim Jong Un’s North Korea. Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Kim, S. (2015). Without You, There is No Us: undercover among the sons of North Korea’s elite. Crown.
Hughes, P. (Host). (2020, June 8). Kim Jong Il Part I: Birth of North Korea (No. 2) [Audio podcast episode]. In Real Dictators. Noiser. https://www.noiser.com/realdictators
Hughes, P. (Host). (2020, June 14). Kim Jong Il Part 2: Time to Make a Movie...(No. 3) [Audio podcast episode]. In Real Dictators. Noiser. https://www.noiser.com/realdictators
Hughes, P. (Host). (2020, June 20). Kim Jong Il Part 3: Nuclear Armed. (No. 4) [Audio podcast episode]. In Real Dictators. Noiser. https://www.noiser.com/realdictators
Manchester, W. (1976). American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur. Back Ray Books.
Samuels, M., Strain, T.H., MacLowry, R., Prestileo, L., & Taylor, R. (Producers). MacLowry, R. (Director). (2016). American Experience: the battle of Chosin [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Battle-Randall-MacLowry/dp/B01N65GVI1/ref=sr_1_14?crid=1T1WWCN4V7KZX&dchild=1&keywords=korean+war&qid=1616792044&s=instant-video&sprefix=Korean+war%2Cdigital-text%2C213&sr=1-14
Reviews
Live Group Class
$50
for 5 classes5x per week, 1 week
60 min
Completed by 2 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 13-18
1-6 learners per class
