South Chungcheong teachers produce and stage musical on online gambling problem for youth

“You can win money by playing this. It’s a very easy game.”

The daily life of ‘Jin-ho Ga’, a third-year high school student who started gambling online at the mild encouragement of a friend, gradually falls apart.

As he becomes obsessed with gambling, he loses interest in school and begins borrowing money from friends.

Their relationships with friends, teachers, and parents become strained, and they lie to their parents.

Teachers in the South Chungcheong region created a musical about youth online gambling problems they experienced at school and put it on stage.

According to the Chungnam Educational Musical Research Association's 'Stage WE Road' on the 25th, teachers belonging to the research group performed the original musical 'School, We Are Season 3' at the Cheonan Chungnam Office of Education Student Education and Culture Center on the 19th.

This work is not a literal translation of the actual case of one specific student.

Elementary, middle, and high school teachers shared their experiences at school and reconstructed about 4 to 5 cases into one story.

On stage, teacher Hyun Seung-won, the chairman, said, "This kind of problem is occurring a lot, especially in high schools." He added, "I incorporated many teachers' experiences into the characters, such as starting gambling at the recommendation of a friend, borrowing money that leads to violence, or the amount becoming much larger than expected."

In the play, not only the process of a student falling into gambling, but also the subsequent breakdown of human relationships were dealt with in great detail.

The current teacher explained, “As all of their attention is focused on gambling, their daily lives are disrupted, and they are even forced to borrow money from friends.” He added, “I often see them becoming nervous and their relationships with friends, teachers, and parents are all disrupted at school.”

It also contains the difficulties teachers experience while teaching problem students.

Teachers can have different opinions about the same student depending on their teaching methods or values, and the drama also shows a new teacher being embarrassed when meeting for the first time with parents who are sensitive about their children's problems.

The explanation is that, in a situation where interest in protecting teaching rights has recently increased in schools, it was also intended to show the tension between teachers and parents surrounding student guidance, as well as the burden felt by new, less experienced teachers.

Teacher Hyeon said, “I also wanted to show that the school field is not a place where only one idea moves.”

17 teachers participated in this performance.

14 people directly played the roles of students and teachers, and 3 people helped perform behind the scenes.

Above all, what is noteworthy is that the teachers themselves wrote the script.

The script team, comprised of 5 to 6 people within the research group, refined the story for about a year based on experiences they had in the school field.

Teachers continued to work on scripts and practice after school and on weekends while juggling classes and school work.

Afterwards, we spent about six months directing and rehearsing, and if you count the script, we prepared for over a year and a half for one performance.

This is the sixth time that Onstage has held a regular performance, but it is said to be the first time that teachers have written their own scripts and performed.

The teachers included a message in the performance that they did not view gambling problems only as individual students' problems, but that solidarity from those around them, including friends, parents, and teachers, was needed.

The current teacher said, “It’s a shame to end the performance we’ve been preparing for a year and a half with just one performance, so we’re thinking about ways to use it in the future.”