The weather is beautiful these days in Korea. So nice that you have to get outside. After school my son and I took a walk together. The moment he saw the sun shining through the leaves he got excited and kicked his shoe off.

His emotions sometimes get the better of him and today he was happy. He was so happy that he couldn't hold it he had to kick his shoe. I guess he learned this from the games they have at school in Korea. Sometimes kids toss their shoes and the shoe that goes the farthest wins. The other shoes are eliminated. He apparently never forgot this game.

He found some open sidewalk area and flipped his shoe into the air. The only problem was that he was right next to a building and his shoe landed in a three meter pit with no stairs to get down and no ladder to climb.

His shoe was stuck down there. The building is built on a hill and we were on the high part and the pit was the lower part. The window in the building is a university library, but they don't open and there are bars on the window.

We thought about asking the building manager for help, but if he got hurt trying to fetch my son's shoes I would also be haunted with the guilt of this guy's injury. I told my son,

"walk home with one shoe."

I have him one of my socks and he walked home with one shoe on and one shoe off. Diddle diddle dumpling. What a clown.

I could have called his mom to come and pick him up and she would have been there with new shoes but then how would he learn not to randomly throw shoes?

Life gives us these learning opportunities every day. It is a little more inconvenient and sometimes it seems like we are making these kids go through a little bit of torture, but there is no better way to learn.

I tried to be a nice teacher

Life gives us these learning opportunities every day. It is a little more inconvenient and sometimes it seems like we are making these kids go through a little bit of torture, but there is no better way to learn.

I tried to be a nice teacher and a nice dad, but I cannot deny learning opportunities, even if they are learning opportunities for others. If I lost my shoe when I was his age my dad would say, "You're loss, don't bother me about it."

I tell my son.

When I was ten years old I had to buy my clothes unless they were given by my grandma or my uncle or some people at church. I had to wake up at 5 am each morning to deliver newspapers just get clothes for school.

My son says, "Do you want me to deliver newspapers?"

I think, "No, I'm glad you are you.... But I want you to learn never to just throw your shoes randomly so let's walk home. Our neighborhood has a special nature preserve and people walk through the neighborhood barefoot anyway. They think it has some special healing power.

When he got home he was still happy and a little wiser. Well I'm out 20 dollars for a new pair of crocs. I think it was worth it for the experience.

One more interesting thing before I go. I passed by the park and the place is all tapped up. This place is were the seniors used to come and play chess. They still won't open it.

Our school playground is the same then. The world is like closed to play and closed to learning. What kind of generation will this be?

Where have all the children gone?