The Legendary Educator
“Whew. Well, first of all, I’m sorry for twisting your arm out of nowhere.”
“Ah, no, not at all. I also acted in a way that could easily be misunderstood…”
“Well, as long as you know.”
“Yes. I am truly sorry.”
“You said you’re a teacher?”
“Yes. An elementary school teacher.”
Hyeong-man raised an eyebrow and looked the man over.
He didn’t look particularly neat, but he definitely didn’t give off the vibe of a criminal.
Besides, his explanation—that he had spotted Hyeong-man from across the street and approached Chul-jun because he thought the boy was in danger—made reasonable sense.
To an outsider, it probably looked like a very concerning scene.
Hyeong-man was perfectly capable of judging his own appearance objectively.
“Well, since we both misunderstood each other, let’s just go our separate ways.”
“Yes, yes.”
Hyeong-man gestured to Chul-jun.
“Let’s go, kiddo.”
“Okay!”
“Some stranger talks to you, and you just answer everything?”
“He didn’t look like a bad person. And I knew you’d be nearby, Uncle.”
“Uh-uh. You shouldn’t judge people by their looks. Look at your uncle. I might look like this, but see how gentle and kind I am?”
“…”
Go Chang-ho stared blankly at the boy’s retreating back, then hurriedly spoke up.
“Excuse me…”
Chul-jun and Hyeong-man turned around.
Go Chang-ho hesitated, his lips parting.
“Which school does he go to…?”
Hyeong-man furrowed his brow.
“Why do you want to know that?”
“No, it’s just…”
Hyeong-man scrutinized him thoroughly.
A shabby appearance, unkempt hair, and a patchy beard from not shaving for a few days.
He might be a teacher, but he didn’t look like he belonged in a private elementary school at all.
“Tsk, tsk. None of your business.”
“Ah…”
Hyeong-man wrinkled his nose and started walking. Chul-jun turned around and bowed his head politely.
“Goodbye.”
“Huh? Oh… Ah. Goodbye.”
Go Chang-ho waved his hand slightly, his face full of lingering regret.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
When Hyeong-man called, Chul-jun scurried over and fell into step beside him.
“Hey, by the way, when did you realize I was following you?”
“Since we were in front of the apartment complex?”
“Ha, and here I thought I was being careful…”
“I glanced back and you were just right there.”
“R-really?”
“Yes!”
“Anyway, you shouldn’t just trust people based on their looks. We don’t even know if that guy is really a teacher. Just looking at his appearance…”
“Weren’t you just judging him by his looks too, Uncle?”
“Hey. That’s a completely different ballpark.”
“What’s a ballpark?”
“Uh…? Well, you see…”
And then, one week later.
It was the parent-guardian interview day before Chul-jun’s transfer to Hanyoung Private Elementary School.
“Ha…”
Chul-jun glared at Hyeong-man, Hyeong-man scratched his head sheepishly, and Go Chang-ho blinked blankly, staring at the two of them.
“Um, about that day…”
“Oh, no, please.”
“To think I dared to twist a teacher’s arm…”
“No, no, it’s fine.”
“Sigh, and to hear you’re a Harvard graduate… Such an incredible person…”
“It’s nothing special. It’s just a place where people study, like any other.”
“Haha. So you were going for the American style.”
“…Pardon?”
“Your, uh, hair style…”
“Ah…”
After exchanging awkward reunions, the two sat across from each other.
Chul-jun found their conversation incredibly amusing. The way their attitudes shifted depending on the situation felt like a mathematical formula.
“So, Chul-jun has never received any formal education until now?”
“Ah, yes. What I’ve heard from him is all I know, too.”
At Hyeong-man’s words, Go Chang-ho looked at Chul-jun.
When their eyes met, Chul-jun smiled brightly.
“Chul-jun. What kind of studying did you do in China?”
“Books. My dad brought me second-grade elementary school textbooks. I only read those. Ever since I was eight.”
“Ah, anything else?”
“A Chinese nature exploration book and a science encyclopedia. But there were some missing volumes in the middle.”
Go Chang-ho nodded silently.
The boy certainly seemed smart, but it would be hard to judge everything through a cognitive assessment. After all, he couldn’t know what he hadn’t been taught.
Then, Hyeong-man chimed in.
“Well, he did have tutoring for a little under a month.”
“Tutoring?”
“Yes. It was mostly math and English. Chul-jun was so smart that the tutor kept getting flustered…”
Go Chang-ho’s brow furrowed slightly.
Even for elementary school level, one month was far too short. The guardian might think the child had caught up to some extent, but the tutor had likely skipped several chapters just for show. Crash-course tutoring usually just covered key concepts and rushed through the curriculum.
“Well, I don’t place too much importance on grades. I’ll teach him slowly, matching his pace. Fortunately, the class I’m in charge of has a small number of students. I can set aside some individual time, and since he’s a bright kid, he’ll catch up to his peers in no time.”
“Ah, well, the tutor even said he might be a prodigy…”
“…I see. A prodigy.”
Go Chang-ho looked at Chul-jun.
The shock of their first meeting was still fresh.
An insight that didn’t belong to a child.
If the tutor had experienced that same insight, they might have said such a thing.
“Well, since this isn’t a common situation, I’d like to do a quick cognitive assessment. There aren’t many questions, so it won’t take long. You can take about thirty minutes to look around the school.”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
Hyeong-man stood up, patted Chul-jun’s head, and walked out of the classroom.
Go Chang-ho handed Chul-jun a pencil.
“Now, we’re going to take a little test with me…”
Chul-jun’s round eyes sparkled as he looked at the test paper.
The cognitive assessment consisted of five subjects: Korean, Social Studies, Science, English, and Math.
In truth, he hadn’t intended to make him solve every single question. He could easily gauge the child’s level just by picking out a few essential questions.
However, the speed at which the boy solved the problems was extraordinary.
Korean.
He read the passage exactly once. He never double-checked. He immediately grasped the core of the question and found the answer. Even for spelling, grammar, and spacing questions, he wrote down the answers without hesitation as soon as he read them. Out of fifteen questions, he was asked to solve five, and he got them all right.
Social Studies.
He struggled a bit with this subject. It felt like he simply didn’t know because he hadn’t learned it. Out of five questions, he only got two right in the geography and regional sections. He left the economy and society sections completely blank.
Here, Go Chang-ho’s brow furrowed. Usually, when it came to multiple-choice questions, kids would at least guess if an answer looked somewhat plausible. But this child simply shook his head at what he didn’t know.
Science.
He shook his head at questions about rock layers, fossils, and plants. However, the moment he saw a question about the state changes of water, he got it right. He was also given a question about separating mixtures, and he got it right instantly.
English.
Since public education officially started English in the third grade, public elementary school fourth-grade English focused on listening and speaking. However, Hanyoung Private Elementary School had English classes starting from the first grade. Thus, there was a written assessment even for fourth graders.
Choose the correct word for the blank.
The book is ( on / in / under ) the desk.
Which of the following is NOT a food?
① pizza ② pencil ③ rice ④ milk
The child got them all right without much difficulty.
Indeed, the guardian had mentioned that the tutor focused on math and English. At the very least, his level was superior to that of public elementary school students.
Before pulling out the math test, Go Chang-ho looked at the test papers Chul-jun had solved so far.
Go Chang-ho wasn’t just looking at whether the child got the answers right or wrong. He was closely observing the child’s attitude toward the questions and the process of deriving the answers.
Go Chang-ho was astonished by two things.
First, the questions left blank.
The child accurately recognized the boundary between what he knew and what he didn’t. At that age, it was rare to have perfect metacognition. Yet, the child shook his head without hesitation at the questions he didn’t know. He didn’t even think that not knowing was embarrassing or wrong.
It was only natural. He hadn’t learned it. Go Chang-ho quite liked this aspect.
Second, the answers derived from understanding, not memorization.
He didn’t know the questions about rock layers and plant life cycles, which required memorization, but after a brief moment of thought, he got the questions about water’s state changes and mixture separation right.
Go Chang-ho, who had accurately caught that brief moment of hesitation, could tell. The boy hadn’t just pointed to a familiar word; he had instantly deduced and understood the principles to find the answer.
Go Chang-ho raised an eyebrow and handed over the math test.
He had said he learned math from the tutor as well.
Skipping large numbers, small numbers, and angles…
“Now, would you like to try solving this?”
374 × 25 = ?
A three-digit by two-digit multiplication problem.
The moment he pointed to the problem, the boy’s pencil began to scratch against the paper.
…Huh?
Without writing down any vertical calculations, the answer came out instantly through mental math.
“…How about this?”
815 ÷ 35 = ?
Scratch, scratch.
Three-digit by two-digit division was also solved mentally.
The moment he pointed to addition of fractions and decimals, the boy wrote down the correct answer.
Sigh…
Go Chang-ho’s brow furrowed.
This wasn’t something that could be taught.
Staring blankly at the math test, Go Chang-ho spoke.
“Um, do you see the answers right away?”
Chul-jun blinked his round eyes.
“Yes.”
“Oh, did you learn this?”
Chul-jun thought for a moment, then nodded. He had learned multiplication and division from his tutor.
“Yes!”
“From, uh, your tutor?”
“Yes!”
Go Chang-ho’s brow furrowed even deeper.
This could be taught? Suddenly, he became curious about the child’s true level.
“Chul-jun. Did you learn things harder than this too?”
“Yes!”
Go Chang-ho pulled out a blank sheet of paper and wrote down a fifth-grade mixed operations problem with natural numbers.
25 ÷ (3 + 1) × 6 = ?
Scratch, scratch.
Arithmetic operations with fractions.
Scratch, scratch.
…Did he do all of this through mental math too?
On a whim, he wrote down a sixth-grade problem.
Mixed operations of fractions and decimals.
Scratch, scratch.
…
Proportions.
Scratch, scratch.
Go Chang-ho, who had barely been hiding his fluster, finally opened his eyes wide.
“Oh, do you know even harder things?”
Chul-jun smiled brightly.
His uncle had told him to show the teacher everything he knew. That way, the teacher could accurately assess him and give proper guidance.
“Yes!”
“…How far did you learn?”
Chul-jun organized his thoughts for a moment.
What was the last thing he had figured out? He had learned so many things out of order that it was hard to pinpoint. Still, there was something he had been calculating recently while constantly asking his tutor.
“Trigonometric functions.”
At the completely unexpected answer, Go Chang-ho’s mouth hung open.
“…What? Why?”
He was so flustered that the words slipped out awkwardly.
“Well, to accurately calculate the positions of the stars…”
“Stars?”
“Yes. If we let the observer’s latitude be φ, the star’s declination be δ, and the hour angle be H, we can find the altitude angle using sin h = sin φ sin δ + cos φ cos δ cos H. This is spherical trigonometry, and it also requires the trigonometric addition formulas and the law of cosines.”
“…Huh?”
Go Chang-ho’s mouth fell half-open.
What on earth did that tutor teach an elementary schooler?
Moreover, they taught trigonometric functions and spherical trigonometry by applying them to astronomy? Trigonometric functions themselves were at a high school sophomore level, but the formula the child just mentioned was at the level of an undergraduate astronomy department.
And they made an elementary schooler understand that?
Go Chang-ho hurriedly turned his head and looked at the classroom window. He locked eyes with the guardian, who was peeking inside, wondering if the test was over.
As soon as Go Chang-ho nodded, the guardian slid the classroom door open and walked in.
Even before the man could sit down, words tumbled out of Go Chang-ho’s mouth.
“Who on earth is this tutor?”
The guardian scratched his head sheepishly.
“Ah. She’s the cousin of an acquaintance of mine…”
They say the world is wide and full of hidden masters.
“C-could I possibly give her a call?”
“Ah, here…”
As the guardian looked up the number and handed it over, Go Chang-ho quickly took the phone. Guardian interview or not, he had to hear the voice of this legendary educator right this instant.
"So, you can look at this as a classic case of stress-induced alopecia. Have you been under any particular stress lately? In many cases, once the source of stress is resolved, it recovers naturally. For now, I'll just prescribe a topical treatment and some nutritional supplements."
Leaving the dermatology clinic, Cha Se-young let out a deep sigh.
Stress.
Stress, indeed.
She had it. An immense amount of stress.
"Teacher, the formula for finding the angular distance between two stars is cos θ = sin δ₁ sin δ₂ + cos δ₁ cos δ₂ cos(α₁ - α₂), right? But this has the exact same structure as the spherical law of cosines. So if we think of the sky as a sphere, is the principle the same as finding the distance between two points on a plane?"
"Teacher, we can find the distance from Earth to a star using d = 1/p, where p is the parallax angle. But..."
"Teacher, if the brightness of a star is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, does F = L / 4πd² also apply to..."
"Teacher, Kepler's Third Law is..."
"Teacher..."
Cha Se-young shook her head violently.
She was starting to hear auditory hallucinations.
“Ah! I don’t know either!”
At first, it was so fascinating and fun.
She had never seen such an amazing child before.
The kid was so lovely and cute that just talking to him was incredibly enjoyable.
She had even thought to herself:
Someday in the future, if this child becomes someone incredibly great, maybe he’ll introduce me to the world as his first teacher?
However, starting from the second week, her steps heading to his place had become incredibly heavy.
She had gradually become unable to properly respond to the child’s questions.
Throughout the lessons, she barely survived by searching celestial mechanics and spherical astronomy on her phone.
Even then, she made mistakes from time to time, and the child would correct her.
That wasn’t all.
When they spoke in English, she was practically the one learning.
She had told the guardian that she had nothing left to teach, but he said it was fine and asked her to just fill the month.
In the end, she had ended up with stress-induced alopecia.
“Hing…”
Se-young felt a sudden surge of sorrow.
That pretty, cute face now looked like a demon to her.
No, she didn’t hate him.
The way he asked questions with pure curiosity was so pretty that it was truly addictive.
That was why she couldn’t do this or that, only suffering in silence.
…Huh?
Suddenly, her phone vibrated.
Ah…
It was the guardian’s number.