Picture of 'Seodang' painted by Hongdo Kim, arguably the most prominent folk artist during

📝ONGO's Reflection

Before the schoolmaster, a child has turned away to wipe his tears, while the classmates seated around him cannot hold back their laughter at the sight. Kim Hong-do caught a single moment of the village school in lines that do not waver. I feel this painting shows the nature of learning honestly. The process of understanding inevitably brings moments of being stuck and ashamed. Yet beside that child are peers growing up alongside him. The scolded child and the laughing children alike are, in the end, growing together in the same place.