When classifying water quality,
we sort it into grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, and so on..
Grade 1 water
would mean water so clear and clean you can see straight to the bottom..
you can clearly see fish that only live in grade-1 water swimming around..
The lower the grade gets, the murkier the water becomes,
and it gets harder to see what's inside..
If we classify people by water grade..
a newborn baby or a still-young child would be grade 1..
their inner thoughts are completely visible..
they say what they want, what they wish for, without deceiving,
saying good is good, bad is bad.. truly grade 1..
From starting elementary school and receiving education,
that grade seems to drop..
and by adulthood..
of course it varies by person,
but that grade tends to become very low..
But we..
don't really like grade-1 people
who openly reveal inner emotions like greed, anger, envy, jealousy..
instead..
we respect and follow as role models
grade-4 people who hide those human emotions inside while only showing others what they want to see,
and it seems we're all reading their books and imitating them one after another..
But here's the irony..
We commonly say babies look like angels..
babies, or still-young children,
by the above logic, are grade-1 people..
there are plenty of people who dislike babies, and that's exactly why..
they're too pure.. they openly express their own greed and emotions,
and while we call grade-1 children angels,
we don't treat grade-1 adults, the same grade, as decent human beings..
Let me think it over carefully..
I try to picture an adult around me close to grade 1..
I don't really want to get close to them..
Why is that..?
As humans start receiving education, that grade drops..
by adulthood it becomes quite low,
and we're producing and highly valuing exactly that kind of person..
If humans never received education, like in Jungle Book,
humans would probably be closer to grade 1 than they are now..
With intelligence higher than animals, we use that intelligence to create education..
and it seems that through that education we're turning humans from grade 1 into grade 4..
Humans are physically weak animals..
but in exchange, our intelligence is high..
so we've lived forming communities,
and maybe..
to maintain that community well, we've been pursuing grade-4 humans
through the medium called education..
I ask myself..
Iljichwoljang..
What grade are you..?
Are you someone who transparently reveals their inner thoughts,
or someone showing an outside different from the inside..
I'm not entirely sure,
but I think I'm closer to grade 4..
But one thing..
one thing I can say for sure is..
my face is grade 1..