Textbooks in Korea

Being white and blonde is highly coveted in Korea. This is reflected in our textbooks. There are conversations in every chapter of one book that we read as a class. But the pictures of the children talking are always bleach-blonde white kids. The best, though, was a description of the Tooth Fairy in a storybook. She had “shiny blonde hair”. Shiny? Does that imply that non-blonde hair is dull? I laughed out loud the first time I read that, and then had to explain to my kids why I thought it was funny.