Fruit Sculpting and Competition

In junior high I was once graded on cutting and serving the perfect apple. The task given before me to smoothly knife the skin off the meat and present 8 identically pleasing portions on a platter.

Me being a typical Korean student knew nothing of fruit cutting, but concerned for my grades, began chiseling away at my Sistine chapel. All around I observed students frantically carving away at every table. An all-too-familiar Korean competition filled the air. Each one as desperate as the other wanting to impress the teacher for a better grade.

An hour must have passed.

The moment of truth, time to showcase our endeavors. Each student eagerly standing in line, carrying plates with carefully placed slices of their hours work. Awkward grins beaming their faces, masking their doubts over a comparative grading system in a ‘family-techniques’ class.

Unfortunately, the adjudicator couldn’t care less. She was just doing her job. The teacher randomly blurted grades of Bs and Cs, taking no more than 3 seconds per student. Rushing through the queue, mowing through the hopes of each child.

We knew no one was a 3-star Michelin chef, but were we expected to be?

The frustration built up onto a point where one kid stood back in the line with a special twitch in his smile. His eyes sparkled with satisfaction as it finally was his turn and the teacher hastefully labeled him a C.

The student burst into joy. He could hardly contain his hearty chuckle without catching all of the attention in the room.

The woman suspicious of his unexpected reaction quickly smelt something fishy. “What’s so funny? Do you think your C-grade apples are a joke?” she snarled.

“They wouldn’t be if you weren’t the one that cut them!” he proudly replied.

The student had brought the ‘exemplary apple’ the teacher showed everyone in the beginning of class. A taste of her own medicine.