Mashed potatoes that could pass for soup, pork cut into cubes that were often stale and hard, and sagged broccolis dipped in a mysterious sauce. These menus are from my middle school years. When the food was good, which usually is never the case, we'd have a half of a banana or a yellowed apple for dessert. If we were really lucky then we'd get a yogurt-the sort mass produced in factories. 

 Now, Chinese sweet chili shrimp, strawberries in heaps, apples, cream puffs, ice chocolate donuts filled with whipping cream, smoked duck with sugared radish, rice cake rolled in bacon, chicken soup with white rice, are regular menus of my meal. These were just today's menus and the list isn't complete yet; I just wrote down what I could remember. Oh, and did I also mention that there's always at least one type of salad with one or two dressings and fruit. Also, these menus are all plated in buckets as buffets. Students can make requests to the kitchen for menus they'd like to have, from gorgonzola pizza with honey to macaron. Of course, one of the frequent complaints from the students is that there just isn't enough meat on the menu. Which is ironic, considering how KMLA's nutrient table tends to favor meat quite a lot: students who go to KMLA eats three times more amount of meat than regular high school students, one of KMLS's dietitians once famously answered. 

 Even after school's over, the dining hall is always facilitated food to satisfy the students. Three types of cereals from fruit loops to regular corn cereals, sliced bread, both white and wheat, jams of all sorts, from Nutella to apple, and the famous KMLA HonJeongg breads are always there whether it be a weekend night or a busy Wednesday night. The freshly baked Honjeongg bread, changes every day from apple pie with crusts and chocolate macaroon.

To most KMLA students, the extravagant and highly nutritious menu is not strange at all. However, to the students who go to public schools, this meal is one of the factors that makes KMLA different and more attractive than other schools. For years, a famous internet post calling KMLA a "school for nobilities", showing the "class"(which, in the Korean web, became a slang that often means how one thing stands out from another) of KMLA has been going around. The post features various shots of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and even Italian cusine neatly plated in plastic dishes. The comments on these post, ranges from a man in his thirties making fun of the "nobilities" to a high school student who compares the meal in the picture to "my school's crap". 

 The KMLA students' response? "That's not our school's meal! That's YongIn Foreign Language High School's!" A fellow 11th grader who will remain anonymous as K, cried out in outrage. According to K, KMLA may have been famous for heavy and extravagant meals in the beginning. However, after KMLA lost financial support from Pasteur Milk, KMLA's meals are modest compared to YongIn. Moreover, it's unfair why KMLA is the main target of the press and the internet users when the majority of private/foreign language schools' meals are like KMLA's these days. 

 This moment, is when we go back to Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist HIstory's episode: Food Fight. Two colleges with almost the same prestige, Vassar and Boudin exist. However, one school's meal consists of soggy pizzas and soups with questionable ingredients. The other school has a full course buffet with all sorts of exquisite cuisine from all around the world. The reason behind this difference comes from the school's decision to spend more or less money on financial aids to students. Vassar lacks that "wow" quality in their food because they've decided recruiting and aiding students who have the potential but lack the opportunity to achieve success due to financial limits is more important than good meals; Boudin, on the other hand, chose not to. 

 Gladwell calls out schools like Boudin, who does not invest more on financially aiding these students, students like Carlos who has the potential and the capability to achieve academic success. When the systematic error and unjust in society is evident, Boudin's decision cannot be seen just as an attempt to provide the students with a better meal. Rather, their decision can also bee seen as an act that neglects the systematic injustice the talented but poor students must face every day. Their decision holds a burden that needs to be weighed and criticized, because, as educators, they are giving up a chance to provide proper education to a student that desperately needs it. 

 Now, back to Korea. High schools in Korea can be divided into two: the private/foreign language/international schools, and schools that are not; public high schools. There's no way denying that those who attend these prestigious schools tend to be from families that are wealthier than the majority of the students who attend public high schools. Also, there's no denying that the tuition for these schools are extremely high-higher than medical schools in Korea. However, even if we try to look past these flaws, what truly is problematic is how these affluent schools do not give out financial aids. 

 KMLA for one thing, used to choose one or two students a year and paid their tuition for a year. However, that doesn't exist now these days. Instead, they give out 100 dollars to students who manage to remain in the 7% range in their classes. Those 100 dollars, when compared to KMLA's tuition that exceeds 20 million, aren't much help to a poor but student who wishes to attend KMLA.

 I remember back from my middle school days, a friend of mine who resembled me in a lot ways. Grade-wise, she and I were always competing for the 1st place; she was interested in art just as I was, and sometimes I would be shocked at the materials she produced. Despite never getting the education in arts, she seemed to have that spark, that natural sense of colors and shapes. She played the piano quite well too, and she enjoyed both math and literature. To me, even to this day, she sounds like the perfect, desirable KMLA student, However, she goes to Jecheon girls' high school while I go to KMLA. She was just good as, or even better than I was. The defining factor that made our paths diverge, is the fact that my father is a doctor while her father is a preacher of a small town church: I had the financial support from my family, while she didn't. Even to this day, when I'm learning something new, and different from the Korean education curriculum such as arts and Physical Education that the majority of Korean students caught up in the pressure to exhaust themselves over the Korean SATs would only dream about learning, I think of her. I think of what she might have been able to achieve, explore, and learn. Sometimes, I even feel as if I've taken away her spot unfairly, that it's her who truly deserves to attend KMLA, with all her talent and academic vigor. 

 Maybe it's time we, as KMLA students, think about where our tuition goes. Maybe, we're taking away another students opportunity to be educated over our everyday meal. Maybe it's time that we lessen the weight on our plates, and share our portion with someone else- with students like Carlos who have the talent, but simply lack the opportunity.