Story on walls

By Shim Hyun-chul

Students are having all kinds of fun drawing on walls of their school with colorful paints. Unlike regular graffiti, what ends up on the walls is cute and familiar, though perhaps not executed with the best of techniques. The school walls were just stretches of boring gray, but now beckon students with a wide variety of stories.

This is part of a promotion organized by the Yangcheon District Office in Seoul to add more color and liveliness to the local community.

Two schools ― Sinwol Middle School and Yangmok Elementary School ― were selected as models. The late author Kwon Jeong-saeng's "The Dandelion's Story" will be illustrated in Sinwol Middle School, while the walls of Yangmok Elementary School will be decorated with the story of "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.

It will take around a fortnight to finish the mural and students are taking it upon themselves to complete the projects. Parents are also planning to join the project for a day.

"It feels great to paint my own school walls. I just passed by the walls in the past, but I see the paintings on my way to school now," said Park Jun-myeong, a third grader of Sinwol Middle School.

District chief Lee Je-hak said he hopes the boring facade on students' commuting route will be reborn as a local attraction for storytelling.