Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yingwenlaoshi]

You guys who have kids, do you, or do you plan to, send your kids to hagwons or make them stay at school for outrageous amounts of time. Like the high schoolers do.

If you do, or if you are, shame on you.

If I had kids here, they'd be going to school and coming home after the final bell rings. They can study at home and still do as good or better than the haggies.

How do you raise a kid in Korea?

[Mr. Pink]

What about if your kid WANTS to do afterschool programs? Ballet, taekwondo, piano (and other instruments), swimming, soccer, and art are all very affordable and rewarding hawgwons for kids.

Do you think it is healthy for a kid to come home from school and sit at a computer or infront of the tv for hours on end like they do in North America?

I can see by your statement that you have no idea about the pressures a parent has once they have a kid. It is all nice and good to say "my kid will never..." but wait until you have children and they ASK to do the things you seem so hellbent against.

As for high school students and those "cram schools" - I agree I would never send my kid to those, but then I don't know any foreigners who agree with having their kids attend a Korean high school.

[Masta_Don]

Everyone I know with kids, Korean and foreigners, are getting their kids out of Korea before they start their schooling.

[yingwenlaoshi]

I agree to a certain extent that kids should be involved in afterschool activities, of course. But I'm talking about this brain-drain math, English, etc. academies. There's nothing wrong with things in moderation, but they overdo it here.

Yes, the more you do, the more you can do. But there's such a thing as overdoing it.

I just get a sense also that if they aren't involved in what the other kids are that they won't be accepted. So how does one go about it?

[johninmaine]

good post, this is why ive been researching so much after bringing my wife and 1 yr old to Korea.

right now, is a good time for us as a family with a 1 yr old to come to Korea. also, we're expecting to have one more.

but, when they reach age 4 1/2 , 5, we'll be on the first plane back home to the US.

there's nothing better in the world than the US elementary / middle schools, and watching your kid out on the soccer field. highschool, i wouldn't consider the US the best, very sporadic.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Not all parents are like this in Korea though. Although it's hard to tell. Two of my students, brother and sister, always take a break from my class for a couple of months each in the summer and winter. I think that their parents must be nice. But you can never tell. Maybe they send them off to something else.

Clearly though there is not much to do at home in Korea. Maybe there's not much to do at home back home either. My sisters kids are really busy with sports. And both my sister and her husband work. So they're a really busy family.

But they don't send their kids to academies. Taekwondo, soccer, swimming, and other sports aren't academies, really.

Music? That's not even what I'm talking about. I have one student that goes to a piano academy like 4 hours a day. That's just ridiculous. Maybe once or twice a week for any activity, be it academics or recreation, is enough. But overdoing is stupid.

Can't for the life of me understand why a kid has to go to a math academy. Math can be studied at home.

Instruments can be practiced at home.

Yes, it's good for a kid to go home. Not spend all day and evening screwing about in different building. A kid needs time to think.

[Mr. Pink]

[johninmaine]

well, opinions are opinions. still, i stand by the fact that looking at the "whole picture", US elementary / middle school education is tops in the world. if you look at activities, social skills, free bussing, sports, one-one special education, opportunities for advanced material, parent-teacher support, parent-parent support, ..the list goes on...

ive been in schools in Europe & many countries in S.America, and they can't compare (elementary / middle).

you're telling me you wouldn't send your kid to Harvard Prep, Exeter, or Choate Rosemary?

when the drugs, independence, music, etc start in high school, the US falls behind.

p.s. today a 15 year old US girl started at UPenn full scholarship, anyone from Brazil in her class??

p.s.s. as for repeating myself, it's called "bumping the post up" to get a wider sample. it gets monotonous to me, but i get more responses.

[johninmaine]

...forgot to mention, in June a Mexican girl who came here when she was 8 (middle school), graduated Valedicatorian with 1450 SAT's, from a top high school in my area.

where would she be today, if she had stayed in Mexico City?

[browneyedgirl]

[SuperFly]

I would just be happy to have a kid. almost 9 years married and we're both healthy, but haven't had any luck. We're thinking about Invitro Fertilization (IVF).

[indytrucks]

[mithridates]

There was a good feature on a program here the other day with a kid in jr. high (gr. 9 I think) that never went to hagwons, slept 10 hours a day and was the best kid in the entire school. He was promoted on the show as the kid that gets good grades 'in spite of' getting 10 hrs. of sleep a day when really half of the reason is that it's because he gets that much sleep a day.

During the afternoon when the other kids are dozing off at their desks he's still staring at the teacher and learning. Part of it is natural talent of course, as there's a part of him describing what happened during the last class in minute detail to the cameraman including how the teacher was writing on the side he usually uses when tired, how he started to write something in English then erased it because it started to come out weird, etc. but since students are going to grab some sleep anyway, I fail to understand how parents assume that a few minutes of sleep at the desk is going to be anywhere as good as the same amount of time in a real bed.

Korea has a really stupid proverb called 삼당사락(三當四落), which means sleep three hours and you pass, sleep four hours and you fail, ergo forgo sleep and you'll pass the test.

[jaganath69]

[tzechuk]