Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cheeseface]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2898543

A recently published book that argues for the necessity of corporal punishment in Korean elementary schools is creating a sensation.

Kim Young-hwa, 55, an English teacher at Seorae Elementary School in Seoul, is the writer of �What�s Happening in Sixth Grade Classrooms in Korea.� The book offers a depiction of today�s classrooms in which the authority of teachers has been seriously degraded.

The fictional story is based on Kim�s experience during her 35 years as a teacher. The book has instantly become the center of public attention due to its vivid descriptions of an elementary classroom where students openly insult and even curse teachers who try to discipline them.

�I decided to write a book on the seriously unfavorable circumstances that elementary school teachers currently face, to make the situation public so we can discuss proper measures,� Kim said in a recent interview with the JoongAng Ilbo.

The problem stems from the fact that teachers are no longer allowed to hit the children, Kim claimed.

�With the ban on physical punishment on students, there is no effective way for teachers to punish kids who break the rules and do as they please. It is necessary to allow teachers to punish badly behaved students and to expel them from school should the need arise,� Kim said.

Currently, corporal punishment is prohibited in principle at elementary, middle and high schools in Korea. A revised bill on the Elementary, Secondary and Higher Education Act which includes a new stipulation that physical punishment by teachers should be legally banned, has been laid before the National Assembly by Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Kwon Young-ghil, a member of the National Assembly�s Education, Science and Technology Committee.

After the JoongAng Ilbo published the interview with Kim yesterday in which she openly advocated that teachers be allowed to hit their students, a heated debate on the topic began on the Internet and through a flurry of e-mails.

�Stories in the book describe exactly what I experience every day. The situation can�t get any worse, and it�s tormenting me. I feel like quitting the teaching profession under these circumstances,� Jeong Wan-gyo, an elementary school teacher with 34 years of experience, said in an e-mail sent to the JoongAng Ilbo.

�My daughter said it was shocking to see so many students sleep and talk in class and some even curse their teachers when they are scolded. It is necessary to discipline children who behave badly so that they can grow into decent people,� said Lee Eun-joo, the mother of a second-grade middle school girl who recently began attending a school in Korea after studying in the United States for two years, via e-mail.

But not everyone agreed that teachers should be able to have the right to hit their students. �I don�t understand why they resort to physical punishment instead of taking care of students with love. I have seen numerous cases in which students are insulted by their teachers for no reason, and students and their parents are overridden by a teachers� authority,� Yang Seong-hee, the mother of a third-year elementary school student, said in an e-mail.

The debate continued on the Internet. The article about Kim was followed by more than 2,000 posts on Yahoo Korea as of yesterday afternoon, as people weighed in on whether or not corporal punishment should be permitted in schools.

[Xuanzang]

[cheeseface]

[Xuanzang]

That clown wants no uniforms for every level of education in Korea. I just remember how ridiculous it was when I read the original. Offtopic, I digress. I think she`s right. Some of my students would benefit from a flogging. They are unruly, undisciplined and definitely not scared of authority.

[I'm no Picasso]

In my humble, and very young, opinion.....

I get frustrated when I ask my older coteachers about better ways to keep the kids in line and they tell me that unless I get a stick, I will continue to have problems. The thing is, with some classes I think they are right. But. I don't think this is because kids can only be controlled by the threat of being smacked with a stick -- I think it's because they don't consider any punishment "serious" until it's on that level.

With most of my (coteacherless) classes, I've had great results by using humor a lot of the time to make the trouble makers the center of attention and embarrass them a little (the classes have to understand enough English for this to be possible). And because I reserve my seriously pissed off face most of the time, when it does make an appearance, I get positively angelic behavior in return, right away. Without waving a stick around.

The classes without coteachers that don't understand a word that I"m saying... well, that's a lost cause. I can usually get them to shut up for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, but the steady hum eventually returns. I like to think that's just because they don't really have a clue what's going on, though.

Anyway, I really do think kids just understand punishment on levels. Meaning that because they've been trained to think that being hit by a stick is the time to realize your teacher is serious is why they don't take anything up to that level seriously.

[crusher_of_heads]

Beatings should be mandatory in North American schools.

[Xuanzang]

[sojourner1]

6th grade classes are the most uncontrollable and rudest of elementary classes. In both of my 6th grade classes, their Korean teachers have little if any control, lack interest, don't care about teaching, and doesn't provide co-teaching support of any sort as they can't control them either and just say they are noisy all the time. It's like students are good until they get to the last month of 5th grade. This is when they become pre-teen and are no longer elementary school babies. This is when they are exiting life as young children and becoming little teenagers. They act bad, because having 12 and 13 year old's (western age) in childish elementary school is an insult so they rebel and lose interest in school. The kids in Korea are 1 year older in each grade than at home due to the Korean age system of counting the 9 months of pregnancy as 1 year of age. This is an overlooked glitch when Korea adopted a western style education model. At home they are pre-teen at the beginning of 7th grade or 1st year middle school. I clearly understand why they structure grade levels into 3 schools, because after kindergarten, you have 3 main age groups.

[cheeseface]

[Straphanger]

[cheeseface]

[polonius]

[Ukon]

They hit the kids.....the teachers at my elem. school say never hit the kids and question why I make jokes about it....because they do hit the kids...

I think the Korean idea of "beating kids" is a right jab to the nose. And believe me, they do more physical punishment in middle school and high school....

[Xuanzang]

[I'm no Picasso]