Korean Job Discussion Forums

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

A former high school classmate of mine was angry about what happened to her kid at a small midwestern USA middle school. Here is her story. She's not a bad person, but just reading it makes me realize just how different the school culture is between the USA and Korea:

Here's what she said:

moosehead · Joined: 05 May 2007

I'm sorry to say this but I really find this story quite unbelievable.

I've never heard of anything even remotely similar happening in an American school - having pizza parties for any students - much less just those with higher grades.

btw, I am in contact with teachers in several states in the U.S. as well as an active member of an email group which covers educators in several areas, including the Midwest.

I do know however, there are some schools in very rural areas of the Midwest who have considerable problems with students whose families have relocated from Chicago. Many of these students get into a lot of trouble in school and cause a multitude of problems. One teacher who works in these conditions has expressed a lot of exasperation as to how to reach these kids. Attempts to involve parents have been fruitless. Not just him, but the other teachers he works with have all tried a number of different methods to improve the students' learning, much of which has not made a lot of difference.

IF the above story is true, I'm sure there's more than one side to it. I think more details would be necessary to examine it with the kind of sensitivity required.

Asking for a blunt contrast to K's education system which is vastly different in numerous ways is not just unrealistic, it doesn't even make sense. Why would you even want to ? There are so many incidents here that one could just as easily compare to the U.S. - for what purpose really unless they were truly relevant?

crusher_of_heads · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:39 pm Post subject:

The good part of this story is that the loser students can shape up and make something of themselves despite their parents whinging.

Happy New Year, everyone!

nomad-ish · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:56 pm Post subject:

i think it's a little unusual for a western school, but come on, worst things happen in the schools in korea. your student needs to take a step back, look at both situations, and quit her complaining because i doubt she'd have rather done HS in korea.
Rolling Eyes

cruisemonkey · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:35 pm Post subject:

Your former classmate is delusional (or one hell of a good lawsuit).

Goku · Joined: 10 Dec 2008

I've heard teachers and principals call students failures before. THis was when I was a student. I remember the princiapl cussed out this trouble maker saying he would never amount to anything. It was really quite fun listening to it and all the other student would laugh.

I don't think it's incredibly rare as we would think, because we are actually in the inudsty of teaching we become sensitive to kids and their needs. But keep in mind there are very different kinds of people teaching and a lot of people aren't as wholesome as we'd like to think.

This story probably would have happened in my Korean School. There is one kid who smokes (I teach middle school) openly in teh hallways and breaks things. His homeroom teacher has lost like half her hair and I've seen that kids parents so many times.

Is this a private school btw?

cruisemonkey · Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject:

jdog2050 · Joined: 17 Dec 2006

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

The A-B kids would have got the big lecture about how they need to work harder to get into university and the C-and-lower kids would have been told just to stay in the classroom and not make too much noise until cleaning time.

cruisemonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:32 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't have to warn my C-and-lower boys about making too much noise because they're sound asleep anyway. Wink

borisdough · Joined: 16 Feb 2008

borisdough · Joined: 16 Feb 2008

bogey666 · Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Location: Korea, the ass free zone

George Will wrote in Newsweek that a minister of something or other in Australia was strongly urging teachers NOT to use red color in grading.. because "red" is considered an "aggressive" color.

some people seriously should be caned... publicly, like this Aussie minister and people who think like he/she does.

on the other hand, in the OP story, that was unnecessarily over the top , somewhat stupid and probably counter-productive as well.

Khenan · Joined: 25 Dec 2007

TECO · Joined: 20 Jan 2003

Kind of reminds me of when I was in Grade 9 and jerking around all the time. my two shop teachers sat me down and tried to convince me to quit school and go get a job! my mom was pissed and came in and talked to them. lucky she was able to keep me in school.

back to the op, is this a real story or some exercise related to your degree? at any rate, I'd say it's b.s. what the school did and kids should not have been singled out like that. Korean or Japanese wouldn't, I don't think anyways, single out kids like that. it'd be done more privately, if at all.