Korean Job Discussion Forums

[World Traveler]

I work at an English academy teaching children ages 7-14. Of the students attending, twenty-six are male and nine are female. Isn't this bizarre? It seems almost unbelievable.

Anyways, I made this post to ask for some advice that could be of benefit to myself and others in a similar position.

What I have noticed is that male students are much more likely to misbehave. It seems as though they generally have lower (often non-existent) interest in learning English, poorer work ethic, shorter attention spans, greater propensity for violence, and much less respect for others.

My female students are all well behaved and some tell me that they enjoy the class and that they enjoy having me as a teacher. Few of my male students, however, appear to share this view.

Does anyone have advice for how I can better connect with my male students? Has anyone here worked for an all boys school or technical school or other school with more boys than girls? How did you adapt your teaching style?

Actually, if anyone at all has some advice or ideas, I'm all ears.

Thank you so much.

[nomad-ish]

...or you could always just switch to an all girls' public school

[nautilus]

[andrewchon]

Looks as though you have boys who are better learners if they are doing things physically.
Keep them on the move. Give them TPR. Give them write-on-board races.

[Nuggets]

[mistermasan]

yep, change your methodology to better suit the attention span of pre-adolescent males. short and sweet. change it up, often.

generally speaking, girls are great passive learners. boys'll let you know in no uncertain terms when they are bored. it ain't easy, but crank it up.

[bassexpander]

That's sort of an odd ratio. Does your hagwon also specialize in Math? Perhaps it's know more for that, and English is just a caveat? Or did a previous teacher get in trouble for being a bit too frisky with the females?

[kinerry]

[frankly speaking]

Kinery please edit or delete your post. It is in poor taste to say the least.

As for the OP, the male population does exceed the female population in Korea. Go to Thailand if you want more females per class.


"Its the norm for my classes to have more boys than girls-thats down to the sex-selective abortions unfortunately. "

Any proof in that? I know that is true for China but I don't think so in Korea.

[jvalmer]

[pkang0202]

Many factors go into this.

What is the income level of the students in your hagwon. If its in a poorer area, families would only afford to send 1 child to hagwon. Most likely, it will be the boy.

[frankly speaking]

again another stereotype that doesn't exist as much as in the past.

If the students were in their 20's then yes that generation had a bias in preference over male children. However since many elementary age kids parents are younger in their 30's and full aware of the old bias, they are making a change. Many younger parents are trying to change a lot of the old traditions that existed when they were kids.

[winterfall]

Korean parents prefer boys. There's an unofficial rule among doctors. They won't tell the sex of the child until 8 months or something. So the parent's can't safely abort

[kinerry]

[nomad-ish]